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Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw

Doing a full install for updating from BI4.0 to BI4.1/BI 4.1 to BI4.2? Think again…

There is much confusion within the market place around the correct update process for updating from BI4.0 to BI4.1, or from BI4.0 to BI4.2. or from BI 4.1 to BI 4.2. (any BI4.x to any BI4.x)

 

The situation is made worse by common misunderstandings resulting in huge amounts of unnecessary “update effort”. This is in addition to BI4 repositories becoming corrupt and all the pain of sorting that out.

 

Sadly there are two tiny, but pretty significant documentation “bugs” which exacerbate the confusion.

 

This blog will address these common misunderstandings. We’ll also talk about those very important documentation ‘bugs’. But first let’s start with how you should update from BI4.0 to BI4.1

 

 

BI4.0 to BI4.1/BI4.2 strongly recommended update process

 

The update to BI4.1 (or BI 4.2) from BI4.0 is the same process as applying a Support Pack. I.e. just apply the ‘patch’ software to update from BI4.0 to BI4.1. There is no need to install BI4.1 on a new machine, nor is there a need to move, or copy content from one repository to another. Indeed it’s vital that the CMS System Repository database is updated as part of the update process.

 

You can update from any version of BI4.0 to any Support Pack version on BI4.1 or BI4.2 directly. There is absolutely no need to go ‘via’ any particular version (unlike XI3 Service Pack updates). I’ve created KBA 1909881 note to explain in more detail. Updating from BI4.1 to BI4.2 is the same, just apply the Support Pack.

 

 

Misconception: To save disk space a full install is needed

 

Many organisations perform a full installation of the ‘next’ product version to avoid too much disk space being consumed. However a full installation is not needed to recover disk space consumed by installing Patches or Support Packs over and over again.

 

Older Patches and Support Packs can simply be uninstalled. Select the ‘older’ product version from ‘Programs and Features’ and select ‘uninstall’. The installer will very cleverly remove the old product from the cache saving disk space. How cool is that! Don’t remove the original base install as that will remove the entire product.

 

 

 

 

Misconception: Full install is needed for new features

 

Unfortunately the BI4.1 update, BI4.1 SP1 update and BI4.1 Patch update documentation will have you incorrectly believe this. The following sentences in those guides are not correct:

 

If you want to use of the expanded set of ERP Drivers available in this release, you will need to perform a full install.

 

And

 

You must do a full installation to get the new features

 

We’re sorry for the confusion and we’re busy correcting the guide for the next release.

 

When the update is applied, only the existing software components are updated. All new features for those existing components will be updated. Any new components available will not be installed. To install new components, simply modify the original base installation and select the new components to install. The patch installer even provides a friendly reminder to do just this at the end of the update.

 

The list of additional components between BI4.0 SP2 and BI4.1 SP1 is:

  1. Servers – Platform Services – Sybase SQL Anywhere Database
  2. Servers – Platform Services – RESTful Web Service
  3. Servers – Platform Services – Insight to Action Service
  4. Developer Tools – SAP BusinessObjects Semantic Layer Java SDK
  5. Database Access – DataDirect ODBC
  6. Database Access – SAP HANA
  7. Database Access – SAPBW64
  8. Database Access – SAPERP
  9. Database Access – XML WebServices
  10. Database Access – OData
  11. Database Access – Hadoop HIVE
  12. Database Access – dbase

The list of additional components between BI4.2 and BI4.2 SP5 is:

  1. Administration Tools – Automation Framework
  2. Administration Tools – Promotion Management Wizard
  3. Database Access – CMS DB Driver

 

Tip!

 

If you’re connecting to BW using the ‘old’ UNV BAPI connectivity, then you’ll benefit from installing SAPBW64 for improved data retrieval performance. See KBA 1930558 for more details. This note also shows the user interface for modifying the original base installation and selecting new components.

 

 

Why is installing a ‘full’ install such a bad idea for updating?

 

Due to one or both of the above misconceptions, many organisations install a ‘full’ installation on another machine and then either ‘move’ the content to it, or they re-point the new ‘full’ installation to the ‘old’ existing repository.

There are two main reasons these workflows are such a bad idea:

 

 

1)     Misconception: Best way to move entire Repository content in one go, is with Promotion Management

 

 

Moving the complete content between two BI4 repositories in one go is not easy if you use the wrong tool. Many attempt to use Promotion Management but struggle since it’s simply not designed for this task.

