Embed Size (px)
DESCRIPTION
sap bo
Citation preview
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 1/37
Getting Started Newsletters Store
Products Services & Support About SCN Downloads
Industries Training & Education Partnership Developer Center
Lines of Business University Alliances Events & Webinars Innovation
Log On Join UsHi, Guest Search the Community
Activity Communications Actions
Brow se
BI Platform 255 Posts 1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 17
PreviousNext
Intelligence is expanding its horizon as the business complexities are increase. There is a old school thought which
say follow an static process. Many times in that process some unstated questions remains hidden.
1. Under standing the business problem: As the customer knock at our door. The first thing we do is to understand
what our customer is trying to say but without understanding what he/she is actually looking for. Every times, we make
such mistakes and understand the customer problem properly but we interpret incorrectly. why this problem comes
up?
2. Identify the sources for data collection: As we understood the customer problem, first thing we do it to identify the
list of sources from where we can get some reference or some hits which can lead us towards solution of the
problem. We again put our intelligence to identify the maximum number of sources from where the information can be
gathered. If we have not understood what customer is looking for then on what basis we are identifying the list of
sources for data collection?
3. Collection & Validate the data: Various techniques are being used to collect the accurate data from different
sources and validate it. the collected data is being validated by implementing different type of techniques like giving
preference to authentic sources. On what basis we decide the authenticity of the data source?
4. Develop the Solution: On the basis of final reports we develop the solution and our job is done.
If we see the full process flow then there is a very huge ambiguity in the system. Once the solution is deployed and
customer has actually generate good profit from the implemented solution then we can say the project is
successfully but do we ever consider that will that solution will generate the incremental revenues for at-least next 5
years. I think we don't.
We need a Intelligence system where we can at-least close such basic level loopholes.
467 View s 0 Comments Tags: business, intelligence, reports, explorer, data
Business Intelligence is not just about fetching Data
Posted by Vivek Siddhartha Apr 16, 2013
Lifecycle Management Console
SAP BusinessObjects Lifecycle Management console (LCM) is a web-based tool that enables you to move
Business intelligence (BI) resources from one repository to other. It also supports the management of different
versions of the same BI resource.
It offers some significant improvements over the Import Wizard. One of the most important new features of
LifeCycle Management is that you can import categories as well as other types of objects such as: Information
Designer, Pioneer, Crystal Reports (next generation), Events and Xcelsius Enterprise.
LifeCycle Management is used for promotion or transporting content from like system to like system, i.e.
systems are the same version E.g. Dev to Test to Production.
SAP BusinessObjects - Lifecycle ManagementConsole (BI 4.0)
Posted by Harsha Ganapathy Apr 16, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 2/37
This tool has two main roles:
To copy Reports, Universes, Folder Structures, Security rules, Events and many other objects between
environments. If needed it can also be used as a controlled Fallback to previous versions.
To provide Version Management of Reports and Universes via a tool.
LCM Promotion Process
Steps to promote reports and universe between environments.
Log on to SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Lifecycle Management Console with administrator Credentials.
Once logged in, you’ll be in the Promotion Jobs screen.
Step 1: Click on New Job in the top left of the screen. A job contains the definition of which objects you will
be moving, the source and the destination systems, and a schedule if applicable.
Note: User should have the admin access to create new job
Step 2: In New Job page enter all the required details.
NAME: Name of the job that you want to create
Description: Description of the job you want to create. Entering this information is optional.
Save Jobs In: A GUI element that enables you to store the job in a folder of your choice. You must select a
folder to create a job.
Source System: The name of the BusinessObjects Enterprise system from which you want to promote a job.
Destination System: The name of BusinessObjects Enterprise system to which you want to promote a job.
Step 3: Click on Create. This creates a new job object and will be stored in a CMS repository. Now select the
objects that you want to move.
Step 4: Once the job is created, you need to add infoobjects (ex: Universe, Reports etc. which needs to be
promoted) to the job. To add Info objects click on Add Objects or right click on workspace pane and select
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 3/37
Add Objects.
Note: To Promote, User should have admin access in both source and destination systems.
The "Life Cycle Manager Add Objects" dialog box appears, and the Folders and Objects tree structure is
displayed. Select Folders and Objects from Left panel. Navigate to the directory where the reports are placed.
Select Info Objects and click on Add & Close.
Note: Business Objects recommends that you select a small number of info objects, not more than 100 at a
time, for promotion to obtain optimum performance of the LCM tool.
The Add Objects window closes, and you’ll find yourself on the main page for the new job. Note that it’s
actually a new tab at the top of the screen.
Step 5: If you are planning to promote the report (source) dependent objects like universe\connections, then
you can add them using Manage Dependencies option.
Clicking the button will show what other dependent objects in the system are used by the objects that we have
selected. In this case, there’s a universe & a connection.
Select Universe and connection and click on Apply & Close.
Step 6: To promote, Click on the objects you want to promote and select Promote.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 4/37
The Promote window appears. In the Promote panel we can find four options:
Summary: Check source and destination names to ensure the file is moving from the right source to the correct
destination, change management ID.
Security Settings: Check this option when you want to release the security of the files.
Test Promote: Use this option to ensure that there will not be errors during the conversion.
Schedule Job: This is to plan the promotion task for later, very useful if you are not available to do it manually,
typically at out of office times.
Security Settings: [optional and should be used only if we need to promote the security]
There are two options in this section
1. Do not promote Security
2. Promote Security
Uses the option to promote jobs along with the associate security rights. Click on Security Settings and
select the option.
