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Migration from BusinessObjects XI R2 to XI R3.1 – Both Versions on the Same Machine: Disaster Recovery

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In the past few weeks we have been working on a migration from BusinessObjects XI R2 to XI R3.1. This should be a simple upgrade that can be implemented by following the  BusinessObjectsXI R3.1 wizard. But what happens if something goes wrong during the upgrade? We were asking ourselves this question before migrating production for one of our customers. Then an idea came to us: we decided to leave BusinessObjects XI R2 as it was and also install XI R3.1 on the same machine. For this to be possible, we had a couple of things to consider first:

- Two tomcat servers working on the same port - BusinessObjects XI R2 and XI R3 services working on the same ports

Moreover, we decided not to use any BIAR files to migrate the BusinessObjects content to the new release.

Our Implementation Steps:

  1. We stopped Tomcat and BusinessObjects XI R2 servers (and made sure they wouldn't start up automatically in the future).
  2. Next we installed BusinessObjects XI R3.1 (during the installation we selected new installation instead of upgrade). Note: If you have Tomcat on a different machine then choose to install your web server later  (XI R3.1 allows the users to install only the webserver and connect it to the CMS by using the setup wizard).
  3. Once the installation was complete we copied the FileStore folders (Input and Output) to the new locations (Business Objects Enterprise 12/FileStore/).

Configuring the CMS database:

  1. From the SIA (Server Intelligence Agent), go to properties -> configuration  -> setup of the database using the Specify button.Server Intelligence Agent
  2. Select the option to copy the database from another Data source.
  3. Select that the source comes from BusinessObjects XI R2 and choose the R2 database.
  4. BusinessObjects XI R3.1 will copy and adapt the R2 database to the R3 one.CMS Database Setup
  5. At the end of the database configuration BusinessObjects will ask you to restart the servers and update the objects (it will interface the CMS database with the FileStore folders).

The user can now login to Business Objects R3.1 and check that the security, the schedules and all the objects are there and working fine. If the environment is not working as expected, then you can stop the new Tomcat and the BusinessObjects XI R3 servers and bring up the old Tomcat and the BusinessObjects XI R2 server once again without losing any data. The recovery takes less than 5 minutes.

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We are always interested in feedback. Please let us know if you have any questions or comments about this XI Migration trick.