SAP Lumira Server 1.15 is now Generally Available (GA)!
Dear Community,
I’m delighted to be able to announce that SAP Lumira Server 1.15 is now available to licensed customers. The Lumira Server product installers are available in Service Marketplace’s Software Download Center under Installations and Upgrades > A-Z Index > L > SAP Lumira Server. The server product requires HANA revision 70+. The support component for reporting issues is BI-LUM-SRV.
This Lumira Server 1.15 release has an initially limited scope, when compared to today’s Lumira Cloud experience (as a point of reference). But – trust me – this will rapidly change! Currently, Lumira Server 1.15 does not yet include any of the browser-based data exploration or chart building that has appeared in earlier validation releases of Lumira Server.
This means that the major end-to-end workflows that are supported this version are restricted to the following use-cases:
- As a user of Lumira Server, I can log on to the Lumira Server Launchpad with my web browser and view whichever “stories” have been shared with me.
- Log on to the Lumira Server Launchpad and share those stories (and the datasets they depend upon) with other users of Lumira Server.
- As a user of Mobi, I can log on to Lumira Server from my device and view whichever “stories” have been shared with me.
This means that the Desktop product is still “route one” as the entry-point for authoring new Lumira content into the suite: The creation and enrichment of datasets, creation of visualizations, the composition of those charts into “stories” (AKA storyboards) – these activities all happen on the Desktop-installed product, so that I can then publish these artifacts to Lumira Server for wider consumption by the enterprise.
I’d recommend taking a look at this FAQ page SAP Lumira Server Frequently Ask Questions to understand a bit more about the technical prerequisites, licensing requirements and product positioning. You can now also find the Guides and Documentation in the usual Help Guide portal:
- The user guide can be found here: http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/vi01/en/lumS115_user_en.pdf
- Sizing Guidelines can be found on this direct link: Lumira Sizing Guide
- The Installation guide can be found here: http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/vi01/en/lumS115_install_en.pdf
For companies who are genuinely interested and want to start the next steps with us, please join our movement by way of this registration process SAP Lumira’s Momentum Grows – Join the BI Design Council, and Co-Innovate with us!
I can happily share with you that our internal goal is that the user-experience across the entire Lumira suite will be significantly enhanced & harmonized in the next few SP releases. Not only will this mean the usual incremental changes (i.e. ‘quality releases’), but I’m really excited about the planned usability improvements.
This’ll include feature-parity throughout, including the return of browser-based data exploration, chart building, and storyboard design from the Lumira Server web-launchpad itself.
Keep watching Lumira grow & stay plugged-in!
Cheers,
H
Great, Henry!
Are both deployment options available (i.e. on HANA DB and on BOE)?
Best,
Henrique.
Hi!
No, Lumira Server is a native HANA platform application, hosted by the XS Engine.
The BIP integration plug-in piece will come later this year, and (if my understanding is correct) will NOT circumnavigate the HANA runtime requirement.
Regards,
H
Thanks!
Thanks for getting the word out Henry ... I am already using 1.15 and find it works extremely well. I look forward to further innovations for Lumira Server.
Thanks Henry for posting this, do you know if PA version 1.015 support publishing to Lumira Server as well, when I try sharing a dataset to Lumira Server it does not give me the server details I need to input for Lumira Server.
Thanks Chetan
Hi,
As the blog above indicates, the primary workflow is 'save story to server'.
I have been able to publish composite storyboards, containing visualisations based on predictive datasets, from desktop PA to LUM server - no problems.
For datasets, it could depend what source they are. Please do follow up internally in the relevant JAM group
regards,
H
Henry did you have a chance to try extensions? can they be published to lumira server?
Sorry for the late reply!
This is not supported/documented as of SP15, but yes, this feature is certainly in-scope, and i've been told SP16 could be a likely contender.
I'll make sure one of us gets the word out, as soon as this becomes possible
Regards,
H
Chart extensions can now be published from Desktop to Server with SP17
Hi Henry,
we are part of SAP startup focus program. Trying to embed SAP Lumira Report in SAPUI5 mobile app.
Can you please make it available for us to download SAP Lumira Server software?
Thanks.
With Regards,
Srinibas.
Hi,
Sorry i can't help with that. Please revert your enquiry back the Program.
There are licensing implications that need to be considered, typically including maintenance and support contracts.
Regards,
H
Thanks Henry.
With Regards,
Srinibas
Can directly connect to BW? I understand that we can connect using Relational universe, however i am looking for a direct BW connectivity.
BW online support is planned after 1.16.
Nice to hear from you Sharon! and thanks for the confirmation.