Test Promote: Summary to view the objects to be promoted and the promotion status.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 5/37
Schedule Job: The LCM tool enables you to specify when a job must be promoted, rather than promote
it as soon as it is created. It also enables you to schedule promotion at fixed intervals. This feature is
useful in promoting large jobs when the load on the server is at its minimum.
Step 7: Click on Promote
Once the job is promoted you can check the status of the job. To check Status, Click on the History option.
You can check the job status.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 6/37
=======================================================================
Rollback
The Rollback option allows us to check the different versions of a conversion set and, in case of errors, to
revert back to a previous stable version and therefore prevent any risk to the project, after a job is promoted.
Before starting a Rollback, we must ensure that the status of the job is one of the following:
Success
Failure
Partial success
You can roll back an entire job or part of the job.
Please note that you only can go back to the most recent previous instance. To restore the latest instance,
click in the check box and then press Rollback button. You can choose between two rollback options:
Complete Rollback: this will restore the destination system to its previous state before the job was promoted
Partial Rollback: enables you to roll back a set of infoobjects included in a job by selecting them from their
objects list.
In the Promotion Job home page, select a job and click Rollback.
Click on Complete Rollback.
=======================================================================
Creating a new job by copying an existing Job Step 1: Log in to the Lifecycle Management console. On home page, click on New Job.
Step 2: Click the Copy an existing job.
The list of promotion jobs will be displayed.
Step 3: Select a job from the job list, and click Create.
The name, keywords, and description of the job are displayed. You can modify these fields, if required.
However, you cannot change the source system.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 7/37
Step 4: Click Create.
===========================================================================================
LCM LOGS
Enabling Traces – Web Tier logs
Go to CMC > Applications and right-click the LifeCycle Management. Then click Trace Log Settings. Set
the Log Level to High.
Restart Web application server. Logs will be in the default BusinessObjects BI 4.0 logging directory.
Enabling Traces - LCM Services
Go to CMC > Servers and in the Properties for the Adaptive Job Server and Adaptive Processing Server
set the Log Levels to High.
In the CCM, restart the Adaptive Job Server and Adaptive Processing Server. Logs will be generated in
default logging folder.
\SAP Business Objects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI
4.0\logging\*.AdaptiveProcessingServer_trace.0xxxx.glf
\SAP Business Objects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI
4.0\logging\*.AdaptiveJobServer_LCMSchedulingService_CHILD0_trace.0xxxxx.glf
7112 View s 8 Comments
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 8/37
BI LIVE 2013 IS IN THE BOOKS!!!
Please review the link HERE for our Blog on how things went & to download the materials.
Your Hosts With The Mosts,
Kristen & Chris
Greetings BI Friends & Colleagues -
It is with great pleasure that Kristen Scheffler and I introduce you to a new virtual series that is kicking off on April
24, 2013. From 11-5 Eastern Standard time join the SAP Team to educate on the cutting edge of Customer Success
& Support topics focused on ensuring your successful BI4 implementation. This virtual event is co-sponsored and
developed in collaboration with SAP and our Americas SAP User Group Support & Maintenance Strategic Interest
Group.
The main elevator pitch for you as a BI Admin, Project Manager, or CIO is that your SAP & ASUG colleagues expect you
to be successful with your BI4 rollout and we want to help you achieve it! So come join us for the full 6 hours or pop in
and out of the schedule at your pleasure - just make sure you come prepared and have your learning caps on!
Registration:
1. For Americas SAP User Group Members please register via the ASUG Website:
http://www.asug.com/events/detail/SAP-BI-LIVE
2. For Interested Customers & Colleagues who are not members of ASUG please email Kristen Scheffler &
Christopher Vozella to get yourself on the Guest list. Of course if you are America's customers we strongly
recommend you check out ASUG and join the Community as membership has its benefits!!!
Agenda:
11:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m. Keynote & Introduction • Mike Griffiths, Global Functional Manager, BI Support
11:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m. BI4 Concurrent Licensing Overview • Patrick Sims
12:00 p.m. - 12:45 p.m. BI4 Upgrade: Resources & Tools • Joshua Kuhn
1:00 p.m. - 1:45 p.m. BI4 Tuning for APS Success • Thomas Soost
2:00 p.m. - 2:45 p.m. BI4 Dashboards Best Practices • Amit Mathur
3:00 p.m. - 3:45 p.m. BI4 Single Sign On to HANA Best Practices • Tim Ziemba
4:00 p.m. - 4:30 p.m. Wrap Up & Debrief • Kr isten Scheffler & Christopher Vozella
Marketing
Knowledge Base 1840406 has been created and we have asked our SAP Engineers & Customers to share this
Blog or Knowedge Base with interested colleagues so you can confirm your Registration.
Link on the Business Objects Board ( BOB ) to this Blog to share via the BOB Community
We are planning to Live Tweet the Event under the Hashtag #BILIVE2013 from our @SAPSupportCE Twitter
Feed
BI LIVE 2013 Survey
Please take some time to fill out our Survey on BI LIVE 2013.
BI LIVE 2013 - An ASUG & SAP Support &Maintenance Strategic SIG Production
Posted by Christopher Vozella Apr 4, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 9/37
Survey Here!
Thank you and we look forward to you joining us on April 24, 2013!!
Your Hosts with the Mosts
Kristen & Chris
3178 View s 0 Comments Tags: business, bi4, objects, w ebi
Hello Folks,
Instance Management in BusinessObjects is the topic of discussion for this blog. Let us see more in detail about
reports and program objects Instance management further.
