BICS Connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0 John Mrozek / AGS December 01, 2011
Introduction Business Intelligence Consumer Services connectivity for Web Intelligence in SAP BI 4.0 This presentation will outline the new BICS connectivity for SAP Business Objects 4.0. It will show how Webi reporting on SAP BW has changed for the better as well give some technical information that will help those using the solution get the most out of it. Target Audience SAP Business Objects BI 4.0 Administrators who s reporting landscape includes SAP BW systems. 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 2
Take Away Upon the completion of this presentation, system administrators will have an understanding of the new architecture of Web Intelligence s connectivity to SAP BW. They will also have an understanding of some of the configuration options and sizing considerations that must be evaluated when such reporting is to be done. Finally, some troubleshooting methodologies will be learned that should speed root cause analysis. In short, the intent of this presentation is to give a deep understanding of BICS connectivity which will lend itself to the maintenance and use of the solution in the years to come. 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 3
Agenda 1. About BICS 2. The DSL Bridge 3. Deployment Information 4. General Troubleshooting 5. Let SAP Help 6. How-Tos 7. Q&A 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 4
About BICS
What is BICS? 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 6
What is BICS? Business Intelligence Consumer Services BICS is the BW data access layer for BEx tools Enables BW frontend tools / Planning Applications and Java Applications to access OLAP data in a unified way Part of NetWeaver 04s release Focus on direct client usage rather than a functional type of approach such as that of MDX or SQL Provide exciting features beyond that of classic OLAP such as exception reporting, list calculation, document integration etc. 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 7
Why BICS? Consumer Consumer Universe MDX BICS BEx Query BEx Query InfoProviders InfoProviders 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 8
Why BICS? Advantages OLAP look and feel Can interact with data in BW as well as non BW sources No longer need to manually create / maintain universes (for example, if the underlying BEx Query changes) Improved performance 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 9
Special note on BICS Be Aware Business Logic which could previously be defined in the universe must now be defined in the BEx Query since users no longer create universes 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 10
The DSL Bridge
What is the DSL Bridge? The Dimensional Semantic Layer Bridge is what actually connects to BW Hosted by the Adaptive Processing Server The Adaptive Server hosting the DSL Bridge should be sized for expected user load Recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular Adaptive Processing Server in anything beyond a small test environment 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 12
What is the DSL Bridge? Services in a default APS Hosted by the Adaptive Processing Server The Adaptive Server hosting the DSL Bridge should be sized for expected user load Recommended to be the only service hosted by a particular Adaptive Processing Server in anything beyond a small test environment 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 13
Webi Servers and the DSL Bridge Interaction between Webi Servers and the DSL Bridge Previously for BW connectivity, the Web Intelligence Processing Server was responsible for connecting to the database (BW) With BI 4.0, the Dimensional Semantic Layer on the APS actually connects to the database (BW) and returns the results to Webi 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 14
Deployment Information
Deployment Information Make sure system is sized correctly Refer to the Sizing Companion for SAP Business Objects BI 4.0 Monitor CPU and memory utilization of the Adaptive Processing Server and add more APS servers if necessary The DSL APS has a recommended minimum heap size of 4GB. 8GB or more is recommended 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 16
Deployment Information Make sure monitoring is consistent between Web Intelligence servers and Adaptive Processing Servers Known issues when they are not in sync! Either enable on all webi / APS machines (recommended) or disable on all 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 17
Deployment Information Make sure you are on relatively current patches Support Pack 02 Patch 15 is current version This version contains a Webi fix - ADAPT01625680 which improves performance with BICS merged dimensions 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 18
General Troubleshooting
