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SAP BI Platform Support Tool 2.0 Deep Dive Webinar Q&A

January 20, 2016, 2:40 pm
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Please see presentation here: SAP BI Platform Support Tool 2.0 Deep Dive Webinar

 

Below is the Q&A with most of the responses from SAP's Joshua Kuhn:

 

Q: How does one enable the BI Platform Tool? Does it only work  with BI 4x?

A: Yes, BI4.x (4.0, 4.1, 4.2) are supported.  no support for XI3.1

 

 

Q: do you need to download onto the BI server or can you download to different machine such as a laptop

A: BIPST is a client side tool.  There is no need to 'enable'.  Download, extract/install, run.

the gui is only supported on Windows.  For use on linux/unix, you will need to run the command line version (I believe its planned for v2.0.1, although i'm not sure its 100% completed yet)

A: BIPST can be run from any client pc.  It does not need to run on a BI server host..  Preferrably any client pc that can already to the CMS via another BI client tool.  such as CR designer, universe designer, etc

 

Q: Is their any specific requirement for running the tool outside your DMZ/firewall?

A: for connecting through firewall, CMS port (usually 6400) would need to be opened to allow logins.  JMX port for connecting to tomcat.  There's a bug which should be fixed in 2.0.1 for adding a listening port for JMX.

 

 

Q:  Can you export the data and report using WebI / Lumira

A: pdf export is currently the only export format.  However, due to the nature of how the xml is formatted which holds the extracted data, reporting off of it wouldn't be optimal.  I don't want to say impossible, but the xml is structured more for the BIPST consumption than reporting consumption

 

 

Q Just a question; SAP Host agent requires a separate license it isn't?

A: no, sap host agent is free for download from any sap customer that has access to SMP.

should add, download of the host agent would require access to Service MarketPlace.  But it should be available for download for any SAP customer.

 

 

For host agent download:  SMP > Downloads > Search for Softawre > "SAP Host Agent 7.2"

 

 

 

Q: Could you show any tools that helps on User Security troubleshoot if there is any?

A: BIPST does include a tool called "Security Analyzer" under the tools menu which will display user/group security similar to the CMC

 

 

Q: Is most of the overhead for tool on the server or client? In terms of procession..

A: Client overhead is mostly on the client side.  There are various queries issued to the CMS which it will run against the system db.  but memory is mostly seen on the client once the data is pulled back, analyzed and written to xml

 

 

Q: The port number for JMX can be any valid port number that is not used by any other application at the time when we are configuring BIPST2.0 or is it a port number which is pre-specified before while installing BI 4.x  ?

A:  JMX is any port you define for your Tomcat server to use.  It is a setting defined in the Tomcat java params. as well as a value defined in the BIPST

 

 

Q: Is there any way the tool can re-run jobs which have failed?

A: currently, no the tool does not have the ability to schedule new or reschedule a report. For the most part, the tool will not make any changes to the environment and only reports off of it.  however this has changed recently with the authentication tools that are being added shortly.  so there might be a use case to do this in the future.  but currently, no it will not reschedule reports

 

 

Q: Can the support tool help troubleshoot issues with SSO with Win ADAuth

A: yes.  there is a an "authentication analysis" report which will output all settings for auth (AD, LDAP, SAP, Enterprise). and there are some future tools being

added to help troubleshoot those more common auth issues.

 

 

 

 

Couldn't locate question, but response is here:

A: regarding the first question.  Were you referring to "LIcense Management" ?  if so, i don't believe that is currently in the plans, but if there is a business need,

please add a feature request on the wiki.  http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/remote-supportability/post!input.jspa?containerType=14&container=2086&subject=BI%20Platform%20Support%20Tool%20Enhancement%20Request%3A%20%3CSUMMARY%20OF%20REQUEST%3E

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Limitation in Report name length for translated reports when using Translation Manager

January 28, 2016, 2:16 pm
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Platform BOE 4.1 on Windows

 

There is a limit of 90 characters for the SI_Name of an object to be translated using Translation Manager.

 

When an object is first published to BOE, the name of the object in the input filestore is set to a combination of the internal ids of object in the CMS database.  When the object is exported from translation manager back to the CMS, the name of the object in the filestore becomes the si_name of the object and the guid.

 

If the si_name exceeds the 90 character limit, the filename in the CMS will not match the name of the file in the input FRS.  When a user tries to run the report, the report can not be accessed and the object appears to be corrupt.

 

If this happens,

  • go to the filepath shown under the object properties and get the file
    You may need another resource to get the file if you do not have access to the server
  • Open the object in the design tool
  • Republish the object to the CMS. 
  • Before using Translation Manager, shorten the name to be less than 90 characters.
  • DO NOT DELETE the un-accessible object until it has been republished.
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BO BI Upgrade Strategy

February 10, 2016, 3:14 am
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Introduction :


This document will tell briefly about what all things we need to know to upgrade BO environment from BOXI 3.1 to BO 4.1 and migrate Crystal reports from 2008 to 2013.This BO upgradation involves migrating the contents like Web Intelligence Reports, Desktop Intelligence Reports and Crystal Reports.


Installation Configuration for BO BI 4.1 platform

 

  • Only 64-bit Operating systems are supported
  • RAM should be minimum 8GB or more
  • Minimum Server Cores are 4
  • Disk Space should be 15 GB and above.
  • Java version is 6 and above
  • Windows Installer is 3.5 and above.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework is 3.5 SP1 and above.


Benefits of BO BI 4.1 platform


Unified and Highly Personalized

  • Improved usability for all the BI suite applications.
  • Deliver information to users when and where they need it.
  • Involved with all analytic extensions which creates custom experiences.


