If you have limited disk space, you can restore both the
Metrics database and the PowerCube in increments.
Before you begin
If you plan to restore the PowerCube on a staging server
before you copy it to your production server, begin by installing Cognos® Business Intelligence on the
staging server. Install and configure the staging server just like
the production server. Install the customized version of Cognos Business Intelligence on the staging
server. This server must also have access to the LDAP directory where
the Cognos administrator
account resides.
About this task
The Metrics database contains the raw data that is used
to generate the PowerCube. Whenever you restore the Metrics database
from the backup, you must rebuild the PowerCube to ensure that it
contains the full set of data.
If the Metrics database is large
and your space for restoring the database and rebuilding the PowerCube
is limited, you can complete the process incrementally by restoring
subsets of data. Rebuild the PowerCube to add each additional set
of data incrementally. Delete the restored data to prepare the database
for the next increment. When the PowerCube is rebuilt, complete a
final restore on the Metrics database to replace the data that you
deleted between increments.
If the database
is large, it can take a long time to restore it and rebuild the PowerCube.
To minimize the impact on your users, restore the PowerCube to a staging
server and then copy the completed PowerCube to the production server.
Procedure
- Prepare the staging server where you plan to rebuild the
PowerCube:
- Copy the Transformer_install_path/metricsmodel directory
and its contents from the production server where IBM Cognos Transformer
is installed.
This directory contains the PowerCube
model files that specify how the PowerCube is built. The directory
is specified in the cognos.transformer.install.path
property
in the cognos-setup.properties file.
- Create an incremental version of the script that builds
the PowerCube:
- Go to the Powercube_save_path/metricsmodel directory.
- Copy the build-all.sh|bat script to a new
file called incremental-build-all.sh|bat in the
same directory.
- Edit the incremental-build-all.sh|bat file
and delete the following statements to avoid accidentally deleting
incremental additions to the PowerCube:
- Save and close the file.
- On the database server, restore the first increment of
data to the Metrics database. For more information, see your database
product documentation.
For best results, restore data
in full-month increments (multiple months are acceptable provided
you restore the complete set of data for each month). Restoring data
for full months ensures that you do not duplicate data by restoring
it twice.
For example, suppose that you restore data for 1-May-2014
through 12-May-2014 but omit the remainder of the data for that month.
In the next increment, you must ensure that you restore only the remaining
data for that month (13-May-2014 through 31-May-2014). If you want
to restore the entire month in the second increment, you must first
delete the partial month that you already restored. Restoring full-month
increments avoids this problem.
Note: If the final set of data comprises
an incomplete month, there is no risk of duplication.
If
you restored a partial month"s data, you can delete those records
from the database. You can identify the records from the timestamp
column for each table. Table 1 lists the database tables and corresponding
timestamp columns where you can delete records. For example, in the
F_TRX_EVENT database table, check the data in the EVENT_TS column
and delete the records where the date falls within the time period
that you want to delete.
Table 1. Tables to reference when you
are deleting records for partial monthsColumn 1 lists the name of a table in the database
and column 2 specifies the corresponding timestamp column that you
can use to determine which records to delete.
Table name in database |
Timestamp column |
F_TRX_EVENT |
EVENT_TS |
F_USER_EVENT_COUNT |
UPDATE_TS |
F_ITEM_EVENT_COUNT |
UPDATE_TS |
- On the staging server, rebuild the first increment of restored
data in the PowerCube:
- Go to the Powercube_save_path/metricsmodel directory.
- Run the build-all.sh|bat script
to rebuild the PowerCube from the first set of restored Metrics data.
If there is already a PowerCube in the directory, the build-all.sh|bat script
deletes it before it builds the new one. When you build the PowerCube
incrementally, run this version of the script once only so that you
do not delete the incremental copies of the PowerCube.
- Complete the following steps for each subsequent increment
of data to be restored:
- On the database server, delete the previously restored
data from the Metrics database to prevent accidental duplication.
- On the database server, restore the next increment of
data to the Metrics database by following the instructions in your
database product documentation.
- On the staging server, rebuild the new increment of
restored data to the PowerCube by running the incremental-build-all.sh|bat script.
Repeat this process until the PowerCube is rebuilt.
- Move the rebuilt PowerCube to the production server by
copying the Powercube_save_path directory
and its contents from the staging server:
The directory
is specified in the cognos.cube.path
property in
the cognos-setup.properties file.
- Delete the data from the Metrics database that was previously
restored. Deleting this data prevents duplication the next time that
you restore the database.