Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide

Transcription

1 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Broadcast Agent version 6.5 Windows and UNIX

2 2 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Copyright Trademarks Use restrictions Patents Copyright 2004 Business Objects. All rights reserved. If you find any problems with this documentation, please report them to Business Objects in writing at documentation@businessobjects.com. Business Objects, the Business Objects logo, Crystal Reports, and Crystal Enterprise are trademarks or registered trademarks of Business Objects SA or its affiliated companies in the United States and other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Contains IBM Runtime Environment for AIX(R), Java(TM) 2 Technology Edition Runtime Modules (c) Copyright IBM Corporation 1999, All Rights Reserved. This product includes code licensed from RSA Security, Inc. Some portions licensed from IBM are available at Contains ICU libraries (c) International Business Machines Corporation and others. All rights reserved. This software and documentation is commercial computer software under Federal Acquisition regulations, and is provided only under the Restricted Rights of the Federal Acquisition Regulations applicable to commercial computer software provided at private expense. The use, duplication, or disclosure by the U.S. Government is subject to restrictions set forth in subdivision (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clause at Business Objects owns the following U.S. patents, which may cover products that are offered and sold by Business Objects: 5,555,403, 6,247,008 B1, 6,578,027 B2, 6,490,593 and 6,289,352. Part Number

3 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 3 Contents Contents 3 Preface Maximizing Your Information Resources 7 Information resources Services Useful addresses at a glance About this guide Chapter 1 Introduction to Broadcast Agent 15 Structure of this guide What you can do with Broadcast Agent Access and security Chapter 2 How Broadcast Agent Works 21 Broadcast Agent server components Workflow summary Monitoring and controlling Tasks Broadcast Agent as a distributed solution Chapter 3 Deploying Broadcast Agent 33 Sizing guidelines Matching components with machines UNIX or Windows? Optimizing performance Server filenames, pathnames, and permissions Configuring database connections LDAP Contents

4 4 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Chapter 4 Installing and Configuring Broadcast Agent 53 Installing Broadcast Agent Creating a Broadcast Agent Broadcast Agent Schedulers Fine-tuning Broadcast Agent Report bursting International time zones Custom macros and add-ins Universes functions Upgrading from version 5.x Chapter 5 The Broadcast Agent Console 93 Installing and launching the Console Modifying the display Security features Basic task management Modifying task properties Task scheduling Chapter 6 Troubleshooting 121 Resolving database connection failure File Watcher cannot find files Report bursting InfoView doesn t display all documents Low printing performance Problems with time zones Add-ins causing errors Documents with a Cartesian product Data disappears from user objects Chapter 7 Solving Business Problems with Broadcast Agent 133 Typical Business Objects deployment Report bursting: a business scenario Custom macros for custom solutions Contents

5 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 5 Index 143 Contents

6 6 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Contents

7 Maximizing Your Information Resources preface

8 8 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Overview Information, services, and solutions The Business Objects business intelligence solution is supported by thousands of pages of documentation, available from the products, on the Internet, on CD, and by extensive online help systems and multimedia. Packed with in-depth technical information, business examples, and advice on troubleshooting and best practices, this comprehensive documentation set provides concrete solutions to your business problems. Business Objects also offers a complete range of support and services to help maximize the return on your business intelligence investment. See in the following sections how Business Objects can help you plan for and successfully meet your specific technical support, education, and consulting requirements.

9 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 9 Information resources Whatever your Business Objects profile, we can help you quickly access the documentation and other information you need. Where do I start? Below are a few suggested starting points; there is a summary of useful web addresses on page 12. Documentation Roadmap The Documentation Roadmap references all Business Objects guides and multimedia, and lets you see at a glance what information is available, from where, and in what format. View or download the Business Objects Documentation Roadmap at Documentation from the products You can access electronic documentation at any time from the product you are using. Online help, multimedia, and guides in Adobe PDF format are available from the product Help menus. Documentation on the web The full electronic documentation set is available to customers with a valid maintenance agreement on the Online Customer Support (OCS) website at Buy printed documentation You can order printed documentation through your local sales office, or from the online Business Objects Documentation Supply Store at Search the Documentation CD Search across the entire documentation set on the Business Objects Documentation CD shipped with our products. This CD brings together the full set of documentation, plus tips, tricks, multimedia tutorials, and demo materials. Order the Documentation CD online, from the Business Objects Documentation Supply Store, or from your local sales office. Information resources

