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 BMC Helix Innovation Suite. 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 BMC Helix Innovation Suite. 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.

The Workflow Migration utility generates separate reports for HELIX_PLATFORM_DEPLOY and HELIX_NONPLATFORM_DEPLOY pipelines.

All the objects that do not have conflicting changes, except for Developer Studio 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 BMC Helix CMDB and AR System objects by using the Workflow Migration utility. For information about the Workflow Migration utility, see Migrating-customized-objects-to-a-new-target-system.

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 Developer Studio in your BMC Helix SaaS environment.
By using the AR System Upgrade Tracker form through Mid Tier.

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 Developer Studio. 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 Developer Studio 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 BMC Helix Innovation Suite.
-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 to exclude from the analysis.
-autorecon	Automatically reconcile non-conflicting changes. Valid values: True False
-serverupgraded	Determines if the AR System serverupgraded 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 Mid Tier, 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.

From Results, select and download the following files:

File name	Description	Deployment pipeline
backup-olddefs-autorecon	Back of old definitions	Full stack upgrade and update pipeline
backup-olddefs-autorecon-platform-report	Autorecon report for platform definitions	Platform update pipeline
backup-olddefs-autorecon-apps-report	Autorecon report for applications definitions	Platform update pipeline
backup-olddef-autorecon-combined-report	Autorecon combined report for platform and application definitions	Full stack upgrade pipeline

In the File Name field, select the attachment.
Click Save.

To analyze the reconciliation report

Perform the following steps after you download the manual recon report and back up def and save the files mentioned in the above steps to your computer. The zip file contains multiple files.

Rename both files as .zip and copy them on the server. Unzip both files.
From the backup-olddef-autorecon-report unzipped file, open the Manual_Recon_List_*.xml file.
Update the definition file (.def) path reported in manual recon with the current server location of the unzipped folder for specific objects in backup-olddefs-autorecon.
For example, if forms are reported in the reconciliation report to manually fix then obtain the location till the forms folder such as D:\mobiliar\000000000016910_attachment\forms\ and replace the location with existing file locations.
Important
The XML file includes the path of the Jenkins environment.
Change the value of the server from platform-admin-ext to the actual server name, and rename and save the file as Manual_Recon_List_customer-adminip.onbmc.com.xml.
Copy the XML file to the Developer Studio workspace.
To find the workspace location, go to Menu > File > Switch workspace > Others and copy the location of the current workspace.
From Windows Explorer, open that location to the location you copied and copy the Manual_Recon_List_customer-adminip.onbmc.com.xml to this location.
Relaunch Developer Studio and switch to the Best Practice Customization mode.
In the AR System Navigator, expand Recon Application.
Click Objects to Reconcile.
The following screenshot shows the Objects to Reconcile section:

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