Opalis Migration Details

The following section provides important details about migrating Opalis workflows to System Center 2012 - Orchestrator.

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Policy Mode setting

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 provided two modes for workflows that defined the behavior of the publish/subscribe databus. You can see this runbook property by right-clicking a workflow tab in the Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Client and clicking Properties. The Policy Mode setting for a given runbook is located on the Run Behavior tab. If the Run in pipeline mode box is not checked, then the workflow is configured for “legacy” mode.

Legacy mode was retained in Opalis Integration Server 6.3 to provide backwards compatibility with older versions of Opalis software. In Opalis Integration Server 6.3 the default policy mode for new workflows is “pipeline.”

Orchestrator does not provide a runbook mode setting. The Policy Mode tab for runbook properties has been replaced with the Job Concurrency tab. Runbooks in Orchestrator use a data model compatible with Opalis Integration Server 6.3 Pipeline mode.

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 workflows that used legacy mode will import into Orchestrator; however, the legacy mode is not compatible with Orchestrator. You can identify these runbooks import by looking at the tab for the runbook. If the runbook is checked in, then the runbook was an Opalis Integration Server 6.3 pipeline workflow. If the runbook is Checked Out, then the Opalis Integration Server 6.3 workflow was a legacy workflow.

Below is a summary of Opalis Integration Server workflow mode settings and how these workflows are treated when migrated to Orchestrator runbooks.

Unsupported runbook structures

Runbooks that import as Checked Out in Orchestrator need to be checked in at some point. When these runbooks are checked in, the Runbook Designer provides a warning if the runbook uses a runbook structure that is not valid. You need to resolve these warnings before the runbook can function properly.

Runbooks with multiple starting points

Runbooks can only contain one activity as a starting point. If the runbook contains multiple starting activities, then the check-in produces the following warning:

The Runbook contains multiple starting activities.

Update the runbook to contain a single starting activity. Note that multiple starting activities were not supported in Opalis Integration Server 6.3.

Runbooks with cycles

Runbooks cannot contain smart links that originate with one runbook activity and reference (“point to”) a prior runbook activity. These runbook structures are known as “cycles.” Cycles were supported in Opalis Integration Server 6.3 legacy mode but were not supported in pipeline mode. Orchestrator does not support runbooks that contain cycles. If you check in a runbook that contains a cycle, you will receive the following warning:

The Runbook is in Pipeline mode but contains a cycle.

Update the runbook so it does not contain a cycle.

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 ROI setting

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 provided a workflow property used to track return on investment (ROI). You can view this runbook property by right-clicking a workflow tab in the Opalis Integration Server Client, and then clicking Properties. The ROI settings for a given runbook are located in the ROI tab.

The ROI tab is not present in Orchestrator. Orchestrator ignores these settings if they are present in imported Opalis Integration Server 6.3 workflows.

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 legacy objects

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 provided a handful of workflow objects known as the “legacy objects.” These objects were carried over from older versions of Opalis software to provide backwards compatibility. Orchestrator does not provide support for the Legacy objects, although in most cases an equivalent standard activity is available. Runbooks that reference Opalis Integration Server 6.3 legacy workflow objects import into Orchestrator; however, in the Runbook Designer, references to these objects in the imported runbooks are marked by an activity icon that has a question mark (“?”) on it. Update these runbooks to remove the reference to the legacy workflow object and replace it with an Orchestrator equivalent. See the following table to identify Orchestrator runbook activities or resources that might provide a suitable replacement for the Opalis Integration Server 6.3 legacy objects.

Opalis Integration Server 6.3 workflow objects missing in Orchestrator

A handful of Opalis Integration Server workflow objects do not have an equivalent Orchestrator runbook activity. Runbooks that reference these Opalis Integration Server 6.3 workflow objects import into Orchestrator; however, in the Runbook Designer, references to these objects in the imported runbooks are marked by an activity icon that has a question mark (“?”) on it. See the following table for additional details.

Identifying Opalis 6.3 workflows that use missing objects

Run the following SQL query against either the Opalis 6.3 database or the Orchestrator database to identify the Opalis 6.3 workflows that use objects that are no longer available in Orchestrator. This query returns both the Opalis 6.3 workflow name as well as the name of the object in the workflow. Any workflow identified by this query will need to be updated after it has been imported into Orchestrator to remove the reference to the deprecated object.

