SAP Crystal Reports & SAP HANA: Integration & Roadmap Kenneth Li SAP SESSION CODE: 0401

SAP Crystal Reports &

SAP HANA: Integration &

Roadmap

Kenneth Li

SAP



Learn about Crystal Reports for HANA



Glance at the road map for the product



Overview of deploying & configuring CR for HANA



Quick view of existing limitations & restrictions

For Internal Operational Reports and Customer Facing



Easy to consume, highly formatted documents with guided interactivity



Personalized, information rich documents communicate value quickly

SAP Crystal Reports

Reporting for HANA with simplified landscape



Pixel perfect formatted reports in

Lumira Server



Connect to HANA models directly



Use HANA’s repository and toolset

to secure and manage Crystal

Reports content



No additional need for BI Platform



Built-in life cycle management for

native & unified HANA application

deployment

Large Scale

Business Applications _{Multiple delivery options}

CR for HANA Roadmap Overview

Reflects the current planning state & may be changed by SAP at any time

Reporting in Lumira Server

Authored content using Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Dimensional access to Analytic and Calculated views

Content management through on-premise Lumira Launchpad Crystal Reports engine packaged with Lumira server for HANA appliance

Using HANA LCM to manage CR content

Publications and Bursting Charting enhancements Crystal Reports for Lumira cloud

Current

Planned

_{Future Direction}

Embedded Reporting

•Packaging

•Restful service for reporting

•UI embedding SDK

Unified interface shell and HTML prompting

Improved integration with HANA toolset to manage Crystal Reports service

Crystal Reports for HEC/HCP cloud

SAP Crystal Reports for HANA 1.0

Overview

CR for Enterprise

Designer

Used to author report content

Used to save to, and open from, HANA repository Installed on a MS Windows client

Crystal Reports

Reporting Service

Crystal Reports processing service

Handles report requests Processes report data Generates report pages Installed as a standalone Linux service

Crystal Reports

Delivery Unit

Provides browser viewing capabilities (CR DHTML viewer) Provides connectivity to CR Reporting Service Installed/imported into HANA system

Provides integration with Lumira Server

SAP Crystal Reports for HANA 1.0

Architecture

MS Windows

Desktop

SAP HANA

Appliance

SUSE 11 SP1

Server

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

&

HANA Studio

CR for HANA

Connector

Delivery Unit

CR for HANA

Reporting Service

Report requests sent to Reporting Service Processed report pages sent back to XS application Report viewer and

Deployment / Product Requirement

Recommendations based on SAP BusinessObjects BI4.1 PAM

CR for Enterprise

Designer

Designer version: 4.1 SP4 OS: Windows Desktop (7 - 8.1)

Minimum Hardware Requirements:

• Memory: 2 GB RAM • CPU: Dual Core CPU • Disk space: 3.5 GB

Crystal Reports

Reporting Service

CR Reporting Service OS: Linux SUSE 11 SP1 Minimum Hardware Requirement:

• Memory: 12 GB RAM • CPU performance >= 8000

SAPS (Quad Core approx) • Disk Space: 11 GB

Crystal Reports

Delivery Unit

SAP HANA SP08 Lumira Server 1.17

CR for HANA Reporting Service

Configuration

MS Windows

Desktop

SAP HANA

Appliance

SUSE 11 SP1

Server

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

&

HANA Studio

CR for HANA

Connector

Delivery Unit

CR for HANA

Reporting Service

Report requests sent to Reporting Service Processed report pages sent back to XS application Report viewer and

CR for HANA Reporting Service

Installation



Refer to Chapter 4 in the CR for HANA Components Installation, Configuration,

and Administration Guide (help.sap.com/boall_en)



Linux system required



Installation creates a user account used to run the service



CR for HANA Reporting Service contains:



Lean Java Server (LJS)



