Data extarction from legacy system

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am going to work on data migration using LSMW.

Now the first step in data migration is exporting data from legacy system i.e unloading leagcy system data.

If the legacy system does not provide any functionality for this purpose suitable proghrams are supposed to be written for data extarction.

Being an ABAPer is it my responsibility to write the program for data extarction from legacy system or someone else's ?

[Former Member]

Hi,

I am going to work on data migration using LSMW.

Now the first step in data migration is exporting data from legacy system i.e unloading leagcy system data.

If the legacy system does not provide any functionality for this purpose suitable proghrams are supposed to be written for data extarction.

Being an ABAPer is it my responsibility to write the program for data extarction from legacy system or someone else's ?

[Vinod_Chandran]

Hi Tushar,

Being an ABAPer, it is not completely your responsibility.

First step is you have to identify what are data you need in SAP. You functional consultant can tell you this. The data can be from Legacy as well as from SAP. For example GL account numbers will differ from legacy. So these kind of data you need to give in the LSMW project.

Once you have identified the data, inform the person responsible for legacy system about the type and format of data needed.

After getting the data, you can start your LSMW. Even this can be done before you get the legacy data, if the format of the file is fixed.

The data extraction from legacy can be done by yourself, if you are aware of how to write rule (or a program) to extract data.

Please let me know if you need more information.

Thanks

Vinod

[RichHeilman]

If your role on the project is strictly ABAP development, then I would say no, its not your responsibility. In some circumstances, you may lack the skill in the legacy systems programming language. In my case, when we implemented SAP, I wrote a couple of extract programs using RPG on the AS/400 which gathered the data, formatted it, and wrote to a file. Then we downloaded the file to excel. This was at about the same time I was learning ABAP and SAP, so then I was also responsible for uploading the data as well. So, it really depends on your resources. If the project has someone skilled in the legacy system that can write the extract program, then I would have them do it, and you worry about what you know(ABAP/SAP).

Regards,

Rich Heilman