Select    
      policies.[Name] as [Policy Name],
      objects.[Name] as [Object Name]
From              
      [Objects] objects join
      [Policies] policies
      on objects.[ParentID]=policies.[UniqueID]
Where
  objects.objecttype = '2081B459-88D2-464A-9F3D-27D2B7A64C5E' or 
  objects.objecttype = '6F0FA888-1969-4010-95BC-C0468FA6E8A0' or
  objects.objecttype = '8740DB49-5EE2-4398-9AD1-21315B8D2536' or
  objects.objecttype = '19253CC6-2A14-432A-B4D8-5C3F778B69B0' or
  objects.objecttype = '9AB62470-8541-44BD-BC2A-5C3409C56CAA' or
  objects.objecttype = '292941F8-6BA7-4EC2-9BC0-3B5F96AB9790' or
  objects.objecttype = '98AF4CBD-E30E-4890-9D26-404FE24727D7' or
  objects.objecttype = '2409285A-9F7E-4E04-BFB9-A617C2E5FA61' or
  objects.objecttype = 'B40FDFBD-6E5F-44F0-9AA6-6469B0A35710' or
  objects.objecttype = '9DAF8E78-25EB-425F-A5EF-338C2940B409' or
  objects.objecttype = 'B5381CDD-8498-4603-884D-1800699462AC' or
  objects.objecttype = 'FCA29108-14F3-429A-ADD4-BE24EA5E4A3E' or
  objects.objecttype = '7FB85E1D-D3C5-41DA-ACF4-E1A8396A9DA7' or
  objects.objecttype = '3CCE9C71-51F0-4595-927F-61D84F2F1B5D' or
  objects.objecttype = '96769C11-11F5-4645-B213-9EC7A3F244DB' or
  objects.objecttype = '6FED5A55-A652-455B-88E2-9992E7C97E9A' or
  objects.objecttype = '9C1DF967-5A50-4C4E-9906-C331208A3801' or
  objects.objecttype = 'B40FDFBD-6E5F-44F0-9AA6-6469B0A35710' or
  objects.objecttype = '829A951B-AAE9-4FBF-A6FD-92FA697EEA91' or
  objects.objecttype = '1728D617-ACA9-4C96-ADD1-0E0B61104A9E' or
  objects.objecttype = 'F3D1E70B-D389-49AD-A002-D332604BE87A' or
  objects.objecttype = '2D907D60-9C25-4A1C-B950-A31EB9C9DB5F' or
  objects.objecttype = '6A083024-C7B3-474F-A53F-075CD2F2AC0F' or
  objects.objecttype = '4E6481A1-6233-4C82-879F-D0A0EDCF2802' or
  objects.objecttype = 'BC49578F-171B-4776-86E2-664A5377B178'

Identifying Opalis 6.3 workflows that use special characters

Occasionally Opalis 6.3 policies fail to import into Orchestrator because they contain “special characters” that can only be entered through copy/paste or keyboard combinations. These characters can be found in objects as well as links between objects in Opalis 6.3 workflows. You need to edit these workflows in Opalis 6.3 to remove these special characters before they are migrated to Orchestrator. The SQL Server query below is designed to be run against the Opalis 6.3 database and will help locate workflows that contain these special characters. It provides clues as to the objects and links where these characters appear. The query will run on Orchestrator 2012 as well; however, since Orchestrator does not permit these characters from being entered or imported into a runbook in the first place, the query should never return any results.

Once a Name or Description field is located that contains these special characters, select the field and use CTRL-A to highlight its entire contents. Delete the field contents, and then replace the contents as appropriate.

SELECT 
      Policies.Name, 
      Objects.Name,
      Objects.Description
FROM 
    Objects join
      Policies
      on Objects.ParentID=Policies.UniqueID
where
    ASCII(Objects.Name) < 32
    or ASCII(CAST(Objects.Description as nvarchar(max))) < 32 and
    Policies.Deleted is NULL

See Also

Tasks

Migrate Opalis Workflows

Concepts

Test Migrated Runbooks

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For additional resources, see Information and Support for System Center 2012.

Tip: Use this query to find online documentation in the TechNet Library for System Center 2012. For instructions and examples, see Search the System Center 2012 Documentation Library.
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