Old bo xir2 legacy system and backups and virtualisation

[former_member272336]

Hi,

We have an old xir2 legacy system which runs some bo reports on a physical server.

As this server is old and the reports cannot be migrated to our bo4 system quickly (accessing old legacy data and complicated deski reports etc) , the server team are looking to host the xir2 system on a virtualised server.

Current physical server Windows 2003 server, new virtual server intended to be same name/ip address just running on virtual platform.

In terms of contingency they plan to simply revert to the physical server if the new virtual environment does not work.

We plan to have backup of cms + filestore taken whilst services are down immediately prior to this virtualisation.

Anything else need backed up?

Also any thought son contingency planning?

Realise  xir2 unsupported now - the server team though are going ahead with this plan so need to ensure we can do everything we can form bo side.

Thanks 

[denis_konovalov · Accepted solution]

how are you going to actually virtualize this server ? - this is the most crucial detail you left out

you can't just existing XIR2 install to a virtual machine, you have to install it on it first then reconnect to CMS DB and FRS.

[former_member272336 · Accepted solution]

I'm not sure of exact details as another team carrying this out.

They have advised they plan to move to hyper-v,  and that the virtualised server in effect becomes clone of the physical server with same name/ip address etc, mac address can be same as well.

On completion the physical server is switched off to avoid a conflict  (two machines with same name etc. and if virtualisation does not work out we revert to the physical box.

If they plan on cloning it should this the clone/virtual server not have all the binaries/registry entries required - i.e. as if the software has already been installed?

Thanks

[former_member185603 · Accepted solution]

If they plan on cloning it should this the clone/virtual server not have all the binaries/registry entries required - i.e. as if the software has already been installed?

Yes. Please see below KB- Eventhough this KB refers to BI 4.O, It should be same for all the versions.

           
              1942949  - Support for Cloned VM server
           

2034684  - BI4.x - How to clone a BusinessObjects Server?
           

[former_member272336 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for useful notes.  This is a clone of a physical server - notice mentions clone of a virtual server not supported due to unexpected behaviour.

Anyone ran XIR2 on a virtual server before who has seen any such problems or has it been ok?

Notice mentions ip addresses and host names - we have been assured these will be identical in virtual server to the ones in the physical server.

Will the cloned server have all the binaries and registry entries.

   I assume yes as this is a clone

  Is this correct?

Regards backups Is there anything in addition to cms + filestore ( I remember way back in bo5 was a bomain.key).

Are there any such key files in XIR2 or anything else which needs to be backed up?

Thanks

[former_member185603 · Accepted solution]

I would suggest test it on sand box VM server before even going to Production.

As below posts suggested, they all seemed to working fine. Just to confirm yourself, test the install on sandbox server to avoid surprises

BO XI R2 and virtual machines

[former_member272336 · Accepted solution]

Thanks again for useful post.

Unfortunately we don't have a sandbox server available to us that's why want to be sure have all the backups we can.

is cms + filestore enough?

Anything else/?

I've asked them to do an image backup of server if possible as well.

[former_member185603 · Accepted solution]

That should be enough. if you have enable Auditing, backup Auditng DB as well.

[former_member272336 · Accepted solution]

Thanks for confirming.  No auditing on this system.