 

Promotion Management is intended for a relatively small number of objects at a time since the primary use case for Promotion Management is to promote ‘developed‘ content from Development into Test and then Production. The tool for example doesn’t promote the following because these items fall outside of that use-case:

  • Users (that only have a 3rd party alias) and all their favourite/inbox content
  • Setup of 3rd Party authentication
  • Promotion Jobs themselves
  • Authentication setup/settings
  • Server group to server relationships
  • Servers
  • Tenants
  • Applications (or application Settings)
  • License Keys

 

These are already good reasons not to use Promotion Management since manual effort is required to ‘recreate all these’, additionally:

  • Since Promotion Management is a web based tool when a large number of objects are defined within a Promotion Management Job ‘web timeouts’ occur creating or managing the job.
  • The ‘Check_out’ folder used for the integration with the Version Management System requires a little planning. See KBA 1802390

 

For the overwhelming majority it’s quite unnecessary to perform a ‘full’ installation, but for those that do and need to move the complete contents between two repositories it’s actually so much easier if the correct method and tool is used: Copy the CMS Repository database and FRS file system and point the ‘other’ installation at the copied content. You need to be sure you’re using the same Operating System, ‘install path’ and exactly the same product version. For very thorough and detailed steps you can follow the instructions within the Administration Guide Chapter 14 “Copying your Business Intelligence platform deployment”. We’d prefer for you to use a firewall to stop the two installations from clustering with each other but if you can’t, use the workaround in KBA 1275068 with caution (I really don’t want to promote removing rows from the CMS database but it is a good workaround!)

 

There are plans to improve the performance for creating and importing Promotion Jobs containing a large number of objects in BI4.1 Support Pack 2. We’ll have more details on that nearer the time. The recommendation now and for the future, is to use the LCM command line interface to create and import large jobs, since there will be no web based timeouts. However the recommendation will remain that Promotion Management should not be used to copy the entire contents from one repository to another, or use it as a sole backup mechanism.

 

2)     Misconception: Repointing a newer Product Version to an older Repository version is valid

/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/image_315298.png

 

 

The best way to explain a commonly misunderstood workflow is by example: Let’s say you have installed BI 4.0 Support Pack 6 and all your content is held within it. You’ve installed BI 4.1 Support Pack 1 on a completely new machine which you want to ‘migrate’ content to. You then stop the BI4.0 machine (Step 1) and point the BI4.1 machine at the CMS database (and FRS file-store) the BI4.0 machine used to use (Step 2).

 

However this workflow is not supported and you’ll run in a whole manner of issues, including but not limited to:

 

  • HTTP 500 and ‘null’ pointer exception when logging into Central Management Console for the first time
  • CMS process does not start
  • “?????? dummy ?????” placeholders appear within the User Interface rather than the correct name
  • Missing Applications, Application Settings, Security rights, icons
  • ‘Old’ Applications, Application Settings, Security rights do not work as expected and cause various errors.

 

Why? Because when you update to a new version (Minor or Support Pack level) you not only update the software on the disk, but you also update the repository with ‘default objects’ (called DFOs). These DFO’s define ‘object types’ such as a ‘folder’, ‘user’, ‘application’ and just about anything the BI Platform hosts. Many ‘got away’ with this workflow in XI3.1, but this only because there were hardly any new or updated ‘default objects’ introduced in Service Packs in XI3, unlike BI4.

 

I’ve created KBA 1882363 to explain this in more detail with resolutions.

 

 

 

Feel free to post your feedback here or via Twitter (@MattShaw_on_BI); I’d very much welcome questions/comments to ensure a smooth update to BI4.1/BI4.2

(This blog updated to additionally refer to BI4.2, since the same applies for an update to BI4.2 as it does for BI4.1)

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      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Great article and certainly resolves some of the misconceptions in this sphere.  Thanks Matthew

      Author's profile photo Kevin Joyner
      Kevin Joyner

      What it comes down to for me is that there should be built-in functionality in SAPBO for backing up and restoring content (not to mention scheduling) or cloning servers.  In 3.1 you could clone servers but that went away with the import/export utility as it was replaced by a UMT/LCM and UMT doesn't work between 4.x versions.  It's a case of "you shouldn't get less functionality with an upgrade".  Sure there's the copy database/FRS and delete the servers method but that doesn't lend itself to a stable environment.  