Powerful Visualizations

  • Organize your business with specialized charting
  • Empower end users with visualizations
  • Discover areas to optimize business


Faster more Accurate Decisions

  • Create BI contents from any mobile device
  • Teams  can now  deliver efficient decisions
  • Simplified deployment to utilize time


Scale & Power

  • Less response time irrespective of data volume
  • Improved usability to build any BI applications
  • Integrate with lifecycle management of SAP.


Speed to Deliver

  • Enhanced design experience with latest creation wizard
  • Automated universe deployment
  • Improved WebI report design

 

Migration Plan


  • Migrated Reports from BOXI 3.1 Prod to BO 4.1 Dev
  • Planning Done By Testing Team

          Generation of Test Cases on the basis of which reports were run. Reports were tested and issues were logged. Estimated the efforts required

  • Issue Analysis & Remediation

               Remediation team analyze and fix the issues in BO 4.1 Dev

  • Testing/Remediation team

              Proper knowledge transfer and learning are shared with admin team

  • Admin team

               They migrates the reports from BO 4.1 Dev to QA

  • Application teams

         They perform UAT  and consults remediation team

  • Go Live: Migrated reports from BO 4.1 QA to Prod   


Upgrade


Phased Approach


This approach enables User/Administrator to select the BI Content to be migrated from Source deployment to new BO 4.1 deployment. Only selected Objects will be copied to the new deployment.

This approach is effective in case of big migration.


Pros

  • Upgrade content in stages
  • Issues affect only the LOB upgraded
  • Short downtime

 

Cons


  • 2 systems to maintain
  • Requires lockdown of Particular LOB folder


Some Useful Tools in BO landscape


Repository Diagnostic Tool (RDT)

It helps to scan for Object to file inconsistencies.

RDT provides diagnosis and repair functionalities.


Life-Cycle manager(LCM)

Migrate the content of a BI repository to another repository within the same version.

Provides Version control.

Allows to use the scripting to automate the import of objects.

Roll back to a previous stable version incase of failure.


Server Monitoring Tool

Ability to capture the runtime and historical metrics of Business Objects servers and applications.

Ensures the reporting environment is functioning normally.

Help in identifying potential problems before they occur.


Upgrade Management Tool(UMT)

Upgrade the content of BI repository from a previous version (BO XI 3.1) of SAP BO.

Can perform Complete or incremental upgrade.

Compete Upgrade upgrades all content at once

Incremental Upgrade upgrades the content in stages


Report Conversion Tool(RCT)

Migrates Desktop Intelligence reports  to  Web Intelligence (WID) format.

It publishes the converted reports to the CMS.

 

Auditing Tool

Helps in better understanding of the users accessing the system and the documents they are interacting with.


Estimation (Complete Migration)


The project effort that was estimated initially was different from that was actually required. During the project, it was brought to knowledge that more effort

would be needed. Therefore, effort was increased and we were able to resolve issues on time meeting the required timelines. Effort is calculated based on the

below formula.


Total Effort Calculation per report = (No of persons* No of working days in a month*Overall Duration in months)/No of reports


Not all the reports were converted successfully while migration. Therefore we calculated conversion success rate for the reports as per below formula.

 

Conversion Success Rate =(Total No of reports-Reports in which defects encountered)/Total No of reports.


Issues faced and Remediation applied are listed below


Data Trimming(Webi)

In BOXI 3.1 Data/Text was coming perfectly for the cell but after migrating the report from BOXI 3.1 to BO 4.1 data/text got trimmed. Therefore, remediation applied is adjusted the width and height of cell in BO 4.1 Dev environment

Data Alignment(Webi)

Similarly for data alignment we have to adjust the cell padding (left and right) in BO 4.1 Dev environment to get final output inline with BOXI 3.1 environment.

Data missing/mismatch(Tab Switching issue)(Webi)

There was some mismatch of data or some issues regarding data missing was also encountered. This is the Alerter issue. Therefore, we changed all the alerter default values to some value , and the issue was resolved.

PDF export Issue(Data Missing)(Webi)

Issue -> Reports with different tabs were having data of only first tab getting exported to pdf.

Resolution à Visit each tab of the report and purge the data. Export report to get the required data.

Scale Error(Webi charts)

Scaling of some webi charts was different after the migration of report.Therefore, in order to resolve this issue we change the Tick Density of Y axis from automatic to fixed value in BO 4.1 dev environment.

Overlapping of coordinate legends(Webi Charts)

In BO 4.1 Dev, some webi charts have coordinate legends that get overlapped.This issue is resolved by Right click the chart .Click Format chart -> Data series and select Data position to outside.

Scheduling Error(Admin Perspective)(Webi)

This error came up when the reports are huge due to less memory cache. So to remediate such errors memory cache is increased and reports are scheduled .

Font Difference(Deski & Webi Charts)

This issue is a rendering issue of Avenier Next Font. Only Visualization was different. 

Cascading LOV’s Issue(Webi)

This issue is resolved by making changes at the universe level. Cascading LOVs is created by using the objects of the universe and the same will be prompted while generating the Webi report.

Font Difference PDF Export(Crystal Reports)

This is the only issue observed in Crystal reports and it is due to resolution difference in the 2 versions.

#Syntax Error(Webi)

This issue came up because the data provider name was matching the variable name and hence that variable was not getting migrated. Therefore, Changed the variable name in BOXI 3.1 Production environment and requested application team to re migrated the report


Learnings and Best Practices for Upgrade

•Choose autofit width to cell contents wherever possible (WebI).

•Do not create variables with same name as that of the dataprovider (WebI).

•Alerters with default values does not seem to work properly in Webi 4.1

•Cascading LOV’s in Webi does not work, have to be created manually in the universe.

