I am working with a client to migrate two instances of SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP3 to a new SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP5 server. The two source servers have a combined 110 ODBC data sources. This introduces the obvious question: Do I want to recreate these ODBC sources on the destination server? The obvious answer to the obvious question is NO! So the question remains: How can I migrate my existing ODBC sources from one server to another?
WARNING! These steps require manual manipulation of the Windows Registry. Take a full backup of the registry prior to completing these steps. Without a full backup, you could corrupt your installation of windows and will be forced to reinstall the OS and all associated applications. Also, ensure that the middleware that is being used on your current servers are also installed on the new server(s). Without this middleware, the ODBC Data Source Administrator will not allow you to edit or delete the imported connections.
Now that the warnings are out of the way, let’s get on with the fun!
To migrate ODBC sources across environments:
Log into the source server and open regedit.exe.
Navigate to
32 Bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC
64 Bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ODBC
Open ODBC and highlight ODBC.INI
Right click ODBC.INI and select Export
Ensure that the Export Range at the bottom is set to Selected Branch
Enter the file name “ODBC.REG” and click Save.
Copy the ODBC.REG to a directory on the destination server.
Now go to the destination server and do the following:
Log into the destination server and open regedit.exe.
Navigate to
32 Bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ODBC
64 Bit OS: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ODBC
Right click the ODBC.INI and select Rename
Enter ODBC.ORIGINAL.INI in case you need to roll back to the original settings.
In Windows Explorer, navigate to the location of the ODBC.REG and double click the file
Accept the warnings to continue
Test the data sources to ensure proper migration.
When you open the ODBC data source administrator, all of the data sources and their associated credentials will be present. After I completed this step, I ran the typical content migration process from one SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 environment to another. I was able to immediately run all of the imported reports without the need to recreate ODBC sources on the new server.
This scenario describes the case where you are migrating 32 bit to 32 bit or 64 bit to 64 bit. If you would like to migrate from a 32 bit operating system to a 64 bit operating system as is the case with the migration from SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 to SAP BusinessObjects 4, edit the .reg file prior to importing the contents into the destination server. You will need to add “Wow6432Node” to the registry key path. I accomplished this by searching for all instances of SOFTWARE\ODBC in my 32 bit reg file export and replaced it with SOFTWARE\Wow6432Node\ODBC.
Please experiment with this methodology on a sandbox server to ensure that you’re ready to go at game time! This worked very well with my current client and I hope that it will work well with yours.
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