onsemi’s path to modernization: A successful SVN migration

onsemi maintained a longstanding CollabNet SVN Edge environment, servicing 550 users. Following the discontinuation of updates to the CollabNet platform, the onsemi team sought assistance in migrating their SVN repositories from CollabNet to Vanilla Subversion. They also needed an alternative solution for controlling access to their 400+ SVN repositories.

• CollabNet SVN Edge does not adhere to the conventions of a ‘vanilla SVN’ installation, so a migration away from it is challenging.
• CollabNet SVN Configuration files are populated in a complex and counterintuitive manner.
• onsemi heavily relied on this SVN instance, but both the SVN version and the underlying OS were now out of the supportable range.
• The threat of a non-recoverable issue prompted the team to seek an alternative.
• The current CollabNet installation was configured to use outdated versions of both JAVA and Apache.
• onsemi required assistance with migrating their data from the deprecated platform and finding a replacement for the access control functionality of CollabNet SVN Edge.
• Cirata found that the CollabNet instance had not been dutifully maintained, upon inspection there was a large number of accounts with access to SVN repositories that needed to be pruned.
• onsemi wanted as little disruption to the developers as possible.

• Cirata assisted with the complete migration of all 400+ SVN repositories from the RHEL 6 CollabNet ecosystem to newly deployed RHEL 7.9 VMs.
• All SVN repositories were upgraded from SVN 1.8 to SVN 1.14, enabling onsemi to benefit from all quality-of-life improvements and bug fixes.
• After converting the existing AUTHZ files, the Cirata Professional Services Team populated the newly installed instance of Cirata’s Access Control Plus (ACP), resulting in prepopulated teams, rules, and other configurations in the new environment that matched the existing CollabNet setup.
• Cirata used this opportunity to work with the onsemi team to reduce the ‘Active SVN User’ count from over 800 to 550.
• Additionally, we collaborated with the onsemi team to integrate an LDAP authority into the Cirata’s ACP instance, mirroring the existing CollabNet setup and leveraging the enhanced features in Cirata’s ACP. 
• Cirata successfully executed the above changes while ensuring seamless integration from the developers’ perspective.

• The onsemi team successfully transitioned from multiple deprecated systems and services, upgrading from:
  • RHEL 6 to RHEL 7
  • Apache 2.2 to Apache 2.4
  • Oracle JAVA to OpenJDK JAVA
  • SVN 1.8 to SVN 1.14.
    
    
• onsemi administrators can now access the GUI oftheir Cirata’s Access Control Plus instance from anywhere in the world, enabling real-time changes to SVN repository access globally.
• The onsemi team now has access to 24/7 support for their vanilla SVN instance from a team of skilled Technical Support Engineers with decades of experience.
• onsemi can scale their environment to meet changing needs, with additional users already added to their instance and the capability to add more easily as required.

• onsemi identified that placing Cirata’s Access Control Plus outside the critical path of their SVN servers provided significant benefits. This configuration ensured that issues with LDAP or related services would not impact users’ ability to access the SVN repositories.
• onsemi also praised the product’s flexibility in adding additional user accounts. The ability to effortlessly scale the number of active Subversion users horizontally is a significant advantage.
• Cirata’s Access Control tooling and professional services highlighted that onsemi’s SVN access lists were overpopulated with accounts that needed removal. The ability to audit and easily update all existing AUTH files with assistance from the Cirata PS team proved to be highly beneficial.

Our primary technical contact within onsemi brought valuable experience from his previous role in a different organization, where he worked extensively with Cirata software. Through his use of Subversion MultiSite Plus and Cirata’s Access Control Plus, our contact built a strong relationship with our Technical Support and Professional Services teams. His prior experience was a key factor in onsemi’s decision to partner with Cirata for this project.

“Thank you and the team for all your help, it has been a smooth process and I wish other software vendors provided support as excellent as I have had from Cirata.”
– Bill Corr, Design Infrastructure Manager