Document Transfer from External Source to IFS Cloud FS during upgrade.

  • 22 March 2023
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We have a customer who are upgrading from IFS APPS 8  to IFS Cloud and would like to move their Documents (2TB worth of data) from their external storage into the IFS Cloud FS.

The challenge for us is how do we make these documents accessible to MPX in IFS Cloud (Application) where the documents are stored in Azure BLOBS that are only accessible via the application with no direct access routes.  We need an effective way of migrating/importing the documents from the FTP into the storage ( via the application) or any other way. This is critical to the upgrade so will need to be done.

 

After investigating and checking other community posts , we’ve received the following suggestion, which answers how to migrate the Documents but would not be acceptable to the customer given the size of the DB.

 

We have a migration tool for copying data from an Apps 8/9/10 database to IFS Cloud File Storage ("FS"). It's documented here: https://docs.ifs.com/techdocs/23r1/020_lifecycle/100_file_storage_service/fsmigtool/

This tool currently only support copying files stored in a Database repository in Docman, to FS. It does not support direct migration from FTP or Shared repositories in the source environment.

In order to use this tool you therefore first have to use the "internal" repository change assistant in Apps 8 and move the files from any FTP repository into the Database. Then the FS mig tool can be used to copy files to FS.

 

Issue - Adding 2TB to the DB would increase cutover timings for Go-Live significantly so this isn’t a viable option. The reason for moving from DB storage to external storage in the first place are also still valid. 

 

Please can you advise if the tools now allow the migration from an external source and if not are you aware of any custom made scripts that will facilitate the migration.

 

 

4 replies

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I think this is only problematic since the IFS Cloud Hosting provider (In this case, IFS Cloud Hosting) doesn’t give the required access to copy across the existing storage data to the new storage. I believe if that copy path is opened, then there should not be such an issue for the historical data. 

Mathias Dahl
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Hi Ednan,

Thanks for asking here.

Unfortunately, we don't have a more efficient option today for copying document files directly from an FTP or Shared repository in Apps 8/9/10 to IFS Cloud File Storage ("FS" or File Storage for short).

The FS mig tool does not support those repository options and we currently don't have any plans to add it.

We have discussed if we should add an option in the FS mig tool that would allow copying files from a folder that you point out. That, together with the option to use a text file as input of what documents to migrate could be a generic approach to handle your scenario, but it would require doing some work upfront to compile all files into a specific folder. Sadly we haven't got around doing this.

Until we have added such an option you can either add it yourself, or develop your own script or program to do it. What the FS mig tool does is no magic, it uses a projection for the actual upload, which is something you can do as well. Most of the value in the tool is the good and detailed status handling and logging. This is something you can also handle yourself if you want to.

I would recommend you try the suggested approach first though. For sure, there is an additional step, which takes time, moving the document files into the database, but they don't have to remain there. You can delete them after you have migrated (copied) the files to the cloud using the FS mig tool.

I wish I had a better answer, but this is what we have right now.

Let me know if you have any questions.

Good luck!

 

/Mathias
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@Mathias Dahl

Many thanks for your prompt reply. 

I read your reply but I didn't understand it fully and apologies for my lack of understanding

I understand the IFS Managed Cloud FS is only accessible through the IFS Application and not directly. Do the Document have to migrated using the DB APIs, that is what the FS MIG Tool is effectively doing, so that the documents are referenceable / accessible in the IFS Cloud application?  The FS MIG tool and DB api effectively mimic a document upload.

Basically, a hard shift of all documents, even if it were possible,  wouldn't suffice as they wouldn't be recognized by the IFS Cloud application.

 

 

 

 

Mathias Dahl
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The document files are streamed directly from the database into FS and whatever backend it's setup to use. The migration tool uses a projection for the upload.

There is some post processing that needs to be done after all files are copied into FS (basically changing file pointers in Docman), not sure if this is what you are asking about. It's described to some extent in the documentation of the FS mig tool.

 

/Mathias

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