Processing Application: Cannot find the object ApShellExtra.dbo.Audit...

While testing a new installation of BPC, I encounter an error processing an Application:

Cannot find the object "ApShellExtra.dbo.AuditActivityHdrApShell" because it does not exist or you do not have permissions.

Sure enough SQL Server Management Studio shows the table is not there. On a whim I restart the Admin client and try processing the Application again; it works!?

Turns out, after the install I always modify security to allow the BPCSysAdmin account to have full control over ApShell. Apparently those security changes weren't completely applied until I restarted.

BPC 7.0 Management Console 'User does not exist'

After installing BPC 7.0 MS the Management Console wouldn't let me view logging. The 'User does not exist' error would appear. This was a Windows Server 2003 R2 dual server environment. Using Fiddler I was seeing a 500 error, with something like 'cannot resolve server name vmw2317'. Hmmm... vmw seems like VMWare, but I was dealing with physical servers.

Looking at the web.config file, I discovered several appSettings with vmw2317 and vmw2315; these were left over by SAP during development. Changed the names to our real server names, saved the file and everything works!

BPC 7.5 MS Prerequisites

Though the install guide for BPC provides the prereqs, I find I have to bounce around in the doc to find them. Here they are as of 8/3/2011:

Pre-Requisites:

App Server: OS (pick one preferably x64):

1. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition with or without Hyper-V
2. Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise Edition with or without Hyper-V
   
3. Windows Server 2008 Data Center with or without Hyper-V
4. Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition SP2
5. Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition SP2

Database Server: OS (pick one preferably x64):

1. Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition with or without Hyper-V
2. Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise Edition with or without Hyper-V
   
3. Windows Server 2008 Data Center with or without Hyper-V
4. Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition SP2
5. Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition SP2

Service Accounts:

1. SQL Server
   
2. BPC SysAdmin
3. BPC Admin
4. BPC User

NOTE: These are domain accounts.


Have available, but do not install:

Database (pick one):

1. SQL Server 2008: SP2 with Cumulative Update 1 for SP2.
2. SQL Server 2008 R2: Cumulative Update 5.
3. SQL Server 2005: If you wish to use 2005 ask me for SP and CU
   

BPC:

1. BPC 7.5 MS setup

Misc:

1. SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components

From SAP Marketplace website (SAP Cryptographic Software) :

1. AmyuniPDF.exe
2. XceedZip.dll

Re-installing BPC 7.5 MS

Some notes from re-installing BPC 7.5 MS.

1. Backup AppSets
2. Thru Server Manager, document existing settings
   
3. Reboot the application server
4. Rename the AppServer, ApShell and ApShellExtra databases
5. Rename the AppServer, ApShell and ApShellExtra Data folders
   
6. Uninstall BPC either thru Add and Remove Programs (Win Server 2003) or the new Win Server 2008 method
7. Remove the BPC application folder (Not the data folder)
8. Remove any remaining BPC COM+ objects
9. Remove and remaining BPC, OutlookSoft and SAP registry entries
   

SAP Central Management Console and Windows AD Authentication

When changing Domain Controllers for a UMS/CMS server you need to modify the krb5.ini file. In our case that file was located in C:\WinNT. Simply adding another kdc line, saving the file and restarting TomCat updates the system.

AD.ourdomain.COM = {
kdc = NewDCName.AD.ourdomain.COM
kdc = OldDCName.AD.ourdomain.COM
default_domain = AD.ourdomain.COM
}

Prior to this update, I was receiving this error:

Account Information Not Recognized: Active Directory Authentication
failed to log you on. Please contact your system administrator to make
sure you are a member of a valid mapped group and try again. If you are
not a member of the default domain, enter your user name as
UserName@DNS_DomainName, and then try again. (FWM 00006)

FWM 01003 null When Logging Into Central Management Console

When logging into the SAP Central Management Console used for managing security in UMS, I received the following error:

Server not found or server may be down (FWM 01003) null

Thanks to this post, it turns out that the CMS.exe process was not running. I could tell by looking in Task Manager. To start the process:

1. Run Central Configuration Manager
2. (Re)start Server Intelligence Agent
   

Viewing Data in a NW AppSet

Often I need to know where data is when testing after an upgrade or install. For the NW version do the following:

1. Login to SAP GUI
2. Start transaction RSA1
3. If prompted, decide whether to view or not view the documentation
4. In the Modeling pane, click InfoProvider
5. In the large pane on the right, expand Business Planning and Consolidation
6. Expand your AppSet
7. Right click on your Application, then select Display Data
8. If an information dialog appears about too many characteristics, click the green check

At this point a dialog appears with all the dimensions and their properties. So for example, the P_Activity dimension shows 4 rows:

1. [ ] [ ] CALC[P_ACTIVITY]
2. [ ] [x] CALC[P_ACTIVITY]
3. [ ] [ ] P_ACTIVITY
4. [ ] [x] P_ACTIVITY

Notice there are white check boxes and greyed out check boxes. The grey boxes that are checked indicate the ID for the member, the non checked contain the name. So check the white check box like this to get ID and Name:

