Running the migration tool

The migration tool migrates the reports to BMC Helix Dashboards in the same folder structure as in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting. If a folder does not exist in BMC Helix Dashboards, the migration tool automatically creates the folder. For example, if a report resides in the BMC Remedy Operational Reporting folder in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting , the tool migrates it into the same folder in the BMC Helix Dashboards. We recommend that you validate the migrated reports after the migration is complete and make sure that they were migrated successfully.

The following report types can be migrated by using the migration tool:

• Auto
• Bar charts:
  • Cylinder
  • Histogram
  • Horizontal Bar
  • Horizontal Bar 3D
  • Horizontal Cylinder
  • Layered Bar
  • Layered Horizontal Bar
  • Proportional Bar
  • Stacked Horizontal Bar
  • Stacked Vertical Bar
  • Stacked Vertical Bar 3D
  • Vertical Bar
  • Vertical Bar 3D
• Numeric
• Value
• Pie charts:
  • Multi Pie
  • Pie
  • Pie 3D
  • Ring
• Tabular

To manually copy the reports that cannot be migrated by using the migration tool, see Copying-reports-and-dashboards-from-BMC-Helix-ITSM-Smart-Reporting-to-BMC-Helix-Dashboards.

Before starting migration, you must understand the end-to-end process for migrating the reports:

Before you begin

Make sure that the following prerequisites are met: 

• Assess the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting environment. For more information, see Assessing-the-BMC-Helix-ITSM-Smart-Reporting-environment.
• Identify the reports that you want to migrate. You can run the SQL queries to determine the reports that you want to migrate. For more information, see Assessing-the-BMC-Helix-ITSM-Smart-Reporting-environment.
• Apply the following hotfixes based on your Smart Reporting version:
  • If you are using the Smart Reporting 21.3 version, apply 21.3.03 HF5.
  • If you are using the Smart Reporting 21.05 version , apply 21.05.03 HF8.
• You should update your Yellowfin license to the latest version if you have Smart Reporting 20.02 or 20.08 versions.
• In the AR system server, create a user with a floating or fixed license type. This user should also have access to all the reports in Smart Reporting. Assign the following roles and permissions to the user in Smart Reporting:

  • Add Web Service Permission to a role and assign the role to the newly-created user. For information about creating and assigning roles and permissions, see Managing Smart Reporting user roles.

  • Add super user permission to the role that is assigned to the newly-created user. For more information, see Granting Content Super User permission to access and manage all content. The super user permission helps you to migrate the private reports or reports residing in a secured folder. You must add the required permissions for those reports after migrating to BMC Helix Dashboards. For more information about adding permissions, see Adding dashboard permissions.
    After assigning the super user permission, the newly-created user will be able to migrate private reports and reports from the secured folders.

  • Add the newly-created user to the default client organization. For more information, see Defining a Smart Reporting administrator for the default client organization.

  • Set password for the newly-created Smart Reporting user.

    Click here to set password

    • Log in to the BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting console as the siadmin user by entering the following URL in a browser:
      http://SmartReportingWebServerName:portNumber/SmartReporting
    • Select the Default Client Organization and click Login. 
      This option is displayed when the siadmin user has access to multiple client organizations.
    • Select Administration > AdminConsole and expand the Users section.
    • Select System Administrator > Edit.
    • In the Password field, enter and confirm the password and click Update.
    • Click Save.

  • Change the password for the newly-created user.
    For more information, see Changing the Smart Reporting super admin password after installation.

• The BMC Helix Dashboards tenant is updated to version 22.2 or later. 
• OpenJDK 11 is installed on the system where you want to run the migration tool.
• JAVA_HOME path is set where you want to run the migration tool.
• We recommend using the Google Chrome browser. With this browser, the tool can migrate the report that includes a SQL query containing more than 4000 characters. The tool uses Selenium and Google Chrome to fetch the report query from BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting UI because such large queries are not stored in the repository database.
• Make sure that the Home page opens after you log in to BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting with a user configured in the cliconfig.properties file. If a different screen such as password change opens, change the password and log in to BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting again.
• (For SSL-enabled environments) Import custom certificates from BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting and BMC Helix Dashboards:
  • Export all the configured certificates by using your browser in the base-64 encoded X.509 format.
  • Run the following command to create a truststore file:
    keytool -import -file <certficate_file_name> -alias <alias_name> -keystore truststore
    Example: keytool -import -file C:\cascerts\SRRoot.cert -alias srroot -keystore truststore
  • Run the same command for all other certificates by changing the certficate_file_name and alias_name.
  • Copy this truststore file to the same folder where the tool is extracted.
  • Add the additional truststore password parameter in the file or generate it by using CLI.

To download and extract the migration tool

1. Log in to BMC Support Central and access the Knowledge article 000398185.

2. Download the migration tool BMC_Helix_ITSM_Smart_Reporting_to_BHD_Conversion_Tool from the Attachments section of the knowledge article, and extract to a new folder.

To retrieve the list of reports for migration

If your organization has a large number of reports to be migrated, you can retrieve the list of reports in a CSV file. The report list can be retrieved either for the tabular report type or for all report types in your account. The following information is captured in the CSV file:

• Report Name
• Report ID
• Folder Name
• Subfolder Name
• Last Modified By
• Report Type
• Last Modified Date

To retrieve the list of the tabular reports

Run the following command to retrieve the list of the tabular reports in your account:

To retrieve the list of all reports

Run the following command to retrieve the list of all reports in your account:

To run the migration tool

1. After the migration tool is downloaded and extracted, specify the parameters of BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reportingand BMC Helix Dashboards in the cliconfig.properties file from the extracted folder.
   
