Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test?
Thanks to everyone that responded ... there was some very useful information! Susan On Fri, May 15, 2009 at 9:15 AM, Guillaume Rheault guilla...@dcshq.comwrote: ** I am in favor too of the database copy from production to test and even development. Copying a database between servers with Oracle is simple, your DBA should not have any problem with that. The other reason why I think that having a copy of production in dev and test is to make sure that the application performs well with large amounts of data, which means among other things that the appropriate indexes are providing the expected performance benefits. I am not a big fan of Migrator, I rather use the Admin tool (and now the Developer Studio) to migrate workflow. However, I have found that Migrator is useful tool to compare environments and produce difference reports. -Guillaume -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) on behalf of Nicky Madjarov Sent: Fri 05/15/09 9:07 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test? Susan, The most effective way, in my opinion, is to restore a copy of the prod db, then masage the data and start the test ar services. It will have all the data from prod, well loaded system takes about 4-6 hours to restore, and then you do the data masaging, that can be scripted as sql and runs for less than a minute. It may sound extreme, but it is the only clean way to find how particular release will affect the production environment. Because this is labor/resource intensive operation you may consider establishing a release cycle, say 2x a month. This will help you to have everything well organized and properly planned. Of course, nothing is bullerproof. Regards, Nicky Madjarov phone: 973-202-4278 Find out how to bust your AR System performance @ http://www.SpeedUpARS.com http://www.speedupars.com/ - Original Message - From: Susan Palmer Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:38 PM Subject: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test? ** Hi Everyone, We are actually (finally) moving to a Sun Solaris 10 environment. Dev server is built and in use. Prod server almost done and will be in production the weekend of 5/30 !! We'll have a BIGIP to two prod servers, one active and one as a failover if needed. Two Oracle 10g databases using dataguard to keep insync. We even will have dev and prod Crystal Report Servers (not sure I see the value to a dev but it completes the picture). The next step is inserting a Test server(s) into the mix. It's almost overwhelming to go to such a 'full' environment. It brings with it some process changes that are challenging. I'd like some feedback on best methods you've come across. 1. How do you keep the Test server database reasonably current reflecting the Production database? Is there a way to do this without intervention to clean server names or manually migrate data? 2. Do any of you have a situation where the production operations group is responsible for moving all enhancements from Test to Production and they are not Remedy trained? We do have migrator but there are some inherent problems with using it when Forms you migrate have Audit or Archive forms. Not sure if this was just a windows problems but had several situations of corrupted data in the past. Any advice is welcome. Thanks, Susan ARS v7.0.1P2 Sun Solaris 10 Oracle 10gr2 Susan Palmer ShopperTrak RCT Corporation 200 W Monroe St 11th Floor Chicago, IL 60606 Office 312-529-5325 Cell 312-502-7687 _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.netsponsor%3armisoluti...@verizon.netARSlist: Where the Answers Are _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test?
Susan, The most effective way, in my opinion, is to restore a copy of the prod db, then masage the data and start the test ar services. It will have all the data from prod, well loaded system takes about 4-6 hours to restore, and then you do the data masaging, that can be scripted as sql and runs for less than a minute. It may sound extreme, but it is the only clean way to find how particular release will affect the production environment. Because this is labor/resource intensive operation you may consider establishing a release cycle, say 2x a month. This will help you to have everything well organized and properly planned. Of course, nothing is bullerproof. Regards, Nicky Madjarov phone: 973-202-4278 Find out how to bust your AR System performance @ http://www.SpeedUpARS.com - Original Message - From: Susan Palmer Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:38 PM Subject: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test? ** Hi Everyone, We are actually (finally) moving to a Sun Solaris 10 environment. Dev server is built and in use. Prod server almost done and will be in production the weekend of 5/30 !! We'll have a BIGIP to two prod servers, one active and one as a failover if needed. Two Oracle 10g databases using dataguard to keep insync. We even will have dev and prod Crystal Report Servers (not sure I see the value to a dev but it completes the picture). The next step is inserting a Test server(s) into the mix. It's almost overwhelming to go to such a 'full' environment. It brings with it some process changes that are challenging. I'd like some feedback on best methods you've come across. 1. How do you keep the Test server database reasonably current reflecting the Production database? Is there a way to do this without intervention to clean server names or manually migrate data? 2. Do any of you have a situation where the production operations group is responsible for moving all enhancements from Test to Production and they are not Remedy trained? We do have migrator but there are some inherent problems with using it when Forms you migrate have Audit or Archive forms. Not sure if this was just a windows problems but had several situations of corrupted data in the past. Any advice is welcome. Thanks, Susan ARS v7.0.1P2 Sun Solaris 10 Oracle 10gr2 Susan Palmer ShopperTrak RCT Corporation 200 W Monroe St 11th Floor Chicago, IL 60606 Office 312-529-5325 Cell 312-502-7687 _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test?
