Slide 2
FiRe – Files to Relatio­nal Database

FiRe is our tool-based technology for automa­ted migration of data pools from legacy systems into relatio­nal databa­ses. It supports all compon­ents of a migration (data, scheme and program migration). FiRe combi­nes scien­ti­fic know-how with compe­tence gained from successful migration projects.

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DATA MIGRATION

A profes­sio­nal database system must be built within the frame­work of a legacy migration. For this purpose, databa­ses and/or files of diffe­rent struc­tu­ring must be impor­ted into modern databa­ses. By deploy­ing our tool-based FiRe technology, we bring these requi­re­ments to comple­tion quickly, relia­bly and in a future-proof order. This is demons­tra­ted by many of our successfully comple­ted migration projects.

FEATURES

  • Automa­ted migration of diffe­rent data formats (databa­ses, files)
  • Merging and harmo­ni­s­ing of information
  • Clean­sing of duplicates
  • Checking contents for correct­ness, plausi­bi­lity and integrity

MIGRATION PATHS

The follo­wing table shows the migration paths of basic compon­ents leading to the corre­spon­ding migration targets:

FiRe TECHNOLOGY

FiRe consists of diffe­rent compon­ents whose inter­ac­tion is shown in the follo­wing graphic:
The indivi­dual compon­ents have the follo­wing tasks:

ANALY­SIS

Start­ing point of a data migration is the tool-based analy­sis of the current data pool on the legacy system. For this, infor­ma­tion on struc­tu­ring of the data sets from the appli­ca­tion programs and infor­ma­tion from the files are merged and harmo­nised in a reposi­tory (metadata).

SCHEME MIGRATION

Using the file infor­ma­tion gained through the analy­sis, the database scheme of the target system is created, where the file-orien­ted data manage­ment of the legacy system is mapped to a relatio­nal data manage­ment in the target system. The result is a set of table descrip­ti­ons which serves as the basis for genera­ting DDL scripts.

INTER­FACE GENERATION
File infor­ma­tion in the conver­ted programs of the target system is acces­sed by logical file opera­ti­ons like OPEN, READ, WRITE, …. However, the data is stored in a relatio­nal database system and acces­sed by SQL opera­ti­ons. The commu­ni­ca­tion between the two layers is assumed by a so-called “Data Access Layer” which is automa­ti­cally genera­ted with the infor­ma­tion from the metadata (inter­face generation). 
PROGRAM CONVER­SION

The conver­ted programs in the target system use the logical file opera­ti­ons like OPEN, READ, WRITE etc. These are inser­ted into the programs of the target system in the form of method calls in the course of the program conver­sion with CoJaC.

MIGRATION OF DATA POOLS

Export programs (reading of data from the files on the legacy system) and import programs (writing data in the relatio­nal tables of the target system) are genera­ted from the metadata of the reposi­tory and the data relating to the scheme migration. The data gets harmo­nised in the course of the data migration process. In addition, neces­sary EBCDIC-ASCII conver­si­ons are taken into account. This technology requi­res a mature rollback concept which, in extreme cases, trans­fers data back into the origi­nal legacy system.

DOWNLOADS

FiRe – data sheet

 “FiRe – Ein Werkzeug für die Daten­mi­gra­tion“
Abstract for 19th “Workshop Software-Reengi­nee­ring & Evolu­tion” 8–10 May 2017 in Bad Honnef, published in:
Software­tech­nik-Trends, volume 37, part 2, May 2017

Success Story: “Successful BS2000 Migration at ITZBund”

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