•Crystal Reports is a very stable platform. Very less no. of defects

•Crystal reports font issues due to resolution difference.

•Deski converted to Webi have rendering issue with Avenir Next Font after upgarde.



Please do share your comments and feedback.


Regards,

Saurabh

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Dashboard for Top-N values using BI Web service:

February 16, 2016, 5:36 am
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As we know that BEx query condition is not working in dashboard report, then how condition can put on keyfigure to get Top-N or Bottom-N values, for this webi report can be created for Top-N and Bottom-N No of values with rank formula and same can access in dashboard using web service. Below is the step by step process.

 

1) Create BEx query report as per requirement.

2) Create webi report on Bex query for Top 15 Customer by using Rank function.

    a) Create webi report on Bex query(in my example it consist of Customer id, name and there turnover of the month)

       

 

    b) Right click on turnover column and Add Ranking.

        

 

     c) Now desire output of Top Ten Customer will get as below, saved the webi report on BI platform.

        

 

3) Create web service on webi report.

    a) Select report table properly and right click then ‘Publish as Web Service’ then Next

       

 

       b) Click on next and check for Filter prompt which we use for Filter in dashboard.

         

 

        c) Define Publish content(Name and description) for web service

         

 

        d) Create or select existing web service to publish new content to as web service.

          

 

         e) Now web service has been created successfully, you can see it in ‘Web Service Publisher’ Panel at the left side. The content of web service would access through WSDL URL Link refer below screen shot.

          

 

4) Open dashboard report and Add connection (Query web service) to web service.(Click on Data  and then Add Connection in menu bar or Click on manage connection in tool bar and then select Web service query(Query as web service). In the WSDL URL box, Paste WSDL URL and click on import button.

           

 

5) As per below screen shot, two block Input Values and Output Values are shown we need to provide values in ‘Input values block’ and take output values from ‘output value block’, refer below screen shots and bind input block with excel cell in which required value is given like login id, password, required prompt value, resetState (resetState and refresh are used for refresh data on selection prompt values) and Also bind output block with Excel cell to taking web service values like Header, footer and Table values.

         

            

 

6) Please check ‘Refresh Before Component are Loaded’ check box and check when value changes option button and bind Trigger cell with Excel, so whenever the value is changed new data is refresh from Web service.

          

 

7) Drag and Drop Dashboard components and bind it with Excel cell as per requirement and execute.

          

 

 

Thanks,

Kashif Ali Khan

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How to troubleshoot intermittent issues with reports in BI Platform 4.x

November 26, 2015, 12:09 pm
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In this document I would like to share some experiences and basic steps of troubleshooting intermittently appearing issues on such BI platforms which are having more than one processing servers or nodes configured. I will focus on the most often used report types such as WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports and Dashboards and only for on demand refresh errors.

 

Introduction – the scalability

 

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform services can be vertically scaled – using the advantage of the multi core CPU-s on the same machine - to take full advantage of the hardware they are running on, and can be horizontally scaled to take advantage of multiple server machines over a network environment.

 

For example, you can run several processing on the same machine (vertical scaling) or you can also run several processing servers on separate machines (horizontal scaling).

 

In these well sized or properly scaled environments are commonly used as production environments, where restarting or stopping BI Platform services cannot be restarted based on ad-hoc requests, can be done in the maintenance time slots. Troubleshooting of intermittent errors is difficult, since one of the most common used settings for reports to use the first available server on demand requested for report processing.

 

The 3i steps for troubleshooting

  1. Identification
  2. Isolation
  3. Investigation

 

1. Identification – the environment details and proper processing workflow

 

As a best practice to execute or generate a System Inspection (SI) Report from the Platform Support Tool. The SI report gives a high level overview of the BI Platform and collects information about the BI landscape such as server settings, command line arguments, memory settings, and performance metrics. (The tool and more information can be found here: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/SAP+BI+Platform+Support+Tool)

 

 

The proper workflow is mandatory and needs to be identified, which will be executed on the BI Platform while viewing or refreshing the report. In the following section I have collected the available workflows by reporting application types (the complete list of workflows can be found at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-8292)

 

Web Intelligence

 

  • View a Web Intelligence document on demand      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a multi-source universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a dimensional universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in one-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in two-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in three-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on an SAP NetWeaver BW BEx Query using BICS connectivity      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on an SAP Netweaver BW data using a relational UNX universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a multi-source datasource using a relational UNX universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on OLAP data using a multidimensional UNV universe    process flow
  • Refresh a document based on OLAP data using a multidimensional UNX universe    process flow

 

Crystal Reports 20xx

 

  • View a report instance when the page is in the cache      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is not in the cache      process flow
  • View a report on demand      process flow

 

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

 

  • View a report instance when the page is in the cache      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is not in the cache      process flow
  • View a report on demand      process flow


Dashboards (aka XCelsius)

 

  • View a dashboard when the query result is in the cache      process flow
  • View a dashboard when the query result is not in the cache      process flow

 

 

2. Isolation

 

Since the proper workflow identified, the next step is try to find which node or processing services and servers failing. When the landscape contains several nodes, and there are several processing servers working to complete the on-demand requests raised by the business users it is hard to find the server which failing in the processing or having the incorrect / inconsistent configuration.

 

In the Business Intelligence Platform, for a report a dedicated resource group can be assigned for on-demand and scheduled processing.  Out of the box setting is, when a report is executed on the platform the system is turns to the first available resource (server) for processing the report.

 

When a report execution is dedicated to a specific server group, which contains a set of processing servers, than we speak about report execution is isolated, since we are exactly know which server is takes in place at processing on which node.

