METHOD FOR PRESERVING CHANGES MADE DURING A MIGRAITON OF A SYSTEM'S CONFIGURATION TO A SECOND CONFIGURATION

Techniques for reconfiguring systems that are configured by modifying configuration tables in a database. Reconfiguration begins by making a copy of the production version to obtain the development version and a snapshot showing the current state of the configuration tables in the production version is made. The development version is then reconfigured and tested. Before the development version's configuration is migrated to the production version, the production version's configuration tables are compared with the snapshot to see whether the state of the production version's configuration tables has changed. If has not, the migration takes place; if it has, the production version's configuration tables have changed since the snapshot was made. In this case, a new development copy and snapshot must be made and the reconfiguration done over or if the user desires, a forced migration may be made by overwriting the production version's configuration tables with those of the development version.