Upgrage from 8.1 to 8.4

[k2]

Hi All,

My company is planning for a massive upgrade of FM Packages,Cubes,Reports from COGNOS BI 8.1 to 8.4. Before moving in to the upgrade am just to get suggestion from you all , will there be any big rework need to be done in Reports,models etc. I aware that reports using Javascripts in 8.1 are not supported, it will be a great help for my team if you share the experiences related to this upgrade.Kindly let us know how the reports/packages/cubes will behave after the upgrade.

Thanks

[smiley]

How about a simple dry-run in vmware?
Install 8.4 clean, create a new Content Store, import the full content store data from 8.1, and copy your cubes on the 8.4
Then just play around, and try to assess the damage.

[david.stachon]

It's hard to say how things are going to go without knowing your system....however, I've recently done upgrades from 1.1 to 8.3, and 8.2 to 8.4 and only ran into a few relatively minor issues....

1) The FM Models upgrade fine. Provided they validate and work as expected in 8.2, likely they will be fine in 8.4. Pre-upgrade, you'll want to have your models really clean (i.e. no invalid objects) as to not cause red herrings when you actually perform the upgrade.

2) Cubes (PowerPlay?) ....no big deal there.

3) Reports ...this is where the work is. As I'm sure you know, every single one needs be to tested. What I found is that all Javascript objects broke (but were pretty easily repairable), and that 8.4 requires far tighter code. For example, in 8.1 you could somehow get away with using OLAP functions against relational data. 8.4 won't let you do this. I have seen reports that break master -> detail relationships on upgrade and just simply have to be re-done.

...in terms of "project management" ....estimate 1/2 hour per report. (per person).

4) Packages ...I would suggest that you don't use the upgraded packages (from the content store upgrade), but, following your FM model upgrade republish all your packages. This is the safer option as it insures that when new development starts in 8.4 that the packages have been retroactively tested.

Couple more pointers:

1) Ensure (if possible) a change freeze has occurred in your production environment. There's nothing worse than having to do stuff to two environments and for 8.1 / 8.4 code to get out of synch.

2) For the people report testing, make sure they have two monitors....one will be running 8.1, the other running 8.4 ...then, they can compare the two very easily.

3) If you have a custom "theme" for cognos connection, expect to be re-doing it. Any upgrade I've done, any customized theme looks like crap when upgrading.

4) Make sure your users are shown Report Studio Express, and Go! Office. This will get them excited about the upgrade. Report Studio Express is simply awesome at cube reporting.....very similar to PowerPlay Deskop -> Reporter Mode.

[k2]

Hi All,

Could any one tell me, how to move the reports in MY FOLDER  from version 8.1 to 8.4. Thanks

[cognos_guru]

Another note, when I upgraded from 8.2 to 8.3, I had to change the Sample Audit package because the data source has a hard-coded schema name (I think it is Cognos_Audit).  Our audit schema name is not that and it was causing problems whenever I'd try to create new reports off of the package.  I'm not sure if that is still a problem in 8.4 or not, but it's something to look for.

As far as the "MY FOLDER" items, I don't think you can back that up unless it is public content.  Someone else will need to verify that.  I suggest creating a temporary folder(s) in the Public Content area and have your users move their My Folder content into there.

[david.stachon]

yeah, you can upgrade / backup "My Folders"....

do a full content store backup and select "Include User Account Information"