Apache Tomcat Versus Oracle BEA WebLogic

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Issue Type ↓	Apache Tomcat	Oracle BEA Weblogic	Remarks
Version	Apache Tomcat 6.0.26	WebLogic Server 11gR1 (10.3.3)	Apache Tomcat works with BO XI 3.1 while WebLogic 10 is supported also supported
Features	Administration  and  cluster (needs to configure) support, multiple JVM support, OS Windows and Unix platform support, Memory requirements pretty less	administration and clustering support out-of-the-box, Multiple JVM support, OS Windows and Unix supported, minimum memory requirement needed
Acquisition	Comes with BusinessObjects Package hence licensing not a problem and it comes free	Significant license fee
Performance and JVM	Reliable	Reliable
Technical Support	Self Support (mostly from tech forums). No official support from Apache	Complete Vendor Support	In fact, customers prefer BEA Weblogic for efficient technical support but Tomcat is most widely used becuase it is free

Transposing the Fields in SAP BW Transformation

Scenario

The business records the daily exposure and positions into one record for a term. In my example, a term is for 10 days. So the record looks like this:

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Transaction ID	Date	Day 1	Day 2	Day 3	Day 4	Day 5
646578	4/17/2011	432.00	606.00	2011.00	2169.00	379.00

This means that I will have to come up with 10 key figures in SAP BW InfoProvider design which might not be a good design.

Target Design

I wanted to show this as 1 key figure and with another field that shows what day it is.

Transaction ID	Date	Day Ending	Price Per day
646578	4/17/2011	01	432.00
646578	4/17/2011	02	606.00
646578	4/17/2011	03	2011.00
646578	4/17/2011	04	2169.00
646578	4/17/2011	05	379.00

Resolution

The solution presented in here is following this Dataflow: Source System -> Write-Optimized DSO -> Standard DSO. The solution given below can be applied between the Transformation that exists between Write-Optimized and Standard DSO. This can be applied in any Transformations.

Fig 1: Dataflow

This can be extended up to 25 fields. After 15 fields, it might give you an error.

First Solution:

One way to do was to write Start Routine and End Routine in Transformation.

Fig 2: Transformation - Start and End Routine

The code might look like this but you will need to modify this depending on your needs:

Start Routine:

DATA: wa_source_package TYPE _ty_s_SC_1.

    LOOP AT SOURCE_PACKAGE INTO wa_SOURCE_PACKAGE.
      wa_sp-/BIC/ZTRAN_ID = wa_source_package-/BIC/ZTRAN_ID.
      wa_sp-/BIC/ZDATE = wa_source_package-/BIC/ZDATE.
      wa_sp-/bic/ZPDP_DY1 = wa_source_package-/bic/ZPPD_DY1.
      wa_sp-/bic/ZPDP_DY2 = wa_source_package-/bic/ZPPD_DY2.
      wa_sp-/bic/ZPDP_DY3 = wa_source_package-/bic/ZPPD_DY3.
      wa_sp-/bic/ZPDP_DY3 = wa_source_package-/bic/ZPPD_DY3.
      wa_sp-/bic/ZPDP_DY4 = wa_source_package-/bic/ZPPD_DY4.
      wa_sp-/bic/ZPDP_DY5 = wa_source_package-/bic/ZPPD_DY5.

End Routine:


DATA: rem TYPE I.
    DATA: lt_rp TYPE TABLE OF _ty_s_TG_1,
          wa_rp TYPE _ty_s_TG_1.

    lt_rp[] = RESULT_PACKAGE[].
    REFRESH RESULT_PACKAGE.

    LOOP AT lt_rp INTO wa_rp.
      READ TABLE it_sp INTO wa_sp WITH KEY
      /BIC/ZTRAN_ID  = wa_rp-/BIC/ZTRAN_ID
      /BIC/ZDATE = wa_rp-/BIC/ZDATE
  
      IF  sy-subrc = 0.
        wa_rp-/BIC/ZDAY_END = 'Day 1'.
        wa_rp-/BIC/ZPPD_PR = wa_sp-/bic/ZPPD_DY1.
        APPEND wa_rp TO RESULT_PACKAGE.

        wa_rp-/BIC/ZDAY_END = 'Day 2'.
        wa_rp-/BIC/ZPPD_PR = wa_sp-/bic/ZPPD_DY2.
        APPEND wa_rp TO RESULT_PACKAGE.

