So last month I ran into a case of a botched BI installation. It happens. The admin followed SAP’s best practices, but the Server Intelligence Agent (SIA) just wouldn’t get added into the Central Configuration Manager (CCM). He had tried to uninstall/reinstall, but still encountered the same issue on each attempt. And unfortunately he had uninstalled and didn’t have a good error or description to help troubleshoot the problem.
Before completely wiping and reloading everything, I offered to help him have one more go at it. I checked to confirm that SAP BI4 was uninstalled, then I manually deleted the folders and registry keys that had been left behind. I instructed the admin to try a new installation.
Unfortunately, a few hours later I received, “That didn’t work. It still won’t load the SIA.”
I hopped back on to look. After poking through the logs and the server, I noticed that the installer had not dropped and recreated the CMS tables during the installation. I opened SQL developer and dropped all of the tables in the CMS and Audit schemas, manually deleted the SIA from the CCM, then added the node.
Much better!
The SIA was added and started up. I figured I’d go ahead and set the password and enter the license key before handing it back over.
But.
Another problem. My attempt to log into the CMC failed.
Ok. At least we have an error message now. After a quick search, I found the error and solution in SAP’s Knowledge base.
Basically, servers weren’t starting because some content wasn’t copied over correctly during the installation. The solution from SAP’s article is to import the missing modules.
I wasn’t 100% certain this solution would fix this specific problem since the article addresses an older version of BI4. But since it wasn’t working anyway, I figured I had nothing to lose.
I created a simple batch file on the server and named it FixCMS.bat, and then pasted in the following:
REM Import Missing Modules (Fixing CMC and BI login java.lang.NullPointerException)
ECHO The values below are set as an example. Please change them according to your install
pause
SET INSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files\SAP BusinessObjects
SET CMSNAME=HOSTNAME:6400
SET PASSWORD=SAP
"%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win64_x64\jdk\bin\javaw.exe" -Dtracelog.logdir="%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\Logging\ " -Dtracelog.process=InstallEntDfoWrapper -jar "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java\lib\InstallEntDfoWrapper.jar" %CMSNAME% Administrator "%PASSWORD%" secEnterprise AutoDelete "%INSTALLDIR%\setup\packagestemp"
I updated the INSTALLDIR, CMSNAME, and PASSWORD variables for my environment. Then I checked the paths in the %INSTALLDIR% section and noticed they didn’t match, so I updated as necessary. Specifically, the paths to javaw.exe were incorrect for my installation. I updated the path, and ran the following:
Unfortunately it still wasn’t working, but I noted SAP’s article had another optional step. I’ve gone this far already… I created a new batch file named fixcms2.bat and pasted in the optional code:
SET INSTALLDIR=C:\Program Files\SAP BusinessObjects
SET CMSNAME=HOSTNAME:6400
SET PASSWORD=SAP
"%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win64_x64\sapjvm\bin\java.exe" -Dtracelog.logdir="%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\Logging\\" -Dtracelog.process=biarengine -jar "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java\lib\biarengine.jar" "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java\lib\biarengine_webisamples.properties" password="%PASSWORD%"
"%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win64_x64\sapjvm\bin\java.exe" -Dtracelog.logdir="%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\Logging\\" -Dtracelog.process=biarengine -jar "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java\lib\biarengine.jar" "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java\lib\biarengine_conv_audit.properties" password="%PASSWORD%"
wscript //E:jscript "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\Samples\En\Reports\addsamples.js" /cms %CMSNAME% /UpdateXMLSampleReportsLaunch "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win64_x64\sapjvm\bin\java" /UpdateXMLSampleReportsJar "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\java\lib\UpdateXMLSampleReports.jar" /UpdateXMLSampleReportsParam "%CMSNAME%" /UpdateXMLSampleReportsPath "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\Samples\En\Reports\Report Data" /password "%PASSWORD%" /logdir "%INSTALLDIR%\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\Logging\"
Once again, I updated the variables and fixed the paths to match my environment. The following is the result:
The second script took several hours to run, so I ended up leaving it overnight. But, when I checked it the next morning…
EUREKA!
It worked!!!
I set the admin password, updated the license key, and passed it back over to my colleague.
So in the end, wiping and reinstalling might have fixed it, but maybe not. The best tips I can give from this experience are to first make sure you refer to the documentation and follow SAP’s best practices! Hopefully everything goes well, but if you do enough installations, there’s a good chance you’ll run into a roadblock. When the day does come when things don’t go so smoothly, don’t be afraid to dig in and get your hands dirty. Check the installation logs in the BI log folder and try to identify errors that you can search for. Use online resources such as SAP’s Help portal, SAP’s Community Network, the BusinessObjectBoard, or simply employing your favorite search engine might lead you to a blog post. In short, don’t give up!