 

 

Please follow one of these articles for find the settings and steps for report isolation:

 

Webintelligence: How to force a Webintelligence report file to be processed by a specific server group (isolation)

 

Crystal Reports: How to force a Crystal Reports file to be processed by a specific Crystal Reports Server group (isolation)

 

Dashboards: How to force a Dashboard file to be processed by specific Dashboard servers (isolation)

 

3. Investigation

 

To do the investigation the best bet is to change the servers in the isolation group until the error occurs constantly. When the specific node or processing services and servers has been found where the issue or observed behavoiur can be always reproduced, than the services can be traced by individually by setting the trace level to high in the properties or may using the End-to-End (E2E) trace process of the SAP BI Support tool.

 

To do the E2E trace, please follow the instructions of SAP KBA 1861180 - Customer instructions and best practice for collecting a BI Platform 4.x end to end trace.

 

Summary

 

For closure, i think to create server groups is a good and easy way to start troubleshooting intermittently appearing issues with reports in BI platforms 4.x. With the these 3 steps the report can quickly isolated in production environments, and the issues can be localized.

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CMS DB Migration from SQLAnywhere to HANA Database for Linux/Unix environment

February 11, 2016, 12:47 am
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This document helps the user to migrate CMS DB from SQLAnywhere to HANA Database where BOE is installed in Linux/Unix environment.

To make it simple I have divided the migration into two phases where Phase 1(Configuration Phase) deals with the configuring the required settings for migration and Phase 2(Migration Phase) deals with the actual migration.


Phase 1: Configuration Phase                     

                       In this phase we install the HANA client, configure the DSN, which is explained in detail below.


                            Step 1: Install HDB Client in the machine where BOE is installed.


                            Step 2: Using the below command copy libodbcHDB.so file from HDB Client directory to linux_x* directory.


                                  cp <HDB_Client_Install_Directory>/libodbcHDB.so<BOE_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/linux_x64/

                              cp <HDB_Client_Install_Directory>/libodbcHDB.so<BOE_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/linux_x86/

 

 

                             Step 3: Add the details of HANA server in odbc.ini which is present in <BOE_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/

                                  Below is the screenshot, which has details of HANA driver

 

                             

 

                                                                                               echo $ODBCINI


                                          Note: Output should be: <BOE_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/linux_x64/

 

 

Phase 2: Migration Phase

                            In this phase, we perform the actual migration using cmsdbsetup.sh script.


                                 Step 1: Run cmsdbsetup.sh script present in <BOE_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/


                                                                   ./ cmsdbsetup.sh


                                 Step 2: Specify the name of the node and press enter. In this example "lnxsuse11x64" is the name of the node.

 

                                                 

                                 Step 3: You need to stop the node before migration so select option 3 to stop the node.

                                                  

                                 Step 4: Select option 4 "copy" for Database Copy(by default it will be "update").

                                    

                 Step 5: It will show a warning message that this operation will deleted BIP tables in destination DB. Select option 3 "Yes"(by default it will be "No")

                                                               

                         Step 6: It will prompt whether you need current DB(SQLAnywhere) as destination database. You need to select option 2 "No"(by default it                                            will be "Yes")

 

                                        Note: If you choose yes it will delete all BIP tables from current DB. In this our destination DB is HANA so select option 2.

                                                   

                        Step 7: Select option 8 “SAP HANA” as destination database.

                                                                    

                        Step 8: Enter the ODBC DSN for connecting HANA DB(This values should be same as values entered in odbc.ini file). In this                                                             example “Hana_Migration” is DSN name for HANA DB.

                                                   

                        Step 9: Enter User Name for connecting HANA DB.

                                                                           Step 10: Enter Password for connecting HANA DB.

                                                  

                        Step 11: Enter CMS Cluster Key.

                                                  

                        Step 12: Now you need to specify Source CMS database. In this case you need to select option 2 “SQLAnywhere”.

                                                   

                        Step 13: Enter the ODBC DSN for connecting SQLAnywhere DB(This values should be same as values entered in odbc.ini file).

                                      In this example “BI4_CMS_DSN_1452244015” is DSN name for SQLAnywhere DB.

                                                  

                        Step 14: Enter User Name for connecting SQLAnywhere DB.

 

                                                      

 

                        Step 15: Enter Password for connecting SQLAnywhere DB.

                                                   

                        Step 16: Enter CMS Cluster Key.

                                                 

                                Step 17: Data successfully migrated to HANA DB.

                                                     

                                Step 18:  You can see CMS tables in HANA DB using HANA Studio.

                                             

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Best Practices for SAPBO BI 4.0 Adaptive Processing Servers

September 13, 2012, 2:56 am
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This whitepaper summarizes best practices, tuning, configuration and troubleshooting to help make your SAP BusinessObjects Adaptive Processing Server perform best. There are plenty of additional whitepapers / notes which delve into significant detail, this whitepaper is meant to be a handy summary for an administrator familiar with SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise BI4.0 platform.

View this Document

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SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 Supported Platforms (PAM)

May 9, 2013, 10:01 am
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Supported Platforms (PAM) for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.1 and above. This presentation describes compatibility with external platforms and technologies.

View this Presentation

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SAP Product Standard Supportability applied to SAP BusinessObjects BI – Wily Introscope

February 26, 2016, 7:40 am
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Introduction:

This guide provides SAP Product Supportability Standards best practices and instructions for trouble-shooting the SAP Business Objectsplatform and clients

Benefits:

•View the bigpicture of elapsed time acrosscomponents.

•Drill down to each component to understand the bottlenecks.

•Improveroot cause analysisusing Solution Manager combinedwithWilyIntroscope.

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Official Product Tutorials – SAP BusinessObjects BI Launch Pad 4.x

January 31, 2012, 12:56 am
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The following tutorials have been developed to help you get started using the Business Intelligence Suite products. New content is added as soon as it becomes available, so check back on a regular basis.

