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Deep dive on how to migrate your SAP data with Rapid Deployment Solutions

FrankDensborn
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
‎2012 May 24 4:57 PM
20,971

This is the second part of my blog about a better way to migrate data to SAP systems with rapid-deployment solutions. In this blog, I will provide a step-by-step deep dive into using the provided migration content in SAP Data Services.

The following is a list of all software components for data migration included in the RDS package: 

·     SAP Data Services: Data management platform to support all migration tasks

·     SAP Information Steward: Data profiling and assessment as well as data lineage and reconciliation from target to source

·     SAP BusinessObjects BI platform: Includes SAP Crystal Dashboard Design (formerly known as Xcelsius Dashboards), SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence, and SAP Crystal Reports

The following is a list of content for data migration included in the RDS package:

·     Migration content (available here) loaded into Data Services for mapping (field mapping) and validation

·     SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence reports for monitoring the data migration

·     Migration Services tool to map source data field values to SAP business context (value mapping)

·     Migration content for reconciling what was loaded in the target to the source

As mentioned in part one of this blog, the leading software for SAP Data Migration is Data Services. Data Services is a well-known and scalable data integration platform for ETL processes (Extract, Transfer, Load). Some of the key features of Data Services include:

·     A single interface to design data structures and build transformation rules

·     A visualization of source-to-target metadata to analyze data lineage and impact

·     Profile and analyze any source data 

·     Database extraction to easily extract legacy systems

·     Easy mapping (reusable)

·     Reusable and sharable transforms and functions (drag and drop) to minimize own programming

·     Web-based administration to manage job operations

·     Operational dashboards to monitor job execution and trends

Data Services can connect to any source or target system via the adapter framework. While it does have native connectivity to SAP systems, it also has connections to files, ODBC, mainframe, XML, Excel, and many other connectivity options. Architecturally, Data Services resides in the orchestration and integration layer of your existing architecture.  

From a business perspective, you can reuse Data Services after the data migration project for ongoing integration (e.g., master data integration with multiple systems). You can also use it for ongoing data quality, including an on-entry quality check within the SAP application. Additionally, it can help you drive data governance projects, especially as they relate to cleansing, quality, and the synthesis or removal of duplicate data.

Step-by-Step Demo on Using the Migration Content in Data Services

Now that you have a basic understanding of the solution, the software, and the content, the following is a step-by-step example of how to get started with SAP Data Migration. In this example we are going to migrate customer master data to an SAP CRM system. Normally companies do not embark on a data migration project alone, especially on their first data migration project to the SAP system. Use these steps below to get started with the software and the content:

Step 1. Go to http://service.sap.com/bp-datamigration to check for an overview and to download the package. Optionally, you can review the overview presentation and watch demos. Also you can download the DVD content in the Software Download Center even if you do not own the software.

Step 2. Once you complete the download, you can start to explore the content, accessing the getting-started guides and the documentation to get a complete picture about the content and the deliverables of the data migration package.

Step 3. At this point, even withoutthe software installed, there are still key guides and places to start planning for the migration. The migration content has Word documents and Excel templates for each of the objects in the SAP system (e.g., a document on business partner contact data, and another on quotations). You can read the document to understand the object and use the Excel spreadsheet to start the research on how the source data maps to the target.

Step 4. When you do decide to install the software, you can get a temporary key from http://service.sap.com/licensekey. However, if you already have Data Services installed, you can use the guides to install the content manually. In addition, the RDS package contains a services component that helps you to deploy the entire package including the software and getting started with the first business objects within weeks.

Step 5 (optional). If you are new to Data Services, you might want to start by going through the Data Services tutorial that is included in the documentation when you install the product.

Step 6. Once everything is installed, you can see a project called AIO_BPFDM_IDOC that exists in Data Services. This project has jobs for each of the business objects, such as customer master data or material master data.

Step 7. Drill into the the job and you can see the mapping and validation that takes place (Figure 1). The validation is against required lookup fields in the SAP system, validating mandatory fields as well as the format (e.g., if the phone numbers all include country codes and if the U.S. ZIP code is in 5+4 format).

Figure 1 Mapping and validation in the Business Partner job

The mapping within the job, as shown in Figure 2, has the source fields on the left and the target fields on the right. This example shows the mapping of the country from the source to the target, which is done using drag and drop.

Figure 2 Mapping within the job

Step 8. The migration content includes Word documents explaining each IDoc, as well as spreadsheets for mapping the legacy Business Partner data to the SAP IDoc structure. Use the pre-delivered Excel template to start the mapping research of the source to the target prior to the mapping in Data Services. 

Step 9. The other component that is important during the migration is the Migration Services tool. This tool, which is delivered by SAP Best Practices, reads the IMG configuration data from the SAP system and enables mapping of source values to SAP configuration values. In this example, U.S.A., US, and Vereinigte Staaten von Amerika in the source system should map to US in the target system (Figure 3).

Figure 3 Migration Services tool

Using the steps above, you can smoothly and securely migrate your data into new systems. SAP Rapid-deployment solutions for Data Migration allows you to confidentially map, cleanse, transform, and load you data  - thus ensuring your data migration project is a success! The following solutions are currently available:

And everything can be downloaded here:


Look out for our next blog on data migration rapid-deployment solutions - explaining how to visualize your data migration projects. Please read part 3.

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