Bi platform scn17

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 1/33

Getting Started Newsletters Store

Products Services & Support About SCN Downloads

Industries Training & Education Partnership Developer Center

Lines of Business University Alliances Events & Webinars Innovation

Log On Join UsHi, Guest Search the Community

Activity Communications Actions

Brow se

BI Platform 255 Posts 1 … 13 14 15 16 17

PreviousNext

Here are two new videos from SAP customers Altron and Deloitte.

Altron is a global telecommunication, multimedia, information technology and power electronics company based in

South Africa. Altron is a federated company with over 150 companies that are consolidated at Altron HQ. With such a

diversified set of companies they have very different ways of running their businesses; each manger has a specific

set of information they use in order to manage their businesses. SAP BusinessObjects Planning and Consolidation

allows Altron to establish a database of standardized information, providing a single version of the truth. With SAP

BusinessObjects BI 4.0, Altron has transformed how the company uses that data to visualize what-if scenarios and

make forward-thinking decisions faster and with more assurance than ever before. In addition to this, the executive

team at Altron now have their business information linked to their iPad’s to enable them to deliver the same

information they were able to get in their offices from anywhere in the world at any time. The iPad has proven to be

invaluable at Altron with its ability to makes sense of information using the SAP Business Analytics toolset and

mobility platform.

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gucqSpjTtOI

In the United States Deloitte operates a group of over 45,000 professionals working with clients across all different

types of industries, bringing their expertise and value to provide a 360-degree view of their business to make them

more effective and efficient in the marketplace and more competitive. Deloitte is extending SAP BusinessObjects BI

4.0 to a multitude of different platforms, the key one of which is SAP HANA, to provide high-speed analytic capability to

end users in the field. The impact to the organization is a clear game-changer for Deloitte taking traditional analysis

from days and hours down to minutes and seconds. Mobility is also a key component of Deloitte’s business. With

practitioners spread across the country, the ability to provide mobile business intelligence is crucial to dealing with

customers and having contextual discussion to drive engagement and move business forward with the customer.

Watch video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e15Wxl4HmEw

SAP Customers Speak about BI 4.0, BIG Data, andMobility

Posted by Nic Smith Dec 7, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 2/33

Check out more stories from customers about SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 on this video wall. Also, stay in touch with

the latest info on Business Analytics by following http://blogs.sap.com/analytics

295 View s 0 Comments

Ingo Hilgefort SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.x with SAP Netweaver covers more than just BI 4.x. It includes BI

4.0 Feature Pack 3 and BusinessObjects Analysis, MS Edition for Office, which is platform independent. It contains

over 180+ more pages than his excellent first edition book “Integrating SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 Tools with SAP

NetWeaver.

For most of the book the author assumes you are using the BI 4.x platform but you could also use it with

BusinessObjects Analysis MS Edition for Office and Crystal Reports 2011. Included are steps to install the software

and helpful charts of data connectivity options with ERP, NetWeaver, HANA with actionable steps. Ingo explains what

is missing in the software as well.

This is Ingo’s fifth book and as always contains his high quality standards.

BI 4.x is SAP’s biggest release in BusinessObjects history and if you are an SAP customer using BusinessObjects

software or considering the use of BusinessObjects for your BI needs this book is a "must-have" for your bookshelf.

I also recommend the online version so you can easily "search" what you need to know.

Ingo Hilgefort’s SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.xwith SAP Netweaver

Posted by Tammy Powlas Nov 30, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 3/33

445 View s 3 Comments Tags: sappress, ihilgefort, bi4, sapmentor

The BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP5 planned release date is December 22nd. This past week at ASUG Volunteer Derek

Loranca's request SAP provided an ASUG webcast on this release.

Support Pack 4 for BusinessObjects XI 3.1 was released in June. This is in exception to the policy as SP5 comes

only 6 months after SP4. SAP Speaker Elizabeth Gorkic said they needed to bring release forward due to legal

requirements. SP5 release is lean with a limited number of enhancements and platforms.

Agenda:

Quality improvements

SP5 General Information

New Features

Platforms Supported and Not Supported

Question & Answer

Figure 1, Source: SAP

Elizabeth said that the objective of the service pack is to improve quality. She said in this release, over 1000 fixes

were provided. Fix Pack 4.1 is also planned for December (see Figure 1)

General Information

What's coming in BusinessObjects XI 3.1 SP 5,Coming in December

Posted by Tammy Powlas Nov 19, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 4/33

Figure 2 General Information, Source: SAP

Full and patch build for all operating system except HP UX PA Risc (see Figure 2). In the second bullet in Figure 2,

changing default CMS data that is shipped with product, SAP is changing from Oracle MySQL to Sybase SQL

Anywhere. In September 2014 SAP can no longer distribute MySQL as the contract with Oracle is finished. This

change will give time to OEM partners to change the database, replacing MySQL to Sybase SQL Anywhere for default

CMS DB

SP5 will have an option to update and migrate on SQL Anywhere or remain on SQL. This process is described in full

in SP5 Install guide as soon as SP5 is GA.

Architecture change to Mobile server to replace Vaultus component (manages communication between mobile client

and mobile server) with Sybase to give a unified .WAR file for BlackBerry and iPad solution. What do you have to do?

Install server component and new clients will need to be installed – enter CMS name and authorization. Elizabeth

said this is documented in the admin guide for mobile.

Figure 3, New Functional Enhancements, Source: SAP

For XCelsius, you can wrap text inside a scorecard cell. Also enhanced alerts for bubble charts (see Figure 4)

For the SAP Integration Kit the SAP Publishing Service was enhanced for multiple clients.

For Crystal Reports, the viewers have been enhanced for export control. For the “Exclude hyperlinks from export” the

feature is limited to the Office 2003 format.

There were a number of change requests implemented for Web Intelligence and will be listed in the bug fix report.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 5/33

Figure 4, Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows new platforms and support for IE 9 in compatibility mode. In terms of browser support, SAP is

working closely with Microsoft to provide faster support on browser releases.

When will IE9 be supported in a standard mode? That is a BI 4.0 feature; they do not plan to support it in the 3.1

codeline. The reason is that the some of the components code is geared towards IE 7 and would require substantive

code changes for standard mode

Elizabeth said they spoke with Microsoft who indicated that there is no functionality lost with compatibility mode or

security issues compared .

If a client’s browser is running in standard they will be switched to compatibility and when exit change back to

standard mode

A Firefox strategy is in place. Elizabeth said they will do their best to test Firefox in a couple of weeks of compatibility;

they may not always be able to fix issues in time and will document limitations in SAP note and fix in the next

deliverable

Firefox 9 is coming on December 20th and SAP plans to support it in January 2012 on SP5

Figure 5, Source: SAP

Figure 5 shows the new database access. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 SP3 is end of life in January so SP4 support

is provided.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 6/33

Figure 6, Source: SAP

Elizabeth suggested looking at the PAR documents on SCN and Service Marketplace

Figure 6 shows the list of platforms discontinued in SP5 as many are end of life by the vendors.

Question & Answer:

Q: What about Windows Server 2008 support?

A: SP2 is supported, unless end of life by Microsoft

Q: On SP2, can we jump to SP5 directly?

A: Yes

Q: Is Excel 2007 or 2010 supported .XLSX in SP5 (3.1 release)

A: Clarification received after the webcast:

Here is a more comprehensive answer, per product.

