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Blast Radius

Blast Radius shows everything downstream of a database table, column, connection or universe: the documents on it, the people who use them, the schedules that run them and the owners to notify before you change it.

Image of the Blast Radius landing view with the tiles, Riskiest connections, Riskiest universes and the full list

../../images/web-console/insights/impact-landing.png

What it answers

  • If I change or drop this table, column, connection or universe, which reports break?
  • How many of those reports do people actually use, and how many run on a schedule?
  • Whom do I notify, and what is the change notice list?
  • Which connections and universes have the widest reach?
  • Which universes carry no documents, and which WebI documents cannot be traced to a data source?

Open it

In the BusinessObjects console, select Insights > Blast Radius.

Filters

Filter Values Effect
Environments one button per environment Limits the search and every count.
Window 30d, 90d, 180d, 365d (default 90) Defines "used by people" and "used by service accounts".
People + service accounts / People only toggle Controls whether service-account use is counted.
Find what you are about to change search box, 2+ characters Finds tables, columns, connections and universes by name. Pick one to focus the page on it.
Ranking (Documents, Used by people, Active schedules) segmented control Orders the Riskiest connections and Riskiest universes bars.

Panels: landing view

The landing view appears before you pick an object.

Panel What it shows Source
Connections All connections; how many feed at least one document. CMS metadata, lineage
Universes All universes; how many carry documents. CMS metadata, lineage
Universes with zero documents Universes no document resolves to: retire candidates. Lineage
WebI docs that cannot be traced WebI documents with no resolvable data source, split into missing universe, missing connection and extraction failed. Document processing
Lineage only in the document WebI documents the CMS lists without a data source, resolved from the document itself. Document processing
Riskiest connections / Riskiest universes Top 12 by the chosen ranking. Click a bar to focus on it. Lineage, audit data, schedules
All connections and universes, widest reach first Kind, name, type or database, linked connections or universes, documents, people and service use, active and paused schedules. All of the above

Clicking a tile replaces the list with that subset; the untraceable tile lists each document with the reason it cannot be traced.

Image of the Riskiest connections and Riskiest universes bar charts

../../images/web-console/insights/impact-riskiest.png

Panels: focus view

After you pick an object, the page shows its impact.

Panel What it shows
Documents impacted Documents that resolve to the object.
Used by people Documents used by people in the window.
Used by service accounts Documents used only by service accounts.
Active recurring schedules Recurring schedules that will run against the object.
Distinct consumers People and service accounts who used the documents.
Owners to notify Distinct owners of the impacted documents and schedules.
Downstream flow Diagram from the object through connections and universes to documents and consumers. Edge width is the number of documents on that path; click a node to open its card.
Change notice list Every impacted document with folder, owner, universe, connection, database columns used (for tables and columns), people and service uses, last person use, active and paused schedules, schedule owners and evidence for the link.

Click a tile to filter the change notice list to documents used by people, used by service accounts, or with active recurring schedules.

Image of the Downstream flow diagram for one connection

../../images/web-console/insights/impact-flow.png

Image of the Change notice list for one universe

../../images/web-console/insights/impact-change-notice.png

How documents are linked to sources

A document is linked through its CMS data-source relationship first. When the CMS records none, the link comes from the WebI document itself. Table and column links come from the SQL MetaMiner parsed out of documents and universes.

Export

Export the change notice list or any list with Excel or CSV, or copy its SQL. See Insights Dashboards.