This week I presented at the Mastering BusinessObjects 2010 conference, hosted in Melbourne, Australia.  The conference was organised by Eventful Management, who did a fantastic job.  International presenters included Timo Elliott, Ingo Hilgefort, Dave Rathbun, Rajeev Kapur and Tom Nather.  You can see some photos of the event by Timo here.

My topic was called ‘SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 End-to-End Demonstration’, in which I wanted to do a live demonstration of one dataset being used with most of the BOBJ tools, including Data Integrator, Universe Designer, Web Intelligence, Xcelsius, Live Office, QaaWS and Explorer.

Here is a link to the PowerPoint deck, though there’s not many slides.. (Fletcher_EndtoEndSBO_MBO)

I want to provide a walkthrough of the presentation, and include links to the datasets I used.  This should hopefully allow anyone (who has access to the SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 environment) to follow my steps.

To begin with, I introduced the dataset I used.  I downloaded it from http://data.australia.gov.au/, and it shows the Number of Crimes in New South Wales, Australia, broken down by Local Government Authority (LGA), Month/Year (over 12 years), Offence Category and Subcategory.  All in all it represents over 1.7 million records, so not a small dataset.  I also extended the dataset by introducing State Region (multiple LGA’s belong to a Region) in another CSV file.

To start with, the first part of the presentation was to use Data Integrator to import data from two CSV files into a SQL Server database, including de-normalising the data into a dimensional model.  You can download the CSV files from the Datasets page of my blog, under the NSW Crimes heading.  You will also need to create a database (I used SQL Server) to host the tables in the Target Datastore.

Here are the steps I following to build the ETL job to move the data from the CSV files to the SQL Server database.

1. Create a new Flat File Format for the ‘NSW Crimes Data 95-08.csv’ (CSV#1) for extracting data
2. Create a new Flat File Format for the ‘Regions and LGAs.csv’ (CSV#2) for extracting data
3. Create a new database to store the extracted data in, and create a new Datastore (I called mine DEMO_E2E_SBO)
4. Create a new Project and Job
5. Within the new Job, create a new dataflow for staging the main source file, using a template table
6. Run the job to stage the data
7. Import the template table and set to overwrite
8. Add a new dataflow for creating the DIM_DATE table, using the Date_Generation transform
   1. Set the date generation from 1995.01.01 to 2008.12.31, monthly
   2. Add the following output columns to the Query transform
      1. Date_SK (julian of Date)
      2. Year
      3. Quarter
      4. Month
      5. Date
9. Add a new dataflow for DIM_LGA, using the CSV#1 flat file format as a source
   1. Add the following output columns to the Query transform
      1. LGA_SK (use gen_row_number function)
      2. State_Region (leave blank for now)
      3. Local_Government Authority
   2. Group by the LGA column
   3. Add in the CSV#2 as another source, combining in another Query transform, with the following changes
      1. Populate State_Region
      2. Make sure the WHERE clause includes LGA=LGA
10. Create a new dataflow for DIM_OFFENCE_TYPE, using the following columns in the Query transform
    1. Offence_Type_SK (use gen_row_num to populate)
    2. Offence Category
    3. Offence Subcategory
    4. Make sure to GROUP BY Offence Category and Subcategory
11. Run the job to create and load the dimension tables, then import each of the dimension tables and set them to overwrite values
12. Create a dataflow for loading the FACT_CRIMES
13. Add in a pivot transform, using the following settings
    1. Pivot sequence column called ‘Seq_Number’
    2. Non-pivot Columns
       1. LGA
       2. Offence Category
       3. Offence Subcategory
    3. Pivot Columns
       1. All month columns
    4. Data field column called ‘Number_of_Crimes’
    5. Header column called’ Month’
14. Add in a query transform, with settings as follows
    1. Add the following columns
       1. Crime _SK (use gen_row_num to populate)
       2. Date_SK – use this mapping = julian(to_date(’01 ‘ || Pivot.Month,’DD MON YYYY’))
       3. LGA_SK – use lookup_ext function to populate with the LGA_SK from the DIM_LGA table
       4. Offence_Type_SK – use lookup_ext function to populate with the Offence_Type_SK from the DIM_OFFENCE_TYPE table
       5. Number_of_Crimes – direct mapping
15. Run the job
16. Import fact table and set to overwrite, and you’re done!

