A quick note -
Pre-Calculation service is used to install the server point for Information Broadcasting. That is, the server through which the BEx Workbooks are setup to get broadcasted to multiple users, in different period / frequency.
Pointed below are few notes that are to be concentrated at the time of setting up this service or using it.
For your attention –
This article is not about HOW – TO set up a Pre-Calculation service, but to remind about the important measures upon the process of setting-up or upon usage.
Pre-Calculation Server - Check List
1) Whenever you install Pre-Calculation server, please take care of installation path as mentioned in SAP note 1039616.
The path of the Pre-Calculation service is the same as the path of BI front end installation. (In most cases this would be C:\Program files\SAP\BW\Frontend).
After installation checkout if the following files are installed in the location C:\Program files\SAP\BW\Frontend.
BExPreCalcServerProgram.exe
BExPreCalcServiceRestarter.exe
BExPreCalcWindowsService.exe
BExPrecServiceInstaller.exe
BExPreCalcRfcServer.dll
BExPreCalcInstance.dll
sapbexp.xla
Issue: Sometimes the set-up will throw error like.
Precalculation failed: E value cannot be null
Parameter name:buffer
Cannot precalculate Workbook wb_70_test2
Error occurred during processing of framework
class CL_RSRD_PRODUCER_EXCEL, type PROD
Solution: This issue is mostly related to inappropriate installation of Pre-Calculation server.
To solve this issue, you have to uninstall the Pre-Calculation server & restart the machine, and again install the Pre-Calculation server as specified in note 1039616.
2) Sometimes the Pre-Calculation service will be in start mode in the Windows Services, but in TCode RSPRECALCADMIN, it will be in Yellow (Inactive) / Red (offline). In such cases it is necessary to kill the service and restart it.
3) Please do not create many instances (Register) in RSPRECALCADMIN for your Pre-Calculation servers. It’s recommended to have 5 to 7 (max) depending upon the server system and RFC protocol.
4) Check your Microsoft Excel version and its support of Pre-Calculation server. (It is better to know the prerequisite of installing Pre-Calculation server).
5) Sometimes if you Pre-Calculate older Workbooks, it will throw unknown error or read-access error. To avoid this, upgrade your Workbook by opening it in new version of Excel Analyzer and save it again in there. This will upgrade your Workbook in the SAP document store and will be a fresh copy for your broadcasting tasks.
6) If in any time, the Workbook (after a refresh) is not properly saved, it will lead to document-read error during broadcasting.
7) After installing your Pre-Calculation server, check your Pre-Calculation server status (green), and if it is not shown in green, once again go to window services and restart your Pre-Calculation server.
😎 Test your Pre-Calculation server in RSPRECADMIN. Go to your Pre-Calculation server (registered / instance that you created in RSPRECADMIN). Double clicking on it will give the broadcast setting details. You alternatively can use Ctrl+Shift+F10 shortcut key for this option.
9) BExPrecalcLog.txt and SAPBEX.trc, available in C:\windows\temp, are the two vital files we need to check at the time of Pre -Calculation failure.
Every Workbook’s Pre-Calculation will be started under the name - SAPBEXPRECxxxx.xls and will exist in the above mentioned directory.
While restarting the Pre-Calculation service, we need to kill the Excel processes in Windows Task manager and try to restart the Pre-Calculation service from the Windows Services.
But in addition to these steps, we should also check inside the "Temp" folder for the above mentioned files and SHOULD remove the files SAPBEXPRECxxxx.xls, where xxxx are randomly generated numbers. The reason behind this step is, if the Excel file exists (i.e., the copy of the broadcasted WORKBOOK), it will not release the access lock.
10) Please note that if you are using Microsoft Excel 2003, you might have to consider calling Microsoft support in order to get hot fix 912022, (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/912022/en-us) since this hot fix is available only on-request.