      Now with the latest revision the LCM command line is touted as the answer but the script provided in the latest administrator guide that says it does a "full environment copy" didn't work for me(I won't go so far as to say it doesn't work at all).   I ended up with half of the expected content.  When you check the support articles for the LCM method there are some sample queries but there's also the proviso in bright bold red that it is not support's job to write queries.  How can you say something is the answer and then not provide explicit documentation or a working script and then say support can't help? 

      I know there's money to be made from folks interpreting the cryptic nature of querying the CMS database but when you are saying that LCM queries are necessary for what should be considered a core function of the product it should brought out of the shadows and fully documented with working scripts for various content moving scenarios, including a full system copy.  Also the LCM needs to be able allocate enough resources to handle 100,000+ objects.  I let one query run for a week before terminating it.  Even with 32GB of memory allocated it still lacks power.  With the -noversion_check the UMT can export the whole environment to biar files in a few hours (even though they error on import), the tool that SAP wants us to use needs to have that power.

      It shouldn't take me weeks to clone a 300GB SAPBO environemnt when the database guys can clone their 6TB database server in a two days.  

      Sorry for the /rant but it's a tad bit frustrating.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Kevin,

      There is the functionality provided by using the noversioncheck command line at startup.  Certainly comes in handy.

      Regards,

      Steph

      Author's profile photo Kevin Joyner
      Kevin Joyner

      Thanks, yes I did try this.  I was able to get the biar files to export.  However on import it errors out with an odd error about expecting a value but receiving a string.   It appears the UMT is limited on what it can move.   As it's unsupported I don't expect much help but it would be nice if it became supported.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi Kevin,

      If you can provide details of the error I can hopefully assist.  Due to the limitations of LCM we have employed various workflows to manage this.  Failing that email me the details and we can take this offline.

      Steph

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      I agree and i had experienced it with no version check parameter only.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Currently we are BI4.0 SP7 Patch 11.

      Can we perform in place upgrade directly to BI4.1 SP5 with software available at download section of Support Packages and Patches”  in SAP Support Portal?

      If No then please let us know either we should go with BI4.1 SP4 or BI4.1 SP3.

      I tried to look forward fit rules excel document but it has no information about BI4.1 SP5.

      -Thanks,

        Deepu.

      Author's profile photo Vamshidhar Mitta
      Vamshidhar Mitta

      Hi,

      No need to install Bi 4.1 SP04 or SP03. You can directly go for BI 4.1 SP05. Try it on a test machine and before proceeding take necessary backups.

      For more information on the upgrade refer:

      Update workflow - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki

      It covers update of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 SP04 environment into SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.1 SP04.


      Thanks,

      Vamshidhar

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thank you

      Is there any other document like Forward fit rules document which explains that BI 4.1 SP5 has all fixes forwarded from BI 4.0 SP7 ?

      -Thanks,

        Deepu.

      Author's profile photo Vamshidhar Mitta
      Vamshidhar Mitta

      Hi,

      Please refer to below link.

      https://websmp108.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700001430852011

      Also refer to below screen shot for the excelsheet link. Highlighted at the bottom of the image.

      Plan.PNG

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks once again

      I already went through it as I specified on my first post ("forward fit rules excel document ") . I was looking for other document like Forward fit rules document.

      However now I realized that it has BI4.1 SP5 Information.

      Contains Fixes From: "BI 4.0 Patch 7.10 - 7.11" and Fixes Forward Fitted To: "BI 4.1 Support Pack 5 (scheduled)".

      Now I feel more confident to upgrade from BI 4.0 SP7 Patch 11 to BI 4.1 SP5.

      Thank you

      Author's profile photo Torsten Wirth
      Torsten Wirth

      I think the official SAP statement is:

      Note: The forward information will no longer be maintained in this document for releases that are released after July 18 2014.

      Please refer to the issue SAP notes for their associated forward fit information. 

      Which means you have to check every single note if it is included or not.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Matthew,

      Thanks for the great article.

      I followed the article and upgraded from SAP BO 4.0 sp6 to SAP BO 4.1 Sp5 patch 2. To do this, I installed the 4.1 sp5 update followed by sp5 patch 2 on the same machine where I have 4.0 sp6. I have not uninstalled the older 4.0 version yet.