One thing to keep in mind is that the Licenses are now stored in the database (since v7.1.0). Make sure that Production has ALL the server licenses listed (so when you restore to Test or Dev the system will not complain about licensing). We have Dev, 2 Test, and Production systems and Migrator (All home grown apps. No BMC suites). We find we only need to do a prod refresh about once a year. Our release cycles are every other month as we give the users a 2 week UAT (User Acceptance Test) period in addition to our 2 week test cycle. Fred From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) [mailto:arsl...@arslist.org] On Behalf Of Nicky Madjarov Sent: Friday, May 15, 2009 8:08 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test? Susan, The most effective way, in my opinion, is to restore a copy of the prod db, then masage the data and start the test ar services. It will have all the data from prod, well loaded system takes about 4-6 hours to restore, and then you do the data masaging, that can be scripted as sql and runs for less than a minute. It may sound extreme, but it is the only clean way to find how particular release will affect the production environment. Because this is labor/resource intensive operation you may consider establishing a release cycle, say 2x a month. This will help you to have everything well organized and properly planned. Of course, nothing is bullerproof. Regards, Nicky Madjarov phone: 973-202-4278 Find out how to bust your AR System performance @ http://www.SpeedUpARS.com - Original Message - From: Susan Palmer mailto:suzanpal...@gmail.com Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:38 PM Subject: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test? Hi Everyone, We are actually (finally) moving to a Sun Solaris 10 environment. Dev server is built and in use. Prod server almost done and will be in production the weekend of 5/30 !! We'll have a BIGIP to two prod servers, one active and one as a failover if needed. Two Oracle 10g databases using dataguard to keep insync. We even will have dev and prod Crystal Report Servers (not sure I see the value to a dev but it completes the picture). The next step is inserting a Test server(s) into the mix. It's almost overwhelming to go to such a 'full' environment. It brings with it some process changes that are challenging. I'd like some feedback on best methods you've come across. 1. How do you keep the Test server database reasonably current reflecting the Production database? Is there a way to do this without intervention to clean server names or manually migrate data? 2. Do any of you have a situation where the production operations group is responsible for moving all enhancements from Test to Production and they are not Remedy trained? We do have migrator but there are some inherent problems with using it when Forms you migrate have Audit or Archive forms. Not sure if this was just a windows problems but had several situations of corrupted data in the past. Any advice is welcome. Thanks, Susan ARS v7.0.1P2 Sun Solaris 10 Oracle 10gr2 Susan Palmer ShopperTrak RCT Corporation 200 W Monroe St 11th Floor Chicago, IL 60606 Office 312-529-5325 Cell 312-502-7687 ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test?