Instance is an entity which is created whenever a report or a program objects is scheduled to run. Up on creation
these instances are stored in Output File Repository. To get the right information as on when required, it is always
important managing and backup those reports and instances as they contain organizational data.
Instance management plan enables us to
- Identify scheduled reports and their frequency of schedule
- Retention period till which instances need to be maintained
- Size of each report instance and the amount of disk space required
- Necessity to keep organizational sensitive data (Instance cleanup)
- Schedule destinations
We can manage instances by setting instance limits at below levels
Global limits (If it is required to set the limit throughout all the public folders and sub folders, we need set it at
global level. We need to turn on inheritance to cascade the settings to sub folders and the objects.
Folder limits (This will help us to set the limits for all the objects contained within the folder)
Object limits (Applying limits to specific object then we need to set it at object level. This will override the limit
set at folder level.
And based on below criteria’s
Number of Instances
BusinessObjects Instance Management
Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Apr 3, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 10/37
This will enable us delete excess instances when there are more than N instances of the object.
User/User group
This will help us to set the limits per user/user group on a particular object.
Number of Days
This will enable us delete excess instances when the age of the instance exceeds N days.
Key benefits
- Reduced File Repository Store backup size. This is a huge benefit as this backup is taken on daily basis.
- User need not search for a huge list of instances.
- By controlling the number of instances we can minimize the amount of space required in Output File Store
Hope this blog is informative. Thanks for reading!
4584 View s 16 Comments Tags: bo_instance, instance_management_plan
We have just finished publishing webi reports to our non-enterprise end users at a sharepoint location without using
BO-Sharepoint integration kit. So I just wanted to share the workflow with the forum users.
In order to publish webi reports to sharepoint the followings routes can be followed
Publishing webi to sharepoint without BO-Sharepointintegration
Posted by Arijit Kole Apr 1, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 11/37
Please look at the following SCN blog for the Path III http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-
platform/blog/2013/02/12/publishing-businessobjects-reports-to-sharepoint
Let us have a look at the Path I in detail
Steps to be done
1) First set up your sharepoint to accept emails from BO publication. Go to library settings
2) Then go to incoming email address option o set up the email, to which the BO publication will send emails
3) Provide a username for the email address and check the associated settings
4) Now go to the publication and use this email address as the recipient email address and run the publication. The
files created in this way are now saved in the root folder as given in the email settings of the sharepoint email
address.
2118 View s 3 Comments
BusinessObjects Content recovery and Disasterrecovery - BO XI 3.x
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 12/37
This is the continuation of my previous blog ‘Business Objects Administration- Backup and Recovery’ and this blog is
all about BI content recovery and failover recovery.
Content recovery
Consider a situation where you accidentally deleted a folder with business critical reports inside it. Some of the
approaches to recover the reports and the folder.
1. Recover the contents from a BIAR backup
2. Recover the contents from another system (If you are in Prod. recover from QA)
3. Restore CMS and FRS backup in a temporary server and use the Import Wizard to get the desired reports that
are deleted.
Let us discuss each method one by one
1. Recover the contents from a BIAR backup
Recovering contents from BIAR file is straight forward and you should have a appropriate .biar file in hand before
restore. We will be using Import wizard to restore the contents.
2. Recover the contents from another system
We can do the report migration from another environment. If you are in Production environment and you have
deleted some reports, we can still recover the reports from QA server. Again we will be using Import wizard to restore
the contents.
We need to ensure that the reports in both environments are in sync and no change is made to reports in
Production environment alone (Proper SDLC cycle).
3. Restore CMS and FRS backup in a temporary server
Sometimes we may need to restore our Business Objects environment back to a given point in time but still keep
the original system up and running.This will enable us to investigate and export selected BI content back to the
original environment to avoid complete restore. We need to have temporary Business Objects environment setup,
FRS and CMS database backups as prerequisites. The recovery sequence would be
·
Restore the CMS database and FRS directories to a temporary database and temporary Filestore.
Log on to the restored CMS database and run the following
Delete from CMS_INFOOBJECTS6 where ParentID=16
(to delete any reference to original Business Objects environment )
In CCM stop the SIA and Go to Properties -> Configuration tab. Change the data source to point to the restored
CMS database and change the cluster name to different to the cluster being restored.Change Cluster name for
Input and Output repository servers to same as for CMS.
Start the SIA and use the Import Wizard to copy the deleted contents directly to the original environment.
Disaster recovery
For disaster recovery we need to follow the approach which is similar to Approach-3 with some addition
steps.
Restore the CMS database and FRS directories
Delete all the references to the original server in Disaster recovery CMS database as follows
Delete from CMS_INFOOBJECTS6 where ObjectID= 4 (to delete cluster entries)
Delete from CMS_INFOOBJECTS6 where ParentID=59 (to delete SIA entries)
Delete from CMS_INFOOBJECTS6 where TypeID= 16 (to delete server entries)
Delete from CMS_INFOOBJECTS6 where TypeID= 17 (to delete server group entries)
Delete from CMS_INFOOBJECTS6 where ParentID=16 (to delete any BO service if remaining)
In CCM select "Add Server Intelligent Agent", Use the Name and Port number of existing SIA (default port-6410)
and select "Create default servers on the new node" and "Recreate Server Intelligence Agent on the local host, if
it already exists in the CMS system database"
Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Mar 23, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 13/37
Assign a port to the CMS (by default 6400) and select the restored CMS database.