Import/Data access

Export

WebI

.xls

.xls

Xcelsius

.xls & .xlsx

.xls

Explorer

.xlls & .xlsx

.xls

CR

.xls & .xlsx

.xls

Universe access

.xls & .xlsx

N/A

Live Office

N/A

(1)

(1) Save in Excel : .xls / .xlsx

Save in BOE : .xls

Q. If we are on XI 3.1 plain, can we go to SP5 directly?

A.No, one cannot upgrade directly from XI 3.1 to SP5. The shortest upgrade path is : XI 3.1 + SP3 + SP5.

The following upgrade paths are supported:

For BOE XI3.1 Customer

BOE XI 3.1 + SP3 + SP5 (patch)

BOE XI 3.1 + SP2 +SP3+ SP5 (patch)

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 7/33

BOE XI 3.1 + SP2 +SP4+ SP5 (patch)

BOE XI 3.1 + SP3 + SP4+ SP5 (patch)

Q: Do we have a full build for desktop client tools in SP5?

A: Yes, all are available as full and patch build

Q: Since 4.0 SP2 is out, what is the roadmap for SP5?

A: 3.1 release support is continued for 7+2 years – so there will be an SP6

4.0 SP2 is now GA, the next SP/FP will be in Q1 and there will be a ramp up release

Q: What is the architectural change of mobile platform

A: Vaultus component is now changed to Sybase; should be transparent to you.

Q: Are there any specific enhancements for the CR Viewer BOE .net SDK’s in SP5 ?

A: What is listed in the slide is all that is in SP5

Q: Will Xcelsius have a full install and patch install for SP5

A: Yes

Q: Will a bug fix document be included when the product is GA?

A: Yes

Q: Google Chrome support?

A: Yes and no

Likely not on a 3.1 line; no firm plans yet. Looking at next minor release of version 4.0 later next year. Chrome

support is in the backlog. Biggest challenge now is Firefox to support the way they come out.

Q: What will default app server be in SP5? Will it still be Tomcat 5.5?

A: Yes, it will be Tomcat 5.5

Q: Is Oracle Exadata supported as data sources?

A: No, and it is not in BI 4

Q: Support Netezza stored procedures inside universes?

A: SAP does not do anything special for Netezza when it comes to stored procedures.

For the general case:

- SAP used to have what was called a “stored procedure Universe” in BOE 3.1 with limited capabilities. SAP no

longer has that and is waiting for a more comprehensive solution.

- SQL function calls are a different matter. Functions can be called from Universes even if they are not in the UI.

ASUG volunteers thank SAP's Elizabeth Gorkic and Mike Seblani for this webcast.

2525 View s 10 Comments

In March 2011, I wrote an SCN post entitled Browser Envy, reminding SAP BusinessObjects users to check the

Supported Platforms/PAR documentation before upgrading their browser. In October 2011, the browser issue is still

a pressing concern for SAP BusinessObjects customers. At an ASUG Influencer Summit that kicked off last week's

ASUG SAP BusinessObjects User Conference in Orlando, Florida, many influencers felt that browser support should

be a top item on SAP's agenda.

In particular, neither SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP4 or the recently GA'd SAP BusinessObjects Business

Intelligence 4.0 SP2 (Patch 6) support Microsoft Internet Explorer 9.0 (IE9). Customers who crossed their fingers and

tried IE9 have reported compatibility issues. Support for Mozilla Firefox 4.0-7.0 and Apple Safari 5.0 is less critical to

most enterprises; however, I often use these browsers for an alternate perspective when isolating Web Intelligence or

other browser-based issues.

In the past, organizations tended to stagnate on obsolete browsers like Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 (IE6), which is

still supported by XI 3.1 SP4 but thankfully not BI4. Much of the stagnation was due to Microsoft's "Vista problem" and

the fact that enterprises everywhere remained on 10-year-old Windows XP while waiting for Microsoft to redeem itself

with Windows 7.

Today's world is different. Organizations are replacing their aging PCs with modern replacements that come

preloaded with Windows 7 and Internet Explorer 9.0. Depreciating the browser is difficult, if not impossible. XI 3.1

SP5 is in the pipeline and BI 4.0 Feature Pack 3 (FP3) will go into ramp-up in January 2012. So far, SAP has been

silent on when IE9 support is coming to either platform, but perhaps we can hope for an early Christmas present.

Until Santa arrives, be sure to stick to the supported browsers.

223 View s 4 Comments

Tags: f irefox, internet_explorer, safari, sap_businessobjects_business_intelligence_platform_4.0,

sap_businessobjects_enterprise_xi_3.1

Browser Envy, Revisited

Posted by Dallas Marks Oct 18, 2011

Sizing for BI 4 : Quick Sizer, T-Shirt Guide and more:

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 8/33

***UPDATED*** 2013

PLEASE SEE SAP.COM/BISIZING for the latest guidance or Sizing and Deploying SAP BusinessObjects BI 4

Jason DeMelo, SAP, provided an ASUG webcast back in July (sponsored by the BITI team) and also presented a BI

4.0 sizing session at TechED Las Vegas last month. The usual disclaimer applies as this is informational and can

change at any time.

Agenda: Sizing Concepts

Sizing tools in BI4:

T-shirt Sizing Guides

Quick Sizer

Companion Guide

Sizing Concepts

Figure 1, Source: SAP

As Figure 1 shows, previous sizing for BusinessObjects was done in CPU units. Starting in 4.0, processing

requirements are now stated in SAPS. SAPS are a hardware agnostic measure of processing capacity and used by

several other vendors.

How do you calculate SAPS? 1000 SAPS = 2,000 fully processed order line items per hour.

Figure 2, Source: SAP

How are SAPS calculated? First a test deployment is selected and SAP standard SD benchmark is run (step 1, Figure

2. Then, on that same hardware the software is installed (BI 4.0) and tests are run. The CPU time consumed is

A #BI4 #SAPTechEd session

Posted by Tammy Powlas Oct 17, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 9/33

recorded. Then in step 3 calculates CPU time per user per hour. Step 4 is to scale the SAPS score for # of users

and the CPU time the user will consume in an hour.

Figure 3, Source: SAP

When doing a sizing, start with the number of users. Of that users, how many will be logged in at same time? A rule

of thumb is 10/10/10 rule: 10% of total user population will be logged in at any one time, and of those 10%, only 10%

will be actively clicking away at the same point in time.

Sizing Tools in BI4

Figure 4: Source: SAP

Figure 4 shows the sizing tools. T-Shirt sizing is good for smaller deployments. The Quick Sizer, used for other SAP

technologies, is an online tool on Service Marketplace.

The companion guide provides recommended settings and tuning tips. The approach to testing is included.

Figure 5, Source: SAP

Figure 5 explains T-shirt sizing guides. These are based on only number of concurrent users – those who are logged

in and actively using the system at any point in time. There is a T-Shirt guide for each client tool.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 10/33

Figure 6, Source: SAP

Figure 6 shows the available T-Shirt Sizing Guides available (as of TechED last month)

Figure 7, Source: SAP

At the heart of the T-Shirt sizing guides are tables. Based on size of deployment, SAPS and memory requirements

are estimated are the frontend and back end. ON the front end there is the application tier, processing tier,

intelligence tier. On the back end is the database.

