1. WebFOCUS 8: Best Practices for Migration
Lori Pieper
Indianapolis User Group Meeting
July 25, 2012

2. Agenda What makes WF8 migration so different?
Upgrade Path for WebFOCUS Product Components
Planning the Upgrade
Migration Strategies and Considerations
Migration workflow
Validating the migration – what to expect
Post Migration Tasks

3. What makes WF8 migration so different?

4. What makes WF8 so different?
Architecture overhaul
New security – very granular
Consolidation of WebFOCUS Client objects
One place to log in for both users and administrator
Report Caster and Library
WF Client content and security held in relational database repository
Business Intelligence Portal
Allows for more flexibility in both development and the end user experience
In the past you assigned a user a role and they had that role for every Domain/object in the environment, with the exception of assigning domain specific admins. In WF8 you can say one person/group can only run a handful of reports, but then the other reports they have full control, including development rights.
Everyone logs into the same place, whether they are an admin or an end user. What they see will be dependent upon the permissions assigned to them. Once you sign in, depending upon your permissions, you can get the admin console, or the portal or dashboards, or Report Caster/Library.
No more synchronizing user IDs between MR and Caster/Library.

5. WF8 Content - New Look New Content Migrated Content
Just a glance at the new look. Everything is categorized by folders and you choose the structure.
In prior release of WF the structure was imposed upon you. When we do the migration from prior versions, we keep that structure, but you can change it after the migration.
Migrated Content

6. Granular Security - Permission Sets
This is just one page of the permission sets available to you. Keep in mind that each permission set can have multiple permissions assigned to it, so there is a lot more granularity.
These are the permissions sets that are out of the box, but you can also create your own.
You can assign permission sets at any level, however we recommend you assign users to groups and assign permission sets to the groups. This will minimize the effort to maintain your security.

7. Some WF “Default” Permission Sets
These are special permission sets that are used when we migrate from older release to WF8. They mimic the “roles” we used in prior releases.

8. WF8 Repository
Report Caster tables named the same, but have added new key fields.
MR RDBMS Authorization tables replaces by “UOA” tables.
There are 46 tables.

9. Upgrade Path for WebFOCUS Product Components

10. Planning the Upgrade Upgrade path for WebFOCUS product components
Product Component Used
Upgrade Path
Managed Reporting
MR data and security rules - migrated and stored in the WebFOCUS 8 repository.
WebFOCUS 7 domain tree structure will be preserved.
Reports should continue to run as they did in WebFOCUS 7.
BI Dashboard
BID content - migrated to BI Dashboards
stored on the file system in WebFOCUS80/worp
BID Favorites/Mobile Favorites -stored in WF8 repository
BI dashboards can be used “as is” with some caveats.
In any upgrade you have the chance that some reports that ran in the old version will not run or run the same in the new version. This is because as we add new features, the code based gets tightened. This happens when code constructs that were never supposed to work were used because of hand-coding WF content. This should not happen for reports created with the GUI tools.
Note on BI Dashboards: They are migrated, but they are NOT converted to BI Portals. They will be available via the “Dashboard” menu item, whereas BI Portals will be under the “Content” tree structure.
For more information on the “Caveats” please see the “Upgrade considerations” on the IBI internal WF8 web site.

11. Planning the Upgrade Upgrade path for WebFOCUS product components
Product Component Used
Upgrade Path
ReportCaster
Fully integrated with WF8 architecture and security.
ReportCaster/ Report Library – migrated
stored in the WF8 repository.
Developer Studio
Can be installed on same machine as Developer Studio 7.
Can switch between two releases as before
Leverages WF8 architecture and security.
Developers can switch between Dev Studio 7 and 8 as they have done in earlier releases, by running the ‘thisfoci.bat’ file in the DeveloperStudioN/bin folder, where “N” is the release number.

12. Planning the Upgrade Upgrade path for WebFOCUS product components
Product Component Used
Upgrade Path
Configuration
As in prior versions, configurations are not migrated and will need to be re-applied.
E.g., security settings, custom settings, etc.
Parameters
Most WebFOCUS 7 parameters are still available in WebFOCUS 8.
Some have been removed
Customizations
All customizations will need to be evaluated
may no longer be needed
may be implemented differently
See “Upgrade considerations” for parameters that are no longer available. These are normally due to functionality change in WF8 and are therefore no longer needed.
Customizations, includes all custom login pages, anything in site.wfs, etc.

