Created a Test copy of Production and now would like to refresh that data, how?

[Stephen_Dinh1]

We need to refresh our Test environment with Production data (DB and Files). How do we go about updating the data without going through the whole process again?

[Ryan_Wakefield]

Unfortunately there really isn't a way to do this. You have to go through all of the manual steps to update all of the appropriate values from what they are in production to what they are in test.

[AdamShaneHyland]

Hi Stephen.

I would recommend looking into the Test System Creation Utility (OnBase 18 and higher).  There is more information in the System Administrators MRG.  This tool is meant to create test environments based on the configuration of an environment, meaning you are creating a new system (new database and disk groups) from the configuration of another system (i.e. Document Types, Keyword Types, Workflows, etc.).  This will migrate all of the necessary System documents such as E-Forms.  Also, you can use Custom Queries to migrate sets of documents if you are looking to populate the system with some data.

Future versions of OnBase (TBD at the time of this posting) will likely have a feature for Change Control which will allow the setup of environmental configuration Key/Value pairs.  Meaning, when you use Test System Creation to create a new environment, only the configuration items specific to that environment would be migrated.  Example of this would be; environment specific configuration paths for import processes, environment specific datasource values, environment specific username, etc.

Best wishes.

[Chris_Boultingh]

Hi Adam,

Can I jump in with a question / observation? When we have attempted to create and synch up our test environment to live, it has been a difficult and painful process. Disk groups (and the path information) had to be changed by Support using SQL query, otherwise we would have had to manually change all that. Are you saying that this new tool will alleviate that pain?

Are these correct assumptions?

• It will create an empty test DB with pointers to our test store server, but of course no document entries will exist in the DB.
• Document type numbers and keyword numbers from live would be the same in the test DB

How does it handle Unity API items? Are imported libraries carried over as-is? If so, no biggie. Just need to know so that the correct library with test system connections can be re-imported to the new test environment.

At this point in time, we have lots of mismatches between doc type numbers and keyword numbers in live/test, and that creates massive headaches when exporting life cycles from test into live, or Unity scripts... it's a mess.

And thanks, Stephen, for asking this question. Our OnBase Admin has been bugging me for a while now to fix it. 😉

Chris Boultinghouse

Amplify Credit Union

[AdamShaneHyland]

Hi Chris.

From the sounds of it, you are using what we call a manual test system creation, meaning you are restoring your PROD database and then making the updates so the references are no longer pointing to PROD.  This is references in the Creating an OnBase Test Environment white paper (link).  The Test System Creation Utility is the succeeding tool for Configuration Migration which did something very similar.

To answer your assumptions, YES it will create an empty test DB, and NO to the Document Types and Keyword Type Numbers (or any identifiers for that matter).  While the the identifiers MIGHT align between the environments, there is no guarantee.  

With respect to the Unity API, you are referring to Configuration Items.  These are currently migrated as static values.  That is why I references the Change Control Sets which is an expected future feature of the product.  However, currently they are migrated as is and you would have to go back and update them as applicable.

Take care.