How to Backup a BO Universe and Maintain its CUID
Backing Up and Restoring Universes While Maintaining CUIDs
Import Wizard BIAR File – The ultimate backup
The sections that follow this one will tell you how to create a backup of a universe on your machine from which you are running Designer. The steps in those sections are “tricks” that allow you to maintain the Business Objects XI ‘s universe’s CUID. With practice they can be executed quickly and on the fly to permit the Universe Designer/Developer to create a back-up more quickly than if they were to use Business Object XI’s Import Wizard’s BIAR file backup method.
With regards to maintenance of the Universe’s CUID and general backup/snapshot capabilities Import Wizard’s BIAR file backup has proven to be quite reliable. This is not to say that I have never seen issues, but these have been limited to large BIAR files and large numbers of objects. Creating a BIAR file backup of a single universe or just a few should 99% of the time be reliable. The drawback is that creating such a backup on the fly can be a rather significant workflow disruptor, you must chose just the right settings in Import Wizard, and because you must switch to Designer, you can only backup what has been loaded to the CMS. All of these attributes might steer you to look for another on the fly backup technique, if so, keep reading…
Make Back-up of a universe
- Using Business Objects Designer import the universe. Then making no changes, close the universe. This will create a fresh, unaltered copy of the universe on your local computer.
- Locate the universe file (*.unv) and the folder (has the same name as the universe file) in the following folder path on the computer on which you are running Designer:
C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataBusiness ObjectsBusiness Objects 11.5Universes@DevelopmentWorking Area - Select both the universe file and the folder (hold CTRL and use mouse). Then right-click either the selected file and chose “WinZip -> Add to Zip File…” Note: Any compression tool will do.
- Enter a name that is meaningful to you; it may indicate the version of the universe, the date/time, or editor. Click “OK” and notice the new Zip file you created. This is your backup.
Restore a back-up of a universe
As has been stated many times on this website, you must be very careful with Universes and their CUIDs. Many logical work flows for handling universes can result in changing CUIDs and lost report bindings. Nevertheless, if properly back-up a universe can be restored to a prior state by following this work flow.
- Open Designer, but do not open any universe
- Locate the desired corresponding Universe folder and zip file. They should be located in:
C:Documents and SettingsApplication DataBusiness ObjectsBusiness Objects 11.5Universes@DevelopmentWorking Area - Back-up the existing universe file and folder to a new Zip file
- Delete the existing universe file and folder
- Unzip the backed-up universe file and folder to this same location. Note: They must be in the same local folder as the universe file and folder they are replacing.
- Open the universe file that you just unzipped and export it to the folder in which you are working:
- You will receive a prompt similar to the following. Click “Yes”.
- WARNING: if you receive any messages asking you to Move, Copy, or Overwrite a universe then you may not be restoring to the exact location that the universe previously resided. Prompts asking to overwrite the universe will be received if the universe you are attempting to restore does not have the same CUID as the backup universe. In this case, double-check your directories and analyze everything in Query Builder.
- At the end of the export close the universe and import the universe you just exported.
- Verify that this is the correct universe.
- You have successfully restored the universe
Prompt reads, “A newer version of this universe exists in the repository. If you continue with the export you may overwrite existing changes. Do you want to continue?
Is there something missing from step number 7 of restore? I mean it says you will receive a prompt similar to following…. but there is nothing following it. I assume it should be a prompt warming about existence of newer version universe and replacing it?? I would think mentioning this is important as step 8 warns you about prompts. So it would be good to know that this prompt is ok but these are not (step 8).
Hi Mika,
I greatly appreciate you pointing this out. Step 7 is a very critical step. When I viewed the article using FireFox the image was there. When I used Internet Explorer it was completely absent. Very strange! It seems that FireFox was forgiving a stray quote character (“) and IE was not. Thanks for pointing this out. I added some textual confirmation too, just in case!
Thanks!
Hi Julian:
Can the above backup and restore process be done using the Import Wizzard and creating a .BIAR file? That should maintain the CUIDs intact correct?
Bala
Hi Bala,
If you use Import Wizard to create a BIAR file backup then you don’t need the above process at all. BIAR file backups are fairly reliable, but they can be disruptive to the workflow of universe development. Please read the new section I added above. Thanks for reminding me to add it.