Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 1 Siebel Upgrade Best Practices: A Web Seminar from Apex IT January...
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Transcript of Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 1 Siebel Upgrade Best Practices: A Web Seminar from Apex IT January...
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 1
Siebel Upgrade Best Practices: A Web Seminar from Apex IT
January 17, 2007
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 2
Apex IT Corporate: Who We Are
Apex IT is a Minneapolis-based systems integrator and consultancy with expertise in both Customer Relationship Management and Enterprise Resource Planning
An Oracle Certified Advantage Partner, Apex IT supports the core platforms of the Oracle Applications Family
Those platforms include:
PeopleSoft Enterprise
Oracle E-Business Suite
Siebel Enterprise and Siebel On Demand
Apex IT is a full service consultancy – our service offering addresses the entire application implementation continuum - everything from strategy development and implementation, to change management and post-implementation managed services
Our service offering also includes custom development capabilities
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 3
Apex IT Siebel Qualifications
Apex IT understands key Siebel Enterprise features and functionality – we know what to do to make a Siebel implementation successful, and more importantly, we know what not to do
Apex IT hires only the most skilled and competent Siebel consultants – a majority of our Siebel consultants have certifications in major releases like Siebel 99, 2000, 7 and 7.7
Apex IT is also a Siebel user – we are currently live on the newest release of Siebel On Demand
We have built our most important sales and marketing processes around Siebel On Demand
We rely on Siebel On Demand to provide the sales pipeline and sales forecast reports needed to plan for and allocate our consulting resources
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 5
To discuss Siebel upgrade planning best practices
To outline an tried and true upgrade flow and approach
To discuss Siebel upgrade execution best practices
Today’s Objectives
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 6
Upgrade Planning – Best Practices
Upgrade Flow
Upgrade Execution Best Practices
Questions
Agenda
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 7
A decision TO UPGRADE should be based on:
- New App vs. Old App Audit – Key stakeholders should conduct an analysis to ensure that the new Siebel release truly does contain clear feature/functionality advantages
- A Clear Cost vs. Benefits Analysis – The costs of maintaining the legacy Siebel app should outweigh the costs of the upgrade OR the risk of not upgrading is greater than the cost of upgrading
- A Clear New App ROI – The new Siebel app should deliver clear and measurable ROI
- Support Agreements – Make sure to consider the time left before Oracle “sunsets” support services for legacy application
Justifying the Upgrade Decision
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 8
Careful planning is required to be successful!
Determine your upgrade path Evaluate the complexity of the upgrade
─ Number of modules, integration point, and interfaces
─ Total number of scripts
Assess the current Siebel environment!─ Compare architecture and current implementation─ Identify areas of new functionality ─ Assess scripts, integration, reports, business process,
repository objects─ Use the Upgrade Assessment Worksheet in bookshelf
Estimate the level of effort to upgrade─ Determine the metrics and cost associated with the
upgrade─ The assessment should help estimate resources,
timelines and cost Establish a cross functional team
Planning Your Upgrade
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 9
Most upgrades will be a one-step process
Two-step upgrade applies to:
─ 6.x version upgrading to 7.8
On your first upgrade go with the highest version i.e. 6.x would go to 7.7; not 7.5
Don’t do any more work after the first upgrade than necessary
─ don’t compile a SRF, test application, etc
Resolve all conflict after each upgrade
Upgrade Versions and Paths: One-step vs. Two-steps
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 10
If you have performed an upgrade in the past, you can benchmark your time by:
─ Last upgrade was version 6 to 7, then this upgrade should require less time
─ Last upgrade was 7 to 7.7, then this upgrade should require the same amount of time
If you have never done an upgrade, you can estimate your time by:
─ The length of time it took for the original implementation and take 25% to 50% since steps such as requirements and build much small if even needed
*7.x upgrade from start to finish including testing and deployment will take 4-5 months
*How Long Will the Upgrade Take?
