IFS Analysis Models - Installation Checklist

This page provides an installation check list related to the IFS Analysis Models.

Note: This is not a list that defines mandatory and optional tasks. The list is intended as a help when planning and performing the installation.

Note: The grouping of tasks into suggested roles is only an example, a possible scenario. One person could have several roles.

 

The abbreviation AM used on this page refers to Analysis Models.

 

Step/Task Comments Suggested Role
Check SQL Server Sizing Info It is important to figure out the number of possible AM users in the installation and from that derive the necessary hardware in order to get a functional end-user environment. Technical Manager
Check 3rd Party Tool Licensing Make sure to lookup and consider 3rd party licensing for SQL Server. Technical Manager
Check Software Prerequisites In order to use the functionality delivered by IFS Analysis Models it is necessary to use supported software, like e.g. Windows Operating System, SQL Server version etc.  >> Technical Manager
Installation/Upgrade of Microsoft Software Install necessary software and/or update to supported Service Pack/Patch level. Systems Engineer
Handle SSIS Security Administration in SQL Server Execution of SSIS packages in SQL Server after having used the IFS Analysis Models Installer requires some mandatory security administration in SQL Server. More more information use this link >> Systems Engineer
Check Existence of BRA Base Package The IFS Analysis Models can and should not be installed unless the customer has installed the BRA Base (tech name BRBASE) component in the Analysis Models sales part. Systems Engineer
Get IFS Analysis Models Source Files The source code related to IFS Analysis Models is connected to the sales part Analysis Models. An order for this sales part must be registered and AMS is used to retrieve the necessary list of AM components to be extracted from the Harvest repository.
Customizations of the extension code are handled in separate customer specific component versions.
Systems Engineer
Check Dependent Core Components IFS Analysis Models is represented by the sales part Analysis Models and it covers different product areas in IFS Applications. This means that the customer must have the necessary and dependent core components installed in order to successfully install, execute and use the IFS Analysis Models.
One way to figure out necessary components is to look into the documentation that can be found in the IFS Online documentation.
Another possibility it to perform a test build using IFS Configuration Builder and check the list of dependent and mandatory components that might pop up. If the customer does not have these components installed then do not continue with installation actions; instead try to analyze what can be done.
One possibility is to select the cubes that fits best with the core functionality that the customer has purchased. Then only use the AM components that are required by these selected cubes and make sure that other core components required are available in the customer installation.
Systems Engineer
Create IFS Build Home  IFS Analysis Models related components are input to the IFS Configuration Builder when creating an IFS Build Home. The components used can of course be other components than only AN components, i.e. a combination of ordinary core components and AM components. In a standard scenario the created IFS Build Home will only contain AM components.
 

Note: The main part of Analysis Models will be found in the folder external.
When building Analysis Models components, please make sure to include win32client as well as win32server folder.
The easiest way is to use all pre-selected options in Select Build Options group box in step Create Build Structure and Compile in IFS Configuration Builder.

Systems Engineer
Security - IFS Applications In order to be able to successfully transfer data from IFS Applications to the data warehouse in SQL Server it is necessary to mange business related row level security. Please read more here >> IFS Applications Consultant / BSA
Language - IFS Applications It is important to understand language handling and translations before extracting data from IFS Applications to the the data warehouse in SQL Server. Please read more here >> IFS Applications Consultant / BSA
Setup Basic Data in IFS Applications There are some configuration options available related to basic data that must be considered, i.e. it is necessary to set up some basic data in IFS Applications to make the build of the data warehouse successful.

Note: Some basic data configurations are mandatory

Please read more here >>

IFS Applications Consultant / BSA
Handling Information Sources that supports Incremental Data Mart Load All Information Sources in Apps 10 support Online data access and this is also the preferred access type for the ETL process. However some of the used Information Sources will in Apps 10 support incremenal load of the Data Mart. This means that the Fact parts of these Information Sources will be represented by ordinary tables that are updated via a new framework that supports incremental update.

It is important to make sure that these Facts are setup in IFS Applications to be refreshed on a regular basis before loading the information to the ETL area. Please refer to the Configuration of Incremental Data Mart Load document but also to the general technical documentation for IFS Applications 10 for more information.

