Robust Transform Engine vs Transform Maps

[rahulyamgar]

Hello Friends,

        We developed few transform maps to map data from staging table to the target CMDB tables and at that time we were in Madrid version. Now we have upgraded to the Orlando version which introduced the functionality of Robust Transform Engine. 

        The documentation, could not help much to me and demo data is also not available. I would like to understand from someone the steps or concepts around Robust Transform Engine. Below is my understanding:

1. Create a data source and load the data in staging table.

2. Configure the Robust Transformer along with the Transform/ETL definition.

3. Under ETL definition define the Entities. Defined entities should include the import set table and target table at minimum. Need to manually mention the Entity Fields though table selected already exist.

4. Once Entities are defined, map the entity fields with target table.

Also, has someone used this RTE/ETL in production instance ? Should i consider migrating my existing transform maps to the RTE/ETL ? Does it provide enough value or performance benefits.

Thanks,

Rahul

[bernyalvarado · Accepted solution]

Hi @rahulyamgar , I'll strongly advice you go by the rule of: "Don't touch it if it's not broken. :)". In other words, start using the Robust Transform Engine for the new transformations you need to create or if there's one transformation that requires a lot of changes and may be better of with the Robust Transform Engine.

Thanks,

Berny

[bernyalvarado]

I should have mentioned, the primary criteria suggested by ServiceNow of when to use RTE / ETL vs transform maps is when you want to extract, transform and data to one or more target tables. For those situations RTE / ETL is recommended. 

Thanks,

Berny

[bernyalvarado]

One additional resource... my friend Göran did an incredible walk through RTE / ETL earlier this year. You should go through it. I'm sure you will find it helpful:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i4KREDLeyE

Thanks,

Berny

[Ankur Bawiskar]

@rahulyamgar 

There is not much documentation on that Orlando feature. Robust transform map are better as compared to transform maps as per the docs.

There is this demo available though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_i4KREDLeyE

Since your transform maps are already present as part of previous versions; as per my understanding moving now to Robust would require more amount of development efforts and testing involved.

Possibly going forward you can try and explore on that latest feature.

Regards
Ankur