Business Objects Administration – Backup and Recovery

Hello BOOglers,

Backup and Recovery in Business Objects is going be the topic of discussion today.

A backup and recovery plan consists of making copies of data which may be used to restore the original content in the event of data loss. The plan aims to minimize the disaster effects on the daily operations so that the environment can resume critical business functions quickly.

As part of a BOE disaster recovery plan, an implementation of redundant servers in a backup system, which mirrors the primary system, can also be included. If the primary system goes down, still the disaster recovery system is available.

Backup process in Business Objects

We can always go with either Cold backup or hot backup based on the scenario.

Cold backup	Hot backup
Needs downtime as CMS, FRS will be stopped	No downtime of the system
assures accurate system snapshot, since no transactions can occur during the backup	Can’t be assured as accurate because users may still accessing the system.
Suitable for complete system backup	Suitable for partial backup

What to backup?

It is always recommended to back up BusinessObjects system on a daily basis for all the below components unless otherwise they are modified.

• CMS tables and Audit tables
• File Repository Server
• Database Connections
• Custom applications (java/.Net code)

What to consider?

• How often the backup needs to be taken on BO content?
• How much time is taking to complete the backup process?
• How long the downtime of the system if it is the cold backup?

Things to be ready before backup process

• Ensure that there are no scheduled reports/Federation jobs running during the backup process time window.
• Users must be communicated regarding the backup process so that they can plan their report schedules, etc.
• For hot backup it is always suggested to run the Repository Diagnostic Tool to make sure the CMS and FRS are in sync.

Recovery process in Business Objects

Regardless of whether a cold or hot backup, recovery process should be simple and clear-cut. The high level sequence of steps to be followed for recovery process as specified below.

• Stop all Business Objects services.
• Restore the backup of the CMS and Audit database.
• Configure the all the ODBC sources to point to the restored database and report source.
• Restore the Input and Output File Repositories (FRS)
• Start all Business Objects services.

If you are planning for a partial recovery you need to import the content to be restored from a BIAR file using Import wizard.

Thanks for reading!  Read More about  Business Objects Administration