Concept: Object Transporter
Object Transporter (OX) is a deployment tool that enables you to automate the migration of configuration data from 1 tenant to another. Migrating objects with Object Transporter ensures accuracy and saves time you’d otherwise spend manually reconfiguring objects in the tenants in which you need them. Object Transporter also provides auditing and reporting functionality that isn’t possible with manual configuration. It migrates both top-level objects and any dependencies of top-level objects.
The
Object Transporter Supported Objects (OX)
report details which objects and any related dependencies you can migrate. The report is available in Customer Central and non-Production tenants with access to Customer Central. To help you prepare for migration, you can also view the
Configuration Change Tracker
report to track changes to configuration data in tenants. Object Transporter Migration Use Cases
Object Transporter supports these use cases:
- Single instances of configuration data (single instances).
- Bundled packages of configuration data (configuration packages).
- Bundled packages of security configuration data (security configuration packages).
- Configuration Catalog content.
- Instances of objects containing translated values.
- X.509 private key pairs.
- Configuration extract (.dat) files.
- Advanced configuration packages created fromConfiguration Change Trackerreports.
When to Use Object Transporter
Use the Configuration Extracts tool only when:
- You want to reuse the same configuration multiple times across different environments.
- Your source and target tenants have different Billing IDs.
- You need a copy of a configuration for reloading to your tenant at a later time.
- In all other cases, you can use Object Transporter.
Automated Dependency Management
Object Transporter migrates configuration data for an object and includes any dependent objects that instances of top-level objects use. To ensure a smoother and more successful migration process, Object Transporter provides a pre-check validation to help you identify and correct potential errors before migration. If Object Transporter finds missing prerequisites on the target tenant, it displays a
Pre-Migration Check
page that lists the instances with missing prerequisites for you to resolve. To resolve a prerequisite, sign in to the target tenant and create the missing instance or resolve its Reference ID. You can also map source instances that have no corresponding target instances to other compatible instances on the target tenant, without leaving the migration workflow. Object Transporter reports missing prerequisites for top-level objects and for any their dependencies. While Object Transporter migrates configuration data for an object and its dependent objects, it doesn't migrate transactional or reference data. Example: A custom report definition references a calculated field that in turn references a location. When you migrate the report, you also automatically migrate the calculated field, but not the location. In this example, the
Pre-Migration Check
report flags the location as a missing prerequisite. Source and Target Tenant Differences
Just before migration, Object Transporter displays the differences between your source and target tenants for the instances that you select to migrate. You can also view the differences for the dependencies of these instances.
When viewing dependencies, always click View Attribute Diff to examine the individual attributes that make up each dependent object.
Workday provides a status icon for each instance, dependency, or attribute: Change, Removal, or New. Reviewing the differences enables you to make informed decisions about whether to proceed with the migration.
Configuration Extracts for Migration or Tenant Refreshes
When you need to reuse a configuration package across different tenants, or save a configuration before a tenant refresh, use the
Configuration Extracts
tool. Configuration Extracts
enables you to create extract files from configuration or security configuration packages and then migrate or reload the extracts to refreshed or target tenants.
You can’t load configuration extracts to Production tenants. To move configuration data to Production tenants, you can import the data to an Implementation or Sandbox tenant and then use Object Transporter to migrate the data to the Production tenant.
To view a history of generated extract files, navigate to Customer Central and access the
Extraction
report in the Report
section of the Object Transporter (OX) dashboard.Access to Object Transporter
You can start migration with Object Transporter in the Customer Central tenant or from your source tenant. In the latter case, Workday redirects you to Customer Central to complete the migration.
To use Object Transporter, set up access to it. See Steps: Configure Access to Customer Central and Object Transporter.
Migrating Configuration Changes
You can use
Configuration Change Tracker
to migrate configuration changes by specific users and timeframes. Migrating with Configuration Change Tracker
is an easy and safe way to synchronize configurations between tenants. Because Object Transporter only migrates the instances that you select from a Configuration Change Tracker report and migrates no additional dependent instances after migration starts, it synchronizes only the configurations data that you know about.To migrate from
Configuration Change Tracker
, a Customer Central security administrator must grant you access on the Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling
task by selecting the OX Migration: Full Object Coverage
check box. Enabling and Restricting Migration
Customer Central security administrators can restrict individual users from migrating packages and extracts:
Enable or Restrict | Task to Use |
|---|---|
Configuration package migration. | Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling (Single instance migration still available)
This task replaces the Restrict User Access to Migrate with Object Transporter task. |
Security configuration package migration. | Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling
This task replaces the Maintain Access to Migrate Security Configuration Packages task. |
Configuration extracts creation and migration. | Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling
This task replaces the Maintain Access to Migrate Configuration Extracts task. |
Tenant Compare report creation and modification. | Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling
This task replaces the Maintain Access to Tenant Compare task. |
Migration of Advanced configuration packages from Configuration Change Tracker reports. | Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling
|
Migrations to only the instances to which migrators have access, limiting them to:
| Maintain Access to Customer Central Tooling
|
Postmigration
To view a history of migrated objects and packages, access the
Migration Reports
section of the Object Transporter (OX) dashboard. During migration, on the
Post-Migration Report
page, you can click Run Tenant Compare
to compare instances of implementation types between source and destination tenants. You can save the comparisons as Tenant Compare
reports.