Note Taking During the Production Regeneration Process

I perform my production regenerations at night (usually 2 or 3 times a month).  It is usually not the most focused time (my 2 year daughter and my wife typically distract me from being singularly focused on my regeneration).  

While at a high level, a regeneration of views can be a relatively simple thing (especially if you have all your new xu2/xu5 scripts added to the install home during the day).   Yet, there are enough opportunities to mess things ups (script versioning and retention, adherence to standard regeneration process).

It is extremely important that this regeneration process for production is well defined and consistently implemented.

What I have been doing the last couple of regenerations is creating a “regeneration notes” document and annotating any issues.  Should there be any issues when you push all of your development through a software development lifecycle (good design, unit testing and UAT)?  No, but does it happen?  Yes. 

I document moving all my scripts that are being promoted to PVCS (my versioning software), Noetix Custom folder, and production instance folder.  I document any problems I notice during my regeneration (e.g. missing grants).

 

The value I find in doing this is that when I start preparing for my next regeneration in production, I can check my notes (to make sure all code was promoted to the appropriate places…PVCS, Noetix Custom folder and instance homes).  If I had any problems which need to be fixed, it reminds me of these problems so that I resolve the problem with my next regeneration. 

 The day after production regeneration, I like to compare my production instance home with my Noetix custom folder to make sure there are no discrepancies.   I love using Microsoft PowerShell to do this.

Here is my power shell script:

$pathNoetixCustom = Get-Item "\\cmntx02\NOETIX_HOME\NoetixViews 6.0.1 - ERP\Installs\NOETIX_SYS_erpdev\*xu2.sql"

# this is my production install home

foreach ($xu2ScriptCustom in $pathNoetixCustom)

{$NameNoetixCustom =  $xu2ScriptCustom.Name

 $LastWriteCustom =$xu2ScriptCustom.LastWriteTime

 $pathInstance = Get-Item  "\\cmntx02\NOETIX_HOME\NoetixViews 6.0.1 - ERP\Master\Custom\*xu2.sql"

# this is my Noetix custom folder

 foreach ($xu2ScriptInstance in $pathInstance)

 {$NameInstance = $xu2ScriptInstance.Name

  $LastWriteInstance =$xu2ScriptInstance.LastWriteTime

    if ($NameNoetixCustom -eq $NameInstance -And -Not($LastWriteCustom -eq $LastWriteInstance)) {$NameNoetixCustom

                            $xu2ScriptCustom | Select-Object LastWriteTime

                            $xu2ScriptInstance | Select-Object LastWriteTime

     }

 }

}

You would want to replace the Noetix custom home and the install home paths with yours.  I could have used a parameter (this is a small change), but I have not done this here.

In summary, note taking after regeneration can help hone the process and makes me more equipped to be cognizant and fix recurring problems (even minor).   My user community demand high availability and a stable environment and note taking helps me do this.