Compatibility with previous versions of WebSphere Commerce

There are situations where you may want to run multiple versions of WebSphere Commerce on the same hardware. This page describes how WebSphere Commerce coexists and interacts with other versions of WebSphere Commerce and WebSphere Application Server.

WebSphere Commerce

WebSphere Commerce Version 7 can coexist on the same system with these previous versions of WebSphere Commerce:
  • WebSphere Commerce Version 6.0
  • WebSphere Commerce Version 5.6.1
Coexistence of other versions of WebSphere Commerce is not supported.

The systems on which different versions of WebSphere Commerce will coexist must meet the requirements documented in Prerequisites for installing WebSphere Commerce.

If you plan to run two or more versions of WebSphere Commerce at the same time:
  • You might have port conflicts that must be resolved before you can run different versions of WebSphere Commerce together.
  • Your machine requirements will be greater than those listed in Prerequisites for installing WebSphere Commerce. For memory, hard disk, and processor requirements, you must sum the requirements for all versions of WebSphere Commerce running on the same machine in order to determine the hardware requirements.

    These requirements are the minimum requirements that are a starting point and might need to be increased in a production environment.

If you plan to run only one version of WebSphere Commerce at a time:

WebSphere Application Server

WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 installs one of the following editions of WebSphere Application Server, depending on the edition of WebSphere Commerce you have purchased:
  • WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment Version 7.0.0.3, or higher version 7.0 fix pack
  • WebSphere Application Server Express Edition Version 7.0.0.3, or higher version 7.0 fix pack
WebSphere Commerce Version 7.0 can also be used with a preinstalled WebSphere Application Server Base Version 7.0.0.3, or higher version 7.0 fix pack.
If more than one edition of WebSphere Application Server Version 7.0 is installed, WebSphere Commerce searches for, and uses these editions in the following order:
  • WebSphere Application Server Network Deployment
  • WebSphere Application Server Base
  • WebSphere Application Server Express Edition
Notes:
  1. WebSphere Application Server Version 5.1.x , WebSphere Application Server Version 6.0.x or WebSphere Application Server Version 6.1 can be installed on the same machine where you plan to install WebSphere Application Server Base Version 7.0.0.3, or higher version 7.0 fix pack.
  2. Two or more versions of WebSphere Application Server can coexist on the same machine, however there might be port conflicts that must be resolved as both versions of WebSphere Application Server use the same ports.
  3. WebSphere Commerce Express uses WebSphere Application Server Express Edition. Neither WebSphere Commerce Enterprise Edition nor WebSphere Commerce Professional Edition will use WebSphere Application Server Express Edition.
For more information about WebSphere Application Server 7.0 coexistence support, see: