Hi all,
Hi all. Sorry again for the gap since my last post (at least it's shorter than the last gap!).
Today I wanted to put down my thoughts about the new BO Enterprise XI 3.1, having recently implemented at a few sites, including a Dev/UAT/Prod 3-tier system.
So, what's changed? And what did I like and dislike?
I do really like the new Web Intelligence Rich Client, and the zero-client Web Intelligence report panel (the Ajax-y one) is really coming along - in the next few releases it will be awesome! I did have some stability issues with the Rich Client during training sessions, however I put this down to slower, older machines. In day-to-day use I've found it fairly stable, however saving often doesn't hurt! =)
I found the BusinessObjects documentation about the new LifeCycle Manager (released with XI 3.1) to be lacking. From the documentation, I could understand the process of creating a new promotion job, or how to version control a universe. What I couldn't find is best practices - how should I use the promotion tool? All-in-one-go, or a folder of reports and a few universes at a time, or some other method?
I ended up designing and documenting my own best practice, however it still a little unclear as to how best to use it, down at the nitty gritty level.
Being able to track session usage (which was available in XI 3.0 also) is great, however I feel we Administrators really need the ability to kill a session as and when required - especially handy for those running BO Edge.
I also love the Widget and Live Office functionality, which I find great, however be warned - those of you running Vista x64 (like me) will find that Xcelsius visualisations can't be added as a BI Widget. I currently have a case logged with SAP/BO to sort this out.
Until next time, Josh.
It has been far too long since I blogged. Sorry for that. Time just keeps slipping, as Professor Farnsworth once said (avid Futurama fan here). Work and life are keeping me really busy, and work especially is taking me in new directions.
Recently I have been involved in Enterprise Data Warehouse strategy reviews, and complete end-to-end install and designs for Edge Professional, including building data marts from core systems. Really interesting stuff, and I have got to practice my DI (now Data Services) skills. Even more interesting has been the chance to use Data Services to design and implement data marts with SCD Type 2 (Slowly Changing Dimensions), and using Changed Data Capture.
It's amazing to look back to when I joined this employer (only two years ago), and my role at the time was Crystal Reports, and that was it. My experience was limited to Crystal Reports XI, with Crystal Reports Server, albeit limited experience with CR Server.
However, I really enjoy my job, and I think that is what has helped me, within two years, to gain my certification in both Business Objects Enterprise XI 3.0 and Crystal Reports 2008, as well as becoming a certified Migration Specialist. I was promoted to a Senior Consultant and now am doing things that I only would have dreamed of two years ago. In short, a huge shift in role and responsibility.
I put it down to, mainly, loving BI. I love the potential of BI, the way you can help small and large organisations grow their business and make better business decisions. And it's just so cool, you can't forget that. Even when you are just a Crystal cowboy, slapping together reports for a client in the minimum amount of time (not really best practice of course), you are still making a big difference, and getting job satisfaction. Hearing the words 'we've never been able to look at it that way before' - I'm sure all BI people have heard that - is great.
Taking it a step further though, and using best practices, designing and documenting, keeping to standards, encouraging the use of bigger and better tools, and growing the BI culture within an organisation is what I really enjoy.
I love my job. I think I'm very lucky. What about you?
(PS - Under three months and I'm going to be a dad. Wow.)
Do you ever have problems keeping up with the flow of data? Not just in general, RSS feeds and emails and Facebook - I find myself part of a more specialised IT sector, Business Intelligence, and so you would think it would be easier it keep up.
But no, more and more, there are always new products being released, service packs to test, other toolsets to try out and compare, and training to do to keep up. It's a good thing I enjoy it so much, otherwise I think I'd drown in it all.
Right now, I'm trying to find time to install XI 3.0 on an domain-controlled VM, and then get SSO working through Tomcat. I've always found SSO through IIS very easy, but Tomcat is a little harder and so I'd like to getting it working end-to-end myself to make sure I'm familiar with the process.
Today I also found out that BO are running a beta for XI 3.1 and their new LifeCycle Manager tool. This is something that I as a BO consultant have been waiting for - the Import Wizard is useful for specific tasks, but as a LCM tool, doesn't really live up to expectations.
I've requested to join the beta so I can try out the new tool and give BO some feedback on it. I'll hopefully try to post some comments about it.
Last week I presented at the Western Australian Business Objects User Group. The topic was 'Migrating from 6.5 to XI - Do's, Don'ts and Best Practices'.
It was quite a high-level presentation that focussed more on best practices around how to undertake a migration, rather than how to use the Import Wizard and other technical information.
Some of the main points were:
Well, it's been a while since my last update - I went on holiday for two weeks, and we drove up to the north west of Australia.
Before I went away however, I sat the first exam for the Business Objects Certified Professional certification for Data Integrator - and managed to pass! Unfortunately, it doesn't look like a training course will be released anytime soon to match the second BOCP-DI exam, and I've got lots of other stuff to look at, including doing the 2008 update to my BOCP-CR.
I've managed to volunteer to do a part on the next BOUG meeting, to talk on Migrating from 6.5 to XI. I'm going to talk (briefly) on best practices (like know XI), what to do in preparation and during the migration, and what not to do. The meeting is next week, 11th June.