10 10 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Multimedia Are you new to Business Objects? Are you upgrading from a previous release or expanding, for example, from our desktop to our web solution? Try one of our multimedia quick tours or Getting Started tutorials. All are available via the Online Customer Support (OCS) website or on the Documentation CD. How can I get the most recent documentation? You can get our most up-to-date documentation via the web. Regularly check the sites listed below for the latest documentation, samples, and tips. Tips & Tricks Open to everyone, this is a regularly updated source of creative solutions to any number of business questions. You can even contribute by sending us your own tips. Product documentation We regularly update and expand our documentation and multimedia offerings. With a valid maintenance agreement, you can get the latest documentation in seven languages on the Online Customer Support (OCS) website. Developer Suite Online Developer Suite Online provides documentation, samples, and tips to those customers with a valid maintenance agreement and a Developer Suite license via the Online Customer Support (OCS) website. Send us your feedback Do you have a suggestion on how we can improve our documentation? Is there something you particularly like or have found useful? Drop us a line, and we will do our best to ensure that your suggestion is included in the next release of our documentation: documentation@businessobjects.com NOTE If your issue concerns a Business Objects product and not the documentation, please contact our Customer Support experts. For information about Customer Support visit:

11 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 11 Services A global network of Business Objects technology experts provides customer support, education, and consulting to ensure maximum business intelligence benefit to your business. How we can support you? Business Objects offers customer support plans to best suit the size and requirements of your deployment. We operate three global customer support centers: Americas: San Jose, California and Atlanta, Georgia Europe: Maidenhead, United Kingdom Asia: Tokyo, Japan and Sydney, Australia Online Customer Support Our Customer Support website is open to all direct customers with a current maintenance agreement, and provides the most up-to-date Business Objects product and technical information. You can log, update, and track cases from this site using the Business Objects Knowledge Base. Having an issue with the product? Have you exhausted the troubleshooting resources at your disposal and still not found a solution to a specific issue? For support in deploying Business Objects products, contact Worldwide Customer Support at: Looking for the best deployment solution for your company? Business Objects consultants can accompany you from the initial analysis stage to the delivery of your deployment project. Expertise is available in relational and multidimensional databases, in connectivities, database design tools, customized embedding technology, and more. For more information, contact your local sales office, or contact us at: www. businessobjects.com/services/consulting.htm Looking for training options? From traditional classroom learning to targeted e-learning seminars, we can offer a training package to suit your learning needs and preferred learning style. Find more information on the Business Objects Education website: Services

12 12 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Useful addresses at a glance Address Business Objects Documentation documentation.htm Business Objects Documentation mailbox Content Overview of Business Objects documentation. Links to Online Customer Support, Documentation Supply Store, Documentation Roadmap, Tips & Tricks, Documentation mailbox. Feedback or questions about documentation. documentation@businessobjects. com Product documentation services/support.htm Business Objects product information The latest Business Objects product documentation, to download or view online. Information about the full range of Business Objects products. Developer Suite Online com Knowledge Base (KB) com Available to customers with a valid maintenance agreement and a Developer Suite license via the Online Customer Support (OCS) website. Provides all the documentation, latest samples, kits and tips. Technical articles, documents, case resolutions. Also, use the Knowledge Exchange to learn what challenges other users both customers and employees face and what strategies they find to address complex issues. From the Knowledge Base, click the Knowledge Exchange link.

13 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 13 Address Tips & Tricks Content Practical business-focused examples. tipsandtricks_login.asp Online Customer Support com Starting point for answering questions, resolving issues. services Business Objects Education Services Information about registering with Worldwide Customer Support. The range of Business Objects training options and modules. services/education.htm Business Objects Consulting Services services/consulting.htm Information on how Business Objects can help maximize your business intelligence investment. Useful addresses at a glance

14 14 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide About this guide This guide describes the architecture of Broadcast Agent Scheduler and explains the main administrative tasks required to set up and maintain a Broadcast Agent Scheduler system. Audience This guide is intended for systems administrators who already have a working knowledge of the following: The operating system(s) on which the system is running (Microsoft Windows or UNIX). The Business Objects product suite. Conventions used in this guide The conventions used in this guide are described in the table below. Convention Small capitals This font Some code more code $DIRECTORYPATHNAME Indicates The names of all products such as BusinessObjects, WebIntelligence, Supervisor, and Designer. Code, SQL syntax, computer programs. For Id). This font is also used for all paths, directories, scripts, commands and files for UNIX. Placed at the end of a line of code, the symbol ( ) indicates that the next line should be entered continuously with no carriage return. The path to a directory in the Business Objects installation/configuration directory structure. For example: $INSTALLDIR refers to the Business Objects installation directory. $LOCDATADIR refers to a subdirectory of the BusinessObjects installation directory called locdata.