Figure 8, Source: SAP

Figure 8 is an example of how this works. Take the 50 users and find the closest match and record the SAPS and

memory recommendations, and send them to your hardware vendor who will come back with recommendations

based on SAPS and memory requirements.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 11/33

Figure 9, Source: SAP

According to Jason, these are worst case user recommendations. They do not want you have overstressed hardware

and not size for multiple products on the same machine. Figure 9 provides a caution.

Figure 10, Source: SAP

The Quick Sizer is for larger deployments and more detailed requirements. Figure 10 shows three types of users:

1. Information Consumer - the lightest of the users – simple charts, table, light report document usage; little

interaction

2. Business User – click more than Information Consumer

3. Expert User – take little time between clicks

Figure 11, Source: SAP

Figure 11 shows the products to be included in the BI 4 Quick Sizer.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 12/33

Figure 12, Source: SAP

Jason said the sizing estimates for Quick Sizer have more fidelity and are broken out by tier. The extra information will

give you a better idea of how to plan landscape.

Figure 13, Source: SAP

First specify inputs and then the Quick Sizer web application will return sizing information.

What is different this time is that the sizing is for a mixed deployment, the users are broken by user type and

documents are specified by small, medium, and large (see Figure 13 above).

Figure 14, Source: SAP

Based on the inputs into the Quick Sizer, the application will return SAPS and memory estimates by tier for each of the

products used in the deployment.

In this example, to support a 50,000 user deployment, tell hardware vendor that you need just under 39K SAPS of

processing capacity and 45 GB of memory.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 13/33

Figure 15, Source: SAP

Figure 15 shows the availability of the Quick Sizer.

Figure 16, Source: SAP

The Companion Guide lets use understand the differences and it contains tuning and performance tips.

Links Provided in Presentation:

Quick Sizer Fact Sheet

Hardware benchmark results in SAPS

BusinessObjects BI

Where to go in Service Marketplace:

http://service.sap.com/quicksizing

Jason recommends checking the Service Marketplace frequently for up-to-date information.

In the SAP world we hear about SAPS all the time; at this session I learned all about them.

3123 View s 3 Comments Tags: business_intelligence_(businessobjects)

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 14/33

I've been reading a number of blogs lately that show a fair amount of anxiety in the community over the BI 4 release,

and the new names.

Here's my take on these changes, and my attempt to put them into context. I believe a lot of this anxiety stems from

partners and customers noticing changes between how SAP does things compared to how BusinessObjects.

I'm not trying to gloss-over execution challenges with this post. The execution of both the BI4 rampup (specifically the

timing of launch activities) and product naming leave room for improvement.

My hope is that by talking about the high level context for these changes, partners and customeres will understand

more about where we're coming from.

SAP Business Objects

Release

Strategy

Customer driven.

Inspired by ERP systems, which have a high bar for quality and

reliability, SAP has a rampup program which limits the availability

of the software between the 'Release to Customer' date and

'General Availability'.

Rampup is not a beta program. It uses production-ready software

that is fully supported by SAP.

During this rampup period, cusotmers purchase and install the

rampup software and key metrics for both number of productive

customers, and the number of 'red' customers are monitored by

our rampup staff.

Once the KPIs for these metrics are met, the software is

considered GA.

Because the GA date is KPI-driven and not date-driven, projected

GA dates often change when it becomes clear the KPIs aren't met.

The upside of this release strategy is that once a product attains

GA, we have complete confidence that it is production-ready.

The downside is less predictability in GA dates.

The software becomes generally

available once it meets all

internal quality, performance, and

reliability criteria.

Naming

Strategy

Uses a master-brand strategy.

Brand equity accrues first to the company brand (SAP), then to the

portfolio brand (SAP BusinessObjects).

This brand strategy is enforced by an internal group that ensures

all product names adhere to these standards.

As there are well over 1,000 products on the SAP price list, SAP

uses a descriptive naming strategy for the product names.

There are a few exceptions to this (ie SAP StreamWork), but in

general the requirement for descriptive product names have been

the driver for recent product name changes.

The upside of this naming strategy is it better scales to focusing

on the BI suite - in general, customers are buying into the overall

SAP BusinessObjects value proposition instead of a specific tool

within that portfolio.

The downside of this strategy is that in the transition some product

names will change and become less distinctive.

Uses a product-centric brand

strategy.

Similar to Microsoft, brand equity

accrues at the product level.

I hope this helps explain some of the changes you've been noticing over the last few years. As you can see there are

some tradeoffs, but in general I beleive the tradeoffs make sense.

1049 View s 6 Comments

Differences Between SAP and BusinessObjects

Posted by Blair Wheadon Sep 15, 2011

SAP Crystal Server 2011 - Update #6

With the recent announcement of both SAP Crystal Server 2011 and SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 4.0, there's lots of

interest in clarifying the differences between the 2 products.

This image provides a summary of the differences.

SAP Crystal Server 2011 - Update #7

Posted by Blair Wheadon Jun 20, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 15/33

In general, SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI 4.0 differs from SAP Crystal Server in 2 main ways: functionality, and

capacity.

From a functionality standpoint, Edge BI 4.0 standard edition adds:

Ahoc analysis with Webi

OLAP analysis

BI widgets

SAP integration

Mobile BI

Dashboards viewing and Explorer in CAL licenses.

From a capacity standpoint, Edge BI provides for either CAL or NUL licenses for all advanced BI content (Webi,

Dashboard viewing, Explorer, BI Workspace) while SAP Crystal Server only allows NUL licenses to access

Dashboards, Explorer, and BI Workspaces to a maximum of 100 NULs.

On the other hand, SAP Crystal Server reflects its reporting roots by supporting report viewing to a maximum of 250

CALs.

I hope this summary helps you understand the differences between SAP Crystal Server and the Edge BI editions, and

SAP BusinessObjects BI/EIM 4.0.

Regards, Blair

4492 View s 11 Comments

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 and the 20-year roadmap - Update #5

SAP Crystal Server 2011 - Update #7

Yesterday, we announced SAP Crystal Server 2011. This is the successor product to SAP Crystal Reports Server

2008, and is based on the SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.0.

We're updating it to be a complete, entry-level BI solution by adding SAP BusinessObjects Explorer to the already long

list of BI solutions included with this product.

The major new features of this release include:

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer for end-user driven search and exploration.

Completely new hierarchically aware and multi-source semantic layer including the new Information Design

Tool which is use to author Universes.

Lifecycle management to promote reports, dashboards, and other objects from dev to test to production

systems.

New systems monitoring and managment including a monitoring dashboard and a JMX interface for monitoring

probes.

Enhanced integration for Microsoft Sharepoint allows BI consumption to be deeply integrated into Sharepoint.

Multilingual reports and dashboards. Now a single report or dashboard can be rendered in multiple languages

thanks to integration with the included Translation Manager utility.

Next generation Crystal Reports. Crystal Reports for enterprise is a version of Crystal Reports that's only

included with our server products. It's optimized for data access from a Universe semantic layer and features

SAP Crystal Server 2011 - Update #6

Posted by Blair Wheadon Jun 15, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 16/33

improved usability, simpler Universe based data access, and a modernized look and feel.

Also included with SAP Crystal Server 2011 are:

Java API

.NET API

Live Office client

BI Workspace for creating composite dashboards of multiple individual reports and dashboards

Business View Manager to ensure compatibility with existing SAP Crystal Reports Server content

Data Federation Administration tool to setup and manage multiple data sources to be consumed by the

Universe semantic layer

Integration with SAP Crystal Reports 2011 and SAP Crystal Dashboard Design 2011.

