source: http://www.maxima.co.uk/about-us/maxima-blog/item/installing-sap-business-objects-40
Installing SAP Business Objects 4.0
The new SAP Business Objects 4.0 Enterprise Platform is finally
available so it's perhaps useful to run through the basic installation
process. The documentation from SAP is, of course, comprehensive but
this blog is aiming to distil that down to the basics. Warning- there
are a lot of very similar screen shots in here.
Let's start
with a few notes about this installation:- This is a single server
install. Enterprise deployments are, of course, supported whereby you
can install specific services on specific servers to introduce load
balancing and availability features.
- This is a Custom Install rather than a Full Install only because
you see more of what is happening during the Custom Install and it's
useful to illustrate exactly what is involved in the Full Install.
- The install is on Windows 2008 64 bit server (only 64 bit is supported for the Enterprise Install) with 14GB spare memory
The CMS and Audit databases required by earlier versions of SAP
Business Objects are still required so a core pre-requisite is to make
sure you have decided where these are to be hosted. The install package
includes a SQL Server Express database (how long till this becomes
Sybase I wonder?) but I want to take advantage of Analysis Services
reporting in 4.0 so have opted to first install the full SQL Server
Enterprise product. I then manually create the two databases required,
taking a note of the details for use during the install process. With
SQL Server I also have to make sure that the ODBC connections are
configured before beginning the install.
Another required decision before installation is which web server to
use. Most are supported but, as with previous releases, I'm opting to
take advantage of the Tomcat deployment delivered as part of the
installation.
I've been installing Business Objects software since the original
version 4 and it's always something that has improved with each new
release. That's maintained with this version though one suggestion I
would make is that it might be quite nice to have an indicative progress
bar as you progress through the install option screens – sometimes it
felt like they were never going to end and light at the end of the
tunnel would have been welcomed!
So, we start in the time honoured tradition by clicking on the
setup.exe. We get to select our install language and then the process
proper begins. The install package first does a fairly useful pre-req
check.
This looks a bit scary at first until you realise there is a scroll at
the bottom which, if used, shows you've passed them all – or not, as the
case may be. In my case, I'd read the documentation beforehand and had.
Next up is the licence agreement, name, organisation and product key
code details. All fairly standard.
Following that is the option to choose different language packs
depending on the internationalisation of your environment. I'll stick
with English.
Then we have the first important choice – what sort of install are we
doing? A full install, custom install or web tier only install.
I'm choosing the Custom Install which starts off with everything
which is in the Full Install selected so is a good way to view what's
included there. In fact it is pretty much everything. The only features
not included in the Full Install are the ERP integrators as shown below.
Also interesting to note by reviewing the features be installed the
various additions that have come along in 4.0 e.g. Subversion for their
new Lifecycle Management processes and the SAP Support Packages allowing
a greater degree of online support should you require it.
The next option requires you to specify whether this is a genuinely
new install (requiring a CMS) or an extension of an existing deployment
(where a CMS is already available on the network)
Following this we have the screens requiring information about our
CMS and Audit database. Note that these would not appear if I'd selected
the option to have an Integrated Database (SQL Server Express)
installed when customising the features. First we select which database
we want to create our CMS and Audit schemas on.
Next it's time to specify the SIA name and node. As I'm only doing a
simple install on a single machine with no software requiring the
default ports I'm happy to click Next on this...
...and, indeed, on the CMS port.
The SIA and CMS ports do become important when deploying on a networked
environment – especially where firewalls are involved and the ports have
to be opened. As with the earlier XI releases the ports for individual
services can be managed within the CCM.
You are then prompted to supply the Administrator password. Take a
note of this – you'll need it for your first login to the system. You
also get to specify a Cluster Key which would be used to configure
multi-server deployments (a blog for a later day perhaps?)
Next we supply the connection details for our SQL Server – once for
the CMS and once for the Audit database. Note that the available ODBC
connections are provided as a list.
We then can select to start the servers immediately after
installation before specifying our Tomcat parameters – again, with no
other network considerations, I go with the defaults.
We then get into the more esoteric elements of the 4.0 configuration.
I've chosen to install the Web Application Container Services (WACS).
This basically allows a .NET environment to deploy the Java apps that
come as standard with SAP Business Objects e.g. the CMC. I keep with the
default port option for WACS and select Next.
Now for the Subversion configuration. This will certainly reduce the
ongoing maintenance costs of a complex SAP Business Objects deployment
allowing the quick and easy reapplication of previous configurations,
etc.... Again, I keep the default parameters and supply my own
Subversion Repository password.
After the Subversion config we are presented with the option to
configure SAP Solution Manager Diagnostics. As I understand it, this
will allow SAP to access your system if required and assist in any
troubleshooting, support cases, etc... For now, I'm not going to
configure that.
And finally – yes, we're almost installing – comes the option to configure the C A Wily Introscope.
The Introscope is something I'd though Jon Pertwee's Doctor Who had
dispensed with back in the 1970s but, no, it's actually also part of the
enhanced SAP support ecosystem and entirely optional for my purposes so
I'm avoiding the config for now.
That's the last step done and I'm now ready to start the install. On
my machine it took just under two hours to complete. I'd specified for
the services to all start after install and a check on the CCM confirms
they are there.
One final check of course is the actual business of logging in to the new SAP Business Objects portal.
That works successfully and I have a new, clean SAP Business Objects 4.0 platform to play with.
In conclusion then, I'd certainly say that SAP Business Objects 4.0
is one of the simplest installs I've had to do for a BI system. Of
course, I was hardly stretching it's enterprise capabilities but to get a
demo/Proof of Value environment up and running it's straigthforward
enough.
