best practices for upgrading to ibm cognos...
TRANSCRIPT
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Best Practices for Upgrading to IBM Cognos 10 BBI-1894A
Mike Armstrong, Senior Product Manager IBM Canada
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Why Upgrade? • IBM Cognos 10 is no longer a *new* release
o In market since October, 2010
• Your business is demanding new feature and functionality o IBM Cognos 10 can deliver on these requirements
• The current BI environment is becoming dated o Conformance with other components of your solution
• O/S versions
• RDBMS versions
• Browser support
• etc…
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What’s Holding You Back? • It’s Complicated!
o Upgrading impacts 100’s to 100’s of thousands of users o BI environments are a reliant upon a complex IT ecosystem
• Users won’t tolerate disruption o Failure is not an option
• The last upgrade was PAINFUL!
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The Great Escape? • So how do you…
• Meet the needs of the business
• Keep your job J
• Come out looking like a super-hero?
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The Standard Upgrade Workflow
7 http://pic.dhe.ibm.com/infocenter/cbi/v10r2m0/topic/com.ibm.swg.ba.cognos.inst_cr_winux.10.2.0.doc/c_upgrade_upgradeprocess.html?path=0_12_5_0#upgrade_UpgradeProcess
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Valuable Resources Before You Begin
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• Upgrade page in the Customer Center http://www-01.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/customercenter/upgrade.html
o Links to many resources • Proven practices area on
developerWorks http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/analytics/practices.html
o Upgrade information o Upgrade case studies
• Lifecycle Manager o For content Validation o V10.2 Part #CI9KBEN
• Multi-Version Coexistence o For content continuity http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21459041
Must Visit!
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Cognos 10 Upgrade Supported Path
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C O G N O S
C O G N O S C O G N O S
Upgrade first, then leverage new features…
Use Lifecycle Manager to
validate results Cognos 8 and
Cognos 10
Accept desired results
Move business users
into Cognos 10
Use Lifecycle Manager to
validate results to leverage new
features
Accept desired results
Promote reports to production
Leverage Cognos 10 New Features (e.g. Dynamic Query, etc)
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Upgrade Approaches
Upgrade all your content at once • The fastest and easiest upgrade
strategy • Move all content to Cognos 10
quickly and efficiently: o Beta results show 99% success
• Continued improvements in upgrade process
• Part of the quality plan for all releases
Upgrade in a staged approach • Assess your applications and
user requirements: o If some users or applications
cannot upgrade to Cognos 10 while others need to leverage new capabilities from Cognos 10
o If a new LOB has specific requirements for Cognos 10 while the rest of the organization needs to stay on Cognos 8
• Use the multi-version coexistence feature to upgrade part of your applications or users to Cognos 10
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Before You Start
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Ensure you have dedicated resources
Ensure you have commitment
Get Buy-in!
Clean house! Remove unused content
Perform consistency check before and after upgrade http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?uid=swg21474185
Prepare
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Content Store • Whenever possible a full content store upgrade is recommended
o Perform RDBMS backup and restore to new content store o Start new Content Manager service to update the content store
schema o Use Content Administration tasks to update content – not content
upgrade during startup
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Ensure “Upgrade report specifications?”
is not selected during startup of the Cognos Service
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Cognos Configuration (cogstartup.xml) • Recommend that Cognos Configuration settings are exported and
imported o Reduces risk of human errors
• Must modify/verify the following settings: o Content Store details o Audit Database details o Hostname for Content Manager and Dispatcher services o Port numbers -- must be different if running on same server o Authentication Provider details o Java Runtime Environment (JRE) details
• Test the following from within Cognos Configuration: o Content Store connection o Audit Database connection
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Customizations • Most organizations customize the appearance and functionality of
their environment via: o The style management utility o Manual modification of custom style sheets (.css files) o Modification of the system.xml
• It is important to know what has changed and needs to be applied in the upgraded environment
• The presentation service will automatically attempt to upgrade at service start or you can upgrade manually o Failed upgrades of system.xml are logged in cogserver.log o If automatic upgrade fails run system_upgrade (.bat or .sh)
• See “Customization” in “Administration and Security Guide” http://publib.boulder.ibm.com/infocenter/cbi/v10r1m0/topic/com.ibm.swg.im.cognos.ug_cra.10.1.0.doc/ug_cra.html
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Upgrade Tip: Recording customizations made and files modified will simplify future upgrades. Modify your Upgrade Plan now for next time.