So given all this new capability, you would think we're increasing prices.

But we're not.

SAP Crystal Server continues to be one of the best values in Business Intelligence today. Pricing starts at 5 named

users for $2,495 US.

Once you get started with Crystal Server, all the content you create can be migrated into to other products based on

the SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform like SAP BusinessObjects Edge BI, or the SAP BusinessObjects BI Package.

The product will be available for trial and purchase in July 2011. Customers of SAP Crystal Reports Server with a

current support agreement will receive and upgrade to SAP Crystal Server 2011 for free.

Check out the screen shots below of various components of the product:

Smart Guidelines in SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise (above)

The Query Panel in SAP Crystal Reports for enterprise (above)

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 17/33

Reviewing joins in the Information Design Tool (above)

SAP BusinessObjects Explorer is designed for business users to self-serve answers to their own business

questions (above)

BI Launchpad is an upgraded and renamed version of the old InfoView portal.

2536 View s 13 Comments

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 18/33

Hi Readers,

In this blog we are going to see one of the common Issues in Business Objects deployment i.e. Stale sessions

which catch up the concurrent user licenses. Let’s have a look on the issue briefly.

Problem statement:

Concurrent users are being shown as logged in multiple times and their sessions are not being cleared

even when they are not using the Business Objects Applications. As a result concurrent user licenses are

getting used up very quickly causing other concurrent users facing login Issues due to unavailability of

concurrent user licenses (i.e.) All the concurrent licenses are utilized.

Impact – What are the effects/symptoms of the issue?

Concurrent Users of the system will be facing logon Issues due to unavailability of the concurrent licenses.

Benefits

Effective utilization of existing Business Objects Licensing

Useful for re-sizing of Business Objects deployment.

Solution Approach for resolution

1.

1. Always ensure that Session Cleanup Listener and Logon token parameters are configured properly in

respective business objects applications.

Open web.xml under <BO Installdir>\Business Objects\Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\WEB-INF

And make sure that the below configuration has been made (in BO 3.x).

Session Cleanup Listener is active/uncommented.

This will ensure the automatic session cleanup is enabled

Logon token is set to disabled.

Changing the true to false does not allow the token to re-login from stale sessions

This above is for Infoview application. If you want to implement the same for

other 3-tier applications like CMC, Xcelcius and AdminTools,you have to modify the

web.xml for each application directory within Business Objects Installation directory.

2. 2. Implement a SDK utility which periodically monitors and cleans up the stale sessions

which consumes the concurrent user license.

Hope the blog could be useful for User and Session management for Business Objects Administrators.

Thanks for reading.

3465 View s 4 Comments Tags: businessobjects_administration

BusinessObjects Administration – Managing Sessions

Posted by Manikandan Elumalai May 4, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 19/33

After several years of browser boredom, the race for the fastest and most standards-compliant browser is heating up.

This month, Microsoft made a splash at SXSW with the formal release of Internet Explorer 9. Mozilla released Firefox

4, also to great fanfare. Google updates Chrome frequently. And Apple continues to release its Safari browser,

currently on version 5, for both Mac and Windows.

I'm generally pretty quick to update the browsers on my home computers. But updating at the office is a different story

due to application compatibility issues. SAP BusinessObjects is no different than other web-based applications -

browser versions must be validated by the vendor, sometimes with accompanying patches.

A list of supported browsers is available in the supported platforms document, which can be downloaded from either

the SAP Community Network site or the SAP Support Portal. For example, you can view the latest revision (February

22, 2011) of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP3 supported platforms here. On the Mac, XI 3.1 SP3

currently supports Firefox 3.0, Firefox 3.5, Safari 3.2.x, and Safari 4.0.3+. For the PC, it's Firefox 3.0, Firefox 3.5, IE 6.0

(SP2/SP3), IE 7.0 and IE 8.0 (using compatibility mode).

It's important to work with your organization's system support staff to insure a new version of a browser isn't pushed

out to users until fully tested and supported by SAP. Although nothing formal has been announced, we should expect

to see an expanded list of browsers supported when SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0 goes into

general availability (GA) later this year. SAP executives have also indicated that the full SAP BI suite will be mobile by

the end of 2011 (Web Intelligence on a tablet - SWEET!). This implies mobile browser support for Apple iPhone/iPad,

the RIM Blackberry Playbook, and Android tablets like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and Motorola Xoom. It's also

reasonable to expect that SAP will either add additional browsers and versions to the XI 3.1 SP3 supported platforms

document after rigorous testing or release a service pack later this year to broaden browser support. Remember that

as of June 2010, XI R2 is no longer on patch support and may not work properly with the latest browsers.

In the meantime, keep your user's SAP BusinessObjects experience trouble-free by sticking with supported

browsers. But don't stop having fun with the latest browsers at home.

228 View s 3 Comments

Tags: f irefox, internet_explorer, safari, sap_businessobjects_enterprise_xi_3.1, sap_businessobjects_enterprise_xi_release2

Browser Envy

Posted by Dallas Marks Mar 24, 2011

Hi Everyone, am just moving this blog from my personal space to here. hope this will be useful and

interesting.lets have a look.

FileStore refers to the disk directories where the actual report files reside. The BusinessObjects File

Repository Servers(FRS) are responsible for listing files on the server, querying for the size of a file, querying

for the size of the entire file repository, adding files to the repository, and removing files from the repository.

FRS also responsible for the creation of file system objects such as exported reports, and imported files in

non-native formats.

FRS can be found on your disk at <Business Objects Home>\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12\FileStore (for XI

3.x) in default installation. The two main directories under this location are Input and Output. The Input directory

stores the report templates and thumbnail images, while the Output directory stores the results from running

those templates. Thus, the Output directory is normally many times larger than the Input directory. Each of

these directories is managed by its own BO XI File Repository server.

File Repository Servers in CMC

In every BusinessObjects Enterprise implementation there is an Input and an Output File Repository Server.

Both manage their respective directories and handle all aspects of file management.

Business Objects Administration - File RepositoryServers

Posted by Manikandan Elumalai Feb 5, 2011

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 20/33

Input File Repository Server

The Input File Repository Server manages all of the report objects and program objects that have been

published to the repository. It can store .RPT, .CAR, .EXE, .BAT, .JS, .XLS, .DOC, .PPT, .RTF, .TXT, .PDF,

.WID files. In the case of .RPT files, they are stored as report definition files only which do not contain any

data.The Report Properties page of the CMC shows you the location of the Input report files. The RPT report

template can be found at frs://Input/a_084/004/000/1108/ca067d4f1710cbc.rpt

Exploring to this location shows two files: the RPT file with the name indicated on the report properties

page of the CMC and a JPEG file, which serves as the thumbnail image.

CMC Settings for Input FRS

Property Description

Maximum Retries

for File Access

Specifies the number of times the server tries to access a file.Default value is 1.

