Auto Restart BO Servers with a Batch job and Schedule it

Video walkthrough (all the way at the bottom): How to automate Business Objects' Services/Servers in Central Configuration Manger so that they restart every night, every week or however you'd like to schedule them.

Topics Covered:
1) Creating a batch job to restart any/all Business Objects Services
2) Scheduling the batch job according to the need of your environment

Business Objects, as you all know (well, the BOE people at least) runs using several types of servers-which are called 'services' in Windows. But we will refer to them as 'servers' because that's how BO decided to call them and that's how we see them in CMC.

One of the most essential tasks of maintaining a promptly responsive, error free and fresh Business Objects environment is to restart Business Objects services on a regular basis. If you are an Admin or have access to the machine where your BO software is installed, you can see the activities of BO, including it's servers' activities from the Event Viewer. Every so often, there are warnings and errors that get generated by BO servers. Sometimes, the WebI Report Server may generate "...Communication failure" error or the CrystalRAS may generate some registry error, or the CMS may generate "Database Access Error..."; you get the idea.

Of course, you may Google the error messages and try to get to the bottom of the problem - which is the best approach, by the way, but if you just create a batch job to automatically restart all your BOE servers, you will see your environment performing significantly better and most errors will disappear.

I've seen on few sites the suggest the batch to restart the servers in this manner:


NET STOP “Web Intelligence Job Server”
NET START “Web Intelligence Job Server”

NET STOP “Program Job Server”
NET START “Program Job Server”

NET STOP “Report Application Server”
NET START “Report Application Server”

and so on - you get the idea. STOP and START a server right away. I, however have it set up slightly differently - STOP all and then START all. I don't know if mine is better or the aforementioned is better, but I like mine better because it just looks 'cool' and it has a symmetry to it. :)

For those of you who are like 'wtfff' at this point and or new BO admins setting up your 1st batch job, here's a brief intro to Command Prompt in Windows. Do this: Start > Run > CMD (and then hit enter). Type NET and hit Enter. These are the basic commands. We will use START and STOP commands for restarting BO servers because all BO servers are also found in the Services - Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Services or type "Services.msc" in the Run window (see above) and hit enter.

WARNING:  Make sure, you are NOT in your Production environment when you are trying / setting up this batch job. Because the moment you STOP a server - that's it, all users utilizing that server will get error message or a failure and if you happen to STOP CMS, then it'll be a chaos and you'll surely get some yelling from your boss. So, do you testing on your Development/Test environment and if you don't have any, schedule an outage and or take permission first.

Also, I came across many time where every server would STOP and START perfectly, except CMS-it doesn't start up, remains shut down. For that our systems analyst put a delay in between the STOP and START segment using the "sleep.exe" command, found in Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools. And we also used the START command for CMS several times so that if the CMS doesn't start at the 1st attempt, it'll start up at one of the following attempts. If you do not have "sleep.exe" tool, then simply remove it from the code below and

NOTE: You must change the code below, because this code is meant for my environment only and every environment has as different number of servers that are up. For example, I have 4 Web Intelligence Report Servers, but you have only 2. So, edit/delete accordingly.

Code: BATCH Script to Automate Restarting of Business Objects Server  (click here to open the code below on a new page).

@echo off
rem
rem This script restart several services on this server (Business-Objects-Server)
rem
rem batch script created by: Administrator
rem batch script created on: 12242009

set log_file_fdr=C:\restart_service\logs
set log_file=bob_restart_svc.log
if not exist "%log_file_fdr%" md "%log_file_fdr%"

for /f "tokens=*" %%i in ('time/t') do set ttime=%%i
for /f "tokens=*" %%j in ('date/t') do set ddate=%%j

net stop "World Wide Web Publishing Service"
net stop "WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service"
net stop "Crystal Reports Job Server (2)"
net stop "Crystal Reports Job Server"
net stop "Crystal Reports Page Server"
net stop "Crystal Reports Cache Server"
net stop "Program Job Server"
net stop "Report Application Server(4)"
net stop "Report Application Server(3)"
net stop "Report Application Server(2)"
net stop "Report Application Server"
net stop "Web Intelligence Job Server"
net stop "Web Intelligence Report Server(4)"
net stop "Web Intelligence Report Server(3)"
net stop "Web Intelligence Report Server(2)"
net stop "Web Intelligence Report Server"
net stop "Destination Job Server"
net stop "Event Server"
net stop "List of Values Job Server"
net stop "Output File Repository Server"
net stop "Input File Repository Server"
net stop "Connection Server"
net stop "Central Management Server"

