Compatibility between deployment environments

You can export and then import governance artifacts between IBM Knowledge Catalog instances on the following deployment environments:

• Cloud Pak for Data 3.5
• Cloud Pak for Data 4.x
• Cloud Pak for Data as a Service

The values of Stewards are not compatible between IBM Knowledge Catalog instances Cloud Pak for Data as a Service and Cloud Pak for Data 3.5 or 4.x.

You can import governance artifacts from IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog to IBM Knowledge Catalog instances on Cloud Pak for Data 3.5 and 4.x. To import governance artifacts from IBM InfoSphere Information Governance Catalog to IBM Knowledge Catalog instances on Cloud Pak for Data as a Service, you must edit each CSV file to conform to the format of the IBM Knowledge Catalog artifact CSV files. For example, you might need to make the following types of edits:

• Remove unsupported columns
• Separate different artifact types into multiple CSV files
• Modify supported columns
• Add required columns

Comparison of import methods

Choose the appropriate import method for your goals and circumstances.

Import a single type of artifact

You can import a single type of governance artifact at a time with a CSV file.

This method is useful in the following types of circumstances:

• You want the imported artifacts to be subject to workflow.
• You want to add values for a property to one type of governance artifact. Export that artifact type as a CSV file, edit the CSV file, and then import it. For example, you can use this method to add a custom attribute to your business terms.
• You want to define artifacts in another program. Create CSV files for each artifact type. For example, you can use this method to define artifacts in a spreadsheet program and then import them.

See Importing governance artifacts by type with CSV files and CSV file format for importing governance artifacts.

Import multiple types of artifacts

You can import multiple types of governance artifacts with a ZIP file that you created by exporting multiple types of existing governance artifacts from a IBM Knowledge Catalog instance. The ZIP file contains CSV files for categories and every exported artifact type. The CSV files match the format for the CSV import file, except for:

• The extra Artifact ID column, which contains identifiers for artifacts instead of identifying artifacts by name and category path.
• Related artifacts are defined with artifact IDs instead of context and name.

This method is useful in the following types of circumstances:

• You want to move all governance artifacts from one IBM Knowledge Catalog instance to another.

See Importing multiple types of governance artifacts from an instance with a ZIP file.

The following table summarizes the differences between importing artifacts with CSV files or a ZIP file.

Governance artifacts that you can import

With both import methods, you can import categories and the following types of governance artifacts:

• Business terms
• Classifications
• Data classes
• Governance rules
• Policies
• Reference data sets

Restrictions:

• You can import values for all properties of these types of governance artifacts, including relationships with other artifacts. However, relationships are imported only when the related artifact exists or is defined in the same import process. To add relationships that the import process skipped, first publish all imported draft artifacts and then run the import process again.
• You can't use CSV to move governance artifacts and their relationships between Cloud Pak for Data instances. For example, if you try to export data classes with matching method Match to reference data to CSV, and then import it into another Cloud Pak for Data instance, the import fails, because Artifact ID is not included in CSV imports and exports. Use ZIP import instead.
• When importing a reference data set from a CSV file, the reference data values from that set are not imported. You must use a separate CSV to import the values into the data set. Alternatively, you can use a ZIP import to import both the reference data set and its reference data values. For more information, see Importing files for reference data sets.
• You can't import data protection rules or data location rules.

Methods for merging imported and existing artifacts

Whether you import artifacts with CSV files or a ZIP file, you must choose what happens when you import governance artifacts that already exist and the values of the properties are different. The following table summarizes the three merge methods.

For new artifacts, each of these methods produces the same results.

Security considerations

Governance data exported to CSV files is sanitized against known CSV Injection attacks, to be safe for those spreadsheet programs which automatically interpret CSV data. As a result, any text values which start with one of following characters:

• equals to (=)
• plus (+)
• minus (-)
• at (@)

are prefixed by a single quote character ('). To make the functionality consistent, imported CSV files are additionally parsed to automatically remove the single quote character ('). Sanitizing also applies when importing and exporting governance artifacts to ZIP files, as they contain CSV files.

To disable this functionality:

1. Edit IBM Knowledge Catalog Glossary Service deployment:

   oc edit deployment wkc-glossary-service
   

2. Set the environment variable ESCAPE_FORMULAS_IN_CSV_FILES to value false.

For more information, see CSV Injection.

Learn more

• Importing governance artifacts by type with CSV files
• CSV file format for importing governance artifacts
• Importing all governance artifacts from an instance with a ZIP file

Parent topic: Managing governance artifacts