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Recover Deleted report

  • 1.  Recover Deleted report

    Posted Fri September 13, 2019 09:02 AM
    In 10.2 the only way we were able to recover a deleted report was to retrieve from a backup of our content store. We are now on 11.1 and are about to upgrade to 11.1.3, is there any new feature that makes this easier? or do we still need to pull any deleted reports from a backup of the content store?

    Thanks,
    Heather

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    Heather
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    #CognosAnalyticswithWatson


  • 2.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Fri September 13, 2019 10:38 AM

    ​Hi Heather,

    Unfortunately, IBM hasn't added this functionality yet and I hope in the near future they will!
    There are few other options you have, like using a third-party application called MotioCI which will cost you a bit but honestly it's a good product and give you piece of mind. 
    Again it depends on your BI budget. If budget is an issue, there may be another less hectic way rather restore entire content store but befoer I make further any comments, I need to get a bit more details about your current BI folder structures.

    If you are interested, please feel free to contact us info@techbee.com.au and one of our support gurus will help you.

    Thanks



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    Techbee
    http://www.Techbee.com.au

    Cognos Support, Upgrade, Reportinng/Dashboard Solution


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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Fri September 13, 2019 11:36 AM
    Unfortunately Cognos Analytics has no option to recover from a deleted object.
    If you have multiple environments like DEV and PROD then you could use a promotion process and then would also have a back up.  If you only have one environment then for all critical reports you should implement a governance process.  Simply maintain a copy using Report Spec copy to clipboard and paste into a text file could save you in the future. I also agree with Techbee's comments on using MotioCI

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    NORBERT Bracke
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: Recover Deleted report
    Best Answer

    Posted Mon September 16, 2019 03:36 PM

    This is a pretty critical topic for any PROD environment - keep in mind the realities that there is NO "recycle" area for deleted content, that process is irreversible.  OK, so now that we know this, some content management process must be in place to address it.  If you don't use a 3rd party tool such as MotioCI, a good practice (although time-consuming) is to keep the XML report specs for each Production artifact in a "safe" location, such as an on-premise and/or a cloud file-based backup repository.  Build this into your required practices, in addition to good report documentation.  Reconstructing reports from detailed, standardized, and current documentation is always a key benefit of adhering to good documentation practice (not to mention the many others).  Same can be said of your metadata - also much more important if you are building robust metadata via Data Modules - they can be accidentally deleted just as easily!



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    Albert Valdez
    albert@intelalytics.com
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    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 12:27 PM
    Hi Albert, is there a relatively easy way to save the XMLs en masse or are you thinking of going into each report and clipping it to the clipboard?

    Thanks. ​

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    Adrienne Beronilla
    Senior Financial Systems Analyst
    Franklin Templeton
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    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 01:27 PM
    Hi Adrienne - yeah, unfortunately out of the box, you'd have to do these manually, but again, I recommend building this into your procedures as part of the documentation tasks, it only takes a few seconds per report.  I would also imagine that this is only something you really need to be concerned with for production reports.  If you want to grab all the XML specs en masse, I have been researching the Audit Extension utility (more info here: IBM Cognos c11AuditExtension)
    IBM Developer remove preview
    IBM Cognos c11AuditExtension
    The standard auditing features that come out of the box with IBM Cognos Analytics cover many aspects of operation. However, some areas such as the auditing of users and capability assignments are not included. The aim of the c11AuditExtension application is to provide additional auditing for these areas.
    View this on IBM Developer >
    i think this could be a nice solution overall that doesn't require custom coding via SDK or buying a 3rd party tool like Motio.  I don't have first-hand experience here, but looks promising.

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    Albert Valdez
    albert@intelalytics.com
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Tue September 17, 2019 09:04 AM
    I'll also make a pitch here for the use of the Cognos Audit Extension as a way to capture (and save) those report specs at zero cost.  Among a myriad of other great things, it can capture this detail and help you understand what content has changed over time.  And it's free.  In this specific case, you'd run one of the out of the box reports that shows the report spec, scrape that out and create the report again.

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    Scott Misage
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 12:26 PM
    Hi @Scott Misage, which Audit report can do this? I just looked through what we have and could not find anything similar.

    Thanks for the help. ​​

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    Adrienne Beronilla
    Senior Financial Systems Analyst
    Franklin Templeton
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 12:41 PM
    I'm referring to the Audit Extension, not regular Audit.  The Audit Extension is a powerful tool, but perhaps poorly named :)

    https://developer.ibm.com/tutorials/ibm-cognos-11-audit-extension/

    Basically, the Audit Extension extracts information from the content store into a new set of tables allowing you to understand a vast array of details about your content (including the full report specs).  I've been using it starting in 2006 or so when I ran a couple of BI environments internally at Cognos to the modern day where I help clients with it.



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    Scott Misage
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 01:52 PM
    @Scott Misage Will this Audit Extension provide reporting on what fields are used most often?

    Thanks,
    Jen

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    Jenifer Broughton
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 02:07 PM
    @Jenifer Broughton Not directly, however the raw material (the xml report spec) is there to do it.  We've done post processing of the spec to answer questions like this in the past.​

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    Scott Misage
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 02:23 PM

    ​@Scott Misage When you say 'post processing', how did you go about this?  Was a framework package built against these audit tables and a Business Analytics report designed against the AE_CONTENTAUDIT_SPEC?

    Thank you for you quick responses!
    Jen



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    Jenifer Broughton
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    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 02:47 PM
    The implication of post processing that Scott is referring to is code/script that can parse the report spec XML and find the metadata definition of the query used.

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    NORBERT Bracke
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    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 02:16 PM
    Remember that Reports use Metadata and Metadata may not directly correlate to table and column names

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    NORBERT Bracke
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    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 02:27 PM

    @NORBERT Bracke What other options are available/used to be able to report on what fields are used most/least in business analytics reports?

    Thanks,

    Jen​​



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    Jenifer Broughton
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    Original Message


  • 16.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Wed September 18, 2019 02:53 PM
    The answer on how to identify fields used would depend on the query mode you are using.
    For CQM packages/reports if you enable native query logging then the COGIPF_NATIVEQUERY audit table would have the SQLs which could be parsed in a report.
    For DQM the same exists but you would need Trace level logging enabled which I would not recommend for long periods as there is potential to impact performance. I am a bigger fan of using XQE tracing for capturing the SQL but then you again need to parse XML files to garner the information you need.
    If you parse the ReportSpecs as suggested earlier then you only know what has been define in reports and need to correlate that to usage which may vary.
    You may eventually still have better luck if your DBAs can log the queries. That way the information is captured regardless of which tool (Report, Dashboard, Exploration, Story...)

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    NORBERT Bracke
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    Original Message


  • 17.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Thu September 19, 2019 06:45 AM
    @NORBERT Bracke  If we go the DBA route where they log the queries, what exactly do I need to request?

    Thank you!​​

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    Jenifer Broughton
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    Original Message


  • 18.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Thu September 19, 2019 07:01 AM
    Different database vendors have different terminology to define the task but if you chat with your DBA about Database Monitoring for Query Details they should be able to guide the conversation for you.

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    NORBERT Bracke
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    Original Message


  • 19.  RE: Recover Deleted report

    Posted Thu September 19, 2019 11:42 AM
    @NORBERT Bracke  Thanks for this information.  I've taken it back to my team to research.​​

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    Jenifer Broughton
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    Original Message