Business Objects 4.

0 Upgrade
Lessons Learned

Charl du Buisson
Britehouse Specialist SAP Division
 Agenda

Our Reasons to upgrade to BOBJ 4.0

Lessons learned

Name Configuratio Upgrade and General Upgrade Timeframe Final

chang n and setup migration lessons strategy s/ project lesson
es consideration learned consideration plan learned
s s

Was the Wait for Service Pack 4 Worth it?

Reasons to upgrade to BOBJ 4.0

 SAP Integration Kit integrated into
BO 4.0 installation
SAP 1
BICS Connect to Bex queries
Integratio SSO setup easier to setup than previous versions
n Crystal for Enterprise also allows BICS connector
 Reasons to upgrade to BOBJ 4.0

Multisource universes that federate

multiple relational data sources
Dimensional universes that support
Informatio OLAP dimensions and hierarchies
A design environment that facilitates designer
n
2 teamwork and universe resource sharing
Design A security editor for universe data and
Tool metadata Extended connection
management
Easier management of repository resources
 Reasons to upgrade to BOBJ 4.0

Enhance BI Launchpad/Landing Pages

New Webi Features
d User
Enhanced Charting mechanism
interface 3
Harmonised user interfaces across products
s
 Name Configuration Upgrade and General lessons Upgrade strategy Timeframes/ Final lesson
changes and setup migration learned considerations project plan learned
considerations
 Lessons Lear
Name chang

4.0 Current Name Prior Release Name

SAP BusinessObjects 4.0 SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.x

SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence

SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.x
platform 4.0

SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence SAP BusinessObjects Web Intelligence

SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard Design SAP BusinessObjects Xcelsius Designer

SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for

Pioneer/Voyager
OLAP
SAP BusinessObjects Analysis, edition for
n/a
Microsoft Office
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 Lessons Lear
Name changes, co

4.0 Current Name Prior Release Name

SAP BusinessObjects BI launch pad Infoview

SAP BusinessObjects BI workspaces Dashboard Builder

SAP Crystal Reports 2011 Crystal Reports

SAP Crystal Reports for Enterprise n/a

Information Design Tool n/a

Universe Design Tool Universe Designer

Upgrade Management Tool Import Wizard

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 Lessons Lear
Configuration and set

The installation process seems to have a few

issues the installer does not always install
the CMS database on the first install; we found that a re-install is
necessary to create it correctly

1 Recommendation is to install the DBMS Environment first or connect

to existing environment
Lifecycle Manager and Mobile - Integrated in BI
4.0 a separate install is not required
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 Lessons Lear
Configuration and set

Follow pre-requisites and SAP Best Practices

BUT sizing mentioned by SAP is not
sufficient
the default APS and parameters for APS is not
sufficient for a production environment yet: 2
BO 4.0 is resource intensive and an estimate load
assessment should be done before hardware is
allocated
Ensure you have enough resources production should
have at least 24GB of RAM
Development system at least 16GB of RAM
A VM is not recommended for the production
system separate hardware recommended
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 Lessons Lear
Configuration and set

SSO SAP setup worked well configuration was

simple Windows AD more challenging
Consider authentication mechanisms prior to setup 3
and plan for windows AD and SAP/LDAP
integration prior to the installation
Follow SAPs setup instructions EXACTLY, in the
exact order and note IT IS CASE SENSITIVE
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 Lessons Lear
Upgrade and migration consideratio

Upgrade New tes to be

Manager tem re-
plat created
Side by side es
installation is to
recommended 3.x be
and 4.x use
environments can d to
co-exist thus displ
allowing a phased ay
upgrade approach BO
repo
rts
Ol
SAP Portal d
Integration te
m
pla
 CUIDs WEBI Settings the old Interactive
Viewer, i.e. no
editing of Query.
Very specific process The They need to
needs to be followed to Webi change it to the
Viewing Rich Client
make sure that CUIDs and (ie Java viewer)
dont change Modify
options
have Some 3.x
changed. Webi
Xcelsius vs In 4.x the Visualizat
Dashboard Design Default
Viewing ions
Option is are not supported in 4.x
Only one file created Web
(dashboard design object) which allows
no need to create a separate some report
SWF file editing like

