SAP BusinessObjects - Lifecycle Management Console (BI 4.0)

[harsha_ganapathy]

Lifecycle Management Console

SAP BusinessObjects Lifecycle Management console (LCM) is a web-based tool that enables you to move Business intelligence (BI) resources from one repository to other. It also supports the management of different versions of the same BI resource.

It offers some significant improvements over the Import Wizard. One of the most important new features of LifeCycle Management is that you can import categories as well as other types of objects such as: Information Designer, Pioneer, Crystal Reports (next generation), Events and Xcelsius Enterprise.

LifeCycle Management is used for promotion or transporting content from like system to like system, i.e. systems are the same version E.g. Dev to Test to Production.

This tool has two main roles:

• To copy Reports, Universes, Folder Structures, Security rules, Events and many other objects between environments. If needed it can also be used as a controlled Fallback to previous versions.
• To provide Version Management of Reports and Universes via a tool.

LCM Promotion Process

Steps to promote reports and universe between environments.

Log on to SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Lifecycle Management Console with administrator Credentials.

Once logged in, you’ll be in the Promotion Jobs screen.

Step 1:  Click on New Job in the top left of the screen. A job contains the definition of which objects you will be moving, the source and the destination systems, and a schedule if applicable.

Note: User should have the admin access to create new job

Step 2:  In New Job page enter all the required details.

NAME: Name of the job that you want to create

Description: Description of the job you want to create. Entering this information is optional.

Save Jobs In: A GUI element that enables you to store the job in a folder of your choice. You must select a folder to create a job.

Source System: The name of the BusinessObjects Enterprise system from which you want to promote a job.

Destination System: The name of BusinessObjects Enterprise system to which you want to promote a job.

Step 3:  Click on Create. This creates a new job object and will be stored in a CMS repository. Now select the objects that you want to move.

Step 4:  Once the job is created, you need to add infoobjects (ex: Universe, Reports etc. which needs to be promoted) to the job.  To add Info objects click on Add Objects or right click on workspace pane and select Add Objects.

Note: To Promote, User should have admin access in both source and destination systems.

The "Life Cycle Manager Add Objects" dialog box appears, and the Folders and Objects tree structure is displayed. Select Folders and Objects from Left panel. Navigate to the directory where the reports are placed. Select Info Objects and click on Add & Close.

Note: Business Objects recommends that you select a small number of info objects, not more than 100 at a time, for promotion to obtain optimum performance of the LCM tool.

The Add Objects window closes, and you’ll find yourself on the main page for the new job. Note that it’s actually a new tab at the top of the screen.

Step 5: If you are planning to promote the report (source) dependent objects like universe\connections, then you can add them using Manage Dependencies option.

Clicking the button will show what other dependent objects in the system are used by the objects that we have selected. In this case, there’s a universe & a connection.

Select Universe and connection and click on Apply & Close.

Step 6:  To promote, Click on the objects you want to promote and select Promote.

The Promote window appears. In the Promote panel we can find four options:

Summary: Check source and destination names to ensure the file is moving from the right source to the correct destination, change management ID.

Security Settings: Check this option when you want to release the security of the  files.

Test Promote: Use this option to ensure that there will not be errors during the conversion.

Schedule Job: This is to plan the promotion task for later, very useful if you are not available to do it manually, typically at out of office times.

Security Settings: [optional and should be used only if we need to promote the security]

There are two options in this section

1. Do not promote Security

2. Promote Security

Uses the option to promote jobs along with the associate security rights. Click on Security Settings and select the option.

  Test Promote: Summary to view the objects to be promoted and the promotion status.

• Schedule Job: The LCM tool enables you to specify when a job must be promoted, rather than promote it as soon as it is created. It also enables you to schedule promotion at fixed intervals. This feature is useful in promoting large jobs when the load on the server is at its minimum.

Step 7: Click on Promote

Once the job is promoted you can check the status of the job. To check Status, Click on the History option.

You can check the job status.

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Rollback

The Rollback option allows us to check the different versions of a conversion set and, in case of errors, to revert back to a previous stable version and therefore prevent any risk to the project, after a job is promoted.

Before starting a Rollback, we must ensure that the status of the job is one of the following:

• Success
• Failure
• Partial success

You can roll back an entire job or part of the job.

Please note that you only can go back to the most recent previous instance. To restore the latest instance, click in the check box and then press Rollback button. You can choose between two rollback options:

Complete Rollback: this will restore the destination system to its previous state before the job was promoted
Partial Rollback: enables you to roll back a set of infoobjects included in a job by selecting them from their objects list.

In the Promotion Job home page, select a job and click Rollback.

Click on Complete Rollback.

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Creating a new job by copying an existing Job

Step 1: Log in to the Lifecycle Management console. On home page, click on New Job.

Step 2: Click the Copy an existing job.

The list of promotion jobs will be displayed.

Step 3: Select a job from the job list, and click Create.

The name, keywords, and description of the job are displayed. You can modify these fields, if required. However, you cannot change the source system.

Step 4: Click Create.

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LCM LOGS

Enabling Traces – Web Tier logs

• Go to CMC > Applications and right-click the LifeCycle Management. Then click Trace Log Settings. Set the Log Level to High.

• Restart Web application server. Logs will be in the default BusinessObjects BI 4.0 logging directory.

Enabling Traces - LCM Services

• Go to CMC > Servers and in the Properties for the Adaptive Job Server and Adaptive Processing Server set the Log Levels to High.

• In the CCM, restart the Adaptive Job Server and Adaptive Processing Server. Logs will be generated in default logging folder.
  • \SAP Business Objects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\logging\*.AdaptiveProcessingServer_trace.0xxxx.glf
  • \SAP Business Objects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\logging\*.AdaptiveJobServer_LCMSchedulingService_CHILD0_trace.0xxxxx.glf