Adding the Business Reporting Portal to an existing FlexNet Manager Platform installation

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Summary

Adding the Business Reporting Portal to an existing FlexNet Manager Platform installation

Synopsis

Introduction

This article covers the steps required to add and configure the Business Reporting Portal to an existing FlexNet Manager Platform installation. These steps replicate the actions the FlexNet Manager Platform install wizard would normally perform when configuring the Business Reporting Portal. The steps are as follows:

1. Create and configure the data warehouse database to hold historical snapshots of license compliance position data.

2. Install the FlexNet Report Designer.

3. Configure the FlexNet Manager Platform installation to access the Business Reporting Portal.

These steps are now covered in more detail.

Discussion

Data Warehouse Database

The data warehouse database is a separate database from the regular FlexNet Manager Platform database. It stores historical snapshots of the license compliance position of your enterprise. This enables reporting of license compliance and other data over time to analyse trends within your enterprise.

Creation of the data warehouse database

The data warehouse database is created using a database creation tool to execute some SQL scripts. The steps to perform are as follows:

1. Identify the host machine (and Microsoft SQL Server instance name if necessary) for your data warehouse database as well as credentials to access it with. Depending on the size of your enterprise this can be the same server as used for your FlexNet Manager Platform database or you may wish to use a separate server.
2. Open a DOS command window (for example, Start > Run... > cmd).
3. On the command line, navigate to your FlexNet Manager Platform install directory (such as C:\Program Files\ManageSoft).
4. Navigate to the Compliance\Database subfolder.
5. Run the mgsDatabaseCreate.exe program, using the following syntax:

mgsDatabaseCreate.exe ?i <inputFileName> [-s <serverName>] [-d <databaseName>] ?a <authMethod> [-u <username>] [-p <password>]

Command line options for mgsDatabaseCreate.exe

-a <authMethod>	The method of authentication to use when connecting to the database server. Possible values are WindowsNT for Windows Integrated Authentication and SQLServer for SQL Server authentication.
-d <databaseName>	The name of the database to create. Recommended value is FNMPDataWarehouse .
-i <inputFileName>	Identifies the configuration file describing the creation tasks. Always use the input file name DataWarehouseCreation.xml .
-p <password>	The password for the account specified with ?u. This is only required if the database server is configured to use SQL Server authentication.
-s <serverName>	The name of the database server to connect to. If not supplied, the value at HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Reporter\CurrentVersion\DatabaseConnectionString is used.
-u <username>	The account name with which to connect to the database. This is only required if the database server is configured to use SQL Server authentication. Example The following command creates the data warehouse database on the server called DWSERVER as a database called FNMPDataWarehouse using Windows Integrated Authentication. mgsDatabaseCreate.exe ?i DataWarehouseCreation.xml ?s DWSERVER ?d FNMPDataWarehouse ?a WindowsNT

FlexNet Report Designer

For instructions on installing the FlexNet Report Designer, see Chapter 8: Installing the Business Reporting Portal in the FNMP Installation Guide.

Configuring FlexNet Manager Platform

The final stage is to configure your FlexNet Manager Platform installation so that your operators can access the Business Reporting Portal.

Creation of the data warehouse connection

The export of snapshots of data to the data warehouse database occurs as part of the compliance import process. This is achieved by defining a FlexNet Manager Platform connection to the data warehouse database created earlier. To define this connection, follow these steps:

1. Launch the FlexNet Manager Platform console as an operator with Compliance Administrator access.
2. Right click on the FlexNet Manager Platform node and select Properties from the menu.
3. Select the Connections tab.
4. Click the New button to create a new connection.
5. Enter a name for this new connection, for example Data Warehouse.
6. From the Type dropdown, select Data warehouse.
7. Enter the name of the server on which the data warehouse database was created.
8. Choose the authentication method used to communicate to the data warehouse database.
9. Enter the name of the data warehouse database that was created.
10. Click the OK button to create the connection.

For further details on creating connections, see Import/Export Connections in the Compliance Server and Database Settings section of the FNMP System Reference. For further details on how data snapshots are exported to the data warehouse, see Running the Compliance Import From the Console in the FNMP Operations Guide or online help.

Configuration of URLs to access the Business Reporting Portal

There are two URLs which provide access to the Business Reporting Portal reports and dashboard and a URL to upload the reports package to. To configure these URLs, follow the steps below:

1. Launch the FlexNet Manager Platform console as a operator with Compliance Administrator access.
2. Right click on the FlexNet Manager Platform node and select Properties from the menu.
3. Select the Server Settings tab.
4. Enter the following URL into the Portal URL setting, substituting the placeholder cognosserver with the name of the server hosting your FlexNet Report Designer installation:
   http://cognosserver:8889/cognos10/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=xts.run&m=portal/cc.xts&m_path=%2fcontent%2fpackage%5b%40name%3d%27FlexNet%20Manager%20Platform%20Reports%20and%20Dashboard%27%5d%2fpackage%5b%40name%3d%27FlexNet%20Manager%20Platform%20Reports%27%5d
5. Enter the following URL into the Dashboard URL setting, again substituting the placeholder cognosserver with the name of the server hosting your FlexNet Report Designer installation:
   http://cognosserver:8889/cognos10/cgi-bin/cognos.cgi?b_action=xts.run&m=portal/main.xts&m_redirect_windowmode=0&m_redirect=%2fcognos10%2fcgi-bin%2fcognos.cgi%3fb_action%3dxts.run%26m%3dportal%2flaunch.xts%26ui.gateway%3d%252fcognos10%252fcgi-bin%252fcognos.cgi%26ui.tool%3dDashboardConsole%26ui.actio...
6. Click OK to close the Properties dialog.
7. Start the Windows Registry Editor (for example Start > Run... > regedit).
8. Navigate to the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ManageSoft Corp\ManageSoft\Compliance\CurrentVersion registry key.
9. Create a new string value called BIDispatchUrl with the following value, again substituting the placeholder cognosserver with the name of the server hosting your FlexNet Report Designer installation:
   http://cognosserver:9300/p2pd/servlet/dispatch

For further information on the Business Reporting portal dashboard and reports, refer to the The Business Reporting Portal chapter of the FNMP Operations Guide or online help.

Deploying Reports

For information on deploying the Business Reporting Portal reports package, refer to Deploying Reports in the The Business Reporting Portal chapter of the FNMP Operations Guide or online help.