The TimeXtender Migration Tool is now available to assist developers in the upgrade of their existing TimeXtender Classic (Version 20.10) projects to TimeXtender Data Integration. This article explains how to use this migration tool.
Benefits
TimeXtender Data Integration is Cloud-enabled for significantly improved scalability and usability. Some features only available in TimeXtender Data Integration include:
- No need to host project repositories - TimeXtender Data Integration is powered by fully managed cloud instances.
- Goodbye License Keys and Client Secrets - TimeXtender Data Integration now supports user sign-in and granular user permission management.
- Simplified Multiple-Environment management & transfer in the portal, including the Ingest instance.
- Cloud-based Data Source connection management - Admins can now create and share access to data sources without passing around passwords.
- Run PowerShell scripts in Execution Packages - Unlock significantly automation capabilities within Azure through PowerShell.
- Support for Snowflake as a Prepare instance target storage.
- And so much more, see original release notes here:
Please Read First
TimeXtender Data Integration differs significantly from TimeXtender Classic (v20.10) and below. Some features from the older version are no longer present, such as:
- Business Units (These can be converted to a Prepare instances using this tool)
- Multidimensional OLAP Cubes
- Project Variables
- External SQL Connection
We strongly encourage you to review the release notes and test thoroughly before upgrading to understand the changes and the potential impact on your operations.
Prerequisites
To run the Migration Tool, you must first create a target instances and data sources to match your old environment. (Please see Add and Configure Instances)
The number of instances and data sources that need to be setup depends on the project that is being migrated. For example, if you have a project in version 20.10 that contains 5 semantic models, 1 Business Unit, 1 ODX, and a total of 8 data sources between the ODX and the business units (4 data sources in Business Unit and 4 data sources in ODX), then you will need to create 1 Prepare instance, 5 Deliver instances, 1 Ingest instance, and all 8 data sources in the TX Portal before attempting to run the migration tool.
After creating all the SaaS instances above, the following is ncessary prior to running the migration tool.
- Do NOT open or initialize any of the Prepare or Deliver instances in the TimeXtender Data Integration.
- Do open and initialize the Ingest Instance in the TimeXtender Data Integration in order to have it available to associate with the Prepare instances as the data sources for their mapping.
Only unitialized Prepare and Deliver instances will be available to choose as migration destination targets, so it is important not to open these in the TimeXtender Data Integration prior to running the migration tool. However, when it comes to associating the data sources to the Prepare instance data areas, only those Ingest instances with mapped data sources are available, so your Ingest Instance does need to be initialized and have the appropriate data sources associated with it prior to running the migration tool.
Note that multiple projects can be migrated into the same Prepare instance, provided that the target Prepare instance has not been opened and initialized in the TimeXtender Data Integration. After the migration is complete, each project will have its own data area within the target Prepare Instance.
For Deliver instances, a separate target empty Deliver Instance will need to be created for each Deliver Instance that will be migrated. It is not necessary to have the Endpoints created in order to complete the migration, so these can be created along with the empty instances or added later as appropriate.
Using the Migration Tool
- Open the project to be migrated in version 20.10
- Under Tools, select Migration Tool
- Read through the “Get Started with our Migration Wizard” guidelines and click Next.
- The project will be validated to see if it's ready to be migrated or if further steps are required before migrating. As described below, there are two types of issues that may be encountered during Project Validation. Click on Migration Validation to open the article that has more information on the different types of warnings and errors that may arise during Project Validation.
- Errors - these need to be handled before the project can be migrated (e.g. a deprecated feature still in use as shown in the image above)
- Warnings - these highlight features that are not supported in the TimeXtender Data Integration and, as a result, these features cannot be migrated. However no further action is required, and the project is ready to be migrated despite the warnings, since these features can be skipped (e.g. Data Export in the example below)
- Once the Project Validation completes with no errors, select the Confirm checkbox to accept any remaining warnings, and then select Next.
- Click the button to sign in using your credentials to the TimeXtender Portal. Click Next.
- Map your Project into a Prepare instance and map your semantic models into Deliver instances by selecting Destination instances from the drop-downs. If the name of your semantic model in TimeXtender Classic is the same as your Deliver instance, the migration tool will map them automatically.
- Click Validate, which will check to ensure that the same destination instance is not selected twice and also validate that the project is mapped into a Prepare instance. Once validation is complete, click Next.
- Input your ODX client secret and then click Connect. Select the ODX project and click Next.
- Map the data sources from Business Units and the version 20.10 ODX to the new data sources created in the Portal by selecting them from the dropdowns. If the name of the data source in the project matches the name of the data source created in the portal, then the migration tool will automatically map them.
- Copy Warehouse Data. Check the box to have the data in the TimeXtender Classic data warehouse copied into the target Prepare instances, which is useful if you have history tables or tables with large amounts of data are reloading this data may be time consuming.
- Review the list of instances and data sources that will be migrated. Also review the list of features in the project that will be skipped during migration. Once the review is complete and all is determined to be acceptable, select the Confirm checkbox and click Migrate.
- If you have additional projects to migrate and want to use the same Prepare instance for the TimeXtender Classic data warehouses, then do NOT open the Prepare instance yet in the TimeXtender Data Integration. Instead, close this migrated project and open the next project to be migrated and complete the same steps outlined above.
- Continue on with the migration of all of your projects that you want to migrate into the same Prepare instance.
- Once the migration of all the projects is complete, you can open the TimeXtender Data Integration and open the target Prepare instance. Each project will have its own data area within the instance. Click “Yes” to upgrade the instance if prompted to do so.
- Afterwards, expand the Tables node and note how all the tables are marked in red. Right-click and select “Deploy and Execute” to deploy your tables.
- Optional - If the deployment of the tables does not complete and returns a “Table Not Found” error, then it may be necessary to use the Synchronize with Ingest instance functionality to remap the tables to the new data source table name. Provided all the fields have the same name, then this may be a fairly straightforward operation.
- Right-click on the Prepare instance and select Synchronize with Ingest instance
- Choose the appropriate Ingest instance from the list of Ingest instances. If you migrated more than one project into the same Prepare instance, then the same Ingest instance may be listed out more than once. Open them up one by one until you find the Ingest instance that matches your current data area.
- Click the Remap button next to any tables that have red X next to their Status.
- Use the Select Tables dialog for find the correct table to remap the tables to.
- Click OK and note whether the status changes to green.
- Complete the remapping for the remaining tables as needed and then click OK.
- Attempt to Deploy and Execute the tables in the data area again and now it should complete.