Migrating data from InfoSphere MDM to IBM Master Data Management

Migrate your record and relationship data from InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition or Advanced Edition to the IBM Master Data Management service by using the Migration API service and MDM Publisher.

The migration process converts your InfoSphere MDM data models and transfers your operational data to IBM Master Data Management. The migration service orchestrates the conversion and transformation, while MDM Publisher extracts data from your InfoSphere MDM environment and generates the payloads for IBM Master Data Management.

The migration includes these key steps:

  1. Prepare your environments (InfoSphere MDM, MDM Publisher, and IBM Master Data Management with the migration service).
  2. Initiate the migration by using the migration service REST API.
  3. Monitor the automated migration workflow as it converts models, extracts data, and loads records into IBM Master Data Management.

What happens during migration

After you initiate a migration by using the IBM Master Data Management API, the migration service and InfoSphere MDM Publisher perform the following operations:

  1. Convert data models: The system analyzes your InfoSphere MDM schema and converts entity types, attributes, identifiers, and cross-reference segments to the IBM Master Data Management data model format.

  2. Create the data model in IBM Master Data Management: The migration service registers the converted data model with IBM Master Data Management, ensuring all entity types, attributes, and relationships are defined.

  3. Extract data: MDM Publisher extracts operational tables, extension tables, and reference data from your InfoSphere MDM database to temporary storage. MDM Publisher uses Apache Spark pods that are dynamically deployed, transforming the data into hierarchical structures stored in JSON files.

  4. Generate record payloads: The system transforms extracted data into IBM Master Data Management record JSON format, including entity typing, attribute conversion, and standardized values.

  5. Generate relationship payloads: The system creates relationship JSON payloads that define connections between entities (such as party-to-address, party-to-phone, and party-to-identifier relationships).

  6. Transfer and load data: MDM Publisher moves the JSON payloads to the IBM Master Data Management landing zone and invokes the bulk load API to import the data.

  7. Create entities: The system invokes the IBM Master Data Management data service API to generate entity links for the newly loaded records, then completes matching and merging based on the IBM Master Data Management matching engine.

Before you begin

Verify that the following components are available and operational before starting the migration.

InfoSphere MDM environment

Confirm that your InfoSphere MDM environment is ready:

  • MDM database - Check to ensure that the InfoSphere MDM database is present and available.
  • Workbench projects - Check for data models, entity definitions, Probabilistic Matching Engine (PME) rules and survivorship, and algorithms (standardization, bucketing, comparison).

The MDM database contains all operational master data in your MDM system. This is the data that will be migrated to IBM Master Data Management.

InfoSphere MDM Workbench is the central design and development tool for InfoSphere MDM. It is used for data modeling, configuration, code generation, and packaging. For the migration process, you must export a Workbench project from Eclipse: File > Export > Archive File in zip format.

For more information about InfoSphere MDM, including the database and Workbench, see the InfoSphere MDM documentation on IBM Docs.

InfoSphere MDM Publisher environment

Set up MDM Publisher on a separate Red Hat OpenShift cluster with access to:

  • The InfoSphere MDM database
  • Persistent volume claim (PVC) storage for data extraction
  • Network connectivity to the IBM Master Data Management migration service

For information about setting up MDM Publisher, see the MDM Publisher documentation on IBM Docs.

IBM Master Data Management migration service

Configure and verify the migration service within your IBM Master Data Management service deployment:

  1. Deploy the target IBM Master Data Management service or verify that it is already deployed. For more information, see Creating a master data configuration asset.

  2. Verify that the IBM Master Data Management migration service API route is accessible by using the get_migration_health API endpoint. For details about get_migration_health, see the IBM Master Data Management API reference documentation.

  3. A service administrator must verify that the user who is completing the migration has the MigrationManager IBM Master Data Management role.

Migrating your master data

Initiate the migration by calling the IBM Master Data Management migration service REST API. The API triggers MDM Publisher to extract and transform your data, then loads it into IBM Master Data Management.

1. Start the migration

To initiate the migration process, use the appropriate REST API endpoint depending on your InfoSphere MDM edition:

Migrating from Advanced Edition

To migrate master data from your InfoSphere MDM Advanced Edition deployment to the IBM Master Data Management service, use the following API details:

  • Endpoint - POST /migration/advanced_edition
  • Required parameter - file (an archive file in ZIP format of your InfoSphere MDM Advanced Edition configuration)
  • Optional parameter - config (MDM Publisher configuration file)

For more information, see the IBM Master Data Management API reference documentation.

Migrating from Standard Edition

To migrate master data from your InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition deployment to the IBM Master Data Management service, use the following API details:

  • Endpoint - POST /migration/standard_edition
  • Required parameter - file (an archive file in ZIP format of your InfoSphere MDM Standard Edition workbench project)
  • Optional parameter - config (MDM Publisher configuration file)

For more information, see the IBM Master Data Management API reference documentation.

2. Monitor migration progress

After you initiate the migration, the system displays status information. Monitor the status of each stage to track the migration progress.

Initial response

After starting the migration, you get the following response:

[INFO] Request completed successfully - migration service was initiated successfully
[INFO] Follow status at: https://<publisher-url>/publisher
[INFO] Subscription ID: 1485 - Publisher job id

Preparation phase

When the preparation phase begins, you get the following status messages:

[INFO] Job status: PREP
1. Get the data model from migration service API
2. Populate the data extension fields to the data model
3. Generate Publisher internal usage property files

MDM Publisher migration phases

During migration, the MDM Publisher runs the following migration steps in order, and provides statuses accordingly:

  1. register-model- Create the data model in IBM Master Data Management.
  2. import-smallTables - Import InfoSphere MDM table data.
  3. join-all-vertices - Generate IBM Master Data Management record JSON.
  4. join-all-edges - Generate IBM Master Data Management relationship JSON.
  5. transfer-files - Send payloads to IBM Master Data Management.
  6. load-bulk-data - Bulk load data into IBM Master Data Management.
  7. create-linkages - Create entity linkage rules.

3. Verify migration completion

The migration is complete when:

  • All pipeline stages show a status of SUCCEEDED.
  • No errors appear in the payload transformation.
  • The IBM Master Data Management data model is present and validated.
  • Records and relationships are searchable and visible in the IBM Master Data Management user interface.
  • Linkage rules execute without failure.

What to do next

After verifying that your migration was successful, you can start using IBM Master Data Management to maintain your master data.

Consider decommissioning your InfoSphere MDM deployment. For details about the recommended migration stages, including cutover and decommissioning, see Migrating master data into IBM Master Data Management.

Learn more