 

You can submit and vote on ideas for enhancements to this product.

 

The video versions of these tutorials on YouTube include optional text captions that can be translated into a number of languages. Watch here to learn how.

 

Looking for eLearning for the rest of the Business Intelligence Suite? Go to sap.com/LearnBI.

 

Getting Started

 

Organizing Content

 

Working with Documents

 

Working with Other Objects

 

To view the full BI launch pad 4.0 playlist on Youtube, click here.

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Official Product Tutorials – SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform 4.x

September 16, 2010, 3:00 pm
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Tutorials covering all things important for BI projects. Subscribe to page - stay up-to-date!.

OverviewTop Online ResourcesTutorialsEvents

 

The following tutorials have been developed to help you get started using the Business Intelligence Suite products. New content is added as it becomes available, so check back on a regular basis.

 

You can submit and vote on ideas for enhancements to this product.

 

Looking for eLearning for the rest of the Business Intelligence Suite?  Go to sap.com/LearnBI.

 

Note
The process flows are interactive diagrams that show how platform components interact during common business intelligence tasks. If a diagram does not display correctly, please refresh its browser window to reload it.

space 

space

General Platform

 

Central Management Console

  • Create OLAP Connections to BW      tutorial
  • Set a schedule for a program object      process flow
  • Run a schedule for a program object      process flow

 

Lumira

  • NEW for 4.1 SP5 View a Lumira document  process flow
  • NEW for 4.1 SP5 Refresh a Lumira document based directly on a database process flow
  • NEW for 4.1 SP5 Refresh a Lumira document based on a universe (UNX)  process flow
  • NEW for 4.1 SP5 Set a schedule for Lumira document  process flow
  • NEW for 4.1 SP5 Run a scheduled Lumira document  process flow

 

Crystal Reports 2011

  • Set a schedule for a report      process flow
  • Run a schedule for a report      process flow
  • Run a scheduled publication of a report      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is in the cache      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is not in the cache      process flow
  • View a report on demand      process flow

 

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

  • Set a schedule for a report      process flow
  • Run a schedule for a report      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is in the cache      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is not in the cache      process flow
  • View a report on demand      process flow

 

Live Office

 

Web Intelligence

  • Set a schedule for a Web Intelligence document      process flow
  • Run a schedule for a Web Intelligence document      process flow
  • View a Web Intelligence document on demand      process flow
  • Export a document      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a multi-source universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a dimensional universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in one-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in two-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in three-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on an SAP NetWeaver BW BEx Query using BICS connectivity      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on an SAP Netweaver BW data using a relational UNX universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a multi-source datasource using a relational UNX universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on OLAP data using a multidimensional UNV universe    process flow
  • Refresh a document based on OLAP data using a multidimensional UNX universe    process flow

 

Analysis, edition for OLAP

  • View an Analysis, edition for OLAP workspace      process flow

 

Dashboards

  • View a dashboard when the query result is in the cache      process flow
  • View a dashboard when the query result is not in the cache      process flow
  • Design a new dashboard based on a universe      process flow
  • Preview a new dashboard based on a universe      process flow
  • Save a new dashboard to the platform      process flow

 

Design Studio

  • View an SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio document (based on SAP NetWeaver BW) in a web or mobile client      process flow
  • Refresh an SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio document (based on SAP NetWeaver BW) in a web or mobile client      process flow
  • Refresh an SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio document (based on SAP HANA) in a web or mobile client      process flow
  • Refresh an SAP BusinessObjects Design Studio document (based on a dimensional UNX universe) in a web or mobile client      process flow

 

Explorer

  • Log on to Explorer      process flow
  • Display list of information spaces in Explorer      process flow
  • Display list of data sources in Explorer      process flow
  • Create an information space based on Excel      process flow
  • Index an information space based on Excel      process flow
  • Create an information space based on a universe      process flow
  • Index an information space based on a universe      process flow
  • View an information space based on a universe or Excel file      process flow

 

Upgrade Management Tool

  • Upgrade content directly from an older version of the platform      process flow
  • Perform a complete upgrade      tutorial
  • Perform an incremental upgrade      tutorial

 

 

Lifecycle Management

  • Create a promotion job to promote content from a live source system to a live destination system      process flow
  • Run a promotion job to promote content from a live source system to a live destination system      process flow
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Official Product Tutorials – Integration Option for Microsoft Sharepoint Software

January 31, 2012, 2:06 am
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The following tutorials have been developed to help you get started using the Business Intelligence Suite products. New content is added as soon as it becomes available, so check back on a regular basis.

 

You can submit and vote on ideas for enhancements to this product.

 

Looking for eLearning for the rest of the Business Intelligence Suite? Go to sap.com/LearnBI.
space

Getting Started

Working with Documents

Administering IOMS

To view the full IOMS 4.0 playlist on Youtube, click here.
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White Paper SAP BI4 Failover with IBM PowerHA SystemMirror for AIX

January 14, 2016, 9:25 am
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This white paper describes a setup of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 using AIX operating system. BI4 is used together with IBM PowerHA SystemMirror in a way that simulates an active-passive failover scenario.

View this Document

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How to use BI Recycle bin: BI 4.2 New feature

January 15, 2016, 7:50 am
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This is a brief, step by step demonstration of BI Recycle bin: new functionality introduced from BI 4.2.

 

 

First step is to enable the application. To do that you will need to navigate to Applications from CMC.

1.png

Important: Right click Recycle bin Application and select properties. By default, Recycle bin functionality is off. i.e You will need to check the following Enable recycle bin and configure automatic remove files according to you need.

 

2.png

 

Now, once a user deletes a document it should show up in recycle bin.

