SAP BI 4.1 not working on Windows Server 2012
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
- Install Windows Server 2012 with default options
- Install SAP BI 4.1 pre-requisites (help.sap.com)
- 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:
- Uninstall SAP BI 4.1
- Uninstall any Microsoft Visual C++ Redistributable Package from the Control Panel
- Install the correct version of Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package
- Install SAP BI 4.1
I hope it helps. Have spent hours troubleshooting this back in the SAP BI 4.1 Ramp-Up days…
Sounds similar to this blog entry here of mine: http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog/2013/10/28/upgrade-info-bi-41-sp01-on-windows--missing-installation-prerequisites-microsoft-redistributable-package
Thanks Henry. Not sure how I didn't find your blog when I searched before hand.
My resolution is slightly different than yours but both posts are very close indeed. Happy to delete if you think it's not adding anything new.
both are good, best if we trap this from all sides!
Clearly written and well documented. Good stuff.
Actually just had a great weekend around this issue. It happened on a Windows 2008 server, so I suppose it's not limited to Windows 2012.
Also, I was able to sort of fix it by installing the hot fixes after the BI4.1 SP1 update and restarting the server. It seemed to work. More or less.
But I also had to install the client tools on the same server and they were really messed up.
I could not login to Universe Designer, for example - it just kept throwing me an error message ("(IRepoAccess::retrieveAuthModeInfos) Class not registered") immediately after starting it. When clicking on OK it would just return with the same error.
Then I also installed Dashboards (Xcelsius) which opened fine, but was not able to give me an interface to open anything from the platform.
The two errors are related to each other, but could only be fixed by uninstalling the client tools, the BI4.1 update and re-install everything again after installing the Microsoft C++ hot fixes.
So be aware: before even touching BI4.1 software, make sure you have the Microsoft C++ files installed. It really only takes a minute but will save you endless hours of uninstalling and re-installing software.
Thanks for the write up, I've been struggling with this all day. I am attempting to upgrade from BI 4.0 SP04 to 4.1 SP02. When looking at my Windows program list I also have Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 packages... should those be removed also before re-installing just the two 2005 packages? I fear that other things might depend on them, does anyone know an answer to this?
You're welcome. Feel free to "like" and rate this article 🙂
In my experience only the 2005 were causing issues. The 2008 and 2010 ones could be left there and everything is just fine.
I had the same issue with :
- BO 4.1 SP5
- Windows server 2012 R2
I followed your process and it worked well.
You can update your post with those versions 😉
Thank for your work !!!!
Hi Patrick,
One quick question, Will repair resolve the issue or we need to uninstall and install BO?
Thanks
Patrick,
You DO NOT need to uninstall BI4 and re-install BI4 to fix issues. To fix issues without re-install, follow below steps:
Ajay
I have the same Problem with 4.1.SP6 and SP7 and the solution to install first the C++ stuff and then reinstall DOESN'T work.
What I'm missing?
Thanks a lot
Hi,
i'd recommend you contact Technical Support, via an incident to the Deployment queue
regards,
H
yeah, I suppose ..
Also the proposal of Ajay Gupta doesn't work for me.
Hello, colleagues,
in the past I experienced trouble with missing C++ packages on W2k3 and also W2k8. But, from some BOBI release I haven't experienced it.
I have installed a few BOBI environment on the W2k12 machines, but simply it didn't happen to me.
From this screen shot:
you can see, C++ 2005 has been installed by BOBI installation package, probably. Is it possible, it is fixed from BOBI 4.1 SP5 and later?