Introduction

This guide describes the migration feature embedded in Claims. This feature supports the automated transfer of configuration data between two environments for a variation of scenarios, including selective migration, migration of linked reference data, the propagation of removed configuration items and and migration paths that include more than one source environment.

The migration function is an embedded feature: there are user interface pages to build, publish and load data sets. Access privileges to these pages are assigned through configurable user roles. Migrations are performed to and from online environments, allowing for small, selective migrations to target environments.

This guide uses the terms 'source environment', 'target environment' and 'migration set'. The migration set is the file that holds all configuration items for a migration, that is the migration payload. The source environment is the environment from which the migration set is exported. The target environment is the environment which imports the migration set.

The content of a set, such as configuration rules, checks, specifications and clauses, are called configuration items. There are two kinds: top level items and dependent items. Top level items can be independently included in a migration set; dependent items are the configuration pieces that are integral details of a larger, top level item. Dependent items are automatically included in the migration payload as part of the top level item they belong to. For example, a product is a top level item and can therefore be individually selected for migration. Product benefit specifications, however, are dependent items that can’t be individually selected and that are automatically migrated together with the product they belong to.

Some configuration items can be both a top level item and a dependent item. These are typically rudimentary re-usable configuration items referenced by many different rules. Examples are messages, dynamic logic and procedure groups. To prevent unnecessary large payloads and unwarranted updates to these items, the user can 'trim down' a top level item by specifying which dependent top level items can be carved out of the migration set. This does require that these items are already present on the target environment.

In addition to the standard auditing features available for all records in the Claims database, the configuration items created on a target environment (through migration) store audit information relating to the source environment.