        wa_rp-/BIC/ZDAY_END = 'Day 3'.
        wa_rp-/BIC/ZPPD_PR = wa_sp-/bic/ZPPD_DY3.
        APPEND wa_rp TO RESULT_PACKAGE.

        wa_rp-/BIC/ZDAY_END = 'Day 4'.
        wa_rp-/BIC/ZPPD_PR = wa_sp-/bic/ZPPD_DY4.
        APPEND wa_rp TO RESULT_PACKAGE.

        wa_rp-/BIC/ZDAY_END = '0ay 5'.
        wa_rp-/BIC/ZPPD_PR = wa_sp-/bic/ZPPD_DY5.
        APPEND wa_rp TO RESULT_PACKAGE.

Transformation looks like this:

Fig 3 : Transformation with Start and End Routine

Second Solution:

By using the Rule Groups
We can use the Rule Groups functionality to achieve the same what I did with Start and End routine.

1. Create two new InfoObjects: Day Ending (Characteristics type and type CHAR with Length as 6 and Price Per Day (Key figure as Amount)
2. Insert these InfoObjects Standard DSO
3. In the Transformation between, Write-Optimized DSO and Standard DSO, click on Rule Groups and create one.

• For day 1, give the name of the Rule group as Day 1, Map the Price Per Day 1 to Price Per Day and Hard code Day Ending as Day 1
• For day 2, give the name of the Rule group as Day 2, Map the Price Per Day 2 to Price Per Day and Hard code Day Ending as Day 2

Follow the same steps for all other days.

Fig 4: Rule Groups

The data that looked like this earlier

Fig 5: Data in Write-Optimized DSO

Will look like this

Fig 6: Data in Standard DSO

I hope this will be helpful to somebody.

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SAP Education – Listing of Available Certification Exams in the United States and Canada (as of 09/02/11)

As given to me Kenneth Schieffer (SAP Education Program Manager - North America):

·         To use the certification discount promotion in the attachment, register for exam(s) at Pearson VUE (http://www.pearsonvue.com/sap)

·         To register for exams at SAP delivery centers, call 1-888-777-1727 or email education.northamerica@sap.com

·         To register for training to prepare for certification, call 1-888-777-1727 or email education.northamerica@sap.com

Good luck with the certification exam!

NOTE: To register for any SAP exam at an SAP Delivery Center, please select the "Book" button from the exam description page or call North American Central Registration at 1-888-777-1727.

SAP Education uses Pearson VUE as an exam delivery partner in the US and Canada (www.pearsonvue.com/sap). You can use VUE’s website to locate a test center, schedule an exam, and view the available SAP exams.

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US AND CANADA CERTIFICATION PROMOTION ANNOUNCEMENT

Until December 31, 2011, you can use promotion code 10CERTSS at Pearson VUE’s US and Canadian delivery centers (http://www.pearsonvue.com/sap) to register for 50% discount certification exams. This promotion cannot be used in conjunction with any other SAP certification promotion in the US and Canada and will not be extended into 2012.

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See the new SAP Education video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=diSw24AlUhE

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Update of the New SAP BusinessObjects Certification Exams

The updated exams have been released. Here below find the details:

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C_BOWI_30 - SAP Certified Application Associate BusinessObjects Web Intelligence XI 3.x


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References:
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SAP CERTIFICATION EXAMS DURING 2010 -- READ ON!!

LISTEN UP, NORTH AMERICA -- IF YOU ARE PLANNING TO TAKE ANY SAP CERTIFICATION EXAMS DURING 2010 -- READ ON!!


SAP is listening to the LinkedIn voices for your certification goals during 2010, SAP Education NA has created a promotion code to be used exclusively by the SAP LinkedIn communities at our exam delivery partner, Pearson VUE. Here are the details:

PROMOTION CODE: 10CERTLI

VALIDITY PERIOD: June 1 – December 31, 2010

TO BE USED AT: Pearson VUE only ( http://www.pearsonvue.com/sap/ ) - this promotion does NOT apply to certification exams taken at SAP delivery locations.

DETAILS: 50% off ALL certification exams taken at North American Pearson VUE locations

IMPORTANT: The promotion code allows for unlimited exams throughout the validity period. As such, you can use the promotion code multiple times if needed.

