IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

Guideline

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide Product(s): TM1 Area of Interest: Financial Management

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

2

Copyright and Trademarks Licensed Materials - Property of IBM. Š Copyright IBM Corp. 2009 IBM, the IBM logo, and Cognos are trademarks or registered trademarks of International Business Machines Corp., registered in many jurisdictions worldwide.

Other product and service names might be trademarks of IBM or other companies. A current list of IBM trademarks is available on the Web at http://www.ibm.com/legal/copytrade.shtml While every attempt has been made to ensure that the information in this document is accurate and complete, some typographical errors or technical inaccuracies may exist. IBM does not accept responsibility for any kind of loss resulting from the use of information contained in this document. The information contained in this document is subject to change without notice.

This document is maintained by the Best Practices, Product and Technology team.

You can send comments, suggestions, and additions to cscogpp@ca.ibm.com.

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

3

Contents 1

INTRODUCTION ............................................................................................ 4

1.1 1.2 1.3

PURPOSE .............................................................................................................. 4 APPLICABILITY ....................................................................................................... 4 EXCLUSIONS AND EXCEPTIONS .................................................................................... 4

2

BACKING UP TM1 APPLICATIONS AND DATA .............................................. 4

3

OPTION 1: SHUTTING DOWN THE TM1 SERVER TO BACKUP....................... 4

4

OPTION 2: PERFORMING A LIVE TM1 BACKUP ............................................ 7

5

FREQUENCY OF BACKUPS ........................................................................... 11

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

4

1 Introduction 1.1

Purpose This document will provide guidance on implementing a backup and recovery policy for IBM Cognos TM1.

1.2

Applicability IBM Cognos TM1 9.4

1.3

Exclusions and Exceptions This document refers to third-party software as part of the back-up process, specifically WinZip and MS-DOS commands.

2 Backing up TM1 Applications and Data TM1 is RAM-based system which provides superior performance to disk-based systems by reducing physical disk I/O operations. Since TM1 is RAM-based, a back-up strategy must take this into consideration. In order to back-up all TM1 data that is currently residing in RAM, two approaches can be taken.

The first approach is to shut down the TM1 server and then to respond YES to the save changes confirmation. Once the TM1 server application is closed a backup can be run against that TM1 server’s data directory.

The second approach is to leverage the Transaction Logging capabilities in TM1 to perform a live backup against the TM1 Server without the need to shut down the server. When users are working within the TM1 application, any data that is entered is held in RAM until a “Save Data” operation is executed, this will save any in-memory data to the disk files in the data directory. In this case, the administrator would execute a Save Data command and then proceed with a backup of the data directory.

3 Option 1: Shutting Down the TM1 Server to Backup The first backup option that will be demonstrated is a basic process of shutting down the TM1 server, saving the data, and running a backup of the data directory.

The advantage of this method is simplicity in the initial system configuration – no changes need to be made to the configuration file. Also data assurance is guaranteed, no one will be entering data while the system is down and the backup is executing. Additionally, audit logging can be enabled via the TM1 configuration file when using this method for backing up the TM1 system.

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

5

The disadvantage of this method is that the TM1 server must be taken offline and shutdown for a period of time. This may or may not be a problem; it will depend on the uptime requirements of each organization. Also, any data entered between backups may be lost if the data directory files become corrupt.

1) Shutdown the TM1 Server and respond “Yes” to the “Do you want to save changes” prompt. This will save any changed data in RAM to the data directory.

Note: If you are running TM1 Server as a service, shutting down the service will automatically cause a ‘Save Changes’ to occur.

2) Backup all files in the TM1 Data Directory. There are a number of ways that this can be accomplished using various third-party products or operating system commands. There are also many ways to automate this process using third-party tools and schedulers. In MS-DOS a simple XCOPY command with the appropriate switches will copy all of the TM1 Data Directory files and sub-folders to another location (backup folder, drive, or other media).

To verify the location of the TM1 Data Directory, view the TM1 Configuration File: tm1s.cfg

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

6

The Data Directory will be listed next to the DataBaseDirectory item. This is the directory that should be backed up. Be sure to include all sub-directories in the backup.

3) Example backup using WinZip referenced in a batch file:

Running this batch file launches WinZip and creates a compressed backup of the sample TM1 Data Directory. Batch files can be made to create new folders with time/date stamps to store unique copies of each backup and a scheduling tool can be used to automate these.

