BusinessObjects Monitoring and Housekeeping activities

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Hi Techies,

I got a chance to summarize the monitoring and housekeeping activities performed by businessobjects Administrators and am sharing the same here.Below activities needs to be performed at regular intervals as specified below to keep the BusinessObjects platform optimum, error free and stable.

Daily:

· Monitoring BO servers running with optimal performance

· Monitoring all the related CMS, Audit and Reporting Database services

· Verifying Web applications (CMC, Infoview, Custom Applications) availability

· Monitoring day to day scheduled report jobs from Instance Manager

· Supporting issues for Business users

· Monitoring the size of the below Business objects Installation Folders

o Logging

o Data

o FileStore

· Managing BusinessObjects backup preferably Cold backup during off business hours.

Backup Type	Backup Contents	Applicability
Full Content backup	Central Management Server (CMS) System Tables	Used for Full Content recovery
	Auditing Tables
	File Repository Server (FRS)
	Local audit log files
	Custom SDK applications/code
	Database Connections (ODBC DSNs)
	Any Application/Server specific configuration document
BIAR Backup	.BIAR Backup	Used for selective content recovery

Weekly:

1. Scan / Repair and Compact all repository errors

2. Delete the contents under the Local host folder in order to clear Tomcat Cache

3. Delete contents under the Data Folder in order to clear Web Intelligence Cache

4. Delete contents under the Logging Folder to clear log files generated

5. Delete empty folders within File Store Using RDT (Repository Diagnostic Tool)

Fortnightly

1. Testing the availability of all Universe connections to respective Databases

2. Regular BO repository Maintenance like Cleaning Orphaned Connection/Universe/Documents

3. Running Integrity Checks on Universes to ensure parsing (Syntax/Semantic Checking)

4. Discuss performance issues with DBA identified from auditing reports

Monthly:

1. Monitoring BO Licenses and managing license from named to Concurrent and Vice versa (If applicable).

2. Restart Web Application Server

3. Restart Server Intelligent Agent (SIA)

Feel free to add some more valid points if any, so that everyone will get benefit out of it.

Thanks for Reading!

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Former Member

January 22, 2013 at 3:23 am

Mani,

On the weekly activities;

1. what do u mean by local host folder that contains the tomcat cache…? did u mean the webapps folder?

2. Do u mean delete all contents under the Data folder and the Logging folder? including the subfolders???? Will they be automatically recreated?

Overall, excellent post.
- Like(0)
- Manikandan Elumalai Post author
  
  January 22, 2013 at 5:34 am
  
  Emmanuel,
  
  For your queries.
  
  1. Its Tomcat work directory. i.e $TOMCAT_HOME/work/Catalina/localhost/mywarname/
  
  As its name suggests, is where Tomcat writes any files that it needs during run time.
  
  2. You need to delete the files alone may be that are aged more than a month not the default directories. You will be in trouble if you do so.You can do the cleanup using OS level scripting.
  
  Regards,
  
  Mani
  - Like(0)
  - Former Member
    
    October 11, 2013 at 5:26 am
    
    Hi
    
    this is Stan from Taiwan.
    
    we are facing the orphaned Connection issue , and the only way that restart BO server,
    
    May you share your strategy and how to clear it?
    
    thanks
    
    Stan
    
    stan.lin@radiant.com.tw
    Like(0)
    - Manikandan Elumalai Post author
      
      October 11, 2013 at 6:57 am
      
      Could you elaborate your issue bit more?
      
      Like(0)
      - Former Member
        
        November 21, 2013 at 8:54 am
        
        Hi Mani
        
        thanks your fast response …. i miss the message….
        
        when we check BO sessions ,we find many inactive sessions keep living in our BO application server ,
        
        there were not cleaned by self when BO webi close.
        
        may you help me to find out how to clean it without restart BO server.
        
        pls reference the link https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14477774/1.jpg
        
        Stan
        
        Like(0)
      - Manikandan Elumalai Post author
        
        November 21, 2013 at 3:37 pm
        
        Have you ever got chance to check this
        
        http://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1834664
        
        Like(0)
      - Former Member
        
        November 22, 2013 at 12:05 am
        
        Hi Mani
        
        i got the note , let me check it …
        
        thanks your response so fast ….
        
        Stan
        
        Like(0)
      - Former Member
        
        November 22, 2013 at 3:31 am
        
        Hi Mani
        
        i put it and open our link http://kh-bodev.radiant.com.tw:8080/Kill_Sessions/DeleteUserSessions.jsp
        
        i got a error …
        
        https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/14477774/ApacheTomcat_6.pdf
        
        Stan
        
        Like(0)
      - Former Member
        
        November 22, 2013 at 7:55 am
        
        Hi Mani
        
        i reference Note 1886165 , and it’s work and fine now.
        
        we can kill sessions now.
        
        thanks
        
        Stan
        
        Like(0)
Former Member

January 22, 2013 at 8:39 am
Hi

Would like to clarify few things.
- scan / Repair and Compact all repository errors
How to scan or repair errors do we have any tool for scanning this
- Delete the contents under the Local host folder in order to clear Tomcat Cache
In local host folder we can find number of files like Admin ,analytic balancer,Businssproces bi,,cmcAPP…………….) You mean to say all this folder files has to be deleted…Please clarify on this

(D:\BOXI31\Business Objects\Tomcat55\work\Catalina\localhost)
- Delete contents under the Data Folder in order to clear Web Intelligence Cache
In data folder (D:\BOXI31\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12.0\Data) we found number of folders in webi which folder we have to select and delete
- Delete empty folders within File Store Using RDT (Repository Diagnostic Tool)
We do not have RDT in the our BO system. Can you please suggest where it will actually present.Or do I need to separately install..

