Cognos Planning Analyst and Contributor

Process for migrating changes from DEV to LIVE environments.

Overview

In a Cognos Enterprise Planning environment the Models are designed and build in Analyst and these are then used to create Contributor applications which are stored in a database using SQL Server, Oracle or DB2.

When working with multiple environments such as DEV and LIVE it is desirable to make significant system changes in the DEV servers and to migrate these changes to the LIVE  servers, however as the LIVE servers are in constant use taking data from end-users changes need to be migrated without overwriting the live data.

This document describes the processes behind migrating structural changes from one environment to another whilst maintaining user data.

Analyst Models

When working with Analyst it is typical that only a select number of users will have access to the models and the Analyst application as a whole, as such it is expected that strict controls can be put in place with regards to the update of data in these models.

To begin updating the models, the most up to date libraries should be copied from the LIVE systems to the DEV systems to ensure that we are working with the latest copies.
Prior to any Analyst library migration the target copies must be completely removed from the system in Windows Explorer, this can be done either by deleting or renaming the existing folders.  This is to prevent possible conflicts with library objects which can occur when copying “over the top”.

During Analyst model changes in the DEV environment it is expected that no changes are made to the data held within the libraries on the LIVE systems as this data will be lost when the libraries are migrated back later.

Process for migrating Analyst models: -

1. Remove the target Library Folders
2. Stop all changes in the Source Libraries
3. Use Windows Explorer to copy Libraries from the Source to the Target servers
4. Make development changes and test
5. Repeat steps 1-3 in reverse to take the changes back to the Original environment.

Contributor Applications

Contributor must be treated differently to Analyst in that it is usual to have many users inputting data constantly so shutting the environment down for development work is difficult and undesirable.

Fortunately Cognos provides tools to allow for the export and import of the structural changes whilst leaving the data in place.

In your DEV environment, the model changes are mostly made in Analyst, a Synchronise must be run to bring these changes into the Contributor application.  This process updates the Model XML stored in your database after which a GTP (Go To Production) process must be run in order to make the changes available to your user-base.
Assuming we have viewed and tested your changes and are happy with the result we can export the Model XML from our Contributor application to a local .XML file on our file system.  This .XML file can then be imported into our LIVE Contributor application via a Macro and then a GTP process is run to make the changes available to our LIVE environment end-users.

Process for migrating Contributor model changes:  -

1. Synchronise the Contributor application with Analyst to bring in model changes.
2. Run a GTP to invoke the Reconcile job that merges your model changes with the live data in the database.
3. Check the changes are correct and as you expected.
4. Export the model XML of your “Production” application to your file system.
5. Copy the .XML file to your LIVE environment.
6. Import the .XML file using a Contributor Macro.
7. GTP to bring the changes into your LIVE “Production” section.