OnCommand Insight 7.3 – GRANULAR EXPORT AND IMPORT OF OCI SERVER DASHBOARDS, QUERIES, RULES, ANNOTATION RULES AND PERFORMANCE POLICIES AND

GRANULAR EXPORT AND IMPORT OF DWH SERVER GROUP OF REPORTS.

To have some practice on this you can use the Lab On Demand named “OnCommand Insight for Enterprise and Cloud Monitoring v1.3 (OCI 7.3 )”

OCI Server

From the OCI interface select the Admin menu, then Setup and last Import/Export User Data

The only way it export ALL the contents: selecting Export a zip file is created it’s normally saved in browser download folder. This zip contain several json files defining

Annotations, Dashboards, Queries, Performance Policies, Rules (Annotations Rules) and the SystemInfo. The name of these files are meaningful.

In this sample the number of elements was the one contained in the LOD instance of OCI and DWH servers. Now let imagine that have been deleted 2 rules, and they’re

now 28; 2 dashboards, now are 10; 2 queries, now are 50; 2 annotation rules (now 17) and 2 applications ( now 43).

Importing all the “export_1.4.0.771…..zip” file all the content will be imported and no comparison will be done with the existing content , existing elements with the same

name will be overwrited. But If I had to import just some of the things the way to do is to create a zip file containing the SystemInfo.json and the json file of the section I

need. So that if I need to import only the Rule the steps are these: create a separated zip files containing Rule and SystemInfo json files the import it.

So in Admin/Setup/Import-Export choose Import, pointing to the path and the file I need, in this case Rule.zip. Pay attention to the warning message about the presence of

elements with the same name that will be overwrited.

At the end of quick import the rules are again 19.

Pay attention that after a restore of Dashboards or Queries the OCI web interface in the related menus still continues to show the old number of elements. Click and enter

the section you will have the number well represented again.

DWH Server

A little bit complex is the export/import procedure for DWH reports. Let access now to the reporting portal clicking the shown icon to get access to the granular

backup/restore of single part of the database, overall the reports content. System credentials for the DWH are the same of the OCI server.

In the DWH web interface choose Launch and in the browser will appear the default Storage Manager Dashboard; now you can choose the tool we need so access to the

Launch menu and click on “IBM Cognos Administration”.

This will open a tab that will overwrite the DWH area, so I suggest to come back to OCI menu and to right click to Launch Reporting Portal choosing to open it in a separate

window: this will permit you to have control at the same time of Cognos Aministration and DWH interfaces. This way:

Now let starts to organize the reports. In this example there are a lot of predefined one and some customized.

Public Folder is the only that is included in normal DWH database backup. Imagine that My Folder is fool of things to be saved and restored somewhere else. As you know a

method is to open the report with Report Studio, copy in clipboard and the paste the content in a text file. A very boring method if you have a lot of reports.

Now I’ve a Public Folders populated in this way and each of those folders are full of reports. In the image on the right I’ve also shown the My Folders content where I’ve put

five folders with reports inside.

Now the tool to backup this content is to access to the Configuration then Content Administration of the Cognos Administration: here there’s the job section of Cognos

where is possibile to create export, import, maintenance and more jobs to be applied to the content.

What’s if I’ve to backup the content in a granular way? Coming backup to Cognos Administration now choose Configuration/Content Administration. In the upper right

choose New Export.

Choose a name for the job and the first option, then a path of the content has to be selected.

As you can see the only available path is the Public Folder one and its content: this means that the My Folder content has to be copied or moved in the Public Folder. The

only way is to create a folder in Public Folder, to copy the content of My Folder there and then to create a job to export in a backup. The export operation creates a zip file

and this can be used to restore several reports together and to save the My Folder: to the same server or to another one. The My Folder content that is not normally

backed up, neither during the backup operations of the full database contents.

This above is the root of the content and clicking on the Public Folder its content will be shown as in the below figure.

Coming back to the DWH web interface I’ve created a folder in Public Folder named “Former My Folder”, and I’ve copied here the “My Folder” content.

Now, coming back to Cognos Administration, I can see the folder I need to export and choose for the job, adding with the centrally located right arrow to the content.

Clicking OK I can see it added to the content to export.

Leave or change the default as needed (default is good for most exports).

Choose a new name for the Archive, the name of the job is a good one, and the default location where the zip will be stored is on DWH server: <sanscreen

folder>\cognos\c10_64\deployment. There you will find the zip to save and import somewhere.

The resume of the job is now presented

Now the run phase. The job with its name is always saved so now you can choose to Save & Run Now, Save & Schedule or Save Only

Clicking on finish you’ll have the chance to run it.

Click on OK it goes, I suggest you to check the details; otherwise the job is absolutely silent and the only way to check that has gone is to look at the folder and and the job

status (left) or look for the zip in the archive folder (right).

Now let simulate a restore. I’ve completely lost the My Folder content and its copy in Public Folder or, I need to import just some reports/folder in an existing DWH

environment.

Let’s go to the Cognos Administration and I now choose a New Import Job

Several steps will guide to run create and run the import job. Remember that the default location of the archived files is <sanscreen folder>\cognos\c10_64\deployment

and in the following image a list of existing jobs is presented, with the ‘My Folder Backup’ one that is the export we’ve just done.

Now I’ve to details something not immediately clear. To have a choice to perform a restore a zip file must exist in the content location cited above. Here you can see on the

left the windows of the jobs and on the right the content. Renaming i.e. the My Folder Backup zip file in something else and refreshing the windows (cancel the current

import and start a new one) the name of the job will change according to the name of the file.

So, to have a restore in a new DWH environment or to have it after losting something put the zip file of the backup in the content folder and start a new import job. So,

once selected the right content to restore the further steps follow. Don’t choose Select Another Location.

The content to be restored is presented now and you can change or leave the options as needed. Don’t forget to put the mark on the check square on the Folder to be

restored in Public Folder.

Same as before for the export job. The name of the job has to be changed in this case because we’ve a job created before with the same name. Next, Run now.

Checking the “View the details” will show a window like this. It will remain blank for a while and you can refresh it until you will got this above. And, below, in the main jobs

window you will see the job just run.

In the Administration section at the end of the job we’ll see the job.

Looking at the content in DWH web interface now I can see the folder I’ve lost restored: I can now copy a/o move to the My Folder content.