I’ve also exported the entire Target Datastore to an Access DB (also available on the the Datasets page of my blog), as well as exporting the entire job to an ATL file which you can also download.  I created the job in Data Services XI 3.2, so the ATL file won’t be compatible with versions prior to that.

I hope that someone finds the above of value if they are learning Data Services for the first time.  In the next post I will cover the rest of the presentation, so stay tuned!

However, my frustrations lie in that no SP2 for Edge XI 3.1 was announced.  Remembering back several years, service packs for BOE could be applied to Edge and even Crystal Reports Server, as they were all compatible.

However, it seems that the codebase has started to diverge, or the teams responsible for service packs aren’t coordinated across the different platform offerings.

As a consultant who deploys Edge frequently, this is frustrating considering that there are no discernible differences when using BO Edge compared to BO Enterprise.  Having no programming background at all, I may be swinging wild here, but it seems to me that using license keys to switch features on and off (like clustering, or Federation) would be simpler than diverging what is essentially the same codebase and maintaining separate service pack and fix packs.

I’m not across the success of SAP BusinessObjects Edge in the greater world community, however in Australia it is becoming a very successful platform, and I often need to tell our clients that they have to wait another (estimated) 6 months for a service pack, when the features they require are already available to Enterprise users.

Does anyone else see a need for coordinated delivery of service packs for the BI platform?  Or perhaps someone from SAP can weigh in on why they are delivered separately?

If there are good reasons, I’d love to hear them as most of the annoyance comes from the lack of communication.

– Josh

By adapting a document on the SAP Support Portal, I now use a sure-fire method to configure AD SSO with Tomcat, the default web application server that ships with BusinessObjects Enterprise/Edge XI 3.1.  It’s worked every time I’ve used it.

Firstly, let’s define our server names and IPs (you must obviously adjust these and the commands below to reflect your server names and IPs – I have underlined commands that need to be changed to help):

• Domain Name: POWI (FQDN: POWER.INTERNAL)
• Service Account: bo.service (password: admin)
• Domain Controller: vs-dev-ad-dc.POWER.INTERNAL (IP: 192.168.5.1)
• BO Server: vs-dev-ad-bo.POWER.INTERNAL (IP: 192.168.5.2)
• BusinessObjects AD Group: POWI\Business Objects

Step 1

Create an Active Directory service account, bo.service (pass: admin).  On the BusinessObjects server, add the POWI/bo.service user to the Administrators group.  Also assign them the following rights in the Local Security Policy snap-in:
•    Act as part of Operating System
•    Log on as a Batch Job
•    Log on as a Service
•    Replace a Process Level Token

Step 2

Run the following command on the Active Directory server:

ktpass -out BOSSO.keytab –princ BOSSO/bo.service.power.internal@POWER.INTERNAL -mapuser bo.service@POWER.INTERNAL -pass admin -kvno 255 -ptype KRB5_NT_PRINCIPAL -crypto RC4-HMAC-NT

The output from the above command should be similar to:

Targeting domain controller: vs-dev-ad-dc.POWER.INTERNAL
Using legacy password setting method
Successfully mapped BOSSO/bo.service.power.internal to bo.service.
Key created.
Output keytab to BOSSO.keytab:
Keytab version: 0x502
keysize 81 BOSSO/bo.service.power.internal@POWER.INTERNAL ptype 1 (KRB5_NT_PRINCIPAL) vno 255 etype 0x17 (RC4-HMAC) keylength 16 (0x209c6174da490caeb422f3fa5a7ae634)

Step 3

Run the following command on the Active Directory server:

setspn -l bo.service

The output should be similar to:

Registered ServicePrincipalNames for CN=bo.service,CN=Users,DC=POWER,DC=INTERNAL:
BOSSO/bo.service.power.internal

Step 4

Go to properties of the ‘bo.service’ user in Active Directory and under the Delegation tab, set ”Trust this user for delegation to any service (Kerberos only)’ to on.

Step 5

Move the BOSSO.keytab file that was created on the Active Directory server (refer Step 2) to c:\winnt\ of the BusinessObjects server.