1. [ ] [ ] CALC[P_ACTIVITY]
2. [ ] [x] CALC[P_ACTIVITY]
3. [x] [ ] P_ACTIVITY
4. [x] [x] P_ACTIVITY

Do this for every dimension you want to view with your results. Notice the SignedData row at the end, this is the actual value column. Then:

1. Click the green check.
2. Clicking the Fld Selectn for Output button
3. Click the Select All button
4. Click the Clock with a green check button
5. You return to the previous screen
6. Click the Clock with a green check button again
7. Your data displays

Once I know where data is located I can run reports in the Excel client.

BPC Server Version

BPC 7.5

7.5.102 : SP01
7.5.103 : SP02
7.5.104 : SP03
7.5.105 : SP04
7.5.106 : SP05

BPC 7.0

7.0.114 : SP05
7.0.115 : SP06
7.0.116 : SP07

BPC Processor Preferences

Based on this SQL Server Central post: a processor with more cores is better for Data Warehouses / Decision Support Systems (smells like OLAP). And at this time an Intel processor is better for a transactional system (OLTP).

Changing R/3 SAP GUI Permissions

Recently I needed to apply an SAP Note to our BPC NW environment. To do this, I had to create a new 'admin' user and run the Notes Assistant under that new account. Before I could run the Notes Assistant, I need to grant access to the snote transaction in SAP GUI. This is how I did it:

1. Login with DDIC
2. Go to su01
3. Specify user ID
4. Change
5. Go to Profiles tab
6. enter SAP_ALL or whatever objects
7. Save
8. Exit
   

BPC Dimension Members and Office Version

To specify which version of Excel is used when working with Dimension members look at the tblDefaults table with the row containing KeyID MEMBERSHEET_VERSION.

You can change this to 2007 or 2003

Make sure to install MS Data Connectivity Components on the application server as well. See Note: 1289927 and this link: http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=7554F536-8
C28-4598-9B72-EF94E038C891&displaylang=en

SAP Cryptographic Software (XceedZip.dll, Anti-Cross Site Scripting and AmyUniPDF)

To download the XceedZip.dll, Anti-Cross Site Scripting and AmyUniPDF files for BPC go to:

SAP Service Marketplace > SAP Support Portal > Software Downloads > Software Download Center > Installations and Upgrades > Browse our Download Catalog

On the page displayed you will find a link to SAP Cryptographic Software.

Updating BPC Service Pack Work Instruction

Document Server Manager settings

Make a copy of BPC web.config
Make a copy of server level .NET Framework v.2.0 machine.config and web.config

Verify the Office and admin clients can connect

• Run a report
• Manage dimensions

Restart all servers before applying any updates to ensure nothing is locked or open.

Make backup of AppServer DB

Run Startup.exe

Some BPC NW Commands

In SAP GUI using se80 will show tables.

These table prefixes mean the following:

• uj - BPC related
• uja - AppSet
• ujj - Journal
• uje - Security

rsa1 - Data Warehousing Workbench: Modeling (view AppSet, dimension attributes and raw data here)
su01 - Create Users
snote - Run Note Assistant

SAP Supported SQL and Windows Server Versions for BPC

Windows Server

BPC 7.5 SP04 or later:

Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition with or without Hyper-V
Windows Server 2008 Standard or Enterprise Edition with or without Hyper-V, or
Windows Server 2008 Data Center with or without Hyper-V
Windows Server 2003 Standard or Enterprise Edition SP2
Windows Server 2003 Standard configured on the SQL database or OLAP server components only
Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard or Enterprise Edition SP2

SQL Server

BPC 7.0 and 7.5 support:

SQL 2008: SP2 with Cumulative Update 1 for SP2.
SQL 2008 R2: Cumulative Update 5.

"The ABAP server specified in the server configurtion file is not reachable

Problem

When trying to log into the launch page on BPC NW 7.5 I receive either a timeout error or this:

• The ABAP server specified in the server configurtion file is not reachable

Investigating further I find I cannot login to SAP Login

When trying to login to SAP Logon 710 I get:

partner '192.168.1.40:sapdp00' not reached.
WSAECONNREFUSED: Connection refused

SAP Support suggested:

Connection refused errors are normally triggered in two situations:

- There is a firewall in the way of the connection rejecting the
communication
- The service is not running on the server

It seems that the problem here is that you are not being able to reach
the server. If you try to do a telnet test like:

telnet 192.168.1.40 3200

Are you able to open the port or you receive an error too?

I in fact cannot telnet to port 3200

Solution

• Open SAP Management Console
• SAP Systems > SPC > dublin 0 (our ABAP / NW server)
• Right click on dublin 0
• Click Start...