I can able see only Diagonistic tool but not RDT.

Thanks
- Like(0)
Former Member

January 22, 2013 at 2:30 pm

Mani – I think u really need to clarify things a bit because it appears different BO versions would have different folders.

I am on BO 4.0 FP3 version 14.0.4.738. I dont see any folder named mywarname??

The same goes for all the other folders – please tell us specifically the folders and file types to delete.

And how do u implement OS level scripting. Please complete your blog to get excellent reviews.

Mohammed – the RDT scan can be found in the reposcan folder.

Thanks.
- Like(0)
- Manikandan Elumalai Post author
  
  January 23, 2013 at 3:37 am
  
  Emmanuel,
  
  You cant find mywarname anywhere in BO installation folders. Its a generic term which I used to refer all the BO Application war files Such as CmcApp,InfoViewApp in (BO 3.x) and BOE in (BO 4.0).
  
  regarding OS Level scripting you can go for either VBScript(Windows) or Shell (Unix) to move/archive files.
  
  Hope am clear.
  
  Regards,
  
  Mani
  - Like(0)
Former Member

May 13, 2013 at 8:59 am

Hello Mani,

Do i need to move/archive the aged out files on regular intervals? Is there any provision by which i can tell the system that on each 25th day of a month, archive the old log files or can i get an alert notifying “log files are about to cross say for example 250 MB. Take the necessary action!”?

Seeking to hear from you..

Thanks

Avani
- Like(0)
- Manikandan Elumalai Post author
  
  May 14, 2013 at 8:48 am
  
  Avani,
  
  This is required to manage the disk where businessobjects installed.
  
  Have a look here.
  
  http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-40837
  
  Regards
  
  Mani
  - Like(0)
  - Former Member
    
    May 20, 2013 at 6:05 am
    
    Hello Mani,
    
    First of all thanks for the reply. I am trying to figure out the solution by following the steps. I would like to know something about “admin.xml” file. Is it anyhow useful in log file management?
    
    Please advice
    
    Thanks in advance..
    
    Avani
    Like(0)
Former Member

May 22, 2013 at 6:24 pm

Excellent post
- Like(0)
Former Member

July 15, 2013 at 3:32 am

Hi Mani,

Question on one of the items –

1. Monitoring BO Licenses and managing license from named to Concurrent and Vice versa (If applicable).

Is swapping Named licences to Concurrent licences just a switch of number in CMC (OR) should something be traded back with the vendor?

In trying to understand the current activity of Names vs Concurrent users in our system (BOXI 4.0), I ran an audit report using the activity universe during the last 1 month. Objects I used – Event Status (Named User Logon Succeede, Concurrent Logon Succeeded); Event Date, Total Event Count. Filters: Event Year & Event Month as applicable, and Event Status as described above.

The report gives me unusual values for Total Event Count (Named User logon events). Could you please share some inputs on how to interpret the logon events? Many thanks.
- Like(0)
- Manikandan Elumalai Post author
  
  July 17, 2013 at 12:10 pm
  
  Hello Sirisha,
  
  As long as your licence utilization is within the procured licence count you can always switch between Named and Concurrent licences based on User’s usage pattern.
  
  For your auditing related issue, Have you properly deployed and configured the As-Is sample of universe and reports. Please refer here for the process of enabling Audit and deployment.
  
  http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/06/03/businessobjects-auditing–considerations-enablement
  
  http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/01/07/sap-businessobjects-40-auditor-configuration-deployment-end-to-end
  
  If you still facing the Issue, try firing the below query against the Audit database to get the consolidated User sessions altogether.
  
  ———————————————————————–
  
  SELECT
  
     rank() over (order by count(ADS_EVENT.EVENT_ID) desc) as user_rank,
  
     count(ADS_EVENT.EVENT_ID),
  
     ADS_EVENT.USER_NAME
  
  FROM
  
     ADS_EVENT
  
     where
  
     event_type_id=1014
  
  group by
  
     ADS_EVENT.USER_NAME
  
  ————————————————————————-
  
  Regards,
  
  Mani
  - Like(0)
  - Former Member
    
    July 26, 2013 at 12:14 am
    
    Hi Mani,
    
    Thanks for your inputs once again. We’ve done everything as in you mentioned. A few things I missed to mention earlier –
    
    – All our licences are configured to be Named users and it makes sense that the audit reports I ran returned only usage against “Named User logon” events.
    