15 Introduction to Broadcast Agent chapter

16 16 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Overview Broadcast Agent enables WebIntelligence and BusinessObjects users to process and distribute documents, automatically and securely, at scheduled dates and times. For example, you can schedule a document to be refreshed from a corporate database on the first Monday of every month, and have the new information distributed automatically to user groups. Documents can be distributed via a secured Business Objects repository, a local file system, an intranet, or an extranet. Broadcast Agent effectively shields users from the complexity of the underlying system. Users schedule tasks by means of a simple graphical user interface. For systems administrators, the Business Objects Administration Console provides easy configuration and optimization of modules on all servers. Broadcast Agent is a server product, installed as a distributed solution across one or more servers on a CORBA network. This architecture enables Broadcast Agent to offer robust performance, scalability, load balancing, and failover. To use Broadcast Agent you must be familiar with Supervisor. Introduction to Broadcast Agent

17 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 17 Structure of this guide This guide is divided into the following chapters: Introduction to Broadcast Agent (this chapter) Provides an overview of the product and what you can do with it. How Broadcast Agent Works Introduces the components and tools that make up the complete Broadcast Agent system, and explains how these work together in a clustered deployment. Deploying Broadcast Agent Discusses issues related to deployment and sizing. Includes a number of tasks you need to perform before beginning the installation of Broadcast Agent. Installing and Configuring Broadcast Agent Reviews the tasks necessary to install and configure the product. Using the Broadcast Agent Console After Broadcast Agent is installed on your servers, and documents are scheduled, you can monitor and control Broadcast Agent activity with the Broadcast Agent Console. The Console displays information about all scheduled tasks, and can also be used to change task information. Troubleshooting Provides solutions to a number of possible issues, such as how to fix a failed connection to the repository. Problem-solving with Broadcast Agent Examines some advanced ways to use Broadcast Agent, focusing on how the product can dramatically improve the performance of an enterprise business intelligence solution. Structure of this guide

18 18 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide What you can do with Broadcast Agent You can use Broadcast Agent to schedule documents for processing and distribution at off-peak times. This cuts down on network traffic at peak times, and enables documents to be automatically printed or refreshed via the Internet at night or over the weekend. You can also set conditions, so that Broadcast Agent processes and distributes documents only when specified conditions occur. For example: increased revenue in a given region daily sales figures for a given product pass a certain value Automated document scheduling and distribution Broadcast Agent provides scheduled or batch processing of BusinessObjects and WebIntelligence documents. You send a document to Broadcast Agent using BusinessObjects or InfoView, specifying scheduling and distribution information. No understanding of the server configuration is required. You can publish documents on the repository, on a web server, or on the server file system. Users with access to the repository can view corporate documents that Broadcast Agent has processed. Adding VBA routines Broadcast Agent can automate BusinessObjects documents containing routines written in Microsoft VBA (Visual Basic for Applications) development language. By adding VBA routines to your BusinessObjects documents, you can customize the system to automate almost any task. For example, a scheduled report could: trigger a speech synthesizer call to a mobile telephone if a certain condition is met generate messages or pager signals to alert individuals to a given situation Report bursting Power users with access rights to all documents and database connections might not want all the people who receive a document to see the same information. Report bursting answers this need by letting you automatically generate different versions of a document. Each version is sent to individuals with a given user profile. (See Report bursting on page 81.) Introduction to Broadcast Agent

19 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 19 BusinessObjects Supervisors set up these user profiles. Profiles define access rights, such as the data each user can view, which database connections are available, which universes, and so on. What you can do with Broadcast Agent

20 20 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Access and security You can deploy Broadcast Agent for any group of BusinessObjects or WebIntelligence users. Users can schedule operations on both WebIntelligence and BusinessObjects documents if they have the required access rights. The administrator that is, a supervisor-level user grants these access rights in Supervisor. The supervisor also defines Broadcast Agent properties, such as: the Broadcast Agent name the document domain in which documents are stored a password for the Broadcast Agent Console Broadcast Agent benefits from the access and security provided by the Business Objects repository: Pass-through database security Broadcast Agent can be configured to connect to the database using the user name and password of the user who scheduled the document. This allows the use of only one password, which simplifies administrative work. Multiple repositories Broadcast Agent asks for the security domain when a document is scheduled, then passes this information to the appropriate server at run time. Introduction to Broadcast Agent

