This was a great webcast given by the SAP Enterprise Support Academy. Although much of the topic deals with BI platform support, a lot of it plays into project management, something I hadn't considered before. Also response on social media to the comments made on this webcast was very positive. I apologize in advance for the blurriness of the screen shots. Where possible I included the links provided.
SAP Support provided this Enterprise Support Academy webcast yesterday. The SAP speaker said they want to “help you help yourself”.
Figure 1: Source: SAP
Figure 1 shows the top X things not to do when implementing BI4.
One is to expect SAP to fix and you have no project management
You're afraid to use SAP router
Web Intelligence calculation engine is not static
No time to search - an example is to open an incident without searching
Figure 2: Source: SAP
You need to tune for specific scenario
Use the SAP best practices on SCN
Links:
SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki
Performance tuning tips for BI 4.0 Web Intelligence (Chapter 1 - Client Tier)
Sizing and Deploying SAP BI 4 and SAP Lumira
Figure 3: Source: SAP
Deploying BI is a project and handle as a project
You need to account for a growing database
You need to test upgrades and test patching
Figure 4: Source: SAP
Figure 4 talks about the ties to project timeline
“Go live tomorrow, something goes wrong, SAP to the rescue”
Plan major events accordingly, give SAP time to assist you
Follow the guides to plan upgrades, deployments, plan changes to systems to avoid Priority 1 situations
Links:
Migrating Business Intelligence Content to SAP BusinessObjects BI platform 4.1 diagram
BI 4 How To: Identifying Necessary Changes for Web Intelligence Upgrade
Figure 5: Source: SAP
The speaker gave an example of testing on a single server, why won’t it work on a 10 machine cluster in prod?
Figure 6: Source: SAP
Figure 6 is self-explanatory; BI4 is not an ETL tool to Excel
Figure 7: Source: SAP
Figure 7 shows you do need a BI4 maintenance plan.
Subscribe to enhancements when patches come out – see service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1553034
Links:
Patching Strategies and Best Practices + Parallel Patching
BI 4 How To: Identifying Necessary Changes for Web Intelligence Upgrade
https://service.sap.com/bosap-maintenance-schedule
Figure 8: Source: SAP
A lot of times customers don’t know about the SAP router
Go to Service.sap.com/saprouter – it has benefits
It is a free utility with a secure connection; no evidence of router connections being hacked or compromise. The speaker said it “resolve issues faster”
Figure 9: Source: SAP
Figure 9 shows the Supported Platforms Guide information; self-explanatory.
Figure 10: Source: SAP
Figure 10 covers the SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Calculation Engine; this changes based on customer input
Links:
SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence Calculation Engine Changes
Webi Calculation Engine - Business Intelligence (BusinessObjects) - SCN Wiki
Figure 11: Source: SAP
SAP tests with VMWare and other vendors
See the note listed in Figure 11.
What are the settings, procedures, what is allowed to run best on virtual systems - see documents:
Technical Whitepaper: Best Practices for Virtualizing SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.x on VMware ESXi 5
Evaluating Selected Java Best Practices For SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4 On vSphere
Figure 12: Source: SAP
Figure 12 covers “Help our BI4 admin with basic OS commands”
Resources are shown in Figure 12.
Figure 13: Source: SAP
Figure 13 – speaks for itself. Search before you post, per SCN rules of engagement; the same holds true before opening an incident with SAP Support.
Figure 14: Source: SAP
“All information we have is available to you” on the SAP Support Portal.
I think this webcast, while common sense, allowed me to have some empathy for SAP Support. This was a key lesson at the 2012 SAP TechEd event with marilyn.pratt
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