About Merging 2 rpd in OBIEE -- The only article that matters

Hello All

About merging rpds. You all know this merge button under 'file' in Admin tool right?

This launches the merge repository wizard, which is easy.

The confusing part is, how to determine original master rpd, Modified rpd, Current Rpd?

This is what I do to remember:

Let's say there is a scenario that I have RPD1 and RPD2. I want to merge these 2 rpds so that there will be a new RPD that has both RPD1 and RPD2 objects. 

In this case (or any case), you need to create a new rpd with nothing in it. basically a dummy rpd, call it RPD(Dummy)3.

Now open either RPD1 or RPD2, which one doesn't matter, but once it's opened, use the merge button from that rpd to start merging. Therefore, the rpd that is currently opened (so that you can click 'merge' button from it) will automatically be your 'Current' RPD.

Pick RPD(Dummie)3 as your original master rpd and the other RPD (RPD 2 or RPD1) as your modified RPD, then merge..

To make it simple, when merging RPD1 and RPD2 into RPD3, this is the identification in the merging wizard:

Dummy RPD (empty RPD made by you ) = Original Master RPD

RPD1 or RPD2 = Current RPD

RPD2 or RPD1 = Modified RPD

Save Modified RPD AS: Give the resultant RPD a name and location as you wish =  RPD4.

RPD4 becomes the finishing product of this merge and you can leave Dummy rpd there for your next merge.

In the merging strategy step, if you are ever in doubt whether to select 'Current' or 'Modified', just see which rpd did these red objection come from.

In my case, all of the are from 'Current Repository', so in decision list, I pick current for all.

Let the application take care of the rest after you hit 'Finish' when you are finished selecting decisions.

Note:

The merging of rpds can take a while. If one of the RPD is 20MB, the whole merging process can take up to 3 hours.

Try to have 2 rpds that are completely unrelated with each other when merging. A lot of time, merging is unreliable, specially in this version, you never know what has gone missing after merging. If RPD1 and RPD2 have absolutely nothing in common, then the merging of the two might minimize the risk of conflict during merge. If both rpds have a lot in common, I don't recommend merging. Its easier to manually reconcile the difference than to merge.

Thanks 

Until next time