Migrate Erwin Data to ARIS

Toolbus or creating scripts are the only ways I know of. Toolbus does a good job of migrating data from ERwin.

Yes, TOOLBUS to me is the best practice and a very well recommended interface between ERwin and ARIS, in both directions. I have two three practical customer case experiences myself in applying TOOLBUS.

Two use cases are common, you can upload existing ERwin models into ARIS, just push a button. This is a handy mass load, to have a reference data model in ARIS, or to start data modelling practice in ARIS.  Another usage is to apply the proven data modelling method sice 80'ies or so, to have logical data modelling in ARIS and physical data modelling in ERwin. Equally well, you can have UML class diagrams in ARIS as logical data models, and via TOOLBUS, continue with physical data models in ERwin.

TOOLBUS architecture is great, it relies on the existing xml export-import capabilities in both tools, TOOLBUS having itself the needed transformation intelligence, based on the CDM common data model approach, by the way!

TOOLBUS handles several ARIS modelling alternatives, IE data model, eERM, UML Class diagram, up to you!

Also, round-trip is supported, in ARIS - ERwin - ARIS, the object IDs go round and keep consistency, if needed.

With respect to reverse engineering IE Data Model + ERM attribute details into ARIS:

How is the round-trip supported across Erwin, Reischman Toolbus, ARIS for repeat imports where, for example, data is reimported from physical database to ARIS (via Erwin, Reischman) once a month?

1. Does ARIS overwrite based on the GUID? If not, what is the comparison based on?
2. If so, is the GUID assigned in Erwin?
3. If assigned in Erwin, does this mean one does a new import from physical DB + an export from ARIS into Erwin, run a Complete Compare and then import the differences (or the full updated model?) into ARIS?
4. Will the IE Data model that existed in ARIS prior to the repeat import be completely overwritten? What will happen with additional tables or fields that were in ARIS IE Data Model but that are not in the fresh import from physical new data schema?

I'm not able to consolidate objects based on name only as the various databases use the same table names, fields in certain cases e.g. "location", "item" would be repeated across the hundreds of databases across the organisation.

Thanks in advance for any assistance with this.

Hi Jeandre!

Yes, ARIS enables the round-trip with ERwin via Toolbus. Please, look my replies below.

1. In round-trip ARIS-ERwin-ARIS, the ARIS overwrite is based on the GUID.
2. Always the GUID is assigned in ARIS. In round-trip ARIS-ERwin-ARIS, existing objects keep their GUIDs, so also when they are in ERwin. So, in import back to ARIS, only the new objects will now get their GUIDs.
3. In round-trip ARIS-ERwin-ARIS, you have to add new parts in ERwin into the round-tripped ERwin repository, because the existing GUIDs are there, of course not in any new repository.
4. In round-trip ARIS-ERwin-ARIS, the import back to ARIS will keep the existing parts untouched, only the new parts will be addedin diagrams, and they will get their GUIDs.

Hope this will clarify the functionality.

Best regards, Sakari