Use Cases for Partition Copy

Partition Copy is typically used for these purposes:

• For go-live preparations at a Pricefx project when you copy the QA partition to the PROD partition.

• For QA purposes when you copy PROD to QA, e.g. in preparation for Pricefx upgrades or new project work.

• For training and demo purposes. 

Partition Copy activities are occasional and far apart.

Self-service Options

With regards to any forward path, i.e. to bring instance content from a non-PROD to a PROD environment, you should make use of the available tools:

• Pricefx Studio

• File Uploader

• Excel Client

• IntegrationManager

All these tools will allow for automation, traceability, and therefore better control of your instance contents.

Requirements and Limitations

Partition copy/migration is performed by taking a database backup at the source partition and restoring it at the destination partition (as a new partition or replacing existing).

It is always the entire database/partition that is copied; no cherry-picking of single elements is possible. There's no auto adaptation of the content to the new environment.

Be aware of the Pricefx version of the source/destination partition. We can only copy to a partition of same Pricefx version as the source – or higher. We cannot migrate a partition from a newer Pricefx version cluster to an older one.

These specific elements on the destination partition might get affected/replaced by the partition copy (the list is not exhaustive):

• User accounts and passwords travel together with the partition data, so e.g. after PROD => QA refresh expect your QA environment to require the PROD credentials (username and password).

  • This impacts integration authentication: the integration will fail until amended with the correct user credentials.

  • The same applies to Single Sign On configuration and API / ERP (e.g. Salesforce, SAP) integration.

• Changes to Event URL and Bound Partition configuration might also become necessary.

It is the requestors responsibility to manage these configurations once the Partition Copy is completed. If the requester requires assistance from an Integration Engineer or Configuration Engineer to perform these changes, it needs to be arranged through Pricefx Project Manager or Customer Success Manager.

Depending on the serving hardware and your dataset size and structure, the process can take hours to days. It might also require scaling up of your cluster or instance. Depending on your contract, this might come at an additional cost.

Maintenance Window Considerations

The destination cluster needs to be restarted in order to complete the copy process. The integration module of the destination cluster has to be shut down during the entire copy process, but the inbound data can still be collected and will get processed once the integration is put back in service. Only in rare situations it is necessary to take the source cluster off-line or restart it.

Given this, it is necessary to indicate a suitable maintenance window.

How to Request a Partition Copy

If the self-service options above are not sufficient, a Partition Request can be forwarded in Pricefx HelpDesk via the Service Request case type.

• Please count with a 5 business-day lead time and be aware that not all requests will be granted for operational reasons.

• For both source and destinations specify full <cluster>.<partition> name to prevent misunderstandings and add the respective app web URLs to add clarity.