Migration

You migrate a Civic Platform deployment by moving information from a Civic Platform source database to a Civic Platform target database. To complete the migration, you set parameters specific to the new environment and reset certain Civic Platform operational parameters.

Civic Platform provides for migrating two types of database information; 1) configuration data and, 2) transaction data. Configuration data consists of two components; 1) information about the agency, module, record type and so forth (the Accela schema), and 2) information about the main console layout and the setup (the Jetspeed schema). Transaction data consists of (auditable) information Civic Platform generates on record type instances during their lifecycle from creation to destruction.

Note:
Agency configuration data equates to the 
serv_prov_code
level of your implementation.

You can migrate all configuration data and transaction data or only configuration data. You can also migrate a selective subset of configuration data.

The approach you use to export data from the source database depends on your database (SQL Server or Oracle) and whether you want to migrate configuration data and transaction data, only configuration data, or only a subset of configuration data.

If you want to migrate all configuration data and transaction data, you perform a full backup of the source database and restore to the target database (export/import or data pump if you are using Oracle). If you only want to migrate configuration data, you run a script to export the database tables that contain the configuration data, and import those tables into the target database. If you only want to migrate a subset of configuration data, use the Data Manager tool (Data Manager).

Typical use cases for a database migration include the following:

  • Development to test and test to production. In both these use cases, you typically migrate configuration data only. You can use Data Manager to make incremental configuration changes to the test environment or production environment without disrupting transaction data in your test environment or production environment.

    Note:

    The Data Manager tool only migrates record type configuration data. You cannot use Data Manager to migrate agency configuration data, module configuration data, or configuration data related to the main console layout (the Jetspeed schema).

  • Production to production environment. In this use case, you migrate configuration data and transaction data.

Data Manager

Data Manager is a data migration tool for transferring data between Civic Platform agencies. You can first create an agency with core configuration data, and then apply the export tools and import tools of Data Manager to migrate the core configuration data to other agencies and other modules.

Data Manager supports the export and import of comprehensive data elements, specifically: all the record types and their associated elements; common settings in Civic Platform, Citizen Access, and Accela Asset Management; and reference licensed professional records.

When you migrate data, Data Manager maintains the integrity of database information, specifically sequences and key values.