Step 6

Generate the requisite SPN’s by running the following commands on the Active Directory server:

setspn -a HTTP/vs-dev-ad-bo bo.service
setspn -a HTTP/vs-dev-ad-bo.power.internal bo.service
setspn -a HTTP/192.168.5.2 bo.service

The output from the above commands should be similar to:

HTTP/vs-dev-ad-bo
Updated object
Registering ServicePrincipalNames for CN=bo.service,CN=Users,DC=POWER,DC=INTERNAL
HTTP/vs-dev-ad-bo.power.internal
Updated object
Registering ServicePrincipalNames for CN=bo.service,CN=Users,DC=POWER,DC=INTERNAL
HTTP/192.168.5.2
Updated object

Step 7

Run the following command on the Active Directory server to view all of the created SPNs:

setspn -l bo.service

The output should be similar to:

Registered ServicePrincipalNames for CN=bo.service,CN=Users,DC=POWER,DC=INTERNAL:
HTTP/192.168.5.2
HTTP/vs-dev-ad-bo.power.internal
HTTP/vs-dev-ad-bo
BOSSO/bo.service.power.internal

Step 8

Within the BusinessObjects Central Management Console, within the Windows AD Authentication area, do the following:

1. Enable Windows AD
2. Set the AD Administration Name: POWI\bo.service
3. Set the Default AD Domain: POWER.INTERNAL
4. Add AD Group: POWI\Business Objects
5. Set ‘Use Kerberos Authentication’
6. Set the Service Principal Name: BOSSO/bo.service.power.internal
7. Set ‘Enable SSO for Selected Authentication Mode’

Step 9

Modify the SIA service on the BusinessObjects server to run as the POWI\bo.service domain user.

Step 10

You should now be able to get SSO onto locally installed tools (ie Designer, Webi Rich Client) by starting the application, selecting the authentication method to be Windows AD, and without inputting a username and password, clicking OK.  You should be logged in as your AD user.

Step 11

Create a file called c:\winnt\bsclogin.conf on the BusinsesObjects server, and put in it the following text:

com.businessobjects.security.jgss.initiate {
com.sun.security.auth.module.Krb5LoginModule required debug=true;
};

Step 12

Create a file called c:\winnt\krb5.ini on the BusinessObjects server, and put in it the following text:

[libdefaults]
default_realm = POWER.INTERNAL
dns_lookup_kdc = true
dns_lookup_realm = true
udp_preference_limit = 1
[realms]
POWER.INTERNAL = {
kdc = VS-DEV-AD-DC.POWER.INTERNAL
default_domain = POWER.INTERNAL
}

Step 13

To test that the krb5.ini file was created successfully, undertake the following:

1. Navigate to \Program Files\Business Objects\javasdk\bin on the command line
2. Execute ‘kinit bo.service‘, then input your password
3. A ticket should be created

Step 14

On the BusinessObjects server, open up the Tomcat Configuration application, then go to the Java Options input, and add the following lines (restart Tomcat once done):

-Djava.security.auth.login.config=C:\winnt\bscLogin.conf
-Djava.security.krb5.conf=C:\winnt\Krb5.ini

Step 15

Modify the \Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\WEB-INF\web.xml file and allow users to see authentication options by changing the authentication.visible tag to true.

Step 16

Modify the \Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat55\conf\server.xml file, by change the following line to increase the MaxHttpHeaderSize element to ’16384′:

<Connector URIEncoding="UTF-8" acceptCount="100" connectionTimeout="20000" disableUploadTimeout="true" enableLookups="false" maxHttpHeaderSize="16384" maxSpareThreads="75" maxThreads="150" minSpareThreads="25" port="80" redirectPort="8443"/>

Step 17

Modify the \Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\WEB-INF\web.xml file as follows:

1. Change authentication.default to ‘secWinAD’
2. Change siteminder.enabled to ‘false’
3. Change vintela.enabled to ‘true’
4. Remove comment tags (<!–, –>) from around the authFilter filter element
5. Change idm.realm to ‘POWER.INTERNAL’
6. Change idm.princ to ‘BOSSO/bo.service.power.internal‘
7. Remove comment tags (<!–, –>) from around the authFilter filter-mapping element

