This chapter covers the promotion of metadata objects between environments. Various methods exist for getting new or changed metadata from one repository into another repository. It is of course possible and in fact desirable to have multiple metadata repositories. At the very least we would normally have a development and a production environment. In some situations, it may also be desirable to have multiple child development repositories with one master repository where all elements are brought together. WhereScape RED supports this type of structure but does not include source control or co-ordination of the repositories. It is up to the data warehouse manager to manually ensure that the various objects are kept in sync and coordinated. As with any software system there are issues around how code is moved from a development environment into a testing or production environment. This promotion of objects can be achieved via a number of different methods. Each is discussed below. In summary, they are:
- Updating a repository with an application or application patch.
- Importing objects from another repository.
- Restoring a full metadata set into a repository. Refer to Backing Up and Restoring Metadata for details.