Change pointer from Production to Development for Catalog

[dm21]

I need to keep two versions of catalogue, one pointing to Production database and one pointing to Development database.

I tried changing servername to point it to dev. It works fine on my machine but does not work on other pc. In that pc cognos.ini still pointing to production.

How can I resolve this problem. I need this setup on ongoing basis so that users can test on UAT enviroment.

Currently I am using Cognos version 7.1 and working with sybase 12.1

Any Idea?

 

[esselinj]

Maybe you could import your catalogs in Architect and create 1 metadata environment. From this environment you can deliver several packages and deploy this in a catalog. In this scenario you only have to maintain 1 environment.

Jack

 

[griffindm]

dm21,

What is your database platform?

Dave Griffin


The Decision Support Group
Reporting Consulting with Cognos BI Tools
"Magic with Data"
Want good answers? Read FAQ401-2487 first!

http://www.decisionsupportgroup.com

 

[nagrajm]

You need to create 2 database definitions (in Impromptu Catalog->Databases), one for development and the other for production with their own connect strings.

Point one copy of the catalog to Development and the other to production.

You will have to create the database definition on every PC that has impromptu loaded.

 

[dm21]

I am working with Sybase 12.1 and Windows 2000 platform

Nagrajm,

When you say create two database definition in catalog.

Is it ok to keep two database definition together in one catalog or
Production_catalog should have database definition Prod_database
and Development_catalog should have database definition Dev_database.

How can I promote my development_catalog to Production_catalog.

I am not clear about this.

Thanks

 

[griffindm]

dm21,

What Nagrajm is referring to is the ability to define multiple logical databases in Impromptu, and then choose which one to associate with the catalog. This is a valid option, and allows you to have a single user moved between production and development versions of a catalog. However if users normally open the report first and let the report choose the catalog to open it can be more confusing to the end user, or require you to reassociate your reports with either the production or development version of your catalogs.

I prefer just changing the connect string to a single logical database, which only affects the users on that computer and requires no other maintenance.

If you are manually changing the definitions in the .ini file, you also need to change the cer2 (or cer3) .ini file, which maintains the database connection information as well. In some upcoming version Cognos intends to have the database info removed from the Cognos.ini and only appear in the cerx.ini file. At least that was their plan about a year ago.

Hope this helps,

Dave Griffin


The Decision Support Group
Reporting Consulting with Cognos BI Tools
"Magic with Data"
Want good answers? Read FAQ401-2487 first!

http://www.decisionsupportgroup.com

 

[dm21]

Dave,

Do you mean you have keep changing cognos.ini for users desktop too.

what if they forget to change from development to production?

How do you make sure?

 

[nagrajm]

This is how it works.

In All PCs that need to point to PRODUCTION
-------------------------------------------
Open Impromptu and navigate to Catalog->Databases. Open the Database name definition and enter the connect string of PRODUCTION database.

In All PCs that need to point to DEVELOPMENT
--------------------------------------------
Open Impromptu and navigate to Catalog->Databases. Open the Database name definition and enter the connect string of DEVELOPMENT database.

The connect strings that you enter in every desktop database definition will be stored in their respective cognos.ini file.

A word of note here - A database definition is stored in Cognos.ini and NOT with the catalog itself. The catalog only keeps the logical database name and not the conenct string. When you open a catalog, impromptu looks-up the connect string from cognos.ini using the logical database name stored in the catalog.

Example
-------
Catalog -> FACT.CAT has been distributed to every user(or available on a shared drive), some would do UATs on Development server and others run reports for operations.

FACT.CAT is pointed to a logical database name called SYBASE_1 for all users. However, for a user performing UAT impromptu will retrieve data from DEVELOPMENT since his cognos.ini has the connect string to DEVELOPMENT and like-wise for PRODUCTION users.

Hope that helps.

 

[dm21]

Nagraj,

I tried this and it works.

Thank you.