1. What is MicroStrategy Integrity Manager?

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager is an automated report and document comparison tool. Report SQL, data, graphs, Excel, and PDF output are compared to help customers verify data and BI output integrity when intended or unintended changes are introduced in the BI ecosystem. The test results are analyzed in the MicroStrategy Integrity Manager graphical interface, or in an HTML output file that can be shared with any user.

2. What does MicroStrategy Integrity Manager do?

Administrators create tests in MicroStrategy Integrity Manager that define which BI Output (reports, documents, Intelligent Cubes, data mart reports) to compare. The report and document output can be compared between two BI applications, between one BI application and a previously stored set of "baseline" results, or between two baselines. Differences in the data, SQL, graph output, Excel output, PDF output, and execution statistics are displayed in the MicroStrategy Integrity Manager graphical interface and are also saved in HTML files.

3. What are the main uses of MicroStrategy Integrity Manager?

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager provides ongoing auto-detection of anomalies before your users see them. This auto-detection ensures that all critical reports are correct every day, and thus provides information assurance to your BI users. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager also provides targeted regression testing for all planned changes and dramatically reduces the time and manpower required to deploy any change in the BI environment. Read detailed features of MicroStrategy Integrity Manager

4. How long does it take to set up and run a MicroStrategy Integrity Manager test?
Administrators can create a simple yet extremely powerful MicroStrategy Integrity Manager test in a few minutes using the Test Creation Wizard. For example, creating a test that compares two entire projects is as simple as connecting directly to the Base and Target projects, selecting the entire projects reports and documents with one click, and then running the test.

5. Can I run MicroStrategy Integrity Manager against previous version of MicroStrategy?

Yes. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager is able to connect to any project running on a previous version of MicroStrategy. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager has been tested against all MicroStrategy versions that are presently supported.

6. How can I get MicroStrategy Integrity Manager?

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager is a new product and can be purchased through your account manager or by contacting sales at info@microstrategy.com.

7. How do I install MicroStrategy Integrity Manager?

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager is included from MicroStrategy 8 Release 11 (8.1.1) onwards. Select MicroStrategy Integrity Manager as part of the installation routine (as per other MicroStrategy products) via the MicroStrategy setup.exe.

8. How does MicroStrategy Integrity Manager integrate with the rest of the MicroStrategy platform?
MicroStrategy Integrity Manager connects to and executes reports through MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. The results are passed back to MicroStrategy Integrity Manager for comparison and analysis, and stored in the baseline files.

9. On which operating systems can MicroStrategy Integrity Manager be installed?

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager is supported on Windows, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Red Hat and SUSE Linux operating systems. Please consult the product Readme files for the latest supported operating system versions.

10. Is MicroStrategy Integrity Manager available in other languages?

Yes. The MicroStrategy Integrity Manager interface is available in multiple languages (English, Spanish, German, French, Korean, Japanese, Italian, Swedish, Portuguese, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Danish, Dutch). Please consult the product Readme files for the latest supported languages.

11. Where are the baseline files stored?

The baseline files can be stored in any location. The default location is within a newly created folder, aliased with a date-time stamp, in the "Integrity Manager" folder under Program Files MicroStrategy.

12. In what format are the baseline files stored?

The baseline results are a combination of .xml summary files and individual files for each report for the SQL (in .sql and .html format), the data (in .ser and .csv format), the graph (in .png format), the Excel output (in .xls and .png format), and the PDF output (in .pdf format).

13. Can I test for changes between one version of a Data Warehouse and another?

Yes. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager can be used to compare differences from a project pointing towards different versions of Data Warehouse. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager can verify success after any changes to your BI ecosystem, including (but not limited to):

Data Warehouse load routines and ETL processes Metadata object promotions from development to test to production systems MicroStrategy software version upgrades 64-bit operating system upgrades Database version or platform changes

14. Does MicroStrategy Integrity Manager compare Documents?

Yes. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager compares MicroStrategy Report Services Documents within MicroStrategy Integrity Manager tests. A document can be compared by generating the export to Excel output, and/or the export to PDF output. The documents are compared pixel-bypixel to find any exceptions, and unmatched output clearly grouped and highlighted against the fully-formatted document.

15. Does MicroStrategy Integrity Manager compare Intelligent Cubes?

Yes. Just like Reports and Documents, Intelligent Cubes are included in MicroStrategy Integrity Manager tests whether they are selected individually, within selected folders, returned by a selected search, or selected via a shortcut. Intelligent Cubes SQL is generated and compared, parse-by-parse and clause-by-clause, and any differences are highlighted in the test results.

16. Does MicroStrategy Integrity Manager compare performance statistics?

Yes. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager captures the average execution time to enable the comparison of report and document performance between environments. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager tests can be configured to execute reports and documents through multiple performance cycles. Multiple executions of the same report and document generate performance execution statistics including average, minimum and maximum execution time across that sample. Execution time is integrated into the Results Summary interface and HTML results.

17. Does MicroStrategy Integrity Manager support reports created against MDX based data sources?
Yes. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager can execute and compare reports created against SAP BW, Hyperion Essbase, and Microsoft Analysis Services cubes.

18. How can I set up a test to run in off-peak hours?

A MicroStrategy Integrity Manager test includes parameters for connectivity information, report selection, execution, and logging settings, all of which can be saved in an MTC file. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager can be launched through the operating system command

prompt using the MTC file as the input parameter for the test. Administrators can use a batch file to trigger MicroStrategy Integrity Manager tests during off-peak hours.

19. How does MicroStrategy Integrity Manager resolve prompts?

As an automated report and document comparison product, MicroStrategy Integrity Manager replaces what used to be a manual laborious process (lasting weeks or months) with an automated test completed in a matter of hours. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager resolves Prompts automatically in order to continue to pass on these 1000s man-hour savings to administrators and BI developers. MicroStrategy Integrity Manager has four different prompt resolution strategies to resolve prompts found in reports and documents selected in an MicroStrategy Integrity Manager test. These Prompt strategies can be prioritized, turned off, are completely individually configurable. An administrator can choose to use:

MicroStrategy Integrity Manager prompt resolution logic that resolves 100% of prompts, Input text values across a range of similar prompts, Default prompt answers, Pre-saved personal prompt answers, Or manually resolve each required prompt during the test via a direct connection to the prompt interface in MicroStrategy Web.