Step 18

On the BusinessObjects server, open up the Tomcat Configuration application, then go to the Java Options input, and add the following lines:

-Dcom.wedgetail.idm.sso.password=admin (password for bo.service user)
-Djcsi.kerberos.maxpacketsize=0
-Djcsi.kerberos.debug=true

Step 19

Remove the following from the Java Options input in the Tomcat Configuration (if they exist):
•    Debug =true in the bsclogin.conf (set by default)
•    -Dbobj.logging.log4j.config=verbose.properties (may have been added to Java Options)
•    -Dcrystal.enterprise.trace.configuration=verbose (may have been added to Java Options)
•    -Djcsi.kerberos.debug=true (may have been added to Java Options)
•    Dcom.wedgetail.idm.sso.password=admin (only remove if you have a valid keytab configured)
•    Switch Tomcat 5.5 back to run as the local system (if running under service account for verbose tracing)

Step 20

Encrypt your service account password by coping the BOSSO.keytab (created during Step 2) to the c:\winnt directory on the BusinessObjects server, then specify the following in the \Program Files\Business Objects\Tomcat55\webapps\InfoViewApp\WEB-INF\web.xml (after the idm.princ setting):

<init-param>
<param-name>idm.keytab</param-name>
<param-value>c:\winnt\BOSSO.keytab</param-value>
</init-param>

Step 21

Remove the wedgetail.password option from the Tomcat Configuration Java Options. At this point your Vintela SSO should work with InfoView.

References

I was only able to document the above using the (very) detailed PDF document on Vintela SSO provided by Tim Ziemba at the following SAP Support Note: http://service.sap.com/sap/sapnotes/display/1261835.

If any SAP BusinessObjects staff read this post, it would be fantastic if all this knowledge that is being captured in the SAP Support Portal could be filtered and pushed back into the standard documentation, as this sorely lacks the detail required to implement Vintela SSO.

Here is a PDF of my presentation to view.

Some other highlights of the conference were:

• Pioneer is due in 2010 (combining Voyager with Bex Analyzer)
• Support for 64bit environments coming soon
• New release of BOE due in 2010 as well (XI 4.0?)
• SAP BWA (in-memory datastore) will be updated to allow hardware acceleration of other data sources, not just SAP BW
• BO Text Analysis (as presented by Plaut) looks very interesting, turns unstructured data (blogs, emails) into structed relational data
• Timo Elliott’s recommendation – don’t just implement software, aim high and look to change the business
• Dave Rathbun presented on universe tips and Web Intelligence essentials, such as calculation contexts (often misunderstood), multiple data providers and sub-queries
• Data Services 3.2 due in Q3 2009, will support 64bit Linux, and next release of DS will support 64bit Windows
• Data Services 4.0 will potentially migrate to use the BOE architecture – fingers crossed on my part

It was a great conference with a variety of users and partners present, and I hope to be there at the MBO 2010 conference.

- Josh

Poor universe design can also lead to wrong data, non-optimal SQL generation, incompatible objects and/or Cartesian products (or very wrong data).

I’ve categorised the best practices into two groups, End-User and Cosmetic methods, as well as Functional or Optimisation methods.

End-User / Cosmetic

1. The universe should be created from the end-user perspective, not from a developer’s perspective. This should be kept in mind whether designing new universes, or modifying existing universes.
2. All metadata (class names, object names and descriptions) should use business terminology. This allows the end users to easily use the universe without understanding the underlying database structure. It also speeds up development time, as header cells do not need to be edited. Users can then also search the universe when building a report to quickly find an object. For example, instead of calling a dimension object ‘Commit Cuml’, it should be called ‘Cumulative Commitment’.
3. All development objects should be removed before promoting to Production. Universes should not contain old, legacy or development objects (and classes) – these should be removed before promoting to Production. If absolutely necessary, these should be hidden and placed in a ‘Legacy Objects’ class so no mistake can be made regarding their status.
4. Objects should not be both dimensions and measures unless absolutely necessary. This is confusing to the user, and unnecessary. Providing row-level data is possible by introducing a unique object, like the ID.
5. Object formatting should always be specified, especially with measures. Formatting like dates, currency and so forth is important to provide objects that the user doesn’t need to format themselves.
6. Date fields should be expanded using SQL functions, and split into separate objects like Calendar Year, Calendar Month, Calendar Month Name etc. A library of date functions for both T-SQL and PL-SQL should be built up and re-used where possible.
7. Classes and objects should be based on user requirements, not table-centric. Classes might contain objects from many different tables, and should not be based on the columns within a table.
8. Custom hierarchies should always be defined and done according to the end-user’s requirements. This prevents users from drilling using default hierarchies, and allows control over what users can drill into.
9. Pre-defined conditions should be used to accelerate report development and encode difficult query filters into an object that the user can use easily.
10. Object names should be unique, and never repeated, regardless of the object classification.