21 How Broadcast Agent Works chapter

22 22 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Overview This chapter presents the components and tools that make up the complete Broadcast Agent system, and explains how these work together in a clustered deployment to provide a distributed solution. You can deploy Broadcast Agent on a UNIX cluster, a Windows cluster or a mixed (heterogeneous) cluster. A number of limitations and performance considerations are reviewed. In the next chapter, the issues involved in deploying Broadcast Agent are discussed, along with some server sizing guidelines and recommendations for configuring database connections. How Broadcast Agent Works

23 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 23 Broadcast Agent server components The Broadcast Agent system contains a number of interdependent server components. You configure and monitor these components in the Administration Console. The server components are summarized in the table below. Component Function Scheduler Initiates the processes required to perform scheduled tasks. Broadcast Starts and controls multiple Schedulers. Agent Manager BusObj Refreshes BusinessObjects (full-client) documents. BOManager Starts and controls multiple BusObj processes. Batch processing can be enabled or deactivated on each node, to allow or prevent Broadcast Agent tasks being scheduled on that node. WIQT WebIntelligence Query Technique. Refreshes WebIntelligence 2.x documents in interactive mode (documents on which a user is currently working) as well as in batch mode (scheduled tasks). WICDZServer The WebIntelligence 6.x server. This multi-threaded component processes requests for WebIntelligence 6.x documents. Schedulers There must be at least one Scheduler for each named Broadcast Agent. Each Scheduler periodically queries the repository to determine which documents are due for processing. In the Administration Console, you determine how frequently the Scheduler queries the repository by setting the Scanning Repository Delay parameter. By default, the scan occurs every ten minutes. When a scheduled task is due, the Scheduler sends the task to a BOManager process, for BusinessObjects documents, or a wiqt_batch process, for WebIntelligence documents. There may be several of these processes running on machines in your cluster, in which case a load-balancing algorithm is used to send the task to the least busy machine. If a task fails, the Scheduler automatically retries it after a certain delay. This delay is set using the Delay between retry parameter. Broadcast Agent server components

24 24 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide What happens if a Scheduler shuts down or fails? You can provide Scheduler failover functionality by deploying two or more Schedulers on separate servers. If one machine fails, the other Scheduler automatically takes over the failed Scheduler s jobs. The multiple schedules can be in the same cluster or on separate ones. As long as they reference the same repository they can pick up the same jobs. To provide further failover, you can run two separate clusters on the same repository, both with Schedulers for your mission-critical Broadcast Agent tasks. With this configuration, even if an entire cluster fails, the tasks are processed correctly. BOManager BOManager receives instructions from the Scheduler to process full-client documents that are due. BOManager launches one BusinessObjects session, or re-uses an existing loaded process, per document. BusinessObjects then extracts the documents from the repository s document domain, and processes them according to actions set by the user at submission time. Normally, the document is refreshed, and then published as a corporate document, via either the file system, through a web server, or sent to one or more users via the repository. EXAMPLE Scheduling a document for automatic refresh A user requests that Broadcast Agent refresh a document named Sales.rep at 8:00 pm on Friday: The first time the Scheduler queries the repository after 8:00 pm, it retrieves the information that Sales.rep is due for processing, and passes this on to the BOManager. BOManager launches a BusinessObjects process. BusinessObjects extracts Sales.rep from the repository. BusinessObjects on the server runs the Refresh command, saves the updated document, and then returns it to the repository. How Broadcast Agent Works

25 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 25 BusinessObjects on UNIX and Windows On UNIX nodes, the executables started by the BOManager to process BusinessObjects documents are called bolight whereas on Windows nodes the executables are called busobj.exe. The functionality of these two components is the same except for certain Windows-specific features, such as VBA macros or certain database connectivities. WIQT The Scheduler scans the repository for scheduling jobs that are due. When a WebIntelligence 2.x document is due, the Scheduler requests a wiqt process to refresh the document. In turn, wiqt calls a wiqt_batch process, which fetches the document, and then processes the task according to the actions set by the user. For example, the document could be refreshed and then published as a corporate document, or sent to a list of users via the repository. WICDZServer WICDZServer receives instructions from the Scheduler to process WebIntelligence 6.x documents that are due. It then launches one WebIntelligence session per document. WebIntelligence then extracts the documents from the repository s document domain, and processes them according to actions set by the user at submission time. Normally, the document is refreshed, and then published as a corporate document, or sent to one or more users via the repository. Broadcast Agent server components