13. Planning the Upgrade Upgrade path for WebFOCUS product components
Product Component Used
Upgrade Path
Custom Settings (site.wfs)
All custom settings in site.wfs will need to be evaluated to determine if they are still needed in WebFOCUS 8 or have to be implemented differently.
Connectivity to Reporting Server
Similar to WebFOCUS 7.

14. Validating the migration – What To Expect Managed Reporting – MR content
WebFOCUS 8
Deferred Reports
Migrated Deferred reports will continue to run.
Published reports
Migrated published reports will continue to run.
This feature has been removed from WF8.
“Publish” in WF8 has a different meaning.
Templates
Migrated templates will continue to work.
“Publish” in WF8 means that content has gone from being “private” and only available to the “owner” to being viewable by others, where “others” are those have been given access to that folder or report.

15. Validating the migration – What To Expect Managed Reporting – MR content
WebFOCUS 7 - legacy Publish feature 1 2
Examples of how you would “publish” in prior releases.
Published report was written to ibi_html/publish/{,htm}
End users called the {.htm} directly

16. Validating the migration – What To Expect Managed Reporting – MR content
WebFOCUS 8 Publish capability means something different.
It is related to the WebFOCUS security authorization model .
It is used when one wants to make a WebFOCUS resource available to others.
Example of what “publish” means in WF8. It simply means that as the content owner, you are making this content available to others.

17. Planning the Upgrade – Migration Strategies and Considerations

18. Planning the Upgrade Migration Considerations
Security has changed significantly
Evaluate current MR users/groups/roles/privileges and decide:
Do not migrate and start from scratch?
Leave “as is” after migration?
Restructure security authorization using WebFOCUS 8 security authorization model?
Group users according to their role
Leverage groups and sub-groups to delegate responsibilities
Minimize user management and administration
Leverage WebFOCUS groups to minimize or replace user profiles on the Reporting Server.
NOTE: For LDAP shops: WebFOCUS8 provides a better way to leverage groups defined LDAP/AD.
MR security is very different and you want to understand what is new and how this may apply to your business. If the current WF MR security handles most of your needs and you just want to adjust a few things, then do the migration and adjust later. If however, the current MR security is not even close…you set it up this way because there were no alternatives…then start from scratch. This would be rare and requires an intimate knowledge of the new security. IBI consulting would be highly recommended.

19. Planning the Upgrade Migration Considerations
WebFOCUS 8 upgrade may be an opportunity to “clean house”:
Conduct an inventory of applications/report usage:
Utilize Resource Analyzer to identify reports that:
Are never used and can be removed
Can be consolidated
Should be updated/improved to leverage WebFOCUS 8 features
If you choose to “clean house” it is best to create an intermediate WF8 environment; migrate everything from WF7 to the intermediate WF8 environment; clean house in the intermediate WF8 environment; do a full migration from the intermediate WF8 environment to the permanent WF8 environment. This will be discussed in detail in a later slide.
NOTE: Any additional WF installations in your environment over and above what you are licensed for needs to be cleared with your IBI AE before using these. In most cases, we will allow additional instalaltions for a brief time in order to complete such an extensive upgrade.

20. Planning the Upgrade Migration Strategies
Two options for Migration:
Full Migration – everything in WF7 is migrated at one time to WF8
WF migration tool should be used
Staggered Migration – you migrate by application or instance of WF
WF migration tool may be used with separate WF installations.
NOTE: The WF MR migration tool migrates everything:
Users, groups, roles, domains, content
…except BID
As with any upgrade you can choose how to do the migration. Most of the time customers migrate everything in DEV; do their testing and then migrate QA, Test and then PROD.
In some situations a customer may have WebFOCUS installs based upon user applications. If these installations are separate they can also be migrated separately using the migration tool. If however you want to migrate pieces of an installation versus the entire installation, then you have a bit more work to do. We will go into this in more detail in a later slide.
Using the Migration Tool means you are migrating EVERYTHING (except BID there is a separate migration tool for BID which is different from prior releases.). So if, you want to keep the MR content but not the security (users, roles, etc.) then you can’t use the migration tool. Similarly if you want to keep MR security, but you want to clean out your content (reports), you can’t use the migration tool Or you can use the migration tool and adjust/clean-up once it gets to WF8. This has always been the case with the migration tools.
Considerations for a full migration:
All applications migrate at the same time
Single WebFOCUS system to maintain and administer
Single set of training for development and end users
All application users have the same experience
Knowledge transfer and collaboration is shared simultaneously by all users
Considerations for a staggered migration:
Applications migrate at different times
Convenient for application development teams
Does not impact global WebFOCUS 7 development
Multiple WebFOCUS systems to maintain and administer
Users may need access to multiple WebFOCUS instances
Training must be repeated for developers and end users
Application users share different experience
Knowledge transfer and collaboration between users is staggered

