Migration of ARIS software to PostgreSQL DBMS

Our company has implemented a project to migrate the ARIS 10 software from Oracle to PostgreSQL DBMS for one of our Customers.

PostgreSQL is a free of charge and open source object-relational database management system. The main benefits of PostgreSQL are its reliability and operation speed. The principles of system development and careful debugging of changes ensure its high stability with a minimal occurrence of errors and risks. The mechanisms and techniques employed for data processing enable the DBMS to handle substantial data volumes at high performance. Besides, a significant advantage of PostgreSQL is the ability to customize it to your company's requirements.

Reliability, performance and adaptability make PostgreSQL quite popular among companies with a large-scale IT infrastructure and specific software requirements used.

Many organizations implementing a process management approach use the ARIS software provided by Software GbmH. In the technical requirements, the vendor declares that the ARIS system can work using third-party Oracle and MS SQL databases. Both DBMSs are distributed on a commercial basis. The vendor does not provide any official information regarding the compatibility of ARIS with other databases, including PostgreSQL.

Migration of ARIS to PostgreSQL DBMS

In this project, our Customer is a large financial company that uses the ARIS software actively. Its ARIS database has 25,800 users, more than 1 million diagrams and more than 10 million objects. The system handles large volumes of data every day. Users create models, make backups, synchronize and restore data, etc.

The first stage of the project was to check the ability of ARIS to work using an external PostgreSQL database. The following tasks were performed:

1. Installing PostgreSQL on the CentOS (Linux OS).
2. Installing ARIS Connect 10 in a standalone configuration on the Windows OS.
3. Configuring ARIS to connect to PostgreSQL: creating necessary databases, users and assigning user privileges, configuring connectors and mechanisms for data exchange with the external PostgreSQL DBMS.
4. Data migration to PostgreSQL: filling the PostgreSQL database with data from ARIS through the export/import mechanisms of both DBMS and ARIS.
5. Testing the stability of ARIS running connected to the external PostgreSQL database.

During the testing, all ARIS components were launched repeatedly. The work with data was checked in detail: viewing and creating diagrams, working with files, setting up user accounts, importing licenses. Batch data processing of average volume was checked: restoring logical ARIS databases, importing a filter and a template. Batch data processing of maximum possible data volume was checked: making backups of tenants and restoring data from them (including large-volume tenants with real data and using all ARIS components).

Each check was performed without any technical failures and was considered successful. Consequently, the first stage of the project established that ARIS can run using an external PostgreSQL database. The list of configuration and administration changes beyond the guidelines provided in the official ARIS manuals was made for consideration at the next stage of the project.

ARIS running connected to PostgreSQL in Customer's configuration

The final goal of the project was to provide running of ARIS using the PostgreSQL database version, modified by the Customer to meet the company's requirements. The ARIS software and the DBMS had to be installed on the Linux OS version, also adapted to the requirements of the Customer's company. The system components were supposed to work in two configurations – standalone and distributed on seven servers.

Based on those requirements, at the second stage of the project, the ability of ARIS to work using the PostgreSQL DBMS in the Customer's configuration was determined (Fig. 1).

Figure 1. The goal configuration of the distributed installation of ARIS components

During that stage, the following tasks were completed:

1. Checking running of the ARIS standalone configuration using the Customer's PostgreSQL DBMS version installed on the Linux OS, and writing down the installation steps in the Installation manual.
2. Checking the ARIS distributed 7-server configuration:
   • Distributed installation and configuration of ARIS Connect 10 on seven machines with Linux server OS in the Customer's configuration.
   • Installing and configuring PostgreSQL DBMS on the Linux OS.
   • Migration of ARIS data to the PostgreSQL DBMS.
   • Initial stability testing of ARIS (on the Linux OS) to work using the external PostgreSQL DBMS (on the Linux OS).
   • Testing the stability of ARIS running and the speed of separate operations.
   • Creating manual for installing the ARIS 7-server configuration (on the Linux OS) connected to the PostgreSQL DBMS (on the Linux OS).

During testing the stability of ARIS and the speed of operations performed, the amount of data in the ARIS database was achieved in accordance with the standards provided by the Customer. Scripts were developed for automation. The stability of the system was also checked, and the performance parameters determined by the Customer were repeatedly tested, with video recording of the results.

During the testing, no technical failures were detected, and the indicators of operation execution time corresponded to the desired values.

Thus, based on the research results, our specialists gave a positive conclusion about the ability of migrating ARIS software from Oracle or MS SQL DBMS to PostgreSQL DBMS. Also, we provided recommendations for the Customer how to use a standalone and distributed ARIS configuration on the Linux OS connected to PostgreSQL DBMS.

Conclusion

The results of the completed project open up opportunities for large companies to migrate the ARIS software to a reliable and productive PostgreSQL DBMS, even if companies have complex configurations. Such a migration will eliminate the cost of licenses and provide flexibility of using an open source DBMS. Our experts can help to migrate the ARIS software to an external PostgreSQL database in a configuration that meets any customers' requirements.

If you have any questions about using ARIS connected to PostgreSQL, please, contact us by the contact form or at info@dainovaro.com and we provide you with more information.