This blog wil be updated almost daily and the topics will be dealing with the daily support of SAP BusinessObjects BI support. So check back daily! Protected by Copyscape Online Plagiarism Test

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Tip of the Day: Diagnosis in SM12

I will be adding a new topic under the heading Tip of the Day. This is one is given to me by Yahya Dossary, a Senior Operating System Specialist, a colleague and a good friend at my workplace. This is printed with his permission with some added notes from me.


T/C is used for displaying and deleting locks in SAP systems. Report used to generate SM12 is RSENQRR2.

To check the status of a SAP system locking management mechanism you can use transaction code sm12 as shown below. The option Diagnosis in Update simulates a looking operation.

Fig 01 – SM12 – Diagnosis in Extras


Fig 02 – Details of Diagnosis in SM12

I hope this will be helpful to somebody.

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Sunday, April 4, 2010

BO XI 3.1 Installation - CMC Login Error

After I installed BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 on this test server, and tried to logon to the CMC, I got this error message “• Error: Server TESTSERVER001.domain.com:6400 not found or server may be down (FWM 01003) null”

Fig 01 - CMC Logon Error

So I thought I should solve it and did succeed and I thought I should document my solution as well. Hopefully it will help somebody.

My configuration was little complicated than that of a normal scenario. I was on Windows Server 2003 SP2, MS SQL Server 2000 SP2 and Oracle9i Client Release Notes Release 2 (9.2) for Windows.

I tried to login with my own username and password, being having admin privileges. It did not help. I checked CCM; I had four entries in there. Three were up and running.

Fig 02 – Central Configuration Manager

I could not go in the Manage Servers area in CCM with either my username/password nor with Administrator as username and no password (the same one I used at the time of installation). I received this error “Unable to log on: Could not connect to server testserver001.domain.com:6400. Please check that the server name is correct and that the server is running”


Fig 03 - Manage Servers error message

I also checked that cms.exe and sia.exe were running as processes in Task Manager.

I did some research on Sheikh Google and found some links that did not gave me a proper solution.

http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/viewtopic.php?p=512077&sid=129a928e38bbb596168099c7ff09f501
http://forumtopics.org/busobj/viewtopic.php?p=643509&sid=80ef528ddeb02850b9bc740712c1343a
https://forums.sdn.sap.com/message.jspa?messageID=6020340
http://forums.sdn.sap.com/thread.jspa?messageID=8661038&tstart=0
http://www.forumtopics.com/busobj/viewtopic.php?t=123499&highlight=fwm+01003

The links provided some situations and some solutions that did not help me. I tried reinstalling BusinessObjects once again and ran into same login error messages. Even InfoView gave me the same message and could not login.

By the way, the CMC and InfoView URLs are changed in BO XI 3.1 and not the same as BO XI R2. CMC in 3.1 uses Java to work. So you have to install Tomcat as part of your installation (or any other web server JBoss 4.04, SAP App Server 7.0, IBM WebSphere CE 2.0 and Sun Java App Server 8.2 you planned) and configure it as per the Install and Deployment guide.

http://ServerName:8080/CmcApp/logon.faces
http://ServerName/InfoViewApp/logon.aspx (.NET)
http://ServerName:8080/InfoViewApp/logon.jsp (Java)

These steps helped me fix my problem:

1) Uninstall the BO completely from Add/Remove programs and then also delete the registry as well (important step).
2) Creat a new CMS database in another server which had MS SQL Server 2005 with a specific username TESTUSER01 (in my case this is used as a service account) and a password.
3) Log on to the server TESTSERVER001 with your own username/password or the one used at other server TESTUSER01 and its related password.
4) Now install BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 from scratch on this TESTSERVER001 server.
5) Point this installation to the the newly created CMS database on other server.
6) Bypass and do not configure the CMS password at the time of installation (I believe this was the key factor) and complete the installation.
7) After the installation, see in CCM if services are up and running. Stop SIA, double click open it (or even right click and click properties), uncheck System Account under Log On As provide the same username and password that was used to create CMS Database in the other server. Make sure the username is in the format DOMAIN\username (I believe this was another key factor)
8) Open the CMC website and log in with administrator as username and no password. Now configure administrator password and also other users who can login.
9) Open the Java InfoView and log in with Administrator as username and no password

