Build phase
During the build phase, the on-premises infrastructure to support data migration is deployed and configured, and the BMC Helix Data Manager instance is installed into your Onboarding system.
The target milestone for this phase is the migration of all of the customer's data to an out-of-the-box installation of the latest version of BMC Helix ITSM by using BMC Helix Data Manager.
The build phase is useful for the following reasons:
- Establish Credibility—By performing a migration and delivering a fully working system within the first few weeks of the project, you firmly establish the credibility of the project with the customer stakeholders. This credibility is particularly useful if complex customizations might extend the time it takes to deliver a working system to UAT.
- Reference System—Use the QA system with all customer data as a reference for the behavior of out-of-the-box BMC Helix ITSM. This can be used to develop training courses, or initial reporting, or to demonstrate out-of-the-box behavior if there are queries about whether an existing customization should be moved.
- Prove end-to-end infrastructure—The migration of all customer data will test and validate all components of the infrastructure that will be used to move the customer's data to BMC Service Management Cloud.
The following illustration shows the high-level steps for this phase.
Steps that can be completed in parallel have the same sequence number in the table below.
Step | Description |
|---|---|
1. Create export architecture and back up database for baseline | Set up the infrastructure necessary to support the export of data from the customer's on-premises system. For more information, see Planning-your-environment-migration-to-SaaS. |
The onboarding or development system will have a new installation of BMC Helix ITSM with no data. Take a full database backup of the system in this state before any changes are made. This is your first gold backup. For more information, see Go-live-phase. Helix Operations performs the BMC go-live assessment to validate that the system is ready for Production usage. This is also known as the BMC or RoD audit. This activity includes the following types of tasks:
Perform this activity immediately prior to go-live with the database image that the customer will use. Under these constraints, This activity can be performed only during the production cutover. Typically, this activity takes 4 hours, but you can reduce this time further if the outage window is constrained by performing some activities outside of the final cutover. We recommend including this activity in the emulated cutovers so that the duration and outcome is known prior to the final production cutover. For more information, see Managing-the-gold-build-image. | |
2. Install and configure BMC Helix Data Manager | BMC Helix Data Manager is installed and configured on the on-premises system and cloud onboarding server. This includes the following steps:
Create a custom migration pack for migration to out-of-the-box ITSM. |
3. Full export for OOTB | A full data export of all in-scope customer data is performed on premises. This is useful for identifying any configuration or performance issues. The duration here is critical and will help you plan the rest of the data migration activities. |
4. FTP upload and import OOTB data | The exported data is transferred by FTP to the cloud and imported into the onboarding database. The typical post migration scripts and server name changes are applied. We recommend that you run the Form Count reconciliation at this stage and review the results with the customer to ensure that the customer formally accepts any data excluded from the scope of migration. |
5. Update server reference updates and back up database | The server references are updated by using the BMC Helix Data Manager based process to match the QA environment configuration and then the database is backed up on the onboarding server. This backup contains the image of out-of-the-box BMC Helix ITSM and all the customer data transferred from the on-premises system. |
6. Restore OOTB database | The backup taken in step 5 is restored to the QA database. To request any type of data movement from one environment to another, follow the BMC OnDemand Change Management policy. (See Change request process.) Use the Request a Change option from within the i.onbmc.com support portal. For more information about i.onbmc, see BMC Helix support overview. |