SAP JVM



CR engine



Start the service (go.sh/daemon.sh)

while logged in with

created

CR for HANA Reporting Service

Configuration Tip



TIP: Deploy the CR for HANA Reporting Service as a daemon service



With /go.sh, the service stops when the remote terminal or connection is closed



Running as a daemon keeps the service running always



Running as a daemon



./daemon.sh displays a help message when run without arguments. Available

options include



Console runs the Java program in console mode



Start starts the Java program as a Linux service



Stop stops the Java program service



Restart stops and restarts the service



Status displays the service status



Install installs the service in the OS

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Microsoft Windows

Desktop

SAP HANA

Appliance

SUSE 11 SP1

Server

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

&

HANA Studio

CR for HANA

Connector

Delivery Unit

CR for HANA

Reporting Service

Report requests sent to Reporting Service Processed report pages sent back to XS application Report viewer and

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Overview



Four main parts:

1.

Importing the Connector Delivery Unit into

SAP HANA

2.

Configuring SAP HANA to work with

Crystal Reports

3.

Configuring SAP HANA for SSO

4.

Creating users and roles



Refer to Chapters 5, 6, and 7 in the CR for

HANA Components Installation,

Configuration, and Administration Guide



Pre-requites … from Service Market Place:



SAP CR for HANA Connector DU



The CR for HANA delivery unit is available from Service Marketplace as a ZIP file.



Extract the CRHANADU00_0.SAR file



Use SAP HANA Studio and SAP HANA Lifecycle Management to upload the SAR file to

HANA and deploy the unit

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance



The CR for HANA delivery will run through validation checks, and ask for a confirmation on the system instance to deploy to.



Once ready, click Run to deploy the components.

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance



Verify the import is successful in the folder view of the repository / system



Alternatively, in HANA Lifecycle Management, go to “View Installed Products and

Software Components”

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 1 – Importing the CR for HANA Connector Delivery Unit



Use the SAP HANA Admin portal to connect the SAP HANA appliance to the CR for

HANA Reporting Service

https://<server>:<port>/sap/hana/xs/admin



Edit CRVRemoteServletProxy.xshttpdest

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 2 – Enable SAP HANA to use the CR Reporting Service



Note: alternative configuration methods



On the SAP HANA system, deploy the SAP Crytographic Libraries to generate SSL certificates to establish a secured trust relationship between the SAP HANA Appliance and the CR Reporting Service

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance



Import the certificates using SAP HANA Studio (Administration Console perspective)



Create the keys where needed, if they do not exist

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 3 – Configure HANA for SSO using SAPLogon

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 4 - Creating the users & roles in SAP HANA



For authoring using the Crystal Reports for Enterprise designer, ensure access is granted to activated content and metadata:



Ie grant Select rights to _SYS_BI, _SYS_BIC



Additionally, ensure Execute rights are given for REPOSITORY_REST, for CR to browse

for content when opening and/or saving reports.

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 4 - Creating the users & roles in SAP HANA



Additional References on

http://help.sap.com:



Documentation on



For viewing Crystal Reports in SAP Lumira Launchpad, ensure access is granted to activated content and metadata:



Ie grant Select rights to _SYS_BI, _SYS_BIC



Grant SAP Lumira roles for consumption (eg. sap.bi.common::BI_DATA_CONSUMER)

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 4 - Creating the users & roles in SAP HANA



Additional References on

http://help.sap.com:



Documentation for



SAP Lumira requires report content to be promoted before they are visible in the Lumira Launchpad



A promotion script / tool is provided for report promotion – the user or administrator

running this tool is configured inside the HANA SQL Connection Configuration (SQLCC) app

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 4 - Creating the users & roles in SAP HANA



The promotion user account needs to

be granted the

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Part 4 - Creating the users & roles in SAP HANA



Add this user account to the sap.bi.activationplugin.logic.lib::ActivationRepoConnection



TIP: Some users may have different access rights defined via Analytic and Package privileges. Advisable to set these rights by directly granting them in the specific user account versus in the CR consumer/designer roles.



Alternatively, define separate roles for access to sets of packages and grant those roles

to specific users.

