6
Using Change Manager

The Change Manager application is the change management central interface. Change Manager gives you direct or indirect access to all of the change management operations (in cases where Change Manager cannot directly perform an operation, such as capturing or comparing object definitions, Change Manager starts the application that performs that operation).

Change Manager provides access to all the change management objects owned by all users, and allows appropriate operations on these objects depending on ownership.

Objects are ordered by owner in the Change Manager navigator tree. Each user has read and write access to the object definitions that he or she owns, and has read-only access to object definitions owned by other users.

Starting Change Manager

You can start the Change Manager application in any of the following ways:

• From the Oracle Enterprise Manager console, use any of these methods:
  • Select a database in the navigator panel, click the right mouse button, point to the Related Tools menu option, then click Change Manager.

  • On the Tools menu, point to Standard Management Pack, then click Change Manager.

  • Click the Standard Management Pack drawer, then click the Change Manager icon.

• On the Windows Start menu, point to Programs, then to the Oracle Home where Oracle Enterprise Manager is installed, then to Standard Management Pack, then click Change Manager.

See "Starting Change Management Applications from Change Manager" for more information on starting the other change management applications from Change Manager and "Starting DBA Studio from Change Manager" for more information on starting DBA Studio from Change Manager.

Using the Change Manager Main Window

The Change Manager main window has a navigator tree on the left and a detail view on the right.

The navigator tree displays the following change management objects, organized by owner:

• baselines

• comparisons

If the Change Manager navigator tree contains no objects, this means that no baselines or comparisons have been created in the Oracle Enterprise Manager repository that Change Manager is connected to. When you create these objects, they appear in the Change Manager tree.

When you select a change management object or object folder and click the right mouse button, a context menu is displayed that lists the operations that can be performed in the current context. If you select an object that you do not own, some of the operations on the context menu are unavailable (for example, you cannot remove or modify an object that you do not own, because you have read-only access to objects owned by other users). On the context menu, choose any available operation that you are interested in performing.

When the Change Manager Users folder (the root of the Change Manager tree) is selected, the detail view provides information about change management applications and the operations that they can perform. Click on an application's icon in the detail view to learn more about the operations that the application can perform.

When other folders or objects are selected in the Change Manager tree, the detail view provides related information about the selected folder or object.

Starting Change Management Applications from Change Manager

You start the other change management applications from Change Manager, as follows:

• Baseline Viewer

  Expand the Change Manager folder, user folder, and Baselines folder in the Change Manager tree, select a baseline, then on the Object menu, click View Baseline.

• DB Capture

  On the Change Manager Object menu, click Create Baseline.

• DB Diff

  On the Change Manager Object menu, click Compare Database Objects.

Starting DBA Studio from Change Manager

In some cases, you may want to start DBA Studio to quickly create or modify object definitions. To start DBA Studio from Change Manager, on the Tools menu, click DBA Studio.

Working with Baselines

Table 6-1 describes how to use Change Manager to perform different types of baseline operations.

Table 6-1 Performing Baseline Operations

Operation	Steps for Performing the Operation
Create a new baseline	On the Change Manager Object menu, click Create Baseline and follow the steps in the DB Capture application.
View a baseline	Select the baseline in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click View Baseline.
Delete a baseline	Select the baseline in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Remove. This deletes all the versions of the baseline.
Export a baseline to a file	On the Change Manager Tools menu, click Export Plans/Baselines/Comparisons, then specify the baseline to export and the name of the export file.
Import a baseline from a file	On the Change Manager Tools menu, click Import Plans/Baselines/Comparisons, then specify the name of the export file and the baseline to import.
Create a new version of a baseline	Select the baseline in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Recapture.
View a previous version of a baseline	Select the baseline in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Show Versions. In the Versions dialog box, click the version you want to view, then click View.
Delete a previous version of a baseline	Select the baseline in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Show Versions. In the Versions dialog box, click the version you want to delete, then click Remove.
View history entries for baseline tasks	On the View menu, click Show History. In the History dialog box, view history entries for completed baseline tasks on the History page.

For more information on working with baselines, see:

• "Viewing History Entries for Tasks" for more information on viewing history entries for baseline tasks.

• "Working With a Particular Version of a Baseline or Comparison" for more information on working with particular versions of baselines.

• "Exporting and Importing Baselines and Comparisons" for more information on exporting and importing baselines.

Working with Comparisons

Table 6-2 describes how to use Change Manager to perform different types of comparison operations.