21. Planning the Upgrade Migration Strategies
For either Migration option:
If WebFOCUS 7 development is active during the upgrade, you will need to do one of the following:
Manage ongoing WebFOCUS 7 development during upgrade:
intermediate WebFOCUS 8 environment – move as developed
manual tracking, logging and promotion of changes
Lockdown all new WebFOCUS development until everything is migrated.
This option ensures nothing gets lost.
Remember “development” includes users creating “My Reports”
In either case, if development is still actively going on, you need to manage the changes that are being made. I believe locking down development is the best way to prevent any changes getting lost, however this may not always be an option. This decision has to be made on a case by case basis.
The WebFOCUS 8 migration tools are designed to migrate all data from WebFOCUS 7.
During the upgrade to WebFOCUS 8, considerations must be given to:
Managing ongoing (in flight) WebFOCUS 7 development during upgrade
Developers still creating new content in WebFOCUS 7
Production users may be creating My Reports
Ongoing WebFOCUS 7 development can be managed as follows:
Set up an intermediate WebFOCUS 8 environment.
Perform a full WebFOCUS 8 migration to intermediate environment
Use WebFOCUS 8 Change Management to move selected content to targeted WebFOCUS 8 environment.

22. Managing ongoing development during upgrade …
Managing ongoing development during upgrade ….or an option for “cleaning house”
Full migration from WebFOCUS 7 to an intermediate version of WebFOCUS 8
Use WebFOCUS 8 Change Management from the intermediate version of WebFOCUS 8 to the targeted WebFOCUS 8 environment (Sandbox, Dev).
This workflow is illustrated below
Full migration with WF 8 migration tools
Existing WebFOCUS 7 Production
WebFOCUS 8 Change Management
Intermediate version of WebFOCUS 8
Use WebFOCUS 8 Change Management to promote to QA/Prod
WebFOCUS 8 Sandbox/Dev
If you cannot stop all development during the upgrade process:
Developers still creating new content in WebFOCUS 7
Production adhoc users may be creating “My Reports”
… Ongoing WebFOCUS 7 development can be managed as follows:
Set up an intermediate WebFOCUS 8 environment.
Perform a full WebFOCUS 8 migration to intermediate environment
Use WebFOCUS 8 Change Management to move selected content to targeted WebFOCUS 8 environment.
NOTE: WF8 Change Management is to move content between WF8 environments only; not between WF7 and WF8
WebFOCUS 8 Change Management (CM)utilities will:
Create packages for moving content between WebFOCUS 8 releases &/or WebFOCUS 8 environments.
GUI and batch utilities are planned for the GA release.
Maintain WebFOCUS 7 Change Management capabilities for:
Managed Reporting
ReportCaster
BI Dashboard
Provide additional enhancements for packaging:
Managed Reporting My Content (a.k.a. MyReports)
ReportCaster Report Library
BI portals

23. Migration workflow

24. Migration workflow Migration Utilities
WebFOCUS 8 is packaged with a number of migration utilities which migrate content from:
WebFOCUS Reporting Server – has not changed
Managed Reporting
Business Intelligence Dashboard
Business Intelligence Dashboard Favorites/Mobile Favorites
ReportCaster
NOTE: Deferred reports not migrated by default. This is just as it was in prior release, however in prior release there was a “wizard” that walked you through setting these options. Today there is no wizard and you must change the migration utility manually to specify that you want deferred reports to be migrated. This may change in the GA release and there MAY be a wizard to walk you through this in the future.

