Updating SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform to Lumira...

Matthew_Shaw · ‎05-19-2017

If you're updating your SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform to Lumira 2.x then you’ll have a few questions about the various server Add-ons. This blog provides a high-level view of the steps you need to follow to update your Design Studio 1.x and Lumira 1.x Add-ons to Lumira 2.x.

Convergence

Lumira and Design Studio have converged into a single product and a single document type. Whilst there two client-side end user interfaces, one for the Designers (SAP Lumira, Designer) and one for Discovering (SAP Lumira, Discovery) there is a single server Add-on.

How do you update to Lumira 2.x?

If you already have deployed Lumira, or Design Studio or both, then you’ll need to know how to update. This diagram is probably the best way to explain:

Workflow A: No existing Lumira 1.x or Design Studio 1.x Add-on

You need to install the ‘full’ Lumira 2.x BI Platform Add-on.

Perhaps very obvious but I thought I'd mention it!

Workflow B: Existing Lumira 1.x

You need to install the ‘patch’ Lumira 2.x BI Platform Add-on.

Since you already have Lumira installed, albeit version 1.x, you need to 'patch' from Lumira 1 to Lumira 2.

Workflow C: Existing Design Studio 1.x Add-on

You need to install the ‘full’ Lumira 2.x BI Platform Add-on.

Since you don't have Lumira installed, you'll need the 'full' install package.

Once you’ve installed the ‘full’ add-on, your old ‘Analysis Application’ BI Platform server service will be redundant. It simply won’t be used any more. So, you should delete it, from within the Central Management Console, to regain some resources from your servers.

I’ve captured a step-by-step workflow, shown below, taking you from start to finish.

Workflow 😧 Existing Lumira 1.x and Design Studio 1.x Add-on

You need to install the ‘patch’ Lumira 2.x BI Platform Add-on.

Because you have the Lumira Add-on already installed, you'll need to 'Patch' to Lumira 2, even though you've also got Design Studio Add-on installed.

Once you’ve installed the ‘patch’ add-on, your old ‘Analysis Application’ BI Platform server service will be redundant. It simply won’t be used any more. So, you should delete it, from within the Central Management Console, so to gain some resources on your servers.

Workflow E: Updating Lumira 2.x to another Lumira 2.x

Always apply the 'patch' Lumira 2.x BI Platform Add-on to update Lumira 2.x to another Lumira 2.x

Once you have updated your BI Platform to Lumira 2.x then all subsequent updates to Lumira 2.x require the patch update, regardless of what you had installed beforehand.

Do NOT uninstall any existing Lumira 2.x software, to then perform a 'full' install. All you need is a 'patch' update.

There is NO need go via any particular Lumira 2.x version (with the only exception if you where on the Lumira Early Adopter Care Program there are known update issues. KBA 2521113) This means you can update directly from say Lumira 2.0 SP2 to Lumira 2.1 SP1, by just applying the 'patch'.

Step-by-Step Workflow C: Existing Design Studio 1.x Add-on Update to Lumira 2.x

Before I apply the ‘full’ Lumira 2.x BI Platform Add-on you can see my existing Design Studio service defined in the Central Management Console. I have a dedicated Adaptive Processing Server with two services: ‘Analysis Application’ (the Design Studio processing server) and ‘DSL Bridge’ (for processing my Universe queries from within my Design Studio applications).

I built a very simple Design Studio Application in Design Studio 1.6. I built it off my Auditing Universe!

On starting the ‘full’ Lumira 2.x BI Platform Add-on installer you see the usual license agreement:

Here you select the services. I always install all the services and I recommend you do the same. Whilst you may not intend to run all of these services on the same machine, doing so provides consistency and the flexibility should you change your mind without having to come back to install them.

Enter the CMS and Administrator password details:

The install then starts:

The install is then finished:

My old Design Studio Application can now be stopped and deleted, since it’s never going to be used again. Instead a new Lumira Server Service will do all the work of what the old ‘Analysis Applications’ service did.

The new Lumira Server Service will also process what the old Lumira Server Service processed too of course. There is one single processing service for both tasks, since it’s completely integrated at the back-end.

With my old ‘Analysis Applications’ Server Service deleted, I can still open my old Design Studio Application. It will be processed by the new Lumira Server Service.

Other workflows

We are not recommending to uninstall the old 'Design Studio 1.x' Add-on or uninstalling the old 'Lumira 1.x' Add-on. We strongly recommend you just update without uninstalling any previous Add-on.

