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Author's profile photo Anikesh Jyotishi

SAP BOBJ Reports copy (Refresh) from Production to Non Production Environment. (Use for Cloud migration)

SAP BOBJ 4.2 SP5 onwards it’s possible to refresh BO reports from production to non-production for training, UAT, and SITs via PMW.

DISCLAIMER

The content of this blog post is provided “AS IS”. This information could contain technical inaccuracies, typographical errors, and out-of-date information. This document may be updated or changed without notice at any time. The use of the information is therefore at your own risk. In no event shall SAP be liable for special, indirect, incidental, or consequential damages resulting from or related to the use of this document.

Overview

Now we can refresh BO reports along with the BW system refresh by Promotion Management Wizard.

BOBJ Refresh by Promotion Management Wizard Steps:-

  • Pre-screen Shots
  • Tuning PMW Memory parameters
  • Welcome Promotion Management step
  • Scenario
  • Objects
  • Dependencies (only for selective content promotion)
  • Summary
  • Finish

Pre-screen Shots

  • Take all file system backup
  • CMS and audit DB Backup
  • Take all OLAP connector configuration screenshot and SSO certificates backup
  • Take snapshot backup

Tuning Memory Allocation (RAM / Java Heap):   

PMW is an eclipse-java-based application, which processes the entire data export, processing, and import, and as such its stability and performance are dependent on the system memory.

  • Allocate enough memory (including swap) for the whole process. The more objects you import, the more memory is required although optimizations have been implemented.
  • As guideline, At least, 2GB of memory to run the Promotion Management Wizard itself and 1 GB of memory for importing 10K objects. The below gives a ballpark estimate, but consider other factors like size of objects when calculating these numbers.
    Example 1 – For importing 60K objects, 8GB sounds reasonable (2+6).
    Example 2 – For importing 140K objects, 16GB sounds reasonable (2+14).
  • To configure your PMW memory allocation, make sure plenty of RAM is available on the PMW server, and then configure the PMW heap size following below steps:
    Step 1: Go to C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win64_x64 [ use equivalent location on linux ]
    Step 2: Open PromotionManagementWizard.ini
    Step 3: locate the Xmx memory parameter and change based on your needs like -Xmx16g for 16 GB heap size or -Xmx48g for 48 GB heap size. Save and close the file.
    Because Promotion Management Wizard is an eclipse-java based application, some additional memory parameters can be added too based on your Java expertise.

 

Welcome Promotion Management Step:-

Tuning Temporary Folder Space:

This space is critical to a successful promotion.  If the temporary space is not enough, the process will fail.

  • In the welcome screen of PMW, a temporary folder location can be defined. Ensure that this location has more than sufficient space for the promotion content chosen.
  • The summary screen provides a suggested maximum temporary space. Use it as a guideline.
  • A useful sizing guideline is 2.5 x FRS size [Eg: 50GB of frs size x 2.5 = 125 GB of temporary space required )

Change Temporary Folder and Log location as per the above calculation.

 

Login with source CMS administrator user-id

 

Select Promote Live to Live CMS, or Export (Live CMS to lcmbiar File)

CMS Live to Live data copy required source and Destination CMS details.

In Live to lcmbiar file data copy required source CMS and lcmbiar file location.

On the next screen select selective content promotion.

Select all folders or based on your compute you can copy reports in chunks.

 

You can see all reports details on the left-hand side based on the selected folder.

Next screen Computing Dependencies (OLAP connector details etc ..)

Dependencies:-

Summary:-

Finish:-

Post Report copy needs to change all OLAP connectors based on pre- refresh screens.

Reminder: The tool is designed for a mass copy. No rollback doable!

PMW tool is available for Linux OS as well.

If you are using the Export methodology for BO report copy then need to perform the below setup for import biar files to the target system(Live CMS to lcmbiar File).

Select Import (lcmbiar file to Live CMS) for import source report.

Provide biar files and target CMS system details

 

See Also

SAP KBA 2464908 – SAP BI Promotion Management Best Practice.

 

Some Other tasks you can perform by PMW:-

  • Copy BOBJ system build
  • Copy only Access Level, Applications, BusinessView, Calendars, Universes, user , user groups, etc.
  • Cloud migration by building BOBJ server coping config by PMW

I hope the PMW tool will help you with BOBJ refresh.

 

Cheers!

Anikesh Jyotishi

 

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      3 Comments
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      Author's profile photo Abhishek Sinha
      Abhishek Sinha

      Thanks a lot for publishing this Anikesh.

      Quite informative and Very well written. The amount of details put in for each step will help others adapt and emulate this with ease.

       

      Cheers,

      Abhishek

      Author's profile photo Jaskaran Singh
      Jaskaran Singh

      Very Illustrative blog on BOBJ Refresh from Production to Non-Production environment. Steps are well explained and helpful to perform similar refresh in our landscape.

      Author's profile photo rathish s
      rathish s

      Thanks a lot for publishing it . It is very helpful