Video Walkthrough: Steps to perform the initial installation, including pointing the BOE 3.1 installation to existing CMS and Audit databases, deploying TomCat and IIS web servers, introduction to Server Intelligence Agent and a quick glance at the 3.1 CMC.
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
BO 3.1 Deployment Part 1 - ODBC
This is the beginning of the series of videos that will cover a complete deployment of Business Objects R 3.1 in VM Windows 2003 environment with SQL Server 2005.
Video Walkthrough: Assuming your DBA (or you) will create the 2 databases for a BO 3.1 deployment, we will start off with the creation of ODBCs pointing to these DBs, which are of course a CMS database and an Audit database.
Video Walkthrough: Assuming your DBA (or you) will create the 2 databases for a BO 3.1 deployment, we will start off with the creation of ODBCs pointing to these DBs, which are of course a CMS database and an Audit database.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Universe LOVs are bad for your health
Well, it's bad for the health of the environment. And if your BO environment is not healthy, you'll be bugged constantly by users--'...oh this report is so slow...ohh, the dates don't load up properly...ohh, Business Objects is acting weird...' and so on. Ring a bell? :) And thus, you too will be sick; sick and tired of complaints and not knowing what the heck is up in your environment.
Topic Intro: Properly designing Universes so that unnecessary LOVs do not get associated with objects.
Video Walkthrough: We're gonna go over the basic steps required to identify objects that should not have LOVs associated with them and how to proactively avoid the problem from universe by disassociating the LOVs options in objects' properties.
Topic Intro: Properly designing Universes so that unnecessary LOVs do not get associated with objects.
Video Walkthrough: We're gonna go over the basic steps required to identify objects that should not have LOVs associated with them and how to proactively avoid the problem from universe by disassociating the LOVs options in objects' properties.
Wednesday, May 12, 2010
Dissecting Auditor using VIEW
Topic Intro: Querying Business Objects Audit Database directly by creating a View.
Video Walkthrough: As I've mentioned in the previous video, we're gonna create a VIEW in the BO Audit Database using the following code that's available on Bob Forum and other places on the web. We will also run some test SQL queries to find some Audit information directly from the Audit database.
-------------------------BEGIN--------------------------
create view AUDITOR_View as
SELECT server_process.application_type_id as [Application_Type_ID],
cast(application_type.application_type_description as varchar(50)) as [Application_Type_Description],
audit_detail.detail_id as [Detail_ID],
audit_detail.detail_text as [Detail_Text],
detail_type.detail_type_id as [Detail_Type_ID],
cast(detail_type.detail_type_description as varchar(50)) as [Detail_Type_Description],
audit_event.Duration as [Duration],
audit_Event.Error_Code as [Error_Code],
cast(audit_event.Event_ID as varchar(32)) as [Event_ID],
audit_event.Event_Type_ID as [Event_Type_ID],
cast(event_type.event_type_description as varchar(50)) as [Event_Type_Description],
cast(audit_event.Object_CUID as varchar(32)) as [Object_CUID],
audit_event.Start_Timestamp as [Start_Timestamp],
cast(audit_event.User_Name as varchar(50)) as [User_Name],
cast(audit_detail.server_cuid as varchar(32)) as [Server_CUID],
cast(server_process.server_name as varchar(50)) as [Server_Name],
cast(server_process.server_fullname as varchar(50)) as [Server_Fullname],
cast(server_process.server_version as varchar(50)) as [Server_Version]
FROM APPLICATION_TYPE INNER JOIN
(SERVER_PROCESS INNER JOIN (
(AUDIT_DETAIL INNER JOIN (
AUDIT_EVENT INNER JOIN
EVENT_TYPE ON
AUDIT_EVENT.Event_Type_ID =
EVENT_TYPE.Event_Type_ID) ON (
AUDIT_EVENT.Server_CUID =
AUDIT_DETAIL.Server_CUID) AND
(AUDIT_DETAIL.Event_ID =
AUDIT_EVENT.Event_ID)) INNER JOIN
DETAIL_TYPE ON
AUDIT_DETAIL.Detail_Type_ID =
DETAIL_TYPE.Detail_Type_ID) ON
SERVER_PROCESS.Server_CUID =
AUDIT_DETAIL.Server_CUID) ON
APPLICATION_TYPE.Application_Type_ID =
SERVER_PROCESS.Application_Type_ID
-------------------------END--------------------------
Video Walkthrough: As I've mentioned in the previous video, we're gonna create a VIEW in the BO Audit Database using the following code that's available on Bob Forum and other places on the web. We will also run some test SQL queries to find some Audit information directly from the Audit database.
