Oracle Financial Data Quality Management (FDM) Application Migration from one environment to another

This Mindstream Analytics blog post discusses the techniques of how to efficiently migrate an Oracle Financial Data Quality Management (FDM) Application from one environment to another (e.g. PRODUCTION TO DEVELOPMENT).

Note – In this particular demonstration, we used the MSSQL Server Management Studio as our RDBMS client. The name of the application being migrated over from DEVELOPMENT Environment to PRODUCTION Environment is called FINANCE.

The following topics are discussed:

-          Creating file and FDM Application related database backups

-          Copying the backups from one environment to the other

-          Acquiring root directory paths for storing File System Folders

-          Workbench, FDM Web Client and Data Validations

-          Connectivity and Data Load testing

1.      Migrating Files and Backups

1.1.          Create Database Backups

The first thing we need to do in order to successfully migrate an FDM Application from DEVELOPMENT (DEV) to PRODUCTION (PROD) is to migrate the Database that is related to the application.

First, create a Backup or extract the corresponding SQL Database from the DEV Environment. (The DB Backup and Extraction process can be done in many different ways, depending on how your databases are setup or what RDBMS Client you use). This backup should be stored on the same server, at a location that is easy to find

1.2.          Copy the Backups to PROD

The backup created in Step 1 needs to be copied over and imported to the PROD Server where your RDBMS Client is setup, again at a location that is convenient and easy to find. In our case, we created a new Empty Database Shells in MSSQL Server Management Studio, called FINANCE (Right-click on Databases -> New Database -> Create Database (FINANCE)

1.3.          Migrate the backups from DEV

In MSSQL Server Management Studio, Right-click on one the newly created FINANCE Empty Database Shell and go to Tasks-> Restore -> Database -> Click on ‘From Device’ -> Browse -> Choose the backup copied in Step2

Now that we have successfully migrated the FDM Application Database over to PROD SQL Server, we need to move over the FDM root folder files

1.4.          Copy the File System folders for FINANCE Application in DEV

In your Oracle Home Directory <home_partition>\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\products\FinancialDataQuality\Shared Components\Config on the FDM DEV Server, open the ‘HyperionFDMApplications.xml’ file via Internet Explorer (Right-click on the file -> Open with -> Internet Explorer). Here you can see which Database belongs to the FINANCE application and what the FDM Root folder is (see image below)

1.5.          Copy the File System Folders to PROD

In the FDM Root Folder Location, select only the FINANCE Folder and copy it inside the FDM PROD Server. As before, it is very important that you choose/create a location that is easy to find. For the purpose of demonstrating, we created a FDMDATA_fromDev_Migration inside the FDM PROD Server

1.6.          Get the root Folder for FINANCE FDM Application in PROD

In <home_partition>\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\products\FinancialDataQuality\Shared Components\Config on the FDM PROD server, open the ‘HyperionFDMApplications.xml’ file via Internet Explorer (Right-click on the file -> Open with -> Internet Explorer)

Now, we assume that a FDM Application shell has already been created inside FDM. For assistance on how to create an FDM Application Shell, please go to http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/hyp/HFM11.1.2.1_FDM_Install/FDMInstall11121.htm.

In our example, there is already an FDM Applications previously created (FINANCE)

As in DEV, please memorize the Root Folder for the File System folders in PROD (In this case, it is D:\FDMDATA)

1.7.          Copy the File System Folders from the Backup Location to the PROD FDM Root Folder

The FINANCE File System Folder from the D:\FDMDATA_fromDev_Migration folder is copied over to the FDM Root Folder (D:\FDMDATA) in PROD

2.     Data Validations

Access the Application and make sure that all of the settings in the two FDM Applications in PROD are analog to what we have in DEV

1.8.          Workbench Validations

In workbench (Start-> Workbench), choose the existing application that you are migrating and enter the credentials to login - Check Machine Profiles: Expand Target System Adapters -> Expand the adapter e.g. (ESX11X-G4-H)Hyperion Essbase-> Expand Machine Profiles and right-click on the machine profile already in there (dev-fdm) -> Click on Properties -> Change Source machine to what the it should be for PROD (e.g. prod-fdm) and Target Machine (e.g. prod-essbase)

Go through Tools -> Application Settings, Integration Settings, and Configuration Settings. Make sure that they all match the Settings that are in the DEV environment for the same application

1.9.          Web Client Validations

Open Internet Explorer -> Go to your FDM Hyperlink. Pick the application that you are migrating, and Login to the FDM Web Client

1.10.          Compare the Mappings for every Type and Dimension

In Activities -> Maps, a comparison was made to check whether all of the Mappings for each Dimension in PROD are the same to the ones in DEV

1.11.          Test whether the connection to Essbase has been successfully established in PROD

In Activities -> Maps -> Click on Target Account twice -> Click on a small triangle on the right-side of the field -> Choose Browse from Target Value. If a window with a list of all Target Key Lookups opens, this means that the connection is established

Go through a handful of the locations (Metadata > Locations, Import Formats, Validation Entities etc.), as well as other tabs (Activities, Analysis, etc.) in the FDM Web Client,  and make sure that all of the settings match the ones in DEV. Some examples shown below

1.12.          Try to load data

You can test the functionality of the migrated application either with a test file that you can load to a future period, or you can reload the latest period. This will tell us what is working and what is not.

Other approaches that can be used (depending on the way you load data)

·         Importing a File from the FDM Web Client

·         EAS Outline Load from a Batch Script

·         File load through a batch script which is scheduled to run daily with Windows Scheduler.