Welcome to your helping hand in the mix of the chaos. I have seen several customers struggle over the years with upgrades, not knowing how Alteryx can support IT and business matters! 😊 So, along with my blog series around Alteryx Server upgrades, I have built a tool to support you.
The Alteryx Environment Information tool can help you by harvesting the most regular details you need to understand when carrying out an upgrade. Information that is often forgotten, such as InDB connections, additional Python and R libraries installed, drivers (for when the hardware changes) and, of course, your Marketplace macros. This can be run on an Alteryx Server or an Alteryx Designer when adding an Alteryx Server to your estate, and it provides all the details in a handy report at the end so you can check off each section as you have completed it.
Download the workflow from the end of this blog. Open in Alteryx Designer, either on your laptop or your Alteryx Server, and hit run.
Yes, it is that easy. It takes about a minute!
There is no excuse now 😊 it takes longer for you to download it and decide where you want it to live.
Starting your Governance Journey
You can use this tool across your organization to start governing those drivers and additional Marketplace tools being used and create some standards, perhaps supporting building your Alteryx Designer package for deployment or maybe even as you embark on your Data Connection Manager journey to standardize those drivers and data connections.
Simply put, it documents your environment for you with a click of a button. 😊
I would love to hear what you use the ayx-env-info tool for, so please leave a comment below and let me know.
What versions does it support?
It should support most versions; however, it was saved on 23.2, so you will need to adjust the version if running it on an older version. I have built it to work across 23.2 and 24.1 to support customers who require additional support around the Python step upgrade. This will help you understand what libraries you have installed and the version of those libraries. Running the tool pre and post-upgrade will support you and ensure you have all the libraries you intend to use where you intend to use them.
What is in the box?
A workflow, a number of macros to make life easier, and a folder where your outputs will go. It’s neat, easy to use, and easy to understand. (The package is what you will download.)
What does the output look like?
The output is an Excel-based report for you to note against items, when they are completed, etc. I have built some business rules there—you do not need to follow them, but they are examples of where I would clean up my environment. Feel free to adjust to your needs.
Summary
This tool was developed to support organizations during change and upgrades to help you ensure that your upgrades go as smoothly as possible. You can find it attached to this blog below.
Do let us know if you find more use for this tool. Pop your notes in the comments—it would be great to hear from you!
