Version Control and Deployment Planning

The Version Control and Deployment Planning area can be used to review source files, track changes to files over time and plan deployments between environments. On the main screen the Version Repository for the currently selected connection / model can be entered and Saved Deployment Plans can be reviewed and executed.

Working with the Version Control Repository

When the Version Control Repository is entered, the list of files / TM1 Objects (Cubes, Dimensions, Processes, Chores, Subsets and Views) for the given connection are displayed. From here:

• Results can be filtered via the search field, control and TM1 objects can be toggled on and off, specific object types can be filtered and columns can be sorted.
• Actions such as viewing the documentation page, analyzing changes over time or downloading the file can be invoked via the actions column.
• Entries can be selected and added to a Deployment Plan

Comparing a model to a target environment

In the case where you are looking to deploy changes from one environment to the next, a target environment (e.g. the Production environment) can be selected to give additional insight about what has changed over time.

This exposes additional functionality such as:

• The change type field which provides filtering based on whether files are different, the same, new or missing, and;
• The Comparative modified date for easy timestamp comparisons

Detailed change analysis views are also available for objects by selecting the Change Analysis icon.  This will give a timeline of changes that can be navigated along with a visual analysis of what has changed. Note that the flag on the timeline indicates the version being analysed and the targets on the timeline indicate previous version snapshots.

Creating a Deployment Plan

After analyzing changes you may want to create a Deployment Plan to either work out and document what files you want to deploy into another environment or to actually package up the files that you want to deploy.

To create the Deployment Plan you simply need to populate the Author and Description fields, add any comments to individual files that you want to capture and then scroll down to review and save the plan.

Note:

• The version timestamp (shown below) indicates when the environment was last assessed. It is good practice to re-run the generation before building a deployment plan.

• The Source field indicates whether or not the file will come from the version repository or whether the latest file will be taken from the data directory when the deployment plan is executed.

Reviewing and Executing Saved Deployment Plans

Once the deployment plan is saved it can be reviewed and executed or individual files can be downloaded.

Upon executing the plan, files will be copied into a holding directory so that they can be subsequently taken to another environment.  By default, files are stored in:

%ProgramData%\QUBEdocs\Deployments (this directory is configurable in the web.config file).

Note:

• This functionality only works when connecting to your TM1 environment through the File System or Network Share (UNC)