Successfully Finished - but OK Button Disabled

Recently had an issue when processing dimensions in BPC. The process would complete without errors, but the OK button was disabled. The only way to exit was killing the application. Turns out the recycle limit on the DefaultAppPool was causing this.

Even though minimum memory was set to 60% before the app pool would recycle, and even though the memory on the server never got close to 60%, the process wouldn't finish. I turned off recycling based on memory usage and processing completed fine.

Loading BPC Data the Old Fashioned Way; Using SQL

Thanks to Gert Andries van den Berg on the SAP BPC forums for making sense of all this. In a nutshell, by writing records to either the WB or FAC2 table, the cube is updated. No need to build SSIS package with Dumpload task. This can be done with SQL. Writing to the FAC2 table seems to be the destination of choice. Though I've yet to determine if running optimization is required to see data in reports.

From Gert Andries van den Berg.

As per the tuning doc:

WB – real time data input (ROLAP partition)
This is data that is the most current data sent to the system. Data sent by BPC for Excel data sends and Investigator browser data sends is placed in real-time storage.
FAC2 – short term and Data Manager imports (MOLAP partition)
This is data that is not real-time data, but is also not in long-term storage yet. When you load data via Data Manager (automatic data load from external data sources), it loads the data to short-term storage so that the loaded data does not affect system performance. Only the cube partition associated with this table is processed, so the system is not taken offline.
Fact – long term history (MOLAP partition)
This is the main data storage. All data eventually resides in long-term storage. Data that is not accessed very often remains in long-term storage so that the system maintains performance
This structure allows SAP BPC to maintain the same performance over time even when there is a large increase in data volumes.
Periodically clearing real-time data greatly optimizes the performance of the system and an “Optimization” process is required (this could be scheduled automatically based on given parameters like a numbers of records threshold).

Lite Optimization:
—
Clears Real-time data storage (WRITEBACK) and moves it to short-term data storage (FAC2). This option doesn’t take the system offline, and can be scheduled during normal business activity.

Incremental Optimization:
—
Clears both real-time and Short-term data storage (WB and FAC2) and moves both to Long-term data storage (FACT).
—
This option should be run when the system is offline, but it will not take the system offline so it should be run during off-peak periods of activity.

Full Process Optimization:
—
Clears both real-time and short-term data storage and processes the dimensions.
—
This option takes the system offline and takes longer to run than the incremental optimization.
—
It is best run scheduled at down-time periods – for example after a month-end close.
The Compress Database option is available to rationalize the Fact Tables. “Compress” sums multiple entries for the same CurrentView into one entry so that data storage space is minimized. Compressed databases also process more quickly.

More info on this topic from Sorin Radulescu:

First you have to be aware about structure of BPC cubes:
Each cube has 3 partitions:
1. fact - MOLAP
2. fac2 - MOLAP
3. WB - ROLAP

When you insert records into WB table because WB is ROLAP partitions you will see the impact of that insert into cube in Real Time.
If you insert records into any of MOLAP partitions without processin the partition you are not able to see these records into cube.
I think now you have a clear picture about BPC cube and you undertsood diference between MOLAP and ROLAP partitions.

Lite Optimize is necessary just to keep under contrl the number of records from WB table.
For SSAS if a Rolap Partitions has more than 100 000 records retrieve data from that cube it will be very slow if in the same time users are doing insert into WB Table.
So Lite optimize is schedule usually every 15 minutes when number of records is over 20 000.
That's means every 15 minutes this dtsx package check if WB has 20 000 records.
If yes then is running this process
If not then is not doing anything.

LITE Optimize process
It is doing the follow steps:
1. Copy records from wb to fac2 and marlk the records from wb move into fac2
2. Create a temporary partitions and start to process this partition just for these records move from wb table
3. When it is finishing the process of partition then the system is doing in transaction the follow:
- merge partition fac2 with temp partition
- delete the records marked from wb

BPC SSIS Tasks

In order for BPC SSIS Tasks to be available for use in SSIS Packages, the OSoft Task dll files must be placed in Drive:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Tasks\ for SQL 2008.

BPC Import Won't Complete

I find there are a couple reasons for an import into BPC to not complete, getting stuck on the the DumpLoad task:

1. The first reason it stops at the DumpLoad task is there is alot of data and it just takes that long. You can always Abort the import and try importing a smaller set of data.
   
2. The OutlookSoft SendGovernor Service is not started. This is usually the result of a server reboot. To check this out:
   1. Start > Run
   2. Type services.msc and press Enter
   3. Scroll down to the OutlookSoft SendGovernor Service
   4. Start the service if it is not running
3. The other reason has to do with the dbo.lck[Application Name] table. So if the application name is Finance, then there are rows left in the dbo.lckFinance table. This can happen if an import errors out. To solve this:
   1. Verify no imports are occurring
   2. Check if there are any rows in the table: SELECT * from dbo.lckFinance
   3. If there are, remove them: DELETE dbo.lckFinance
      

That should solve a hung import.