26 26 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Workflow summary Using BusinessObjects or InfoView, users send documents to Broadcast Agent. They set the actions they want Broadcast Agent to perform, along with options for scheduling, categories, and distribution. The documents that users send to Broadcast Agent are stored in the repository s document domain that has been allocated to that Broadcast Agent. The Scheduler periodically scans the domain and extracts documents that are due for processing. The Scheduler passes due BusinessObjects documents to the BOManager, which launches one instance of BusinessObjects on the server per document. Similarly, WebIntelligence documents are passed to a wiqt process (via the WICDZServer in the case of a WebIntelligence 6.x document). On the server, BusinessObjects or WIQT performs the actions the user requested on the document. How Broadcast Agent Works

27 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 27 The diagram below summarizes this workflow. WebIntelligence or BusinessObjects user Corporate database Repository Documents refreshed WebIntelligence or BusinessObjects users wiqt instance busobj instance wiqt instance Broadcast Agent BOManager WICDZServer Task 1 Scheduler Task 2 Task 3 Workflow summary

28 28 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Monitoring and controlling Tasks Broadcast Agent Console When Broadcast Agent is functioning, users can begin scheduling documents. You monitor the processing activity by viewing the list of sent documents and their characteristics. This is done in the Broadcast Agent Console. (The Console is fully described in The Broadcast Agent Console on page 93.) The Console enables you to: monitor the status of all processed and pending tasks modify tasks reschedule tasks that have either failed or expired execute actions such as deleting a task or running a task immediately The Console has direct access to both the Scheduler and the repository, and can be located on any machine that has access to the repository and is on the same subnet as the CORBA network. For more information, refer to Broadcast Agent as a distributed solution on page 30. The Console is also available in BusinessObjects and InfoView, so that BusinessObjects users can monitor the documents they send to Broadcast Agent. How Broadcast Agent Works

29 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 29 Administration Console The Administration Console is a utility that allows you enable, deactivate, and control the Broadcast Agent Managers and Schedulers on your cluster, as well as all the other modules on your BusinessObjects and Broadcast Agent systems. You must install the Administration Console before you deploy Broadcast Agent. For a full description of the modules, see the Administrator s Guide. Monitoring and controlling Tasks

30 30 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Broadcast Agent as a distributed solution Broadcast Agent is a collection of server components that can be deployed over a distributed CORBA network. You can also install all Broadcast Agent components on a single server, in a Windows environment. In this case, the only connection you require is to the repository. (Deployment is fully explained in Deploying Broadcast Agent on page 33.) Setting up Broadcast Agent as a distributed solution, however, provides the following advantages: Scalability CORBA enables server solutions to be deployed on multiple server machines. As the document scheduling and distribution needs of your organization grow, you can manage the extra workload by adding Broadcast Agent machines to your network. Load balancing Broadcast Agent allows you to distribute your document processing over several different machines, in order to balance the workload. When one server is busy, jobs are processed by the next server. Failover Failover ensures that Broadcast Agent automatically restarts tasks that fail, in the event of a server crash. Broadcast Agent provides two types of failover: - When a task fails, the Scheduler automatically starts the task again on another server, if necessary. - If the Scheduler itself fails, Broadcast Agent automatically restarts it. Server optimization via caches The Business Objects product line includes several cache mechanisms to improve server performance, especially in large deployments. Because of these advantages, Business Objects recommends that you deploy Broadcast Agent as a distributed solution, that is, in a cluster. The Broadcast Agent cluster A Broadcast Agent cluster contains one or more server machines, each hosting one or more nodes that run Broadcast Agent server processes. Clusters contain the following types of nodes: Primary node The primary node serves as the central coordinator between all the nodes in the cluster. There is only one primary node per cluster; if the cluster contains How Broadcast Agent Works

31 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 31 only one node, it is the primary node. Secondary node Client node A client node can be used to access the Broadcast Agent through the Broadcast Agent Console, and to use the Administration Console without being on the server itself. A CORBA connection is required. Under Windows, only one node can be configured per server machine. Under UNIX, multiple nodes can be hosted on a single machine, if each of them belongs to a different cluster. In a heterogeneous cluster, that is, mixed UNIX and Windows servers, you can make the file systems visible to each type of server. You can do this with thirdparty tools such as Microsoft UNIX Services for NT, or the Open Source product, Samba. For details, see the documentation for these products. Broadcast Agent as a distributed solution

32 32 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide How Broadcast Agent Works

33 Deploying Broadcast Agent chapter

34 34 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Overview This chapter discusses issues related to deployment and sizing. These issues include: Sizing guidelines Looks at the factors that impact the size and number of machines you need for Broadcast Agent. Matching components to machines Which Broadcast Agent component should you run on which machine? UNIX vs. Windows You can deploy Broadcast Agent in a UNIX cluster, a Windows cluster or in a mixed, or heterogeneous, cluster. A number of limitations and performance considerations are reviewed. Optimizing performance For example, optimizing your servers by using caches. Server filenames, pathnames, and permissions The proper formats are discussed. Configuring database connections Using Broadcast Agent with Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) The chapter also includes a number of tasks you need to perform before starting to install Broadcast Agent. Deploying Broadcast Agent

