How to install SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira (Part 2) – Ramp-Up!

Disclaimer: Please be aware that the SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira is currently in Ramp-Up and is not generally available (yet). For more information you can follow any updates from Product Manager Adrian Westmoreland to get the latest news!

In part 2 of this blog I will continue with setting up a user in SAP HANA,  configure the Lumira add-on services, and finally publish datasets and stories to the BI platform.

In part 1 of this blog I’m described how to integrate the Lumira add-on into your BI platform deployment, install the Lumira add-on to your BI platform deployment and configure SAP HANA to allow communication with the BI platform.

How to install SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira (Part 1)

Let’s continue with creating a user for the Lumira add-on. This user will access SAP HANA and generate the assertion ticket. Make sure your SAP HANA username is no longer than 12 characters. SAP HANA user names longer than 12 characters is not supported with SAP assertion ticket enabled.

Open the SAP HANA Studio and create a new user and assign the following roles:

• sap.bi.services.datasetmanager.db.roles::SAP_BI_DATASETMANAGER_ADMIN
• sap.bi.common::BI_DATA_ANALYST

Next step is to confugure the HTTP destination file for the SAP Lumira add-on.

Log onto the XS Administration Tool using the Lumira add-on user created via http://<servername>:8000/sap/hana/xs/admin

You are prompted to change the initial password set of the created user.

Go to ‘sap’ – ‘bi’ – ‘services’ – ‘datasetloadfresh’ – logic’ – ‘lib’ and click on ‘wacshttpconfig.xshttpdest’.

Click on ‘Extend’.

Select the location where you want to extend the file. SAP recommends you put the file under ‘sap’ – ‘bi’ – ‘content’. Keep the same file name, ‘wacshttpconfig.xshttpdest’.

Click on ‘Create’.

Edit the ‘wacshttpconfig.xshttpdest’ file under ‘sap’ – ‘bi’ – ‘services’ – ‘datasetloadfresh’ – ‘logic’ – ‘lib’:

• Host = the host name of the Lumira add-on
• Port = the port number for WACS on the BI platform, 6405 by default
• SAP SID = the SAP HANA system ID
• SAP Client = SAP client number. Set this number to 000.

Next step is to configure the BI services. The SAP Lumira In-Memory Add-on installs a BI platform service that communicates with SAP HANA. When you publish a dataset, this service pushes the data into the SAP HANA database tables. When you view a story, this service requests the visualization information from the SAP Lumira server. This service also enforces BI platform rights to access the data.

Launch the CMC and go to ‘Servers’ – ‘Lumira Services’.

Right-click to open the ‘Properties’. Scroll down and enter the following:

• HANA Hostname: The fully qualified name of the machine that hosts the SAP HANA database.
• HANA Instance Number
• HANA Database User: Username and password for the technical user created in the SAP HANA database.
• HANA Database Password
• OS User: Username and password to log on to the machine where the SAP HANA database is hosted. Has the format <SID>adm.
• OS Password

Click on ‘Save and Close’.

Restart the server.

The result should display a status of ‘Running’.

Next step is to configure the default REST access URL. When you publish datasets from SAP Lumira to the BI platform you need to enter the REST access URL, which is the BI platform’s URL for web service requests. The publishing wizard in SAP Lumira provides a default value for you. You can configure this value in the SAP Lumira Preferences area.

Start SAP Lumira and click on ‘File’ – ‘Preferences’.

Click on ‘Network’ and enter the URL of the SAP BI Server. Click ‘Done’ to confirm.

Congratulations! You have now finalized all necessary steps to use the SAP Lumira add-on for BI 4. Let’s try and publish a story to the BI platform.

Stories contain visualizations that are built on datasets. When you publish a story from SAP Lumira desktop to the BI platform, the associated data set(s) are automatically published. If you publish multiple stories based on the same data set, the dataset will be published multiple times.

I have previously created 2 visualizations based on a HANA dataset via a universe.

I have selected the ‘Share’ tab and selected ‘Publish to SAP BI’. Fill in your BOE username and password and click ‘Connect’.

Select a location to store the dataset and visualizations.

Click ‘Next’.

Click ‘Publish’.

As you can see both the dataset and the story are published to the SAP BI server.

Now let’s logon to the BI Launchpad and browse to the folder where you published the content.

Double-click on the ‘SCN Blog Story’ to view the story. This will open a new tab in the BI Launchpad!

For more information on the functionalities of this first version of the SAP Lumira add-on for SAP BI 4 I would like to refer to this great blog Lumira integration for BI4 functionality detailed. from Greg Wcislo.

This concludes the second part of the blog about how to install and configure the SAP Lumira add-on for SAP BI 4. I thinking about ‘part 3’ that shows how SAP Lumira content is now also available via the SAP Mobile BI app, but probably I will shift to the ramp-up for running Crystal Reports for Enterprise on HANA ;-).

UPDATE: here’s a screenshot how the Story looks like on the iPad. Just add the story to the ‘Mobile’ category and it shows up in the Mobile BI app.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to contact me!

Thanks for reading!

With kind regards,

Martijn van Foeken