Certification ensures quality and competence. It communicates an externally verified and industry-standard mark of excellence.



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Questions??? Contact Ken Schieffer at kenneth.schieffer@sap.com.

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Fixing the 401.1 Access Denied Error

This is classic example of why the .NET InfoView will not work with Kerberos and Windows AD authentication along with NTLM. Although one makes sure that all installation and settings are done as per the book, .NET InfoView gives “Access Denied … 401.1 …” and this is specific to IIS 6.0 and might not apply to IIS 5.1 or less.

By default, the NTAuthenticationProviders metabase property is not defined when you install IIS 6.0. IIS 6.0 uses the Negotiate, NTLM parameter when the NTAuthenticationProviders metabase property is not defined. To verify,

• Open the command prompt (Click Start, then click Run and type in CMD) and change the directory to c:\Inetpub\Adminscripts
• Then run this command: cscript adsutil.vbs get w3svc/NTAuthenticationProviders
• It is suppose to give this output:

          NTAuthenticationProviders : (STRING) "NTLM"

         But you’ll get this.

Fig 01 - Adminscripts contents

This means that you cannot use IIS to use NTLM as your authentication mechanism if you want to use Integrated Windows authentication only.

Now you will have to force IIS to use NTLM as your authentication mechanism if you want to use Integrated Windows authentication only if you have multiple application pools that run under different domain user accounts.

Now run this command: cscript adsutil.vbs set w3svc/NTAuthenticationProviders "NTLM"

Fig 02 - NTLM Assignment

The screen will show the assignment of “NTLM” to NTAuthenticationProviders

This solution is provided by Microsoft under KB215383

One can also delete the negotiation of NTLM by running the command cscript adsutil.vbs DELETE

Other help commands are given under this: cscript adsutil.vbs help

I hope that this will be useful to someone. Comments and corrections are welcome.

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Fix for log4j warning message in the Tomcat log file stdout.log

I was getting these warning messages in the logs file stdout.log while trying to debug the Kerberos login issues on Java InfoView. Not that this was disruptive by any means, but I thought I should lower the logs size. I’m working on BO XI R2 on Windows 2003 with Tomcat.

INFO: Installing web application at context path /dswsbobje from URL file:C:\Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat\webapps\dswsbobje log4j:WARN No appenders could be found for logger (org.apache.catalina.session.ManagerBase). log4j:WARN Please initialize the log4j system properly.

These messages indicate that listed web application file dswsbobje was unable to find the log4j.war file in its location which was supposed to be deployed universally at the time of installation and apparently did not.

A note on what log4j is? log4j is a popular logging package for Java and is used for debugging Java applications. With log4j it is possible to enable logging at runtime without modifying the application binary. The package is distributed under the Apache Software License, a fully-fledged open source license certified by the open source initiative. The link http://logging.apache.org/log4j/docs/manual.html gives pretty good information on different aspects of log4j properties. The output from Log4j can go to the console, but it can also go to an email server, a database table, a log file (as in my case here), or various other destinations. This link gives the FAQ’s about log4j file: http://logging.apache.org/log4j/1.2/faq.html#a1.1 In my case here, I have created a folder WINNT on C:\ drive and created a file bscLogin.conf to enable Windows AD authentication using Kerberos for Java InfoView. Enabling trace in this file will provide logs for tracing any untoward login issues.

How to enable trace to follow Kerberos login attempt activities

Open the file bscLogin.conf from C:\WINNT in notepad. Append debug=true as shown below to debug the Kerberos login issues.

FIG 01 – Appending debug to file bscLogin.conf

The output of this will be logged at this default location C:\Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat\logs\ and the log file name will be stdout.log

The Fix

There were some other messages warning for deployed WAR files dswsbobjewar.xml and jsfadminwar.xml. So to have Tomcat use file log4j.jar universally, I copied the files log4j.jar and commons-logging.jar from the Java library folder C:\Program Files\Business Objects\common\3.5\java\lib\external to the Tomcat lib folder C:\Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat\common\lib

Then, this is the result of the Tomcat log file (stdout.log) that has size of 1 KB. I had to delete the stdout.log file first and then restart the Tomcat Service.

FIG 02 - Location of the log file

As per Tomcat forum documentation, some warning messages may persist but they don’t seem to be any reason for Kerberos not authenticating.

I hope this will be helpful to someone.

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