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 Lessons Lear
Upgrade and migration consideratio

XI R2 / 3.1 BI 4.0 Upgrade consideratio

Binaries New Binaries Complete re-install require
No compatibility with Histo
Audit New Audit Schema
Data
Existing reports are
Crystal Reports CR 2011 and CR Enterprise
supported
Existing reports are
Web Intelligence Web Intelligence
supported
Dashboards become BI
Workspaces but some
Dashboard Builder Now BI Launch Pad analytics must be recreate
No more Performance
Manager
Existing visualisations are
Xcelsius 2008 Dashboard Design
supported.
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 Lessons Lear
Upgrade and migration consideratio

XI R2 / 3.1 BI 4.0 Upgrade consideratio

Report conversion tool can
Desktop Intelligence End of Life
used to convert Webl
Need to update client
Live Office now supports
Live Office machines
Outlook
with new 4.0 version
Excel based infospaces ar
supported: no UNV suppor
Polestar/Explorer Explorer
until SP2 UNV must be
converted to UNX
Most of the workspaces ar
Pioneer/Advanced analysis
Analysis edition for OLAP upgraded while more comp
web edition
required to be recreated
Relation UNV can be
manually converted to UNX
N/A Information Design Tool OLAP UNV have to be
recreated in UNX
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 Lessons Lear
General lessons learn

BOBJ Error messages

Not much improved

A number are still very

generic.
 Tomcat 6.0

Had trouble stopping

known issue

Need to terminate the

process in the
operating system

System Variables
 Setting up these
variables are
completely different
than in BOBJ3.1 need
to follow the SAP
guides

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 Lessons Lear
General lessons learned | contin

Old System
Setup/Passwords
Recommendation
create new accounts
(AD, SAP) for the
new/upgraded BOBJ
4.0 system
 Architecture Setup

It is recommended to
split your production
system over two
separate servers. Split
Web and back-end
processing or cluster

Adaptive Processing
Server
 Some of the BOBJ 3.1
services has been
bundled into a single
APS in BOBJ 4.0
It is recommended
however to split these
services in your
production environment
into separate servers
Refer to the BOBJ
sizing guide

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 Lessons Lear
General lessons learned | contin

Bex Queries and BICS Connector

BEx Queries are recommended as data sources for all the SAP BusinessObjects BI To
In some situations extremely large queries and universes can adversely affect
performance
SAPs best practice document states that the placement of characteristics / key figures
have no direct impact on the BI tools our experience differs it does have an impact
performance eg
When free characteristics are used in a Webi we found that moving these to the
rows and/or columns section improved the Webis performance
Leverage SAP Variables as part of the BW Query variable type (single/multiple,
selection option and interval selection) needs to be planned beforehand e.g.
Selection option in BEx becomes a from to variable in Webi, need to use multipl
single selections in Bex.
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 Lessons Lear
Upgrade strategy consideratio

Combining people and processes into the plan is just as important as

the technology portion of the upgrade; therefore as with all upgrades
is most important to
Create a
migration
plan, based
on best
practices, for
each way
reporting is
used in your
organization
(eg batch,
on-demand,
portals, etc)
- Which reports to migrate? - Do you want / need to rework your access management settings
Opportunity to clean-up, more during the migration? Opportunity for redsign .
reports to migrate greater risk - Should you plan for a big bang migration or better in smaller
pieces? If yes, how do you deal with the parallel operation of
 two BO versions (eg regarding
client tools?)
Set user and
- How can you check a
migration was successful? management Create a test plan expectations early
- Do we have enough licenses? on testing
and training

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 Lessons Lear
Timeframes/project pl