      I see a number of issues after I did the upgrade.

      * The log off seems to be broke for BI Launchpad. If I click it, it does nothing.

      * I cannot run any WebI documents in BI Launchpad.

      -- When I look at the services in CMC:

      -- the connectionserver32 does not run

      --  if I try to change the property of any server, it comes back with an error: http status 500 - javax.servlet.servletexception: java.lang.null pointer exception while trying to invoke the method....................

      ........apache tomcat/7.0

      I did not have any errors during the install. Have I overlooked something or does 4.1 Sp5 Patch 2 have all the issues/did I make a mistake in going for the very latest SP/Patch?

      Thanks!

      Author's profile photo Henry Banks
      Henry Banks

      Hi sounds like you might need to redeploy your web apps, also is your license key ok? 

      IMO the best route for this enquiry would be via technical support helpdesk

      regards,

      H

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thank you. The license key is same as what was used for 4.0. Shouldn't that hold good? I am able to login tin BI Launchpad, CMC etc and see everything and it does tell me I have a certain number of NUL and CC which is same as before.

      I will try the redeploy webapps

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      I have a strange issue now. Once I upgraded to 4.1 SP5 Patch 2, the html mode for view/modify does not work. Just gives a blank page. If I set the view and modify to applet, it works fine and I can view/run/edit reports.

      Have any of you who upgraded from 4.0 to 4.1 sp5 by doing an in place install seen this? I have tested in both IE and chrome and have the same issue. Any suggestions?

      I did not have this issue on another server where I had 4.1 Sp3 and installed Sp5. So I assume the html issue would not be a bug in 4.1 Sp5.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      We didn't faced such issues in different upgrade approaches viz:

      1. BI4.0 SP05 to BI4.1 SP03

      2. BI4.0 SP05 to BI4.1 SP05

      3. BI4.1 SP03 to BI4.1 SP05 Patch2

      4. BI4.1 SP05 to BI4.1 SP05 Patch2

      As Henry B suggested above you would need to redeploy webapps.

      In case, that doesn't fix your problems; verify if the other working system (which you upgraded from 4.1 SP03 to SP05) is also on SP05 Patch2. if it is copy the war files from that server; deploy them in problematic server; modify xml and properties for webapp to show correct system names on login screens.

      Good luck.

      Author's profile photo Jino Jose
      Jino Jose

      Hi Matthew,

      Thanks for the great article.

      We have upgraded from  BI 4.0 SP2  to BI 4.1 SP5, we faced below issue on Webi.

      In the existing report the mandatory prompts from Bex are populated with values are disabled using the set variable option on Webi query panel. After migration we noticed, the set variable are not hidden on the initial refresh, but the subsequent refresh the set variable got hidden. I understand this is due to the difference on the workflow followed for the  Bex -> Webi between 4.0 & 4.1. The first refresh creates the transient universe then the set variables are enabled.

      Is there any option/tool to update the Webi document metadata in one shot along with the upgrade.

      Thanks,

      Jino.

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      good information. need you inputs on below queries

      1) We have the BI 4.0 SP9 clustered set up on AIX server. There are 2 nodes - one per server. Each server is BOBJ full install. The repository and audit database is default sql anywhere 12 and resides on first server. Now we would like to change the default database to oracle and also would like to upgrade to latest 4.1 version. Please provide your recommendation on which one should be taken first.

      2) also could you please elaborate on "To install new components, simply modify the original base installation and select the new components to install. "

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Kiran

      A1) To change your CMS database from one vendor to another then you need to use tool cmsdbsetup.sh. Please see section 27.1.1.2 of the BIP Admin Guide.

      You need to use the option "Copy data from another data source".

      A note for others: if you're changing operating system for the database that is hosting your CMS/audit db, but you are keeping the 'vendor' the same, then there is NO need to use this cmsdbsetup.sh. Instead, just backup/restore the databases using native database tools. As Kiran is changing database vendor then this tool is necessary as there's no easy way to move the content from one database vendor to another (well unless you buy some nice tool). So this tool 'cmsdbsetup.sh' will copy each object one by one and it typically slow as it does it one by one. But there's no other way.

      You need to do the CMS database move either before or after your upgrade. Don't forget to backup!

