Migration to EDI Exchange MT v12.0.05

This chapter provides a high-level overview of the migration process to move customers to EDI Exchange v12.0.05. The migration to EDI Exchange v12.0.05 covers four main areas:

  • Data
  • Communications
  • Printing
  • Custom trading partner content

Major decision points before migration

Customers must face these major decisions points before the migration:

  • On-premises customers must decide whether to migrate their complete data to the cloud or start with a fresh slate. There are costs involved in the migration of the data.
  • Customers must determine their communication management strategy, whether to use a Communication Service Provider or to self-manage their communication connections.
  • EDI Exchange v12.0.05 introduces on-premises components for printing and communication. These components require dedicate servers or VMs.

On-premises customers

On-premises customers must upgrade from EDI Exchange v11.5.x as the starting point of the migration to EDI Exchange MT v12.0.05.

Data and database

EDI Exchange v12.0.05 features a multi-tenant database model that includes a global database and a tenant database:

  • The global database houses data that is relevant to all tenants such as standard trading partner content.
  • The tenant database houses all tenant-specific data with a unique database instance for each tenant.

The database itself has changed from Microsoft SQL Server to Aurora PostgreSQL.

EDI Exchange uses the AWS Data Migration Services to convert the data. To prepare for the data migration, customers must backup their database and ideally run the archive utility to remove old data.

Infor supports specialized migration tools for on-premises and cloud customers:

  • On-premises customers must extract their data from their existing database and load it into the S3 bucket. The automated migration tool takes the data from the S3 bucket. An SQL server instance is created, the v11.5.x data model is used to create the EDI Exchange tables and load the data. The AWS Data Migration Service then converts the data and loads it into the provisioned MT database.
  • For existing cloud customers, the AWS Data Migration Services maps the existing ST v11.5.x database directly to the newly provisioned MT v12.0.05 database.

Communication management alternatives

Customer can choose between these alternatives of managing the external communication with their trading partners:

  • Outsource the external communication to a Communication Service Provider
  • Self-manage their point-to-point communication connections

Communication Service Provider

EDI Exchange v12.0.05 provides multi-tenant connections to known and certified Communication Service Provider such as iConnect or Rocket.

The connection between the Infor cloud and the Communication Service Provider is multi-tenant and is established once. The connection is used by all tenants that use the Communication Service Provider.

When a connection to a Communication Service Provider is established and certified, the tenant must be configured to support the appropriate provider. Routing rules must be set up with the appropriate trading partner IDs.

Infor works with any Communication Service Provider to establish and certify a MT link to their VAN services. Customers must directly make commercial agreements with their Communication Service Provider.

On-Premises Communication Agent

For customers who prefer to manage their own communication connection points, Infor provides an On-Premises Communication Agent. Customer must purchase an on-premises license, download the ISO image, install the software, and request a permanent license key.

Customer must identify and order all their required communication protocols. Communication certificates such as ODETTE certificates or AS/2 certificates must be evaluated and potentially re-issued. Many certificates are tied to a specific server.

Existing communication configurations must be exported from EDI Exchange v11.5.x and then imported into the v12.0.05 On-Premises Communication Agent.

The EDI Exchange ION API profile must be updated to recognize the On-Premises Communication Agent.

Internal firewall rules must be updated to open ports.

All communication connection points must be tested and verified.

On-Premises Print Agent

To eliminate the requirement for VPN tunnels, the barcode printing has been moved from the cloud to on-premises. Customers install the EDI Exchange print bundle within their enterprise installation.

Customers must perform these steps to complete the on-premises printing configuration:

  • Request a permanent license key.
  • Identify and install required printer drivers.
  • Copy existing printer configurations.
  • Update the EDI Exchange ION API profile to register the On-Premises Print Agent.
  • Test all print configurations that includes printers and print routing rules.

On-premises server infrastructure

Each unique tenant ID requires a unique on-premises client for printing and possibly communication.

Each customer typically needs a tenant ID for the production environment and another tenant ID for the test environment.

A customer who decides to self-manage communications needs the On-Premises Communication Agent. Each customer must have the On-Premises Print Agent.

A customer who decides to install printing and communications in both production and test environment, must license four total on-premises agents: two for printing and two for communications.

Infor recommends a dedicated server or VM for each on-premises agent. Therefore, the customer in this example must buy or allocate four servers or VMs.

For details, see Infor EDI Exchange On-Premises Communication and Print Agent Configuration Guide.

Custom trading partner content

Customers who use customized trading partners must update their v12.0.05 EDI Exchange tenant profile. These custom trading partners and their contents, EDI mappings and print templates, must be registered and loaded.

Infor offers customers support to identify their custom trading partners and to locate and gather their content.

For complete migration details, see the Infor EDI Exchange Migration Guide ST to MT on the Infor Support Portal.