So, I figured it was finally time I broke down and started to really figure out what BAM was all about, partly inspired by Richard Seroter’s posting on the subject (everyone should read his blog by the way…. fantastic stuff!!).  So, I picked a sample project I’ve been playing around with for some other POC stuff, followed along with the handy little “walk-throughs” in the help file, and wouldn’t you know Excel puked on what appears to be a very important step – exporting the BAM Observation Model (all the KPI’s, etc).  While trying to export the excel file to XML using the BAM Export XML menu, I received a “Invalid procedure call or argument” error.  After a quick google I ran across some information about a possible security patch to Excel that might cause this error.  I don’t recall installing a security patch, but who knows.


Anyway, the good news is that you can use the XSL file without exporting to XML.  I believe the XML file would contain some additional information, like the server where the BAMPrimaryImport database is running, etc., but you can also provide this information when you deploy the observation model with the BAM Management utility (bm.exe).  You can use the following syntax at the command line to accomplish this (replacing MyWorkbook.xls with your actual excel file name) –


    bm deploy-all -DefinitionFile:MyWorkbook.xls


Using this syntax will default to the local server for SQL Server, and the BAMPrimaryImport database.  You can optionally supply parameters to specify a different server or database.  To view help on deploying with bm, type the following command –


    bm help -Command:deploy-all


Ok, I’m off to go BAMing now.



Cheers,


Todd