Once SIA is created, go to SIA > Properties > Configuration and modify the ClusterName of the restored
environment to be different from the production environment and start the SIA
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 14/37
To Delete the Old SIA (node), Go to the CCM
Create a new SIA, give the name of the SIA you want to delete and use a different port (i.e. 6411)
Select "Create no servers on the new node" and "Recreate Server Intelligent Agent on the local host if it is
already exist in the CMS System database"
The SIA running is the one coming up
Provide the Username/password associated and finish the configuration
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 15/37
After few minutes the system get back to the CCM. Now delete the new SIA created using the Newly created
running SIA credentials.
The old SIA is completely removed and your Business Objects DR Server is ready to use now.
Hope the blog is Interesting. Keep reading!
6280 View s 27 Comments Tags: businessobjects_administration, businessobjects_backup
In today’s ASUG webcast Henry Kam, the SAP Solution Manager for BI Platform and Derek Wang – Product Owner for
BI Platform provided information on what is new in the BI platform 4.1 version.
Today the version is BI4.0 SP5. The next milestone is 4.1
Please note the standard legal disclaimer applies; some functionality may not be there from what is described.
Please also note these are my notes.
Agenda
Brief introduction to the BI Platform
New capabilities introduced in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1
Q&A
What is New in SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.1ASUG Webcast
Posted by Tammy Powlas Feb 26, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 16/37
Brief introduction to the BI Platform
Figure 1: Source: SAP
What mean by BI Platform? In terms of capabilities – provides BI content management – where your documents and
BI platform, and granted authorization, handle concurrency, scaling up system, and scale outwards for fault tolerance
It provides platform administration with a web interface in the Central Management Console (CMC)- where
administrator administers system and can monitor system behavior
Audit capabilities to see what has happened in system, to see what users have been doing with content –
compliance reasons, how much capacity using, what are popular documents, etc.
Platform provides information delivery – users can go and view report, provide ability to mass publish documents to
hundreds of thousands of users, complex scheduling based on events
SDK’s which are software development kit – embed BI into business processes you can use RESTFul, .NET and
Java SDK’s.
Figure 2: Source: SAP
Self service covers what is available for end users
Launchpad where content is organized by folders, categories and users can create new content and share with other
users
BI Workspaces provide the ability to see a composite dashboard as shown in Figure 2.
Use a portal that you want to integrate such as SharePoint you can use the portal integration kit
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 17/37
New capabilities introduced in SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1
Figure 3: Source: SAP
Figure 3 shows BI 4.1 enhancements in three types as shown in Figure 3.
Deployment to help you speed up deployment
Administration is for lowering “TCO” total cost of ownership.
Figure 4: Source: SAP
In the past set up server one by one in the CMC says Derek and it takes manual effort.
In 4.1 after install, launch CMC and you will see CMC and it will configure low-level servers accordingly as shown in
Figure 4. As an example, you tell the wizard that you want to configure Web Intelligence, and it will set up the server
accordingly.
It will consider the amount of resources you have and will create a server container accordingly
Command line tool can be used if you want to automate the process if you want to implement the same configuration
for multiple deployments in the OEM space as an example.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 18/37
Figure 5: Source: SAP
Figure 5 shows you specify where you want file locations to be; time-consuming if you have multiple machines so you
only have to do this once.
Derek said nothing is taken away and you can still do it the old way.
Tool can be used when change environment; you may purchase more hardware or use case may change. You can
still launch tool to make modification
Figure 6: Source: SAP
Figure 6 shows more deployment enhancements.
System sizing will be enhanced the guide and the estimator. 4.0 has a sizing guide on SCN (sap.com/bisizing)
SAP will continue to enhance for a more accurate calculation
SAP will publish best practice for virtualization
CMS will bundle with Sybase SQL Anywhere as it is small and embeddable; you can still use your own database.
Upgrade Management Tool 4.1 is enhanced with more proactive checking on dependent services
Third party authentication includes Active Directory, LDAP and so on. In 4.0 after migrate you still needed to map the
user groups. Users found it too time consuming; in 4.1 will automatically remap user groups
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 19/37
Figure 7: Source: SAP
In BI4 SP4 offered multitenancy enhancements useful for shared services deployment
In 4.1 enhance audit database tenancy will include top level organization that user belongs to is captured in auditing
database to help with chargebacks
In 4.1 you can specify the maximum number of tenants for concurrent licensing and in the CMC look at the properties
of the tenant.
BI4 only handled .UNV and now BI4.1 it can handle UNX as well
Figure 8: Source: SAP
Single sign on to HANA was in BI4 SP4 via Kerberos
In 4.1 SSO will be more cross platform via SAML
With 4.1 have new API offering with SSO with active directory or trusted authentication with JSON format support.
A new state called “started with errors” – the server may still be running but not everything is running as it should.
It includes better log file, error messages, thread dumps collected
For product versions in the “About” box it may not be clear to you the version. Internal build and will include the
major/minor, SP and patch number to help you support the product.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 20/37
Figure 9: Source: SAP
Figure 9 focuses on end users
BI Launchpad will right to left layout language support for those languages using it
The document upload in BI4 only gives ability to add a document; couldn’t replace them or change them.
Replacement would be useful. 4.1 will have the ability to replace document already uploaded –important for Explorer,
allowing you to refresh data for the Explorer InfoSpace (MS Excel)
Figure 10: Source: SAP
In 4.1 you can collaborate while viewing BI document as shown in Figure 10 or collaborate on a specific instance.
