Migration settings

You can migrate the operating model and views from one Collibra environment to another environment. Migration simplifies the process of transferring changes between development, testing, and production environments.

Migration isn't intended for backups or for transferring instance data, such as assets and domains. To move assets to another environment, you can use the import and export features instead. For disaster recovery, you can use Console export files.

Note

Exporting and importing CMA files is restricted by the file upload settings, which determine the maximum file size, allowed file extensions, and maximum number of uploads and downloads per day. Contact Collibra Support if you want to change the file upload settings.You can edit the file upload settings in Collibra Console.
When you migrate the operating model from one environment to another, the migration user is recorded as the owner or creator of the migrated resources, and the migration timestamp is recorded as the created or modified time of the resources. The original user and timestamps from the source environment aren't preserved. This behavior ensures the following:
- Users from the source environment may not exist in the target environment, and creating them isn't supported.
- Even if the original users exist in the target environment, attributing changes to them would be misleading because they didn't directly make the changes in the target environment.
- Recording migration metadata ensures that it is clear that the changes were introduced through migration, not by direct user activity in the target environment.

Warning

For migration, the source and target environments must have the same version. Migrating between different versions can cause unexpected behavior. For example, migration may fail if you import a CMA file in an environment of version 2021.07 or older, and the CMA file includes assignments of any of the following asset types:

BI Report Attribute
Business Qualifier
Column
Field
Looker Report Attribute
Report Attribute
Table
Tableau Report Attribute

Overview

Export objects from a source environment.
1. Choose the objects that you want to migrate.
2. Download the summary and the archive file.
3. Review the summary.
Create a console export file for your target environment.
Note This is technically not mandatory, but highly recommended.
Import the archive file.
You are guided through the import process. This process consists of the following main steps: upload the archive file, review the changes via a simulation, and start the import.
Once the import is completed, the model objects are created, edited, or removed as necessary. You can also download an import report.

Best practice

We strongly recommend that you avoid making risky changes to the metamodel in your production environment. Instead, use separate development and testing environments to safely implement and validate changes.

Tip Hover your pointer over the following steps for a graphical representation.

Create a Console export file for your production environment.
Note If you have one or more Edge sites in this Collibra environment, you need to create a backup for each Edge site.
Apply the export file in your development and testing environments.
Important If the Collibra environment you want to restore has one or more Edge sites, you need to reinstall all of them. To reinstall one or more Edge sites, go to Reinstall an Edge site.
Make the necessary changes in the development environment.
Use the migration feature to re-apply the changes from the development environment to the testing environment.
Thoroughly test the changes in the testing environment.
If needed, repeat steps 3 through 5.
If you are satisfied with the changes, use the migration feature to re-apply the changes from the testing environment to the production environment.
Note Since migration moves the operating model, the existing instance data in the production environment isn't changed.