Global Aerospace Logistics and Supply Chain Provider - AS/400 Db2 to Oracle 12c Cloud Migration

The Customer is the world’s leading independent distributor and provider of supply chain management services to the global aerospace industry, The Customer was using a data warehousing solution running JD Edwards on an AS/400 Db2 platform and required assistance migrating data structures and data to an Oracle 12c Cloud based Data Mart so that they could perform advanced analytics and reporting. The biggest challenge was to move data from the Db2 on AS/400 platform to the Oracle Cloud platform given their distinctly different operating environments.

mLogica ran a detailed analysis of the existing system and devised a plan for migrating data between the source and target databases using GoldenGate. The first issue was configuring GoldenGate to correctly extract and map data structures, objects and associated data sets between Db2 on AS/400 and Oracle Cloud, which represented a significant roadblock due to a number of incompatible and unsupported items across the two database platforms.

The Customer’s existing data warehouse, based on the AS/400 platform, was becoming difficult to maintain due to rising resource and capital costs. A move to a more advanced platform was considered essential as a preliminary step to migrating to the cloud. As soon as mLogica were brought in to consult, we worked quickly to test cloud connectivity, set-up the target platform, and gain access for the development and SIT/UAT databases. We set up the target architecture on Oracle Cloud and implemented GoldenGate environment between the source data warehouse and the new warehouse, for real time replication.

mLogica was able to set up and configure Oracle GoldenGate for data transfer and provided performance tuning on the GoldenGate initial load and sync process to the current status. Our team added data type confirmation and mapping in the GoldenGate target as well as table data verification. The team also re-configured the database and GoldenGate based on Oracle Best Practices. There were several GoldenGate bugs that mLogica identified, for which it worked with Oracle Product Support for a resolution.

Once resolved, GoldenGate was upgraded and the Oracle database patched and the discarded records on the target database required troubleshooting.

The biggest challenges that the Customer faced was that the platform they were using was not able to keep up with the latest technological advancements, there was not sufficient support available, and licensing costs were increasingly large. After moving to Oracle, the Customer could not only leverage the latest features of the platform, but could also plan their cloud journey.