 

3.png

4.png

 

Once done you should get a response like. Once restored the file will move to its original location similar to what happens in Windows systems.

 

5.png

 

Important links/ references:

All documents relating to BI 4.2:  SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform 4.2 – SAP Help Portal Page

Recycle bin documentation available in BI 4.2 Admin guide.

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SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 Supported Platforms (PAM)

January 19, 2016, 11:19 am
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Supported Platforms (PAM) for SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.2 - This presentation describes compatibility with external platforms and technologies.

View this Presentation

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Search

SAP BI Platform Support Tool 2.0 Deep Dive Webinar

January 20, 2016, 10:25 am
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'This presentation was shown as part of the BI Webinar Series (recording on http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-56308). Product owner Toby Johnston demos and discusses the SAP BI Platform Support Tool 2.0 application: Many new features of the BI Support Tool have been introduced in this version, which greatly improves on the BI administration and support paradigm.  Learn how the 2.0 version aligns with SAP's "Next Generation Support" strategy and see what is in store for future versions.

View this Document

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SAP BI Platform Support Tool 2.0 Deep Dive Webinar Q&A

January 20, 2016, 2:40 pm
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Please see presentation here: SAP BI Platform Support Tool 2.0 Deep Dive Webinar

 

Below is the Q&A with most of the responses from SAP's Joshua Kuhn:

 

Q: How does one enable the BI Platform Tool? Does it only work  with BI 4x?

A: Yes, BI4.x (4.0, 4.1, 4.2) are supported.  no support for XI3.1

 

 

Q: do you need to download onto the BI server or can you download to different machine such as a laptop

A: BIPST is a client side tool.  There is no need to 'enable'.  Download, extract/install, run.

the gui is only supported on Windows.  For use on linux/unix, you will need to run the command line version (I believe its planned for v2.0.1, although i'm not sure its 100% completed yet)

A: BIPST can be run from any client pc.  It does not need to run on a BI server host..  Preferrably any client pc that can already to the CMS via another BI client tool.  such as CR designer, universe designer, etc

 

Q: Is their any specific requirement for running the tool outside your DMZ/firewall?

A: for connecting through firewall, CMS port (usually 6400) would need to be opened to allow logins.  JMX port for connecting to tomcat.  There's a bug which should be fixed in 2.0.1 for adding a listening port for JMX.

 

 

Q:  Can you export the data and report using WebI / Lumira

A: pdf export is currently the only export format.  However, due to the nature of how the xml is formatted which holds the extracted data, reporting off of it wouldn't be optimal.  I don't want to say impossible, but the xml is structured more for the BIPST consumption than reporting consumption

 

 

Q Just a question; SAP Host agent requires a separate license it isn't?

A: no, sap host agent is free for download from any sap customer that has access to SMP.

should add, download of the host agent would require access to Service MarketPlace.  But it should be available for download for any SAP customer.

 

 

For host agent download:  SMP > Downloads > Search for Softawre > "SAP Host Agent 7.2"

 

 

 

Q: Could you show any tools that helps on User Security troubleshoot if there is any?

A: BIPST does include a tool called "Security Analyzer" under the tools menu which will display user/group security similar to the CMC

 

 

Q: Is most of the overhead for tool on the server or client? In terms of procession..

A: Client overhead is mostly on the client side.  There are various queries issued to the CMS which it will run against the system db.  but memory is mostly seen on the client once the data is pulled back, analyzed and written to xml

 

 

Q: The port number for JMX can be any valid port number that is not used by any other application at the time when we are configuring BIPST2.0 or is it a port number which is pre-specified before while installing BI 4.x  ?

A:  JMX is any port you define for your Tomcat server to use.  It is a setting defined in the Tomcat java params. as well as a value defined in the BIPST

 

 

Q: Is there any way the tool can re-run jobs which have failed?

A: currently, no the tool does not have the ability to schedule new or reschedule a report. For the most part, the tool will not make any changes to the environment and only reports off of it.  however this has changed recently with the authentication tools that are being added shortly.  so there might be a use case to do this in the future.  but currently, no it will not reschedule reports

 

 

Q: Can the support tool help troubleshoot issues with SSO with Win ADAuth

A: yes.  there is a an "authentication analysis" report which will output all settings for auth (AD, LDAP, SAP, Enterprise). and there are some future tools being

added to help troubleshoot those more common auth issues.

 

 

 

 

Couldn't locate question, but response is here:

A: regarding the first question.  Were you referring to "LIcense Management" ?  if so, i don't believe that is currently in the plans, but if there is a business need,

please add a feature request on the wiki.  http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/remote-supportability/post!input.jspa?containerType=14&container=2086&subject=BI%20Platform%20Support%20Tool%20Enhancement%20Request%3A%20%3CSUMMARY%20OF%20REQUEST%3E

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Limitation in Report name length for translated reports when using Translation Manager

January 28, 2016, 2:16 pm
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Platform BOE 4.1 on Windows

 

There is a limit of 90 characters for the SI_Name of an object to be translated using Translation Manager.

 

When an object is first published to BOE, the name of the object in the input filestore is set to a combination of the internal ids of object in the CMS database.  When the object is exported from translation manager back to the CMS, the name of the object in the filestore becomes the si_name of the object and the guid.

 

If the si_name exceeds the 90 character limit, the filename in the CMS will not match the name of the file in the input FRS.  When a user tries to run the report, the report can not be accessed and the object appears to be corrupt.