Configuring the SAP HANA Appliance

Using Crystal Reports for Enterprise

MS Windows

Desktop

SAP HANA

Appliance

SUSE 11 SP1

Server

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

&

HANA Studio

CR for HANA

Connector

Delivery Unit

CR for HANA

Reporting Service

Report requests sent to Reporting Service Processed report pages sent back to XS application Report viewer and



Crystal Reports for Enterprise is used for report creation / design



Same version as BI4.1 SP04



Connections can be created to connect to SAP HANA as a repository



Report designer role should include permissions to read, edit, and activate objects

inside packages.



Expose packages as needed for report design. Analytic privileges should also be defined

per user to restrict privileges where desired.

Using Crystal Reports for Enterprise



Start a new report by connecting to an SAP HANA platform to find a view. Logon to SAP HANA will be required at this point if not already done



A browser window will allow the designer to choose the view to use

Using Crystal Reports for Enterprise



Report queries can be constructed using the familiar query panel interface



Chosen result objects become items in the Crystal Reports Data Explorer for drag and

drop report design

Using Crystal Reports for Enterprise



Reports can be saved to SAP HANA but only without data. When reports are saved, they are automatically activated in the SAP HANA repository

Using Crystal Reports for Enterprise



The designer Open, Save, and Save-As dialogues are modified for SAP HANA – folder structure represents the package structure, and relevant metadata about reports is shown (document name, date modified, and user)

Using Crystal Reports for Enterprise



Although reports are activated when saved, SAP Lumira needs to additionally promote the report metadata to a BI Analytics area for consumption.



A script is provided for a report designer or system administrator



Without this step, reports will not show up in the SAP Lumira Launchpad



Note: this is a tool specific to CR for HANA v1 – to be replaced with activation

plugin in a future release of SAP HANA



Log onto http://<hana host name>:<XS engine port>/sap/bi/activationplugin/activate

Report Consumption in SAP Lumira



Tool will report “Activation Successful” if there are reports to promote. Otherwise it will say “No objects to activate”



Script is intentionally simple

Report Consumption in SAP Lumira



Logon to SAP Lumira Launchpad to see the content for viewing



Click on Crystal Reports artifact to load the familiar viewer interface



Report refreshes on demand



Leverage SAP HANA Lifecycle Management to migrate report content

Report Migration in SAP HANA

Leveraging SAP HANA Lifecycle Management

Source System



Leverage SAP HANA Lifecycle Management to migrate report content

Report Migration in SAP HANA

Leveraging SAP HANA Lifecycle Management

Target System

• Register source system in

SAP Lifecycle Management

• Define the route of

Known Limitations

• No integration with BI Platform – BI Platform features are not supported

• OpenDoc, Alerts, Scheduling, Publishing, etc

• Only supports Crystal Reports for Enterprise reports. Not Crystal Reports 2013.

• Some charts are not supported (tag cloud, tree map, box plot) in SAP Lumira

Launchpad

• Refer to the following SAP note for limitations in access HANA Analytic and Calculated

views using MDX: http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1723925

• Input parameters on calculated attributes/measures are not supported

• SAP assertion tickets have a hard limit of 2 min to process queries. To be improved in a

future SAP HANA release

• In designer, the dialog for browsing views is not filtered by user credentials. To be

• For deployment, install SAP Lumira before CR for HANA

• For reporting service scalability, use H/W load balancers

• For report design,

• Leverage SAP HANA modelling tools to build calculation logic into the

views. Eg. Hierarchies, variables, input Parameters, etc

• Push down processing to SAP HANA as much as possible – return a lean

dataset to maximize speed; then use CR for Enterprise to filter/format data

• Subqueries can be expensive – connections from each query are not shared.

• Next generation Crystal Reports designer is used to build content against SAP HANA, without the need for a separate BI Platform

• Overview of the deployment steps for this solution and a glance at its capabilities

• With roadmap, goal is to empower HANA application developers with the

toolset to easily integrate Crystal reports into custom business applications

• HTML5, XS applications, on-premise HANA and HANA Enterprise Cloud

• Integrated lifecycle management for data, content, and application

• Mobile BI support

Questions?

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