BICS Connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.

0
John Mrozek / AGS December 01, 2011

Introduction

Business Intelligence Consumer Services connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0
This presentation will outline the new BICS connectivity for SAP Business Objects 4.0. It will show how Webi reporting on SAP BW has changed for the better as well give some technical information that will help those using the solution get the most out of it.

Target Audience
SAP Business Objects BI 4.0 Administrators whos reporting landscape includes SAP BW systems.
2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2

Take Away

Upon the completion of this presentation, system administrators will have an understanding of the new architecture of Web Intelligences connectivity to SAP BW. They will also have an understanding of some of the configuration options and sizing considerations that must be evaluated when such reporting is to be done. Finally, some troubleshooting methodologies will be learned that should speed root cause analysis.

In short, the intent of this presentation is to give a deep understanding of BICS connectivity which will lend itself to the maintenance and use of the solution in the years to come.

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

Agenda

1. 2. 3.

About BICS The DSL Bridge Deployment Information

4.
5. 6. 7.

General Troubleshooting
Let SAP Help How-Tos Q&A

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

About BICS

What is BICS?

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

What is BICS?

Business Intelligence Consumer Services BICS is the BW data access layer for BEx tools Enables BW frontend tools / Planning Applications and Java Applications to access OLAP data in a unified way Part of NetWeaver 04s release Focus on direct client usage rather than a functional type of approach such as that of MDX or SQL Provide exciting features beyond that of classic OLAP such as exception reporting, list calculation, document integration etc.

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

Why BICS?

Consumer

Consumer

Universe MDX BEx Query

BICS

BEx Query

InfoProviders

InfoProviders

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

Why BICS?

Advantages
OLAP look and feel Can interact with data in BW as well as non BW sources No longer need to manually create / maintain universes (for example, if the underlying BEx Query changes) Improved performance

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

Special note on BICS

Be Aware
Business Logic which could previously be defined in the universe must now be defined in the BEx Query since users no longer create universes

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

10

The DSL Bridge

What is the DSL Bridge?

The Dimensional Semantic Layer Bridge is what actually connects to BW

Hosted by the Adaptive Processing Server

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

Recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular Adaptive Processing Server in anything beyond a small test environment

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

12

What is the DSL Bridge?

Services in a default APS

Hosted by the Adaptive Processing Server

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

Recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular Adaptive Processing Server in anything beyond a small test environment

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

13

Webi Servers and the DSL Bridge

Interaction between Webi Servers and the DSL Bridge

Previously for BW connectivity, the Web Intelligence Processing Server was responsible for connecting to the database (BW)

With BI 4.0, the Dimensional Semantic Layer on the APS actually connects to the database (BW) and returns the results to Webi

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

14

Deployment Information

Deployment Information

Make sure system is sized correctly

Refer to the Sizing Companion for SAP Business Objects BI 4.0

Monitor CPU and memory utilization of the Adaptive Processing Server and add more APS servers if necessary
The DSL APS has a recommended minimum heap size of 4GB. 8GB or more is recommended

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

16

Deployment Information

Make sure monitoring is consistent between Web Intelligence servers and Adaptive Processing Servers
Known issues when they are not in sync! Either enable on all webi / APS machines (recommended) or disable on all

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

17

Deployment Information

Make sure you are on relatively current patches

Support Pack 02 Patch 15 is current version This version contains a Webi fix ADAPT01625680 which improves performance with BICS merged dimensions

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

18

General Troubleshooting

General Troubleshooting

Look at the patterns

Based on what works and what doesnt, hypothesize what the issue is Break down the problem into the smallest components!

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

20

Basic Log Analysis

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

|2011 06 22 11:43:03:441|-0400|>=|E|X|webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792|CdzExtRpcChannel:CallMethod: 0.776 src/DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl.cpp:141:virtual OlapAccess::IOlapResult* OlapAccess::OlapAccessServiceImpl::executeRequest(const std::string&, const std::string&): TraceLog message 806834 |2011 06 22 11:43:03:442|0400|>=|E|X|webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792|DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl:getDataSet: 0.778 src/DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl.cpp:165:virtual OlapAccess::IOlapResult* OlapAccess::OlapAccessServiceImpl::executeRequest(const std::string&, const std::string&): TraceLog message 806835 |2011 06 22 11:43:03:442|-0400|>>|E| |webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792|remote call to getDataSet() failed src/DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl.cpp:166:virtual OlapAccess::IOlapResult* OlapAccess::OlapAccessServiceImpl::executeRequest(const std::string&, const std::string&): TraceLog message 806836 |2011 06 22 11:43:03:442|-0400|>>|E| |webiserver_SIA_DEV.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer|31892|1076201792||**ERROR:DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl:Exception caught from dsl_engine.jar: : java.lang.NullPointerException: while trying to invoke the method org.w3c.dom.Node.getNodeName() of an object loaded from field com.sap.ip.bi.util.xml.impl.DomReader.currentNode of an object loaded from local variable 'this' at com.sap.ip.bi.util.xml.impl.DomReader.getName(DomReader.java:153) at com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.ProviderSelectionObject.extractViewDetailsForOpen(ProviderSelectionObject.java:520)

at com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.ProviderSelectionObject.createOpenFunction(ProviderSelectionObject.java:318)
at com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.ProviderSelectionObject.isApplicable(ProviderSelectionObject.java:389)