Maximum Idle

Time (minutes)

Specifies the length of time that the server waits before it closes inactive

connections. Setting a value that is too low can cause a user's request to be closed

prematurely. Setting a value that is too high can cause excessive consumption of

system resources such as processing time and disk space.Default value is 10

minutes

Temporary Directory Specifies the directory where temporary files are created when necessary. Default

value is %DefaultInputFRSDir/temp%

File Store Directory Specifies the directory where repository objects are stored.Default value is

%DefaultInputFRSDir/%

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 21/33

Output File Repository Server

The Output File Repository Server manages all of the report instances (saved data copy of the report)

generated by the Report Job Server or the Web Intelligence Report Server, and the program instances

generated by the Program Job Server. It also manages instances generated by the Web Intelligence Report

Server and the LOV Job Server. It can store the following files: .RPT, .CSV, .XLS, .DOC, .RTF, .TXT, .PDF,

.WID. For .RPT and .WID files are stored as reports/documents with saved data.

Since Output FRS stores the report instances, deleting instances would remove instances not the actual

reports. However the report structure will be stored in the Input FRS.

Using Query Builder we can find the location of the Output File repository files. The following query

may be handy if you already know the report name.

SELECT SI_NAME, SI_KIND, SI_FILES, SI_INSTANCE from CI_INFOOBJECTS

Where SI_NAME ='xxxx'

If the SI_INSTANCE value is false then the InfoObject is the actual report and SI_PATH will be in Input FRS. If

SI_INSTANCE is true then the InfoObject would be an Instance and the SI_PATH will be in Output FRS.

Exploring to this location shows the actual instance file pertaining report data with the appropriate export

format based on the scheduling parameters.

CMC Settings for Output FRS

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 22/33

Property Description

Maximum Retries

for File Access

Specifies the number of times the server tries to access a file.

Default value is 1.

Maximum Idle

Time (minutes)

Specifies the length of time that the server waits before it closes inactive

connections. Setting a value that is too low can cause a user's request to be

closed prematurely. Setting a value that is too high can cause excessive

consumption of system resources

such as processing time and disk space.

Default value is 10 minutes.

Temporary Directory Specifies the directory where temporary files are created when necessary.

Default value is %DefaultOutputFRSDir/temp%

File Store Directory Specifies the directory where repository objects are stored.

Default value is %DefaultOutputFRSDir/%

Diagnosing File Repository Servers

Repository Diagnostic Tool (RDT) is a command-line tool that scans, diagnoses, and repairs inconsistencies

between your Central Management Server (CMS) system database and the File Repository Servers (FRS)

filestore, or inconsistencies that can occur in the metadata of InfoObjects stored in the CMS database. This

inconsistencies may occur during unexpected events such as disaster recovery, back-up restoration, or

network outages. During these events, the CMS system database may be interrupted while performing a task.

This can cause inconsistencies with objects in the CMS system database.

List of inconsistencies that could potentially occur in repository which RDT can identify are

Inconsistency Description Repair Actions

InfoObject exists, but no

file

It is possible that an InfoObject exists

in the CMS, but there is no file FRS

Delete the InfoObject, unless

otherwise told

File exists but no

InfoObject

It is possible the file exists but there is

no

corresponding InfoObject

User is notified to republish the

object

Invalid Parent ID An InfoObject can potentially have an

invalid parent reference

The object and its children will be

moved

Into a folder call ‘Repair’.

Last Successful

Instance

The reference to the last successful

scheduled instance could be invalid

Remove the ID and let the CMS

automatically recalculate it

Invalid Target ID A shortcut could be pointing to an

invalid

object

The shortcut object will be deleted,

unless told otherwise.

File size is wrong There can be information discrepancies

between the InfoObject and actual file

Update the InfoObject

Empty folders in the

system

There may be empty folders due to old

objects

Remove the empty directories,

unless

otherwise told.

Limitations for File Repository Servers

The Input and Output File Repository Servers cannot share the same directories. This is because one of

the File Repository Servers could then delete files and directories belonging to the other.

In larger deployments, there may be multiple Input and Output File Repository Servers, for redundancy. In

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 23/33

this case, all Input File Repository Servers must share the same directory. Likewise, all Output File

Repository Servers must share a directory.

Thanks for Reading!

7664 View s 1 Comments Tags: businessobjects_metadata, businessobjects_administration

I'm currently at SAP TechEd in Berlin, and got a chance to speak to Tom Turchioe, SAP BusinessObjects Product

Director for Performance and Scalability, about his sessions at SAP TechEd Berlin and Las Vegas: Best Practices

and Tips for Best Performance of SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 on SAP NetWeaver BW.

Joining him in these sessions are Ingo Hilgefort and Ashish Gupta.

Here's what he had to say about his session (Berlin and Las Vegas):

Here are the links to the whitepaper and presentation Tom referred to in the interview:

Performance & Scalability Best Practices and Tuning Recommendations for SAPBO XI 3.1 on BW

Best Practices and Tips for Best Performance of SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 on SAP NetWeaver BW

266 View s 1 Comments

Good, Bad and Ugly of BOBJ XI 3.1 on NW - only atSAP TechEd

Posted by Jason Cao Oct 12, 2010

The security model we're implementing here is an example of the Type III model that is described in this article on

different security model patterns.

We start by creating a baseline security model that involves locking down the Everyone group and creating three

functional groups. Next we create the group and folder structure for a typical BI application. If you are unfamiliar with

the concept of developing BI applications then the article Developing BI Applications provides a good overview.

Intended Audience

Readers of this article should be familiar with working with the Central Management Console (CMC) and further

information on the CMC can be found in chapter 17 "Working with the Central Management Console" of the SAP BOE

Administrator’s Guide.

Baseline Security Model

Lockdown the Everyone GroupFirst we need to make some changes to the Everyone group. When BOE is first installed the Everyone group is a bit

Building a Security Model in SAP BOE XI3

Posted by Alastair Gulland Apr 13, 2010

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 24/33

too generous with the rights in grants members and so we should reduce the amount of permissions granted to a

suitable minimum.

For a simple set of requirements we want users who are only a member of the Everyone group to be able to,

Logon to InfoView

View the top level public folder and view any agnostic document within that folder

Not be able to create or upload any new documents

Not be able to logon to any other application other than InfoView

The reason for allowing access to the root public folder is so that any user in the Everyone group can read any “getting

started” type documents that we create and put in this folder. Examples of these documents include information on

contacting support, how to request access to different applications, etc.

Access to Root Public Folder

By default the Everyone group does not provide access to the root folder however when we grant view rights to the root

folder the user will end up seeing all subfolders including "Administration Tools", "Auditor" etc so we then need to

update these folders and explicitly deny the Everyone group from viewing these admin folders.

To update the Everyone group,

1. Logon to the CMC and navigate to Folders

2. Select the All Folders node and from the Manage menu select Top Level Security, All Folders. Click OK to the

warning message

3. Select the Everyone group and then click Assign Security

4. Enable the two inheritance modes by checking on the check boxes and click apply

5. Select View Access Level and click the > button. Your screen should look similar to below

6. Click OK and click Close to return to the main display.

That's all we need to do to allow the Everyone group access to public folders. We now need to deny access to each of

the top level administration folders "Administration Tools", "Auditor" etc.

1. From within the Folders view expand the All Folders node

2. Select the Administration Tools folder and click the Manage User Security icon or select User Security from the

Manage menu.

3. Select the Everyone group and click the Assign Security button

4. Uncheck the inheritance option "Inherit From Parent Folder" and click OK

5. Click OK to the warning message

6. Click OK in the Assign Security dialog and close the User Security dialog.

Repeat with remaining administration folders: "Auditor" and you may also wish to hide the "Feature Samples" and

"Report Samples" folders in a similar manner. Alternatively these samples folders can be safely exported to a BIAR

file and then deleted if not required on a production server.

