Bi 4.0 Migration Strategy and Best Practices
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BI 4.0 Migration Methodology and Best Practices
Eric Molner
February 3, 2013
Who Is Analytics8?
– Founded in 2002
– Offices in Chicago, Raleigh, Dallas, Sydney, Brisbane, and Melbourne
– 100+ Consultants
– 150+ Customers
– Consulting, Training, Support/ Help Desk, Software Procurement
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What We Do
3
Entire Data Warehousing “Stack”
Entire Lifecycle: From Strategy to Implementation
& Testing
Certified Training and Mentoring
All Levels of Customer
Sophistication
Multiple Approaches from Traditional BI, to Data
Visualization, to Hosted BI
Multiple Approaches
Traditional BI Stack
Data Warehouse / Data Marts
BI Semantic Layer
User Interface, Dashboards, Scorecards, Reports
Integration Layer (ETL)
Hosted BI
Data WarehouseData Marts
OLAP, Query and Reporting Tools
User Interface, Dashboards, Scorecards, Reports
Integration Layer (eTL)
ERPOtherData
• User Interface
• Chart and Report Engine
• Analysis Engine
• Integration
CRM
Data Visualization
ERPOtherData
CRMERPOtherData
CRM
Data Extract
QAQA
Project ManagementProject Management
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Advantages of Working With Us
– Not Just Technicians
– Accelerated Time to Value
– End-to-End Expertise
– Single-Source Solution
– Work with the Leading Business Intelligence Vendors
– Industry-Specific Domain Knowledge
– Structured, but Flexible Project Delivery Methodology
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Our Customers
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Financial Services
Insurance Manufacturing
Retail & CPG
Eric Molner
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– Principal Consultant, based out of Chicago
– Over 8 years of Business Intelligence experience
– Held a variety of roles from lead developer to project manager
– Effectively worked with clients in the financial, retail, healthcare, and transportation industries
– Main areas of concentration:
SAP BusinessObjects Migrations
Deployment, Installation, and Configuration of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise
Data Visualization/Data Discovery
Reporting Best Practices
Business Analysis
Logical database design for reporting
Testing/Data Quality Management
Key Improvements in BI 4.0Integration
• Connect across BI Tools using the same semantic layer• No longer need separate installs for Lifecycle Manager
Performance• 64-bit O/S• Run BI suite with SAP HANA
New Functionality• Explorer/Exploration Views• Visual Intelligence• Information Design Tool• Crystal Reports for Enterprise
Better Administrative Tools• New Monitoring Features
Enhancements• Web Intelligence• Dashboards (a.k.a. Xcelsius)• Crystal Reports 2011
Ease of Use• Common design experience across all BI tools (e.g. Excel vs. PowerPoint)• Common query panel across all reporting tools• Better Data Visuals (e.g. Chart Objects)
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Migration Methodology
• Analysis and recommendations related to organization, process, and technology.BI Assessment
• Review of environment setup, inventory of reporting documents, and review of user activity profile.
Existing Deployment Assessment
• Complete migration roadmap and detailed plans for each phase.Planning
• Buildout of new environments, software installation, and customization.
Installation & Configuration
• Migration of existing content and conversion where necessary (i.e. DeskI).
Migration & Conversion
• Testing and validation of security model, targeted content validation, and performance testing.Testing
• Comprehensive technical and end user training course are available.Training
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BI Assessment Based on a comprehensive analysis of the Current State, the Desired or Target State, and a Transition Plan or Roadmap to move from the former to the latter.