General Troubleshooting Look at the patterns Based on what works and what doesn t, hypothesize what the issue is Break down the problem into the smallest components! 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 20
Basic Log Analysis Look for E X as well as E and java exceptions 2011 06 22 11:43:03:441-0400 >= E X webiserver_sia_dev.webintelligenceprocessingserver 31892 1076201792 CdzExtRpcChannel:CallMethod: 0.776 src/dslolapaccessserviceimpl.cpp:141:virtual OlapAccess::IOlapResult* OlapAccess::OlapAccessServiceImpl::executeRequest(const std::string&, const std::string&): TraceLog message 806834 2011 06 22 11:43:03:442-0400 >= E X webiserver_sia_dev.webintelligenceprocessingserver 31892 1076201792 DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl:getDataSet: 0.778 src/dslolapaccessserviceimpl.cpp:165:virtual OlapAccess::IOlapResult* OlapAccess::OlapAccessServiceImpl::executeRequest(const std::string&, const std::string&): TraceLog message 806835 2011 06 22 11:43:03:442-0400 >> E webiserver_sia_dev.webintelligenceprocessingserver 31892 1076201792 remote call to getdataset() failed src/dslolapaccessserviceimpl.cpp:166:virtual OlapAccess::IOlapResult* OlapAccess::OlapAccessServiceImpl::executeRequest(const std::string&, const std::string&): TraceLog message 806836 2011 06 22 11:43:03:442-0400 >> E webiserver_sia_dev.webintelligenceprocessingserver 31892 1076201792 **ERROR:DSLOLAPAccessServiceImpl:Exception caught from dsl_engine.jar: : java.lang.nullpointerexception: while trying to invoke the method org.w3c.dom.node.getnodename() of an object loaded from field com.sap.ip.bi.util.xml.impl.domreader.currentnode of an object loaded from local variable 'this' at com.sap.ip.bi.util.xml.impl.domreader.getname(domreader.java:153) at com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.providerselectionobject.extractviewdetailsforopen(providerselectionobject.java:520) at com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.providerselectionobject.createopenfunction(providerselectionobject.java:318) at com.sap.ip.bi.bics.dataaccess.resource.impl.bi.selector.providerselectionobject.isapplicable(providerselectionobject.java:389) 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 21
Core Dumps Core Dumps (Unix only) Use gdb / dbx to create a stack trace to send in for analysis Use the file command to determine which process crashed Here we can see WIReportServer is the process which crashed Then run dbx and enter where at the (dbx) prompt where will tell us the last functions which were executed at the time of the crash 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 22
Core Dumps Core Dumps (Unix only) Logs are very important for troubleshooting core dumps! Look at them to see what happened just before the process crashed Generally we are looking for the workflow / options selected leading up to the problem as well as the functions called Most likely will need to be worked by customer assurance 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 23
Let SAP help
Remote Supportability Tools which Allow SAP to interact with customer data for Root Cause Analysis Can be very helpful if a particular BEx Query causes problems 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 25
Remote Supportability Pertinent connection types to be opened R/3 Support - enables remote access to an SAP system via SAP GUI BW RFC Connection - enables a RFC connection to Business Warehouse BW GUI Connection - enables a GUI connection to Business Warehouse 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 26
How-Tos
Increasing heap on the Adaptive Processing Server Increase heap here. It s currently set to 1 gb 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 28
Monitoring settings Make sure that the settings are consistent across servers either enabled on all or none! 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 29
Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS Choose Category Connectivity Services 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 30
Creating a dedicated DSL Bridge APS Choose only the DSL Bridge Service 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 31
Removing the DSL Bridge Service from previous APS Make sure to remove the DSL service from other shared APS servers. To do this, stop the Adaptive Processing Server, then right click on the server and choose select services Services available to be added to the APS i.e. not being used by the APS Services currently hosted by the APS 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 32
Useful Links Sizing Guides Sizing Companion companions / guides https://websmp105.sap-ag.de/~form/sapnet?_shortkey=01200252310000090633 Knowledge Base Article https://service.sap.com/sap/support/notes/1694041 2011 SAP AG. All rights reserved. 33
Q/A
Thank You! Contact information: John Mrozek Engineer Lake Mary, FL j.mrozek@sap.com
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