SAP BI 4.1 not working on Windows Server 2012

[Patrick_Perrier]

Symptom

SAP BI 4.1 is unusable after what seems to be a successful installation on Windows Server 2012.

The installer is seen to complete successfully but you experience the following problems:

• Cannot open the Central Configuration Manager (CCM)
• Cannot logon to the BI Launch pad
• You can logon to the Central Management Console (CMC) but most of the servers have errors

The following error message can be seen in the Event Viewer under Application Logs:

Dependent Assembly Microsoft.VC80.CRT,processorArchitecture="amd64",publicKeyToken="1fc8b3b9a1e18e3b",type="win32",version="8.0.50727.762" could not be found. Please use sxstrace.exe for detailed diagnosis.

Environment

• SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite 4.1 SP01
• SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence Suite 4.1 SP02
• Windows Server 2012

Reproducing the Issue

1. Install Windows Server 2012 with default options
2. Install SAP BI 4.1 pre-requisites (help.sap.com)
3. Install SAP BI 4.1 with default options

Note: Although this issue happened to me 3 times on different client site, I have had instances where everything worked just fine for some reasons.

Cause

The wrong version of the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package has been installed.

During the installation of SAP BI 4.1, different versions of Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package will be installed if they do not already exist on the server.

I have experienced that if you already have Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package installed with any other version than 8.0.61001 then you will experience the problems described above.

This is what it should look like in the Control Panel after a successful installation:

Resolution

Before installing SAP BI 4.1, ensure you have the correct versions of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package installed.

You can manually install the correct versions from the location where you have extracted the installation files:

\DATA_UNITS\BusinessObjectsServer_win\dunit\shared.tp.aurora.microsoft.vcredist8-4.0-core-32

\DATA_UNITS\BusinessObjectsServer_win\dunit\shared.tp.aurora.microsoft.vcredist8-4.0-core-64

Note: Once you have the symptoms, resolving the version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package will not make SAP BI 4.1 work successfully.  You will need to:

1. Uninstall SAP BI 4.1
2. Uninstall any Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package from the Control Panel
3. Install the correct version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package
4. Install SAP BI 4.1

I hope it helps.  Have spent hours troubleshooting this back in the SAP BI 4.1 Ramp-Up days...