Budget enough
Ove time for Bugs
rall Investigati
on of
issues
Setup enough time arrange to Allow enough time for the
with SAP Basis, have it recreation of iViews
infrastructure and available on
authorisations the server
project team before
members installation (eg
Copying software to copy
the server is time overnight)
consuming Portal
Integration
Setup of SSO for AD There were for workarounds to be
Setup of ODBC still quite a developed eg SAP
Connections number of Integration
bugs to be Hierarchy selection screen
Re-installation of BOBJ
resolved in BO does not always display the
4.0 (as previously
4.0 Will need values for selection and thus
discussed CMS DB is
to evaluate only the entire hierarchy can be
not always created in the
SP4 displayed
installation process)
Thus time
Some 3.x Webi
needs to
Visualizations not
be
supported in 4.x
budgeted
(Charting)

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 Lessons Lear
Timeframes/project pl

Budget enough time for

Clean-up of Changing of Traini Business/
reports during URLs ng User
migration Testing
Some rework and Links in reports New Seem to always
testing of existing and dashboards Webi wait longer for
reports some after migrating Interface feedback than
components not them to the new OLAP expected
compatible in the system eg open Analys
document syntax Training before
new version is testing important
changed
Crystal especially if its a
Enterpri Greenfield project
se vs
Crystal
2011
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 Lessons Lear
Final lesson learn

Try not to install a BOBJ Product with a .0 behind it - wait for .1

FP3, BOBJ 4.1 Worth the wait?.... Actually it is here!

Consumer Xcelsius / component to visualise

Improved
Service Dashboards hierarchy)
integration with
(BICS) waterfall charts
SAP NetWeaver
(new visualisation)
BW and the SAP
Business Suite Xcelsius /
Dashboards Dashboards
(Xcelsius) will be extensive
able to access hierarchy support
SAP NetWeaver improvements (incl
BW directly via hierarchical table
Business
Intelligence
 functions in Web functionality
Universe access to
single and Intelligence (colour assignment
SAP ERP multisource will receive and
Support SAP ERP universes improved expand/collapse
InfoSets, SAP queries, SAP functionality)
ABAP NetWeaver Also, users will be
BW support able to
and chart export reports as
.TXT files

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 Lessons Lear
Final lesson learn

Try not to install a BOBJ Product with a .0 behind it - wait for .1

FP3, BOBJ 4.1 Worth the wait?.... Actually it is here!

SAP
BusinessObjects
Dashboards will Integration of the
Capability of Data
include improved semantic layer - Direct
Binding for SAP
tree views with Data binding of SAP
Business Objects
visualizations of BW data and
Dashboard Design
hierarchies and components
report-report
interface (RRI)
support to invoke
SAP Business
Suite applications
 Various rrections tools egTo
Bug made to all Refresh error
Fixes/Co BOBJ 4.0 resolved

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 Lessons Lear
Final lesson learn

Try not to install a BOBJ Product with a .0 behind it - wait for .1

Improved BI mobile
solutions
Hadoop Support their own

direct access to

visualizations
Integration with
Sybase Unwired

awareness
Sybase Afaria
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 Useful Resourc

Upgrade Best Practices

http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/c0d937
fa-1261-2e10-6388-e71afb6b5ff6?QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true
BI 4.0 Upgrade Resources
http://scn.sap.com/docs/DOC-25474
SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform Whats New in Feature Pack 3
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/8012621a-
8f55-2f10-acab-b386c3f7c654?
QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&54567559523496
SAP Road Map for the SAP BusinessObjects BI Solutions
http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/go/portal/prtroot/docs/library/uuid/d027dc
c9-76a2-2f10-5e9b-d18a3053a58c?
QuickLink=index&overridelayout=true&55555402996111
Technical Docs, including Sizing Guide

https://help.sap.com/bobip
 Business Objects Upgrade
Lessons Learned

Thank you!
Charl du Buisson
Britehouse Specialist SAP Division