      A2) sure. Please see section 6.7.1 of the sbo41_bip_install_unix_en.pdf. Where it says 'language' it also really should say 'language and other components that were not part of the original base install':

      To modify SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence platform These instructions describe the process to modify your SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence (BI) platform installation by adding or removing installed features.

      It is recommended that you back up the CMS system database before modifying the BI platform.

      Note:

      The CMS must be running in order to modify an installation.

      1. Change directory to the <BIP_INSTALL_DIR> folder.

      2. Run the command:

      ./modifyOrRemoveProducts.sh

      Note:

      Log files, configuration files for web applications, and web applications will not be removed by the removal program. Folders left after removing a corresponding feature can be removed manually later with the rm command.

      3. Select the installation to be modified.

      4. Select Modify.

      5. On the "Select Language Packs" page, select any languages you want to install; unselect any languages you want to remove. Click Next to continue.

      6. Ensure that all features you want available are selected. Ensure that features you do not want installed are deselected.

      Expand the highlighted feature in the selection tree by pressing the keyboard spacebar. Use the arrow keys to navigate up or down. Toggle feature selections with the X key.

      When you are satisfied with the selected features, press Enter.

      7. If you are modifying a server with a CMS installed, press Enter to apply the changes. If you are modifying a server that uses a remotely installed CMS, enter the hostname, port, and an administrative account username and password.

      8. When the changes have been made, press Enter to return to the command-line.

      The installation has been updated.

      Regards

      Matthew

      Author's profile photo Vishal Bagherwal
      Vishal Bagherwal

      Hi Matthew Shaw,, We have BO4.0 SP5 patch9. When tried to run BO4.1SP6patch3 BI Platform update setup, im getting error " BI Platform server 4 Installed" check failed in prerequisite step. Can you please advise

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Vishal

      This is expected. You are trying to apply Patch 3 (of BI 4.1 Support Pack 6) on top of BI 4.0 Support pack 5.

      You need to apply 'BI 4.1 Support Pack 6' (using the 'patch installer') before applying any Patch for 'BI 4.1 Support Pack 6'.

      Patches (to a Support Pack) are tiny little things, with a very few but important fixes in them. You need to apply the Support Pack first.

      This topic is discussed in these comments (I know there's a lot of them!) and also in the KBA 1909881 I created.

      Regards, Matthew (@MattShaw_on_BI)

      Author's profile photo Bertrand BARRET
      Bertrand BARRET

      Hello Matthew,

      I am pretty sure that this question has already been sent but ... I am sending it anyway.

      In case of an update (BO 4.0 => BO 4.1) mixed with a hardware change (from windows to linux) AND an architecture change (currently the platform runs on a single server, we want to "split" the platform into 3 tiers : DB / Presentation(tomcat) / Processing (1 node for the moment) what would be the best way to achieve it.

      (not that the DB repository does not change (Oracle))

      1. Update the platform on the current hw (windows) then move to the new hw + split tier

      2. Move to new hw, update, split (or split, update)

      3. Install a platform on the new hw with the new architecture (DB tier / Tomcat tier / Processing tier) then full promote or incremental promotion (even if it is not the recommended way according to the blog ^^)

      I know that the third method is not really the good one, but thinking of "downtime" point of view the 3rd allows to reduce unavailability (or am I wrong ?) especially we'd like to avoid disturbing end users or asking admin to work too much during the week end 🙂

      thanks for all your posts !

      Bertrand

      Author's profile photo Kevin Joyner
      Kevin Joyner

      Personal opinion....  Depending on the size of your repository/# users....if you have very little content, incremental promotion.  Otherwise I would go for install 4.0 on the new hardware then do a full copy of DB and content.   Once you have all of the servers happy and you're satisfied the split is successful, then upgrade to 4.1.

      Just to throw a wrench into things, 4.2 is supposed to be RTC soon.   4.2 SP1 is due out by December.   Something to consider...

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      Hello Bertand, Yes this is discussed in the comments previously - there are a lot of comments!

      In summary your summary is spot on. Not much else to say. Option 3 with the LCM Command line allows you to move content that has changed since a particular date (since there's a WHERE clause to filter the objects by last_modified_date). Option 3 has tiny down time and allows for direct install to target version, but largest cost of moving stuff around. Option 1 and 2 doesn't move stuff anywhere.