Denying Access to CMC

The Everyone group by default also has logon access to the CMC. Certainly once logged on there is very little a user

can do but it may be preferable to deny access to all users other than Administrators.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 25/33

To prevent the Everyone group from accessing the CMC,

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Applications

2. Select CMC from the list

3. Click the Manage User Security icon

4. Select the Everyone group and click Assign Security

5. Click the Remove Access button and click OK

6. Click OK to the warning message.The Everyone group should now be listed as having No Access.

7. Click close to close the dialog

We can test logging in to the CMC with a user that is not an Administrator. Unfortunately when logging in as a user

who does not have permission we don't get a nice and friendly "you don't have permission" error as expected but

instead we just get a blank screen.

Reduce Web Intelligence Application Functionality to the Everyone group

The Everyone group has View access to Web Intelligence. This is not necessarily a concern as any user who is only a

member of the Everyone group should not have access to any folder containing a Web Intelligence document or be

able to create a new document.

The access is still to high however as we are intending to control functional access through assigning users to

appropriate functional access groups. Therefore we should remove all access to Web Intelligence for the Everyone

group.

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Applications

2. Select Web Intelligence from the list

3. Click the Manage User Security icon

4. Select Everyone from the list of principals (by default it should be set to View access) and click Assign Security.

5. Click the Remove Access button and click OK

6. Click OK to the warning message.

7. Everyone should now be listed as having No Access

Managing Connections

Security also applies to connections used by a Universe and the easiest way to manage connections is to grant the

Everyone group permission to use all the connections. This may seem a little extreme as it grants too wide an access

but universe connections can only be used by an end user via a Universe. This means that so long as we control

access to the universes we don't need to worry about the connections.

Universe designers on the other hand can work with connections directly and there may be a situation where we want

to restrict a universe designer's access to a connection, for example, if the underlying database contains sensitive

data.

Here we will enable access to all connections and to grant the Everyone group access to a connection,

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Connections

2. Select each connection in turn and click the Manage User Security icon

3. Select the Everyone group and click Assign Security

4. Click the Advanced tab and the click Add/Remove Rights button

This screen allows us to assign or deny individual rights (see example screen shot below). On the left hand sign we

see a set of nodes that contain categories, selecting a category will update the right hand display. The right hand

panel lists all the rights available in the category and you can set access as either ‘granted', ‘denied' or ‘not specified'.

Descriptions of all of these rights across all areas are detailed in the BOE XI 3.1 Administrator's Guide in the section

"Rights Appendix"

1. Under the General node grant access to the View Objects right

2. Click the connection node under System and grant Data Access right

3. Click OK to save these changes and

4. Click OK to close the Assign Security dialog

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 26/33

That's all we need to do with reducing access rights for the Everyone group. If you are using any other application

such as Performance Manager or Desktop Intelligence then you'll also need to reduce some access rights for those.

The next section looks at creating the baseline functional access groups.

Create Functional Access GroupsIn this example we are creating three user groups that will control what functionality a user has when working with

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise. These functional access groups will work across the BI applications we deploy to

the system, that is, a user who is in the "Advanced" group will be an advanced user in all applications that they have

access to.

Note, it is possible to create functional access groups that only work within an application and so you can have a user

who is Advanced for one application but only an Intermediate user in another application.

When first deployed BOE comes with prebuilt functional groups: Administrators, Universe Designers, QaaWS Group

Designers and Report Conversion Tool Users. Membership of these groups grant a user different functionality, for

example a user in the Administrators group has full access to the system, membership of Universe Designers allows

user to create and edit universes.

We will create further functional groups that allow a user different functional access to Web Intelligence. These are

Standard Users. Users can view and refresh Web Intelligence documents and Crystal Reports

Intermediate Users. Member of this group have same rights as Standard Users but can also create new Web

Intelligence documents on the universes they have access to. They cannot save new documents to the public

folders but can save to their private folders

Advanced Users. Members have same rights as Intermediate users but can also save to public folder (but only

be allowed to edit or delete documents they have created)

These groups are created in a hierarchy:

Everyone > Standard > Intermediate > Advanced

Create Functional User Groups

By default all new users will reside in the Everyone group. This grants the use permission to log on but very little else.

The Standard User group allows users to view and refresh existing documents. Note, document access is controlled

by the application groups.

To create the Standard User group,

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Users and Groups

2. Select Everyone group and click Create New Group icon

3. Provide a Group Name "Standard Users" and a meaningful description that describes what functionality

members of this group are entitled to - "All members of this group have the right to view and refresh reports that

they have been granted access to."

4. Expand the Everyone group by clicking on the plus sign next to Everyone and select the newly created Standard

Users group

5. Click the Create New Group icon again and enter a group name and description for the Intermediate Users

group

6. Expand the Standard Users group, select Intermediate Users and once more click the Create New Group Icon

7. Enter a group name and description for Advanced Users

8. Click OK once done and return to main screen

Assign Rights for Functional Groups

We have now created these groups we now need to implement their security. First we'll set functional access

permission for the Web Intelligence application.

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Applications

2. Select Web Intelligence from the list and click the Manage User Security icon

3. Click Add Principals and add the Standard Users groups we created above.

4. Click Add and Assign Security button.

Note, although we can use this screen to add all three principals at once we need to do them in turn. This is

because when we click Add and Assign Security we then have a screen that forces us to assign the same

security settings to all the groups selected but ours need different security settings.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 27/33

5. Uncheck the inheritance permission "Inherit from Parent Folder" - this then forces inheritance to be purely group

based - and click Apply

6. Click Advanced tab and then click Add/Remove Rights button

7. Under General section grant the right "Log on to Web Intelligence and view this object in the CMC" and click

Apply. This grants essentially allows users to be able to use Web Intelligence application in InfoView.

8. Expand Application node in left hand menu and select Web Intelligence.

There are quite a few functional rights for Web Intelligence and depending on your exact requirements you can

enable required. In this worked example we will update the following rights to be granted for Standard User,

Data Tracking: Enable for users

Data Tracking: Enable format display changes by users

Enable drill mode

Enable HTML Report Panel

Interactive: Left pane - Enable data summary

Interactive: Left pane - Enable document structure and filters

Interactive: Left pane - Enable document summary

9. Click Apply and click OK to close the dialog

You will notice that some functionality is not listed here, for example, the ability to send a document by email or

download to PDF. This functionality is controlled at the folder level and so we need to control these permission

from there.

At this stage we can complete the functional permissions for the remaining two groups.

