Cognos BI Upgrade from 10.1.1 to 10.2.1

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Do you have a development server? if you do then it is much easier as you can test the process.. 
My content database is in a SQL server and all my machines are in VM. 

- Snapshot of the server 
- Backup of content database 
- Backup of entire content in a zip file (from cognos administration) 
- Backup of "configuration" directory on the cognos bI installation directory. 
- Backup of any custom images/files that you have altered. 
- Check windows updates for server 
- Uninstall cognos s/w 
- Install Cognos components 
- Configure 


During configuration the content database will be upgraded to current specs and you can choose also to upgrade report specifications to be upgraded. I did both and so far so good.
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Upgrade IBM Cognos Business Intelligence

The enhancements in new versions of IBM® Cognos® Business Intelligence (BI) can affect many parts of your business intelligence environment. Therefore it is best to perform the upgrade in stages. To ensure success, treat upgrading as an IT project that requires careful planning, adequate time, and adequate resources.

Upgrade to Cognos 10 website

The Upgrade to Cognos 10 website (http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/customercenter/upgrade.html) provides additional information to help you upgrade. For example, frequently asked questions, demonstration videos, and links to additional resources are available on the website.

• Upgrade process
  Every upgrade requires a plan, and each plan follows the same basic upgrade process.
• Upgrade tasks
  When you upgrade, you perform the following tasks:

• Upgrade process

  Every upgrade requires a plan, and each plan follows the same basic upgrade process.

  You must plan your upgrade so that you know what to expect at each stage of the process. In the planning stage, you can review the upgrade documentation for information about expected behavior, new features, deprecated features, compatibility between versions, and requirements for preparing your production environment. When you finish the review, you can then conduct a site survey to identify the BI infrastructure, applications, reports, and custom configuration settings. Finally, you can test the upgrade on a subset of your data so that you can fine-tune your reports and data before committing to the full upgrade.

  When planning your upgrade, ensure that you perform the following tasks:

  • Gather the necessary information, such as the required inputs and expected outputs for each phase.
  • Assess the applications in your reporting environment and group similar reports together.
  • Install the new software in a test environment and deploy the content to the test environment.
  • Test the upgraded applications to ensure that your reports run as expected.
    You can use Lifecycle Manager to compare reports from a different version of IBM® Cognos® BI. For more information, see the Lifecycle Manager documentation.

  Deployment and testing is usually an iterative process. Assess any differences between the source and target environments. Move to your production environment when you are satisfied that the deployed applications meet your business requirements.

  The following diagram shows a general upgrade workflow and the stages in the upgrade process. The process includes the following stages:

  • Creating an upgrade plan, which includes the following activities:
    • Reviewing resources, such as documentation and the Upgrade to Cognos 10 website(http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/customercenter/upgrade.html), and verifying the supported environments to ensure compatibility with your other software at the IBM Cognos Customer Center(http://www.ibm.com/software/data/cognos/customercenter/).
    • Evaluating your existing system to determine what you want to move to your new version of the product.
    • Creating a detailed plan to implement your upgrade strategy.
  • Creating a development or test system with the new version of the product.
  • Using the information learned from the development or test system and applying it as you create your QA or production systems.

  Figure 1. Upgrade process
  

  
  • Reviewing the documentation
    Documentation is provided from various sources to help you achieve a successful upgrade.
  • Assess applications in your environment before you upgrade
    Preparing to upgrade provides an opportunity to review your existing applications and clean up your source environment.
  • Access content from a previous version in the portal
    You can view content from a previous version of IBM Cognos BI in the new version by enabling multi-version coexistence.

Upgrade tasks

When you upgrade, you perform the following tasks:

1. Install and configure the new version of the product.
2. Move your content to the new version of the product.
3. Upgrade your report specifications.
4. Compare your upgraded content to your existing content to ensure consistency.

• Install and configure a new version of the product
  Install the new version of the product to a new location. The location can be on the same computer as your existing version of the product or on another computer.
• Move your content to the new version of the product
  There are two methods for moving your content:
• Upgrade your report specifications
  Report specifications will have changed from one version of IBM Cognos BI to another. You must upgrade any report specifications created in previous versions of the product.
• Use Lifecycle Manager to compare reports between your versions of the product
  Lifecycle Manager lets you verify your upgraded content by comparing reports in your old environment with the reports in your new version of the product.

Upgrade your content store

IBM® Cognos® BI upgrades the content store database to the new version of the product when you start the services for the first time.