35 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 35 Sizing guidelines The size and number of machines you need for Broadcast Agent varies depending on a number of factors, including the: quantity of documents to be scheduled complexity of the documents refresh frequency speed of the connection between the repository and the Broadcast Agent server speed of the underlying database number of users simultaneously accessing the data In general, a document being processed by Broadcast Agent requires the same amount of RAM and CPU time as if it were processed in the same way by an interactive user. If 100 documents are scheduled for refresh at the same time, it is the equivalent of 100 concurrent users all logged in and running simultaneous queries. If your system is unable to cope with the level of activity requested, then some tasks may fail or be delayed until the system is less busy. Take this into account when making decisions about server sizing, as well as when scheduling your documents. If you use multiple-refresh report bursting (see Report bursting on page 81) with options set to refresh each user s copy of a report according to that user s profile, a separate refresh is carried out for each recipient. In other words, if you burst a document according to the profile of 100 recipients, it carries the same load as refreshing the document 100 times. Memory requirements by document type The amount of RAM required for each document to be processed depends on its length and complexity. Typical requirements are as follows: WebIntelligence version 2.x documents: 6-40 MB; average size 12 MB WebIntelligence version 6.x documents: 2-40 MB; average size 10 MB BusinessObjects documents: MB; average size 16 MB The document size is the same whether the server is UNIX- or Windows-based. The best way to ensure the memory requirements for your deployment is to build the reports on a test system and find out how large they actually are. You can then size your servers accordingly. Sizing guidelines

36 36 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Number of Broadcast Agents and Schedulers You can configure multiple Broadcast Agents in your deployment, and multiple Schedulers for each Broadcast Agent. The advantage of having several Broadcast Agents is that you can have one for each user group for example, Sales and Finance, defined in each repository. One advantage of having two or more Schedulers for each Broadcast Agent is for failover. Without a working Scheduler, no jobs are processed. Because an additional Scheduler does not use significant resources, many configurations include two Schedulers on different machines for each Broadcast Agent. In this way, even if one node fails, the tasks are still processed. A typical cluster configuration has one or more Schedulers, plus either a BOManager or WIQT, on every secondary node. Deploying Broadcast Agent

37 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 37 Matching components with machines This section explains which Broadcast Agent components to run on which machines. (For information on components, see Broadcast Agent server components on page 23.) You are not obliged to set up your Broadcast Agent cluster over multiple servers. If you decided to install all components on one machine, you must declare the machine as the primary node when you install Broadcast Agent. Running Broadcast Agent server software and BusinessObjects client software on the same machine is not recommended. When Broadcast Agent or WebIntelligence services are running, they automatically launch and stop BusinessObjects instances. On the same machine, these system sessions can interfere with the interactive BusinessObjects user session. The machine running the Scheduler does not need exceptional processing power or disk space. However, machines running BOManager and WIQT require much more processing power. NOTE You can limit the number of processes that are run concurrently on each machine by using the parameter settings in the WIQT and Scheduler modules. (See Report bursting on page 81.) Any machine that runs the BOManager or WIQT processes must be equipped with at least 256MB of RAM, but Business Objects recommends more if possible. You must have an additional 16 MB for each job that it is configured to run concurrently. We recommend that you also configure sufficient swapping space to allow for peak conditions. Keep in mind that: if a job cannot be handled with the available RAM, swapping occurs and processing slows down. if swapping occurs and the swapping space is exceeded, performance is greatly affected, and eventually the system may become unstable. NOTE Do not install Broadcast Agent on the same machine as the repository database server. Matching components with machines

38 38 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide A WebIntelligence session use the BOManager located on the same node as the other processes involved in the session (WISessionManager, WIApiBroker, WIQT, WIReportServer, WIDispatcher). A Scheduler on any machine can process documents (using WIQT or BOManager) on any machine in the same cluster, if the component is enabled and its Enable Batch Processing parameter is set to On. The Scheduler itself uses very little CPU time or RAM, and can easily reside on the same machine as a BOManager or wiqt process without significantly impacting performance. The Broadcast Agent Console and the Administration Console are relatively lightweight user interfaces, and do not consume significant resources. They can be installed on any machine on the subnet, not necessarily a server node, but they must be installed on a client node at least. If your system is processing both WebIntelligence 2.x and 6.x documents, you can set the Max No WebI 2.x jobs running and Max No WebI 6.x jobs running parameters to proportionally balance the load between the two types. For example, if you have 80% of your scheduled documents in WebIntelligence 2.x format, and only 20% in 6.x, then set the Max No WebI 2.x jobs running to four times the Max No WebI 6.x jobs running. Deploying Broadcast Agent

