Description: This solution discusses MergeOmatic in Blackbaud Hosting
Environment: Hosted
Version: All
Answer:
MergeOmatic is available in Blackbaud Hosting through the Duplicates Management Module of ImportOmatic. ImportOmatic is a default plugin within Raiser's Edge in Blackbaud Hosting.
For organizations using other hosting services, MergeOmatic will work as a standalone plugin or within ImportOmatic.
There are additional options for running MergeOmatic, if you do not want to perform merges on your production database within a hosted environment:
Omatic Professional Services can complete the merges offline for you.
Alternatively, you can complete the merges offline. To accomplish this your live database must put into a read-only mode for a limited time during the merge process. This overall process involves setting up a local installation of the Raiser's Edge with a recent copy of your database. Allow MergeOmatic to scan the entire database for duplicates, review the duplicates, and select which records are to be merged. At the appropriate time (perhaps over a weekend), get an updated backup of the hosted database and put your hosted database into a read-only state (you can change user permissions to enforce this if desired). Copy the list of records to be merged from the database that was scanned to the fresh copy and allow MergeOmatic to merge them all. Return the cleansed database to hosting and ask them to restore from it. (see detailed instructions below)
Preparation
- Request a copy of your database from Blackbaud Application Hosting
- Set up a standalone test environment of the Raiser’s Edge using this backup copy. See Blackbaud Knowledgebase Item BB12333 for instructions.
- Install MergeOmatic in the test environment.
- In the test environment, use MergeOmatic to scan your entire database for duplicates. Make sure the test environment machine is not set to hibernate or shut down automatically. Check it periodically to view progress. This test run will allow you to benchmark the amount of time needed to run the process.
- Once a set of duplicate records has been found, you can start the Review process. You do not have to wait until the Find process is complete.
- Select all of the duplicate sets that you wish to Merge and add them to the ‘Merge Later’ queue. Do not merge the records at this point, however.
Final Run
Find a time that is suitable to run the process live as it will require being down. Keep in mind that you will need time to merge the duplicates.
- From your test run database, use SQL Server Management Studio to export all rows from the tables "MergeOM_DupeResults" and "MergeOM_ProcessingQueue".
- Request a copy of your database from Blackbaud Application Hosting. From this point on until the process is complete, The Raiser’s Edge will be down (i.e. The Raiser’s Edge should only be used for view-only access during this process).
- Replace the test run database with this database in your standalone environment of the Raiser’s Edge to ensure that you are working with the most recent copy of your data.
- Import the rows from the test run database into the same tables in the new copy of the database. (rows from the tables "MergeOM_DupeResults" and "MergeOM_ProcessingQueue”)
- [Optional] To refresh your scan to account for any constituent changes that may have occurred, scan the database again using the same criteria. MergeOmatic will only scan those that have been changed more recently than they were scanned, so this will be a much shorter process.
- Review any new duplicates that may be found and send them to the Merge Queue.
- Process the duplicate sets in the Merge Queue (this will include the duplicate sets that were imported for your test run database).
- Once complete, send your database to Blackbaud Application Hosting so that they can restore your database from the merged copy. Once restored, your Raiser’s Edge will be live again.
For additional information please refer to the MergeOmatic User Guide.