 

If this happens,

  • go to the filepath shown under the object properties and get the file
    You may need another resource to get the file if you do not have access to the server
  • Open the object in the design tool
  • Republish the object to the CMS. 
  • Before using Translation Manager, shorten the name to be less than 90 characters.
  • DO NOT DELETE the un-accessible object until it has been republished.
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BO BI Upgrade Strategy

February 10, 2016, 3:14 am
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Introduction :


This document will tell briefly about what all things we need to know to upgrade BO environment from BOXI 3.1 to BO 4.1 and migrate Crystal reports from 2008 to 2013.This BO upgradation involves migrating the contents like Web Intelligence Reports, Desktop Intelligence Reports and Crystal Reports.


Installation Configuration for BO BI 4.1 platform

 

  • Only 64-bit Operating systems are supported
  • RAM should be minimum 8GB or more
  • Minimum Server Cores are 4
  • Disk Space should be 15 GB and above.
  • Java version is 6 and above
  • Windows Installer is 3.5 and above.
  • Microsoft .NET Framework is 3.5 SP1 and above.


Benefits of BO BI 4.1 platform


Unified and Highly Personalized

  • Improved usability for all the BI suite applications.
  • Deliver information to users when and where they need it.
  • Involved with all analytic extensions which creates custom experiences.


Powerful Visualizations

  • Organize your business with specialized charting
  • Empower end users with visualizations
  • Discover areas to optimize business


Faster more Accurate Decisions

  • Create BI contents from any mobile device
  • Teams  can now  deliver efficient decisions
  • Simplified deployment to utilize time


Scale & Power

  • Less response time irrespective of data volume
  • Improved usability to build any BI applications
  • Integrate with lifecycle management of SAP.


Speed to Deliver

  • Enhanced design experience with latest creation wizard
  • Automated universe deployment
  • Improved WebI report design

 

Migration Plan


  • Migrated Reports from BOXI 3.1 Prod to BO 4.1 Dev
  • Planning Done By Testing Team

          Generation of Test Cases on the basis of which reports were run. Reports were tested and issues were logged. Estimated the efforts required

  • Issue Analysis & Remediation

               Remediation team analyze and fix the issues in BO 4.1 Dev

  • Testing/Remediation team

              Proper knowledge transfer and learning are shared with admin team

  • Admin team

               They migrates the reports from BO 4.1 Dev to QA

  • Application teams

         They perform UAT  and consults remediation team

  • Go Live: Migrated reports from BO 4.1 QA to Prod   


Upgrade


Phased Approach


This approach enables User/Administrator to select the BI Content to be migrated from Source deployment to new BO 4.1 deployment. Only selected Objects will be copied to the new deployment.

This approach is effective in case of big migration.


Pros

  • Upgrade content in stages
  • Issues affect only the LOB upgraded
  • Short downtime

 

Cons


  • 2 systems to maintain
  • Requires lockdown of Particular LOB folder


Some Useful Tools in BO landscape


Repository Diagnostic Tool (RDT)

It helps to scan for Object to file inconsistencies.

RDT provides diagnosis and repair functionalities.


Life-Cycle manager(LCM)

Migrate the content of a BI repository to another repository within the same version.

Provides Version control.

Allows to use the scripting to automate the import of objects.

Roll back to a previous stable version incase of failure.


Server Monitoring Tool

Ability to capture the runtime and historical metrics of Business Objects servers and applications.

Ensures the reporting environment is functioning normally.

Help in identifying potential problems before they occur.


Upgrade Management Tool(UMT)

Upgrade the content of BI repository from a previous version (BO XI 3.1) of SAP BO.

Can perform Complete or incremental upgrade.

Compete Upgrade upgrades all content at once

Incremental Upgrade upgrades the content in stages


Report Conversion Tool(RCT)

Migrates Desktop Intelligence reports  to  Web Intelligence (WID) format.

It publishes the converted reports to the CMS.

 

Auditing Tool

Helps in better understanding of the users accessing the system and the documents they are interacting with.


Estimation (Complete Migration)


The project effort that was estimated initially was different from that was actually required. During the project, it was brought to knowledge that more effort

would be needed. Therefore, effort was increased and we were able to resolve issues on time meeting the required timelines. Effort is calculated based on the

below formula.


Total Effort Calculation per report = (No of persons* No of working days in a month*Overall Duration in months)/No of reports


Not all the reports were converted successfully while migration. Therefore we calculated conversion success rate for the reports as per below formula.

 

Conversion Success Rate =(Total No of reports-Reports in which defects encountered)/Total No of reports.


Issues faced and Remediation applied are listed below


Data Trimming(Webi)

In BOXI 3.1 Data/Text was coming perfectly for the cell but after migrating the report from BOXI 3.1 to BO 4.1 data/text got trimmed. Therefore, remediation applied is adjusted the width and height of cell in BO 4.1 Dev environment

Data Alignment(Webi)

Similarly for data alignment we have to adjust the cell padding (left and right) in BO 4.1 Dev environment to get final output inline with BOXI 3.1 environment.

Data missing/mismatch(Tab Switching issue)(Webi)

There was some mismatch of data or some issues regarding data missing was also encountered. This is the Alerter issue. Therefore, we changed all the alerter default values to some value , and the issue was resolved.

PDF export Issue(Data Missing)(Webi)

Issue -> Reports with different tabs were having data of only first tab getting exported to pdf.

Resolution à Visit each tab of the report and purge the data. Export report to get the required data.

Scale Error(Webi charts)

Scaling of some webi charts was different after the migration of report.Therefore, in order to resolve this issue we change the Tick Density of Y axis from automatic to fixed value in BO 4.1 dev environment.

Overlapping of coordinate legends(Webi Charts)

In BO 4.1 Dev, some webi charts have coordinate legends that get overlapped.This issue is resolved by Right click the chart .Click Format chart -> Data series and select Data position to outside.

Scheduling Error(Admin Perspective)(Webi)

This error came up when the reports are huge due to less memory cache. So to remediate such errors memory cache is increased and reports are scheduled .