All BI Platform Services?

As I mentioned in this blog I strongly recommend installing all the Lumira components. I not only recommend you install all the Lumira components, but also to install all these Lumira components on all the machines in your cluster. Why? Because it provides consistency and flexibility. It means your configuration is no longer tied to a decision you make at install time, you might want to run some components on other machines later. Additionally, some components, like the WACS requires an update for Lumira, so you might as well install all components everywhere, otherwise you won't be able to run WACS anywhere.

However, I also strongly recommend you install all the BI Platform services everywhere too. For exactly the same reasons: it provides consistency and flexibility. So before you update to Lumira 2, go to the BI Platform install and modify it, and select all the other components that aren't already installed. There are sometimes software defects because not all components are installed and doing this before installing Lumira 2 will help avoid those kind of issues. This is especially true when Lumira 1 was run on a 'dedicated' machine.

Lumira 1 to Lumira 2 document conversion

With your servers now updated to Lumira 2, you will not be able to view any Lumira documents, until you have converted them via the desktop into the new format.

Please follow SAP Note 2509882 for more details on the steps required.

Promoting Design Studio 1.x content or Lumira 1.x into a new cluster with Lumira 2

There are some very special requirements which I have described in this blog

Old Design Studio 1.6 applications [updated 12/Dec/2017]

As this blog showed here, old Design Studio 1.6.x applications will continue to work even though the server has been updated. However any applications using the legacy HANA JDBC connections need adaptations, and their bookmarks will become invalid. Please refer to SAP note 2475223 for details.

Old Design Studio 1.6 applications that use the 'InfoChart' component do run a little slower when running in compatibility mode. SAP development is aware of this issue.

There is one other very small gotcha to watch out for though. It's so small its almost not worth explaining, its unsupported too, but lets just share the info anyway! :

Only Design Studio 1.6 Support Pack 6 (or greater) client will work once the server has been updated to Lumira 2.0.

If you wanted to use a non-recommended configuration of using Design Studio 1.6 client with a server with an Lumira 2 server add-on installed, it means you need to update the client to Design Studio 1.6 Support Pack 6 or greater. (if you don't you'll get an error when you try to login "You are not authorized to execute application") We strongly recommend to use the Lumira Designer 2.x client with the same version of the Lumira 2 server add-on.

There is no need to go via Design Studio 1.6 SP6, nor is there any need to update the application (This blog previously mentioned you did - not the case!)

With Lumira Designer 2.x client you can run it in 'compatibility' mode which means you can continue to create new applications and edit and publish existing applications of the old format. The compatibility mode will be of version '1.6 Support Pack 6'. Using the Lumira Designer 2.x client in 'compatibility' mode saves you the need to convert them to the Lumira 2.x format until you are ready to take advantage the new version provides.

Design Studio 1.6 clients and Lumira 1.x clients with a Lumira 2.x server

Lumira 1.x clients can not store any new content into the Repository once Lumira 2.x has been installed.

Further, only Lumira 1.31.8 can access and download the old .lums (Lumira v1.x) documents held in the Repository.

Design Studio 1,6 clients will receive a "version mismatch warning" since the client version is not the same as the server version and this means the client isn't supported in this configuration. Just like any update, both the server and the clients needs to be updated to the same version. There's only a few exceptions like: Lumira 1.31.8 that can read a Repository that has had Lumira 2 installed, and the latest version Desktop Intelligence XI 3 that can also access a BI 4.x repository.

Uninstall of the Lumira 2.x Server Add-on

Like all BI Platform Support Packs and Server add-ons, the uninstall of the software is supported, but this will only uninstall the software from the disk and NOT from the repository.

This means that once the Lumira 2.x server add-on has been installed (like any BI Platform Support Pack or Server add-on) its installed and can't be uninstalled from the repository.

You can't uninstall it and expect the old Design Studio add-on to work - it will not. The same applies to Design Studio 1.x clients, they will still receive a version mismatch warning as the repository is on a newer version, albeit with the server software uninstalled, the repository has still been updated.The same applies for Lumira 1.x clients, they too will not be able to store old .lums (Lumira 1.x documents) into a repository that's been updated once Lumira 2 has been installed - regardless if Lumira 2 has been uninstalled. The 'uninstall' is for the software on the disk, not to uninstall from the repository.

Instead, you need to rollback the CMS repository (and the FRS) to complete the uninstall process.