About Snapshots

A snapshot captures the state of your environment at a point in time. Snapshots don’t include data that's hosted on external data sources.

Backup and Restore

Take a snapshot of your environment before people start using the system and again at suitable intervals so you can restore the environment if something goes wrong. You can export and store snapshots on your local file system or cloud storage and import them back to your system if they’re required to restore content. The snapshot file that you download is a compressed archive file (BAR file).

You can keep up to 40 snapshots online and export as many as you want to offline storage. See Export Snapshots.

Oracle Analytics Cloud automatically takes a snapshot when someone publishes changes to the semantic model and keeps the 5 most recent snapshots in case you unexpectedly need to revert to an earlier model version. The minimum interval between these automatically generated snapshots is one hour.

Note:

You can take and restore snapshots using the Console or REST API. The Snapshots page in the Console lists the snapshots that you take using the Console. See Take Snapshots and Restore Information. Snapshots that you take and register using the REST API don't display in the Snapshots page. See Manage Snapshots Using REST APIs.

Content Migration

Snapshots are also useful if you want to migrate your content to another environment. For example, you might want to :

• Migrate content you created in a development or test environment to a production environment.
• Migrate content you created in a different Oracle product and exported to a snapshot (BAR file).

  You can generate and migrate BAR files from several Oracle products.

  • Oracle Analytics Cloud
  • Oracle Analytics Server
  • Oracle BI Enterprise Edition

When you restore a snapshot taken from a different environment:

• The snapshot must be taken from an environment at the same version (or earlier version) as the target environment.

  For example, if you take a snapshot of an Oracle Analytics environment that includes the May 2022 update, you can restore it on other Oracle Analytics environments that include the May 2022 update or a later update (such as July 2022). You can't restore this snapshot on an Oracle Analytics environment that includes an earlier update, such as March 2022.

• Catalog objects that your target environment doesn’t support aren't migrated.

• In most cases, you must upload the data associated with your datasets on the target environment.

Exclusions

There are a few items that aren't included in a snapshot:

• Data files - XLSX, XLS, CSV, or TXT files that users upload to create datasets. You can include references to data files but not the actual files.
• Map layers and backgrounds - Custom map layers and map backgrounds that users upload to enhance their visualizations and reports.
• Snapshot list - The list of snapshots that you see on the Snapshot page.

Options When You Take a Snapshot

When you take a snapshot you choose the content you want to include in it. You can take a snapshot of your entire environment (everything) or specify only specific content that you want to back up or migrate (custom).

• Everything - Saves your entire environment in the snapshot. This option is useful if you want to:
  • Back up everything in case something goes wrong.
  • Migrate everything to a new environment.
  • Clone an existing environment.
• Custom - You select which content to save in the snapshot. Some content types are always included while others are optional.

  Snapshot Option	Description	Optional?
  Data	Data visualization content that users create (Data tab).
  Datasets	Datasets that users create for data visualizations and data flows.	Always included
  File-based Data	File-based data that users upload to create datasets. For example, data uploaded from a spreadsheet. This option captures references to your data files. Actual data files aren't included in the snapshot.	Optional
  Connections	Data connections that users create so they can visualize their data.	Always included
  Data Flows	Data flows that users create for data visualization.	Always included
  Sequences	Sequences that users create for data visualization.	Always included
  Data Replications	Data replications that users create for data visualization.	Optional
  Semantic Models and Subject Areas	Semantic models that users develop (SMML) and semantic models that users deploy (RPDs).	Always included
  Machine Learning	Machine learning models that users create from data flows.	Always included
  Jobs	Jobs that users schedule for data flows, sequences, data replications, and pixel-perfect reports.	Optional
  Plug-ins and Extensions	Extensions that users upload to implement custom visualizations and custom maps.	Optional
  Configuration and Settings	Service configuration and settings configured through Console. For example, mail settings, database connections, safe domains, data connectivity configurations, and so on. Note: System settings aren't included in the snapshot.	Optional
  Day by Day	Day by Day content such as the "For You" feed, bring backs, comments, and shared cards.	Optional
  Application Roles	User-defined application roles that administrators create through Console. Membership details for each application role, that is, the users, groups, and other application roles assigned to each application role.	Always included
  Credentials	Data connections: Credentials and other connection parameters, such as host, port, user name, and password. If you exclude credentials, you must reconfigure the connection details after you restore the snapshot. Cloud storage: Credentials required to access cloud storage where file-based data that users upload is stored. If you include file-based data in your snapshot, include the storage credentials if you plan to migrate the content to another environment. If you exclude credentials, you can use the Data Migration utility to download and then upload your data files separately.	Optional
  Classic Content	Content that users create in Oracle Analytics Cloud, such as workbooks, analyses, dashboards, and pixel-perfect reports.	Always included
  Catalog Content	Catalog containing content that users create and save for future use, such as workbooks, analyses, dashboards, reports, deliveries, agents, and so on.	Always included
  Shared Folders (including Workbooks)	Content that is being shared, that is, content that everyone with access to can see. This includes any workbooks saved in the shared folders.	Always included
  User Folders and Personalizations (including Workbooks)	Content stored in user folders. Content that users create and store for their private use. This includes any workbooks that users save in their private folders and any personalizations that they make to these workbooks.	Optional

Options When You Restore a Snapshot

When you restore content from a snapshot you have several options. You can restore only the content that's inside the snapshot, restore everything in your environment, or restore a specific set of items in the snapshot (custom).

• Replace Snapshot Content Only - Everything in the snapshot that's supported in your environment is restored. Any content type excluded from the snapshot remains unchanged in your environment.
• Replace Everything - Replaces your entire environment using information in the snapshot.

  Any content type excluded from the snapshot is restored to its default state, that is, "no content". For example, if you chose not to include jobs in the snapshot, any jobs that exist on your system are deleted when you restore the snapshot and the jobs feature is restored with default settings. There are some exceptions; if the snapshot doesn’t contain any file-based datasets, plug-ins, or extensions these items are left unchanged.

  This option is useful if you want to:

  • Replace everything after something went wrong.
  • Migrate from another service.
  • Clone an existing service.
• Custom - You select the content you want to restore. If you don’t want to restore certain content types, exclude them before you restore.
  In most cases, the options on restore are the same as the options when you take a snapshot. Some content types are always restored, while others are optional.

  Note:

  When you restore catalog content from a snapshot, delivery schedules aren’t automatically restored or activated. This is so you can restore and activate deliveries at a time that suits you. See Restore and Enable Delivery Schedules.

  If your snapshot contains items that your environment doesn’t support, you see the message "Not supported in this environment".

Restoring a Snapshot Taken from a Different Product

You can take snapshots in several Oracle products; Oracle BI Enterprise Edition 12c, Oracle Analytics Cloud, and Oracle Analytics Server.

• Unsupported Content

  If you take a snapshot in one product and try to restore it in a different Oracle product, you might find the snapshot contains some items that the target environment doesn’t support. When Oracle Analytics detects unsupported content, warning icons display on the Custom page to highlight unsupported items in the snapshot that won't be restored.

  For example, you take a snapshot in Oracle Analytics Cloud and include data replications, file-based datasets, plug-ins and extensions in the snapshot. When you restore the snapshot in Oracle Analytics Server, you notice that these items are marked not supported. Oracle Analytics Server doesn’t allow you to include data replications, file-based datasets, plug-ins and extensions in an Oracle Analytics Server snapshot or import them from snapshots you created in other products.