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New Features, Changes, and Release Notes • Generally new features do not impact upgrades • Always a good idea to be aware of what they are and how they might
impact you. • Consider the following:
o Dynamic Query and new Query Service o Dynamic Cubes o Go! Search and content indices o Multi-Tenant features o Architectural changes and new services
• Always review the Release Notes o Fix lists – are your issues fixed? o Known APAR’s
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Validate Your Efforts • Your plan must include success
metrics • Consider the following dimensions:
o Content coverage o Acceptable % difference o Public vs. Private content o Last used? Last Run? o User expectations/requirements o Performance – Overall and/or per report
• Once you have identified your metrics, how will you measure them? o Lifecycle Manager o IBM Acceptance Testing Tool
http://download.boulder.ibm.com/ibmdl/pub/software/data/cognos/DiagnosticToolsAndUtilities/flyers/AcceptanceTestingTool.pdf
o Report Spec Validation https://www-304.ibm.com/support/docview.wss?rs=0&uid=swg24021205
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Lifecycle Manager • Lifecycle Manager:
o Benchmark a single environment o Validates content between two
environments
• Compare large numbers of reports: o Different formats (PDF, HTML, XML,
CSV, Microsoft® Excel 2002/2007 and Microsoft Excel 2000 Single Sheet format)
o All supported languages
• More than just upgrades o Verify impact on the environment after
an external change or tuning operation o Validate after model changes o Perform periodic comparisons to ensure stability
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Case Study • About Daptiv
o Over 15 years experience providing Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) PPM solutions
o Global company with offices in North America, Europe and Asia
o Recognized as an industry leader by Gartner, Forrester, and IDC
o Over 500 customers and 80,000 subscribers
• About the Daptiv environment o Single, multi-tenant, content store with over 30,000 reports o One package per customer – estimated 30% in private content o Application on Cognos 8.2 o Distributed Windows environment with MS SQL backend
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• Upgrade was deferred, postponed o Effort was perceived as too great o Multi-tenant added additional complexity o More important things to do!
• Small engineering team – limited development resources o Business value of upgrade not seen as providing sufficient ROI o Browser compatibility (Mainly Firefox – Chrome growing)
• Pressure to move off v8.2 due to end of service
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à Background
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• In depth analysis of existing 8.2 environment o Cleansed the content store o CMTools
• SDK validation of non-prompted reports o Caution not to overload system
• Lifecycle Manager for data difference o Used a smaller sample – time constraints, common content o Results matched SDK validation which increased confidence o Inclusive prompts value selection – slowed validation, increased
confidence • Big-bang vs. incremental upgrade
o Decision to go with big bang upgrade
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à Preparation
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• Originally planning v8.2 à v10.1.1
• With launch of v10.2 in September decided to try v8.2 à v10.2 o No significant difference between 10.1.1 and 10.2 o Go direct to 10.2
• Repeated in-house testing and validation with Lifecycle Manager o Used thorough testing of a ‘sampling of content’
• Beta performed internally with Daptiv internal application
• Fully live on IBM Cognos v10.2 in November, 2012
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à Execution
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Remember…
Review the many available resources
Assess your current environment
Make a detailed plan
Before you
begin: Execute on your plan
Review and adjust plan as you go
Document and save for next time
Execute on your
plan Create a testing strategy
Validate and verify as you go
Ensure user satisfaction
Validate your work
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Thank-you!
• There is no Easy button for upgrade • Planning and preparation bring success • You can be the Hero!
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Acknowledgements and Disclaimers:
Availability. References in this presentation to IBM products, programs, or services do not imply that they will be available in all countries in which IBM operates.
The workshops, sessions and materials have been prepared by IBM or the session speakers and reflect their own views. They are provided for informational purposes only, and are neither intended to, nor shall have the effect of being, legal or other guidance or advice to any participant. While efforts were made to verify the completeness and accuracy of the information contained in this presentation, it is provided AS-IS without warranty of any kind, express or implied. IBM shall not be responsible for any damages arising out of the use of, or otherwise related to, this presentation or any other materials. Nothing contained in this presentation is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, creating any warranties or representations from IBM or its suppliers or licensors, or altering the terms and conditions of the applicable license agreement governing the use of IBM software.
All customer examples described are presented as illustrations of how those customers have used IBM products and the results they may have achieved. Actual environmental costs and performance characteristics may vary by customer. Nothing contained in these materials is intended to, nor shall have the effect of, stating or implying that any activities undertaken by you will result in any specific sales, revenue growth or other results.
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Acknowledgements and Disclaimers Continued: © Copyright IBM Corporation 2012. All rights reserved.
– U.S. Government Users Restricted Rights - Use, duplication or disclosure restricted by GSA ADP Schedule Contract with IBM Corp.
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Communities • On-line communities, User Groups, Technical Forums, Blogs,
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• Business Analytics bit.ly/AnalyticsCommunity
• Information Management bit.ly/InfoMgmtCommunity
• Enterprise Content Management bit.ly/ECMCommunity
• IBM Champions o Recognizing individuals who have made the most outstanding
contributions to Business Analytics, Information Management, and Enterprise Content Management communities
• ibm.com/champion
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