One of things I'll mention in the 'what not to do' section is the Content Search, which is packaged as part of the Productivity Pack with SP2. The Content Search indexes (runs) all the reports and universes. So, if you suddenly import 500 reports into the new XI system, and you don't have any limits set on how many Deski reports can run at any one time (set in the CMC, under Deski Report Server), the service runs unchecked trying to index all the new reports and the system resources max out - definitely scary for your IT administrators.
Have you had any experiences like this with migrations?
So I've been a bit slack recently, with my blogging. I actually haven't thought of anything interesting to blog about - the curse of the blogger I guess.
I stumbled across an IM client that pulls in MSN, Yahoo, Google Talk, Facebook and others - Digsby (digsby.com). I'm now using it for all IM, it's very nice being able to chat to people on Facebook and MSN all through the same client (plus the skins are nice).
Anyway, what have I been up to in BI? I've been doing some universe updates in 5.1.6 (old school!). And have begun doing the e-learning so I can go for the my BOCP-CR 2008 Update. The changes in Crystal Reports 2008 are very nice actually. Things like optional parameters, dynamic sorting and, of course, the ability to embed SWF files (read: Xcelsius 2008 SWF's) and link them to data are fantastic. Now I just have to learn how to use it all! =)
I've been doing lots of troubleshooting recently as well, with Business Objects Enterprise XI R2 SP2. I've been deploying a three-tier system for a Tier 1 company and, to say the least, their security is a wee bit tight. Our administrator's aren't allowed to log in as administrators on the VMs, so you can't run the CCM, see processes or do any kind of helpful troubleshooting. It now seems that even services running as 'Local Service' have limited rights - for instance, the Output File Repository Server is returning error messages about free disk space, even though it's 70 GB or so free.
Ah, the joys of working with IT teams =)
I also got followed by a certain person who led me to this website: gooddata.com. Very interesting video about their product, but I'm not too sure how many larger companies would send their trusted data to another company. Still, it looks like a nice product.
- Josh
Whew, I'm spent. I'm running a Data Integrator training course this week (started today) and I'm already stuffed - it really takes it out of you. Additional to normal training tired-ness, I had the misfortune of trying the new BO course which uses MySQL 5.0 instead of SQL Server. We had an issue with table owners that nearly stopped the course dead in it's track. Luckily one of the students stumbled across the fix that let us continue.
Meanwhile, I've been mucking about on the laptop, trying out new things. I've discovered the following things:
Okay, so I posted a week ago about virtual machines.
I've spent the last week playing, and developing, and even though I can't get some games working in DOS in VMWare (alas, more on that later), I'm still throwing my chips in with VMWare as the virtualisation software.
I now have running in VMWare an evaluation copy (not beta) of Business Objects XI 3.0, as well as a general 'play' copy of Business Objects XI-R2 SP2 w/ DM & PM installed. Now that I'm running in VMWare, where Unix is easy, I plan to deploy a Unix-based version of Business Objects as well (probably into Oracle SE or MySQL).
Otherwise, things just keep on rolling on. I've added a blogroll to the right which lists the BO blogs that I keep tabs on, for your interest. In terms of gaming, DOS in VMWare still needs a little bit to go.
Instead, I discovered DOSBox, an awesome little DOS emulator that is so easy to get running and runs everything I've tried so far. I have found most of my games at either XTC Abandonware, Abandonia or Abandonia Reloaded.
Games I have tried out (and fallen in love with again) are as follows:
Wow, what a list. And so much fun - I've nearly finished Police Quest, and man, that game is amazing.
V Festival rocked out, Pumpkins and Queens of the Stone Age were awesome! One of my old school friends does concert photography, check out some of his amazing photos of Billy Corgan and the other bands here.
- Josh
I've spent a lot of time in the last year or so building virtual machines for Business Objects training, development and testing.
Up until now I've always used Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 to do so. However, working with a lot of different companies, I've seen the standard virtual server environment is primarily VMWare ESX.
As the new VMWare Workstation v6 has been recently released, I decided to give it a try a few days ago.
Already I'm in love with it. As I have a bit of a soft spot for Linux, and like playing with it every once and a while, I've spent countless hours trying to get Linux working under Virtual PC. Networking is also a bit of an issue under Virtual PC, though I've learnt all the tricks now.
Linux under VMWare Workstation is beautiful. One of the main issues with running it under Virtual PC is the graphics driver. When the X server loads in Linux, it's distorted (unusable) until you fix xorg.conf. Really really fiddly. Under VMWare, it does it all perfect, no command line configuration required.
Virtual PC also has issues with graphics under Microsoft, so gaming is a no-go. Under VMWare though, I've installed XP Pro, got Starcraft running with no trouble at all, and am now about to conquer MS-DOS and all those old games that I loved. Descent 3... Wings of Fury... Maybe (if I can find it) Space Quest and Kings Quest and Police Quest... *sigh*
This week just gone I've successfully deployed Business Objects Enterprise XI-R2 SP2 into a three-tier virtual environment (Dev, UAT and Prod), with Active Directory SSO in IIS. Their servers are running VMWare ESX. Now it's just a matter of confirming the virtual servers are powerful enough for a Production environment.
What have your experiences been with virtual machines?
- Josh
PS - Tomorrow I'm off to the V Festival to see The Smashing Pumpkins, Duran Duran, Queens of the Stone Age and some other bands. Should be awesome!! =)