Table 6-2 Performing Comparison Operations

Operation	Steps for Performing the Operation
Create a new comparison	On the Change Manager Tools menu, click Compare Database Objects and follow the steps in the DB Capture application.
View a comparison	Select the comparison in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click View Comparison.
Delete a comparison	Select the comparison in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Remove. This deletes all the versions of the comparison.
Export a comparison to a file	On the Change Manager Tools menu, click Export Plans/Baselines/Comparisons, then specify the comparison to export and the name of the export file.
Import a comparison from a file	On the Change Manager Tools menu, click Import Plans/Baselines/Comparisons, then specify the name of the export file and the comparison to import.
Create a new version of a comparison	Select the comparison in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Repeat Comparison.
View a previous version of a comparison	Select the comparison in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Show Versions. In the Versions dialog box, click the version you want to view, then click View.
Delete a previous version of a comparison	Select the comparison in the tree. On the Change Manager Object menu, click Show Versions. In the Versions dialog box, click the version you want to delete, then click Remove.
View history entries for comparison tasks	On the View menu, click Show History. In the History dialog box, view history entries for completed comparison tasks on the History page.

For more information on working with comparisons, see:

• "Viewing History Entries for Tasks" for more information on viewing history entries for comparison tasks.

• "Working With a Particular Version of a Baseline or Comparison" for more information on working with particular versions of comparisons.

• "Exporting and Importing Baselines and Comparisons" for more information on exporting and importing comparisons.

Viewing History Entries for Tasks

You can view history entries that show the status of the following change management tasks:

• Capturing baselines

• Performing comparisons

By viewing the history entries for completed tasks, you can determine when each change management task was performed and its completion status.

To view the history entries for tasks in the current change management repository, on the Change Manager View menu, choose the Show History option, which displays the History dialog box. The History dialog box allows you to view completed tasks.

Viewing Completed Tasks

Click the History tab of the History dialog box to view completed tasks.

The history entries on the History page of the History dialog box enable you to track the change management tasks that have been completed. Each row on the History page is a history entry for one completed task. The status for a particular history entry tells you whether the task completed successfully or not.

On the History page, you can perform the operations shown in Table 6-3:

Table 6-3 Operations That Can be Performed on Completed Tasks

Operation	Steps to Perform the Operation
Remove a task	Select a task and click Remove.
Update the History page display	Click the Refresh button. Any new completed tasks are displayed.
View a task	Select a task and click GoTo. The appropriate change management application window is opened in the correct context for viewing the task.
Save history entries to a file	Click the Save List button. The Save List dialog box lets you save some or all of the task history entries in a file. You have the option of viewing and printing the information to be included in the file before saving the file.
Sort history entries	Click a column heading on the History page. The first time you click a heading, the history entries are sorted in ascending order, using the values in that column. If you click again on the same heading, the history entries are sorted in descending order, using the values in that column.

Working With a Particular Version of a Baseline or Comparison

After you create a baseline specification, you can use the specification to generate multiple baselines over time. Similarly, after you create a comparison specification, you can use it to generate multiple comparisons over time.

By default, when you select a baseline or comparison in Change Manager, any operations you perform are carried out on the latest version of that object. In some cases, however, you may want to view or remove an earlier version of the object. To do so, after you select the object in Change Manager, on the Object menu, click Show Versions. This displays the Versions dialog box. In the Versions dialog box, select the version of the object that you are interested in, then click View to view the selected version of the object in the appropriate change management window or click Remove to remove the selected version of the object from the Oracle Enterprise Manager repository.

Note: When you remove a version of a baseline or comparison, the version numbers for the remaining versions of that object remain the same.

Exporting and Importing Baselines and Comparisons

You can export and import baselines and comparisons using Change Manager. After you export one or more of these objects to a file, you can then import the objects into another repository, which copies the objects from one repository to another.

To export baselines or comparisons:

1. In Change Manager, on the Tools menu, click Export Plans/Baselines/Comparisons.

2. In the Export Plans/Baselines/Comparisons dialog box, specify the object or objects to export, then click Export.

3. In the Export Plans/Baselines/Comparisons to which file? dialog box, select a file into which the selected objects will be exported, then click Save.

To import baselines or comparisons:

1. In Change Manager, on the Tools menu, click Import Plans/Baselines/Comparisons.

2. In the Import Plans/Baselines/Comparisons from which file? dialog box, identify the file that contains the object or objects that you want to import, then click Open.

3. In the Import Plans/Baselines/Comparisons dialog box, select the object or objects that you want to import, then click Import. If the import utility discovers that any of the objects being imported has the same name as an existing object in the current repository, you will be prompted to either rename the object being imported or to cancel the import operation for that object.

---