39 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 39 UNIX or Windows? You can deploy Broadcast Agent on either a UNIX cluster, a Windows cluster, or a mixed, or heterogeneous, cluster. Using a heterogeneous cluster, you can utilize the additional functionality of Windows for some tasks, while still using your UNIX machines for other tasks. In this environment, the BOManagers in a given cluster that are used for interactive processing (Enable Interactive Processing set to On) must be all on UNIX or all on Windows. When used for batch processing (Enable Batch Process set to On), BOManager can run on both UNIX and Windows systems. Broadcast Agent redirects tasks as needed. In general, UNIX nodes can be used to process the majority of tasks, while Windows nodes provide some additional connectivities and functionalities, such as access to OLAP data sources The following Broadcast Agent functionalities are available on Windows only: Direct access to some OLAP data sources Contact Business Objects customer support for the current list of supported OLAP servers. Visual Basic procedures used as data providers Personal data files Custom macros in VBA These macros depend on Microsoft proprietary technologies that are not currently supported under UNIX. Some RDBMS data sources Contact Business Objects customer support for current information. If your users need to access any of the above functionalities via Broadcast Agent, you must use Windows nodes for executing Broadcast Agent tasks that is, with a BOManager process enabled. You can set up multiple Broadcast Agent Schedulers and BOManager processes, on either UNIX or Windows nodes, in the same cluster. NOTE For a full, up-to-date list of supported tools on both Windows and UNIX, contact Business Objects customer support. UNIX or Windows?

40 40 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Optimizing performance Using the Administration Console, you can optimize Broadcast Agent performance by specifying: the number of documents per day that Broadcast Agent can process simultaneously how often the Scheduler checks the repository for waiting tasks how long Broadcast Agent waits before reloading a failed task For more information about the Administration Console, see Enabling and disabling components on page 73. Server optimization using caches The Business Objects product line includes several cache mechanisms to improve server performance, especially in large deployments. Login cache After users execute a task via Broadcast Agent, they do not have to log in again when submitting subsequent tasks. BOManager caches their login information for each Broadcast Agent task. If users have the appropriate access rights, the session context for the task is restored directly from the cache. The life span of cache entries is controlled by the Scheduler login cache duration parameter in BOManager. (See Report bursting on page 81.) The login cache is for BusinessObjects Full Client reports only. Presentation cache To help prevent overloads at peak transaction periods, you can preload the cache when you process a task. When you schedule a corporate document with Broadcast Agent from BusinessObjects, you can cache the document s presentation by using one of the following options: Enhanced Document Viewing Generates the document in metafile format, which is recognized by the ActiveX viewer in InfoView. The metafile is then stored in the server cache. Standard HTML Generates the HTML for scheduled corporate documents, suitable for the standard HTML document viewer in InfoView. PDF Available for other users without any need to regenerate the PDF, unless a change has occurred in the document. Deploying Broadcast Agent

41 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 41 To access these options in BusinessObjects: 1. From the File menu, select Publish To and Corporate Documents. The Send dialog box opens. 2. Click Schedule... The Schedule Corporate Documents dialog box opens. 3. Click the Actions tab. 4. Click Faster Document VIewing Over The Web, then click Options... The Select the document format dialog box opens with the available categories that correspond to the cache options. The first time an InfoView user asks to view the document in a certain format, BOManager retrieves the presentation and stores it in a cache on the Storage Manager machine. The generated files are then removed after the document is viewed for the first time, and the document itself is passed to the InfoView cache. When other users then access the document in InfoView, they access a pre generated file. This means that: InfoView requests for BusinessObjects documents do not require logging into BOManager there are fewer demands on available processes in your cluster the document s presentation doesn t have to be generated the document is displayed faster and more efficiently response time remains constant and doesn t depend on the document s size or complexity CPU power and busobj processes are made available for refreshing documents (ad hoc queries) Optimizing performance

