IBM Cognos Analytics with Watson Upgrade mit Motio

With MotioCI Inventory and Reduction, Cognos content stores can be read out so that you get an extensive overview of the reports stored.

The person in charge of deploying MotioCI Inventory and Reduction has to answer the following questions:

• How many reports in total are there in the Cognos content store?
• How many reports are still valid and will run?
• Which reports can be deleted and thus removed from the scope of the migration?
• How many reports were used when for the last time?
• How complex are the reports (JavaScripts, HTML, SQL)?
• Which reports are really just copies (1:1 or very similar) of other reports?

The first benefit of Motio CI Inventory and Reduction is to be able to develop an optimal migration strategy. By analyzing the content store to be migrated, first the overall scope can be sized up and then it is possible to estimate how long the upgrade will probably take. After that comes the qualitative evaluation of the migration scope. Here, reports that should be migrated – or not migrated can be identified quickly. The departments responsible for the migration have the
opportunity to define evaluation criteria (for example, the complexity of the reports) by themselves. Reports that should not be migrated disappear “in bulk” from the Cognos system with MotioCI Inventory and Reduction, regardless of the report folder in which they are located. The underlying versioning enables you to reactivate the reports at any time, even at a later point.

The focus with regard to tests and redesigns of reports is then only on the reports that migrate to the new Cognos environment. By cleaning up the content store, you achieve two things: companies reduce the scope of the IBM Cognos Analytics content store, they can create an optimized migration plan, and save a lot of time during the upgrade. Furthermore, their content store is tidied, which stabilizes the performance of their IBM Cognos Analytics environment for the long term.

The testing functionality is the central building block of MotioCI. It helps you conduct necessary tests of reports not manually, but with wide-ranging automation, which saves a lot of time. And this regardless of working hours (Motio can also run on the weekend).

Cognos Analytics has no system-internal version control. If a report has been deleted or a change made to a report, then only the last version is available. So what happens if the people in charge need the previous or even older report versions?

With MotioCI Versioning, companies can document each change to reports in the Cognos content store, back them up, trace them, and if necessary return to previous versions of the report.

By creating a history of each change, MotioCI Visioning makes available the following functions and benefits in IBM Cognos Analytics:

Automation

• Versioning is done automatically for each change of object in the content store. Therefore, no more report copies have to be created and the content store remains lean.

Transparency

• Changes to reports and objects can be traced in time, and with regard to their type and
  scope.
• There is a comment function. Thus, the traceability of changes becomes transparent
  and the people in charge can record the “who, what, and when” automatically
• Since the back-up copies cease to exist, the content store only includes objects for use and a load due to “quick back-ups” is eliminated.

Audit security

• The versioning of the various adjustments in the release states enables access to the various (automatically saved) versions at any time.

Control and security

• Roll-back to previous versions or restoration of deleted objects is possible at any time.
• Two versions of an asset can now be compared in detail at any time (also for troubleshooting).
• The time required for restoring accidentally deleted content is reduced greatly. EVERY previous version of a BI asset, including deleted content, can be restored.

Teamwork

• Collaborative work on objects is possible. Checking the objects in and out backs up and coordinates adjustments and changes.
• Thanks to the integrated comment function, communication among team members improves. Changes to BI assets are thus traceable for anyone with the appropriate authorizations.

With the deployment feature of MotioCI, the people in charge reduce time, effort, and risks for the provision of reports.

With MotioCI Deployment, it is possible to connect several environments (for example, the two sandboxes during the upgrade) with one another and to exchange content between them purposefully. The report developer can thus assign a completed report to a release (label), which an administrator can transfer to another environment with a few clicks.
It is possible to provide several releases simultaneously, which makes continuous delivery possible in the course of a release plan. The report developer then assigns his completed report to the relevant release.

Since each deployment is audited, there is transparency about the state of the report portfolio at time X. This means that a deployment can also be rolled back (partially) if necessary. This can be advisable if reports do not work in production as they did in development.

MotioCI performs all the individual steps required for a deployment. Access to individual server (directories) – as with classic Cognos export/import provision methods – is not required, which reduces the time required for a transfer between two Cognos environments significantly.

The benefits of MotioCI Deployment are:

• Deployment either ad hoc, on-demand with a click or automatically according to a schedule
• Deployment – in contrast to classic Cognos tools – is possible per report
• The simplified deployment process speeds up the release cycle, which means that new developments and enhancement can be made available to end users faster
• Reduced admin activity and increased transparency: “What happened when”
• Roll-back function

There are a lot of challenges for upgrades and for the administration of IBM Cognos Analytics. Some of these are:

• Which reports or tasks have no owner?
• How can I delete my report output, for example as PDF, from the content store most securely and easily?
• If I would like to delete a package, how do I find the associated reports, for example in the “own folders” and react appropriately?
• Automatic report sending via e-mail: How can I insert a deputy and copy authorizations?

MotioPI Pro offers a series of functions that help the administrator Among others, these include

a) Managing schedules and safety plans

• Re-assigning content and schedules of deleted users

b) Performing mass processings within report definitions

• Updating calculations with errors
• Updating the footer, header or other general format parts
• Setting query elements
• Searching for all reports for a package

c) Changing the storage location of the content safely

• Maintaining runtime
• Determining reference links
• Ensuring reference drill

The people in charge are spared work and thus time for IBM Cognos Analytics administration. This way, it is possible to perform goal-oriented administration of the Cognos Analytics environment in order to make changes to a larger number of reports.

With MotioPI Pro, the popular e-mail sending options are also much clearer. A purposeful deletion of output versions reduces the size of the content store considerably.

If data sources (SAP HANA for a Netezza, for example) behind IBM Cognos Analytics are exchanged, the following problems can crop up:

• Does the data still have the same structure?
• Are there deviations in the results due to changed data types?
• Do aggregations and calculations still produce the same results?
• How do you handle change/non-existent database functions (vendor-specific functions)?
• Does the new database provide different performance?

MotioPI Pro and MotioCI Testing

Generally, MotioCI can test the reports in a new environment or with a new data source to see whether the reports run, whether the performance is right as compared to a reference environment, and whether the results match with the same parameters (insofar as the source data is comparable).

With MotioPI Pro, you can search for errors with respect to database functions in order to get a list of the reports that have to be adjusted. Here, it is not necessary that database-specific functions create problems; implicit conversions can also create problems (such as date conversions). MotioPI Pro can help with “search and replace” and it will find the problem cases right away.

MotioPI Pro quickly exchanges changes to packages or new packages with a changed framework.