Configuration management in a business intelligence solution, Part 2

Configuration management in a business intelligence solution, Part 2

Read part 1 of this tip.

Business intelligence tools based on the point-click-generate report metaphor today (Business Objects, Oracle Discoverer, Cognos, Brio Enterprise, MicroStrategy, etc.) have a semantic layer which allows the tool to translate the point and click into appropriate SQL statements as part of the user generated report or query.

Each vendor provides an administration tool, which is used to build this semantic layer. Some of the common references in the industry to this layer are universe, end-user layer, reporting metadata or schema. The focus of the administration tool is to build and support the semantic layer in production, while some of tools may include the ability to track changes in the semantic layer most would require the administrator to follow a manual process to track and identify changes.

The configuration management software enables:

  • In case of corruption or failure of semantic layer in production, the production support team can fall back on any deployed semantic layer definition within the configuration management software. This is a more elegant solution than having the BI tool administrator and the DBA frantically trying to selectively restore backup from a few days or weeks ago of the semantic layer.
  • The configuration management

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  • software provides the ability to track and identify changes to the last version in production using a querying and reporting option. This can provide invaluable insight and statistics.
  • Using configuration management software can force IT production support to follow a standard methodology/process of testing all changes in development and test environment and achieving code-freeze prior to promoting changes into production. This in turn forces the user community to also think in term of application releases and thus eliminate the pressure of making modifications to a production environment on the fly.

For more information, check out SearchCRM.com's Best Web Links on Business Intelligence.


This was first published in September 2002

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