You can manage user rights on an individual document.
Subset of Question & Answer
Q: How can I learn more about BI Workspaces?
A: Here's the SAP help for that:‑
http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/boexir4/en/xi4_bi_workspace_user_en.pdf
Also see tutorials at sap.com/LearnBI
Q: Are licenses needed for about Mass viewing (millions for publications). I meant these type of users
A: No additional licensing to publish to external recipients unless using small end offering - Crystal Server
Q: will the wizard base server configuration, split the APS based on the size of the deployment
A: Yes; shown in the slides
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 21/37
Q: Is Streamwork part of BI 4.1? no separate license required?
A: You still need separate license for StreamWork
Q: When will BI 4.1 be released?
A: planned ramp-up is May and GA after
Q: Slide says Streamworks, will 4.1 support SAP Jam?
A: Planning - long term product direction
Q: Is Java 7 supported in 4.1?
A: yes
Updated Q&A:
Q: Do you have the ability to do impact analysis between objects, reports, and universes and or IDT?
A: In CMC, there is a tool called relationship query which will help you to relate reports to the universes.
For more detailed impact analysis, you may consider using the product SAP BusinessObjects Information
Steward.
________________________________________________________________
Q: to be clearer is it compatible with UDB DB2 v10?
A:Yes
________________________________________________________________
Q: Are there any new plans for backup and recovery?
A:In 4.0 SP4 hot backup enhancement was introduced. It remains the same in 4.1.
________________________________________________________________
Q: If we are on 3.1, can we upgrade to 4.1 ? or we have to first upgrade to 4.0 and then to 4.1
A: Correct, you can upgrade from 3.1 to 4.1 without going through 4.0 first
________________________________________________________________
Q: is there any improvements in the Promotion Management tool, improving from biar file, can we able to select
specific objects to be imported
A: In terms of function and feature, the promotion management tool in 4.1 is the same as 4.0 SP4.
________________________________________________________________
Q: How about JRE for WebI Rich Client, minumum version
A: Assume this question is asking about Java applet.
On windows, it minimum version is JRE6. On Mac OS X the minimum version is JRE7.
________________________________________________________________
Q: any plans to add in-browser excel rendering like MS does with SharePoint?
A: There is no explicit plan at the moment
________________________________________________________________
Q: Clarification on the Session mgmt question. In the CMC, in Sessions, you can see a list of all user sessions used,
currently you can not terminate individual sessions, the only way to currently clear a session is to restart the SIA.
A: Currently, CMC doesn’t have a feature that let you force-terminate individual user session. However, it can be
achieved by utilizing the BI Platform SDK
________________________________________________________________
Q: Do we have prebuilt audit reports
A: You can find some sample pre-built audit reports on SDN. http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?
rid=/library/uuid/40711187-04e8-2d10-d190-851e20c7665a
________________________________________________________________
Thanks to Derek and Henry for a today's ASUG webcast.
8212 View s 15 Comments
Tags: sapmentors, sapmentor, asug, bi4_sizing, launchpad, businessobjects_explorer, bi41, bi41_platform
Dear Folks, This is the continuation of my previous blog on Query builder queries
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2012/10/11/businessobjects-query-builder-
queries
BusinessObjects Query builder queries - Part II
Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Feb 14, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 22/37
Here we go To list Universe that doesn’t associated with any WebI reports
SELECT si_id,si_name,si_webi,si_cuid FROM CI_AppObjects
WHERE si_kind = 'Universe' and SI_WEBI.SI_TOTAL=0
To list Universes with more than one connections (multi source universe) SELECT si_id,si_name,si_webi,si_cuid FROM CI_AppObjects
WHERE si_kind = 'Universe' and SI_DATACONNECTION.SI_TOTAL>1
To list WebI reports that doesn’t associated with any universe
SELECT TOP 50000 si_id,SI_NAME FROM CI_Infoobjects
WHERE si_kind = 'WebI' AND SI_INSTANCE=0 and SI_UNIVERSE.SI_TOTAL=0 To list reports and documents those are in public folders including Sub folders. (Excluding
instances, personal documents and inbox documents) SELECT * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE SI_KIND IN ('FullClient', 'Txt', 'Excel', 'Webi', 'Analysis',
'Pdf', 'Word', 'Rtf', 'CrystalReport', 'Agnostic') AND SI_RUNNABLE_OBJECT = 0 AND
SI_INSTANCE_OBJECT = 0 AND SI_ANCESTOR = 23 Find all the WebI reports that use a specific universe
SELECT SI_ID, SI_NAME, SI_WEBI, SI_OWNER FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS, CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS,
CI_APPOBJECTS
Where PARENTS ("SI_NAME = 'Webi-Universe'", "SI_NAME = 'Universe Name'")
To List of all Groups with Subgroups Select SI_ID, SI_ALIASES, SI_DESCRIPTION, SI_NAME, SI_USERGROUPS, SI_GROUP_MEMBERS from
CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS where si_kind = 'UserGroup'
To get a list of Full Client reports SELECT SI_ID, SI_NAME, SI_KIND FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE SI_KIND = 'FullClient'
To get a list of available Calendars SELECT * FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS WHERE SI_PARENTID=22
To get a list of Users along with their personal folder
SELECT * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE SI_PARENTID=18
To get a list of Users along with their inbox
SELECT * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE SI_PARENTID=48
To get a list of available categories SELECT * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS WHERE SI_PARENTID=45
To count total number of connection on a particular day (Today)
SELECT count (SI_CREATION_TIME) FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS
WHERE SI_LASTLOGONTIME> '2013.02.14.00.00.01' AND SI_KIND = 'Connection' To get total number of unique users logged in to the system on a particular day (Today)
SELECT count (SI_NAME) FROM CI_SYSTEMOBJECTS
WHERE SI_LASTLOGONTIME> '2013.02.14.00.00.01' AND SI_KIND = 'Connection'
Points to consider while querying
the default limit for returning objects would be 1000 objects normally. In order to get more
than 1000 objects we need to use ‘Top N’ function before the column listing in the query. For
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 23/37
ex. SELECT Top 2000 * FROM CI_INFOOBJECTS where Si_KIND='WebI’
You are not allowed to use Sub queries.
