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Connecting BusinessObjects systems

Basic Settings and prerequisites​

The Snow Optimizer permits to connect BusinessObjects (BO) systems, starting of SAP Business Intelligence Platform version 4.0. Updates of BO user master data are supported from BO release 4.2.

Each connected BO system uses two RFC destinations of type G:

  • RFC destination CMC / admin tool: Service No. of this destination is 8080 if not customized otherwise in the BO system

  • RFC destination REST Webservice: Service No. of this destination is 6405 if not customized otherwise in the BO system. In current releases of SOS, this destination is only used for updates on user master data. If this is not relevant, no destination needs to be specified and the error symbol can be ignored.

The Target Host in both connections can be different if the BO system is installed on two different servers. The Path Prefix should be left empty in both connections and the Logon Procedure is No Logon: User and password are not specified in the RFC connection itself, but in the BusinessObjects system data in the Snow Optimizer. The password is stored in encrypted form in the SAP master system.

The user specified in the system data must have administrative rights on the BO system. If you use the LMBI measurement tool from SAP, its BO user can be re-used in the Snow Optimizer.

Other than for ABAP, Java UME and HANA systems, the data source display ID is not determined automatically after Load system data. We recommend to manually specify a descriptive ID after the BO/ prefix.

Troubleshooting​

There are several causes for the connection to the BO system to fail:

Incorrectly defined RFC destination​

Please note that the path prefix in transaction SM59 must be empty for both destinations. The connection test for the REST webservice will give error code 404 (Not Found) for a correctly defined destination. This is not an error in this case.

Network connection​

Make sure that the connection between the SAP system and the BO system works in your network. The connection might be prevented by a firewall which blocks the ports (in the default cases 8080 and 6406 as described above). To test this, you can try to establish a connection via telnet to the ports. This needs to happen on the SAP server, not on the PC on which you work with the SAPGUI.

Wrong port numbers​

The BO system configuration can deviate from the standard. The port to the CMC / Admin Tool can be checked with a web browser: http://<Server>:<Port>/BOE/CMC. If you insert the correct values for <Server> and <Port>, the Central Management Console (CMC) should appear in the browser. These values for server and port should be used in the RFC destination.

The port number of the REST web service can be checked in the CMC. Go to Server -> Core Services and look at the details of the WebApplicationContainerServer (WACS). In its HTTP configuration you can see the configured HTTP port. Use this port number as the Service No. in the RFC destination of the REST web service.

Not running or activated WACS​

If you find the WACS discussed above in the list of the core services, but it is not running or active, then you have to activate and/or start it.

Deviant server name​

For the login process to the BO system, the name of the server must be known (like in the logon mask for the CMC or the AdminTool). In most cases the server name can be detected automatically. In certain cases, this detection fails, and the server name must be given manually. This can be done in the data source administration in the technical details of the BO system.

Not using an Enterprise user​

The user used to access the BO system in the Snow Optimizer must be of type Enterprise.