Take Control with Cloud Portal for Azure Customers
Blackbaud CRM Cloud Portal is a self-service feature offered for Azure customers. It's available through SKY with an authorized Blackbaud ID (BBID) account.
The CRM Cloud Portal provides client control over key tasks including: uploading customizations, deploying service packs, and refreshing environments. These tasks can be run on demand or scheduled to run later. Users can view task history and upcoming jobs.
This is not Service Pack dependent. It's available to all Azure-hosted customers regardless of Service Pack level.
It is continuously delivered functionality and will evolve over time.
Available Activities
Blackbaud CRM Cloud Portal Page
The CRM Cloud Portal page indicates environment details: Site, Product, Version, and Service Tier. Available actions are displayed along with the history of previously/scheduled run activities.
The Activities includes columns to show:
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Name — The activity being undertaken.
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Submitter — If an action was made by an organization admin, their BBID username is shown. If we've taken an action, then Blackbaud is shown.
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Status — Pending, Running, Completed, or Failed
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Submitted At — The date and time an activity was created.
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Completed At — The date and time an activity was completed.
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Scheduled For — The date and time an activity was scheduled.
If an activity is scheduled for a future date/time, then the first column will also include an option to Cancel. Find it on the activity's associated row. Select Cancel to delete the scheduled activity and prevent the activity from running.
For some activities, such as customization deployments, selecting the name of the activity will open extra details.
Activities
Refresh Database
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This deletes the existing database and allows non-production environments to be refreshed. Select Refresh database. Under Source database, the Source menu shows the Production databases available for the refresh. It also shows the current environment, such as to roll back to a point-in-time (PIT) backup. This activity can be run immediately or scheduled for a future date/time. A notification will appear and indicate whether the activity request was successful or failed. Select Point-in-time restore to refresh from a specific date and time. Select Refresh BBDW database to refresh the data warehouse alongside the database. To carry customizations through the refresh, select Include BBDW customizations, Include BBCRM customizations, or both. Note: If you are doing a rollback using a point-in-time restore of the same environment, then copying customizations won't be available. You can only refresh one environment at a time. If you attempt to run or schedule concurrent refreshes you'll receive an error message. If you specify a point-in-time refresh, no new backups will be taken in BBCRM, unless the timestamp is less than two hours in the past. If the timestamp is less than two hours in the past or no timestamp is provided, then a log backup is forced. |
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Update
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This allows for non-production environments to be updated. The Target version menu will show Service Pack versions available. This activity can be run immediately or scheduled for a future date/time. A notification will appear and indicate whether the activity request was successful or failed. Tip: To update your production environment, file a ticket with support. Note: You can only update one environment at a time. If you attempt to run or schedule concurrent updates you'll receive an error message. |
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Deploy Customization
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This allows for customization deployment to both non-production and production BBIS environments. The Customization ZIP file needs to match the expected folder organization for BBIS, as indicated in the "i" alert. Note: Deploying DLLs will cause an application pool recycle. Be sure this will not interrupt any important work. This activity can be run immediately or scheduled for a future date/time. A notification will appear and indicate whether the activity request was successful or failed. |
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This allows for customization deployment to both non-production and production BBDW environments. The Customization ZIP file needs to match the expected folder organization for BBDW, as indicated in the "i" alert. This activity can be run immediately or scheduled for a future date/time. A notification will appear and indicate whether the activity request was successful or failed. |
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Download Customizations
You can download a ZIP containing the current customizations your environment is using for Blackbaud CRM and BBDW. Select Download CRM & BBDW customizations and the download starts as soon as you select the option.
You can download a ZIP containing the current customizations your environment is using for BBIS. Select Download BBIS customizations and the download starts as soon as you select the option.
Copy Customizations
You can copy Blackbaud CRM customizations from one tenant to another. Select Copy CRM customizations, then select a Source tenant.
By default, this activity copies files from the source to the destination. Files with the same name will be overwritten, but other files present in the destination will not be affected. To make the destination into a perfect copy of the source, select Delete destination contents first.
You can copy BBIS customizations from one tenant to another. Select Copy BBIS customizations, then select a Source tenant.
By default, this activity copies files from the source to the destination. Files with the same name will be overwritten, but other files present in the destination will not be affected. To make the destination into a perfect copy of the source, select Delete destination contents first.
Redeploy Data Warehouse
From More, select Redeploy data warehouse. A redeploy process for BBDW begins, similar to a refresh. You can start this immediately or schedule it.
Roll Back Data Warehouse
Roll your data warehouse back to an earlier point in time. This helps you recover after a failed refresh, or repeat a test from a known starting state.
Warning: This deletes the existing OLAP database and replaces it with a point-in-time backup of your tenant's data warehouse. The OLAP and OLTP databases can fall out of sync, which causes issues with extract, transform, and load (ETL) refreshes.
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Select More.
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Select Roll back data warehouse.
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Enter the Date and Time to restore to. Use the format MM/DD/YYYY, and select a point within the last seven days.
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Under Start time, select Run now or Scheduled.
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Select Submit.
Note: The rollback uses a backup of your current tenant. To bring data warehouse data from another tenant, use Refresh Database with Refresh BBDW database.
Rotate SQL Readonly Credentials
When the password for your SQL read only connection is nearly expired, the password will be automatically updated on the Sunday before expiration.
If you have automation which uses the read only connection and runs on weekends, you can rotate this to an earlier date from More, Rotate SQL readonly credentials, to avoid impacting your automation.
When you submit an activity to rotate the credentials, the password is updated within a few minutes. Any integrations currently using the connection will also need to be updated. Your new password is then available in Blackbaud CRM.
Notifications
When an activity has Started, Completed, or Failed, then an email is automatically sent to user who requested the activity and to Blackbaud.
If an activity failed, the email will recommend opening a customer support ticket to track the issue. Our Blackbaud team will already be aware and working to address the issue, but we still recommend opening a ticket for tracking purposes.
All emails will include a link to your Blackbaud CRM Portal for the corresponding environment.
Control Panel (Users, Roles, History)
To give other users access to the portal, select Control Panel, User management. You can add and remove users, as well as determine appropriate permission for those users. When you invite a user, they will receive an email to accept and access the portal. If you want to designate a user as a portal user but NOT a solution admin, you can give them the operator role only. For now, when you assign a user the operator role this means that they have full access to all features of the portal EXCEPT FOR the Control Panel itself.
Note: When you go to the Control Panel, User management page for the first time, you will see a blank list with zero users. To view all initial users, you can choose Show all records.
The Control Panel, Security Roles option is currently limited to the Operator role only. We may enhance and add new roles in the future.
The Control Panel, User History option enables you to view an audit trail of when users were added, removed, invited or changed.
Navigating to the Portal
If your Blackbaud CRM environment has Blackbaud ID enabled, portal users can navigate to the portal directly from BBCRM using the top left dropdown. Otherwise, portal users can navigate to it by logging into Blackbaud.com and using the top left dropdown.