Distributed installation of SAP Business Intelligence and configuration of its web tier in Windows

Purpose:

The purpose of this page is to give a high level review of how custom installation is done in SAP Business Intelligence 4.0 in multiple machines with the web tier hosted on one host and the processing tier hosted on a different host and configuration of its web tier with the processing tier

Overview:

 There are several types of deployment that can be possible with SAP Business Intelligence 4.0.

•   Standalone deployment
•   Distributed deployment
•   Split deployment
•   Cluster deployment

Based on these deployments the installation of the product is done accordingly.
In this page we are going to cover the Distributed deployment where the web tier is installed on a different host and the Business Objects processing tier is installed on a different host.
In the first section we cover the step by step installation of the web tier along with the screenshots for a Windows environment.
In the second section we cover the step by step installation of the processing tier components along with the screenshots. 

In the third section we cover how the web tier is configured with the processing tier.
Business Objects communicates via certain ports which require that all servers have to reside in the same sub-net.
Before installing Business Objects, it is required to install Windows .NET Framework 3.5 Service Pack 1 or higher,
A complete installation requires between 4-6 hours, depending on network and system speed for every Business Objects Application Server.
The configuration requires between 3-4 hours, depending on the skill level of the installer

 The above diagram explains what the webapp server or web tier components are and what the Business Object server components are:

A:Web Tier Installation

The Web Tier consists of a Web Server and a Web Application Server hosting on the same server.
Here the web server as well as the webapplication server is Tomcat 6.
We will use Tomcat 6.0 that comes with the BI 4.0 software for Web Application Server and the BO Java components. 

  

Run the setup.exe.

Here you can select any other language other than English as per the requirement of the organization.
If the below “Prerequisite checking” shows any missing components in the “Status” column, please install/fix it and run the Setup.exe again.
Here in the screenshot we observe the following components.

1.Cannot be installed on the same machine

2.Cannot coexist with SAP Crystal Reports Server.

3.Administrative Privilege

4.Microsoft .NET Framework 3.5 or higher

5.Check suppressed reboot state.

6.Requirement to install Integrated database.

7.Windows version.

8.Platform memory Architecture Requirement.

 

  

For example, if .NET Framework 3.5.1 or higher was not found then you would see the “Missing” status.
If everything was correct on the server the all the Prerequisite checking components will show “Succeeded” statuses (see below).

Click Next button

  

Select “I accept…” and click Next button

 Select Web Tier and click on Next 

Select the Destination Folder you would want to install Tomcat 

After selecting the features click on Next

First Check if the port 8080 is not occupied by any other application, then you can put port 8080 and click on Next

This is not a mandatory step.
 If you do not have Wily Introscope select the second option "Do not integrate connectivity to Introscope Enterprise Manager" and click on Next.

Once you select the Next option you will be redirected to the next screen

  

Once the installation has completed you will be redirected to the next screen

Click on finish to complete the installation.
Now we need to verify the Tomcat Installation.
Open a browser and enter: http://servername:8080
If the Tomcat homepage (similar to the below) comes up then the installation was successful.

Management Tier & Processing Tier Installation

Install BusinessObjects BI Components

Please follow the instructions in this section to install the BO components for the management tier & processing tier on the dedicated BO server.
This server will serve as the CMS name for subsequent installation for future expansion of the servers in the cluster.

Note: During the time of this installation , the default database (SQLServer2008) shipped with the BI 4.0 was used. After the new BI 4.0 database is created than BO Admin can configure the CMS to point to any other database as per the need of their organization.

In this setup only the BO Components Server were installed. The Web/App Server was installed on the separate machine . Please see “Install Web/App Server” section for details

  

Click on the OK button.

If all the options are succeeded click on the Next button.

Click on Next.

Select the option "I accept the License Agreement"

You can enter the SAP Business Objects Keycode that you have received from the Licensing team and click on Next

Please select the language packs that you need to install during this installation.Here the language pack installed were English, Italian and Korean

Select the "Custom/Expand" option and click on Next

 You can select the Destination Folder where you want to install Business Objects.

Select Platform Services under Servers option.and click on the Next option

Select the option "Start a new SAP BusinessObjects BI platform deployment"

The node name will be your host name by default and the port name would be 6410,click on Next

Select the CMS port as 6400 and click on Next

 

Specify the Business Objects Administrator word and the CMS cluster key and click on Next.
Once you click on Next ,it will start  the installation.
Once the installation is completed ,you can go to Start >Programs>Business Objects>Central Configuration manager and Server Intelligence Agent .
Right click on Server Intelligence Agent and you will see the Cluster as shown in the next screenshot.

BusinessObjects BI System Configuration

In a split deployment environment, the web/app server and BO components server are installed and deployed separately. It will be needed  to be manually configured for the web/app server to talk to the BO components server.
Configure connectivity between Web/App Server and BO Components serverogon to WEB Server and go to directory
F:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat6\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\default
Copy  BIlaunchpad.properties, CmcApp.properties , CrystalReports.properties, OpenDocument.properties files to F:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat6\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\custom
Go to F:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat6\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\custom 

Launchpad Config:

Open BIlaunchpad.properties file in WordPad (notepad will not show in proper format)

Serach for below items and change accordingly

                                   

	Orginal	Changed
1	# application name  app.name=BI launch pad  app.name.greeting=BusinessObjects  app.name.short=BI launch pad	app.name=BI DEV Launch Pad  app.name.greeting=BusinessObjects  app.name.short=FTI BI 4.0 Development
2	cms.default=servername:6400	cms.default=@BODevCluster

CMC Config:

            Open CmcApp.properties

            Search for “cms.default”

            Old value cms.default=Servername:6400

            New Value cms.default=@BODevCluster 

Crystal reports Config:

            Open CrystalReports.properties

            Search for “cms.default”

            Old value cms.default=Servername:6400

            New Value cms.default=@BODevCluster 

Open Document Config:

            Open OpenDocument.properties

            Search for “cms.default”

            Old value cms.default=Servername:6400

            New Value cms.default=@BODevCluster 

Restart Tomcat:

Open Services in Server Manager and right click “Apache Tomcat 6.0.24” and Restart.

Please note: Here Servername is your hostname and the @BODevCluster is the value that I have used in the screenshots

Verify the connectivity between Web/App Server and BO Components Server 

Open http://Servername:8080/BOE/BI

You should be able to launch BIlaunchpad 

     

You can put in the cluster name and you should be able to login fine.