You migrate configuration content from one environment
to another.
Development and testing typically occurs in a preproduction environment.
You typically migrate configuration content between the following
environments:
- Development environment
- After you identify the configuration changes that you want to
make to your product, you can implement them in a development environment.
In the development environment, you can perform basic tests to the
changes. A development environment is useful if code must be written,
compiled, and deployed into a product to accompany changes to configuration
applications. In the migration process, in most situations, the development
environment is only a source environment.
- Test environment
- You perform thorough testing of the configuration changes in the
test environment. You can use a single test environment to mimic the
production environment. For the most accurate testing, the test environment
must contain all the business applications and configuration changes
that you intend to use in the production environment. A single test
environment is best suited to aggregating changes that you create
in separate development environments. In the migration process, the
test environment can be both a source and target environment.
- Production environment
- After thorough testing, when the changes meet all the requirements,
you are ready to migrate your changes to the production environment.
When moving configuration content to production, schedule the promotion
to occur during maintenance periods. The deployment of Migration Manager
packages must be treated in the same manner as product installations
and fix packs. In some situations, the deployment of packages might
require your application server to remain unavailable to your users
for some time. In the migration process, in most situations, the production
environment is only a target environment.
You identify source and target environments by using unique identifiers.
The identifier is the combination of the database host name, the database
identifier, and the database schema name.
A target environment can be used with any package definition. You
can set inbound restrictions in a target environment to prevent the
distribution and deployment of packages to that environment from restricted
sources.