When we migrated from an 8.5 system (windows) to a 9.5 system(z/OS) I used ARSXML with a lot of manual manipulation of the xml export, including storage, to get the items to be defined correctly. Seemed no way around it at the time.
I think that's my only option at this point sadly. Instead of trying to figure out why arsxml keeps crashing, on an old version, on servers that are going away. Thanks for the feedback
I have found that sometimes, old servers have not nice configuration of AG/APP/Folders for some reasons... that the admin was tolerating at one time, and then no more, but the db was "corrupted" slightly that you don't see the problem in the day to day production, but only when you do export such quirks appears.
And doing what you need to do is a wonderful way to clean up things.
BUT between XML from V8.5 and V9+... you have a lot work manual work to do, or script to do in order to convert from one format to another.
And don't worry, you could upgrade from CMOD V8 -> V10 in one shot without problems. The upgrade process is quite perfect in that area.
The only moment you might need to go to V9 is only if you use ODF/RDF.
Regards,
Alessandro