Our customer is interested in migrating from FNMS OnPremise to FNMS Cloud. The main objective is to avoid having to upgrade every X number of months/years. Does anyone have any experience with this? The customer is using FNMS2017R3 and the cloud as of this writing is 2019R1.
We are considering using Business Adapters to extract all of the FNMS objects directly from the OnPremise database into the FNMS cloud via a newly deployed Cloud beacon. The downside is that historical change records for objects in the onpremise system would be lost once it was migrated to the cloud. Also it is not clear whether this would cover all data in the customers OnPremise solution. In other words, is there data that the business adapters would not be able to migrate? Also, is there a better way other than using Business Adapters?
The primary limitation is due to the linkage to an application. This is also not possible between two FNMS systems even on-prem as the applications in both systems will have a different set of application IDs in the database.
I have worked with a few customers on this here in the states. While it is possible to move a subset of data (users, assets, purchase orders, and contracts) not all items can be transferred. The primary issue licenses cannot be moved from On-Prem to Cloud. If you would like examples of the adapters used to move such data please refer to the business adapter practice guide in the learning center.
Thanks for the feedback. I was not aware of the business adapters practice guide.
As you mention, the business adapter practice guide does say, "It is not possible to move license data around because of the database model.". Can you please elaborate and provide some additional details? Is it that the cloud database model for licenses do not match the onpremise model and therefore can not properly map the onpremise object properties to the cloud properites? or is it something else?
You should be able to migrate all elements that are part of the BAS object model. In the on prem BAS, licenses are included. Could it be that there are differences between on prem and cloud object models?
Best regards,
Markward
Softline Group is Europe's leading independent expert in Software Asset Management.
There is no material difference in data model between FlexNet On-premises and FlexNet Cloud - that is not the issue. The limitation is more that only parts of the data model are exposed to be populated by FlexNet Cloud business adapters. As a few examples from memory, I believe you cannot use FlexNet Cloud business adapters to import data elements such as:
Links from license records to purchase records
Links from license records to application records
Local ARL recognition rules
In a migration scenario, such data would need to be re-created by hand in the FlexNet Cloud UI rather than being imported/migrated automatically.
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The primary limitation is due to the linkage to an application. This is also not possible between two FNMS systems even on-prem as the applications in both systems will have a different set of application IDs in the database.
