This chapter includes the following topics:
Analytics synchronization is a process by which object dimension data is sent from the remote database to the dimension tables of the Analytics database, where the data is stored. The Automation Service runs the synchronization process using the Analytics sync jobs that are delivered with Analytics. Dimension data is transferred through a JDBC connection.
An Analytics sync job exists for each object. The Analytics Jobs subfolder exists within the Analytics subfolder of the Admin Objects directory. For a complete list of synchronized objects and their associated products and Automation Service jobs, see Synchronized Dimension Data and Associated Jobs.
The Automation Service automatically runs all Analytics sync jobs after you have installed or upgraded Analytics (including having added Analytics jobs to the Automation Service). The first synchronization is a full synchronization, in which the sync jobs transfer dimension data about all of the products’ reported objects and populate the Analytics database’s job records.
After this initial synchronization, the Automation Service automatically and regularly runs partial synchronizations, in which all Analytics sync jobs transfer only dimension data about objects that are new or have been changed since the previous synchronization. Note that if an object is removed from the application on which Analytics is reporting, the record for that object’s dimension data remains in the Analytics database. For this reason, Analytics continues to report the events that occurred on this object before it was removed from the application.
By default, the Automation Service performs a partial synchronization once per day. You can, however, edit each sync job’s schedule to better suit your environment and its usage patterns. For synchronization scheduling guidelines, see Strategizing Synchronization Scheduling.
You can find details of sync jobs in the portal's job history log or in Analytics's sync.log file. For the location of the Analytics sync.log file, see Overview of Logs.
The following table lists the products that are synchronized with Analytics, the objects whose dimension data is synchronized, and the Analytics job that triggers synchronization of that dimension data. The Analytics Jobs subfolder exists within the Analytics subfolder of the Admin Objects directory.
Note: | Besides Analytics sync jobs, the Admin Objects directory includes these Analytics jobs, which are not related to synchronization: |
A force synchronization populates the Analytics database with the dimension data of objects that are synchronized by Analytics jobs. These jobs are listed in Synchronized Dimension Data and Associated Jobs.
To perform a force synchronization operation for all dimension data:
To perform a force synchronization of a single object’s dimension data:
Because some dimension data in your environment might change more frequently than other dimension data, we recommend that you adopt a job scheduling strategy that reflects your environment’s unique circumstances.
Following are some examples of scheduling strategies that you can adopt:
Note: | Collaboration object data is sent real time to Analytics when Collaboration sends event data. For this reason, you do not need to schedule the Message Post and Document Upload sync jobs to run periodically. Only use these jobs if you have noticed that the BEA AL Analytics Collector service was not running while users posted messages or uploaded documents to Collaboration. |
For complete details on how to schedule Automation Service jobs, see Administrator Guide for BEA AquaLogic Interaction.