Prepare for Conversion

Preparing for conversion will typically include the following actions:

  • Identify the OUAF product entities (Maintenance Objects) for which data will be converted. Refer the specific OUAF product documentation for information about converted entities for that product. Typically, each of the product converted entities will have a set of conversion staging tables that will receive the data from your legacy system before they get processed into the system.
    Note: Conversion staging schema design may vary between products, please refer to specific product’s documentation for more details.
  • Evaluate your project’s requirements for

    the Information Lifecycle Management (ILM) and Data Archiving. If your implementation uses ILM, the ILM Date must be provided as part of the legacy data extract for each eligible table.

    Note: ILM support may vary between products, please refer to specific product’s documentation for more details.
  • Identify tables and maintenance objects whose data requires special treatment. That may include high volume tables, extremely large CLOB data, tables with multiple CLOB fields or any other special considerations related to the legacy data being converted.

    Address the special circumstances by customizing the default configurations:

    • Enable conversion for tables that are not marked for conversion in the metadata use the Master Configuration

    • If your table(s) contain multiple CLOBs, but you don’t plan to supply the legacy data for all of them, create Conversion Task Type for this table(s) and populate Exclude CLOB Field list and then add a corresponding entry to Master Configuration’s Special Instructions

    • If you dealing with high volumes of data, you may want to adjust the load parameters and options for the SQL Loader. In this case, create a custom Control File Header (Managed Content), configure a dedicated Conversion Task Type referencing this custom Control File Header and then add a corresponding entry to Master Configuration’s Special Instructions. Note that creating the custom Control File Header will result in a control file composed from the custom fragment and the generated fields list.

    • If the generated field definitions list in the control file doesn’t satisfy your requirements, you may completely override the control file. In this case, create a custom Control File (Managed Content, same as above), configure a dedicated Conversion Task Type referencing this custom Override Control File and then add a corresponding entry to Master Configuration’s Special Instructions. Make sure your custom Control File contains all the run-time substitution variables that appear in the base Control File Header.

    See Conversion Task Types and Conversion Master Configuration chapters for more details.

  • Generate the conversion artifacts for the product entities you plan to convert data for. This will include, for example, a set of data specification files that describe the format of data required for each file.

  • Explore conversion tasks generated for tables and/or maintenance objects, examine the input data specifications and file lists and determine the expected data formats and input file names.

  • Identify your various sources of data and extraction methods.