Author: MikeD Business_Intelligence@hotmail.com
Author notes: The project plan covers most of the basics in setting up an XI installation with 1 active primary node and 1 passive secondary node.
Thread: Project Plan for Upgrading BO 6.5 to BO XI
Version: 0.1 for Windows 2003.
Additional: I did not have enough servers to migrate so had to share 6.5 and XI on the passive secondary node as a fallback contngency - and also for the Zabo users.
The zip includes:
BOEXI_Migration_Plan
Supervisor_Function_Settings.xls.
BOXI_Security.xls The spreadsheets come in handy when comparing the security rights changes.
One should take great care in using the Import Tool multiple times - security rights can get altered and make folders and users unusable!
I often found it easier to delete and restart instead of trying to re-import certain groups etc
We also flattened our 6.5 Security structure!
Note that you can always move and change things once everything has been migrated, so use a simple migration strategy at first and then alter and move things into new folders etc only once everything is working!
Take a BIAR copy of the system before making any major changes.
There is a tool called secviewer that’s hidden in the s/w pack - it’s a gui security tool - locate it and use it - it comes in handy when trying to understand the security aspects of each group!
Security works on a 2 principle scenario - the Object and the Folder - keep this in mind when trying to delete a universe and not understanding why you cannot as the rights for that universe allow this - check the Folder as well!!
The inherited default rights do not allow much - think in terms of groups viewing reports and groups with refresh rights - i.e. the 2 primary allowances - this makes sense when considering that XI is geared towards report INSTANCES (pre refreshed versions / history gives you previous refreshed instances). BOEXI Migration Plan.zip (182.0 KB)
I used the spreadsheets to help get organisations to understand the differences in the security and to help define custom settings.
I.e. in BO 65 you can create predefined security settings for use to avoid having to set individual function features whereas XIr2 this is not possible.
The CMC is a tad cumbersome when it comes to creating the correct settings so I used the spreadsheets to create and match specific security settings between 65 and XIr2 - i.e. it takes some trial and error to determine the right combinations to match back to 65.
Understand that XIr2 is based on the REPORT INSTANCE method i.e. they have opted for using a premise that you now have the ability to store each refreshed report instance so should be granting basic users the rights to just open and view these to help reduce system and rdbms processing.
Another level up is refresh and schedule - but we found that the default security profiles in XIr2 is not condusive to the functions our users require i.e. typically refresh and not save.
This had us having to use the ADVANCED function to override the provided security levels and this is where I used the spreadsheets i.e. by matching certain 65 groups of settings with those combinations we found that most matched what we set in XIr2.
I.e. once you have a correct comination of settings for a groups across all the different components (Webi, Deski, InfoView etc) for a specific security acces group it’s easier of you just mark them in the spreadsheets to define the same for another group.
Else you’re constantly opening the previous groups settings to see how you set it so as to use the same for the next group.
AN easier way around this is to use secViewer AND the CMC i.e. once you have one group set right - open it in the CMC so you have the settings in front of you - then apply that to the next group that you are busy setting up.
Note: In XI3 you can yet again create setting profiles for your company.
Hope the above makes sense - feel free to contact me if you have any further questions.
Hi MikeD.
Would you please post the Version history of BOE? With the different naming conventions. I do not want to get confused (ie… BOE 3.1 is also XI 11) I think… see?
There is no XI 11, The correct naming is SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3.x, the x donates the ServicePack (SP). The most current version is XI R3.2
If you look at the installation folders on your SAP BOE server you will see a reference to version 12.x, but this is only internal naming.
This project plan is related to the initial release of XI r2.
I posted another updated version for XI 3.x (Titan)
As per Andreas - the 11 and 12 naming convention is server based i.e. install folder names and registry entries so as to retain multiple installed versions within the same parent directory.
We are in the process of migrating from BOXIR2 to BOXIR3.
The overall idea would be to run something on current QA and running something similar on the BOXIR3 and match results based on the criteria that has to be idetified.
So we are in search of various criterias to test the Universes,Deski Reports ,Webintelligence,Crystal Reports.
Kindly let me know if anything of this sort is readily available with any one.
There is no easy way around this, but we experienced minimal Universe and DESKI impacts - the major testing will be around Security and WEBI as this was where the major changes occurred.
And yes, create test cases to compare both environments output - and depending on the XI 3.x SPx FPx veruion you wil test on, make sure to check the later SP and FP readme’s to see if there were any bug fixes related to your solutions.
I ran both systems in parallel for a while - more so as we have a daily ODS that has no easily available history and we have scheduling - this way we had the capability to fix and re-migrate scheduled reports that had formula issues.
But yeah, it was a case by case comparison in most instances.
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