      I would recommend updating to BI4.1 compared to BI4.2 at this time and until BI 4.2 is made generally available. BI 4.2 is not expected to be generally available until early 2016 and AFTER BI4.0 and XI3.1 end mainstream maintenance.

      Regards, Matthew (twitter @MattShaw_on_BI)

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hello Matthew,

      First, i would like to thank you for your blog. Very helpful because of you.

      I want to share my problem and request you, your analysis because currently i'm totally stuck and as SAP support didn't find any solutions related to my issue, i hope you will be better than them 😉

      we are facing an issue when we try to update our Business Objects from

      4.0 SP6 to 4.1 SP1 or higher.

      Indeed, i have downloaded into :

      Support Packages and Patches - SBOP BI platform (former SBOP

      Enterprise)"

      SBOP BI PLATFORM (ENTERPRISE)" SBOP BI PLATFORM 4.1 "Linux on x86_64

      64bit" the following file BIPLATSVR4100_0-20010869.TGZ

      Once uncompressed, we launch ./setup.sh, it detects our installation

      4.0SP6, Then we get an error in the next step :

      "The installer found an older version of SAP BusinessObjects BI

      Platforminstalled. This full-installation package cannot be applied

      when an older version is installed. Use the maintenance package for SAP BI Platform

      4.1 to update your installation"

      I don't understand because in 1909881 note, it appears that updating

      from BO 4.0 SPx to BO 4.1 , consists to apply patches ! that what i do.

      SAP recommands us to update first to BO 4.0 SP8 and i have download release 4.0 SP8 (file ENTERPRISE08_0-20007507.TGZ) and try to update my release but

      unfornatully it doesn't run. Same error as you can see below :

      " Install Cannot Proceed Unable to install a product with a higher version over a product at a lower version. Please use the appropriate patch."

      Thank you for your advise Matthew.

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      Hello m'bark,

      I see the problem. You've download the 'full installation' package and not the 'patch' package.

      What's the difference?

      -the 'full installation' package is used when the product hasn't been installed on the machine before. (trying to install this package on a machine which already has the software installed will result in your error)

      -the 'patch' package.is used when the product has been installed before and you want to update the installed version to a more recent version.

      So you need to

      1) delete what you downloaded, you're not going to use it.

      2) download the 'patch' package for the version you want to update to. Install it.

      You can update directly from BI4.0 SP6 direct to BI 4.1 SP7 (if you wanted to), no need to go via BI4.0 SP8 at all. (Please direct message me any details you have if anyone from SAP has told you this - I will inform them appropriately)

      Regards, Matthew (Twitter: @MattShaw_on_BI)

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Thanks Matthew for your quick reply. I really appreciate.

      Unfornatully, as you can see in my message below, i have told about file

      => BIPLATSVR4100_0-20010869.TGZ

      and this file has been dowloaded from

      Support Packages and Patches - SBOP BI platform (former SBOP Enterprise)"SBOP BI PLATFORM (ENTERPRISE)" SBOP BI PLATFORM 4.1 "Linux on x86_64 64bit"

      So i think this is not a "full installation package" but "patch package" as it is advised in SAP note 1909881.

      The "full installation package" file name is => 51046779_1

      and the "patch package" filename is => BIPLATSVR4100_0-20010869.TGZ

      I try to update from the last one, but unfornatully it doesn't run.

      Thanks for your advise./wp-content/uploads/2015/12/issue_bo_847962.gif

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      I see, a little confusing! Looks like you've got the right package after all.

      But I see some errors in the screen shot when the setup is run. Perhaps you have a problem with the 'environment'? For example the right shell or other 'environment' variables. I guess, from the same shell you can start and run your old BI4 platform ok?

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      no problem Matthew, i apologize to bother you since this morning.

      About error during setup launch, it doens't no longer appear now.

      Indeed, from the same shell, i can start and run my old BI4.

      Should i stop my Server BO before apply update ? Because, i try to update without stop my BO application. May it be a trail ?

      Author's profile photo Mohammed Aamir Shareef
      Mohammed Aamir Shareef

      Hi Mathew,

      Nice article. For one our customer we had to upgrade from sap bo 4.0 to sap bo 4.2. Customer weren't  ready to do an upgrade in the existing system. So I had to install sap bo 4.2 in a new system and then used promotion management and exported all the reports in the new system. Apart from this do I need to do anything else ? Kindly advice . Note: there were more than 1000 , by using promotion management I have exported them and imported in the new system.