The process for upgrading your content store to the new version of the product includes the following steps:

1. Make a backup of your existing content store database.
2. Create a database from the backup.
   If your content store is on DB2® on z/OS®, you must run a script to upgrade the content store before you start the services in IBM Cognos Configuration.
3. Connect the new version of the product to the content store that you created from the backup in IBM Cognos Configuration.
4. Start your services.
   The content store is upgraded during the startup process.
   Important: When you use this method, the first time you start your IBM Cognos services, you are prompted to upgrade your reports. Upgrading your reports can take a long time, and it is better to upgrade them after you have the new version running. You can upgrade your reports afterwards using IBM Cognos Administration. Additionally, if you have Software Development Kit applications that create, modify, or save report specifications, do not select the option to upgrade your report specifications.

This process lets you use the old and new versions of the product at the same time, where each version has its own content store.

Important: When you connect the new version of the product to the content store you created from the backup, the content store database is upgraded, and can no longer be used with your older version of the product.

• Upgrading a content store on IBM DB2 on z/OS
  To upgrade the content store on DB2 on z/OS, run a script that creates new tablespaces and grants Content Manager the rights to use the tablespaces.
• Unregister previous version dispatchers from your content store
  If you use a backup of your existing content store with a new version of the product, you must unregister the dispatchers from your previous version.

Upgrading a content store on IBM DB2 on z/OS

To upgrade the content store on DB2® on z/OS®, run a script that creates new tablespaces and grants Content Manager the rights to use the tablespaces.

Before you begin

To run the script, you must have permission to create tablespaces. Run the script before you save the configuration for the new version.

Procedure

1. Go to the c10_location\configuration\schemas\content\db2zOS directory and open tablespaceUpgrade_db2zOS.sql in a text editor.
2. Follow the instructions in the script file to replace the placeholder values in the file with the values for your database.
3. Save and run the file.

Unregister previous version dispatchers from your content store

If you use a backup of your existing content store with a new version of the product, you must unregister the dispatchers from your previous version.

Procedure

1. Open IBM® Cognos® Connection in your web browser.
2. In the upper-right corner, click Launch, IBM Cognos Administration.
3. Click Configuration, and then click Dispatchers and Services.
4. Click More for the dispatchers belonging to your previous version.
5. Click Unregister, and then click OK.
   The dispatcher information is removed from the content store.

Moving your content with a deployment archive

To move specific content from your content store you can use deployment archives. Deployment archives are compressed files that you can then import into your new version of the product.

Important: If you have moved your content by restoring your existing content store, you do not need to move your content using deployment archives.

Moving your content with deployment archives involves the following steps:

1. Creating the archive.
2. Copying the archive to the new version of the product.
3. Importing the content.

• Creating a deployment archive
  Use the following task to create a deployment archive.
• Copying the deployment archive to your new version
  You must manually copy the deployment archives from the instance where they were created to your new instance.
• Including configuration objects when you import a deployment archive of the entire content store
  You can include configuration objects when importing an entire content store. For example, you might want to import the configuration because you have a series of advanced settings for your services that you want from the source environment.
• Importing a deployment archive
  To import the entries, you create an import deployment specification.

Creating a deployment archive

• Use the following task to create a deployment archive.

Procedure

• 1. In IBM Cognos Administration, on the Configuration tab, click Content Administration.
  2. On the toolbar, click the new export icon .
  3. Enter Name for the archive.
  4. Select the content you want to include in the archive:
     • To export specific folders and directory content, click Select public folders and directory content.
     • To export the entire content store, click Select the entire content store. If you select the entire content store, you can also selectInclude user account information.
  5. Click Next.
  6. If you clicked Select the entire content store, enter a password to be used when you import the content, and then click OK.
  7. If you clicked Select public folders and directory content:
     1. On the Select the Public folders content panel, click Add.
     2. On the Select entries panel, in the Available Entries box, select the packages or folders that you want to export.
        You can browse the Public Folders hierarchy and choose the packages and folders that you want. Click the right arrow icon  to move the selected items to the Selected entries box, and click OK.
     3. For each package and folder that you export, do the following, and then click Next:
        • If you want to make any changes to the package or folder in the target environment, click the edit icon , make your changes, and click OK.
        • To restrict access to the package or folder and its entries, select the check box in the Disable after import column. This is useful when you want to test the reports before you make them available in the target environment.
        • Under Options, select whether you want to include the report output versions, run history, and schedules and what to do with entries when there is a conflict.
     4. On the Select the directory content panel, select the options that you want, and click Next.
     5. On the Specify the general options panel, select the options that you want, and click Next.
     6. On the Specify a deployment archive panel, select an existing deployment archive from the list, or create one.
        If you are typing a new name for the deployment archive, do not use spaces in the name. If the name of the new deployment specification matches the name of an existing deployment archive, the existing deployment archive is overwritten.
  8. Review the summary information and click Next.
  9. Under Actions, select Save and run once.
  10. On the Run with options panel, select Now and click Run.