sleep.exe 60

net start "Central Management Server"
net start "Connection Server"
net start "Input File Repository Server"
net start "Output File Repository Server"
net start "List of Values Job Server"
net start "Event Server"
net start "Destination Job Server"
net start "Web Intelligence Report Server"
net start "Web Intelligence Report Server(2)"
net start "Web Intelligence Report Server(3)"
net start "Web Intelligence Report Server(4)"
net start "Web Intelligence Job Server"
net start "Report Application Server"
net start "Report Application Server(2)"
net start "Report Application Server(3)"
net start "Report Application Server(4)"
net start "Program Job Server"
net start "Crystal Reports Cache Server"
net start "Crystal Reports Page Server"
net start "Crystal Reports Job Server"
net start "Crystal Reports Job Server (2)"
net start "WinHTTP Web Proxy Auto-Discovery Service"

net start "Central Management Server"

net stop "IISAdmin" /y
net start "IISAdmin"
net start "World Wide Web Publishing Service"
net start "FTP Publishing Service"
net start "HTTP SSL"
net start "Network News Transfer Protocol (NNTP)"
net start "Simple Mail Transfer Protocol (SMTP)"


sleep.exe 60

net start "Central Management Server"

sleep.exe 60

net start "Central Management Server"


echo %ddate% %ttime% Business-Objects-Server services have been restarted.>> "%log_file_fdr%\%log_file%"

:end
exit
------------------------------

How to Retreive List of Objects from an Universe

Visual walkthrough: How to extract list of all Objects, Conditions, Hierarchies, Tables, Joins, Contexts and Parameters from an Universe using Designer.

Topics Covered:
1) Exploring the Print/PDF Options of the Designer
2) Saving universe as PDF to get the list of all desired details of that universe

Steps:
[1] Once you have your universe opened, go to Tools > Options and select the appropriate options:



[2] Select your options. Make sure to select Objects and Hierarchies to get the tree structured view (see below, Step 6).



[3] Save the universe.



[4] Make sure to save the universe as PDF.



[5] Here's your universe summary:



[6] Universe details:



[7] And finally, snapshot of the actual universe; in this case, our favorite - Island Resort Marketing. You get the snapshot by selecting "Graphical Structure" from step 2.



End. 

How to create Custom LOVs in Dimensions

Video walkthrough - How to Create and or Edit Custom List Of Values (LOVs) in Dimensions of Business Objects Universes.

Topics Covered:

1) Creating and Editing Context based Custom LOVs

2) Sneak peak at how Business Objects actually generates all Dimensions' List Of Values

Scenario:

You have 35 Customers which is tied to a "Customer" dimension. Amongst these customers, 25 of them made reservations and they are tied to a dimension called "Reservations" and 21 of them actually converted into sales and they are tied to "Sales" dimension.

While creating reports using the universe containing the above dimensions, if your Marketing team wants to see only the 25 customers in their Query filter or if your Accounting department wants to see only the 21 customers in their Query filter while building WebI reports, we'd need to create 2 additional dimensions based off of the original "Customer" dimensions and we may call them "Reservations Customers" and "Sales Customers". From the Designer, we will have to go to the properties of these latter 2 dimensions and modify their default LOV.

Once we've successfully created custom LOVs of the 2 new customer dimensions, then if the Marketing team and the Accounting team drags in their respective customer dimensions in their Query Filter, they will only see 25 and 21 customers, not the entire list of 35 customers.

See video for complete walkthrough...

Migrate Universes from Development to Production

Universe Migration steps:

This is one of the ways to migrate a universe from Development to Production universe if you want to keep them consistent and identical.

We'll use a generic example: X and Y are the same universe in different environments-Development and Production respectively. It's always best practice to archive all universes that need to be updated, using Import Wizard's BIAR (Business Intelligence Archive Resource).

So we have:

* Dev Environment: Universe X

* Production Environment: Universe Y

1) Update: Universe X (add dimensions, tables, etc - update this universe)

2) Copy: Copy Universe X and name it "Universe X - Copy" (in Development)

3) Migrate: "Universe X - Copy" to Production from Development (Using Import Wizard)

4) Backup: Universe Y (Either create a copy of this in Production or BIAR it)

5) Designer: Open "Universe X - Copy" (in Production)

6) Data source: Update Data Source of "Universe X - Copy" with the Data Source of "Universe Y"

7) Publish to Prod: Rename / Replace "Universe X - Copy" to "Universe Y"

8) Delete Universe Connection that got carried over by "Universe X - Copy" from Dev to Production.

