A summary of migration from series7 to series8

Migration from series 7 to series8 always causes lots of questions due the number of different version of software the source environment has and the complexity of the reports.

Portal
In series 8 Upfront is replaced by Cognos Connection as the portal used to access Cognos content.

Transformer & PowerPlay
Transformer models can be used as is, but they will need to be placed on the application server. The models can be batched but need to use cubeswap to disable / enable the cubes after build/copying the cubes. Note that the authentication source between environments may change so make sure that any security that is set up is tested.
I am told that PowerPlay reports can be migrated too but will need to be exported as MDX (portable files) before import although I have never done this preferring to rebuild reports directly in Analysis studio. I'm unaware if PowerPlay reports in PPES can be migrated.

Impromptu reports
There is a formal migration route for Impromptu reports into Cognos8. You will need to download the migration tools from Cognos themseleves. In a similar manner, Impromptu catalogues are also migrated into Framework Manager models. However it should be noted that this method is rather hit and miss.

ReportNet reports
ReportNet reports should migrate directly from ReportNet to Cognos8 although there are a number of known issues with migration and all reports should go through full regression testing prior to release. It is highly likely that reports will have at least one issue that needs to be resolved. If possible create a seperate Cognos8 environment to your ReportNet environment. In this way reports and packages can be migrated incrementally. It is possible to have COgnos8 and reportNet running on the same application server but I would advise against it.

I hope this helps. For more details please see the Cognos knowledgebase and documentation. It's all available without login from the new IBM Cognos support website.

best regards

Phil