The FileNet Deployment Manager tool
Objects in an object store contain data that is specific to the environment in which the object store resides. This environment-specific data includes the object store IDs and the access control lists for the objects. To import objects into a different environment, you must first update the environment-specific data in those objects. FileNet® Deployment Manager helps you with this task.
You use FileNet Deployment Manager first to create an environment definition for each of your deployment environments. As part of this definition, you provide the configuration information that the tool needs to connect to the environment.
You then use FileNet Deployment Manager to retrieve information that identifies the object stores, security principals, and workflow systems services in that environment. The tool places this information in files called half maps, which are stored along with the configuration information as part of the environment definition.
To define a specific deployment, you configure a source-destination pair that identifies the source and destination environments for the deployment. An environment definition, which can be used in multiple source-destination pairs, might represent a source environment in one pair and a destination environment in another pair. For example, if the deployment sequence is from a development environment to a test environment to a production environment, you need two source-destination pairs. In one pair, the test environment acts as the destination environment. In the other pair, the test environment acts as the source environment.
As part of configuring the source-destination pair, you use FileNet Deployment Manager to map the environment-specific information for the deployment. This mapping process combines the information from the four half maps for each environment to create four data maps. For each object store in the source environment, the object store data map identifies the corresponding object store in the destination environment. For each user or group in the source environment, the security principal data map identifies the user and group in the destination environment that is to be assigned the access privileges of that principal. For each workflow systems service in the source environment, the service data map identifies the corresponding service in the destination environment.
You export Content Platform Engine assets with FileNet Deployment Manager. In some deployment scenarios, you might need to export assets early in the deployment process, in preparation of creating security principal and service half maps. But in all deployment scenarios, you must export source Content Platform Engine assets in preparation of converting source assets for the destination environment. The conversion operation uses the data maps to replace object store, security principal information, connection point, and service data in the export file and any external content files with the values that are appropriate for the destination environment. If the object store and principal data in the environments is unchanged, you can reuse the same source-destination pair to convert application data for subsequent deployments. If changes occur in an environment, you update the environment definition and then re-create the maps in the source-destination pair.
FileNet Deployment Manager provides change impact analysis, a pre-import operation that you run on the converted Content Platform Engine assets. The operation reports on the potential import errors in the destination environment and the change impact on the destination environment. If you are satisfied with the results of change impact analysis operation, then you import the converted Content Platform Engine assets from FileNet Deployment Manager.