9) Delete "Universe X - Copy" from Production

10) Delete "Universe X - Copy" from Test

Finally, the updated Universe X from Development is now the new Universe Y in Production.

Free Hand SQL: Crystal Reports and Static Parameters

Video - Topics covered

(This is a follow up video of our previous videos on Crystal Reports (Standard Report Wizard on Crystal Reports XIR2 and Static Parameters in Crystal Reports.)

1) How to create Crystal Reports using free hand SQL.

2) How to Create Static Parameter with Static List of Values. (again, using free hand SQL).

Static Parameters in Crystal Reports

Video - Topics covered:

This is a follow up video of our previous video on How to create Crystal report using Standard Report Wizard.

1) Static Parameters - Static parameters are used in prompts values or List of Values that do not change, or do not change frequently. For example, if a report requires a prompt to select a particular State, it would ideal to use a Static LOVs because the number of states is unlikely to change any time soon. Also, static parameters are very fast becuase all the LOVs are loaded in the report and Crystal Reports does not have to query the data source to retrieve the LOVs.

2) Static List of Values - used by Static parameters, can be retrieved and stored with Static Parameters created on a Crystal report using the 'Append All Database Values' feature. You can also import the LOVs from external text files or simply type your own LOVs.

Standard Report Wizard on Crystal Reports XIR2

Video - Topics covered:

1) Standard Report Wizard - How to create Crystal reports using database tables - i.e. simply dragging and dropping tables and joining them - much like in Designer creating universes.

2) Group Expert - as it's name suggests, this is an extended front end version of the 'group by' function of Crystal reports. Very easy to use and very useful. Those of you who write SQL a lot, know sometime it gets very painful when using Group By clause in your code. Not in Crystal Reports.

3) Design view - introduction to the sectional layout of Crystal reports, including Report Header, Page Headers, Group Headers (if you do not use any grouping in your report, you won't have Group Headers), Details - main data, Group Footers, Report Footers , Page Footer. So, it looks like this in Design view:

Report Header

Page Header

Group Header

DETAILS

Group Footer

Report Footer

Page Footer

4) Select Expert (Selection Formulas) - The name of this feature isn't very intuitive but this can be thought of as an extended front end of version of Where clause. We can restrict and manipulate data using this feature. For example, if we wanted to assign a custom Parameter/promot to an available field, we would use Record Selection Formulas.

5) Formula Workshop - Formula Editor Very intuitive. You can create all sorts of formulas using SQL or Crystal syntax. For example, UPPERCASE, NULL behaviors, data type conversions, mathematical calculations and so on.

Stored Procedure in WebI Reports Part 3

Image walkthrough: Stored Procedure with Parameters / Prompts in WebI Reports

[1] We are starting with this WebI report which was created with a simple stored procedure, in Part 2: That stored procedure just returned 2 columns. Now, we are going to work with a stored procedure with 2 input parameters, aka 'prompts' (in WebI). Very useful.

[2] Our 2nd stored procedure returns 2 columns, based on users' response. The parameters are 'StateID' and 'StateAbbrev' - with datatype of number and string / varchar, respectively. And since we know where these 2 fields are from, a quick way to test this procedure would be to find and enter 2 valid parameters when executing the procedure, in this case, we'll pick '3' for state 'AR'.

Let's run the procedure:

Usage format:

EXEC Stored_Procedure StateID, StateAbbrev

EXEC Stored_Procedure 3, AR

> see results of this procedure at the bottom of the following pic

[3] So, back to WebI > SQL (View SQL) > Use Custom SQL:

We'll apply our store procedure: EXEC Stored_Procedure 3, AR

make sure, to use "SET NOCOUNT ON" and comment out (/* blah blah */) the codes generated by WebI - do NOT delete the codes.

Validation successful.

[4] Run it and the report runs. So, we got it to work. Don't worry about the column headers, you can rename them to suit your needs.

Now, let's create prompts.

[5] We'll use both types to be Alphanumeric

This your basic @Prompt syntax:

@Prompt(‘message’,‘type’,[lov],[MONO|MULTI],[FREE|CONSTRAINED])

So we have

-- EXEC Stored_Procedure 3, AR (Original format)

EXEC Stored_Procedure

@Prompt('Enter STATE ID' , 'A' , MONO , FREE , PERSISTENT) ,

@Prompt('Enter STATE ABBREVIATION' , 'A', MONO , FREE , PERSISTENT)

... And validation successful. Great.

