( Geek2Live.net )

Moving Blog

2009-01-12T20:53:00.002+09:00

Hi all,

For a while, I've owned the domain geek2live.net, and I've finally gotten around to installing Wordpress, and have now moved all my existing blog posts over to there.

The feed for my blog is now http://geek2live.net/?feed=rss2.

Please update your feed readers or bookmarks, as I will no longer be using this Blogger site.

Kind regards,

Josh Fletcher

BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 Thoughts

2008-11-19T15:40:00.002+09:00

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.

Where Am I Now?

2008-09-15T10:44:00.003+08:00

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.)

Keeping Up

2008-07-27T10:24:00.002+08:00

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.

Migration Presentation @ BOAUG

2008-06-17T20:05:00.003+08:00

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:

Point of view - a migration from 6.5 to XI entails a complete change in architecture. So you are going from one platform, to a different one. It is important to keep this in mind, because if you expect to apply a 'service-pack' type upgrade, then you will be sorely disappointed.
Resources - plenty of good resources are available from both Business Objects and the BOB Forum, which can help you prepare for the migration. Hiring or consulting a BO Migration Specialist will also be worth the money. A Migration Specialist is a BO 6.5 Systems Administrator, a BO Certified Professional in BOE XI, and have undertaken additional training in migrations.
Testing - it's definitely important when going from 6.5 to XI, as the calculation methods have changed. This is even more of a necessity when converting to Webi.

Here is a link to the PowerPoint I presented. As I did a migration last week, and am doing one this week too, it seems I'm living and breathing migrations at the moment!

How have you found migrations? Are you hesitant to undertake one?

Migrations and Reporting

2008-06-05T22:10:00.003+08:00

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?

Gotta Keep Up

2008-05-07T13:20:00.002+08:00

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

Just Playing...

2008-04-22T21:25:00.004+08:00

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:

Flock browser is awesome if you're an online social junkie, or even a Firefox fan - check it out if you can!
http://folding.stanford.edu/ looks really cool on my PS3, but doesn't work too well in Vista 64-bit...
Twitter looks really cool, but I'll need to find other friends who use it before it becomes useful - my user is joshyf
Flock integrates seamlessly with del.icio.us in providing online favourites, so now no more stored favourites in my browser

Otherwise I did a 6.5 to XI migration last week that went really well (about 1,500 reports and 55 universes) that now just needs all the testing done.

In personal news, I found out the other week I'm going to be a dad, which is awesome news of course, and we're both very happy. Luckily I have until the end of the year to get everything done, and get used to the idea of course! :-)

Check out Flock. It's cool.

Virtual Machines cont.

2008-04-11T14:26:00.002+08:00

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:

Bard's Tale 1, 2 and 3
Codename: ICEMAN
Dune
Dune 2
Epic Pinball
Jetpack
King's Quest 1
Lemmings
Major Stryker
Mixed-Up Mother Goose (for my wife)
Oregon Trail
Outrun
Police Quest 1
Pong
Space Quest 1
Spit Wad Willy
Transport Tycoon
Wing Commander 1
Wings of Fury
...and still more to go...

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

Virtual Machines

2008-04-05T10:33:00.004+08:00

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!! =)

New Dining Suite

2008-03-22T13:49:00.004+09:00

Hi all. About six months ago, I started a 'small' project at home. My father had picked up a pile of timber from the side of the road. Turns out, the timber was all oregon, and good quality oregon as well. My father-in-law is a carpenter by trade, and so the three of us set about building a dining table from the wood.

Took us several months, but we dressed up the wood, built the legs and top separately, bolted them together (no frame was required because the wood was so thick), and then put five or six layers of gloss finish on the table. An extra feature was a thin strip of jarrah (which contrasts really nicely) along the top, and down each leg.

The table was finished a month or two ago, and so we then decided to purchase 14 high-back leather chairs to go along with the dining table. We purchased seven cream leather, and seven chocolate leather, both with dark wood legs.

On Thursday we finally picked up nine of the fourteen chairs, as shown here.

For my first home project, I think it turned out pretty well! :-)

Obligatory XI 3.0 Post

2008-03-05T22:40:00.003+09:00

I attended the Business Objects User Group for Perth yesterday, and was privileged (albeit a touch nervous) to run a session on Polestar. It went pretty good I think.

One of the BO reps also presented a session on BO XI 3.0, most of which I was aware of, but still interesting.

I've been working with the online training materials to prepare partners for the release of XI 3.0 and what I've seen so far has been pretty exciting. Word is the Java version of XI 3.0 will be made available by April or so, but the .NET version won't be available until Q3.

To me this seems a pretty big drawback. Quite a few clients that I work with are Microsoft shops solely, and Tomcat isn't even allowed as part of their environments. I've got my fingers crossed that this is because they are trying to replicate all the functionality that BO has in Java within .NET, and this is what will take a while. If this is the case, then I don't mind the wait.

Having equal functionality between both platforms has been lacking in XI R1 and R2, and it's disappointing to have to tell clients they can't have Performance Manager or Voyager or other tools because they only use IIS.

So if BO's plan is to take the time now to match the functionality on both platforms, then it's a really good move.

I'm also hanging out for the XI 3.0 software to hit the Business Objects ESD so I can get a image up and running.

Migration Specialist?

2008-02-18T21:55:00.004+09:00

Well, I think I've become a Migration Specialist.

I *think* so because I can't seem to get anyone to confirm for me I've done all the pre-requisites to becoming a Migration Specialist. You can no longer do the Migrating from 5.x and 6.x to XI R2 course in a classroom - in Australia, that is.