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Information
Requirements
Technology Platforms
Process & Methodology
Organization and Skillsets
Review of known requirements and
level of service
Review of current system and capabilities
Outline of current capabilities and
processes
Assessment of organizational structure and capabilities
Future tactical information
requirements and strategic direction
Required future technology ecosystem
and architecture
Sustainable long term approach to
development and governance
Clearly defined roles and responsibilities
Prioritized BI releases on an incremental delivery schedule
Alignment of technology releases with information and
business requirements
Incremental approach to implement new
processes, methodology and
governance
Resource gap analysis, transition plan and schedule
Current State
TargetState
Transition Plan
Existing Deployment Assessment
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• Utilize tools in migration toolkit to get comprehensive list of SAP Business Objects documents
• Analyze usage data tied to inventory and look for opportunities to eliminate or consolidate content
• Give each document an ultimate disposition (eliminate, archive, consolidate, migrate, etc)
• Ideally, the only content being migrated is that which is regularly used by the business or has another well defined and understood audience and purpose
Following the Staged approach, we recommend taking each business area through the following stages:
Comprehensive Inventory
Overlay Audit Usage Data
Categorize Content
Migrate to 4.0
Analytics8 Migration Toolkit
• Environment details (servers, CPU, memory, OS, etc)• User activity profile (# users, tools used, methods used)
Stakeholder Migration
Questionnaire• Comprehensive environment analysis• Impact Analysis• Data Lineage
System Profiler
• Metadata for non-repository documents• Includes all versions of DeskI and CrystalNetwork Crawler
• Join SAP BusinessObjects metadata with auditor data• Provides insights into document usage and user activity
trends
Auditor plugin for System Profiler
• Identify inconsistencies between CMS and FRSRepository
Diagnostic Tool (RDT)
• Compares report datasets pre- and post-migrationBulk Report Comparison Tool
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Existing SAP Business Objects Deployment Assessment – Analytics8 utilizes a comprehensive set of tools to provide a complete picture of your current environment.
“House Cleaning” Existing Environment
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Elimination- Stale content
- Duplicate reports
Archive- Existing content
- Eliminate redundancy in “user driven” archives/backups
- Put in place ongoing archival process
Consolidate and RefineDistinct Core
Reports
Initial Inventory240,000 Documents
Final Inventory~ 100,000 Documents
~ 80,000 Eliminated
~ 60,000 Archived
Consolidation expectedto net ~4,000
fewer documents
How to Identify Excess or Obsolete Content
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This following can help identify content that may no longer be relevant ‒ Last refresh date
‒ List of reports that were run in the last 12 to 24 months
‒ Last login date of a user
Conducting a S.W.O.T. analysis with the business users can yield a richer result, than analyzing the audit data. By engaging the business, it could result in indentifying redundant efforts, or establish BI initiatives that would immediately following the migration
S = Strengths
W = Weaknesses/Limitations
O = Opportunities
T = Threats
Upgrade Paths
Upgrade from the following sources:
XI 3.x
XI R2 SP2 (or higher)
BIAR file generated from XI R2 SP2 (or higher, except BI 4.0 FP3)
Upgrading from a BusinessObjects version prior to XI R2 SP2 will require to go through a multi-step upgrade path
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BOBJ 5/6 XI 3.1 BI 4.0
Planning
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Consider the following when putting together a project plan:
• What does my current BOBJ environment look like?• What issues (e.g. technical) are we struggling with?Assessment
• When can we start the project?• Are we passed the End of Life (EOL) date on our current
version?
Time and Deadlines
• What internal/external resources do we need to be successful?Resources
• Will the upgrade project impact any current developments?Impact
• Will our administrators and power users be able support the new version? Training
– Build and configure new environment(s)• Servers are now 64 bits only
– Side-by-Side Deployment: Install 4.0 on the same machine(s) as the existing environment• Specify a different cluster name to avoid conflicts• For 4.0 use ports that are not used by the existing
environment
– Set-up and configure database for auditing• Auditor schema is new with 4.0 and is not directly
compatible with prior versions of auditor.• In order to keep historical audit data, a new database
instance will need to be created. Otherwise the existing audit data will be lost.
– Separate installs for client tools, Explorer, & Live Office
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Installation & Configuration
BI 4.0 Migration Prep Checklist
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– If the existing environment is XIR2, confirm it is at least at SP2 level
– Review the Product Availability Matrix (PAM) document to ensure compatibility with other technologies like operating systems, application servers, and web browsers
– License Keys
– Install Files• Includes the latest service packs and fix packs
– Server with 64bit operating system installed• The account used must have Administration privileges
BI 4.0 Migration Prep Checklist Cont…
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– Separate database instance for CMS System and Audit data store• The account used must have privileges to create, modify, and delete tables, and to create stored procedures
• 32-bit and 64-bit database drivers should be installed on the new BI 4.0 server(s) for both the CMS System, Audit, and reporting databases
– Confirm location of NEW File Repository
– Create a back up of the existing system DB and FRS prior to beginning the migration
– Back up custom web applications, HTML pages, and scripts in your existing deployment
BI Platform Component Comparison
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Complexity XI R2 / XI 3.1 BI 4.0
* Audit New audit schema
* InfoView BI Launch Pad
** Dashboard Builder
BI Workspace
N/A Encyclopedia / Discussion
End of Life
N/A Performance Manager
End of Life
* Universe Designer
No Change
* N/A Information Design Tool* Minor Effort ** Medium Effort *** Significant Effort
BI Client Comparison
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Complexity XI R2 / XI 3.1 BI 4.0
* Crystal Reports CR 2011 and CR for Enterprise
*** Desktop Intelligence
End of Life
* Xcelsius 2008 Dashboards
** Explorer No .unv support
*** Voyager Analysis, edition for OLAP
* Web Intelligence
Web Intelligence
* Minor Effort ** Medium Effort *** Significant Effort
Desktop Intelligence Conversion
• OPTION 1: Isolate DeskI reports be either deleted or archived• OPTION 2: Consolidate with an existing WebI report(s)• OPTION 3: Convert DeskI using Report Conversion Tool in XI3.x or in BI 4.0
NOTE: The report conversion tool will provide one of three statuses for each report after it’s been converted: “Fully Converted”, “Partially Converted”, or “Not Converted”.