[6] As we save and run the above modified WebI query, we are prompted - perfect! So, we'll once again enter '3' and 'AR' to match with the results we got when we ran this procedure on SQL M our result in SQL Server Management Studio.

[7] So, now let's run this stored procedure with prompts on WebI - bingo, Success!

[8] NOTE:

If you go back to the code, you'll see that the @Prompts are gone in custom SQL query. Don't worry, simply "close" the code and the report will still prompt you. BUT, if you hit "save", then it will only retain the value you see - in this case '3' and 'AR'.

Scope of Analysis and Custom Hierarchies

Video: Demystifying Scope of Analysis and Custom Hierarchies on Business Objects XI Universes and WebI / DeskI reports.

The terms "Scope of Analysis" and "Custom Hierarchies" sound so complex and sophisticated that one would think that wow... Business Objects got some very advanced futuristic features. I, of course do not deny that these are amongst the most useful features of BOE, but they could've used simpler terms, like 'custom drill down' or 'drill down settings' - sounds much friendlier and less terrifying.

If you are in the field of Business Intelligence - using any BI tool, you've probably come across drill downs in reports. Well, in BOE, drill down options, or custom hierarchies, as they call it, is defined in Universes - which in turn, reflect in DeskI or WebI reports.

For example, you may be creating a sales report and your database has records for last 5 years, by year, quarter, month and so on. By default, drilling down on this report would let the users dynamically view the results like this:

Level 1:

Year Sales

2009 500

Level 2:

Quarter Sales

3 150

Level 3:

Month Sales

11 70

...and so on.

But, let's say your CIO is either lazy or simply doesn't care about the quarters and would like to drill down from Year level to Month level to Week level - skipping Quarter level. This customization of drill down is what is known as 'custom hierarchies' in a BO universe and when it is used in a WebI / DeskI report, it is called the mysterious 'scope of analysis'. Wow, big deal...

Let's see a quick video walkthrough:

Stored Procedure in WebI Reports Part 2

WALKTHROUGH: Using Stored Procedure in WebI reports on Business Objects EN XI R2 (SP3)

This is a follow up of Part 1 where we went through the prerequisites of enabling stored procedure queries on WebI.

We have a simple Stored Procedure called "uspGetStates" - which is intuitive and does exactly what the title says - it gets names of states.

Stored Procedure: dbo.uspGetStates

Running the procedure: EXEC dbo.uspGetStates will give you results like this:

(partial result)

AA 53

AE 52

AK 1

..

..

so on (see pic)

This store procedure returns 2 columns - one with 'string' datatype and the other with 'number'.

If you can recall that your WebI query panel must have the same number of columns - i.e. Dimensions and same number of corresponding data types as your stored procedure does. Else your procedure won't validate, and thus won't work on WebI.

[1] So, we run the procedure and got some result

[2] We have to create a WebI Report with the same structure as our procedure returns

[3] Use the codes:

a) "SET NOCOUNT ON" on top of the code generated by WebI

b) Comment out - but, DON'T delete your WebI code

c) At the bottom of the comment, use your store procedure - in this case we'll use: "EXEC dbo.uspGetStates"

[4] Uh oh ... Error ! Type mismatch. Let's reslove

[5] We used:

"Company" which has "string" datatype - good

"Saleareanum" which also has "string" datatype - no good

So, we'll use:

"Saleareaid" which has "number" datatype

[6] Having corrected the Dimensions' datatype and matching them with those of the stored procedure, we are ready to validate.

[7] Validation successfull !

[8] We run our WebI report and see that our report returns the same data as it return running the stored procedure on SQL Server Management Studio.. (null row is displayed on WebI as the last row).

Stay tuned for Stored Procedure with Prompts in Part 3 ...

Stored Procedure in WebI Reports on BOE Part 1

How to use Stored Procedure on Web Intelligence (WebI) reports on Business Objects XI R2 ?

I found the following info in Bob forum and elsewhere on the net.

STEPS:

Applicable to universes that are built with ODBC or OLEDB connections.

[1] Locate the ODBC.SBO or OLEDB.SBO files

[2] Usual Location:

DRIVE:\BusinessObjects Enterprise 11.5\win32_x86\dataAccess\connectionServer\

DRIVE = your installation drive - be it C:\ , D:\ or something else.