    – We still have trouble getting the sample crystal audit reports to work. Got Crystal for Enterprise & have set up the universe and connection as you described.. The reports work when opened directly from the Crystal designer application, however unable to save the reports to the server. Logged the issue with SAP to resolve it.
    
    – As a workaround to this, the webi report designed to give the Total Event count where Event_Type = “Named User Logon Succeeded”, returns event count to be a few thousand logons on any day. I dug in a little bit against different objects and see that most of the logons are tied to “Logon without Client ID” under Client Application Type compared to other client app types. What does this mean? Any ideas will help..
    Like(0)
Former Member

August 22, 2013 at 8:06 pm

Hello Mani

We have a batch script which has been scheduled to run daily to restart the Tomcat & SIA services [BO environment ver 3.1] will that not clear the Tomcat Cache ?

Thanks

– Leo
- Like(0)
- Manikandan Elumalai Post author
  
  August 23, 2013 at 4:39 am
  
  Clearing Tomcat cache is required to avoid the inconsistencies in your Web Application deployment. This will ensure the deployed application in WebApps folder is inline with the one in Tomcat cache.
  - Like(0)
Former Member

September 3, 2013 at 10:11 pm

Why do we have to :

Restart Web Application Server

Restart Server Intelligent Agent (SIA)

monthly? Is that really necessary? Why? What happens if I decide not to restart both of them every month?
- Like(0)
Former Member

October 14, 2013 at 3:01 pm

I used the code you mentioned earlier to clean up logging folder using VB script. Instead of moving to other folder, i am planning to delete the files older than x days permanently. I am trying to the VB script on BO server using command prompt, i could not delete the files. See the attached screenshot. But i can manually delete the files in that folder. What might be the cause?

Dim SOURCE

Dim fso, SourceObj, TargetObj, fileObj

SOURCE = “BO Logging folder path”

Set fso = CreateObject(“Scripting.FileSystemObject”)

Set SourceObj = fso.GetFolder(SOURCE)

For Each fileObj in SourceObj.Files

If DateDiff(“d”, fileObj.DateLastModified, Now) > 90 Then

fileObj.delete true

End If

Next
- Like(0)
/
- Noel Scheaffer
  
  March 3, 2014 at 5:40 pm
  
  I was able to delete files older than 180 days in my logging directory with the following forfiles command…
  
  forfiles /p “E:\Apps\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\logging” /m *.* /c “cmd /c del @file” /d -180
  
  I schedule this command to run weekly using the Task Scheduler built into Windows.
  
  One odd thing I have found is that I have some files in the logging directory whose names are too long to be deleted. Not sure what I am going to do about those.
  
  Noel
  - Like(0)
  /
Former Member

November 15, 2013 at 8:17 pm

Hi Mani,

Could you please let me know ways to do the below given clean up and the best practices around it?

2. Regular BO repository Maintenance like Cleaning Orphaned Connection/Universe/Documents

Thanks,

Kivi
- Like(0)
- Manikandan Elumalai Post author
  
  November 16, 2013 at 9:06 am
  
  Have you got any chance to check this http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-43081
  - Like(0)
Former Member

May 29, 2014 at 5:26 pm

Is the above documentation current for BOBJ 4.1?

Thanks!
- Like(0)
Selvarasan Subramanian

May 14, 2015 at 7:58 am

Excellent Post !
- Like(0)
Former Member

July 28, 2015 at 1:05 pm

Hi Mani,

Excellent Post !!

One query, is it safe to delete all content from data folder ?

Thanks.
- Like(0)
Baiju M A

August 21, 2017 at 11:25 am
Hi,

While doing the weekly data clearing jobs..
1. Do we need to stop all scheduled jobs?
2. Do we need to stop Tomcat Service and Server Intelligence Agent? (using CCM)
3. After the data cleanup, after how much time gap users can access BO?
I have experienced below mentioned issues:
1. Once we try to stop, Server Intelligence Agent stops after a long time (more than 1 hour)
2. BO reports / scheduled jobs etc not working for 48 hours or more.
Requesting your help. Thanks in advance.
- Like(0)
- Mahak Rathore
  
  March 8, 2018 at 5:22 am
  Hi Baiju,
  
  “Once we try to stop, Server Intelligence Agent stops after a long time (more than 1 hour)” – Usually this happens if servers associated with SIA are not stopping then SIA will go in hung state. Example : java.exe process for Processing server etc.
  
  To stop the SIA is one go :
  - Open Services.msc
  - Open Server Intelligent Agent Service.
  - Go to Properties > Recovery Tab
  - You will see 3 options :
    
    Change the FIRST FAILURE to- TAKE NO ACTION. ( By Default it will be restart the service)
    
    Stop the SIA and wait for 1-2 min if its not stopping then open Task manager and simply kill SIA.EXE
    
    Done.
  This will stop the SIA.
  
  Meanwhile do check why these processes are hanging so that it should automatically stop . Check with Windows team too for same that it is not releasing the processes.
  
  Regards,
  
  Mahak
  - Like(0)
  - Baiju M A
    
    December 19, 2018 at 6:32 pm
    
    thank you
    Like(0)