The order of columns in the SELECT clause has no impact as the results will be rendered in its
own order
Hope you find this interesting. Just give a try in your environment and share your findings. Keep
reading!
Query Builder Blog series Basics
BusinessObjects Query builder - Basics
BusinessObjects Query builder – Best practices & Usability
Sample Queries
BusinessObjects Query builder queries
BusinessObjects Query builder queries - Part II
BusinessObjects Query builder queries - Part III
BusinessObjects Query builder queries - Part IV
BusinessObjects Query builder – Exploring Visualization Objects
Use cases
BusinessObjects Environment assessment using Query builder
BusinessObjects Environment Cleanup using Query builder
BusinessObjects Query builder – What's New in BI 4.0
22013 View s 68 Comments Tags: bo_querybuilder, businessobjects_querybuilder
**NEW** This has now been updated with BI 4.1 content.
We've created a document that shows the major features in the BI Platform, and which version they were
introduced in.
You can download this here.
This matrix starts with BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Release 2, and includes features released in XI 3.1, BI4.0,
BI4.0 FP3, and now BI 4.1.
-Blair
7954 View s 5 Comments
Tags: bi, hana, business_intelligence_(businessobjects), analytics, explorer, reporting, dashboards, crystal_reports
BI Platform Feature by Version Matrix
Posted by Blair Wheadon Feb 13, 2013
One of the most common requirements for BusinessObjects End-users is to utilize the capabilities
of the Microsoft SharePoint by publishing the BusinessObjects reports to SharePoint document
library. People tend to ask for Export the Business Objects report to SharePoint Document library
so that it will be searchable in SharePoint. Below are quick steps to configure the reports to publish them in SharePoint. Please note this not
the Integration of BusinessObjects with SharePoint.
1. Identify the SharePoint document library where your BusinessObjects reports to be
published. Go to document library and open it in the windows explorer view. Copy the
Publishing BusinessObjects reports to SharePoint
Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Feb 12, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 24/37
UNC path for the explorer view which will be something like
//<sharepoint_server>/<site>/<Document_library>/
2. Make sure you can browse to the SharePoint location using UNC path. If your URL is
http://Servername/SiteDirectory/Title then the equivalent UNC path would be like the
below \\Servername\SiteDirectory\Title. We need the Webclient Service running on
the box to access this UNC path (step 4).
3. If the URL is accessible you should be able to schedule the report to
\\Servername\SiteDirectory\Title\SharedDocuments provided if you use “Document
Workspace” as a template. The folder structure will wary as per the template you
select.
4. Go to your BusinessObjects server and start the web client service.This service is
needed to access and modify internet based files (SharePoint doc library). Enable and
start the service Webclient.
If you are using Windows Server 2008, Please note Webclient Service is not enabled by
default. You need to follow the below steps.
a. Open Server Manager and click the Features node.
b. If "Desktop Experience" in not already listed under Features,
click "Add Features".
c. Select the "Desktop Experience" item and then click next followed by Install.
d. Reboot the PC as instructed. 5. In the BusinessObjects, schedule the report to be exported to a file location. Provide
the UNC location which you copied earlier.
6. You should be able to see your report in SharePoint now.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 25/37
Advantages from publication of reports in SharePoint
SharePoint search facility will be an added advantage as you are allowed to search
the reports in SharePoint itself.
Utilize SharePoint versioning - SharePoint actually stores a new file with same name
as a new version of the document provided versioning is turned on in SharePoint
setting for the document library.
Utilize SharePoint Security - You can utilize the security applied at SharePoint
document library along with your BusinessObjects Security.
Points to consider
If you create a schedule with default name it will contain '~' in the file name which
is not allowed on the SharePoint by default. So make sure you configure the instance
to you any valid name by adding the place holder in the schedule e.g. %SI_NAME%
We need to schedule the report only in Agonistic file formats such as .xls,.pdf and
.txt etc. If you try to schedule the report with its default format (WebI) the above
steps are not applicable as it needs actual SharePoint integration.
If you try publishing most of your reports to SharePoint, It may reduce the
BusinessObjects usability as most of the report viewers tend to use the SharePoint
document library instead of Infoview or BI Launchpad. This is what happened when
we implemented BusinessObjects report s SharePoint publication:).
Hope you find this Interesting. Looking forward all your valuable feedbacks. Keep reading!
10228 View s 11 Comments Tags: bo_sharepoint, sharepoint_publication
Last month Ashish C Morzaria provided a webcast on BI4 sizing (I recall it was through the SAP Support
Academy). You can view a full recording of the webcast here (SMP logon required). Thanks to Stephanie Redivo
for finding the recording for me.