Results

• A deployment archive is created in the deployment directory where you installed IBM® Cognos® BI.

Copying the deployment archive to your new version

• You must manually copy the deployment archives from the instance where they were created to your new instance.

Procedure

• Copy the deployment archives you created from the old_version_install_location/deployment directory to thenew_version_install_location/deployment directory.
  

  Note: The deployment directory is configurable in IBM® Cognos® Configuration. By default, the location is install_location/deployment. If you are using a different location, ensure that you copy the deployment archives to the appropriate directory.

Including configuration objects when you import a deployment archive of the entire content store

• You can include configuration objects when importing an entire content store. For example, you might want to import the configuration because you have a series of advanced settings for your services that you want from the source environment.

  By default, configuration objects are excluded when you import an entire content store, even though they are included in the export. Configuration objects include dispatchers and configuration folders used to group dispatchers.

Procedure

• 1. In IBM Cognos Administration, on the Configuration tab, click Dispatchers and Services.
  2. Click the dispatcher you want.
  3. Next to ContentManagerService, click the set properties icon.
  4. Click the Settings tab.
  5. In the Value column, click Edit.
  6. Select the Override the settings acquired from the parent entry check box.
  7. In the Parameter column, type the following uppercase text:
     CM.DEPLOYMENTINCLUDECONFIGURATION
  8. In the Value column, type true.
  9. Click OK to finish.

Importing a deployment archive

To import the entries, you create an import deployment specification.

When you import, you select from entries that were exported. You can either accept the default options set during the export, or change them. You can select options that were included in the deployment archive during the export.

If you do a partial deployment of specific public folders and directory content, the import wizard shows whether packages and folders exist in the target environment and the date and time that they were last modified. You can use this information to help you decide how to resolve conflicts. When you redeploy, the wizard also shows whether the packages and folders were in the original deployment.

Before you begin

Ensure that you have copied the deployment archive to the c10_location/deployment directory for your new version of the product.

Procedure

1. For your new version of the product, in IBM Cognos Administration, on the Configuration tab, click Content Administration.
2. On the toolbar, click the new import icon. 
3. In the Deployment archive box, select the deployment archive that you want to import, and click Next.
4. If your deployment archive is of your entire content store, type the password entered during the export, and click OK.
5. Type a name for the import and select the folder where you want to save it, and then click Next.
6. Select the content that you want to include in the import, select the options, and click Next.
   Tip: Click the edit icon  next to the package if you want to change the target location for the imported content.
7. On the Specify the general options panel, select the options that you want, and click Next.
8. Review the summary information, and click Next.
9. Under Actions, select Save and run once, and click Finish.
10. On the Run with options panel, do the following:
    1. Select Upgrade all report specifications to the latest version if you want to upgrade the report specifications during the import. You can also perform this task after you import the content.
    2. Click Run.

Upgrade your report specifications

Report specifications will have changed from one version of IBM® Cognos® BI to another. You must upgrade any report specifications created in previous versions of the product.

If you are upgrading from a backup of your existing content store, you should upgrade the report specifications after you have started the services.

If you are moving content to a new version using deployment archives, you can choose to upgrade the import specifications during the import.

If you moved your content using deployment archive you may have selected the option to upgrade your report specifications. If you upgraded the report specifications during the import, you do not have to do it again.

Before you begin

Important: Do not upgrade your report specifications if you have Software Development Kit applications that create, modify, or save report specifications. You must first update your Software Development Kit applications to comply with the IBM Cognos report specifications schema. Otherwise, your Software Development Kit applications may not be able to access the upgraded report specifications. For information about upgrading report specifications, see the IBM Cognos Software Development Kit Developer Guide.

Procedure

1. Open IBM Cognos Connection in your web browser.
2. In the upper-right corner, click Launch, IBM Cognos Administration.
3. On the Configuration tab, click Content Administration.
4. Click the arrow on the new content maintenance button  on the toolbar, and then click New Report Upgrade
5. Type a name for the upgrade task and, if you want, a description and screen tip. Click Next.
6. Select the packages and locations for the report specification you want to upgrade. Click Next.
   If you upgrade report specifications by package, all reports in the content store that are based on the model in the package will be upgraded. If you upgrade report specifications by folder, all reports in the folder will be upgraded.
7. Choose one of the following:
   • Save and run once opens the run with options page.
   • Save and schedule opens the scheduling tool.
   • Save only allows you to save the upgrade so that you can run it at a later time.