BI4.1 Admin Best Practices – System Configuration Wizard – ASUG Webcast, Part 1

John Mrozek of the SAP Strategic Engagements team provided this webcast on BI Admin Best Practices & troubleshooting to ASUG.  Surveys of ASUG members showed this was the top requested webcast.  Note that so much material was covered in this webcast I have to split it up in different parts.

John said that maintaining a BI system is a lot like maintaining a car; it is important to monitor system.  He said you have to dive in under the hood to do performance troubleshooting, you have to understand the system in-depth to pinpoint what is causing issues.

You need to have tools at your disposal.  The BI suite has millions of lines of code, a lots of servers talking, web server, firewalls. To pinpoint, you have to do troubleshooting and diagnostics.

Good Performance and best practices go hand in hand.  “If you are driving a car, and have snow chains, you don’t drive them in the summer”

He suggested to look at the big picture and “narrow things down before logging”.  Try and remove different items.  Look at a different environment. 

He suggested seeing Derrick Wan’s – methodology of troubleshooting presentation at the ASUG BusinessObjects User Conference.  The link is here.

Products he covers may not be BusinessObjects products; being an administrator means having visibility into your system.

Split APS Servers – Adaptive Processing Servers and System Configuration Wizard BI4.1

Figure 1: Source: SAP

By default you have one Adaptive Processing Server.  If you have a small test system you can leave it as default.  Figure 1 shows you should split APS out to get a more robust system for better scaling

APS is “Difficult to troubleshoot as all the servers write to one log”.

Figure 2: Source: SAP

Figure 2 shows the System Configuration Wizard.  It makes it easier to deploy system and configure various settings.

In past, you had to go to various servers, stop switches, do not start, tedious and effort – now easy wizard to take components needed

The best practice is to only start services you need.

Figure 3: Source: SAP

It allows you to size your system, the wizard will show RAM required and APS’s per node, with templates and as you slide it will automate the sizing. 

Before had to go to an individual server and do this; this wizard does it automatically

It is a good starting point, but not a finished product

Once you do sizing, you still need to review and pay attention to memory usage.

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows you can specify the input output file store; an easy way to do that.

Figure 5: Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows the response file.  Response file for multiple installations; he said it is “useful when you want to use for multiple servers. You can also use it to restore in the future.

To be continued…

Subset of Question & Answer

Q: I have existing installation 4.0, what is the recommended approach for upgrading? I have the servers splitted for the adaptive servers, etc.  should I remove them  so the system will re-create them for me? or do leave them?

A: You could do an in-place upgrade and let the system config wizard run; also see sap.com/upgradeBI‑

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Q: is there a way to copy the configuration settings to the other envirohments?

A: Yes, the response file it creates – records graphical interface options and use that file and use that‑

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Q: Do you have any other Best Practice for LCM performance? What are the main common problems that could affect the performance for the promotion system?

A: See this wiki for LCM: Promotion and Version Management (LCM) – Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) – SCN Wiki

Related Links:

BI4.1 System Configuration Wizard

BI4.1 System Configuration Wizard – Video