Font Difference(Deski & Webi Charts)

This issue is a rendering issue of Avenier Next Font. Only Visualization was different. 

Cascading LOV’s Issue(Webi)

This issue is resolved by making changes at the universe level. Cascading LOVs is created by using the objects of the universe and the same will be prompted while generating the Webi report.

Font Difference PDF Export(Crystal Reports)

This is the only issue observed in Crystal reports and it is due to resolution difference in the 2 versions.

#Syntax Error(Webi)

This issue came up because the data provider name was matching the variable name and hence that variable was not getting migrated. Therefore, Changed the variable name in BOXI 3.1 Production environment and requested application team to re migrated the report


Learnings and Best Practices for Upgrade

•Choose autofit width to cell contents wherever possible (WebI).

•Do not create variables with same name as that of the dataprovider (WebI).

•Alerters with default values does not seem to work properly in Webi 4.1

•Cascading LOV’s in Webi does not work, have to be created manually in the universe.

•Crystal Reports is a very stable platform. Very less no. of defects

•Crystal reports font issues due to resolution difference.

•Deski converted to Webi have rendering issue with Avenir Next Font after upgarde.



Please do share your comments and feedback.


Regards,

Saurabh

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How to troubleshoot intermittent issues with reports in BI Platform 4.x

November 26, 2015, 12:09 pm
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In this document I would like to share some experiences and basic steps of troubleshooting intermittently appearing issues on such BI platforms which are having more than one processing servers or nodes configured. I will focus on the most often used report types such as WebIntelligence, Crystal Reports and Dashboards and only for on demand refresh errors.

 

Introduction – the scalability

 

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Platform services can be vertically scaled – using the advantage of the multi core CPU-s on the same machine - to take full advantage of the hardware they are running on, and can be horizontally scaled to take advantage of multiple server machines over a network environment.

 

For example, you can run several processing on the same machine (vertical scaling) or you can also run several processing servers on separate machines (horizontal scaling).

 

In these well sized or properly scaled environments are commonly used as production environments, where restarting or stopping BI Platform services cannot be restarted based on ad-hoc requests, can be done in the maintenance time slots. Troubleshooting of intermittent errors is difficult, since one of the most common used settings for reports to use the first available server on demand requested for report processing.

 

The 3i steps for troubleshooting

  1. Identification
  2. Isolation
  3. Investigation

 

1. Identification – the environment details and proper processing workflow

 

As a best practice to execute or generate a System Inspection (SI) Report from the Platform Support Tool. The SI report gives a high level overview of the BI Platform and collects information about the BI landscape such as server settings, command line arguments, memory settings, and performance metrics. (The tool and more information can be found here: http://wiki.scn.sap.com/wiki/display/BOBJ/SAP+BI+Platform+Support+Tool)

 

 

The proper workflow is mandatory and needs to be identified, which will be executed on the BI Platform while viewing or refreshing the report. In the following section I have collected the available workflows by reporting application types (the complete list of workflows can be found at http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-8292)

 

Web Intelligence

 

  • View a Web Intelligence document on demand      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a multi-source universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a dimensional universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in one-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in two-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document in Web Intelligence Desktop in three-tier mode      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on an SAP NetWeaver BW BEx Query using BICS connectivity      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on an SAP Netweaver BW data using a relational UNX universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on a multi-source datasource using a relational UNX universe      process flow
  • Refresh a document based on OLAP data using a multidimensional UNV universe    process flow
  • Refresh a document based on OLAP data using a multidimensional UNX universe    process flow

 

Crystal Reports 20xx

 

  • View a report instance when the page is in the cache      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is not in the cache      process flow
  • View a report on demand      process flow

 

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

 

  • View a report instance when the page is in the cache      process flow
  • View a report instance when the page is not in the cache      process flow
  • View a report on demand      process flow


Dashboards (aka XCelsius)

 

  • View a dashboard when the query result is in the cache      process flow
  • View a dashboard when the query result is not in the cache      process flow

 

 

2. Isolation

 

Since the proper workflow identified, the next step is try to find which node or processing services and servers failing. When the landscape contains several nodes, and there are several processing servers working to complete the on-demand requests raised by the business users it is hard to find the server which failing in the processing or having the incorrect / inconsistent configuration.

 

In the Business Intelligence Platform, for a report a dedicated resource group can be assigned for on-demand and scheduled processing.  Out of the box setting is, when a report is executed on the platform the system is turns to the first available resource (server) for processing the report.

 

When a report execution is dedicated to a specific server group, which contains a set of processing servers, than we speak about report execution is isolated, since we are exactly know which server is takes in place at processing on which node.

 

 

Please follow one of these articles for find the settings and steps for report isolation:

 

Webintelligence: How to force a Webintelligence report file to be processed by a specific server group (isolation)

 

Crystal Reports: How to force a Crystal Reports file to be processed by a specific Crystal Reports Server group (isolation)

 

Dashboards: How to force a Dashboard file to be processed by specific Dashboard servers (isolation)

 

3. Investigation

 

To do the investigation the best bet is to change the servers in the isolation group until the error occurs constantly. When the specific node or processing services and servers has been found where the issue or observed behavoiur can be always reproduced, than the services can be traced by individually by setting the trace level to high in the properties or may using the End-to-End (E2E) trace process of the SAP BI Support tool.

 

To do the E2E trace, please follow the instructions of SAP KBA 1861180 - Customer instructions and best practice for collecting a BI Platform 4.x end to end trace.

 

Summary

 

For closure, i think to create server groups is a good and easy way to start troubleshooting intermittently appearing issues with reports in BI platforms 4.x. With the these 3 steps the report can quickly isolated in production environments, and the issues can be localized.

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