Business Intelligence Competency Partners

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Business Intelligence Competency Partners

BI 4.1 Installation Best Practices Presenter: Rich Chlebek

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Insight. Innovation. Results.

What We’ll Cover …

• Webinar Protocol

• Introductions

• Architecture

– Server Clustering

– High Availability considerations

• Sizing

– Tool Selection

– DEMO – SAP’s Sizing Estimator – BI4.1 Sizing Guide

• Installation

– Upgrade considerations – On Premise vs. Cloud

• Performance Tuning

– DEMO - System configuration wizard – Server Parameters

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Webinar Protocol

• Participants will be muted

• Submit questions to @Moderator via the Chat window

• Time permitting, questions will be answered at the end of the

Webinar

• Contact Rich Chlebek,

for further follow

up.

• The Webinar will be recorded and a link will be emailed to all

participants

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Introduction

• Rich Chlebek

– 17 years of experience with Business Objects from the

original version 4.0(released 1997) up to BI 4.1 SP3

– Member of the ASUG BusinessObjects Strategic Special

Interest Group

– Advisor to SAPexpert

http://sapexperts.wispubs.com/Advisors/BI-Advisors

– VP of BusinessObjects Practice – BICP, Business Intelligence

Competency Partners

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Introduction

• BICP, Business Intelligence Competency Partners

– The BICP is an SAP Business Intelligence services organization focused specifically on SAP Business Objects and BW.

– Our flexible, low overhead business model leverages focused teams of highly experienced consultants that enable:

• World Class SAP BI/BW solutions • Reduced risk to our customers

• Strong communication skills coupled with relevant business experience

• Onsite, Platinum level SAP BI consultants with hands on experience relevant to scope.

– We are currently involved in some of the largest and most complex SAP BI/Business Objects implementations in North America.

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Architecture – Single Server

• Recommended for small and medium sandbox and develop systems

• Should be considered for small and medium QA and Production systems when a good Disaster Recovery process is in place

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PROS

• No latency between BI4 Servers/Services

• Simple architecture reduces risk

CONS

• Limited memory • Limited CPU

• Not scalable

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Architecture – Federated

• Recommended for decentralized reporting model where only a few centralized reports are needed and shared via Replication

• Recommended where network latency is an issue

PROS

• No latency between BI4 Servers/Services

• Simple architecture reduces risk

• Decentralized control

CONS

• Limited memory • Limited CPU

• Not easily scalable

• No inherent Disaster Recovery • Limited scheduled shared

reporting

Multiple standalone single server environments with centralized reports shared via Replication

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Architecture – Clustered Servers

• Recommended medium and large QA and Production systems

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PROS

• Scalable

• Failover Redundancy, if one server fails, the system remains up

• Distributed Work Load

• Increased System Performance

CONS

• Increased latency between BI4 Servers/Services

• Increased complexity in architecture increases risk

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Architecture – Clustered Servers for HA

Components

• Application Server – Web Tier hosts Tomcat, serves BI

Launchpad Applications.

• Node Servers – Processing Tier hosts schedule job, online and mobile processing services. Nodes are Active-Active with load balance handled by CMS processes.

• DB Server – CMS Repository hosts Central Management Server and Audit metadata databases.

• FRS (File Repository System) hosts all BI 4 documents including Web Intelligence,

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Architecture – Clustering for HA Best Practices

• All node servers should be uniform for load balancing to function properly. Nodes should have the same:

– Number and type of core processors – Amount of hard drive

– RAM

– Operating System

– Connection Middleware

• All nodes should be in the same time zone to keep scheduled tasks and audit data in sync.

• All servers should be on same subnet to maintain minimal latency.

Communication between nodes needs to be as fast as possible and not hindered by network traffic.

• Use Auditor to monitor usage. Add new servers when system usage reaches 70% of estimated capacity.

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Sizing - Where is the content consumed?

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Sizing - Who consumes the content?

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Sizing -SAP BI4.1 Sizing Estimator

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-33183

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Sizing - BI4.1 Sizing Guide

• SAP BusinessObjects BI4.1 Sizing Guide

–

http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-33126

– Estimate usage

– Intelligence DB Tier

– Intelligence Tier

– Application Tier

– Processing Tier

– Sizing Analysis and Scale-out

– APS Configuration

– Deployment and Monitoring

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Installation - Upgrade considerations

• BI 4.1 SP03 is available as a full install and update

• Full install recommended for:

– First time installations

– XIR2 SP2 and XI 3.1 upgrade to 4.1

• Separate server environments recommended (greater CPU and RAM typically required for 4.x platform)

• Using Upgrade Manager Tool to upgrade content to BI4.1

• Upgrade install recommended for:

– Upgrading from 4.0 versions

– All server configuration is maintained

– Additional DFO’s (Default Objects) are added to the repository • Repointing a 4.0 repository to a 4.1 install will not work

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Installation - Upgrade considerations

• Not Recommended - Installing BI 4.1 on a separate server,

and migrate content

• Promotion Management will not promote:

– Users that only have a 3rd party alias and their favorite/inbox content – Setup of 3rd Party authentication

– Promotion Jobs themselves – Authentication setup/settings

– Server group to server relationships – Servers

– Tenants

– Applications (or application Settings) – License Keys

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Installation – On Premise vs. Cloud

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PROS

• Up front cost are lower • SaaS model = less admin • Quicker provisioning • Elastic scaling

CONS

• Longer term TCO can be higher • SaaS model = less control

• In general remote desktop access should be the same for On Premise and Cloud installations

• Understand cloud provider’s SLA

• Managed, self-service, dedicated and elastic cloud solutions available • Decision is less about location and more about terms and conditions

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Performance Tuning - Demonstration

• System configuration wizard

• SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 SP02

– AWS Cloud Server

– Windows Server 2008 R2 – 17 GB RAM

– 6.5 ECPU – Tomcat 7

– Sybase Anywhere CMS – Sized and Configured as:

“Small single server Development”

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Contact Information

Rich Chlebek

– VP of BusinessObjects Practice

– Website: bicp.com

– Phone: 847.814.1112

– LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/richchlebek

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Disclaimer

SAP 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 in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies.

Business Intelligence Competency Partners