Business Intelligence Release Management Best Practices

By John Heaton

Oracle OpenWorld UnConference Sep 2010

Definition

Release Management is a well defined repeatable process in which code at the atomic level is moved from a source environment to a target environment in an auditable manner.

Business Intelligence

• Multiple software vendors and tools • Differing capabilities of software versioning • Various support / non support for version control

software • Capabilities for release management very immature • No segregation of duties • Lack of audit capabilities across the different software

products • Specialize processes and procedures required for each

software product requires high investment in resource training

Sample Lineage Matrix Source Environment Drop Zone Application Staging Warehouse OLAP Reporting Security

Sample SOR Data files Java files Tables Tables Cubes Reports Roles

Components Credentials Directories Images Views Views Mappings Images Users

DB Link Credentials Forms Functions Functions Models Filters LDAP

Files Procedures Procedures Calculations Parameters

FTP Mappings Mappings Dashboards

Workflows Workflows Presentation Data Model

Summaries

Software OWB Jdeveloper OWB OWB OWB OBIEE SQL Plus

Shell Scripts Shell Scripts Shell Scripts Shell Scripts Shell Scripts

SQL Plus SQL Plus SQL Plus SQL Plus SQL Plus

File Type *.mdl *.sh *.java *.mdl *.mdl *.mdl *.html *.sql

*.sh *.sql *.jpg *.sh *.sh *.sh *.rdp

*.sql *.txt *.sql *.sql *.sql *.xml

*.rtf

Repository OWB None Subversion OWB OWB OWB OBIEE None

None None None

Release Management

Release Management Process Steps

• Define – identification of and the sequence for components within a unique patch / patch set or version.

• Build – snapshot / image components at an acceptable point in time during the software development lifecycle.

• Deploy – the installation of the components into the target environment.

• Manage – definition and credentials for the different portions of the software solution.

Define • Unique release number per target environment • Capabilities for

– Patch – Patch set (roll up of patches) – Version

• Iterative and collaborative • Ability to contain multiple types of components (OWB,

SQL etc) • Components can be sequenced to the necessary order • Components identified to be included into the baseline

Build

• Extracts components from the source environment into a repository

• Places the release into a version control tool identified by the target and the release number

• Creates a single file for each atomic component

• Can be re executed multiple times

Deploy

• Identification of existing components which will be modified in order to be placed into a backup for potential rollback

• Import of the new components from the build repository • Registration and management of all connections required

by the components • Validation of the new components / structural integrity • Inclusion of successfully deployed components into the

baseline for the target environment • Validate logs for issues and errors which may be

undetected • Integrate with software product to maintain metadata

OWB –Release Management

• Define and bundle – Identify each component – Assign unique release number so release – Determine naming convention and sequence of

objects • E.g

– 1_TABLE_D_PERSON – 2_MAP_SRC_STG1_PERSON

– Potential tools • MS Excel • iSeerix Release Manager

OWB –Release Management

• Build – Export each component to a separate file – OMBPLUS – OMBEXPORT TO MDL FILE – OWB Design – Export metadata – Name the files by component and sequence

• E.g – 1_TABLE_D_PERSON – 2_MAP_SRC_STG1_PERSON

– Potential tools • OWB Design Center • OMBPLUS • iSeerix Release Manager

OWB –Release Management • Deploy

– Identify existing components

– Snapshot existing components to be updated

– Import updated components

– Validate imported components

– Register locations

– Add release components to deployment plan and deployDeploy deployment plan

– OMBPLUS

• OMBCREATE SNAPSHOT

• OMBIMPORT

• OMBVALIDATE

• OMBCREATE DEPLOYMENT PLAN

• OMBDEPLOY DEPLOYMENT PLAN

• OWB Design – Export metadata

– Potential tools

• OWB Design Center

• OMBPLUS

• Subversion (Visual SVN and Tortoise)

• iSeerix Release Manager

OWB –Release Management

• Manage – Store all necessary credentials in a safe and secure

manner – Create and Register all connections (DB Links,

Locations etc) – Update connections for credential changes (DB Links,

Locations etc) – Potential tools

• OWB Design Center • OMBPLUS • iSeerix Release Manager

Release Management - Additional • Additional files required for releases

– SQL

• Data inserts

• Table definitions

– FTP / SFTP

• Datafiles – flat files as seed data for tables (csv format etc)

– SSH

• Shell Scripts

Version Control

• Unified storage / repository across all software products

• Components stored at the atomic level • Defined by target environment • Separate release from baseline • Baseline – culmination of the most recent

components across all releases required to rebuild an environment

• Bridge between development and production environments

Release vs Baseline Target Environment

Rel1 Baseline

Table A --------------> Table A

Table B --------------> Table B

Table C --------------> Table C

Mapping A --------------> Mapping A

Mapping B --------------> Mapping B

Target Environment

Rel1 Baseline

Table A --------------> Table A

Table B --------------> Table B

Table C --------------> Table C

Mapping A --------------> Mapping A

Mapping B --------------> Mapping B

Rel2

Table D --------------> Table D

Table E --------------> Table E

Mapping B --------------> Mapping B

Mapping C --------------> Mapping C

Mapping D --------------> Mapping D

Release 1

Release 2 - Mapping B replaced in baseline with new version

Conclusion

• Release Management is a complex and potentially manual process

• Technology and tools can be utilized to automate the environment

• Use manual procedure to complete the steps of release management or invest in an automation tool