Serena Migration Tool - FAQs

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Friday, June 18th, 2010 at 1:00pm -- Kat LiendgensBookmark and Share

As you may know, the Hannon Hill engineers have developed a Serena Migration Tool, which helps you migrate your Serena content into Cascade Server quickly and easily. In this blog, I'd like to answer some frequently asked questions I get about the tool and how it works.

1. How does the migration tool work?
The migration tool takes your exported Serena Collage content and processes all of the exported XML files. During this process, it detects all of the asset types used in Serena as well as the fields used by each asset type. It also determines what your Cascade Content Types are and which Metadata fields and Data Definitions they use. Knowing this information makes the Serena migration tool a very user-friendly application, because it is able to guide you through the process by giving you pre-defined choices, thus decreasing the chance for user errors. First, the tool lets you map which asset type in Serena corresponds to which Content Type in Cascade. Next, it asks you to specify which fields in Serena should be mapped to which fields in Cascade. It's as simple as that. Once you're done providing the mappings ("this section in Serena equals that section in Cascade"), you will see a summary screen on which you can specify if you would like to keep existing assets, overwrite them, or update them. Finally, you click a button to start running the migration tool. You will see a progress screen that shows you the growing list of assets that have been successfully created in Cascade Server.

2. What do I need to do to run the tool?
In order to migrate your Serena content, you will need to have your site created in Cascade Server. In other words, you will need to have everything set up except the folders containing your pages and the actual pages themselves. In addition, you need a zip file containing all of your exported content in XML format. Finally, we highly recommend that you plan your migration carefully by creating a spreadsheet on which you specify which asset type in Serena will correspond to which Content Type in Cascade as well as which fields in Serena correspond to which Metadata fields and Data Definitions in Cascade.

3. What do I need to do if I made a mistake while running the tool?
The migration tool is very forgiving. You can stop the process at any time. You may also wait until the tool has finished its job. Then, you can simply go back to the beginning, make the appropriate changes to your mappings and select "overwrite existing assets".

4. Will the tool re-write links?
Yes, the tool will align internal links. If you have a specific section of your site that you are not migrating, and you would like for the appropriate links to point to an external URL instead, the tool will allow you to do so.

5. How long does it take to run the tool?
It depends on the size of your exported content. The tool can typically create about 300 assets in under five minutes. It also comes with a built-in link checker, which, after all of the content has been migrated, generates a list of all intact and all broken links. Of course, if you choose to run the link-checker, the overall process takes a bit longer.

6. Does the migration tool only create pages or does it also upload images, CSS, and other files?
The migration tool only creates page assets and folder assets. However, Cascade Server's Zip Archive Tool allows you to quickly bulk-upload images and other files.

7. Do I have to migrate my entire site all at once, or can I migrate the content section by section?
The migration tool gives you full flexibility in terms of how big or how small you would like to start. You can simply adjust your Serena export and migrate one folder at a time.

8. Does the tool have to run on the same server as Cascade Server?
No. In fact, the tool is so flexible that you can even run it on your local computer, as long as you are connected to your network.

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