Functional / Optimisation

1. SQL aggregation functions should always be present in measures. All measures should have both a SQL aggregation function (ie SUM, COUNT and AVERAGE), then a projection aggregation function assigned (respectively SUM, SUM and NONE). This ensures that GROUP BYs are used and the processing power of the database is leveraged, returning fewer rows quicker. This also has additional performance benefits at the data provider level, where less RAM will be used on the server, and lower network traffic of data.
2. Tables should not be unconnected. This will generate a Cartesian product for the end-user, and leads to very confusing universes. If tables have no way of being joined at all, they should be placed in separate universes.
3. Left outer joins should be avoided where possible. This is sometimes impossible with transactional schemas, but left outer joins lead to NULLs and slower SQL queries. If left outer joins are necessary, universe objects should contain ISNULL functions or similar so that users aren’t presented with NULL values when using objects.
4. Cardinalities on joins should always be set to allow for loop and SQL trap detection, this includes self-joins that should be marked as 1-1. Always set cardinalities manually, not automatically.
5. Contexts should be used, and if too complex, the universe should be split up. This allows for path navigation and allows a universe to have more functionality.
6. Loops and SQL traps should always be resolved to avoid Cartesian products and incorrect data. This is a very important component of universe design, especially with transactional schemas.
7. Integrity checks and refreshes of the database structure should be done regularly to ensure the universe has the up-to-date view of the database.
8. Views should be used in preference to derived tables, and kept to a minimum. This ensures optimal SQL generation.
9. When aliasing tables, the original should be placed in the top left of the schema window and noted with ‘Aliased Table – Do Not Remove’. This will ensure that an original table isn’t removed by mistake, which will also remove all aliases of the table as well.
10. The query limits should always be set, to ensure that runaway queries or Cartesian product queries don’t bring down the database. Both length of query time and number of rows should be set. The limits will differ per database.
11. Multiple SQL statements for each measure should be turned off, to generate optimum SQL.
12. Index awareness should be used where possible, to generate optimal SQL.
13. List of values should be disabled for all dimension and detail objects that don’t require LOVs, to avoid users doing queries like all IDs for a given table.

Conclusion

Having compiled this list in a short time, some of the best practices are notably short.  For my next post, I will endeavour to single out a few of the above methods that aren’t covered as often and focus on them in more detail.

If you have any suggestions, I’d love to hear them.

- Josh

Update

I received quite a few comments on additional best practices, so I’ve included them here.

• Lock the universe when editing to prevent other users from editing the same universe.  This can be controlled with the security model, so only the user who locked the universe can unlock it.  However, beware that using the Import Wizard still allows you to overwrite a universe that is locked (Jansi).
• Use universe parameters to control how the SQL is generated.  You can control SQL generation so it is ANSI-92 compliant, as well as use JOIN_BY_SQL to allow separate sub-queries to be combined at the query level instead of in the report (Andreas).
• All ratios should be set as database delegated/smart measures.  This ensures that the ratio isn’t calculated incorrectly (ie average of an average) and is calculated back at the database (Andreas).
• Generic time objects for Today, Yesterday, This Month, Last Month etc. should be provided (as dimension objects as well as filters).  These dimension objects can be used in filtering objects (Some Date Object = Today Object).  Using filters may depend on the number of dates present in your data, however you could still create filters for the most common date objects (Andreas).
• As a rule of thumb do not use the WHERE clause in any measure, dimension, or detail object. Use CASE WHEN … SQL syntax instead.  Combining two objects that have WHERE clauses filtering the same column(s) will return zero results, which the user won’t expect (Andreas).

