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1.5.2 Migration Pathways

1.5.2 Migration Pathways

Past migrations

Institutions of many types of migrated to Hyku from their existing repository solutions.

A couple common pathways:

  • Islandora → Hyku

  • ContentDM → Hyku

  • DSpace → Hyku

  • Hyku / Hyrax with Fedora4 → Modern Hyku with Valkyrie / PostgreSQL persistence layer

Samvera Connect often features presentation of these migration processes, and lessons learned. Here are a few video presentations on migrations from other repository solutions:

Migration Process Overview

If you’re migrating off of an existing platform, and onto Hyku, the migration will involve a few pieces to consider:

  1. Feature parity (or not): An evaluation of your needs that were met by your previous solution, and how Hyku meets those needs (potentially differently). Hyku has a ton of features, but that doesn’t mean that it operates the same way your current solution does!

    1. It’s an opportunity to ask yourselves, how important is this thing? Should we do things differently?

  2. Metadata configuration: The latest Hyku release offers flexible, admin-configurable metadata setups. However, complex metadata configurations can be an antipattern that leads to lower maintainability without much net benefit to end users.

  3. Data migration: This part can take some time and planning. The best approach to this is always to test. Then test some more. Especially if you have a big repository with lots of data. Get a clear understanding of timelines, and how your planned process scales. Think carefully about your metadata configurations - current AND future.

  4. Styling and layout: Your new solution is going to look different, and probably better. Any styling customizations that are outside the capabilities of the administrative UI should be Knapsacked.

Data

There are three steps to every data migration:

  1. Importer Setup

    • Analysis of source data structure

    • Mapping source metadata to Hyku fields

    • Configuration of import tools and scripts

    • Test imports with sample data

  2. Running and Monitoring Importers

    • Execution of full data imports

    • Real-time monitoring of import progress

    • Error tracking and resolution

    • Performance optimization as needed

  3. QA, Analysis, and Debugging

    • Systematic verification of imported content

    • Data integrity checks

    • Error pattern analysis

    • Resolution of identified issues

    • Documentation of migration outcomes