Hi Henry,
where to find the sizing guide? unable to open the given link.
cheers!
thank you for notifying, the help.sap.com location had changed. So i updated the link to point to the SCN version: Lumira Sizing Guide
Thanks!
Henry,
Where do i find the download for Lumira Desktop? i could not find in software downloads section.
never mind . i found it.
So, all the other BI tools (Explorer, Webi, Dashboard, Crystal & Analysis) have their server installs as part of BI Platform (BOE), but Lumira requires Hana? What is the reasoning or strategy behind this?
Hi,
I think it's fair to say that most of SAP's forward-looking innovations will be underpinned by our native HANA platform.
There's often a strong case to be made, even in Analytics - where a self-service user could be doing data-dicovery on big data.
In the case of Lumira, HANA's processing power & functional agility does give an awesome user experience.
Regards,
H
Thanks for the quick response.
I don't doubt the benefits that HANA brings to Lumira, and Analytics in general. My concern is the additional investment required to get sharable, self-service data-discovery integrated within our existing BI Platform environment. Tying Lumira Server to HANA will require us to not only purchase another platform, but a database platform we don't need (we just went live with an engineered system).
If HANA is going to be at the center of all things SAP, are we seeing the end of the other database agnostic BI tools as well?
No it's definitely not the end of database agnostic analytics (consider the emergence of hadoop/hive, odata & hana smart data access)
.. but HANA is the platform on which SAP can innovate, rather than be held back by 3rd-party components and ageing legacy architecture (as is currently the case with BOE)
What I mean by database agnostic is that a tool doesn't require a specific database platform to function. While Lumira Server, and the rest of the BI Platform down the road, can source from heterogeneous databases, it is customized to work with HANA.
Hi Mike,
You're welcome to use Lumira Desktop and Cloud which do not require HANA as part of the equation. Lumira Server is the distribution mechanism for customers who are using HANA and may or may not have the BI Platform. As Henry also mentioned, it is an innovation which runs natively on HANA XS, and resides in the same place as your transactional system. This enables analytics to be run in new ways ... you may have seen some of the examples in Hasso's Sapphire Keynote.
In short, I'd encourage you to evaluate Lumira Desktop and Cloud for your database agnostic needs alongside your existing BI Platform investment.
Thanks for the feedback.
I've been reviewing Lumira before it was Lumira (Visual Intelligence). As a product, it certainly is much better in 1.15 than back the then, but as the BI Architect, I need to take the long view on solutions we present to our business partners. Accessing content via web & mobile is really important. If users can't do that, I'm not sure what value they are going to find with it.
As much as I would like to get our users on this product, the HANA requirement poses problems for us. If there is another solution, I'm am open to suggestions.
Take a look at the Lumira Roadmap here:
https://websmp203.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000212382013E.pdf
Check out slide 8 ... you can consider positioning a Lumira Cloud offering alongside an existing BI Platform solution if HANA is not an option.
Can we expect this to be the only option when the BI Platform is based on the HANA platform and we are unable to invest in another high performance database system?
Looks like Lumira (1.17) can now be published to the BI Platform.
http://help.sap.com/saphelp_lumira117/helpdata/en/01/e5cc36f0cd416fa2a7d5b94f6df073/content.htm?frameset=/en/e7/89931780b7101487253286b0e91070/frameset.htm
Please note that this still requires Lumira Server. The ability to publish to the BI platform is accomplished by installing an add-on to your BOE system that let's it integrate with your Lumira Server on SAP HANA. That means, at this time, customers still require a Lumira Server to publish to the BI platform.
Wow! Truly amazing.
Henry, what does "general availability" mean? Is it also available to Developer Hana? I've looked to our software download area and there is no Lumira server available there.
-- Micha
Hi,
I expect it would appear in your SMP SWDC if your organisation has the Lumira Server license.
Regards,
H
Well that's why I've asked whether it is available for Developer Hana. Is it? As you might know, one does not need any license for developer Hana.
-- Micha
sorry I'm not familiar with 'developer hana' - does this bundle explicitly include the Lumira Server license and associated support/maintenance agreement?
I've written "one does not need any license for developer Hana" meaning it is for free, see http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-31722. So anyway, what does "general availability" mean?
-- Micha
Hi, it means the software has been 'release to market' (RTM), so 'generally availability' (GA) is a product shipment status - for those who have purchased the licensed product of course
You just get a free trial of Lumira DESKTOP with the "developer HANA" option. The desktop version does not include license for any Lumira SERVER components so no publishing or sharing via the server.
Either way it's not free just a trial.