I also recently stumbled across the same kind of post over at the Business Intelligence blog.  There are some differences in our lists, so you may wish to refer to that post as well.

Updated 22/07/2009.

- Josh

So I wanted to give you all an update on what’s been happening in the last few months, as well as try and kick start my blogging career yet again.

One recent event was that I finally completed the certification exams for BOCP-BODI, that is, Data Integrator.  You may remember I posted about how difficult the first exam was – well the second was a lot harder, and I guess I was a little lucky with some of the questions.  I’ve found the certification exams are really a good measure for how well you know the software; if you’ve only been using it for a short time, don’t expect to be able to pass exams easily.  You only need to look at ‘the certification thread‘ on the BOB Forum to get an idea of how many people think they need help with certifications.

So I was very proud to be able to get the certification, and it means that I now have all four certifications that SAP BusinessObjects offer.  Hopefully they’ll release more in the near future.  I’d love to see a certification around Universe Design, as I feel that is much more important that the end reporting tool, like Web Intelligence.  Do you think there is a need for any other certifications?  Maybe Xcelsius? =)

Next up, I attended the 2009 Mastering Business Objects conference recently, held in Sydney Australia.  It was a two day conference, held at the Manly Hotel, on the beach.  Key highlights for me were meeting three great people, Timo Elliott, Dave Rathbun, and Jamie Oswald.  It was also great that most of the people I met were on either XI R2, or XI 3.x.  I did Twitter through most of the conference, so skip back a few pages and check out some of the live tweets at http://twitter.com/joshyf.

Myself with Dave Rathbun

Lastly for this post, I’d like to expand a little on a recent Proof of Concept that I undertook for a utility in Western Australia.  The scope was reasonably large given the time frame.  It was a three week engagement, with reporting required off SAP BW cubes and Oracle 10g databases, using the SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 full stack.  This included Web Intelligence, Crystal Reports, Xcelsius, Polestar (soon to be called Explorer), Live Office, BI Widgets and more.  The POC was a great success, with a lot of value add being provided because of the quick development time with BusinessObjects.

The client especially loved how they could leverage the investment in the Universes with Polestar.  You have a universe, just index it and voila.  They also really appreciated the drill-through ability – we demonstrated drill through from Xcelsius into both Polestar and Web Intelligence.

That about wraps it up for this post.  If you like the content I put up, I’d love to hear any suggestions about how I could improve my blog posts.  Would you like more technical content, more walkthroughs?

- Josh

I sat the Web Intelligence XI 3.x Level Two exam last week and passed, which means I’m now a BusinessObjects Certified Professional in Web Intelligence XI 3.x.  This is a new certification from BusinessObjects and covers the new Web Intelligence features, as well as the old, and also some universe features.  I’ve noticed that recently BusinessObjects have stepped up the complexity of the exams and I’ve find both the Webi and Data Integrator exams to be more difficult than the older Crystal Reports and Admin exams.

However, I also noticed, especially during the Level 2 exam, several mistakes about the questions, including errors in Webi formulas.

I also recently got hold of a pre-release copy of Polestar XI 3.1.  I have to say, without having spent much time with it, I’m impressed with the improvements they’ve made to Polestar.  It feels more stable, and has some nice new features.

A word of warning however, during the install (I performed it on two different servers runnning XI 3.1), major problems occurred with the deployment of the new WAR files into Tomcat.  The Polestar install replaces, or creates, the following WAR files for:

• InfoViewApp
• InfoViewAppActions
• CmcApp
• CmcAppActions
• PlatformServices
• polestar
• polestar_help
• polestar_tutorial
• PolestarAppActions

However, Tomcat doesn’t successfully deploy these WAR files, and the above Tomcat directories, when viewed, are empty, so to the end-user, both InfoView and the CMC stop responding, and you can’t access them.  This can be resolved by undeploying, then redeploying, the affected WAR files.  I used the Lambda Probe (http://www.lambdaprobe.org/d/index.htm) to do this, but it can also be done by deleting the affected directories within the ‘webapps’ folder, and copying the above WAR files into the ‘webapps’ directory.  Tomcat should then deploy the WAR files automatically.