The purpose of the webcast was how size and think about BI deployment. The regular disclaimer applies; this is for
educational purposes only but not make decisions based on this webinar. Please also note these are my notes only
and for more information go to the BI4 Sizing site or listen to the webcast.
Figure 1: Source: SAP
BI4 Sizing - A SAP Webcast Summary
Posted by Tammy Powlas Feb 4, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 26/37
Figure 1 shows the agenda; note that my notes really only cover bullet points 1 and 2.
Figure 2: Source: SAP
Figure 2 shows that BI4 is different that 3.1
It is has changed to being a component of a larger landscape
It is more dependent around things that are around the system
Server is different; increased server density, RAM, virtualization and can now process more data than before
New licensing model CSBL you do not have to worry about CPU costs
Figure 3: Source: SAP
BI4 is not just a technical upgrade; it is 64 bit
BOE 3.1 was squeezed into a 32 bit architecture
BI4 is designed to take advantage of hardware, designed for modern architecture
BI4 is the first suite under the “SAP” banner
It has new components for Analysis, native BW connectivity
All of these things lead to a new BI4 system
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 27/37
Figure 4: Source: SAP
Figure 4 shows that the Adaptive Processing Services (APS) is new in BI4
It allows hosting for a number of services simultaneously
Default install will include APS but it may not be configured or sized the way you need
For production the default install is not what you want and a single node may not work
Required reading is the sizing guide and the BI Platform install guide.
Figure 5: Source: SAP
Figure 5 gives the URL for “everything you need”.
This is the microsite created specifically for sizing and points to SCN and white papers, link, BI4 sizing estimator
This site ( sap.com/bisizing) will be living/updated
Figure 6: Source: SAP
You need an IT professional to install BI4
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 28/37
You also need to take a number of things into account
Quick Sizer does not take into account everything
SAP wants you to use BI4 Sizing estimator because BI4 is a different “beast”
You want to perform for the future
It is easy to underestimate; need to scale out and understand what the numbers are and plan for headroom – plan for
the future, better used and more used
Figure 7: Source: SAP
How your system performs – begin with external systems connecting to your system
CMS database latencies will put delays
Input/Output bottlenecks with underperforming file servers – systems slow down for no perceivable reason
SAP says to patch BW systems to get performance improvements
Ashish said to understand pathways for virtualization help as they will impact you
Figure 8: Source: SAP
Almost every production deployment is a multi-node one. Architect for now and scale for growth
Ashish says start with a small landscape and scale up; it is easier to find bottlenecks that way
It is not a question of hardware but good architecture
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 29/37
Figure 9: Source: SAP
Figure 9 shows the sizing estimator – result of benchmarks done internally to SAP
It tries to straddle how size BI system and the way SAP sizes their own system
SAPS – SAP standard metric – the performance described in Figure 9. SAPS focuses more on processing
performance
It is an estimator not an analyzer. Ashish says do analysis.
It does not know how many nodes you will deploy.
Ashish says they cannot test entire spectrum from small to large; need to apply architecture after looking at results.
Figure 10: Source: SAP
Ashish said to understand terms
Active users are the number of users logged on system – they may not be doing anything
Rule of thumb is 10% of total users
Active Concurrent are users logged in and actively doing something – running a report/query – 10%
Understand what the right inputs are; need to revisit the 10% number
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 30/37
Figure 11: Source: SAP
Figure 11 shows the Report Sizes – different report sizes
If your report sizes are different than what is documented in the BI Sizing Companion guide you will need to adjust
You should review reports per content type
You should also review the workflows and the impact on sizing
Figure 12: Source: SAP
Figure 12 shows the user categories - for example – consumers look at the results
Business Users do a moderate amount of drilling
Expert users perform ad hoc analysis, changing report, large amounts of queries – may create more workload
This is the general idea, not hard and fast rule
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 31/37
Figure 13: Source: SAP
Everything discussed is in the BI4 Sizing Guide
Examples are in the sizing guide
I encourage you to watch the rest of the webcast yourself to review the sizing scenarios.
3040 View s 2 Comments Tags: bi4, sapmentor, bi4_sizing
Dear Folks, This blog is just to give an idea about how to enable tracing/logging in BusinessObjects 4.0
environment. Have done this today and I just wanted to share the same to our community. The default logging path will be <Install directory>/SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise BI 4.0/
Logging and the trace files generated would be of type generic log file (.glf) extension. We can
configure the trace logs for the following components
Logging Configuration for BOE Servers
BOE Web Applications logging
Below will be the various logging levels that we can set at trace log configuration.
Level Description
Unspecified Force the use of BO_trace.ini to be used
None Only critical events such as failures will be logged
Low Ignores warning and status messages
Medium Only Status messages with least important will be ignored
High Includes all the logging messages
1. Configuring tracing for BOE Servers
You can set the traces visually in CMC for a specific server or group of servers as below
Configuring trace Logs in BusinessObjects 4.0
Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Jan 31, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 32/37
Also you can manually set traces in BO_trace.ini file at the following location.
<BO Installation folder>\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\conf
2. Configuring tracing for web applications
You can set the traces visually in CMC for a BusinessObjects Application as below
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 33/37
Manually with the BO_trace.ini file
This sample is for BOE application with default Tomcat installation.
C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat6\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\TraceLog
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 34/37
2. Configuring tracing for Client applications
To enable tracing for the BI4.0 client applications, you can refer SAP Note 1586166 - How to enable tracing for BI4.0
client applications
Hope you find this interesting. Keep reading!
