SAP Business objects Enterprise XI 3.0 LifeCycle Manager User's Guide

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1

windows

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2009-01-06

Introduction 7Chapter 1

About this guide...........................................................................................8

What is Life-Cycle Management?................................................................8

What is LifeCycle Manager? .......................................................................8

LCM terms...................................................................................................9

LCM Features 13Chapter 2

Authorization in LCM.................................................................................15

Security in LCM.........................................................................................16

Workflows in LCM......................................................................................17

LCM Home Page and Shopping Cart 19Chapter 3

Getting started with LCM 25Chapter 4

Logging into the LCM tool..........................................................................26

Using the Administration Options..............................................................27

Setting the LCM preferences.....................................................................30

Using the Manage Systems option .....................................................28

Using the Job Settings option ..............................................................28

Using the Rollback Settings option .....................................................29

Using the Audit Log option ..................................................................29

Using the Subversion Settings option .................................................30

Using the LCM tool 33Chapter 5

Creating and deleting a folder ..................................................................34

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 3

Contents

Creating a folder...................................................................................35

Deleting a folder...................................................................................35

Creating a new job ....................................................................................35

Logging into a new CMS .....................................................................38

Creating a new job by copying an existing job .........................................38

Searching for a job.....................................................................................39

Editing a job ..............................................................................................40

Adding an info-object to a job ...................................................................40

Searching for dependents .........................................................................41

Managing job dependencies......................................................................42

Promoting a job when the repositories are connected..............................45

Mapping in LCM...................................................................................50

Promoting a job by using a BIAR file.........................................................53

Exporting a job to a BIAR file ..............................................................54

Importing a job from a BIAR file ..........................................................55

Scheduling a job in LCM............................................................................56

Scheduling a job promotion..................................................................59

Updating the recurring and pending job promotion instances..............60

Viewing the history of a job .......................................................................61

Rolling back a job in LCM..........................................................................63

Using the Partial Rollback option ........................................................64

Rolling back a job after the password expires .....................................65

Rolling back info-objects after the password expires ..........................65

Auditing in LCM 67Chapter 6

How Auditing .............................................................................................68

Creating custom audit reports ...................................................................68

Audit database schema reference.......................................................68

User events enabled for LCM client.....................................................68

Event and Detail reference tables .......................................................69

LCM Job Server Auditing events..........................................................89

4 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

Contents

Managing different versions of an info-object 91Chapter 7

How Auditing .............................................................................................93

Index 95

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 5

Contents

6 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

Introduction

About this guide

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager XI 3.1(LCM) is a web-based tool that enables you to move business intelligence (BI) resources from one repository to another. It also supports the management of different versions of the same BI resource.

This guide introduces you to the LCM tool and discusses its features. It also describes how to use the different features that this tool supports.

What is Life-Cycle Management?

Life-Cycle Management refers to the set of processes involved in managing information related to a product life cycle, from the stage of concept through delivery. It establishes procedures for governing the entire product life cycle, which includes phases such as development, production, testing, and so on.

The BI resources that are present in the development repository must be transferred to the testing repository for testing deployment. These phases can occur at the same site or at different geographical locations. The time required to transfer the resources from one repository to another repository must be minimal, to obtain a high-quality and competitive product. These resources also have dependencies that have to be moved from one repository to another. The dependencies of resources add more complexity to the problem, because these resources have to move along with the dependents.

What is LifeCycle Manager?

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager (LCM) is a web-based tool that enables you to move BI resources from one system to another system, without affecting the dependencies of these resources. It also enables you to manage different versions of BI resources, manage dependencies of BI resources, and roll back a promoted resource to restore the destination system to its previous state.

The LCM tool is a plug-in for the BusinessObjects Enterprise application. You can promote a BI resource from one system to another system only if the same version of the BusinessObjects Enterprise application is installed on both the source and destination systems.

8 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

LCM terms

This section discusses some of the terms that are relevant for understanding and using the LCM tool.

Job

A job is a collection of info-objects that can be moved from one BusinessObjects Enterprise deployment to another BusinessObjects Enterprise deployment. It can also refer to a collection of related and dependent cluster unique IDs (CUIDs) that needs to be promoted to the destination system.

Job instance

A job instance is a job that is scheduled to run at a specific time set by the user.

Primary resource

Introduction

LCM terms

A primary resource refers to a user-selected resource that is promoted by the LCM tool.

Direct dependent resource

A direct dependent resource refers to an LCM tool-selected resource that the primary resource directly depends on. For example, a Web Intelligence report depends on a universe. In this case, the Web Intelligence report is the primary resource and the universe is the direct dependent resource.