Apart from the issue described above (a major one BusinessObjects are now trying to work into a hot fix), Polestar seems stable and has some great new features.  When I get to play and experiment with it more, I will post a more detailed description.

EDIT:  I also forgot to mention that SAP BusinessObjects also released an online demo version of Polestar that anyone can play with.  Find it here (http://polestar.ondemand.com/polestar/).

- Josh

Today I wanted to put down my thoughts about the new BO Enterprise XI 3.1, having recently implemented at a few sites, including a Dev/UAT/Prod 3-tier system.

So, what’s changed? And what did I like and dislike?

I do really like the new Web Intelligence Rich Client, and the zero-client Web Intelligence report panel (the Ajax-y one) is really coming along – in the next few releases it will be awesome! I did have some stability issues with the Rich Client during training sessions, however I put this down to slower, older machines. In day-to-day use I’ve found it fairly stable, however saving often doesn’t hurt! =)

I found the BusinessObjects documentation about the new LifeCycle Manager (released with XI 3.1) to be lacking. From the documentation, I could understand the process of creating a new promotion job, or how to version control a universe. What I couldn’t find is best practices – how should I use the promotion tool? All-in-one-go, or a folder of reports and a few universes at a time, or some other method?

I ended up designing and documenting my own best practice, however it still a little unclear as to how best to use it, down at the nitty gritty level.

Being able to track session usage (which was available in XI 3.0 also) is great, however I feel we Administrators really need the ability to kill a session as and when required – especially handy for those running BO Edge.

I also love the Widget and Live Office functionality, which I find great, however be warned – those of you running Vista x64 (like me) will find that Xcelsius visualisations can’t be added as a BI Widget. I currently have a case logged with SAP/BO to sort this out.

Until next time, Josh.

Recently I have been involved in Enterprise Data Warehouse strategy reviews, and complete end-to-end install and designs for Edge Professional, including building data marts from core systems. Really interesting stuff, and I have got to practice my DI (now Data Services) skills. Even more interesting has been the chance to use Data Services to design and implement data marts with SCD Type 2 (Slowly Changing Dimensions), and using Changed Data Capture.

It’s amazing to look back to when I joined this employer (only two years ago), and my role at the time was Crystal Reports, and that was it. My experience was limited to Crystal Reports XI, with Crystal Reports Server, albeit limited experience with CR Server.

However, I really enjoy my job, and I think that is what has helped me, within two years, to gain my certification in both Business Objects Enterprise XI 3.0 and Crystal Reports 2008, as well as becoming a certified Migration Specialist. I was promoted to a Senior Consultant and now am doing things that I only would have dreamed of two years ago. In short, a huge shift in role and responsibility.

I put it down to, mainly, loving BI. I love the potential of BI, the way you can help small and large organisations grow their business and make better business decisions. And it’s just so cool, you can’t forget that. Even when you are just a Crystal cowboy, slapping together reports for a client in the minimum amount of time (not really best practice of course), you are still making a big difference, and getting job satisfaction. Hearing the words ‘we’ve never been able to look at it that way before’ – I’m sure all BI people have heard that – is great.

Taking it a step further though, and using best practices, designing and documenting, keeping to standards, encouraging the use of bigger and better tools, and growing the BI culture within an organisation is what I really enjoy.

I love my job. I think I’m very lucky. What about you?

(PS – Under three months and I’m going to be a dad. Wow.)

But no, more and more, there are always new products being released, service packs to test, other toolsets to try out and compare, and training to do to keep up. It’s a good thing I enjoy it so much, otherwise I think I’d drown in it all.

Right now, I’m trying to find time to install XI 3.0 on an domain-controlled VM, and then get SSO working through Tomcat. I’ve always found SSO through IIS very easy, but Tomcat is a little harder and so I’d like to getting it working end-to-end myself to make sure I’m familiar with the process.

Today I also found out that BO are running a beta for XI 3.1 and their new LifeCycle Manager tool. This is something that I as a BO consultant have been waiting for – the Import Wizard is useful for specific tasks, but as a LCM tool, doesn’t really live up to expectations.

I’ve requested to join the beta so I can try out the new tool and give BO some feedback on it. I’ll hopefully try to post some comments about it.