Refreshing Test Environment Data and Users AFTER Go-Live

Author: Eric Vasbinder

Overview

Oftentimes in the cloud, customers would like to have a full test environment for Vista and other related components.  Unlike a test company in Vista, this will give their end users the ability to test new versions of Vista without interfering with production. 

A key item to note is that test environments in our cloud are provided as completely separate environments from production, with their own installation of Vista, separate servers, and more, all segmented from other environments at layer 2.  This can provide significant benefits, as it ensures that the production data and processes are not impacted by anything occurring within the test environment.  However, there is one caveat that comes with this approach: data refreshes of production data into test environments must be performed by Trimble Viewpoint personnel.  Fortunately, a limited number of these data refreshes is included for free with any test environment.

However, as part of this process there are some steps that need to be performed to ensure a smooth data refresh.  Those are detailed below, along with caveats and notes for data refreshes.

Data Refresh Caveats and Notes

Two Week Lead Time Required

Due to Vista's architecture, our teams need to perform a series of complex, time consuming steps when performing a data refresh.  Given this impact, we have a need to schedule appropriate resources for a data refresh.  

As such, our teams need TWO WEEKS lead time prior to performing the data refresh.  To that end, please ensure that you submit your support case to request the data refresh with this in mind.  

Free Data Refreshes Are Limited to One per Quarter (Four Per Year) Per Customer

As part of any test environment, Viewpoint provides up to four included, free data refreshes from production to test throughout the year, at one per quarter.   A best practice recommendation is to have a data refresh performed prior to starting testing of a new Vista version in your test environment.  Please note that any data refreshes, beyond the four that are included for free per customer, will be at an additional cost.

This limit of four refreshes per year is PER CUSTOMER, regardless of the number of test environments purchased.

To purchase and request additional data refreshes beyond the four, please follow the steps in the next section, "Purchasing Additional Data Refreshes".

Caveat - SSO Mismatch

As you may have already seen on this FAQ site, we do not support SSO in our test environments.  As such, when restoring a database from production to test, your cloud team will need to update the usernames for users who will need test environment access to be compatible with our standard, non-SSO methods for Vista access:  either pure SQL authentication accounts, or if MFA is desired, our Cascade / AVD method.

If pure SQL authentication accounts are used for test environments, please note that those SQL accounts will need to be re-associated to the refreshed Vista DB after every refresh into the test environment.

Caveat - User Permissions Reset

As users coming from production need to be, in effect, recreated in a test environment after a database refresh, those users may lose access to payroll groups, reports, etc.   Please review permissions and access after a data refresh to ensure you are still able to do what you need to do.

Caveat - Users Management Changes to Cascade / AVD for Anyone Copied to Test Environment

As SSO is not compatible with our test environments, customers will need to appoint an admin for users in their test environment.  Those user admins will use our new Cascade user admin portal to add, update, and remove users from their test environment.  Users will then log in to to Vista using the old format of "VIEWPOINT\username.code".

Please note, after a data refresh, you may need to work with our cloud staff to manually associate users who need access to the test environment to users as they are listed in the Cascade portal.

For more information on how to add, manage, and delete users in the Cascade portal, please see this FAQ article:  The Transition to Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD) and Cascade 

NOTE:  We are working on supporting SSO in test environments, but until that is ready, this older method must be used.

Purchasing Additional Data Refreshes

If you would like to have additional data refreshes beyond the standard four per customer, please reach out to your Trimble account manager and request for additional data refreshes to added.   They will be charged on a Time and Materials basis.   For specific pricing, please reach out to your account manager.

Data Refresh Steps

To proceed through a data refresh from production to test or dev environments, please use the following steps as a guideline:

REMINDER:  Data Refreshes require a two week lead time to schedule due to processing time.

1. Customer:  Submit a cloud engineering case to have the data refresh performed

   1. Please include the company code for both your test and production environments in the case

   2. Please include the date for the data backup to be used.

   3. OPTIONAL:  If you would like additional items restored into the test / dev environment, please include specific references to those items in your case (e.g. SSRS Reports, Crystal Reports, etc.)

      1. NOTE:  If you are requesting RPT files to be copied over, please ALSO include a request for the cloud team to run the "Crystal Reports Updater" tool (a.k.a.  "Shattered Crystal") that can update the DSNs for the custom Crystal reports to be compatible with the new SQL server IP in the test environment.

2. Viewpoint Cloud Team:   Locate the customer's .BAK backups from the daily snapshots for the evening specified by the customer for the backup source date

3. Viewpoint Cloud Team:  Restore Vista and HFF (Vista Web) Portal databases (KDS-HRIM, Viewpoint, VPAttachments) from referenced daily snapshot into the test environment.

4. Viewpoint Cloud Team:  IF REQUESTED IN THE CASE, please also restore SSRS Reports (ReportServer and ReportServerTempDB), custom Crystal Reports (.RPT files in Viewpoint Repository), and custom Document Templates (from Viewpoint Repository).

5. Viewpoint Cloud Team:  IF CUSTOM CRYSTAL REPORTS HAVE BEEN COPIED OVER, PLEASE RUN "CRYSTAL REPORTS UPDATER" TOOL IN ORDER TO UPDATE THE BUILT-IN DSNs ON THE RESTORED CRYSTAL REPORT .RPT FILES TO MAKE COMPATIBLE WITH THE NEW TEST ENVIRONMENT.

6. Viewpoint Cloud Team:  Perform user cleanup and association of former SSO users to appropriate users in the test environment as specified in Cascade.

7. Viewpoint Cloud Team:  Inform customer of refresh completion and list of users converted into legacy format for test environment

8. Customer:  Log in to environment and validate.  Reset passwords in Cascade as need be (article refers to RDP, but this also applies to ANY VRL user who uses our legacy format usernames to log in to an environment, including test environments):  How to reset passwords for RDP in Azure Virtual Desktop (AVD)