Notifications and Jobs¶
Turn on e-mail notifications for BusinessObjects changes with one tick each, and run existing promotion, folder sync and report validation jobs in a fixed order from the BO console.
Before you begin¶
- The BO console is enabled: see Enable the Web Console.
- E-mail is configured on the MetaMiner Server (MMS): see Email. Without it, notifications still appear in the MetaMiner Client (MMC) Alerts tab.
- BO auditing data is collected for your environments: see Audit and CMS Databases. Most notifications are built from the BO audit log.
- You know your MetaMiner user and password. Saving notifications and running jobs ask for them in the drawer, whatever the sign-in mode.
Open the drawer¶
Click Notifications (gear icon) in the BO console top bar. The Notifications and jobs drawer opens with two tabs: Notify me and Promote and validate. Enter your MetaMiner user and password in the fields at the bottom before you save or run.
Image of the Notifications and jobs drawer, Notify me tab: the How it works box, the Security and Servers categories with Rights changed ticked and an e-mail address filled in, and the MetaMiner user and password fields at the bottom
../../images/web-console/bo/notifications-drawer.png
Notification catalog¶
| Category | Notification | What you are told | One row per |
|---|---|---|---|
| Security | Rights changed | Someone changes rights in BO: who can see, edit or schedule a folder, report or universe | Change: environment, object, folder, who, when |
| Security | Account added or removed | A BO user or group is created or deleted | Account: environment, account, created or deleted, by whom, when |
| Servers | Server stopped or disabled | A BO server stops, cannot be reached or is disabled on any environment, and again when it runs again | State change: environment, server, kind, host, new state, since when |
| Servers | Server settings changed | Anyone changes a BO server's settings, in the CMC or in Server Configuration | Change: environment, server, who, when |
| Content | Content deleted | A report, universe, connection or folder is deleted | Deleted object: environment, name, type, folder, who, when |
| Content | Universe or connection changed | A universe (UNV or UNX) or a connection is saved with changes | Save: environment, universe or connection, type, folder, who, when |
| Content | Anything changes in a folder | Anything in a folder you choose is created, changed or deleted, subfolders included | Change: environment, created / changed / deleted, object, type, folder, who, when |
| Scheduling | Scheduled report failed | A scheduled report run fails, with the BO error message and the report owner | Failed run: environment, report, owner, error, when |
How notifications behave:
- MetaMiner checks every 5 minutes and sends one e-mail listing everything new since its last e-mail. Quiet periods send nothing.
- A notification starts from the moment you save it; nothing that happened earlier is sent.
- An e-mail usually arrives 5 to 20 minutes after the change, because the facts come from the BO audit log and the server checks MetaMiner already collects.
- Each notification is a normal MetaMiner alert in the MMC Alerts tab, group BO Notifications, named
BO: <notification>. You can see its history and pause it there. See Alerts.
Turn a notification on¶
- On the Notify me tab, click the notification to tick it.
- In Send to, type the e-mail addresses, comma-separated. Leave it empty to see the results in the MMC only.
- For Anything changes in a folder, type or pick the folder, for example
Public Folders/Finance. - Repeat for other notifications. Changed rows are highlighted until saved.
- Enter your MetaMiner user and password at the bottom and click Save changes.
Result: "Saved N alerts. They run in MetaMiner from now on." Each active notification shows On, when it was last checked, when it last sent an e-mail and how many it has sent. To turn one off, untick it and save.
Test a notification¶
Click Check now on an active notification. MetaMiner runs the check immediately; an e-mail goes out only if something new happened since the last one.
Promote and validate¶
The Promote and validate tab lists jobs already set up in the MMC:
| Section | Jobs listed | Set up in the MMC |
|---|---|---|
| Promotions and syncs | Folder promotions and scheduled syncs from one environment to another, with source, target, schedule (or on demand), last run and status | Backup and Restore, Alerts tab |
| Report validations | Validation sets that open the same reports on two environments and compare the output page by page, with each report's last result (same, differs, error) | Report Validation |
Image of the Promote and validate tab: one promotion job and one validation set ticked, and the run box showing step 1 succeeded and step 2 running
../../images/web-console/bo/promote-validate-run.png
Run jobs in order¶
- On the Promote and validate tab, tick the jobs to run. They run in the order listed: promotions and syncs first, then validations, each section alphabetical by name.
- Enter your MetaMiner user and password at the bottom.
- Click Run ticked, in order.
Result: MetaMiner runs the steps one after another and stops at the first failure. The run box shows each step's state, its duration and, for validations, a verdict such as "all 5 identical" or "2 of 5 differ". The run keeps going if you close the drawer; reopen it to see progress.
Use this to sync a promote-to-production folder and then prove the result with a validation in one action.
Permissions
Running a promotion needs Tab: Backup/Promote on the environments involved; a sync or alert job needs Tab: Alerts; a validation needs Tab: Report Validation. See Permissions Reference.
Troubleshooting¶
"Enter your MetaMiner user and password (bottom left)"
Saving and running always need your MetaMiner credentials in the drawer footer.
Could not reach the MetaMiner Server
The Web Apps service cannot reach the MMS. Check that the MetaMiner Server runs, then reopen the drawer.
A notification is On but no e-mail arrives
Check the MMS e-mail settings, that BO auditing data is current for that environment, and the alert history in the MMC Alerts tab. Nothing is sent when nothing new happened.
"No promotion jobs set up." or "No validation sets set up."
Create the jobs in the MMC first; this tab runs them but does not create them.