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Managing PAS Content from Development to Production Environments Version 1.0 Custom Security Company Confidential - For internal use only Overview Content Management is a critical issue when working with ProClarity Analytics Server (PAS). Briefing Books are created to contain one or more views. It is often a requirement to create these books and views in a development environment. The books and views can then be migrated to production. The separation between your development and production books can be either done on a single PAS Server or with two PAS Servers. In a single PAS Server scenario the separation between development and production is done by having multiple briefing books and controlling the security that is set on the books. While this does allow for separation of content it does not physically isolate the development from the production server. So if development content or processes cause the server to hang it affects all content. Due to this risk, it is often necessary to have separate PAS Servers for development and production. The two server scenario will be the focus of this paper. When there is both a development and production PAS server, special consideration should be given to the process of migrating from one environment to the other. In determining the best mechanism for migrating content between the production and development servers you first need to determine whether both servers will be getting content from the same Analysis Services server. It is important to note that when the PAS content in development is built from one cube server and the production PAS content should be pointing to a differentcube server you are required to change the connection information after you migrate. This is due to the fact that your view stores the server and cube that should be used for the connection. This process will be discussed in detail later in this document. If both your development PAS Server and Production PAS Server connect to the same cube server you will not need to change the connection information as the view will have accurate connection information already. PAS supports three primary mechanisms for migrating content from the development server to the production server they are as follows: Re-Publishing the book from Development to Production Backup the PAS database on the development server and restore the database to production Use SQL Server replication to synchronize the content between the development and production servers. This paper will outline each of these items and address the mechanisms for implementing each and the advantages and disadvantages of each of the choices. After each of these options is addressed the paper will then outline the steps to update your connection information. Finally it is possible to store data other than PAS Briefing Books in the PAS repository. While, this is not common, if you have chosen to implement this feature you will have some additional considerations. These additional considerations will be outlined at the end of the paper. Note- It is important to note that you could write a DTS or SSIS package to migrate the contect from the development database to the production database as well. ProClarity does not ship the SQL or Stored Procedures necessary to do this and therefore it is not presented as an option in this paper. With the requisite knowledge of the database it would certainly be a valid option. Re-Publishing the Book The first option for moving content from development to production requires the process of opening the book and republishing it to the production environement. You can use the following steps to perform the migration using PDP or Web Professional. 1. Open ProClarity Desktop Professional or ProClarity Web Professional (Web Professional shown below). From the File Menu item Click Analytics Server and Select Retrieve book. Open the development book that you want to publish to the production server (Note: if the server that is open in the Retrieve Book dialog is not the development server you must change the server using the Change Server button on the far right). Figure 1.1 Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution ii Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution iii 2. Once the book is opened, Click the Analytics Server button drop-down and Select Publish Book As… (This option can also be accessed from the File Menu Item). Figure 1.2 3. From the Publish Book dialog you will need to change the server using the Change Server button. You must have access to the production server to publish to it. Choose or type in the production sever address to change to and Click OK. Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution iv Figure 1.3 4. Click OK on the Publish book dialog to publish the book to the production server. Each of the options for content management has a series of advantages and disadvantages which need to be evaluated before making the appropriate choice for your environment. The re-publish option for migration has the following advantages: Easy to perform. Users that are familiar with publishing books will easily be able to perform this function. Available from the ProClarity tool set. There are no additional requirements from SQL Server so this can be performed without having access to the SQL Server tool set. The re-publish option for migration also has the following disadvantages: The user performing the republish has to have publishing rights on the production server (this is certainly a security advantage but may cause additional configuration overhead). When the book is re-published to the new server is receives a different unique identifier. So consequently security will have to be configured for the book. Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution v Backup and Restore Option With the backup and restore option you are working with the PAS database in SQL Server. This process takes the development copy of the database and performs a SQL Server backup. The database is then restored to the production server. To perform the backup and restore process you can perform the following list of steps: 1. Open SQL Server Enterprise Manager and browse to your Development PAS database. Right-click on the PAS database and choose Backup Database… as shown in Figure 2.1. Figure 2.1 Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution vi 2. From the SQL Server Backup dialog box you’ll need to provide a name for the backup and a location (file) to backup to. You can Click Add… to type in a new file name here or search for a file that already exists, as shown in Figure 2.2. The othe properties could be applicable depending on your backup strategy. You should refer to the SQL Server Books Online to gain more information on each of the available settings. Click Ok to begin the backup. Figure 2.2 Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution vii 3. Next you’ll need to restore the PAS development database to the Production PAS server. With Enterprise Manager still open browse the Production server, Right-Click on the PAS database (the default name for the PAS database is ProClarity_PAS), and this time Click All-tasks and Select Restore Database… Figure 2.3 4. From this dialog you will need to choose the From Device radial button and click on Select Devices... to browse to the file to use for your restore procedure. On the Select Devices dialog, click the Add Device button to type in or browse to the file that you just created using the backup procedure. Click OK until the backup begins. Note -In many cases the development and production servers have different setup configurations. It may be necessary to use additional Restore options to ensure the files restore properly. A common example of this is the file locations. SQL Server will try to restore the .MDF and .LDF files to the same path in the operating system that they were backed up from. You may need to modify the file locations to ensure they are restored to the operating system path you want. For more details about each of the restore options you can refer to the SQL Server Books Online. Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution viii The backup process can be automated using the SQL Server Agent. Preferrably this would be done at set times throughout the day or week to bypass the need to come in and perform this process at every publishing change. The backup and restore option has several advantages and these are listed as follows: This will migrate all of the books rather than one at a time. The unique identifiers are the same and therefore security may not need to be reconfigured. Backups are probably part of a normal strategy that is in place within the company and therefore it should be easy to work with. In most cases organizations have a DBA or several that are very familiar with the process already. The backup and restore option also comes with the following disadvantages This process, as presented here, is an all or nothing process. To get just changes you will need to configure both full backups and manage transaction log backups. This does require the SQL Server DBA involvement. The SQL Server tools are needed. (this may not be a disadvantage but it may be for organizations where the SQL Server DBAs are not real familiar with the ProClarity products.) Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution ix SQL Server Replication The final option for managing content is to use SQL Server Replication. Through SQL Server replication you can configure a relationship between the two databases so that content is automatically transferred from one database to the other. In this case, the development database is synchronized with production as changes are made. While there are a series of replication types available we strongly urge you to consider transactional replication. There are actually three types of replication available in SQL Server; Snapshot, Transactional, and Merge. Snapshot replication takes all the data and snapshots them to the other server. Transactional replication looks for modifications in the transaction log of one server and replicates those modifications to the other server. Merge replication, while it works, makes a series of modifications to the schema of the database and this could cause a problem with later versions of the ProClarity products. Transactional replication is change only and performs the least amount of intrusiveness to the ProClarity Database. For these reasons it is generally better to choose Transactional replication. The configuration of SQL Server replication is a little more involved than performing a backup of the database. We suggest your refer to the SQL Server Books Online or other resources you have on SQL Server to perform this configuration. We also suggest you consult with your database administrators to determine the best way to implement a replication strategy. Replication has the following advantages: The replication process is fully automated and you can easily schedule the interval at which changes are synchronized. Transactional replication is change only so the process is fast and only moves the records that need to be moved. The unique identifiers are not changed between the servers and therefore security may not need to be reconfigured. Replication also has the following disadvantages It is much more involved in SQL Server and therefore requires more database administration and design up front. Replication is not accessible from the ProClarity tool set 1. Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution x Changing Connection Information We discussed the need to change the PAS content’s connection information if the production content needs to point to a different cube server than the development content. If this is your scenario you will need to perform the following steps regardless of which of the three mechanisms you have chosen to migrate the content. The view stores the connection information and if the view needs to point to a different server and or cube you will need to change the connection information. Perform the following steps in the ProClarity Analystics Server Administration Tool to change the connection information after you have migrated your PAS content. 1. Open the Analytics Server Administration Tool and browse the production server to the library for which you want to change the connection information. (Note: the same procedure can be followed to change connection information at the book level; however, changing connection information at the library level will propagate the change to all books in the library.) Right-click the library in the right view pane and Select Update Connection Information… as shown below. The Update Library Connection Information window will appear. Figure 4.1 Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution xi 2. From the Update Library Connection Information window you can modify the connection information by using the search and replace mechanism. Most searches use the server name, the catalog (cube database) and the cube name. The drop-down boxes are pre-filled; however, you may need to type in your connection information when it’s not available. In the Find Pages With column choose or type the development server name in the server name drop-down, the development cube database name in the catalog drop-down and the cube name in the cube drop-down. Then on the Replace Value With column choose or type the production server name in the server name drop-down, the production cube database name in the catalog drop-down and the production cube name in the cube drop-down. Then click Apply and OK to apply the changes and close the dialog. Figure 4.2 Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution xii Managing PASUploads Non-briefing book files and software components that are published to the Analytics server are not stored in the PAS database. These files are stored in the virtual direction called PASUploads that is created during PAS installation. By default the virtual direction is installed to <C>:\Inetpub\wwwroot\PAS\PASUploads. PAS stores a pointer to these files in the briefing book which contains them. If the briefing book is moved the pointer needs to remain valid. You must make the PASUploads path the same on the development PAS server as the Production PAS server in order to avoid an invalid path to the non-briefing book page. (Note: Information on creating and Managing PAS virtual directories can be found in the Analytics Server Administrator’s Guide.) Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution xiii Summary There are three mechanisms to manage your content from development to production. You can republish the book, backup and restore the database, or use SQL Server replication. Each of these options and advantages and disadvantages and you will need to discuss as an organization the option that best fits your environment. In addition to the content management connection information may be an issue. For those of you that have your development books connecting to a different cube server than your production books you will have to change the connection information as well. Parameterized Dimension Security - Virtual Cube Solution ProClarity Confidential – Not for public distribution xiv