/*

So, if BOE is installed in your D:\ drive then, the ODBC and OLEBD SBO files will be located in the following location:

D:\BusinessObjects Enterprise 11.5\win32_x86\dataAccess\connectionServer\odbc

D:\BusinessObjects Enterprise 11.5\win32_x86\dataAccess\connectionServer\oledb

*/

[3] Change parameter Force SQLExecute in "ODBC.SBO" to "Always"

[4] Add parameter Force SQLExecute = Always into OLEDB.SBO

> You can do the same on on the OLEDB.SBO file if need be

[5] Create query in WebI with the same structure your SP returns

> Same structure = same data types and equal number of columns

[6] Change SQL to following

Change your code from the WebI Query Panel > SQL > Custom:

SET NOCOUNT ON -- add exactly like this

/*SELECT any_field FROM any_table*/ -- this is the code generated by WebI

EXCE Your_Stored_Procedure @prompt('enter value','A',)

-- this is your stored procedure

That looks simple. Now let's have a quick walkthrough. Stay tuned for Part 2 ...

On the fly Case Statements in Web Intelligence Reports

Problem: Due to having a little flaw in the data (in database) duplicate rows are being produced in (WebI) reports.

(1) Solution: Use CASE statements


> 122 Unique WorkItem subtypes

One of the the WorkItem SubTypes has a duplicate

'Problematic Payment - Overage '
'Problematic Payment - Overage'

One with and an extra space.

In the WebI Report - it is the following Dimension: (click view SQL)

WORKITEM.WORKITEMSUBTYPE, (here WORKITEMSUBTYPE is the Dimension - i.e. Column)

RESOLUTION: Go to

CASE WHEN WORKITEM.WORKITEMSUBTYPE NOT IN ('Problematic Payment - Overage ' ,'Problematic Payment - Overage')
> anything other than the two types above

THEN WORKITEM.WORKITEMSUBTYPE
> use the original value from database

ELSE 'Problematic Payment - Overage'
> otherwise, use 'Problematic Payment - Overage' - meaning, combine/sum the corresponding values of those two cells into one cell

END WORKITEMSUBTYPE,
> finish this (Case statement) logic and name this column as WORKITEMTYPE

-- WORKITEM.WORKITEMSUBTYPE
> I commented out the existing Dimension

This way, my column name is Identical to the Dimension name and thus the report runs fine and groups those two types into a single cell and eliminates the duplicate row.

Note: when you hit 'validate' - make sure, it prompts you with new LOVs (lis of values); else, it doesn't gets rid of the prompts. I've seen the exact same behavior in Crystal Reports too.

2nd solution: though this is a temporary fix, the same exact Case needs to be applied to our Universe so that it the duplicate problem will be eliminated in all WebI reports.

3rd / best solution: request DBAs so they permanently cleanse this data

On the fly Case Statements in Web Intelligence Report: Image Walkthrough

1) Duplicate row located



2) Go to Edit Query > SQL (view SQL) : Locate the corresponding dimension / column



3) Insert your Case statement and comment out the dimension



4) Validate




5) Make sure, it prompts you with new LOVs (list of values); else, it gets rid of the prompts (and runs off of cached LOVs, I think). I've seen the exact same behavior in Crystal Reports too.




6) Verify validation



7) Duplicate row is summed to original row


8) Before and after shots

-maxChildReqs Business Objects Job Server Child settings

If you are a Business Objects Administrator, you should definitely have a look at this. Whenever a report, be it WebI or Crystal, is scheduled, it is processed by it's respective Job Server. And if you or any BOE users with 'schedule' or higher rights need to schedule any report for multiple users, i.e. which generates multiple instances, you should use the " -maxChildReqs " function at the end of the command line of the job server(s) from Central Configuration Manager (CCM) of BOE XI. Failure to do so will affect your Business Objects environment due to Job Server Childs (JobServerChild.exe) not releasing the system memory. JobServerChilds are generated from Job Servers to process multiple report requests. However, they do not terminate or shut down right away without the -maxChildReqs command. Though they terminate after 2 hours of inactivity in XI, at approximately 40 MBs each, several dozens of these will surely choke your available system RAM.

I've gone ahead and made a simple video showing the before and after behavior of a BOE test environment consisting of 1 Crystal Reports Job Server in a dual core server. Crystal Report Job Servers can only process a maximum of 5 simultaneous jobs per CPU and since we have dual core, 2 CPUS-our max would be 10. I ran a simple Crystal Report for about 25 people to see how the job server handles the situation. Enjoy...

