Caveats When Creating and Modifying User SAI Files
It is extremely important to follow sound and consistent practices when you are creating or modifying User SAI files in your environment.
You can create and modify User SAI files with the analysis tools. When you create or modify User SAI files, consider issues that may arise regarding potential ID and content clashes.
Problems are likely to occur in the following situations:
- There is more than one librarian teaching applications.
- The SAI files are maintained in more than one location.
- The SAI files need to be deployed to more than one Data Flow Probe.
The following guidelines should help you avoid these problems:
- Provide unique SAI IDs and file names across the entire organization. You cannot deploy different SAIs that have the same ID.
- Configure the same set of SAI files for all Data Flow Probes to provide consistent recognition.
- Modify SAI files in one place regardless of the teaching method. You can modify the SAI file on an administrator’s computer or on a Data Flow Probe that is using the client analysis tools.
- After an SAI file is modified in one place, do not modify it on another machine. Instead, replicate the file regularly so that new changes are available on all machines.
The use cases presented in the following sections reinforce the problems that can occur and the best practices to use to avoid these problems.
Teaching on Different Client Machines
You can create more than one User SAI file for a Data Flow Probe. Each User SAI file must have a unique name and ID across the entire organization. When you create a new User SAI file, a new and unique ID is automatically generated. This mechanism can be compromised, however, if you are teaching applications on more than one machine—a practice you should avoid.
Analysis Workbench and the SAI Editor are client analysis tools that are usually installed on a machine that is distinct from the Data Flow Probe because of performance issues. If you create User SAI files on multiple client machines, while the ID will be unique for the machine on which it is created, it will not be unique with regard to the ID of a User SAI file created on another machine where the client tools are also installed. This can lead to a potential clash of User SAI IDs for the User SAI files that you want to deploy to a single Data Flow Probe.
To prevent this situation from occurring, you should only create User SAIs on a single computer to make sure that all user SAI files have unique IDs.