10. Click Add Principal and select the Intermediate Users group

11. Click Add and Assign Security button.

12. Uncheck the inheritance permission "Inherit from Parent Folder" and click Apply

13. Click Advanced tab and then click Add/Remove Rights button

When viewing the rights we should see that this group has automatically inherited the rights of the Standard

Users group. So here we just need to add additional rights for the group

14. Expand Application node in left hand menu and select Web Intelligence.

15. Update the following rights to granted,

Create Document

Enable Autosave for this user

Enable formula and variable creation

Enable interactive HTML viewing (if license permits)

Enable Java Report Panel

Enable Query - HTML

Extend scope of analysis

Interactive: Formatting - Enable toolbar and menus

Interactive: General - Ability to hide / show toolbars

Interactive: General - Edit 'My Preferences'

Interactive: General - Enable right click menu

Interactive: Left pane - Enable available objects, tables and charts

Interactive: Reporting - Apply and remove existing alerters

Interactive: Reporting - Create and edit break

Interactive: Reporting - Create and edit predefined calculation

Interactive: Reporting - Create and edit report filter

Interactive: Reporting - Create and edit sort

Interactive: Reporting - Insert and remove report, table, chart and cell

Merge dimensions for synchronization

Web Intelligence Rich Client : Save a document locally on the file system

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Allow local data providers

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Create a document

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Enable a client to use it

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Export a document

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Import a document

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Install from InfoView

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Print a document

Web Intelligence Rich Client: Save a document for all users

16. Click OK to save these changes

17. Click OK to close the Assign Security dialog

18. Click Add Principals and select Advanced users.

19. Click Add and Assign Security

20. Uncheck the inheritance permission "Inherit from Parent Folder" and click OK

21. Click Close to close the Security dialog

Advanced Users have same functional access as Intermediate, their difference is the ability to save to public folders.

This is set in the following section.

Define Functional Access for Public Folders

We define default permissions to top level folders to the functional groups and these will inherit down to the

application folders that a user has access to.

1. Logon to CMC as Administrator and navigate to Folders

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 28/33

2. From the Manage menu select Top Level Security, All Folders.

3. Click OK to warning message

4. Click Add Principals, select Standard Users and click Add and Assign Security.

5. Click Advanced tab and click Add/Remove Rights.

For Standard Users we want to enable minimum rights including ability to Refresh documents.

6. No changes are required to General section so expand the Content node in left hand menu and select Crystal

Reports.

7. Update the following rights to granted and click Apply

Download files associated with the report

Export the report's data

Print the report's data

Refresh the report's data

8. Select the node Note and grant permission to allow discussion threads.

9. Click Apply

10. Select Web Intelligence node and grant the following rights. Click apply once done

Download files associated with the object

Export the report's data

Refresh List of Values

Refresh the report's data

Save as CSV

Save as Excel

Save as PDF

Use Lists of Values

Note, the two rights we are not allowing are Edit Query and View SQL.

11. Click OK and then OK again to return to the User Security dialog.

Intermediate Users have same permissions at folder level as Standard Users but we also allow the user to

copy a document to their local folder and to edit queries in a report.

12. Click Add Principals, select Intermediate Users and click Add and Assign Security.

13. Click Advanced tab and click Add/Remove Rights.

14. In the General section update the right "Copy objects to another folder" to granted. Click apply

15. Expand Content and select Web Intelligence Report and grant permission for Edit Query to granted.

Note, since the Intermediate group is inheriting from Standard Users we see that some rights are already. See

screenshot below

16. Click OK

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 29/33

Our requirement for Advanced Users is to allow those users to save new documents to the public folder for the

applications that they have access to.

If we grant this permission at root level then an Advanced user can save a document to this root level which is not

what we want. So we need to set the Advanced Users permissions to at the BI application level.

To simplify this and to ensure that we apply same settings to all application folders we define a custom access level

that we can then set for the Advanced User at the application folder.

Create Custom Access Level for Advanced Users

To create a custom access level,

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Access Levels

2. Click the icon to Create a New Access Level

3. Enter a name "Advanced User Folder Rights" and a suitable description "Applies advanced user functional

rights to a folder" and click OK

4. Select the newly created access control in the list and from the Action menu select Included Rights

5. Click the Add/Remove Rights button

6. We only need to update the rights under the General node and we set the following rights to granted,

Add objects to the folder

Copy objects to another folder

Delete objects that the user owns

Edit objects that the user owns

Note, the edit and delete only apply to objects that the user owns, i.e. objects (documents) that the user has

saved to the folder themselves.

7. Click OK to save these changes and we should be left with the screen shot below,

8. Click close to close this window

We can now apply this access level to each application group. This is done in the activities below.

Create the BI Application Security Model

Overview

Here we look in detail at how to set up security to define a BI application in SAP BOE.

The BI application requires the creation of 3 security areas,

a user group that defines which users have access to the application

a public folder in which application documents can be shared

a universe folder that controls access to the universes of the application

Below are the steps required to create these items and setup their security.

In this example we will create a user group called "Financial Analysis Users", a public folder called "Financial

Analysis" and a universe folder called "Financial Analysis Universes".

Create the BI Application's User Group

All members of this group will have access to the BI application, that is, they will have access to the BI Application's

public folder and universes.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 30/33

To create the user group

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Users and Groups

2. Make sure Group Hierarchy is selected and either click Create New Group icon

3. Enter a group name "Financial Analysis" and provide a description and click OK

The name should reflect the application name the description should indicate what the group enables the

users to do: "Members of this group have access to the Financial Analysis BI application"

4. Click OK to close the dialog and return to the original screen.

Create the BI Application Report Folder

Having created the user group we now create the BI application's top level public folder for the reports. Once the folder

is created we then only allow the applications user group access to the contents of the folder. And finally we apply the

Advanced User custom access level for the Advanced Users functional group.

To create the folder,

1. In the CMC select Folders from the navigation menu

2. Select All Folders in the left hand menu

3. Click the new folder icon or select Manage, New, Folder

4. Enter a name for the folder ‘Financial Analysis'

5. Select the newly created folder from the left hand menu and select Manage, Properties

6. Provide a suitable description that describes the BI application in general: "The Financial Analysis application

allows reporting and analysis of budgeting and forecasting financial information."

7. Click Save (not Save & Close) and from the left hand menu select User Security.

8. Select Everyone group and click Assign Security button

9. Uncheck the inheritance option Inherit From Parent Folder and click OK

10. Click Add Principal

11. From the next screen select the Groups radio button and select the group we created above: ‘Financial Analysis

Users'.

12. Click the > button to move the group to the right hand list. Click Apply

13. Click Add and Assign Security button

Here we want all members of this group to be able to view this folder and the contents of the folder. What

they can then do with this folder is controlled by membership of the functional groups.

14. Check on the inheritance option Inherit From Parent Folder and click Apply.

15. Select View from the Available Access Levels and click the > button to assign the access level and click Apply

16. Click OK

Finally we must also apply the Advanced Users functional access rights to this folder.

17. Select the Advanced Users group and click Assign Security

18. Select the custom access control level we created earlier Advanced User Folder Rights and click the > button to

add the right to the Assigned Access Level list.

19. Click OK to apply the setting. We should now have a set of groups with different access to this folder.

20. Click OK to close the dialog.

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 31/33

Create the BI Application Universe Folder

Lastly we create a folder in which all universes of the application are to be placed.

1. Logon to the CMC as Administrator and navigate to Universes

2. Select the webi universes folder in the left hand menu

3. Click the new folder icon or select Manage, New, New Folder

4. Enter a name "Financial Universes" for the folder

5. Select the newly created folder and then select Manage, Properties

6. Update the description field with a description that describes the universes in the folder: "These universes

provide access to the data marts of the Financial Analysis application"

7. Click Apply and select User Security from the left hand menu

8. Click Add Principals

9. Select the appropriate application group "Finance Users" and use the > button to move the group to the right

hand list

10. Click Add and Assign Security button

11. Click Advanced tab, then Add/Remove Rights button

12. Under the General section update the right "View Objects" to explicitly grant and click Apply

13. Expand System and update the rights Data Access and Create and Edit Queries Based on Universe to granted.

14. Click OK

15. Click OK to close the Assign Security dialog

16. then click Close to return to the main Universe screen.