The following information is taken from "BusinessObjects XI Release Notes". Google it and read it from SAP site for further information.

...

The following lists information on job server settings:

• -maxJobs

Sets the maximum number of concurrent jobs processed by one job

server.

• -type

Presets the job server type. Can be OUTPROC or MIXEDPROC.

OUTPROC causes the job server children to shutdown after every

job (like CE10 report job servers), MIXEDPROC causes the job

server children to shutdown after every 100 jobs.

• -maxChildReqs

Sets the maximum number of jobs processed by one job server child

before it shuts down and restarts (in case you want a to use a

number between 1 [OUTPROC] and 100 [MIXEDPROC])

Job server children will also automatically shut down if left unused for a period longer than 2 hours.

...

How to Email Scheduled Reports in Business Objects

Working in a Business Intelligence environment, you certainly come up with requests from users where they want so and so reports to be emailed to them. They are too lazy to go to their Infoview's Inbox. You should know, if you don't already, reports are delivered by the Job servers - Crystal Reports are emailed via Crystal Reports Jobs Sever and WebI reports are delivered via Web Intelligence Job servers. So, here is a image walk through of the steps to set up the Job Servers' so you can schedule reports and send them out to users' emails. I created a dummy WebI report called "WebI Email Test".

1) We have a typical Web Intelligence report here and we're viewing it's location in Infoview so we can run it here.



2) Let's run it, no prompt or anything like that, plain and simple.



3) Let's go to Central Management Console (CMC) and schedule this report to be emailed to a user.



4) Move onto "Schedule" tab.



5) Let's set it to Microsoft Excel format, i.e. Schedule this report to be delivered / emailed in MS Excel format.



6) Destination 1: Now we need to up the Destination for this to be scheduled report. In this case, we'll be Emailing this report. From the drop down menu, select "Email (SMTP)". Then click on the radio button next to the "Set the values to be used at schedule time here:" .

Enter an email address to be sent "From" and email address(es) to be sent "To", along with CCs if any.



7) Destination 2 - Go / scroll down a bit. In the "Subject" - we'll select "Title" from the drop down menu next to where it says "Add a placeholder for a variable property"and simply "Add" it so that the recipient(s) can see the Title of the report as their Subject line. You can select any of the other available properties like ID, Owner, Datetime, User Full Name, Email Address. I will also check the box for "Attach object instance to email message", so that a copy of the report is also attached to the recipients emails. I mean, what's the point of emailing from Business Objects users, if there are no attachments right?



8) Let's click on "Schedule" once more and we'll just do a one time schedule to run now. You can of course, and will most likely will have to schedule as per the user requirements, be it daily, weekly, monthly or based a some specific dates selected in a custom Calendar (I'll try to create a mini tutorial on how to schedule repors using Calendars, someday; it's pretty easy).



9) So it's "Pending", sometimes you may see "Pending" or the status just may show as "Running".



10) Since it took only 10 seconds, by the time I hit "Refresh" the report already "Failed" and thus I couldn't see the "Running" status.



11) Upon clicking on "Failed", we see the error at the bottom that says, "Error Message: destination DLL disabled. CrystalEnterprise.Smtp:" .



12) That basically means that the Email (SMTP) is not enabled for the appropriate job server; in this case, Web Intelligence Job Server(s) because we are scheduling a WebI report to be emailed. Let's go to "Servers" and enable the EMAIL destination for the available Web Intelligence Job Servers.



13) Go to the "Destinations" tab and we see, Email (SMTP) is RED flagged - i.e. disabled. Go ahead, click on the box left of it and hit "Enable".



14) Now click on "Email (SMTP)" and set up the email properties, including Domain, Server, From, To and any other properties - you'll want to consult with one of you system admins / analyts at this stage.



15) Scroll down and add the Title as the Subject also select "Attach object instance to email message" -- this will be the default behavior for all outgoing emails using this Web Intelligence Job Server.

*** Remember, if you have multiple WebI Job Servers, you'll have to enable all of their Email (SMTP) from the Destinations tab just like above.



16) Let's go back to the report in CMC.




17) And we will reschedule it once more.



18) There's our initial "Failed" one and right below it, is our "Pending" current report.



19) And success! This is the actual email and the attached report in Excel Format. Look at the subject, it says "WebI Email Test" -- and that's the title of this report.



So, there you go. That was a walk through of how to set up the Email feature in Business Objects Enterprise XIR2 so that reports can be scheduled and report instances can be emailed out to recipients.