Indirect dependent resource

An indirect dependent resource refers to an LCM tool-selected resource that the selected resource indirectly depends on. For example, a Web Intelligence report exists in a folder. In this case, the Web Intelligence report is the primary resource and the folder in which the Web Intelligence report exists is the indirect dependent resource.

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 9

Introduction

LCM terms

Info-objects

An info-object is a meta-data representation of reports, folders, servers, personal inboxes, or any other managed components in a BI platform. It exposes a standard set of information and interfaces, and encapsulates the specific details of each managed component. All components that are used and managed by the BI platform are represented as info-objects. An info-object contains information such as the ID number, info-object type, and scheduling information. These types of information enable the BI platform to manage each component.

Promotion

Promotion refers to the activity of creating or updating an info-object, along with its dependents, in the destination system.

Promotion Jobs Folder

The Promotion Jobs folder is a repository in which all the LCM jobs are stored.

Rollback

Rollback refers to the activity of restoring the destination system to its previous state, after a job has been promoted.

Shopping Cart

The Shopping Cart is a dynamically generated hierarchical tree list that displays the hierarchy of folders based on the objects selected. It also includes all the direct and indirect dependents of the job. The contents in the Shopping Cart are categorized according to their object type.

Version Management

Version management, also known as version control, refers to the management of multiple versions of the same unit of information. It is used in engineering and software development to manage ongoing evolution of digital documents that may be worked on by a team of people.

10 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

Introduction

LCM terms

BIAR File

A Business Intelligence Archive Resource (BIAR) file is a tool that enables you to pack managed content in a BusinessObjects Enterprise system. It can be used to archive folders and objects in the Enterprise repository, so that the archived contents can be transferred easily to a different location. This tool is also useful for backing up objects. BIAR files are available only on BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 systems.

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 11

Introduction

LCM terms

12 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

LCM Features

Authorization in LCM

The LifeCycle Manager tool supports the following features:

• Promotion - This feature enables you to create or update info-objects in

the destination system. Apart from promoting info-objects, this feature enables you to perform the following tasks:

• Create a new job

• Copy an existing job

• Edit a job

• Schedule a job promotion

• View the history of a job

• Managing Dependencies - This feature enables you to select and manage

the dependents of the info-objects in the job that you want to promote.

• Mapping - This feature enables you to modify a source connection or

URL in the source system to match with a dependency type that exists in the destination system. The LCM tool supports the following types of mapping:

• Connection mapping

• QaaWS mapping

• Crystal report mapping

• Scheduling - This feature enables you to specify a time for job promotion,

rather than promote a job as soon as it is created. You can specify the time for job promotion using any of the following parameters: hourly, daily, weekly, or monthly.

• Security - This feature enables you to promote info-objects along with the

associated security rights.

• Test Promotion - This feature enables you to match the cluster unique

IDs (CUIDs) of the info-objects in the source system with the cluster unique IDs (CUIDs) of the info-objects in the destination system. This feature is especially useful in detecting conflicts between CUIDs of info-objects in the source system and the destination system.

• Air Gap - When the source and destination systems are on different

networks or are not connected, the Air Gap feature facilitates promotion by allowing the users to create a BIAR file. This BIAR file can be used as a source in the destination system for promotion.

• Rollback - This feature enables you to restore the destination system to

its previous state, after a job is promoted. You can roll back an entire job or a part of the job.

14 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

• Version Management - This feature enables you to manage different

versions of the same document. This feature also enables you to track the changes in the directory.

• Auditing - The events generated by the LCM tool are stored in the audit

database. The Auditing feature enables you to monitor the events that are logged in the audit database.

• Administration options - This feature enables the administrator to configure

some of the parameters of the LCM tool.

Authorization in LCM

The LCM tool allows you to log into the source system only if you have adequate permissions. However, to promote a job, the user must have adequate permissions on both the source and the destination systems.

The LCM tool allows you to log into different CMSs while creating, editing, or promoting a job. You can select the appropriate CMS from the CMS drop-down list, provided you have adequate rights. The administrator creates the list of CMSs that the LCM users can log into. You can also add new CMSs to the list.

LCM Features

Authorization in LCM

Whenever you log into a CMS, the LCM tool stores your login credentials in the job session. Hence, you need not log into the same CMS multiple times within a single session.

The following table lists the permission types required to perform various operations using the LCM tool:

OperationsUser rights on the LCM

folder

To log into the LCM toolView

Edit Objects

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 15

To edit jobs and folders, and add info-objects, user groups, and folders.

To schedule a jobSchedule Objects

To promote or test promote a jobEdit and Schedule Job

LCM Features

Security in LCM

folder

jects

stances

Security in LCM

This section discusses the security feature in the LCM tool.

The LCM tool supports the following security options:

• Do not promote security - If you select this option, jobs are promoted

without the associated security rights. This is the default option.