-------------------------BEGIN--------------------------
create view AUDITOR_View as
SELECT server_process.application_type_id as [Application_Type_ID],
cast(application_type.application_type_description as varchar(50)) as [Application_Type_Description],
audit_detail.detail_id as [Detail_ID],
audit_detail.detail_text as [Detail_Text],
detail_type.detail_type_id as [Detail_Type_ID],
cast(detail_type.detail_type_description as varchar(50)) as [Detail_Type_Description],
audit_event.Duration as [Duration],
audit_Event.Error_Code as [Error_Code],
cast(audit_event.Event_ID as varchar(32)) as [Event_ID],
audit_event.Event_Type_ID as [Event_Type_ID],
cast(event_type.event_type_description as varchar(50)) as [Event_Type_Description],
cast(audit_event.Object_CUID as varchar(32)) as [Object_CUID],
audit_event.Start_Timestamp as [Start_Timestamp],
cast(audit_event.User_Name as varchar(50)) as [User_Name],
cast(audit_detail.server_cuid as varchar(32)) as [Server_CUID],
cast(server_process.server_name as varchar(50)) as [Server_Name],
cast(server_process.server_fullname as varchar(50)) as [Server_Fullname],
cast(server_process.server_version as varchar(50)) as [Server_Version]
FROM APPLICATION_TYPE INNER JOIN
(SERVER_PROCESS INNER JOIN (
(AUDIT_DETAIL INNER JOIN (
AUDIT_EVENT INNER JOIN
EVENT_TYPE ON
AUDIT_EVENT.Event_Type_ID =
EVENT_TYPE.Event_Type_ID) ON (
AUDIT_EVENT.Server_CUID =
AUDIT_DETAIL.Server_CUID) AND
(AUDIT_DETAIL.Event_ID =
AUDIT_EVENT.Event_ID)) INNER JOIN
DETAIL_TYPE ON
AUDIT_DETAIL.Detail_Type_ID =
DETAIL_TYPE.Detail_Type_ID) ON
SERVER_PROCESS.Server_CUID =
AUDIT_DETAIL.Server_CUID) ON
APPLICATION_TYPE.Application_Type_ID =
SERVER_PROCESS.Application_Type_ID
-------------------------END--------------------------
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Business Objects Auditor: SETUP
General Intro: Proper Auditing is an important part of any business, which allows decision makers to see the behind-the-scene views of their business. Business Objects is no different. It is essential for all BO Administrators to have in depth knowledge about the Auditing concepts in Business Objects XI platform. Auditing in Business Objects reveals second by second detailed activities of all users actions including refresh, read, schedules, failures, logins; and server actions including, session duration, session server, session server type, and much much more.
Video Walkthrough: We will go over the basics of Auditor and how to configure Auditing in Business Objects.
Topics Covered:
1) CMS configuration to set up Audit.
2) Enabling available auditable actions for auditable servers via CMC.
Video Walkthrough: We will go over the basics of Auditor and how to configure Auditing in Business Objects.
Topics Covered:
1) CMS configuration to set up Audit.
2) Enabling available auditable actions for auditable servers via CMC.
Friday, April 9, 2010
What is Business Views?
> What the heck is Business Views?? That's what I said to myself when I saw Business View Manager for the first time! So, don't worry if you haven't used Business Views or are just found out about it. It's pretty straight forward and easy. I learnt it in 15 minutes basically, simply by trying to create all the 5 Objects of this application, so can you!
Quick Intro: You can think of Business View Manager like an alternate mini version of Universe Designer. Just like you can throw in 10s of tables in Designer to create an Universe and use that universe to build DeskI or WebI reports, you can do the same thing using Business View Manager by throwing in 10s of tables or custom SQL to create a 'Business View' and use that in Crystal Reports. For the super geeks, please feel free to gobble up the Business Views™ Administrator's Guide and share with us your discoveries, thanks!
Video Walkthrough: How to use Business View Manager to create Dynamic List of Values and use them in Crystal Reports.
Topics Covered:
1) Introduction to Business View Manager, part of Business Objects XI R2/3.1.
2) How to create Data Connection, Data Foundation, Business Element, Business View and List of Values.
3) How to use List of Values in Crystal Reports to create cascading prompts.
Quick Intro: You can think of Business View Manager like an alternate mini version of Universe Designer. Just like you can throw in 10s of tables in Designer to create an Universe and use that universe to build DeskI or WebI reports, you can do the same thing using Business View Manager by throwing in 10s of tables or custom SQL to create a 'Business View' and use that in Crystal Reports. For the super geeks, please feel free to gobble up the Business Views™ Administrator's Guide and share with us your discoveries, thanks!
Video Walkthrough: How to use Business View Manager to create Dynamic List of Values and use them in Crystal Reports.
Topics Covered:
1) Introduction to Business View Manager, part of Business Objects XI R2/3.1.
2) How to create Data Connection, Data Foundation, Business Element, Business View and List of Values.
3) How to use List of Values in Crystal Reports to create cascading prompts.
Friday, December 25, 2009
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.
@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
------------------------------
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
------------------------------
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