In our last post, we stepped through getting Linux running on SAP Business Objects. However, I couldn’t leave you hanging with that. This will be part of what I hope to be a bit longer series to contrast things you might do with BO Enterprise on Linux compared to their Windows counterparts.
Let’s go over a few basics now that we have a cool Linux box up and going.
Stopping/starting the whole shootin’ match
As a sudoer or root, check out /etc/init.d. That last step in the install process gave us a script to bring it all up, as well as bringing it down. For example, to start our server:
sudo /etc/init.d/BobjEnterprise120 start
Want to bring it back down?
sudo /etc/init.d/BobjEnterprise120 stop
That’s the extent of the arguments this guy is going to take. But the good news is, it’ll drop the local MySQL, Tomcat, and BOBJ instance to clean things up a bit. You’ll note that in the /app/bobj/bobje folder, there are Tomcat and MySQL scripts to bring those distinct servers up and back down if needed.
The next, slightly more complex piece of the puzzle, is the CCM script. We all loved the Central Configuration Manager in XI R2. Admit it…not so much in XI 3.x. In the same /app/bobj/bobje folder you have a ccm.sh script. Execute this command as your boadmin runtime user to get a quick help reference on its arguments
./ccm.sh | more
Alternatively…
./ccm.sh -help
This script has most of the power that the Windows CCM had in a fancy little command line interface. Need to bounce an individual Webi server? Do it here. Not sure what the fully qualified domain name for a server is, consider using Sherlock® to nab the complete list of servers, their names, and their current state.
Choosing a new CMS database
The last part of this tiny post is to talk about redirecting the CMS to a new database. Stopping short of putting this in production, maybe you realize you want to feel out redirecting this CMS to Oracle. The Oracle client install on any Linux/Unix system is well documented out there (I used a simple guide at https://arswiki.org/wiki/Oracle_Instant_Client_-_Installing). First, do that. IMPORTANT NOTE: Make sure you set the Oracle variables as environment variables in your system start, not just in the current session. Your boadmin user is going to need to be able to use these variables. Next, note another script in this /app/bobj/bobje folder (again, as the boadmin user):
./cmsdbsetup.sh
This little gem is like going into the Windows CCM, going into the SIA properties and configuration tab, and specifying a new database. We’ll do the same here, moving this CMS over to an Oracle database. The initial screen here wants to know the name of the SIA you want to connect to.
Business Objects
Please specify the name of the Server Intelligence Agent.
This Server Intelligence Agent must have at least one local CMS.
[quit(0)]
Enter that SIA name and hit enter to continue
===========================
Business Objects
The Server Intelligence Agent is going to be stopped. Do you want to continue?
[yes(3)/no(2)/back(1)/quit(0)]
Clearly, bringing it down is going to put a halt to your box. No biggie. We’ll bring it back. Hit 3 to stop the SIA (or hit enter to accept the default value on any of these screens). With the SIA stopped, we can choose those same, all too familiar options of updating to a new CMS database, refreshing the current, copying it, changing the cluster name, and updating the auditing database.
Business Objects
Current CMS Data Source: BOE120
Current cluster name: evtech3.evtechpartners.com:6400
Current Auditing Data Source: BOE120_AUDIT
update (Update Data Source Settings)
reinitialize (Recreate the current Data Source)
copy (Copy data from another Data Source)
changecluster (Change current cluster name)
selectaudit (Select an Auditing Data Source)
[update(6)/reinitialize(5)/copy(4)/changecluster(3)/selectaudit(2)/back(1)/quit(0)]
We are going to update this data source. Hit 6 to move on. A little warning will pop up. Choose yes to continue. My server is already running the Oracle client, so I’m going to select it.
Business Objects
Please specify Source CMS database connection information.
Select the type of database connection from the following:
[Oracle(5)/DB2(4)/Sybase(3)/MySQL(2)/back(1)/quit(0)]
The great news is, if you got past this point, your Oracle client is already working. Enter in the tnsnames entry you defined for your CMS here. Note it will immediately follow with a username and password as well (not shown here)
Business Objects
Please specify Source CMS database connection information.
Enter the tnsname for connecting to your Oracle database.
[back(1)/quit(0)]
With any luck, you land one step closer with a working Oracle client. Pick the port for the CMS and note it starts adding servers after you acknowledge the port number:
Business Objects
Enter the port number for this server to use when connecting to the CMS or press ENTER to use the default.
[quit(0)]
———————————————————-
[default (6400)]
One moment please…
Some time will go by here while it is establishing all the components required for your servers.
Adding servers…
……….
Adding multilingual strings…
……….
To complete reinitialization:
1. Set up, start, and enable all servers.
2. Run ccm.sh -updateobjects [other authentication information].
Sweet. Let’s follow orders. I backed out to my root user and just ran the init script:
/etc/init.d/BobjEnterprise120 start
Flipping back into the boadmin account again, assuming BO started OK, we need to start and enable all servers. You could definitely do this with the ccm.sh script. I’m a bit lazy though. At this point, my environment works because it starts the CMS along with Tomcat, at a minimum now with a new CMS build. So, fire up the CMC URL, go to Servers, and enable all servers needed here to run the environment.
That’s it for tonight. You can now start and stop servers via script, redirect your box to a new CMS, initialize a new CMS, etc. Enjoy. Don’t break anything…and remember…don’t do this in production 🙂
Read the rest of the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 on Linux series.