Automating Microstrategy Nightly Process 1

[reisw]

MSTR Version: Microstrategy 7.1.5
I am currently working on a project where we are trying to integrate our nightly load process with Microstrategy report caching etc. Here are the steps we are performing.

Nighlty Load Process Finishes then executes the following:
------------Shut Down----------------------------------
1. Idle Project -Idle project completely
2. Clear Jobs - cancels any jobs that may still be running
3. Purge cache - deletes object and element cache
4. Delete Report cache - deletes report cache
------------Start Up ----------------------------------
1. Unidle Project - resume project
2. Cache Reports - Execute Reports
------------End----------------------------------------
Some more details:
1.To idle and unidle the project we are using an executable from Microstrategy that was developed in C++ that idles server(TN6100-7X0-0039).
2. To clear jobs,purge cache, and cache reports we are using command manager
3. To delete report cache we are using "m8cahutl.exe" (TN5802-007-0006)

4. We are using Autosys to schedule these jobs and make them dependant on loading our warehouse

My questions are:

1. What have you seen in production environments and what recommendations do you have?

2. Have you had any success in using any kind of return codes based on successful execution of these processes and how do you accomplish this?

3. Has anyone used Autosys to execute these types of jobs and if so how did you accomplisch this?

4. In general what is everyone doing to their environments on a daily basis?

5. Am I missing anything?

Any other suggestions or comments would be appreciated.

Thanks

 

[namrac]

I am not idling projects nightly although I do restart all servers weekly with Command Manager.

M8cahutl run by a batch file for Cache management nightly and on weekends. (Different projects have different cache requirements in our environment.)

We also empty all users History Lists weekly by deleting all files in the History Directory.

The daily processes are run via an Rexec command to an NT server from our Mainframe scheduling system (ZEKE) which also manages warehouse loading on the RDBMS. This process also fires Event based schedules on the I servers.

Rather than return codes we just log everything to a text file. Small text files are e-mailed to support staff pagers.

This is a topic deserving more discussion.

 

[iusemsi]

We are now using Command Manager for our 7i MSI version. We stop and start the MSI services on the I server but have Control M run the bat files. That way our operators know if something went wrong.

Additionally, we also idle the project (not full). That way even if our warehouse is not loaded, the users are allowed in to retrieve from cache whatever ran the night before per any schedules. Hope that makes sense.