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 11
Typical Upgrade Project Plan
Plan Overview Plan Analyze
─ Perform a trial run ─ Inventory all applets, views and screens
Upgrade Development/QA─ Follow the upgrade flow─ Upgrading the QA environments a good benchmark for
Production Test
─ Training and change management activities Upgrade Production
─ Follow the upgrade flow Deploy
─ Planning for phase 2 can begin
Plan
Upgrade Dev and QA
Test
Production
Analyze
Phase 1 - Upgrade
Phase 2 - Enhancements
16
Weeks
11
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 12
Upgrade Planning – Best Practices
Upgrade Flow
Upgrade Execution Best Practices
Questions
Agenda
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 13
Upgrade Infrastucture
Pre-Upgrade Tasks
Upgrade Tasks
Post-Upgrade Tasks
Prepare Application
Data
Upgrade Database (upgrep)
Prepare for Repository
Merge
Merge Repository
Run Post merge
Utilities
Upgrade Custom DB
Schema (upgphys)
Set Up Environment
Application Administratio
n Tasks
Application Configuration
Tasks
Test the System
Upgrade hardware/software/database
Upgrade 3rd party
software
Install Siebel Software
Development Env
Only
Upgrade Flow
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 14
Upgrade Infrastructure
Upgrade Infrastucture
Pre-Upgrade Tasks
Upgrade TasksPost-Upgrade
Tasks
Make sure your hardware and software are up to required specification for the upgrade
Review Support Platforms Guide Review all Alerts, Tech Notes, FAQ’s, etc. Consider new or changed functionality Complete all upgrade assessments
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 15
Pre-Upgrade Tasks
Pre-Upgrade Tasks
Upgrade Infrastucture
Upgrade TasksPost-Upgrade
Tasks
Prepare the Siebel database for the upgrade─ Close all database connections─ Clear all pending workflow tasks─ Disable triggers
Workflow Process Migration─ Make sure workflow in development are the same as production if not, otherwise; when
production is upgraded workflows will be lost─ Best practice: All production workflows should be in development
Delete all old repositories
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 16
Upgrade Tasks
Upgrade TasksUpgrade
InfrastucturePre-Upgrade
TasksPost-Upgrade
Tasks
Run the database server configuration utility (upgrep) to perform a basic upgrade of the database schema and loads repository in prep for merge
Merge repository using Siebel Tools*
Run postmerge utilities to analyze your customizations and apply changes to them as needed to conform to the new user interface*
Run the database server configuration utility (upgphys) this will further upgrade the database with the changes resulting form the repository merge
*Development Environment Only
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 17
Post-Upgrade Tasks
Post-Upgrade Tasks
Upgrade Infrastucture
Pre-Upgrade Tasks
Upgrade Tasks
Set up environment─ Compile latest SRF
─ Extract developer’s databases
Application Administration─ Verify user access and visibly of views and screens
Application configuration─ Prepare QA environment for testing
─ Validate application data: LOV, views, responsibilities, etc.
Test the system─ Unit test the development environment
─ Full regression and stress test QA
─ User Acceptance
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 18
Upgrade Planning – Best Practices
Upgrade Flow
Upgrade Execution Best Practices
Questions
Agenda
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 19
Upgrep Best Practices
Upgrep: The Utility that upgrades the database schema and loads the repository for the new version of Siebel
Performance Problems?
─ Verify preparation activities were done
─ Assume the same problem will happen in QA/Prod
Use the logparse utility to check for errors
─ Compare to errors.rtf
Understand the steps upgrep is performing
Remember upgrep is restartable
Do take all recommended backups between steps
Failures are common: usually due to missed steps
Other common problems:
─ Not enough table or index space
─ Network timeouts
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 20
Merge Repository Best Practices
Run the repository merge on a Windows app server with fast processors, fast disk and lots of memory if available
Search merge0.txt for string “!!ERROR”
If errors occur, this will be noted in the status field on the application upgrade applet
─ Screens->Application Upgrader
Use Support Web’s Troubleshooting Steps. Explanations of most errors can be found here
Focus on fixing non-UI conflicts
Only “Upgrade Ancestor” type errors are considered acceptable
Search for deleted objects that have been added back
Search for obsolete object that you are using
─ Document these during the assessment
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 21
General Upgrade Best Practices
Upgrade Ancestors (Inheritance)─ Should have been set as objects were cloned; if upgrading from a release that didn’t
allow this, do it after UPGREP and before the repository merge
─ You can always use object comparison after the upgrade to synchronize copied objects with OOTB objects
Incorporate Custom Layout (ICL) can save time when upgrading 7.x to 7.8 if you extensively modified OOTB applets instead of making copies
─ Provides SOME consistency in UI by maintaining the controls and their locations form previous release
─ Due to changes in view navigation (aggregates&categories), view groups are not completely preserved
6.x version may need to visit each form and list applet
─ Form: controls, labels, vertical spacing, group boxes
─ List: max# of columns per applet
6.x version should run script analyzer to determine which script features are not compatible wit 7.8
─ Applet script will need to be moved to applet server script
─ Replace MsgBox with RaiseErrorText
Siebel has a utility that can help convert VB code to eScript
Don’t assume 7.0 and 7.5 scripts will upgrade smoothly to 7.8
─ Only fields displayed on applet can have their values “gotten”
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 22
Testing Upgrade Best Practices
Plan to upgrade test environment at least twice; maybe more
─ Restore test with a copy of production
─ First time upgrade in parallel to development to determine if performance will be an issue
Do not underestimate testing for the upgrade
Allow the same amount of testing time as it took in our initial implementation
Consider performance and stress testing
Test new 7.8 load balancing
Test data as well as the application
Test data migration if migration scripts changed
Copyright Apex IT. 2006 Slide 23
Production Upgrade Best Practices
Do at least one practice run of your production upgrade
─ Allows you to configure application servers ahead of time outside the upgrade window
─ Put together a project plan with estimates based on your practice run to help with calculating final upgrade window
There is more to the production upgrade than running upgrep and upgphys so don’t under estimate the amount of time your production upgrade will take
Put together a detail document of your upgrade steps using the upgrade guide but adding detail specific to your upgrade
─ How to QA each step in the production upgrade
─ Names and location of all scripts/utilities to be run