25. Migrating earlier releases to WebFOCUS 8
WebFOCUS 8 migration supports:
Managed Reporting migration from Release 7.6.x and 7.7.x to Release 8
Business Intelligence Dashboard (BID) migration from Release 7.6.x and 7.7.x to Release 8
ReportCaster migration from Release 7.6.x to Release 8
For WebFOCUS versions 4.x, 5.x or 7.1.x, it is best to migrate to the latest 7.6.x or 7.7.x release to minimize migration steps.
Special consideration for Unicode
Unicode BI Dashboard Migration
Needs to be performed at the WebFOCUS 7.7.x level prior to WebFOCUS 8 migration.

26. Migration workflow
WebFOCUS 8 migration process consists of three steps:
Export
This step will extract WebFOCUS 7 data using WebFOCUS 8 migration using export utilities.
Export migration logs are created and is useful for capturing errors if they occur.
Import
This step will import WebFOCUS 7 data into WebFOCUS 8 using import utilities.
Import migration logs are created and and is useful for capturing errors if they occur.
Validate
This step is to validate the migrated data
..what should we expect after migration?
These steps are similar to prior release migrations, expect that the current migration tools are a bit more manual. You need to copy the migration folder to the old version, run the extract; move the extracted data to the import/export folder under WF8 and run the load.

27. Migration workflow 1
Copy WebFOCUS 8 migration utilities to the WebFOCUS 7 environment
Stop WebFOCUS 7 Environment
Run the WebFOCUS 8 MR/BID/RC export utilities 2
In general, the WebFOCUS 8 migration process entails the following steps:
Copying WebFOCUS 8 migration utilities to WebFOCUS 7
Updating WebFOCUS 8 migration utility programs as needed
Running the WebFOCUS 8 migration utilities to extract WebFOCUS 7 data to XML files
Check the extract logs for errors
Copying the extracted XML files to WF8 import/export folder
Run “check” import utility for MR migration
Run the WebFOCUS 8 import utility
Check logs for errors
Copy extracted WebFOCUS 7 content to WebFOCUS 8
Run the WebFOCUS 8 import utilities
Validate migrated content

28. Validating the migration – what to expect

29. Managed Reporting

30. Validating the migration – what to expect Managed Reporting – MR security objects
Managed Reporting security objects
Users Users
Groups Groups
Roles and Privileges User Default Roles (UDR)
MR security authorization rules are maintained with UDR
The concept of the role being attached to a user is mimicked in WF8 using User Default Role (UDR).
Designed to simplify the migration process and provide customers with an optional starting point in WebFOCUS 8.
User Default Roles (UDR) are specifically for assistance in migrating from older releases and the option is not “activated” by default, as they would not necessarily be used by new customers. However new customers may choose to use them in order to get a “quick start” with security set up.
Things pretty much match up from the old to the new, but the old “roles” are broken out into the corresponding permission sets. The security is too different to discuss here, but in general, in order to provide security at a more granular level we now use “permission sets” which can be added and removed at will as long as the combination makes sense. They are not tied to a users’ “role” except in the case of these UDRs.

31. Validating the migration – What To Expect Managed Reporting – MR security objects
Here is a glimpse into the WebFOCUS 8 UDR and how it is designed to maintain existing MR security relationships.
This is just an example of one UDR and the corresponding permissions they would have after the migration.

32. Validating the migration – What To Expect Managed Reporting – MR content
Old MR content
WebFOCUS 8
Domains
Mapped to Folders
Sub-folders
Mapped to Sub-folders
Standard Reports
Maintains same tree structure
Reporting Objects
MyReports
Stored In a MyContent folder
Saved Parameter Reports
Should continue to run
URL Standard Reports
Shared Reports
Shared Content – Empty user folders do not get migrated
Internal references (Internal HREFs)
Different internal HREFs in WebFOCUS 8
Migration resolves old internal HREFs to new internal references
For Shared content in older release, if the user had the permissions to share reports or create “my reports” a folder on disk would be created for them even if it was never used. This is not the case in WF8 and empty content will not be migrated over. You will see comments in the migration logs to this effect.