I hope this will help somebody. Please comment and reply with suggestions or corrections.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Beware of Digital Criminals

Today I received this email from Internet security group with this link. So I thought I should put this on my blog as well. Hopefully someone will benefit.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS


• Bob Greene gets an urgent e-mail from an old friend writing, "With tears in my eyes ... "

• The desperate plea for money turns out to be an e-mail scam

• Greene says malware placed on computers when a user clicks on a link can capture keystrokes

• Thieves take over e-mail accounts and seek money from contacts in the address book



For the full story, click the link below:

The 'With tears in my eyes' e-mail

Monday, March 22, 2010

Using Import Wizard in BO XI R2 -- Part 2

Continued >>>>>>> from Using Import Wizard in BO XI R2 -- Part 1

FIG 6 - Import Wizard – Screen 5

Just click Next on this screen, as this is just a notification in case you have chosen to import Universes.


FIG 7 - Import Wizard – Screen 6

Click Next on this after choosing the default options.

FIG 8 - Import Wizard – Screen 7

This again is a notification window if one was importing the object “Rights”. Just click Next

FIG 9 - Import Wizard – Screen 8

Select reports required to import and click Next


FIG 10 - Import Wizard – Screen 9

For my example, I did not check option on this screen, and clicked Next

FIG 11 - Import Wizard – Screen 10

This screen again is a notification screen, click Next

FIG 12 - Import Wizard – Screen 11

This screen is displayed just before the reports are imported. Here you should make sure that the number of objects selected are same you have actually done in screen 9. Click Next.

FIG 13 - Import Wizard – Screen 12

This screen again shows the progress and the number of reports that are migrated. Here you can also view the logs. Then click done and then click Finish.

4) Now once this task is completed, you should logon to the destination CMC and check if the reports have been migrated or not.

Fig 14 – Reports being migrated

5) One thing to note is to verify if the reports are being migrated to same folder to a different folder. If it is the same folder, then another copy of the report folder is created and subscript (2) is attached. In any case, you will have to go to the

Fig 15 - Duplicate folder created after migration

In this we will need to move these reports from “Reports Home (2)” to “Reports Home”. Before this make sure you re-name the original reports in “Reports Home” as “Old – Crystal Report 1”, “Old – Crystal Report 2” and “Old – Crystal Report 3” since one will need this to check some other information (like database info, Scheduling info, Notification … etc) before they are finally deleted.

This is a sure way of not doing any mistake before deleting any reports from production. So you will go to this path: Home > Folders > Reports Home (2) and check the reports, and then click on Copy/Move/Shortcut.

Fig 16 - Moving the reports
 
Here, select “Move to” and then highlight on the original folder “Reports Home” and then click OK.
 
Fig 17 – Moving the reports to original folder

Now the reports will be in the original folder.


Fig 18 - Reports now in the home folder

One can conveniently delete “Reports Home (2)” now.


I hope this was helpful and please comment and correct any mistakes.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Correct path to navigate to the BOBJ Installation files on SAP Marketplace

These are the steps to SAP Marketplace to download the installation files from service.sap.com. I have put these steps together in my blog as this might help somebody.

First point to service.sap.com and click on SAP Support Portal link
Fig 01- SAP Support Portal link

It will prompt you to login. Login with your s* credentials. It will prompt twice so make sure you put a check mark on Remember my password


Fig 02 – Login Prompt

You will come to this screen


Fig 03 – Download -> BOBJ Download

Click on Download and the click on Business Objects Download. On this page, click on one of these links (Installation and Upgrades) to get to the right downloadable files for BusinessObjects Enterprise 3.1, the latest version.

Fig 04 – BOBJ software download page

Next, click on SBOP Enterprise link. You might not see the same option you see in this figure given below here as that depends on the level of access as an Admin we have.