• Promote security of all objects in the job - If you select this option, jobs

are promoted along with the associated security rights.

OperationsUser rights on the LCM

To delete a jobDelete Object

To copy and remove, or paste a jobDelete Object and Edit Ob-

To roll back a jobEdit Objects and Delete in-

The following table discusses the behavior of info-objects in relation to the supported security options:

16 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

LCM Features

Workflows in LCM

If the info-objects do not exist in the destination system.

If the info-objects exist in the destination system.

If the users or user groups do not exist in the destination system.

If the users or user groups exist in the destination system.

Promotion with securityBehavior

Info-objects are created in the destination system. They have identical rights on both source and destination systems.

Info-objects are copied to the destination system. The info-objects have rights identical to the rights of the source system.

Users or user groups are created in the destination system. The rights of the source system are carried to the destination system.

Users or user groups are mapped to the destination system; the rights of the users or user groups are identical on both source and destination systems.

Promotion without security

Info-objects are created in the destination system and inherit the rights of the destination system.

Info-objects are updated; however, the rights remain unchanged.

Users or user groups are not created in the destination system. Users or user groups are created in the destination system, if they are primary objects.

Users or user groups are mapped to the destination system; the rights of the users or user groups do not change in the destination system.

Universe restriction set

Note:

The universe and its restriction set, along with the rights, are promoted.

The LCM tool does not support merging of security rights.

Workflows in LCM

This section describes the workflows that the LCM tool supports for promoting a job from the source system to the destination system.

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 17

The Universe and its restriction set are promoted. The security rights are dropped.

LCM Features

Workflows in LCM

You can promote a job from the source system to the destination in the following scenarios:

• The source system and the destination system are connected

• The source system and the destination system are not connected

Promoting a job if the source system and the destination system are connected

Promoting a job when the source system and the destination system are connected involves the following steps:

1. Connect to the source system.

2. Create a new job. You can also copy an existing job.

3. Add info-objects to the job that you want to promote. If you do not want

to promote all the dependents of the info-objects, you can use the Manage Dependencies option and select the dependents you want to promote.

4. Promote the job.

Promoting a job if the source system and the destination system are not connected

Promoting a job if the source and the destination systems are not connected involves the following steps:

1. Connect to the source system, and create a job. You can also copy an

existing job.

2. Add info-objects to the job that you want to promote. You can use the

Manage Dependencies option to select the required dependents.

3. Export the info-objects with Output to BIAR file as the destination system.

4. In the destination system, select Copy from the BIAR file as the source

system.

5. Import the info-objects from the BIAR file.

6. Promote the job.

18 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

LCM Home Page and Shopping Cart

This chapter discusses the GUI components in the LCM tool.

The LifeCycle Manager home page is divided into the following panels:

• LCM workspace toolbar

• Workspace panel

• Tree panel

• Administrator and Details panel

• Shopping Cart and Job Viewer page

The following figure shows the LCM home page:

LCM workspace toolbar

The following table lists the options included in the LCM workspace toolbar and discusses the tasks that you can perform using these options:

20 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

LCM Home Page and Shopping Cart

DescriptionOption

Enables you to create a new folder. The new folder is created as a subfolder in the Promotion Jobs folder.

Enables you to copy and remove the selected job or folder from its current location.

Enables you to paste the copied job or folder in a new location.

Enables you to copy the shortcut to a job or folder.

Enables you to paste the copied shortcut to a job or folder in a new location.

Enables you to delete an existing job.

Promote Job

History

Properties

Enables you to refresh the LifeCycle Manager home page, to obtain the updated list of jobs or folders available for promotion.

Enables you to create a new job.New Job

Enables you to edit the selected job.Edit Job

Enables you to promote the selected job.

Enables you to view the history of the selected job.

Enables you to modify the properties of the selected job. You can modify the title, description, and keywords of the selected job.

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 21

LCM Home Page and Shopping Cart

DescriptionOption

Enables you to search for a specific job. You can search for a job by its name, keywords, description, or all three parameters.

Enables you to navigate between pages of the job list. You can use this option to navigate a single page, or navigate to a specific page by entering the relevant page number.

Copy an Existing Job

Workspace panel

The Workspace panel in the LCM home page displays the list of newly created jobs. You can use this panel to view the name of the job, status of the job, job creation information, and information about the destination system.

Tree panel

The Tree panel in the LCM home page displays the tree structure, which includes the Promotion Job folder. The newly created folders are displayed in a hierarchical structure under the Promotion Job folder.

Administrator and Details panel

The Administrator panel includes the Administration Options link. The system administrator can use this link to access the Administration options. It also includes the Preferences link that enables the administrator and users to set the LCM preferences. The Help and About links enable you to obtain more information about using the LCM tool.

Enables you to create a new job by copying an existing job.

