Analyzing the manual reconciliation effort by using the reconciliation report

Object reconciliation refers to the process of comparing and synchronizing objects across different versions of . Object reconciliation is essential for ensuring consistency and improving operational efficiency.

To estimate the manual reconciliation effort required post upgrade, analyze the report generated by . This report provides details about objects automatically reconciled during the upgrade and objects that require manual reconciliation. In addition, it gives an overview of the changes made to various objects during the upgrade.

All the objects that do not have conflicting changes, except for form views, are automatically reconciled during the upgrade.

Scenario: Analyzing the reconciliation report

Analyzing the reconciliation report

After performing an upgrade, Jonnie, an administrator at Apex Global wants to know the number of objects that require manual reconciliation so that he can estimate the effort involved.

He obtains the reconciliation report and analyzes the report to understand the manual reconciliation effort. Jonnie then performs manual reconciliation and completes the post upgrade tasks.

Before you begin

Make sure to complete migrating customized and objects by using the Workflow Migration utility. For information about the Workflow Migration utility, see Migrating-customizations-using-Workflow-Migration-Utility.

Obtaining the reconciliation report

The reconciliation report shows a list of objects that need a manual reconciliation. You can obtain the reconciliation report in one of the following ways:

By using the ReconReportUtility utility from the command line. Use this command line utility if you are not using in your BMC Helix SaaS environment.
By using the AR System Upgrade Tracker form through .

To obtain the reconciliation report by using the Autorecon utility

Use the ReconReportUtility utility to generate the reconciliation report if you are a Helix subscriber and have no access to . Although we recommend running this utility after the upgrade, if you need to analyze only the manual reconciliation effort, you can run the utility before the upgrade.

On the BMC Electronic Product Distribution (EPD) site, from Products, select BMC Helix Innovation Suite OnPrem.
Select the latest version.
The following screenshot shows the version.
From the Product tab, select Workflow Migration Utility <version>.
The ReconReportUtility is available with the Workflow Migration Utility.
The following screenshot shows the workflow migration utility:
Click Download.
Download the Windows or Linux file as per your requirement.
Save the workflow Migration utility on your local server that you use for migrating objects and where you have other clients such as installed.
Unzip the file.
The workflow Migration utility creates the following folders. You must store all these files in the same location:
- CDMChecker
- ReconReportUtility
- The utility jar file migratecustomizations-21.30.00-SNAPSHOT.jar.
Open the command prompt.
Change to the directory where the ReconReportUtility is saved.

Run the following utility at the command prompt:

Recon.bat
[-x] [-u] [-p] [-w] [-portnum ] [-olddeffile] [-newDefFile] [-exf]
[-autorecon] [-serverupgraded] [ -reconcilevuis ] [-reportfile] [-reportmode] [-o]

The following table describes the command options, which can be used in any order in the command:

Option	DescripName of the server to connect to.tion
-x	Server name.
-u	Name that identifies the user account for .
-p	Password for the user account.
-w	External authentication string or Microsoft Windows operating system domain.
-portnum	Port number to connect to.
-olddeffile	Path of the old definition file that includes all objects to be analyzed post upgrade.
-newDefFile	Path of the new definition file. Use this option when you run the utility before upgrade.
-exf	List of objects you want exclude from the analysis.
-autorecon	Automatically reconcile non conflicting changes. Valid values: True False
-serverupgraded	Determines if the upgraded or not. Valid values: True (Post upgrade) False (Pre upgrade)
-reconcilevuis	Reconcile Developer Studio form views. Valid values: True (Default) False
-reportfile	Path for the reconciliation report csv file.
-reportmode	Obtain report option: 1: Report differences that need manual reconciliation. 2: Report all differences.
-o	Log file path to store the log file

The reconciliation report is available in the CSV format.

Example of using the Autorecon utility

The following table show examples of generating report before and after upgrade:

Scenario	Example
Generate report before an upgrade by using a new definition file	recon.bat -x servername1 -u user -p password -portnum 0 -newdeffile "C:\NewBase\upgradeddefinitions.def" -autorecon false -serverupgraded false -reconcilevuis false -reportfile "C:\Report Generates a report in a CSV format showing the manual reconciliation effort.
Generate report after an upgrade by using an old definition file	recon.bat -x servername1 -u user -p password -portnum 0 -olddeffile "C:\OldBase\olddefinitions.def" -autorecon true -serverupgraded true -reconcilevuis false -reportfile "C:\Reports\After Automatically reconciles non conflicting changes and generates a report in a CSV format showing the manual reconciliation effort.

To obtain the reconciliation report by using the AR System Upgrade Tracker form

In , open the AR System Upgrade Tracker form.
For example: https://<localhost>/arsys/forms/onbmc-s/AR+System+Upgrade+Tracker/Default+Administrator+View/

The following screenshot shows the AR System Upgrade Tracker form:
Click New Search.
Select Request ID.
From Results, select and download the Manual Recon Report.zip file.
In the File Name field, select the attachment.
Click Save.

To analyze the reconciliation report

Perform the following steps after you download and save the Manual Recon Report.zip file of the previous version to your computer. The Manual Recon Report.zip file contains multiple files.

Unzip the Manual Recon Report.zip file.
From the unzipped files, open the Manual_Recon_List_*.xml file.
Update the definition file (DEF) path to match the local file system path.
Important
The XML file includes the path of the Jenkins environment.
Copy the XML file to the workspace.
Relaunch and switch to the Best Practice Customization mode.
In the AR System Navigator, expand Recon Application.
The following screenshot shows the Objects to Reconcile section:

Click Objects to Reconcile.
A report showing a list of objects that need manual reconciliation is displayed. The following screenshot shows a sample report:

After your analysis is complete, perform a manual object reconciliation of objects.

Where to go from here

Reconciling customized objects by using the Recon application