Comments on: OBIEE Software Configuration Management Part 1 : Initial Deployment from DEV to PROD

By: Samuel

Samuel — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 13:18:00 +0000

Great !

Mark, Thanks alot for publishing this.
You helped me out today.

By: Andy Kay

Andy Kay — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 00:51:33 +0000

Mark,in step 6 you talk about changing passwords and connection pool settings. If the source database in development is called “DEV” and in production I want to point to “PROD” what do I change? The name of the Connection Pool, the Data Source Name, both?
thanks in advance.

By: John Lilly

John Lilly — Sun, 20 Dec 2009 04:47:42 +0000

Great article, Mark. Just what I was looking for. What I’m still trying to understand is more basic: how do you create a true multi-user dev environment for working on the dashboards. How do multiple developers work on the same set of dashboards without overwriting each other’s work? For a Java app you would use version control like CVS and have coders check out and check in files. I’m having a hard time picturing that working for all of the files in the OBIEE web catalog. If 2 people make changes to the same dashboard, you will get an error upon check-in to CVS. But how do you then resolve the diffs? There must be some best practices around this that I have not found? Thanks again.

By: Mark Rittman

Mark Rittman — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 09:09:31 +0000

Kurt

You point was a good one about not potentially confusing people with the more complex webcat migration technique. I’ve updated the posting to reflect the approach you suggest – thanks again.

Mark

By: Mark Rittman

Mark Rittman — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 23:12:56 +0000

Hi Kurt

Good to hear from you. Yes I agree, for the initial promotion we could also filesystem copy the whole webcat from DEV to PROD, I added this to the article after initially posting it. Thanks for highlighting this though.

regards

Mark

By: Kurt Wolff

Kurt Wolff — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 21:09:04 +0000

Wait — if this is just for the “initial” promotion, why not just copy the webcat, rpd, TNSNames file, styles and skins (if any), and the main init files (as you’ve specified them). It seems as though your process introduces a lot more work which is of dubious value.

By: Abhishek

Abhishek — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 14:59:43 +0000

Hi ,
Very clear and step by step translation of the Deployment Process.Thanks for publishing it , I am sure a lot many people will get the guidance with this blog.

By: Michal Zima

Michal Zima — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 13:57:04 +0000

Hi Mark,
very good article.
Just one thing to comment on. We as consultants in field (working for some time with OBIEE) always cope with migration between environments (DEV -> TST -> PROD) and besides the stuff, you are describing, there are some “hidden” areas in Web Catalog, which needs to be migrated as well (like default formats for presentation columns, permissions etc.. usually internally located in /system folder in Web Catalog directory structure). Since you are mainly setting them on DEV enviroment and you just want to migrate them to TST/PROD without the necessity to set them manually on those environments as well (it is very cumbersome work). Experienced consultants usually know, how to do it (”dirty way”) without corrupting target Web Catalog, but definintelly it would be very good, if those areas would be covered in some official tool (like CAF seems to be the first “promise”).
Rgds
Michal

By: rnm1978

rnm1978 — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 18:46:33 +0000

Just been working on designing and documenting a similar process myself. Look forward to seeing the masterclass at ukoug tebs this week!
One step I’d add is changing the RPD Administrator password when moving to Prod.
Also FWIW I’m not convinced about scripting password changes. (connection pool or otherwise), as it sounds like it may well change in 11g anyway, plus I can’t see a real benefit for the work required. YMMV :-)