E Upgrading Oracle Communications Data Model

Considerations for Upgrading Oracle Communications Data Model

With the next release of Oracle Communications Data Model, identify the components in Oracle Communications Data Model that must be upgraded and analyze the impact that the upgrade will have on your existing data warehouse architecture and applications. The Oracle Communications Data Model upgrade focuses on Oracle Communications Data Model itself -- it does not include considerations of upgrading a hardware platform or related software.

You should consider the following points before you begin your upgrade:

• Review the System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Communications Data Model to make sure your database platform versions are supported.

• The upgrade process is not only a technical process. It requires significant planning and involvement from many teams, including development, database administrators, business analysts, QA, and so on.

• You should determine what customization was made to your existing Oracle Communications Data Model system before you begin the upgrade process. It is recommended that you budget sufficient time (in the upgrade project) for detailed review of current customizations and relevance of the customizations for the new version of the Oracle Communications Data Model system to which you plan to upgrade.

• You will also need to analyze the impact of the schema changes on your current custom implementation. The extent of your customizations will have an impact on the length of time required for the upgrade.

• Depending on the release from which you are upgrading, moving the customizations in your existing repositories, reports, and dashboards to the new version may require a multi-step process and may involve manual processes at some stages.

• It is highly recommended that you use side-by-side environments when performing each stage of the upgrade process. Enabling side-by-side-instances of the entire Oracle Communications Data Model environment is a critical success factor for upgrade. For some stages of the upgrade, you can upgrade your environments in place. However, for comparison and benchmarking purposes, it is recommended that you upgrade using side-by-side environments.

• For each stage of the upgrade process, you need to allocate a reasonable amount of time to validate the results of that stage and address any problems. In addition, final user acceptance testing must confirm that the entire upgrade process was successful.

Upgrade Paths for Oracle Communications Data Model

There ares two different path to upgrade Oracle Communications Data Model, depending on whether Oracle Communications Data Model has been customized.

Upgrade Path A: Based on an Earlier Default Oracle Communications Data Model

Upgrade Oracle Communications Data Model based on an earlier default Oracle Communications Data Model.

Upgrade Path B: Based on a Customized Oracle Communications Data Model

Take the following steps to upgrade your Oracle Communications Data Model based on a customized Oracle Communications Data Model:

1. Review your customization patch and upgrade it if necessary.

2. Execute the (new) customization patch.

3. Migrate the data.

4. Additions, if necessary, to modify the:

   • Derived, aggregate layer

   • Source-ETL and intra-ETL mapping

   • Workflow

   • Business intelligence applications

   • Metadata Repository

Regression Testing for Oracle Communications Data Model

After you upgrade Oracle Communications Data Model, perform regression testing. The major tasks to perform are:

• Create a test plan.

• Execute a test case.

• Test error handling.

• Create a final report.