   

   Specify the parameters in the cliconfig.properties file

   Parameter	Description
   srurl	Smart Reporting URL from where the reports will be migrated.
   reportuser	Report user name.
   reportpassword	Report user password.
   clientorg	Default client organization of the server user. If you have multi-tenant configured in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting, ensure to perform the following actions: Enter the clientorg name as it appears in the Smart Reporting system.  The clientorg name is case-sensitive. The clientorg name may contain a single backslash followed by any one of the following characters - f, n, r, t. Alternatively, the backslashes should be included in pairs only. The client org name may contain single or double quotes but should not be combined with any backslashes. In the clientorg name, do not enter tab spaces.
   bhd_url	BMC Helix Dashboards URL where the reports should be migrated. For example, https://helixdashboards.bmc.com/dashboards/.
   bhd_user	User name of the BMC Helix Dashboards administrator.
   bhd_password	BMC Helix Dashboards administrator's password.
   bhd_accesskey	BMC Helix Dashboards access key. You can obtain the access key from BMC Helix Portal. For more information, see Setting up access keys for programmatic access.
   bhd_secretkey	BMC Helix Dashboards secret key. You can obtain the secret key from BMC Helix Portal. For more information, see Setting up access keys for programmatic access.
   bhd_tenant_id	BMC Helix Dashboards tenant ID. You can obtain the tenant ID from BMC Helix Portal. For more information, see Setting up access keys for programmatic access.
   api_service_url	API service URL of BMC Helix Dashboards. For example, https://helixdashboards.bmc.com/.
   report_csv_path	Path to the CSV file that contains the list of reports to be migrated.
   truststorepassword <optional>	Truststore file password of the conversion utility if the server is secured.
   enable_allfilteroption	A Boolean value that indicates whether the All option is enabled for filters in the migrated dashboards. The default value is true, which indicates that the migrated dashboards will use the All option for filters. When the value is set to false, the migrated dashboards will use the first filter value.

2. Create a CSV file in the extracted migration tool folder and specify the name of the reports that you want to migrate exactly the way they appear in BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting. 
   You can get the name of the reports from the list that you retrieved in To retrieve the list of reports for migration.
   If the BMC Helix Dashboards tenant contains a report with same name, specify the report ID along with the report name separated by comma in the CSV file; for example, Compliance,60932. If there are multiple reports with similar names, the migration tool appends the report ID to the report name.
   
   

   Important

   For better performance, we recommend that you migrate the reports in smaller batches. Do not edit the CSV file while the migration tool is running.

3. Open the command prompt and run one of the following commands to generate the Smart Reporting metadata for the reports listed in the CSV file:
   
   

   • If you want to generate the Smart Reporting metadata in the extracted migration tool folder, run the following command:

     conversioncli.bat --action=getSRmetadata
     

   • If you want to generate the Smart Reporting metadata in a different folder, run the following command:

     conversioncli.bat --action=getSRmetadata -fp "<output json file location (optional param)>"
     

1. 
   

   • If you do not want to specify the password in the cliconfig.properties file, comment out the password parameters in the cliconfig.properties file, run the following command, and enter the passwords when prompted:

     conversioncli.bat -a getSRmetadata -srap -srrp

     The above commands generate the following files:

     • reportmeta.json: Contains the details of each report, such as report attributes, filters, SQL, category, subcategory, report type.
       You can validate the reportmeta.json file to ensure that all the reports identified in the CSV file have been successfully included for the migration.
     • sr_bhd_conversion.log: Contains all entries of the migration activity.

     • reportstatus.csv: Provides the status of each report.

       Important

       If you want to migrate reports with same name in both the applications and you are not aware of the report ID of a specific report, run the following command to migrate all reports that have same names in both the applications:

       conversioncli.bat --action=getSRmetadata --allow_duplicate=true
       

2. Run one of the following commands to migrate reports to BMC Helix Dashboards:
   
   

   • If the Smart Reporting metadata is stored in the extracted migration tool folder, run the following command from that folder:

     conversioncli.bat --action=createDashboardsContent
     

   • If the Smart Reporting metadata is stored in a different folder, run the following command:

     conversioncli.bat --action=createDashboardsContent -fp "<output json file location (optional param)>"
     

   • If you do not want to specify the password in the cliconfig.properties file, comment out the password parameters in the cliconfig.properties file. Run the following command and enter the password when prompted:

     conversioncli.bat -a createDashboardsContent -bhdap

Validate the migration

After running the migration tool, check the log summary report in the sr_bhd_conversion.log file. This report provides the details about the conversion rate of the reports from BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting to BMC Helix Dashboards. Take any necessary actions based on the details in the log file. We recommend that you validate the visualization, formatting, and filters in the migrated dashboards. You can manually update the dashboards if they have not been migrated appropriately. Also validate the existing cross-launch links, report schedules, and update them, if needed.

Results of the migration

After migrating the reports from BMC Helix ITSM: Smart Reporting to BMC Helix Dashboards, view the migrated reports in the BMC Helix Dashboards.

After migrating the reports to BMC Helix Dashboards, you can configure additional panels and queries on your dashboards. For more information, see Creating-and-customizing-dashboards.

Limitations of the migration tool

The migration tool has the following limitations:

Troubleshooting

This section helps you troubleshoot some errors that might appear while using the migration tool:

Known issues

For a list of known issues pertaining to the migration tool, see Known-and-corrected-issues.