So I completed the following courses/exams online:

BO 6.5 Accredited System Admin Exam
Migrating 5.x and 6.x to XI R2 course
Migration Application Foundation 6.x to XI R2 course

I already have my BOCP for Business Objects Enterprise.

I'm pretty sure that is all that is required. But, if you know differently, let me know!

On a side point, I test-rode a 2005 Buell Lightning (1200) on Saturday morning. Insane amount of power, and seeing as I didn't go quicker than 80km/h (residential zones!) I didn't get to play with more than two gears... Still, very nice - though I think I like the look of the Firebolt more than the Lightning...

Polestar

2008-02-05T18:23:00.000+09:00

Tomorrow morning my company is hosting a breakfast session to learn about Business Objects Polestar, their new search product.

Polestar fits within the IDD layer of the Business Objects stack, and indexes information from selected universes and makes it available within a search interface.

As it is a pretty new release (December 2007), I haven't seen it in a production environment. However, it is pretty easy to use and setup - as long as you throw a powerful server at it. The product installs services for both indexing the data (because the data is indexed, hard drive space will need to be abundant with big data sets), as well as providing the interaction as shown above.

Polestar runs within the Tomcat web server only - no support for IIS as yet. It runs outside of Business Objects Enterprise (but on the same server if required), but authentication is still from BO Enterprise.

I think Polestar will fill a major niche that hasn't yet been addressed - the multitudes of users who don't want to touch a reporting tool (managers maybe?) but need numbers. This product, if implemented properly, will allow these users to quickly - quickly as in two or three clicks from the search bar - get numbers that they need.

My Background

2008-01-30T11:14:00.000+09:00

I thought I'd talk a little about my background with Business Objects to give you an understanding of my skill set and experience.

I was first introduced to Business Intelligence in 2001, when I started working for a small engineering company. One of my primary responsibilities was to maintain the existing Crystal Reports (v8.5) and Crystal Enterprise (v8). Mind you, I was only 17, but very eager to learn. I undertook all the Crystal training courses and slowly learnt all I could. We migrated to v9 of both CR and CE, then v10, then finally XI.

I worked a lot with the backend of MapInfo's GIS product (Access), and also Sybiz Vision (FoxPro - yuck!).

In early 2007, I decided to take the plunge and started employment with Power Business Systems (now CSG), as a Business Intelligence Consultant. By this time, I was totally at ease with both Crystal XI and Crystal Reports Server XI. I quickly upskilled with Webi, Deski, Universes, Data Integrator, and the more advanced administration of Business Objects Enterprise.

Over the past year I've handled most of the training for CSG, which includes:

Crystal Reports XI-R2 Beginner, Intermediate and Advanced
Desktop Intelligence XI-R2 Beginner and Advanced
Web Intelligence XI-R2 Beginner and Advanced
Universe Designer XI-R2
Business Objects Enterprise Administration (Users and Content, Admin Servers, and Designing and Deploying a Solution)
Data Integrator XI-R2

I have attained both my Business Objects Certified Professional - Crystal Reports (BOCP-CR) and Business Objects Certified Professional - Business Objects Enterprise (BOCP-BOE) which are the only two currently available certifications for Business Objects Professionals.

I also am accredited to train Webi, Deski, Universe Design and Data Integrator (there are no certifications for these yet).

I was privileged to attend the 2007 Business Objects Insight held in Sydney, where the upcoming release of XI-R3 was announced.

- Josh

Triple J Hottest 100 for 2007

2008-01-27T21:09:00.000+09:00

Yesterday (Saturday the 26th) was the annual Triple J Hottest 100 countdown. Triple J is a youth radio station in Australia that plays all the good music you don't hear on commercial radio stations. For the last few years, we've all got together, had a barbie and listened to the countdown of the best 100 songs of the year for the day.

My top vote (a bit wishful I think) was the 'Salmon Dance' song by The Chemical Brothers. I make no apologies as I really like the song. But, sadly, it didn't come number 1. I suppose I should be grateful it at least made it into the list - I think it was around #50...

So, you ask, what was the top 10? Well, let's have a look:

Muse - Knights of Cydonia
Silverchair - Straight Lines
Kings of Leon - On Call
John Butler Trio - Better Than
Faker - This Heart Attack
Foo Fighters - The Pretender
Daft Punk - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger (Live)
Cold War Kids - Hang Me Up To Dry
Soko - I'll Kill Her
The Panics - Don't Fight It

If you want to, listen to the top 10 countdown here or check out the Hottest 100 website.

I was happy Silverchair didn't win (sorry guys, but wasn't too fussed) but the Muse song was awesome. They only won it by 13 votes too! The Foo Fighters and Daft Punk songs were okay too, but *sigh*... No Salmon Dance!

It was also just good catching up, good music, and I finally got to crack my first ever home-brew beer - a lager, and it tasted great!

And don't worry, I promise I'm gonna start posting stuff about work soon!

- Josh

Geek 2 Live?

2008-01-23T15:16:00.000+09:00

What a name for a blog: Geek 2 Live. I like it, so deal with it. And in fact, I really do geek to live. Or maybe it's live to geek :P

So, being a first post and all, what's my blog going to be about? I'm not too sure yet, and it's still evolving in my head. First of all, I am a big geek, so any new toys, stuff like that, will probably go on here.

But I also wanted somewhere to record things about work. I'm a Business Intelligence Consultant, and specifically, it means I use Business Objects software. And, believe it or not, there are hardly any Business Objects blogs out there.

So, hopefully you've come to the right blog. It's a mix of professional and personal, but I'll try to keep it more professional.

Hope you enjoy!

- Josh