More about the Distribution landing page tabs

Pega 7 Platform provides several tools to archive rules, data instances, and work items into ZIP files and move them from one Pega 7 Platform system to another. Although controlled from your portal, the import and export facilities operate on the server.

Creating ZIP archives

To create a ZIP archive containing rules from one ruleset, use the Export tab. You can also use this tool to archive product and product patch rules.
To create a ZIP archive and automatically export it to one or more target systems and import it, use product migration.
To automatically create a ZIP archive containing purged work items (including history, attachments and assignments) for database maintenance and archiving purposes, use the Purge/Archive wizard.
To package not only rules but the supporting data objects into an archive, use the Application Package wizard.

Importing ZIP archives

To import any type of ZIP archive, use the Import tab.

Basics

To access these tools, select:

Designer Studio> Application > Distribution > Export — To copy rules and data instances from the PegaRULES database to create a ZIP archive file on the server.
Designer Studio>Application > Distribution > Migrate Product — To create a product rule that packages work items.
Designer Studio> Application > Distribution > Import — To upload rules and data instances in a previously exported ZIP file into the PegaRULES database of the target Pega 7 Platform system.
Designer Studio> Application > Distribution > Package Work — To start the Application Package wizard.

See A checklist for migration.

Using the Export tab

Select this option on a source Pega 7 Platform system, the one that contains the rules to be extracted. Use the Export Rules link to create a ZIP file containing all the rules in a ruleset.

See Help — Export gadget.

Note: Don't create a ZIP archive when any of the rules designated for the archive are checked out. An error is reported identifying the checked-out rule or rules. Neither the original version nor the checked-out version of the rule is included in the ZIP archive.

A checklist for migration

You can use these tools to copy a product or ruleset from one Pega 7 Platform system to another. (Also called migrating or moving, this procedure doesn't alter or delete the source rules.)

For example, you can move a product from a development Pega 7 Platform system into a test Pega 7 Platform system. The source and target systems may have different servers, operating systems, database vendors, Web server software vendors and so on. Information inside the ZIP file consists entirely of XML documents in Unicode characters.

Stage 1 - Review criteria

Confirm that you have a working Operator ID with a PegaRULES:SysAdm4 access role on both the source system and target system.
Confirm that the Pega 7 Platform version number of the target system is not less than the version number of the source system. Do not attempt to move a ruleset created in version 05-01-06 into a system based on version 04-02-01.
Review the ruleset version rules to be included. Note the prerequisite rulesets and versions they reference. If moving more than one ruleset, note whether and how they are interdependent.

Stage 2 - Prepare

On the target system, access the Records Explorer. Confirm that the target system includes all the prerequisite rulesets and versions needed.
On the source system, create a product rule or product patch rule.
On the source system, examine the checked out rules display. Confirm that none of the rules to be migrated is checked out. Select Designer Studio>Application > Development > Checked Out Rules.
On the source system, use Rules per Ruleset, Version, report to estimate a count of rules to be included in the ZIP archive. The reports show only up to 10,000 rules. The ZIP archive may contain more than 10,000 instances. Select Designer Studio> Process and Rules > Tools > Find Rules.
In the Criteria to find rules field, select Find by ruleset. version, rule type.

Stage 3 - Export/Import

Export the ZIP archive.
Copy the ZIP archive to the target system.
On the target system, import the ZIP archive.
Adjust your access group as necessary to provide access to the uploaded rulesets and versions.

Stage 4 - Review results

Log off, then log in with the updated access group, and review the uploaded results. If they are satisfactory, this may be a good moment to lock the imported rulesets and versions.
Consider whether a new class group and work type structure is appropriate for deployment of the application. The Clone a Class Group landing page tab, on the Data Model — Classes and Properties landing page, may be helpful. See Data Model category — Classes and Properties page.
In a multinode system, the lookup list cache (and in some cases the compiled libraries) may be stale on nodes other than the node on which you run the Import tab. As a good practice, recompile the libraries and delete the lookup list cache on each of the other nodes.

Notes

As it runs, the Export tab stores information about its operation as instances of the Log-PegaRULESMove class. The tool logs errors as instances of the Log-PegaRULESMove-Error class. Use the Application Explorer or the standard LookupList list view rule to review the instances of these two classes.

You must hold the @baseclass.zipMoveExport privilege to use the Export tab. You must hold the @baseclass.zipMoveImport privilege to use the Import tab.

A ZIP archive contains JAR files. The ZIP archives are endian-independent and platform-independent.When you create a ZIP archive containing a ruleset version, any blocked rules associated with that ruleset version are included in the archive (and remain blocked when uploaded into on a target system). On a target system, a blocked rule can in some cases block a different set of other rules than it blocked on the source system.

Command line operations

Call the export option of the prpcutils command-line utility to create ZIP archives from product rules using a UNIX shell script or Windows BAT file. These scripts reside in the scripts/utils subdirectory of your Pega 7 Platform software distribution. See the Readme.txt file in that directory and the PDN.