There is an option to capture details about the conversion in a database.
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BusinessObjects comes with a Report Conversion Tool to convert DeskI over to WebI
Complete vs. Incremental Upgrades
There are two common approaches to a migration:
1. Complete = migrating all BOBJ content at once‒ Takes a shorter period of time compared to a incremental approach‒ Best for smaller, less complex deployments
2. Incremental = migration in batches (i.e. department by department)‒ Takes a longer period of time compared to the complete approach because time is spent to eliminate redundancies, and prioritize order of
migration‒ Best for larger, more complex deployments
NOTE: The Upgrade Management Tool is used for moving content to 4.0. The tool does not copy server or server cluster settings so a manual configuration will have to be done in the 4.0 CMC.
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Testing
– Performance• Does it meet current SLAs?• Can the new environment handle capacity?
– Comparison• Utilize report comparison tool to automate the process of making sure the outputs are the same between environments
– Security Model• Do I have less/to many rights?
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This stage should be conducted in two key areas:
1) After the 4.0 environment is installed and configured:– Ensure proper performance– Understand what impact there is to existing SDK code
2) After the migration and conversion
Bulk Report Comparison Tool
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Key Benefits
– Allows automated comparisons of report datasets pre- and post-migration
– Saves time and money by mechanizing report regression testing
Key Features
– Accesses report datasets through SDK, writes output to CSV and database
– Allows for proof that reports produce exact same content in 3.1 and 4.0:
– Dataset comparison (every column, every row, every data provider)
– Rowcount comparison
BOBJ 3.1 Server
BOBJ 4.0 Server
Reports Reports
DB DB
Automated Testing
Training – SAP Certified Training Partner
– Most of the existing SAP BusinessObjects courses have been updated or are in the process of being updated for 4.0 where applicable
– Special consideration should be given to training in the following areas given the amount of changes made in 4.0• Web Intelligence – Full upgrade with dramatically changed interface
• Information Design Tool – New semantic layer
• Dashboards (formerly Xcelsius) – New connectivity functionality and features including some changes to the interface
• Crystal Reports Enterprise – For customers wishing to abandon Crystal Reports 2011 and move to Enterprise
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Migration Best Practices
‒ “House Cleaning” Existing Environment : Example remove excess and obsolete reports
‒ Conduct S.W.O.T analysis with the business users
‒ Keep the original environment available long enough to compare to the new environment to ensure that the content was migrated successfully
‒ Go through a “practice run” of the migration
‒ Development should NOT be done on any 4.0 environment until the migration is complete
‒ Security = specify the new “owner right” for existing products, and set rights for new products (IDT, LCM, etc)
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Migration Best Practices
‒ Keep existing functionality as part of the migration, and any new functionality not currently implemented or was not available in a previous version will be evaluated after the migration
‒ Have a Test Strategy in place to ensure the migration was a success
‒ Understand what new functionalities are offered in 4.0 to prepare for next steps after the migration
‒ If architecting a clustered environment, make sure each server node works properly
‒ A simple way to conduct a performance test is by creating a publication that schedules the same set of reports in both the old environment and the 4.0 environment. This can be done during different times in a day to gauge performance.
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Questions?
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Eric Molner
Analytics8500 N. Michigan AveSuite 810Chicago, IL 60611
T: 312 878 6600F: 773 326 0749
www.Analytics8.com
Thank you!
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