I am in favor too of the database copy from production to test and even development. Copying a database between servers with Oracle is simple, your DBA should not have any problem with that. The other reason why I think that having a copy of production in dev and test is to make sure that the application performs well with large amounts of data, which means among other things that the appropriate indexes are providing the expected performance benefits. I am not a big fan of Migrator, I rather use the Admin tool (and now the Developer Studio) to migrate workflow. However, I have found that Migrator is useful tool to compare environments and produce difference reports. -Guillaume -Original Message- From: Action Request System discussion list(ARSList) on behalf of Nicky Madjarov Sent: Fri 05/15/09 9:07 AM To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Subject: Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test? Susan, The most effective way, in my opinion, is to restore a copy of the prod db, then masage the data and start the test ar services. It will have all the data from prod, well loaded system takes about 4-6 hours to restore, and then you do the data masaging, that can be scripted as sql and runs for less than a minute. It may sound extreme, but it is the only clean way to find how particular release will affect the production environment. Because this is labor/resource intensive operation you may consider establishing a release cycle, say 2x a month. This will help you to have everything well organized and properly planned. Of course, nothing is bullerproof. Regards, Nicky Madjarov phone: 973-202-4278 Find out how to bust your AR System performance @ http://www.SpeedUpARS.com - Original Message - From: Susan Palmer Newsgroups: public.remedy.arsystem.general To: arslist@ARSLIST.ORG Sent: Thursday, May 14, 2009 10:38 PM Subject: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test? ** Hi Everyone, We are actually (finally) moving to a Sun Solaris 10 environment. Dev server is built and in use. Prod server almost done and will be in production the weekend of 5/30 !! We'll have a BIGIP to two prod servers, one active and one as a failover if needed. Two Oracle 10g databases using dataguard to keep insync. We even will have dev and prod Crystal Report Servers (not sure I see the value to a dev but it completes the picture). The next step is inserting a Test server(s) into the mix. It's almost overwhelming to go to such a 'full' environment. It brings with it some process changes that are challenging. I'd like some feedback on best methods you've come across. 1. How do you keep the Test server database reasonably current reflecting the Production database? Is there a way to do this without intervention to clean server names or manually migrate data? 2. Do any of you have a situation where the production operations group is responsible for moving all enhancements from Test to Production and they are not Remedy trained? We do have migrator but there are some inherent problems with using it when Forms you migrate have Audit or Archive forms. Not sure if this was just a windows problems but had several situations of corrupted data in the past. Any advice is welcome. Thanks, Susan ARS v7.0.1P2 Sun Solaris 10 Oracle 10gr2 Susan Palmer ShopperTrak RCT Corporation 200 W Monroe St 11th Floor Chicago, IL 60606 Office 312-529-5325 Cell 312-502-7687 _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
Re: Adding a Test server to our Prod and Dev Environment - Best way to sync Test?
Hi Susan, I have several dev servers that I keep up to date with various prod servers. I use Misi's rrrChive program for doing that. It is free and extremely useful for synchronising the data between two servers. It is comand line and config file driven so it is easy to create various config files for keeping various applications in sync. It has saved me a lot of time over the last 12 months. Typically I don't want to synchronise all tables all the time so this is much better than either database copies or manual methods. It has a lot of options for doing things like disabling merge workflow automatically, dropping and creating indexes etc. Once you have a config file you trust you can use it again and again, just keeping it up to date when new tables are added or removed from the sync as needed. I don't use Migrator for code migrations. Like you I have had some bad experiences with corrupt workflow using migrator. I'd rather take full control over the process so I use the standard def file import. Quite often there is some manual intervention required to fix the odd discrepency that can't be migrated. eg. changing the field type of an existing field. I don't think it is practical to have migrations done without any Remedy training unless you have a Remedy person on standby to fix problems. With simple and/or well tested migrations it might work but I'd be sceptical of this being the best way to do things at most organisations. Rod On 15/05/2009, Susan Palmer suzanpal...@gmail.com wrote: ** Hi Everyone, We are actually (finally) moving to a Sun Solaris 10 environment. Dev server is built and in use. Prod server almost done and will be in production the weekend of 5/30 !! We'll have a BIGIP to two prod servers, one active and one as a failover if needed. Two Oracle 10g databases using dataguard to keep insync. We even will have dev and prod Crystal Report Servers (not sure I see the value to a dev but it completes the picture). The next step is inserting a Test server(s) into the mix. It's almost overwhelming to go to such a 'full' environment. It brings with it some process changes that are challenging. I'd like some feedback on best methods you've come across. 1. How do you keep the Test server database reasonably current reflecting the Production database? Is there a way to do this without intervention to clean server names or manually migrate data? 2. Do any of you have a situation where the production operations group is responsible for moving all enhancements from Test to Production and they are not Remedy trained? We do have migrator but there are some inherent problems with using it when Forms you migrate have Audit or Archive forms. Not sure if this was just a windows problems but had several situations of corrupted data in the past. Any advice is welcome. Thanks, Susan ARS v7.0.1P2 Sun Solaris 10 Oracle 10gr2 Susan Palmer ShopperTrak RCT Corporation 200 W Monroe St 11th Floor Chicago, IL 60606 Office 312-529-5325 Cell 312-502-7687 _Platinum Sponsor: rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are_ ___ UNSUBSCRIBE or access ARSlist Archives at www.arslist.org Platinum Sponsor:rmisoluti...@verizon.net ARSlist: Where the Answers Are