Fig 05 – SBOP Enterprise link

Now click on the latest version, or any version one desires


Fig 06 – Latest version BOBJ Enterprise XI 3.1

On the next screen, choose Installation if you are not upgrading and then click on Windows if not any other OS.


Fig 07 – Choose Installation and platform

This will take you to the main installation files downloading area. Here you select the appropriate files, Click Add to Download Basket to add the selected filed to the download basket and then click Maintain Download Basket, from here you will download these files to your server or client workstation.


Fig 08 – Download steps to Download Basket

Once you click on Maintain Download Basket, you will come to this screen and here click on Download Basket



Fig 09 – Download Basket area

On the next screen, you can click on individual links to start the download. It is a good idea to get Download Manager and you can initiate multiple download at the same time.


Fig 10 – Download Manager

I hope this will help somebody


Sunday, March 7, 2010

Tracing CMS Mood!!

CMS (Central Management Server) sometimes shows that it is up in CCM (Central Configuration Management) but in CMC (Central Management Console) it shows that it is down. Not necessarily a consistent behaviour.

Fig 01 – CMS Legend

As one would normally do, I re-started the CMS in CMC and thought I was done. It worked well for a day or two, but I found that it was down again in CMC while it was showing as up in CCM on the BusinessObjects Production server. I repeated the same process and after few days, this problem occurred again.

So to resolve this, I had to turn on the trace. I will not be going in details of what the errors were and how I fixed them. My intention is to write about on how to turn on the trace which is a great feature and will help in solving many apparently unsolvable problems. So to turn on the CMS trace and capture the logs. I am presenting 2 ways for 2 different versions BO XI R2 and BO XI 3.0 and up.

BO XI R2: Append –trace in CMS command properties

Steps:


1 Stop CMS

2 Append –trace at the end of the string in Command in Properties tab

Fig 02 - Appending Trace in CMS Properties

3 Restart the CMS


4 Now go to the location: Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 11.5\Logging

and check the logs in the Logging folder.

Fig 03 – CMS logs in Logging Folder

BO XI 3.0 and Above: This option is applicable to the BO XI 3.0. Enabling trace through BO_trace.ini (This option is mostly usefulfor optimization or debugging purposes.)

Steps:


1 Stop the CMS

2 Locate file BO_trace.ini at this location C:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects

Enterprise 12.0\Logging\logConfig

Note: A sample BO_trace.ini file can be found in the following locations after installing a build:


C:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12.0\Logging\logConfig\BO_trace.ini

To turn on tracing using the BO_trace.ini file, the "active" setting within the file must be set to "true" (i.e. active=true). And append -traceinipath to any server command line

Note: By default all the log files will be placed in \BusinessObjects Enterprise 12.0\logging folder

I hope this will be helpful to somebody.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

New Information SAP BusinessObjects Certification - Official SAP Release

Effective April, 2010, there will be new SAP BusinessObjects certification exams available after realignment with the SAP certification program. All existing SAP BusinessObjects exams will be retired at the end of April, 2010 and will be replaced by the following three exams:


• SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.x
• SAP Certified Application Associate – Crystal Reports 2008
• SAP Certified Application Associate – BusinessObjects Web Intelligence XI 3.x

In addition to the test delivery via applicable Pearson VUE test centers, the new exams will also be available from April onwards at SAP Education Centers around the world.

For further information on the exams and their availability, please contact to your local SAP Education

The exam codes which should be bookable from mid-March onwards will be:

C_BOCR_08 -> SAP Certified Application Associate – Crystal Reports 2008
C_BOE_30 -> SAP Certified Application Associate – SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.x
C_BOWI_30 -> SAP Certified Application Associate – BusinessObjects Web Intelligence XI 3.x

So there will not be anymore SABE201, SABE301 and SABE401 and for Crystal report RDCR201 and RDCR301

The fees will also change according to the SAP standard Associates exams. I’m predicting it will $500, same as for all other SAP Associate Certification Exams, for each of these 3 exams.

Those holding the existing BusinessObjects certification are entitled to use the SAP Associate certification logo and title. The former BusinessObjects Certification branding and logo will no longer be used by SAP or provided to test takers.

I will keep adding more info to this later as it becomes available.