Stat 6.3 - User Guide

Environment Refresh Events

An environment refresh is the replacement of one environment (target) with a copy of another environment (source), which can be either an existing environment or a backup of an environment. In Stat, you document any environment refresh that you have performed or are planning to perform so Stat reporting properly reflects refresh activities and the state of each environment. This is done in the Environment Refresh tab of the CSR window, which is displayed based on a combination of service domain and CSR type.

When you document an environment refresh event, the Stat Repository is updated to reflect any changes the refresh has made to the definition of the target environment. This is done by specifying the start and complete dates of the refresh event. When the specified completion date has elapsed, a process request is submitted automatically to the Stat Central Agent to update the definition of the target environment in the Stat Repository. Start and completion dates are explained in greater detail below.

NOTE: Although documenting environment refresh events updates the definition of the target environment in the Stat Repository, the history of environment before it was refreshed is retained. This allows you to run an activity-based report on the environment that does not take the refresh event into account. Activity-based reports are explained in greater detail below.

For each environment refresh event, the Environment Refresh tab displays the following information:

NOTE: The ability to document or edit environment refresh records is controlled by user class security. Without this right, users have read-only access to the Environment Refresh tab.

Documenting Environment Refresh Events

Documenting an environment refresh in Stat entails specifying the source and target environments and the time frame in which the refresh occurred or is scheduled to occur. Specifying a time frame is done in terms of start and completion dates. If you are using a backup of an environment as the source of the refresh, you must also specify the date that the backup of the source environment was taken.

NOTE: If you have specified an actual completion date and saved the refresh event record, you cannot change the completion date or otherwise edit the record in any way. Instead, you should cancel the record and document the refresh event a second time. Also, try to make actual start and complete times as precise as possible because any time discrepancy could result in lost or inaccurate data. For more information, see the following section, Actual Dates, Scheduled Dates, and Backup Dates .

Actual Dates, Scheduled Dates, and Backup Dates

When you document an environment refresh event in Stat, you have the option of specifying the date, hour, and minute the refresh event started or is scheduled to start, as well as the date, hour, and minute the refresh event completed or is schedule to complete. You can specify this time frame in terms of either actual dates or scheduled dates. In addition if you are using a backup of an environment as the source for the refresh, you must also specify the date, hour, and minute that the backup of the source environment was taken.

You specify the time frame using actual dates if the environment has already been refreshed and you want to document the refresh event after the fact, or if you know that the environment will be refreshed at some specific time in the future. When you specify a future actual start date, Stat locks the target environment and prevents users from working within that environment beginning at the time specified in the Actual Start Date field. At this point, users will receive an error message if they attempt any activity within the target environment. The target environment remains locked until the time specified in the Actual Complete Date field, if any, has elapsed. When you first document a refresh event, you can specify an actual start date without specifying an actual complete date. Once the refresh has been completed, you can then edit the refresh record and specify an actual complete date, which removes the lock on the target environment. The actual complete date must be later than the time specified in the Actual Start Date field. Also, you cannot specify an actual complete date without first specifying an actual start date.

The Stat Central Agent does not process a refresh event until the time specified in the Actual Complete Date field has elapsed. If you are documenting an environment refresh event that has already occurred and specified the actual completion date, the Stat Central Agent processes the request immediately after you save.

NOTE: In the case of PeopleSoft environments, the Stat Central Agent also runs the PS Lock Sync job when the completion date has elapsed. This enables any object locks defined in CSRs for the target environment to be duplicated after the environment is refreshed.

You specify the time frame using scheduled dates when there are tentative plans to refresh the environment at some future time. When you use scheduled dates, users can still work within the target environment during the scheduled refresh event but will receive a warning message stating that the environment may be in the process of being refreshed. At any time before or after the refresh event, you can edit the refresh record and change the scheduled dates to actual dates.

As with actual dates, the scheduled end date must be later than the time specified in the Scheduled Start Date field. Unlike actual dates, however, scheduled dates require that you specify both a start and an end date.

If you are using as the source of the refresh a backup of an environment, you need to specify the date and time when that backup of the environment was taken. This information allows Stat to refresh the target environment with the history of the source environment up to the date and time of the backup.

Canceling Environment Refresh Records

If you have not specified an actual completion date, at any time you can remove a refresh event record by selecting it on the Environment Refresh tab and clicking Delete. If you have specified an actual completion date, or if the completion date has elapsed and you want to undo the update of the Stat Repository, select the record in the Environment Refresh tab and click Edit. Then in the Environment Refresh window, click Cancel Request. When you cancel a request after the completion date has elapsed, the definition of the target environment in the Stat Repository is returned to its original state before the Stat Central Agent processed the refresh request.