BICS Connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0

BICS Connectivity for Web

Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0

John Mrozek / AGS

December 01, 2011

© 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2

Introduction

Business Intelligence Consumer

Services connectivity for Web

Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0

This presentation will outline the new

BICS connectivity for SAP Business

Objects 4.0. It will show how Webi

reporting on SAP BW has changed for

the better as well give some technical

information that will help those using

the solution get the most out of it.

Target Audience

SAP Business Objects BI 4.0

Administrators who’s reporting

landscape includes SAP BW systems.


Take Away

Upon the completion of this presentation, system administrators will have an understanding of

the new architecture of Web Intelligence’s connectivity to SAP BW. They will also have an

understanding of some of the configuration options and sizing considerations that must be

evaluated when such reporting is to be done. Finally, some troubleshooting methodologies will

be learned that should speed root cause analysis.

In short, the intent of this presentation is to give a deep understanding of BICS connectivity

which will lend itself to the maintenance and use of the solution in the years to come.


Agenda

1. About BICS

2. The DSL Bridge

3. Deployment Information

4. General Troubleshooting

5. Let SAP Help

6. How-Tos

7. Q&A

About BICS


What is BICS?


What is BICS?

Business Intelligence Consumer Services

BICS is the BW data access layer for BEx tools

Enables BW frontend tools / Planning Applications and Java Applications to access OLAP

data in a unified way

Part of NetWeaver 04s release

Focus on direct client usage rather than a functional type of approach such as that of MDX

or SQL

Provide exciting features beyond that of classic OLAP such as exception reporting, list

calculation, document integration etc.


Why BICS?

BEx Query BEx Query

InfoProviders InfoProviders

MDX BICS

Consumer Consumer

Universe


Advantages

OLAP “look and feel”

Can interact with data in BW as well as non BW sources

No longer need to manually create / maintain universes (for example, if the underlying BEx

Query changes)

Improved performance

Why BICS?


Special note on BICS

Be Aware

Business Logic which could previously be defined in the universe must now be defined in

the BEx Query since users no longer create universes

The DSL Bridge


The Dimensional Semantic Layer Bridge is what actually connects to BW

Hosted by the Adaptive Processing Server

The Adaptive Server hosting the DSL Bridge should be sized for expected user load

Recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular Adaptive Processing Server in

anything beyond a small test environment

What is the DSL Bridge?


Services in a default APS

Hosted by the Adaptive Processing Server

The Adaptive Server hosting the DSL Bridge should be sized for expected user load

Recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular Adaptive Processing Server in

anything beyond a small test environment

What is the DSL Bridge?


Webi Servers and the DSL Bridge

Interaction between Webi Servers and the DSL Bridge

Previously for BW connectivity, the Web Intelligence Processing Server was responsible for

connecting to the database (BW)

With BI 4.0, the Dimensional Semantic Layer on the APS actually connects to the database

(BW) and returns the results to Webi

Deployment Information



Make sure system is sized correctly

Refer to the Sizing Companion for SAP Business Objects BI 4.0

Monitor CPU and memory utilization of the Adaptive Processing Server and add more APS

servers if necessary

The DSL APS has a recommended minimum heap size of 4GB. 8GB or more is

recommended



Make sure monitoring is consistent

between Web Intelligence servers

and Adaptive Processing Servers

Known issues when they are not in sync!

Either enable on all webi / APS machines

(recommended) or disable on all



Make sure you are on

relatively current patches

Support Pack 02 Patch 15 is

current version

This version contains a Webi fix -

ADAPT01625680 which improves

performance with BICS merged

dimensions

General Troubleshooting


General Troubleshooting

Look at the patterns

Based on what works and what doesn’t, hypothesize what the issue is

Break down the problem into the smallest components!


Basic Log Analysis

Look for |E|X| as well as |E| and java exceptions

|2011 06 22 11:43:03:441|-0400|>=|E|X|webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792|CdzExtRpcChannel:CallMethod:

0.776

src/DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl.cpp:141:virtual OlapAccess::IOlapResult* OlapAccess::OlapAccessServiceImpl::executeRequest(const std::string&,

const std::string&): TraceLog message 806834

|2011 06 22 11:43:03:442|-

0400|>=|E|X|webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792|DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl:getDataSet: 0.778



|2011 06 22 11:43:03:442|-0400|>>|E| |webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792|remote call to getDataSet() failed



|2011 06 22 11:43:03:442|-0400|>>|E|

|webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792||**ERROR:DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl:Exception caught from

dsl_engine.jar: : java.lang.NullPointerException: while trying to invoke the method org.w3c.dom.Node.getNodeName() of an object loaded from field

com.sap.ip.bi.util.xml.impl.DomReader.currentNode of an object loaded from local variable 'this'

at com.sap.ip.bi.util.xml.impl.DomReader.getName(DomReader.java:153)

at

com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.ProviderSelectionObject.extractViewDetailsForOpen(ProviderSelectionObject.java:520)

at

com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.ProviderSelectionObject.createOpenFunction(ProviderSelectionObject.java:318)

at com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.ProviderSelectionObject.isApplicable(ProviderSelectionObject.java:389)


Core Dumps

Core Dumps (Unix only)

Use gdb / dbx to create a stack trace to send in for analysis

Use the file command to determine which process crashed

Then run dbx and enter where at the (dbx) prompt

Here we can see

WIReportServer is

the process which

crashed

where will tell us the

last functions which

were executed at the

time of the crash


Core Dumps

Core Dumps (Unix only)

Logs are very important for troubleshooting core dumps!

Look at them to see what happened just before the process crashed

Generally we are looking for the workflow / options selected leading up to the problem as

well as the functions called

Most likely will need to be worked by customer assurance

Let SAP help


Remote Supportability

Tools which Allow SAP to

interact with customer data

for Root Cause Analysis

Can be very helpful if a

particular BEx Query causes

problems


Remote Supportability

Pertinent connection types to be opened

R/3 Support - enables remote access to an SAP system via SAP GUI

BW RFC Connection - enables a RFC connection to Business Warehouse

BW GUI Connection - enables a GUI connection to Business Warehouse

How-Tos


Increasing heap on the Adaptive Processing Server

Increase heap here. It’s

currently set to 1 gb


Monitoring settings

Make sure that the

settings are consistent

across servers – either

enabled on all or none!


Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS

Choose Category Connectivity

Services


Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS

Choose only the DSL Bridge

Service


Removing the DSL Bridge Service from previous APS

Make sure to remove the DSL service from other shared APS servers. To do this, stop the

Adaptive Processing Server, then right click on the server and choose select services

Services

currently

hosted by the

APS

Services

available to be

added to the

APS i.e. not

being used by

the APS


Useful Links

Sizing Guides

Sizing Companion companions / guides

https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01200252310000090633

Knowledge Base Article

https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1694041




https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1694041

Q/A

Thank You!

Contact information:

John Mrozek

Engineer

Lake Mary, FL

[email protected]


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Documents

BICS Connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0