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

21

Core Dumps

Core Dumps (Unix only)

Use gdb / dbx to create a stack trace to send in for analysis Use the file command to determine which process crashed

Here we can see WIReportServer is the process which crashed

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

where will tell us the last functions which were executed at the time of the crash

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

22

Core Dumps

Core Dumps (Unix only)

Logs are very important for troubleshooting core dumps! Look at them to see what happened just before the process crashed Generally we are looking for the workflow / options selected leading up to the problem as well as the functions called Most likely will need to be worked by customer assurance

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

23

Let SAP help

Remote Supportability

Tools which Allow SAP to interact with customer data for Root Cause Analysis

Can be very helpful if a particular BEx Query causes problems

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

25

Remote Supportability

Pertinent connection types to be opened

R/3 Support - enables remote access to an SAP system via SAP GUI BW RFC Connection - enables a RFC connection to Business Warehouse BW GUI Connection - enables a GUI connection to Business Warehouse

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

26

How-Tos

Increasing heap on the Adaptive Processing Server

Increase heap here. Its currently set to 1 gb

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

28

Monitoring settings

Make sure that the settings are consistent across servers either enabled on all or none!

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

29

Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS

Choose Category Connectivity Services

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

30

Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS

Choose only the DSL Bridge Service

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

31

Removing the DSL Bridge Service from previous APS

Make sure to remove the DSL service from other shared APS servers. To do this, stop the Adaptive Processing Server, then right click on the server and choose select services

Services available to be added to the APS i.e. not being used by the APS

Services currently hosted by the APS

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

32

Useful Links

Sizing Guides
Sizing Companion companions / guides https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01200252310000090633

Knowledge Base Article

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

2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

33

Q/A

Thank You!
Contact information: John Mrozek Engineer Lake Mary, FL j.mrozek@sap.com

 2012 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express permission of SAP AG. The information contained herein may be changed without prior notice. Some software products marketed by SAP AG and its distributors contain proprietary software components of other software vendors. Microsoft, Windows, Excel, Outlook, and PowerPoint are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation. IBM, DB2, DB2 Universal Database, System i, System i5, System p, System p5, System x, System z, System z10, System z9, z10, z9, iSeries, pSeries, xSeries, zSeries, eServer, z/VM, z/OS, i5/OS, S/390, OS/390, OS/400, AS/400, S/390 Parallel Enterprise Server, PowerVM, Power Architecture, POWER6+, POWER6, POWER5+, POWER5, POWER, OpenPower, PowerPC, BatchPipes, BladeCenter, System Storage, GPFS, HACMP, RETAIN, DB2 Connect, RACF, Redbooks, OS/2, Parallel Sysplex, MVS/ESA, AIX, Intelligent Miner, WebSphere, Netfinity, Tivoli and Informix are trademarks or registered trademarks of IBM Corporation. Linux is the registered trademark of Linus Torvalds in the U.S. and other countries. Adobe, the Adobe logo, Acrobat, PostScript, and Reader are either trademarks or registered trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. Oracle and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.

SAP, R/3, SAP NetWeaver, Duet, PartnerEdge, ByDesign, SAP BusinessObjects Explorer, StreamWork, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and other countries. Business Objects and the Business Objects logo, BusinessObjects, Crystal Reports, Crystal Decisions, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, and other Business Objects products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects Software Ltd. Business Objects is an SAP company. Sybase and Adaptive Server, iAnywhere, Sybase 365, SQL Anywhere, and other Sybase products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Sybase, Inc. Sybase is an SAP company. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Data contained in this document serves informational purposes only. National product specifications may vary. The information in this document is proprietary to SAP. No part of this document may be reproduced, copied, or transmitted in any form or for any purpose without the express prior written permission of SAP AG.

UNIX, X/Open, OSF/1, and Motif are registered trademarks of the Open Group.
Citrix, ICA, Program Neighborhood, MetaFrame, WinFrame, VideoFrame, and MultiWin are trademarks or registered trademarks of Citrix Systems, Inc. HTML, XML, XHTML and W3C are trademarks or registered trademarks of W3C, World Wide Web Consortium, Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

2012 SAP AG. All rights reserved.

27