BICS Connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0
John Mrozek
September 10-13, 2012 Orlando, Florida
Business Intelligence Consumer Services connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0
This presentation will outline the new BICS connectivity for SAP Business Objects 4.0. It will show how Webi reporting on SAP BW has changed for the better as well give some technical information that will help those using the solution get the most out of it. Target Audience
SAP Business Objects BI 4.0 Administrators who’s reporting
landscape includes SAP BW systems.
Upon the completion of this presentation, system administrators will have an understanding of the new architecture of Web Intelligence’s connectivity to SAP BW. They will also have an understanding of some of the configuration options and sizing considerations that must be evaluated when such reporting is to be done. Finally, some troubleshooting methodologies will be learned that should speed root cause analysis.
In short, the intent of this presentation is to give a deep understanding of BICS connectivity which will lend itself to the maintenance and use of the solution in the years to come.
1. About BICS
2. The DSL Bridge
3. Deployment Information
4. General Troubleshooting
5. Let SAP Help
6. How-Tos
7. Q&A
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
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
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
Make sure system is sized correctly
Refer to the Sizing Companion for SAP Business Objects BI 4.0
Monitor CPU and memory utilization of the Adaptive Processing Server and add more APS servers if necessary
The DSL APS has a recommended minimum heap size of 4GB. 8GB or more is recommended
Make sure monitoring is consistent between Web Intelligence servers and Adaptive Processing Servers
Known issues when they are not in sync!
Either enable on all webi / APS
machines
(recommended) or disable on all
Make sure you are on relatively current patches
Many improvements in the latest version Support Pack 02 Patch
15 for example improves performance with BICS merged dimensions
Deployment Information
Look at the patterns
Based on what works and what doesn’t, hypothesize what the issue is Break down the problem into the smallest components!
Look for |E|X| as well as |E| and java exceptions
Basic Log Analysis
|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)
Core Dumps (Unix only)
Use gdb / dbx to create a stack trace to send in for analysis Use the file command to determine which process crashed
Then run dbx and enter where at the (dbx) prompt
Core Dumps
Here we can see WIReportServer is the process which
crashed
where will tell us the
last functions which were executed at the
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 active global support
Tools which Allow SAP to interact with customer data for Root Cause
Analysis
Can be very helpful if a particular BEx Query causes problems
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
Increasing heap on the Adaptive Processing Server
Increase heap here. It’s currently set to 1 gb
Monitoring Settings
Make sure that the settings are consistent across servers – either enabled on all or none!
Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS
Choose Category
Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS
Choose Category
Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS
Choose only the DSL Bridge Service
Removing the DSL Bridge from the default APS
Make sure to remove the DSL service from other shared APS servers. To do this, stop the Adaptive Processing Server, then right click on the server and choose select services
Services currently hosted by the APS Services available to be added to the
APS i.e. not being used by
the APS
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
Useful Links
Sizing Guides
Sizing Companion companions / guides
https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_SHORTKEY=01200252310000090633
Knowledge Base Article on splitting APS
