Ok, so we didn’t create a Dev environment when we moved to XIr3.1 as we have sandbox areas in Prod for report development and we avoid SP’s and FP’s if we don’t actually need to apply.
However, with BI4 fast approaching and we may want to jump from FP1.7 to a current SP to unlock some Webi functionality, I want to get a test system up and running mirrored on our Prod environment.
What is the best way to achieve this? (I’m not infrastructure, so be gentle with me!)
We have a dedicated hardware box for BOXI, which has Prod and Dev virtual machines already set up.
Is it really just a case of doing a basic BOXI install on the dev instance and then use the migration wizard to copy Prod to Dev, or am I missing something?
Sounds good to me, just make sure both VMs are patched to the same install level.
Also if you have any customisations, amended config e.t.c. you should consider those.
Also, you will probably need to build a Dev security structure.
You could, although peoples security set up usually varies between the Dev and Prod set ups, sometimes, due to licensing, although the folder structure is the same.
We just have AD for Infoview access and a number of named user client users. I think I’ll just copy the security and then remove all the AD access and set up an Enterprise account or 2 for testing.
I don’t want to make this a proper dev environment, we’re happy with what we are doing currently, but I do want an environment I can test patches, etc on to check they aren’t catastrophic. So dev is not really the right term, but anyway… :?
Incidentally are people’s experiecnes with FP’s and SP’s fairly good as long as not an early adopter? I know the couple of FP’s we have done we jumped right in with both feet on Prod out of hours, and apart from a long wait on the server, it seemed fine.
I would do this with just a couple of test accounts first, to check it works as you expect.
Service packs are regression tested, to a degree, so, are often more reliable than FPs.
Ok, thats great, I guess our infrastructure guys would probably take a snapshot prior to any update anyway so we can revert in the case of any nasties.
Can we just go for the lastest (or near to it) SP, or do we have to do incremental installs? I’m assuming SP3 contains everything up to that point from SP2, etc
Just a bit of advice, regarding the users, I’m sure I remember people have had issues migrating security, between servers, with AD intact, thats why I would test with one group.
Service Packs are all inclusive. SP2 is a lengthy install, I remember there used to be a microsoft, server side, patch you had to install first. Although, I’m unsure whether this is still the case.
(BOB member since 2003-03-19)
(BOB member since 2005-01-06)
