Importing and Applying a Migration

The import process is broken down into four general steps: Import, Compare, Approve, Apply. The following points provide an overview of the steps.

• Import. The first step covers importing the file and creating appropriate Migration Import records in the target environment to facilitate the subsequent steps.

• Compare. The compare step reviews each object that is in the import file and compares the object in the import against the equivalent record in the target environment. The comparison step results in noting which objects are unchanged, which are new (and the appropriate SQL to insert them) and which objects are changed (and the appropriate SQL to update them). Based on user configuration at import time, the objects that qualify for the import may be in a state that requires review or may be pre-approved.

• Approve. Once the comparison is complete, the user should review the results. There may be records marked for review. All of these records must be approved or rejected before the import can proceed. Users may choose to suppress individual SQL statements for a given object that is approved. When the user is satisfied with the results of the comparison and has completed the review, the import is marked to proceed to the Apply step. Optionally, a migration import may be configured to automatically apply.

• Apply. This is the final step and is the step where the records in the target environment are added or updated. Because of potential high volumes of data and because of possible dependencies between records, this step supports two levels of attempting to apply the records. There is an apply step at the object level and an apply step at the transaction level. This will be described in more detail below.