Migration is a process of shifting data from one environment to another. Types of data can vary based on business process and as – Is environment. There are different stages involved in Teamcenter data migration. If you are migrating the data into the Teamcenter environment, then you must be aware about the different challenges that you may face.
In this article we have tried to summarize all these challenges based on our industry experience and feedback from our users.
Go through this article thoroughly to understand different challenges involved in Teamcenter data migration.
Segregation of required and redundant
This is the very first challenge you will face in any data migration process. Authorized users can create data in the Teamcenter Application. Generally the data which is released is considered as a finalized data and IT is used for actual production and validation. Before finalizing, data goes through much iteration for changes.
In this process some extra data gets created which is cancelled or rejected. Some organization wants to keeps such rejected or cancelled data in New environment but some prefers to migrate only Finalized data. In such a scenario cancelled or rejected data becomes absolute. Then segregation of this absolute data and released data becomes challenging.
You need to identify different parameters by analyzing the information to segregate the data. Release Status, Object ownership, object reference points are some of the parameters that you may consider while segregating the information.
Inter data dependency
In Teamcenter different objects are attached with each other to maintain hierarchy, structure or data references. Objects are attached with each other with the help of relations. In some cases new data is derived based on existing data objects or information is displayed on one object from another object (e.g. Compound Property) In such scenarios, analysis of relationship between different objects, data dependency and flow of information becomes very important and critical.
At the time of data extraction we can extract such data easily but while loading the data we need to keep in mind information flow and sequence of object creation and relationship between them. While migrating CAD structures, maintaining the Inter Data dependency is very critical.
Transformation of data
If there is change in data model from existing system to new system or new object type or property type definition for existing data then transformation of data needed to support new data model objects or new property types.
Transformation of data is performed in the staging area. If you are using database as a staging area then you can use database queries to transform the data. If you are using csv, text or xml files to extract metadata then you can develop utilities using c, c++ or any other programming language as per your data and ease of development to transform information.
While transforming the information make sure it’s core purpose is preserved.
Size of the physical files
Metadata is in the form of text, so during data migration, size of the metadata is not a critical factor. Metadata can be created in a very short time. But during migration you just don’t need to migrate the metadata but also need to migrate the physical files. In Teamcenter, to hold the physical files, Dataset object are used. For each type of file different types of datasets are available in the Teamcenter.
If you are using CAD applications then size of the CAD files can be in the GB. To load such large files in the Teamcenter may take some time. Handling and loading of such large size files can be a challenging.
Incompatibility of existing data with the new system
This situation may occur when existing data is not analysed properly while developing the Teamcenter functionality in the implementation phase. This issue is generally identified in the testing phase of the migrated data. This may lead to major change in the implemented solution.
If data is not compatible then there is no use of the new system at all. And most of the time this issue occurs in the last phase of the project. This results in the rework of the whole process. So spend sufficient amount of time to analyse the data in the first phase itself to avoid surprise elements at the last stage.
Conclusion
We hope this article was informative and you got some idea about different challenges you may face while migrating the Teamcenter data. If you have faced another challenges other than above listed, please let us know by mentioning in the comment section. We would be happy to update this article based on your feedback.
Keep Learning and keep exploring the PLM world.