Documentum NCC Scanner

Introduction

The Documentum NCC (No Content Copy) Scanner is a special variant of the regular Documentum Scanner. It offers the same features as regular Documentum Scanner with the difference that the content of the documents is not exported from Documentum during migration. The content files themselves can be attached to the migrated documents in the target repository by using one the following method:

1. copy files from the source storage to the target storage outside of migration-center

2. attach the source storage to the target repository so the content will be accessed from the original storage.

Use cases

The scenario for such migrations usually involves migrations with very large numbers of documents (>>10.000.000), where extracting and transferring the content between the source and target systems would take too much time; thus the approach where only the metadata and content references are migrated is preferred. The actual content is then transferred independently using fast, low overhead file system level access directly in the SAN without having to pass through the API of the source system, migration-center, and then again through the target system’s API as would be the case during a standard Documentum migration. Since the references to the content files are preserved, simply dropping the actual content in place in the respective filestore(s) completes the migration and requires no additional tasks to be performed to link the content to the recently migrated objects. This approach is of course not universally applicable to any Documentum migration project, and needs to be considered and planned beforehand if intended to be used for a given migration.

Time savings

The time it takes to perform a Documenum “NCC” migration versus a “classic” Documentum migration can be as little as one third of the time it takes to perform the latter (when comparing the duration of the scan and import phases which involve content transfer).

Supported Documentum Content Server versions

The Documentum Scanner currently supports Documentum Content Server versions 6.5 to 20.2, including service packs.

For accessing a Documentum repository Documentum Foundation Classes 6.5 or newer is required. Any combinations of DFC versions and Content Server versions supported by EMC Documentum are also supported by migration-center’s Documentum Scanner, but it is recommended to use the DFC version matching the version of the Content Server being scanned. The DFC must be installed and configured on every machine where migration-center Server Components is deployed.

Technical information on NCC feature

When scanning Documentum documents with the Documentum No Content Copy (NCC) scanner, content files are not exported to the file system anymore, nor are they being imported to the target system. Instead the scanner exports information about each dmr_content object from the source system and saves this as additional, internal information related to the document objects in the migration-center database. The Documentum No Content Copy(NCC) Importer is able to process the content related information and restore the references to the content files within the specified filestore(s) upon import. Copying, moving, or linking the folders containing the content files to the new filestore(s) of the target system is all that’s required to restore the connection between the migrated objects and their content files. Please consult the Documentum Content Server Administration Guide for your Content Server version to learn about filestores and their structure in order to understand how the content files are to be moved between source and target systems.

During a Documentum NCC migration the content files are not checked for their availability and/or validity; the migration will be performed with or without the content files being available to the target system. The content files themselves can be migrated after the migration using regular file or storage management tools operating on the content files directly at the file system level, independently of migration-center. The NCC feature does not have an impact on folder and audit trail migration. With the Documentum NCC scanner you can scan folders and audit trails as you would do with the standard Documentum Scanner.

The Documentum specific features supported by Documentum NCC scanner are fully described in the Documentum Scanner section.