      Regards,

      Aamir

      Author's profile photo Former Member
      Former Member

      Hi dear  @matthew.shaw

      We have a problem here.

      While modifying the SAP BO 4.2 update the BO services including CMS were accidentally deleted. How to restore ?
      We updated the SAP BI 4.1 to SAP BO 4.2 SP4. After successful installation and update to BO 4.2 SP4 , we needed to do some modifications. Unfortunately, modification went wrong and the CMS and associated SIA got deleted.
      Now when we try to repair , it asks for an existing CMS and CMS db  which does not exist anymore .

      Is there a way to restore to the previous state ?

      I have also posted it on SCN community , here is the link . 

      https://answers.sap.com/questions/261757/while-modifying-the-sap-bo-42-update-the-bo-servic.html?childToView=259781#comment-259781

       

      Your reply will be highly appreciated.

       

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      Hello, I've replied on the other thread to take this off this blog. Regards, Matthew

       

      Author's profile photo Michael Gaynor
      Michael Gaynor

      My org had two 4.1.6 servers clustered together.  We were getting two new servers with updated OS.  I installed 4.1.6 on one of the new servers and then clustered into the existing servers and then unclustered the old servers.  everything was fine.  I then updated it to 4.2.4 and it went fine.  I then did a full install of 4.2.4 on the second new server and attempted to cluster it in.  Now the other server's CMS is failing.  I tried a repair and I get the following message:

      Errors/Warnings found during the installation are as follows

      [InstallEntDfoWrapper.UploadDFO] UploadDFO Failed [D:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\setup\packagestemp\BusinessObjects_ICC_InformationControlCenter_dfo.xml]
      [InstallEntDfoWrapper.UploadDFO] UploadDFO Failed [D:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessOb
      ERROR: Deploy Files completed with errors.
      *#*_*|ERROR: Deploy Files completed with errors.|ERROR: Deploy Files completed with errors.*_*#*
      18:59:20.570 ERROR: Cannot commit ServerIntelligence_Service_DestinationSchedulingService_dfo.xml. The DFO data is older than the DFO in the repository. The following properties are causing the problem: SI_CONFIG.
      18:59:31.757 ERROR: Cannot commit ServerIntelligence_Install2_LSEPBOETST01_OutOfBoxAdaptiveJobServer_DestinationSchedulingService_dfo_frag.xml. The DFO data is older than the DFO in the repository. The following properties are causing the problem: SI_RELATIONSHIPS.SI_SERVICE_HOSTS.1.SI_CONFIG.
      ERROR: Cannot commit ServerIntelligence_Service_DestinationSchedulingService_dfo.xml. The DFO data is older than the DFO in the repository. The following properties are causing the problem: SI_CONFIG.
      ERROR: Cannot commit ServerIntelligence_Install2_LSEPBOETST01_OutOfBoxAdaptiveJobServer_DestinationSchedulingService_dfo_frag.xml. The DFO data is older than the DFO in the repository. The following properties are causing the problem: SI_RELATIONSHIPS.SI_SERVICE_HOSTS.1.SI_CONFIG.

      Refer SCN link and SAP Notes for DFO related Errors
      Contact system administrator for other errors

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      HI Michael

      Your workflow seems just fine. Spot on in fact!

      I've discussed this with colleagues and we're of the opinion your CMS failing has nothing to do with the messages about the DFOs.

      One suggestion is the CMS is failing because your new CMS has FIPS enabled (it knocks out all non-FIPS CMSs).

      You need to focus on why the CMS isn't starting, so look into those logs.

      The logs from this installer, that you've shared, are of no concern. Its ok that the DFO's are loaded into the repository as they are either the same version of older ones. That's fine, we see that a lot.

      Regards, Matthew

       

      Author's profile photo Dafang Zhang
      Dafang Zhang

      Hi Matt,

      It’s been for a while, hope everything is moving smooth at your end.  Thought to check back in and revisit the zero-downtime-maintenance topic.

       

      Back in 2013, we had a conversion on this very thread, and this topic has popped up once in a while.  I had a talk with another SAP BI Platform architect at SAPPHIRE conference last year.  It’s mentioned that it requires significant development efforts to achieve zero-downtime maintenance, and it won’t be available until the next major release (5.x).  Would you kindly share with the community if the work has been planned out and any possible status on that?