IFS Applications Consultant / BSA
Create Access Views The transfer of information from IFS Applications to data warehouse in SQL Server is dependent on the existence of so called Access Views. Make sure to generate the necessary Access Views before doing and ETL transfer. Please read more here >> IFS Applications Consultant / BSA
Decide AM Installer Actions The main usage of the IFS Analysis Models Installer is to create a so called IFS AM Instance Home. There are many actions that the installer can help out with. It is important to know about available actions and plan which ones the installer should handle. Read more about the IFS Analysis Models Installer. Systems Engineer
Define Target Servers and Accounts Different IFS Analysis Models Installer actions require different input. It is important to decide on target servers (one or many), versions of SQL Server and also accounts to be used. Please go through the IFS Analysis Models Installer documentation in order to have all necessary information available when the installer is executed. Systems Engineer
Set SQL Server Security Make sure to handle necessary security settings in SQL Server. Please read more here >> Systems Engineer
Create IFS BI Instance Home Use the IFS Analysis Models Installer to create an instance of the BI package. More information can be found in the IFS Analysis Models Installer documentation. Systems Engineer
Configure Basic Data for Lookup The ETL process requires some accurate configuration information, basically configuring what basic data in IFS Applications that in same areas should be used during the transfer. Please read more >> IFS Applications Consultant / BSA + Systems Engineer
Plan Initial Load of Stage Area Loading the ETL stage area is a challenge. Dimensions can more or less without any problems be extracted fully, i.e. all records are transferred in each Dimension. There can be a few exceptions though, e.g. time related data. For Facts the situation is different. Here we are handling transactions and the source tables might contain millions of rows. Extracting information from Facts is also in general rather time consuming, thus it is important to plan the first initial load.

The following strategies can be used::

  1. Load the facts fully
  2. Load the facts conditionally in one step, e.g. by reducing the transactions by adding a criteria on year, making sure that only the last 2-3 years are extracted.
  3. Load the facts conditionally but in steps. One example is when the data spans over a set of years e.g. 2013-2015. A conditional load can then be done in three steps; one for year 2013, one for year 2014 and one for year 2015.

It is important to plan how to do the initial load. It might even be necessary to first do test loads in a test installation to get an better overall idea.

IFS Applications Consultant / BSA + Systems Engineer
Configure SSIS Load Options In order to handle this initial load it can be necessary to define volume specific configuration parameters. Please refer to the IFS Analysis Models Data Volume Configuration documentation. Systems Engineer
Perform Initial Load of Facts The initial load to the data warehouse can be handled either as manually defined agent jobs or by the agent job that the IFS Analysis Models Installer creates.

Note: The created agent job is based on a master SSIS package that handles the complete ETL process. It might be necessary to modify this SSIS package depending on strategy.

Also keep in mind that all referenced entities, dimensions/facts, supporting incremental load must be initially loaded and then a schedule should be set up  to keep the incremental specific snapshot tables up-to-date in IFS Applications before starting the initial transfer to the data warehouse in SQL Server. Read more about how to Handle Incremental Data Mart Load in IFS Applications.
Systems Engineer
Check ETL Load Always make sure that the execution of all involved SSIS packages was successful. One option is to look into the system table sysssislog, available in the SQL Server database once a SSIS job has been executed. The other option is to look into the <AM-Instance-Home>\bianalysispackage\<SQL Server version>\SSIS\Log folder provided that the command file created by the IFS Analysis Models Installer is used. Systems Engineer
Setup Load Job Schedule When the ETL load works fine it is a good idea to set up a schedule that runs the agent job.

 

Note: Is is possible to also also create the schedule via the IFS Analysis Models Installer. Please refer to the Analysis Models Data Volume Configuration documentation

Systems Engineer
Check Cubes The last part of the ETL process is to process the OLAP cubes. This applies as long as the master SSIS package supplied by IFS is used. Open the cubes either in SSAS (Analysis Services in Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio) or by opening Excel and creating a connection to Analysis Services and the cube to be tested. IFS Applications Consultant / BSA
Check/Execute Example Reports If the IFS Analysis Models Installer was used to also deploy example reports, it is recommended to check at least a few of the reports. One option is to connect to Reporting Services in the Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio and execute the reports from there. Another option is to use the reporting services URL, supplied during the execution of the IFS Analysis Models Installer. IFS Applications Consultant / BSA
Perform External Report Integration Configuration In order to use the IFS Enterprise Explorer client to view Reports and Dashboards it is necessary to configure some system parameter in IFS Applications. Please read more External Report Integration in the following lin >> Systems Engineer