Introduction
As we all know overtime Netweaver Upgrades, Portal Landscape System changes along with Content Transports and Migration become a normal part of operational business requirements.
Knowledge Management is a core component of such a system change due to the information data it contains for an organizations end users bases. KM Folders are utilized as the base platform in which KM Documents are stored. Knowledge Management in itself can be considered as a means of functionality for end-users wanting to access such "Documents" which can relate to a whole range of processes.
For example through KM End-Users can access, obtain, manage and review data information through documents sourced from the business intranets, external WWW feeds, and file servers. The KM Documents themselves are presented in the standard formats of PPT, excel, word documents and html.
The process of KM Content Migration from one System Landscape to another is something which requires a diligent overview and adequate planning.
Let us say for example Multiple KM documents need to be moved from one system to another this is something which requires a comprehensive overview to ensure no issues occur during such a process change.
Overview - The Starting Point
Now here we are dealing with a KM Content Migration scenario and you seek further consultation regarding this process, what to consider and which method to utilize. Now regarding this the first point of reference here comes in the form of the comprehensive guidance documentation outlined below which can be followed to support the scenario.
Methods Available
"A common requirement within KM is to transport content from one portal system to another. Depending on the amount of content to be transported this can sometimes become quite a big operation. It’s important that you are aware of all the possible methods of transporting KM Content so that you can chose the method with best suits your needs. Within KM there are three main methods for transporting content, KM Transport which is available since NW 7.0 SP13, Content Exchange (ICE) and WebDAV. There are pros and cons to each method which need to be taken into account before starting."
As you will see in the snippet extract outlined above the following three means are the standards for performing such an action:
- KM Transport
- Content Exchange (ICE)
- WebDAV
The choice of approach depends on a consumer business requirements which each offering their own avenue of suitability.
When using the KM Transport, if you import a mixture of versioned and non-versioned content, you may encounter an issue whereby versioning will be enabled on all folders after the import has completed. This patch fix in SAP Note: 2289868 - Versioning automatically activated after Importing KM Content correct this.
The system only transports the values of predefined properties. If you want to use the predefined properties of the source system in the target system, you have to transport the property definitions from the configuration before transporting KM content.
Considerations
Here as we see with the different approaches each offers their own advantages for particular customer scenarios and business requirements. Essentially the method of Transports & Migration choice is based on business preference i.e. the methodology chosen is based on preference. Each method has it's own "drawbacks" which might make it unsuitable for a particular environment.
Important Highlights
- Regarding "ICE" specifically I can tell you there is a limit of 2GB for the online packages. For offline transports, the only limit is the MaxRequestContentLength property of the HTTP Provider Service. If you set the limit to a custom value e.g. 50GB, The only other issue you may encounter is the possibility of encountering browser timeouts or slow system performance (freeze) due to the load on the system. Even if a timeout is generated, it is likely that the content will still be transferred as long as the property MaxRequestContentLength is not exceeded.
- It is NOT possible to transport KM Documents with current versions and this is standard functionality. Such a query has been posted before and it is something Developers are considering for future implementation. For additional insight it is not possible to move versions between repositories as each CM Repository has it's own system namespace that includes the Version Histories. The Version History does not belong to only one version controlled resource (VCR) but to several, it cannot be moved (or transported) to another repository. Additional cross-referencing can be found via SAP Note: 1601054 - Cannot move document between CM repositories.
- If we look at the documentation posting outlined "Scope of Transmitted Data" we see the following " Versions: Only the current version is included in an ICE package in the source system and transmitted to the target system. If versioning is active in the target system, the document from the ICE package is placed into the target repository as the current version. The last available version in the target system is retained as an old version. The version numbers for syndicator and subscriber are only the same if every version is transmitted."
MetaData Between Systems
You can transfer CERTAIN types of Metadata between Systems and this is overviewed and highlighted in the documentation guides outlined above.
The exact types of METADATA which can be transported include:
- Collections,
- Resources,
- Links,
- Custom properties,
- Access Control Lists (ACLs)
- Globally Unique Identifiers (GUIDs).
- Other types of Metadata (not described in the documentation) cannot be transported with ICE.
