Testing the upgrade in a duplicated environment

Prior to upgrading your production BMC Decision Support for Server Automation system, the best practice is to first test the upgrade using a copy of the production database in another environment.

To copy the BMC Decision Support for Server Automation infrastructure to a new environment, you need to first back up and then restore Cognos files, other product files, directories, and databases. You would then upgrade the test environment and run some functional tests to test the upgrade.

This topic includes the following sections:

• Step 1: Back up the Cognos files
• Step 2: Back up other files, directories, and databases
• Step 2: Restore the environment
• Step 4: Upgrade the test system
• Step 5: Make any required changes in the production environment
• Step 6: Upgrade the production environment

Step 1: Back up the Cognos files

First, you need to first back up and then restore Cognos files.

Back up various Cognos files as follows:

1. Back up the Cognos configuration file (cogstartup.xml) by entering the following command: BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/bin64/cogconfig[.bat|.sh] -e <backupLocation>/cogstartup.xml.

   NoteThe cogstartup.xml file is not an encrypted file. Therefore, store it in a secure location. This file is re-encrypted when Cognos starts.
2. Back up the following files and directories:

   Location of Files/ Directories	Files/ Directories
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/configuration	Files: caSerial cogconfig.prefs coglocale.xml Cryptographic keys directories: csk encryptkeypair signkeypair
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/shared/ConfigurationManagement	Files: bds.properties generic_configuration.properties
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/templates/ps BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/templates/ps/qs BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/templates/ps/portal	system.xml from all the specified folders
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/webserver/conf	Apache Web Server configuration files: httpd.conf bmcsareports.cert bmcsareports.key
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/webserver/conf/extra	Apache Web Server configuration file: httpd-ssl.conf
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/webserver/htdocs	Apache Web Server configuration file: index.html
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/tomcat/conf	server.xml
   BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal	Directory: deployment  Any reports that are exported in this directory

3. Export the entire Cognos content store from the reports portal by using the export utility available in Content Administration in IBM Cognos Administration.  For instructions, see the "Create an Export Deployment Specification" section in the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Administration and Security Guide at PDFs.
   The exported archive files are stored in the BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/deployment directory. When the report export is complete, ensure that you back up the export file to another known location.
   

   NoteYou can schedule the export activity.

Step 2: Back up other files, directories, and databases

Back up following other files, directories, and databases as follows:

Location of Databases/ Files/ Directories	Databases/ Files/ Databases
Database instance	Databases: Reports data warehouse Portal content store database ETL (ODI) master and ETL (ODI) work databases
BDSSAInstallationDirectory	Directories: bin webserver logs
BDSSAInstallationDirectory/shared	version.properties
BDSSAInstallationDirectory/bsa	Directory:content_installer
Installation location (a location that is specified during installation and commonly referred to as agentLogFilesDirectory)	Directory: Agentlogs
BDSSAInstallationDirectory\shared\odi\bin	File: odiparams.bat (Windows) odiparams.sh (UNIX)

 

Step 2: Restore the environment

Complete the following steps to restore the reports server in a new environment:

1. Restore the following databases that you backed up. If any of these databases crashed, restore them from the latest back up copy, or create new databases as required.
   • Reports data warehouse

     NoteThe database restore must be in sync with the BMC Server Automation database.
   • ETL (ODI) master and ETL (ODI) work databases
2. If the previous Cognos content store database crashed, import the content store from the reports portal by using the import utility available in Content Administration in IBM Cognos Administration. For instructions, see the "Importing to a Target Environment" section in the IBM Cognos Business Intelligence Administration and Security Guide at PDFs. If the previous content store database did not crash, point the reports server to use this database during installation.
3. Install BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation in the new environment using the installation worksheet. While installing, provide details of the restored or new databases.
4. Configure BMC BladeLogic Decision Support for Server Automation.
5. Restore the customized files in the new environment.

Restoring the customized files

If you customized files, for example if you manually edited any portal configuration files, these changes are not be maintained when you move the product. You must reapply those changes. You can replace some of the new files with your original customized files during the restore process, but not all of them. Note the directory path of the customized files so that you can copy them to the correct location or easily locate the new files that you need to customize.You can replace the following files with your customized files from the previous environment:

File	Location
system.xml	BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/templates/ps orBDSSAInstallationDirectory/templates/ps/qs
coglocale.xml	BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/configuration
server.xml	BDSSAInstallationDirectory/portal/tomcat/conf
bmcsareports.cert bmcsareports.key	BDSSAInstallationDirectory/webserver/conf
index.html	BDSSAInstallationDirectory/webserver/htdocs

Step 4: Upgrade the test system

Review the prerequisites for upgrade:

• Preparing-for-upgrade

Follow the steps in the upgrade topic:

• Performing-the-upgrade

Step 5: Make any required changes in the production environment

If the functional tests reveal issues, you may need to make some changes in the production environment prior to upgrading.

For example, you may discover from your testing that you need to make some database remediations, which you could apply at the beginning of the production upgrade outage.

Step 6: Upgrade the production environment

Follow the steps in the Performing-the-upgrade topic.