11115 View s 6 Comments Tags: bolog, botrace
The SAP customer solution adoption team is planning to deliver the highly popular BI4 elitetraining
worldwide. The events will be hosted in Newtown Square, USA, Europe (location TBA), Asia Pacific
(location TBA) and Latin America (location TBA). The world’s best BI 4.0 specialists, developers,
solution and product managers will host our valued BI customers and partners in this unique Elite
hands-on enablement workshop.
Agenda will include topics such as:
BI roadmap
BI tools including: Visual Intelligence, Web Intelligence, Dashboards, Analysis for OLAP and
BI4 Elite Training Goes Worldwide - Register Today
Posted by Henry Kam Jan 30, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 35/37
Office, Design Studio, etc. on top of:
1. Agnostic "non-SAP" back-ends
2. SAP HANA
3. Installation, configuration, migration, lifecycle management (LCM), authentication
Installation, configuration, migration, lifecycle management (LCM), authentication
BI mobile
HANA modeling
The class is for advanced levels and will go deep into configuration, best practices and tips &
tricks with the goal to get you or your customer live with BI 4.0 as smoothly as possible. There will
be opportunity to connect with our most senior BI specialists, SAP executives, as well as other
customers and partners to build a strong network.
Space is limited so register today! We will be limiting seats per company in order to ensure we
can meet the demand from all customers and partners, so we encourage you to respond quickly to
ensure your registration. Feel free to forward this invite throughout your organization and
networks.
Register at: http://www.bi4.elite-enablement.com/registration.html Did you attend the recent BI4 elite training at SAPVancouver? If you missed it, here's an event
recap.
1771 View s 0 Comments
Tags: businessobjects, bi, bi4, business_intelligence_(businessobjects), analytics, bi4.0, business_intelligence, bi4elite
Hi All,
Recently I came across a requirement wherein we had to show 2 different colors on the same chart (blue and yellow)
for one dimension which has 7 different values.
Ex: Mon, Tues, Wed, Thurs, Fri, Sat, Sun are the dimension values. The customer wanted the value on the chart for
Monday coming in Yellow whereas for others in blue.
This is only possible in SAP BO 4.0 + as there is an option on the chart to put formulas in charts. This is the way I
achieved it. Below is the sample table I created from efashion to demonstrate the way I did it.
Grouping data in charts in WebI
Posted by Sanjo T Jan 30, 2013
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 36/37
Then I changed the above table to column chart.
Notice I have set the graph to change colors based on the state. Hence for each state I will get a different color. After
this I used a simple formula for grouping
In the State Dimension, i placed a formula like if([State]="California" then "California" else "Other States". This
formula will group California and remaining states as 2 different sub-sets of data on the graph as seen below.
6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN
http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=150 37/37
Follow SCNSite Index Contact Us SAP Help Portal
Privacy Terms of Use Legal Disclosure Copyright
In a similar way I achieved the desired reults for me showing yellow color bar for Monday in each week and blue for
other days in the week so that the customer can easily understand the beginning of the week when they look at the
chart directly.
Hope this helps you in some way.
Regards,
Sanjo
548 View s 0 Comments Tags: grouping_data_in_charts, format_charts, w ebi_chart_format, group_data_w ebi
Our #1 most popular license type last year was the Concurrent Session Based License (CSBL). What is this thing
and why is it so popular?
There are 2 ways that we license content viewing in the BI platform:
Named Users
CSBLs
Note this is unlike most of our competitors, which typically use a combination of CPUs and Named Users. Microsoft
offers a CAL license, but that's really a license for a device, not a person or a session.
Named users license an individual. The license is with the person. To illustrate this, imagine a company with 3 SAP
BusinessObjects BI Platform deployments. John has a named user license. He is now licensed to connect to all 3 of
these systems. They also guarantee access - they are not subject to availability of a session on the system.
CSBLs license a session. Sessions are consumed by individuals. Users that are configured to use CSBL licenses
consume a CSBL session with each login. This means if Susie is a CSBL user, and logs in to the BI Launchpad, Live
Office, and BI Mobile, then she consumes 3 CSBL sessions. CSBL licenses are specific to a single deployment and
cannot be shared across multiple deployments in the way that named user licenses can. Unlike named users, CSBL
licenses do not guarantee access to a system. If a system has 25 CSBL licenses, and all of them are consumed,
then the next CSBL user that attempts to login will receive an error message.
Call me biased, but here's why I think our combination of named users and CSBLs are a great differentiator
1. They're flexible. IT doesn't have to count CPUs on the system according to arbitrary rules. Unlike CPU licensing,
as much hardware can be used to solve the BI problem as required without worrying about licensing impact.
Virtualized hardware is fully supported by this licensing model.
2. They're easy to administer. Both CSBL and named user licenses are monitored by the software, so it's easy to
stay in compliance.
3. They're well understood.
4. They map well to real world requirements. CSBLs are great for casual users that require intermittent access to
the system. Named users are great for heavy users and managers/executives that require guaranteed access.
Depending on when you purchased your SAP BusinessObjects solution, you may not have access to CSBLs in your
licensing model and may require a conversion to the new licensing model that supports CSBLs.
If you're like me and really enjoy reading license agreements, you can learn more here. The core of our licensing is in
the "Software Use Rights Agreements".
-Blair
7857 View s 26 Comments Tags: bi4, business_intelligence_(businessobjects), analytics
BI Platform Licensing Basics: CSBLs and NamedUsers
Posted by Blair Wheadon Jan 30, 2013
1 … 9 10 11 12 13 … 17
PreviousNext