Enables you to view the promoted jobs.Promotion jobs

22 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

LCM Home Page and Shopping Cart

Shopping Cart and Job Viewer page

A Shopping Cart is a dynamically generated hierarchical tree list that contains a list of the info-objects to be promoted. It displays the root folder and the objects folder for both selected and dependent objects. The Job Viewer page enables you to view the info-objects that are appended to a job.

The following figure shows the Shopping Cart and Job Viewer page:

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 23

LCM Home Page and Shopping Cart

24 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

Getting started with LCM

Logging into the LCM tool

This section describes how to log into the LCM tool.

To log into the LCM tool, complete the following steps:

1. Select Start > Programs > BusinessObjects XI 3.1 > BusinessObjects

Enterprise > BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager.

The LCM login screen appears.

2. In the System field, type the name of the Central Management Server

(CMS) on which the LCM tool is installed.

3. Type the user name and password.

4. Select the appropriate authentication method from the Authentication

drop-down list.

The LCM tool supports the following authentication type:

• Enterprise authentication - This authentication type requires a user

name and a password that are recognized by the BusinessObjects Enterprise system. This is the default authentication method.

• LDAP authentication - This authentication type requires a user name

and a password that are recognized by the BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

• Windows AD - This authentication type requires a user name and a

password that are recognized by the BusinessObjects Enterprise system.

The LDAP, Windows AD, and other third-party authentication types require a special setup. For information on setting up these authentication types, see the BusinessObjects Enterprise Administrator's Guide.

5. Click Log on.

The "Promotion Job" home page is displayed, as shown in the following figure:

26 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

Getting started with LCM

Using the Administration Options

Note:

• Any user with View permissions to the LCM folder can log into the LCM

tool. However, to create, schedule, or promote a job, the user must be granted additional rights by the administrator.

Using the Administration Options

The "Administration Options" enable you to configure settings before promoting info-objects from one BusinessObjects Enterprise deployment to another BusinessObjects Enterprise deployment. This section describes how to use the Administration options.

To access the Administration options, click the Administration Options link in the "Promotion Job" screen. The "Administration Options" dialog box appears. This dialog box displays the following options:

• Manage Systems - This option enables you to add and remove host

systems.

• Rollback Settings - This option enables you to configure the rollback

process at the system level.

• Job Settings - This option enables you to specify the number of job

instances that can exist in the LCM system.

• Audit Log - This option enables you to audit various events that are logged

while the LCM tool is in use.

• Subversion Settings - This option enables you to configure the Subversion

parameters.

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 27

Getting started with LCM

Using the Administration Options

Using the Manage Systems option

This section describes how to use the Manage Systems option to add or remove host systems.

To add a host system, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Manage Systems option.

The "Manage System" window appears. This window displays the lists of host names, display names, and descriptions.

2. Click Add.

The "Add System" dialog box appears.

3. Add the host name, display name, port number, and the description in

the appropriate fields.

4. Click Add to add the system.

The host system is added to the list.

Note:

To remove a host system, select the host system you want to remove, and click Remove. The selected host system is removed from the list.

You can also edit the host name, display name, port number, and the description.

Using the Job Settings option

The Job Settings option enables you to specify the number of job instances that can exist in the system. You can specify one of the following options:

• Delete job instances when more than - This option enables you to specify

the maximum number of job instances per job that can exist in the system.

• Delete job instances when older than - This option enables you to specify

that all job instances created before the specified number of days must be deleted.

To set the Job Settings option, complete the following steps:

1. Select the option, and type the preferred value.

2. Click Save Changes to save the updated changes.

28 BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1

You can click Default Settings to set the default values.

Note:

The old job instances are deleted only when the job is executed the next time.

Using the Rollback Settings option

By default, the rollback process is enabled at the system level. The Rollback Settings option allows you to disable the rollback process at the system level.

To disable the rollback process at the system level, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Rollback Settings option in the "Administration Options" window.

The list of host systems is displayed.

2. Select the host system to disable the rollback process.

3. Click Save and Close to save the modifications.

Getting started with LCM

Using the Administration Options

Using the Audit Log option

To audit the LCM events, complete the following steps:

1. Click the Audit Log option in the "Administration Option" window.

2. Select the events that you want to audit.

You can also use the Select All option to audit all events.

3. Click Save and Close.

Note:

To audit the LCM events, you must enable the Audit Events option in the Adaptive Processing server.

To enable the Audit Events option, complete the following steps:

1. Log into CMC, and select Servers > Adaptive Processing server >

Audit Events.

2. Select the Auditing is Enabled option.

To audit LCM scheduled events, you must enable the audit events option in the LCM job server.

BusinessObjects LifeCycle Manager User's Guide for XI 3.1 29

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