MIGRATING CONTENTS FROM DEV TO HIGHER ENVIRONMENTS

MIGRATING CONTENTS FROM DEV TO HIGHER ENVIRONMENTS

Basic Steps & Directions

Move content from one SharePoint 2010 site into a set of lists or document libraries located in another SharePoint 2010 site.

Before we start moving content, you need to complete a small checklist of tasks.

·         Make sure you have set up and configured a PerformancePoint Service Application that will be used by the destination Web application.

·         Recreate the current site and list structure in the destination Web application.

·         Think about a security structure and implement it.

First point-- Without a destination Web application that is connected to a PerformancePoint Service Application, migration won’t work.

Second point -- PerformancePoint Services 2010 content migration tool doesn’t recreate existing site structures. You need to recreate the exact same site structure in the destination Web application. Failing to do so results in broken PerformancePoint references.

Third & Final point -- You need to implement a security structure, because existing permissions from a SharePoint 2010 source will not be migrated to a SharePoint 2010 destination. Instead, the existing destination security structure will be used.

Step 1-- Use the PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer to migrate content from a SharePoint 2010 source to a SharePoint 2010 location. PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer is a ClickOnce application that needs to be downloaded and installed once from a Business Intelligence Center. This can be done by creating a new site collection using the Business Intelligence Center template.

Step 2-- After you have created the BI center, you need to click the Start Using PerformancePoint Services link and click the Run Dashboard Designer button, which starts the download and installation of the client (note that a client requires .NET Framework 3.5 SP1).

The following procedure explains how to migrate content from a SharePoint 2010 source to a SharePoint 2010 location.

1.      Launch the PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer by clicking Start, selecting All Programs, and then selecting SharePoint. Select PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer.

2.      Load an existing dashboard.

3.      Click the Office button and then select the Save Workspace As option to save the existing dashboard as a Dashboard Designer Workspace.

4.      Point the Dashboard Designer to the destination location. You can do this by choosing Designer Options, which can be opened by clicking the Office button, choosing the Server tab, and specifying a new location.

5.      Click Import Items, which is located at the upper right on the Ribbon.

6.      Browse to the previously created Dashboard Designer Workspace.

7.      Select the items you want to copy to the destination location.

This action will cause the Import Items To SharePoint Wizard to start copying PerformancePoint content to the new location. The final screen in the wizard displays a summary that allows you to open the migration log files if you want to see more details.

There are a couple of issues you need to be aware of when it comes to moving PerformancePoint 2010 content.

a)      When you select an object in Dashboard Designer, it loads all of the dependencies of that object. For example, opening a dashboard definition in SharePoint Designer will cause all of its dependencies to be loaded. This means that you should always choose objects that are high in the hierarchy when moving content (a top-down approach) to save time.

Dashboard Designer allows you to skip existing data sources during content migration. Typically, you will migrate them once, update data source references in the destination location (which is often needed in a new environment), and after that leave them as they are. This way, you will have to update those references only once.

Dashboard Designer ensures those references will also be updated, whereas SharePoint migration tooling just migrates the content and leaves those references as is. However, you can use the SharePoint backup and restore tools as long as you restore content to the same site structure. In that case, the references don’t need to be updated.

 

Step By Step details of Migrating Reports/Dashboard/Scorecard  from one Environment to Another

To migrate your content from one environment to another (for example:  development to test, test to production, etc), flowing approach is recommended.

First, you will need to pull the content from your PerformancePoint Monitoring Server  into a workspace file locally using the Dashboard Designer.  Only pull the content that you wish to migrate into a clean workspace file.  If you select a dashboard, all of the scorecards, KPIs, data sources, indicators and report views associated with that dashboard will be also included.  Similarly, if you select a scorecard, all of the KPIs, data sources and indicators associated will also be included.  Save this workspace file locally. 

From the dashboard designer connected to the new server, open the workspace (bswx) file that you saved.  Follow the below steps to modify the settings and publish to your new server.

Change the server name

1.       From the Options dialog box (File > Options), select the Server tab.

2.       Change the Server URL to the URL for your new Monitoring Server, such as http://<<NewServer:>><<Portno>>/WebService/Service.asmx.

3.       Change the Server name URL to the URL for your new Monitoring Server.

4.       Click Connect to verify the server is working properly.

5.       Click OK to close the dialog box.

Update the data source

1.       Select the first Data Source in your workspace file.

2.       Change the connection information to the new location of the data.  Note, if you built your content on your production data, these will not need to change.  If you built your content on a test or development copy of the source date, these will all need updated.

3.       Click Test Connection to ensure that your data source is properly configured.

4.       From the properties tab, update the Owner field and the User Permissions field with the proper credentials.  Note, if the users are the same in both of your environments, this step will not need to be completed.

5.       Repeat for each data source. 

Update the scorecards

1.       Select the scorecards you wish to update.

2.       From the properties tab, update the Owner field and the User Permissions field with your  proper credentials.  Again, only required if users are different between your two environments.

Update the reports

1.       Select the Reports folder from the Workspace Browser.

2.       Highlite all Reports in the Workspace (making sure that the Workspace tab is selected in the Workspace area).

3.       Select the Bulk Edit toolbar button on the Home tab.

4.       Update the Owner field with the proper credentials.  Only required if the users are different between your two environments. 

5.       Select Next then Finish.

Update the dashboard

1.       Select each of the dashboards.

2.       From the properties tab, update the Owner field and the User Permissions field with the proper credentials.  Only required if the users are different between environments.

Publish the dashboard and its views

1.       From the Home tab of Dashboard Designer, click Publish All.

2.       On the Export tab, click SharePoint.

3.       Select the dashboard to deploy.  Click Next.

4.       Type the SharePoint URL (such as http://MyServer/).

5.       Select the Document Library for your published dashboard and click Next.

6.       Click Finish to accept the default master page and publish the dashboard.

Some sample Screenshots of how the steps are performed.

In Performance Point Services 2010 we need to start out by opening up Dashboard Designer and connecting to the new environment.

Click on the Import Items button in the Home Ribbon of Dashboard Designer and select your workspace file (this will be the file from your other environment that contains the content that you want to migrate and move to the new server).

Now you will walk through a wizard to select the content that you want to import to the new server (environment).

In this case I am going to do both items and I only have one location for each on my new server that I am moving the content to.

The items will now be imported and saved to the specified locations and you will receive a results 
page.

You can then add the items to the workspace and start to make the necessary changes.