       

      Using system copy, I did some test, it seemed working well with significantly reduced downtime.  But I do have a question on migrating the delta between the source system and the target system.  I understand that we can use the LCM CLI tool to migrate any new content over from the source to the target by specifying the last update time in the where clause in the query, but how can we synchronize those deleted content in the source?  As of so far, the only option I see is to leverage the Audit database to get those deleted content in the source, then, manually (or code the SDK to) remove them in the target system.  Is there any simpler/straightforward way to synch the deleted content between the target and the source before switching over?

       

      Another concern with the system copy option is that the KBA Note (1275068) has the following statement:

      NOTE: This document discusses a backup and restore strategy that should be strictly used for disaster recovery situations only, and is NOT recommended for cloning (replicating) your BI system or side-by-side deployments. Using this procedure for cloning BI systems can cause the Client tools such as Information Design Tool (IDT) not being able to distinguish between the two systems. As this procedure was never designed to support the replication of systems running side by side, like perfect clones – and thus totally indistinguishable from a client perspective, SAP recommends that this procedure is NOT to be used for Cloning BI systems. SAP recommends that you use the promotion management application  or the LCM CLI tool) if you wish to replicate SAP BI systems in a safe manner, and strongly discourages alternate replication methods.

      Would it be possible to elaborate what exactly the issue is, and why it’s not recommended when the system copy procedure is actually well documented in the Admin guide?  Any clarification would be much appreciated.

      Thanks in advance for your advice!

       

      My Best,

      Dafang

      Author's profile photo Dafang Zhang
      Dafang Zhang

      Hi Matt,

      I'm sure the community would all be interested in finding out when we can do a true zero-downtime maintenance.  Revisiting this topic with 4.3 just around the corner, would you mind sharing with us your thoughts?

      Best,

      Dafang

      Author's profile photo Bhavin Maniar
      Bhavin Maniar

      Hi Matt,

      We are planning to upgrade from BI 4.1 SP2 Patch 3 to BI 4.2 SP4 Patch 6. Ours is a clustered setup hosted on Linux servers. Along with the BO upgrade, we are also moving to Oracle 12c for CMS and Audit databases and moving to new Linux boxes too. I mean everything - system database, BO and Linux machines - would be upgraded at the same time.

      What would be the best recommended method for upgrade? We were thinking of full install and then moving the contents across using LCM command line. Any suggestions?

      Thanks

      BM

       

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      Hello BM

      I’ve discussed this point a few times in previous replies. I know there’s a lot of replies and not so easy to find. But in short: don’t do a full install. do not use LCM command line! Don’t use LCM.

      Moving your CMS db from one RDBMS to another is a single step on its own (you use CMS DB copy program in the CCM).

      Changing OS of the cluster is another single step on its down (you just add a new node (of same version) into the existing cluster. Its just the new node is on a different OS. Then you keep ‘expanding’ the cluster with all new nodes on the new OS. Then you just delete the older nodes, on the old OS, from the cluster.)

      Updating the version is another ‘single step’.

      It means you keep all the content in the repository. There’s no need to extract it and throw it all back in again. It will send you mad!

      What’s important is that you do one step completely before starting the next. If you could check my previous replies for a little more detail here and there that would be great.

      Matthew

       

      Author's profile photo Venkateswara Y Guptha
      Venkateswara Y Guptha

      Hi All,

       

      As suggested by Matthew, it is always recommended to update your existing BI 4.x Landscape with latest version instead a full install. You should do full install only when you need to change your hardware.

      In this regard, if you are looking for how painlessly optimise your BI footprint on existing BI 4.x landscape, to get rid of intermediate obsolete versions (SP(s) and Patch(es)), free up disk space and make the future updates of BI faster, a tool named “SAP BusinessObjects ONE Uninstaller” is introduced for more details refer the following blog "All you need to know about the SAP BusinessObjects ONE Uninstaller". 

      Regards, Venkat.

      Author's profile photo Matthew Shaw
      Matthew Shaw
      Blog Post Author

      Thank you Venkat. Great comment post and great new uninstaller to get rid of all those intermediate software versions and freeing up disk space. I can see many customers benefiting from that.

      All the best, Matthew