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

7

4 Option 2: Performing a Live TM1 Backup For many organizations TM1 is a critical application that must be maintained as a 24x7 enterprise application. In these cases, it is not acceptable to shutdown the TM1 Server to perform a backup. TM1 provides organizations the ability to maintain 24x7 uptime and also perform regular backups of the Data Directory. Several changes will need to be made to the default settings of the TM1 Server configuration file (tm1s.cfg) in order to perform a live backup successfully.

The advantages of this method are ease of administration, 24x7 system uptime, and automation can be created within TM1 using Turbo Integrator and Chores. The disadvantages are that there is initial configuration that must be performed and the potential exists for lost data between “Saves” if the Data Directory files become corrupt.

The following steps must be performed in order to run backups from a Live TM1 Server: 1) Modify the default TM1 Server Configuration file (tm1s.cfg). a. Point the Log Files to a location other than the Data Directory by inserting the “LoggingDirectory” parameter in the configuration file. By default, TM1 writes log files to the Data Directory. Since these files will be open and active while the TM1 Server is running, any attempt to back them up will result in a file sharing violation and may cause a backup process to fail. b. Verify that the AuditLogOn parameter is set to ‘F’. This is the default setting, but if the AuditLogOn parameter is set to ‘T’ then, as in the case above with the transaction logs, open and active files will be in the Data Directory. Attempting a backup will cause a file sharing violation which may result in a backup failure.

Note the sample tm1s.cfg file below which has been modified to allow for live backups from the TM1 Server.

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

8

2) The administrator must perform, or must set-up automation to perform, a “Save Data All� command. This command should be executed immediately prior to backing up the TM1 Server. This command takes all changed data in RAM and saves it to the TM1 Data Directory files where it is then able to be captured in the back up process.

After these steps have been completed the TM1 Server is ready for a backup to be run. In this example, the same batch file that was used for Option 1 will work for option 2.

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

9

Running this batch file results in the following backup file creation:

Should the TM1 Data Directory files ever become corrupt, then this compressed backup file will be restored to TM1 Server Data Directory location and the system will have been restored to the last point when a “Save Data All� command was executed.

As mentioned earlier, this process can easily be automated through the use of Turbo Integrator calling a batch file and scheduling the Turbo Integrator job via the TM1 Chores. In this example, to automate this batch file backup process perform the following steps: 1) Open TM1 Architect and logon to the TM1 system you will be creating an automated backup for; 2) Expand the TM1 Server and click on Processes;

IBM Proprietary

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

3) Click on the ‘Advanced’ tab; 4) Click on the ‘Epilog’ tab; 5) Below the “#****End: Generated Statements****” line, type the following: SaveDataAll; ExecuteCommand('C:\Documents and Settings\cognos\Desktop\TM1backup.bat',0); An example of this TI Process is provided below:

6) Click on the ‘Save’ icon or Choose from the menu File > Save As...

7) Enter a name for the process, in this example the name Backup was entered.

8) Next Click on the Schedule tab; 9) Check the box “Schedule this Process as a Chore Named:”; 10) Enter a name for the new Chore such as ‘Backup Chore’; 11) Choose a Start Date and a Frequency and then Save.

IBM Proprietary

10

IBM Cognos TM1 Backup and Recovery Guide

11

An example of the completed Scheduled Chore screen is shown below:

Now this Data Directory backup process will execute automatically every 7 days.

5 Frequency of Backups IBM Cognos recommends frequent back-ups of the TM1 Data Directory. This backup schedule will depend to a large part on how frequently TM1 data and structures are changed at your organization. If data is loaded into TM1 on a daily basis, then daily backups are recommended. An archive of backups is also recommended in case serious data quality errors escape detection for several rounds of backups. If data and structures change on a monthly basis in your TM1 system then monthly backups of the Data Directory would be recommended.

Consider also, TM1 has strong transaction logging capabilities and if a TM1 Server is brought down normally or abnormally these transaction logs hold all changed data that was not saved to the Data Directory. These transaction logs allow for the recovery of data outside the normal Data Directory backups. The next time the TM1 server is brought back online these log files will, depending on your environment, either automatically recover the unsaved data or prompt you to recover the unsaved data. Even if data is intentionally rejected during a TM1 shutdown, the unsaved and rejected data can still be recovered from a .rej file processed through Turbo Integrator.

Ultimately the frequency of backups of the TM1 system are decided by each organization’s acceptable level of risk balanced by the resources available to devote to executing and archiving backups, and the system performance trade-offs (i.e. running backups during peak system usage times).

IBM Proprietary