42 42 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide In large organizations, where important documents are viewed regularly by thousands of users, caching can prevent critical system congestion and overload. Encourage users to preprocess all corporate documents that they expect will be viewed by multiple users particularly PDF documents, which may require substantial processor time to generate. Schedule documents to be refreshed often. If the cached presentation is always up-to-date, recipients won t need to refresh them. Cached documents take up only about 5 KB of disk space per document, plus 20 KB per metafile page. PDF and HTML documents, by contrast, often reach several megabytes. Do you need to install an HTTP server to use Broadcast Agent? An HTTP server is needed to run WebIntelligence, and also to use the Publish to Channel and Distribute via Web operations in Broadcast Agent. You don't need to install an HTTP server if you wish to use Broadcast Agent only in conjunction with full-client BusinessObjects. Broadcast Agent automatically detects the web server when InfoView is not installed. Deploying Broadcast Agent

43 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 43 Server filenames, pathnames, and permissions Broadcast Agent users specify a pathname and filename when using: the File Watcher option to schedule tasks to run only when a specific file is present (See File Watcher on page 118.) the Distribute via File System option to copy a scheduled document to a specific location the Distribute via Web Server option Save as RTF Save as TXT Save as PDF Save as XLS These functions are accessed via the Actions and Distribution tabs of the Send Document to Broadcast Agent dialogue box in BusinessObjects. The pathname relates to the server on which the process (BOManager) is running, not to the user s machine. For example, if the user selects Save as RTF with the filename C:\MyFile, Broadcast Agent attempts to save the file to that location on the server, not on the client. NOTE To specify a pathname or filename on a machine other than the server on which the Broadcast Agent is running, you must specify a full UNC (Universal Naming Convention) name; for example (under Windows): \\MyMachine\SharedFolder\MyFile. The BOManager executing the scheduled task must have the required permissions: to write to the file itself and its parent folder to access every folder in the path For example, if a Windows user specifies Save as TXT with the filename: \\MyMachine\MyFolder1\MyFolder2\MyFile then the BOManager must have permission to access MyMachine, MyFolder1, MyFolder2, and MyFile, and permission to write to MyFolder2 and MyFile. Server filenames, pathnames, and permissions

44 44 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide Instead of specifying a filename, you can send a job through Broadcast Agent on a UNIX machine using the default location. The default location for all scheduled jobs in the $BO_FILE_PATH environment variable is defined in the following directory: $INSTALLDIR/nodes/servername/mycluster/MyWebIEnv.sh. UNIX and Windows pathname conversion Broadcast Agent automatically converts Windows pathnames (with backslash delimiters, \ ) to UNIX pathnames (with forward slash delimiters, / ) when needed. This conversion is transparent to the user. For example, if you specify the path: \usr\current it is interpreted by a Scheduler on a Windows server as c:\usr\current (where c: is the default drive), or on a UNIX scheduler as /usr/current. NOTE Encourage users to follow the Windows convention (with a backslash) as this is interpreted correctly on either system. UNIX format pathnames (with a / ) will be interpreted correctly only on UNIX servers. You can mount file systems on UNIX servers to map to file systems on another networked UNIX machine, so that users have the functionality they require without needing to know the physical location of the files. See your UNIX documentation for further information. Ensure that directories are mounted appropriately on UNIX machines so that any Windows files that users need to access from UNIX systems are in accessible folders. Inform users that Windows filenames are not case sensitive. UNIX filenames, however, are case sensitive. NOTE When you use a printer other than the default printer, you must enter its path in the Select the Printer box under Print Properties. The printer name entered here must be in exactly the same case (the combination of upper and lower case letters) as the printer name specified on the server. Deploying Broadcast Agent

45 Broadcast Agent Administrator s Guide 45 Setting the $BO_FILE_PATH variable On a UNIX server, you can define the variable $BO_FILE_PATH to enable Windows filenames to map to UNIX file names correctly. For example, you can add the following line to the WebIEnv.sh file: BO_FILE_PATH=/opt/webidoc/ ; export BO_FILE_PATH and the following line to the WebIEnv.csh file: setenv BO_FILE_PATH /opt/webidoc/ This causes the pathnames specified to be mapped, as shown in the following table. NOTE The conversion results in lower-case UNIX pathnames, regardless of the case used in Windows. Windows path MyFile \\Server\MyFile D:\MyFolder\MyFile UNIX path on server /opt/webidoc/myfile /opt/webidoc/server/myfile /opt/webidoc/d/myfolder/myfile What users do The path that the BusinessObjects user enters in the Save As, Distribute via Web Server or Distribute via the Server File System boxes in the Send Document to Broadcast Agent dialog box depends on whether you, the administrator, define the BO_FILE_PATH variable. Path naming convention You can name paths in any of the following formats: UNC, which expresses the location on the network by giving a machine name as well as a path: \\<machinename>\<pathname>\<filename> Server filenames, pathnames, and permissions