33. Validating the migration – What To Expect Managed Reporting – MR content
WebFOCUS 7
In WebFOCUS 8 everything ends up under the “content” tree. We have called it “content” because you will have your reports, your RC schedules, your portals (not dashboards), etc. They are all managed there in the one place.
WebFOCUS 8

34. BI Dashboard

35. Validating the migration – what to expect BI dashboards –vs- BI Portals
The New WF8 BI Portal is significantly different architecturally from the old WF7 Dashboards and therefore cannot be converted. They are copied over so they are now accessible in WF8.
BI Portal

36. Validating the migration – What To Expect BI Dashboard
BI Dashboard content – copied, not converted to WF8 BI Portal
BI dashboards will continue to run in WebFOCUS 8 with some caveats:
Some BI dashboard features have been removed, for instance:
“redirect” on logout is no longer “by view” but is now a global setting.
Some BI dashboard features have been implemented differently:
“Domain Tree” is now the “Resource Tree”
“Role tree” would now be handled through the WF8 security layer
All caveats are in the “Upgrade considerations” and “release notes” document.

37. Validating the migration – what to expect BI dashboards - Then and Now
WebFOCUS 7
But, for the most part they should work and look just as they did in the prior release.
WebFOCUS 8

38. Validating the migration – What To Expect BI dashboard content
BID Features that are implemented differently in WebFOCUS 8 and documented in the WebFOCUS 8 Upgrade Considerations:
BI dashboard Login Pages
Different URL for BI dashboard Login page
Customizations to login pages will need to review for compatibility
Managing public user ID
Enabling WF_Public_Role
Changing default public user ID
Disabling public user
Specifying Reporting Server credentials
Replacement of scroll buttons by scroll bars for trees and blocks
Search

39. ReportCaster

40. Validating the migration – What To Expect ReportCaster – Security objects
RC security authorization rules maintained after migration
RC security objects
WebFOCUS 8
ReportCaster user IDs
No longer separate. Unified architecture means we have one user.
Their assigned permissions determine if they can access Report Caster.
Execution user IDs
Migrated and mapped to related schedules.
IBIMR_RC_SVCUSER
Removed. No longer required due to new architecture and security model.

41. Validating the migration – What To Expect ReportCaster - Content
All migrated Report Caster and Report Library content are available from the “Content Tree”
Schedules
Alert Schedules
Group BlackOutDates
Distribution Lists
Access Lists
Watch Lists
If the report that was scheduled was in an MR domain then the schedule and the Library output will be in that Domain. If it was from the WF reporting server APPs folders, it will be under the “content tree” under the Library “categories”.

42. Validating the migration – What To Expect ReportCaster - Content
Migrated Report Caster schedules will be in Content  Report Caster
Distribution lists, etc., - in separate folders under Report Caster
Migrated Library output will be found in the content tree based upon their output options:
Content  Library Content  Category – if this was from the reporting server schedule
Content  Domains  Category – if this was from the MR Domain schedule
NOTE: For new schedules and library content, you can put these anywhere for which you have the proper permissions.
For Library Output: if the report that was scheduled was in an MR domain then the Library output will be in that Domain. If it was from the WF reporting server APPs folders, it will be under the “content tree” under the Library “categories”.

43. Validating the migration – what to expect ReportCaster – Content
WebFOCUS7
Call ReportCaster
RC Administration UI
Create RC new content

44. Validating the migration – what to expect Report Library Content - WebFOCUS 7
Access Report Library
Report Library Content
Report Library Access List

45. Validating the migration – what to expect ReportCaster Content – Centralized in WebFOCUS 8
Report Library Content – From MR Report
Report Library Content – From APPS Folder
Report Caster Content

46. Post Migration Tasks

47. Post Migration Tasks MR Security Authorization - Enable User Default Role
From WebFOCUS Administration Console
Navigate to Configuration => Other
Set IBI_Enable_UDR to a value of TRUE

48. Post Migration Tasks MR Security Authorization - Configure Public user ID
WebFOCUS 7
Manage the public user ID from BI View Builder.
Change the user ID from public to named user
Set Reporting Server credentials for Reporting Server.
WebFOCUS 8
Manage the public user ID from Administration Console
Here you would set the ID to be used for the Public User, and then you would add that ID to the Security center, where you would set the password and permissions.

49. Post Migration Tasks BI Dashboard –BI View Builder Admin permissions
BI View Builder Administrators
In BI View Builder, MR and Group administrators were able to view and add BI content to all group views.
They were not required to be members of groups to perform this function.
WebFOCUS 7
Migrated MR or Group administrators are not migrated into all groups.
In BI View Builder, a user that is assigned “MR and Group administrator” permissions cannot by default, view and add BI content to all group views.
Can only create group views and add BI content to Group Views for Groups they are members of.
WebFOCUS 8

50. Thank you for attending our session