Above we had to modify individual rights on the universe folder. If we are creating many applications then we'll need to

make the same changes for each BI application universe folder. It would be preferable then to make use of a custom

access level called say "View Universe" that can be set to grant these same rights. This then simplifies the process

and also ensures consistency across applications.

ConclusionAlthough that seems like quite a lot of work it is reasonable straightforward to implement. What is important is that

you document all the security settings made, this helps with troubleshooting and maintaining the security model.

In addition it is also importantly to conduct unit testing of any implemented security model. Security models should be

developed in a Dev environment and then promoted to a test environment using BIAR file or the Life Cycle

Management tool. Security Models should never be implemented directly into a production system.

Hopefully this article gave you some ideas on what to do when implementing a security model, what areas to

consider and the impact of some of the settings.

4793 View s 6 Comments Tags: business_intelligence_(businessobjects)

ScenarioIn SAP BI 7.0, we often require a sub set of data to be accessed from Info cube. So, in this case we need to create

smaller sets of data from the larger info cube. For Example: For a FY2009 with "Material A‟ data is only required from a

set of 10 materials.

IntroductionSince the info cube is small, the required disk I/0 volumes during the query execution will be smaller too, and the

query users will have an improved query performance. SAP implements this idea in Business Intelligence & calls the

new Info cube an Aggregate. An Info cube can have many aggregates, and all these aggregates are very transparent

to users. That is, End users can comfortably create aggregates on Info cubes, and the BI OLAP processor does all

the selection of the appropriate aggregate. In case of non-availability of aggregates, OLAP decides need to retrieve

data directly from Info cube.

Attribute Change RunA change run refers to the activating master data changes to attributes and hierarchies, realigning aggregates

containing navigational attributes or defined on hierarchy levels. The main problem when the master data is changed

(i.e. after data is loaded into the Info cube) is that the change on the attribute is not reflected at the cube side. We need

to perform a PSA to DTP. We‟ll try an approach to solve this issue using Aggregate maintenance.

Fig 1.1 describes the changes affected to the availab ility of master data once a new record has been added.

Process ChainsStep by step analysis for the integration of attribute change runs in process chains

Dear aBI : Notes on necessity for performing(attribute) change runs

Posted by Arun Bala Jan 25, 2010

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 32/33

Start

Execute Info package ( Say if you

are loading 2 Info Objects just have

them all parallel )

You might want to load in

sequence - Attributes to Texts to

Hierarchies

And all connecting Info packages

Attribute Change Run ( Add all

relevant Info Objects)

Fig 2.23 – This figure is a simple

demonstration of further simplicity

introduced by process chains for ACR.

The above are the steps which are to be

followed for effective data transfer.

Performing ACR

1. Case A : ACR Collisons

1. Goto SE37 > Check RS*MOD*STATE*GET

>

2. Check CNSID Value for the IOBject > If no

mods exists proceed to run RSATTR.

2. Case B : If there are entries, delete the

collision locks using SE37 >

RSD*MOD*CLOSE > Perform Step 3.

3. Case C : Goto SE38 > Run

RSDS_AGGREGATES_MAINTAIN > Key in the Info object / Hierarchy Name.

2242 View s 2 Comments Tags: beginner, business_intelligence_(businessobjects), bw , dataw arehousing

Welcome!

It is with immense pleasure and a lot of positive anticipation that I welcome the Business Objects Diamond

community to the SAP Community Network.

What a great opportunity the combination of SAP and Business Objects has given us to extend and strengthen our

collaborative communities and social networks! Here are some of the immediate benefits that have occurred to me:

BPX community members who are focused on analytics or corporate performance (a.k.a. enterprise

performance management) can extend their reach into a new professional network and find new resources to

help them on their jobs and advance their careers. The Diamond community brings members with new areas of

expertise such as data visualization that will help extend the capabilities of the Business Process Platform

(BPP) and add new components and dimensions to business process design and implementation. Business

process solutions will be richer. Our SAP and Business Objects customers will be happier.

The SDN community, especially in the business intelligence area, but also across several other SAP NetWeaver

capability areas, will get better links into information on products and integration packages, and easy access to

Diamond community downloads. Most importantly, the SDN community can extend their social networks, both

personal and professional, into the Diamond technical community to share their knowledge. New packages and

solutions will be created and discussed and extended.

Diamond community members will have new ways to tap into a large, active community of IT and business

experts. In addition to the obvious connections to analytics and business intelligence areas, Diamond

community members will be able to dive in and leverage our communities around many SAP NetWeaver

capability areas such as user productivity, security management, or SOA middleware.

The SAP Community Network and the Business Objects Diamond community complement and strengthen each

other. By joining together and leveraging our collective knowledge and experience, the communities become a virtual

platform for sharing information, collaborating on community-based projects, and creating innovative solutions that

bring even more value to our mutual customers and partners.

For our Business Objects / Diamond Friends: What Are SDN and BPX?

For those Business Objects / Diamond community members who may not be familiar with the SAP communities,

here's a quick overview:

Business Objects & Diamond Bring Us Value

Posted by Mark Yolton Jan 22, 2008

6/3/2014 BI Platform | SCN

http://scn.sap.com/community/bi-platform/blog?start=240 33/33

Follow SCNSite Index Contact Us SAP Help Portal

Privacy Terms of Use Legal Disclosure Copyright

The SAP Developer Network (SDN) is a vibrant online community for developers, analysts, consultants,

integrators, and administrators.

Our Business Process Expert (BPX) community brings together business process professionals such as

application consultants, business analysts, and report designers. They share their experiences and knowledge

of topics such as user interface design, process modeling, and dashboards / analytics.

Today, our communities exceed one million members from more than 120 countries and represent a wide

range of expertise (beginners to world-class pro’s) in a broad scope of topics.

Community resources such as blogs, articles, whitepapers, downloads, and discussion forums draw more

than half-a-million visitors and 20,000 new members to the communities each month.

SAP experts all over the globe –- over 100,000 members have made at least one contribution to the community

–- connect with each other to resolve common issues and find workarounds, to collaborate on real-world

experiences and best practices, and to co-innovate with other customers, partners, employees, and thought

leaders on emerging topics, technologies, and business practices.

In addition to the online virtual aspects of our online communities, we also meet in-person at major SAP TechEd

conferences and at smaller, local SAP Tech Tour events around the world each year.

We’re Glad to Have You in the Community

I welcome Diamond community members and encourage them to join SDN and BPX. Please subscribe to our

newsletters and contribute your considerable expertise in blogs, forums, or in wiki spaces. We want you to

demonstrate your expertise to become recognized within the vast SAP ecosystem.

On the other side, I encourage established SDN and BPX members to welcome our new colleagues from Business

Objects, and to take every opportunity to explore the Diamond community. Expand your network, make contacts,

deepen your knowledge, and keep on top of the evolving relationships, products, and solutions that will develop as

our companies and our communities evolve.

Throughout this year, especially at our annual SAP TechEd conferences, I hope to meet many new Diamond

community members (please save the date and plan to attend!). This will be a great opportunity for all of us to meet

face-to-face, with moderators and mentors, with product managers and top contributors, to make friends, learn from

each other, have fun and raise a glass or two to our new, extended, rich, and vibrant community.

Best regards,

Mark Yolton

227 View s 0 Comments

1 … 13 14 15 16 17

PreviousNext