How to install SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira (Part 1) - Ramp-Up!

[Former Member]

Disclaimer: Please be aware that the SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira is currently in Ramp-Up and is not generally available (yet). For more information you can follow any updates from Product Manager adrian.westmoreland to get the latest news!

On the 19th of June sharon posted this blog SAP Lumira Server 1.17 and Lumira add-on to BI 4.1 platform pre-requisites where she announced the availability of the SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira Ramp-Up program.

This add-on brings your SAP Lumira content into your BI platform deployment so you can enjoy the security, scalability, and ease of use it provides. The SAP Lumira viewer is integrated into the BI platform as a web application, enabling users to have the same experience viewing and exploring stories in BI launchpad as they do in SAP Lumira. The BI platform enforces security on stories and datasets, and allows access, categorization, and sharing in the same manner as other BI platform content, allowing you to seamlessly adopt SAP Lumira within your organization. Datasets that are based on universes can be refreshed, ensuring your stories contain the most up-to-date data. The SAP HANA database stores the data and creates the visualizations which it passes to the BI platform, creating only a minimal load on the BI platform servers.

In part 1 of this blog I'm going to show you how to integrate the Lumira add-on into your BI platform deployment, install the Lumira add-on to your BI platform deployment and configure SAP HANA to allow communication with the BI platform. Part 2 of this blog How to install SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira (Part 2) - Ramp-Up! continues with setting up a user in SAP HANA,  configure the Lumira add-on services, and finally publish datasets and stories to the BI platform.

More information can be found in the SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira Guide were all scenario´s are described.

This picture below from the Guide shows the different components that work together and enable you to integrate SAP Lumira with BI 4:

First stap is to install the Lumira add-on to our BI platform machine which is running on Linux. As we have a simple BI platform deployment (where all components exist on the same machine) all Lumira add-on components will be installed onto that machine. For an overview of the Lumira add-on components please check chapter 2.1 of the SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira Guide.

Make sure you that you have the correct versions of the products installed as listed below:

- BI platform 4.1 Support Package 3 or higher

• A supported version of the BI platform installed.
• RESTful web services are installed and configured.
• A Server Intelligence Agent (SIA) is running.
• Lumira add-on mobile integration feature is installed (optional, if Mobile support is required).

- SAP HANA Support Package 08 Revision 74 or higher

• SAP HANA must have SAP Lumira server installed and configured. For more information on how to install and configure please read one of my previous blogs: How to install SAP Lumira Server, Publish Datasets and Stories and Update SAP Lumira Server 1.17 & New Features

- SAP Lumira Server version 1.17

• Application Function Library (AFL) must be installed.
• The script server must be started.

- SAP HANA user is created with the correct roles: The Lumira add-on service communicates with the SAP HANA database in the context of a technical user.

  The technical user must be assigned to the following roles:

• sap.bi.services.datasetmanager.db.roles::SAP_BI_DATASETMANAGER_ADMIN
• sap.bi.common::BI_DATA_ANALYST

- SAP Lumira version 1.17

• The Personal edition does not support Lumira add-on.

The software can be found on the following location on SMP:

If no data is displayed please contact your account manager as SAP to ensure you have the correct licenses.

After you unzipped the installation package run setup.sh

On the 'Select Installer Language' screen, select the language that you want to run the installation program in

On the Configure Destination Folder screen, enter the directory where Lumira add-on will be installed.

This product must be installed to the BI platform installation directory (the directory containing modifyOrRemovePrograms.sh ). In this example it's /usr/sap.

On the Check Prerequisites screen, review the results press 'Enter' to continue.

On the Welcome screen, press 'Enter'.

On the License Agreement screen, review the agreement, select I accept the License Agreement, and select Enter.

On the Select Language Packages screen, select any additional languages that you want to install.

On the Existing CMS Deployment Information screen, enter the name, port number, and logon credentials for the existing BI platform CMS.

You can use the Central Management Console (CMC) or the Central Configuration Manager (CCM) to find out the CMS name.

On the Start Installation screen, press 'Enter' to start the installation.

The installation may take some time to complete.

On the confirmation screen, press 'Enter' to complete the installation.

If you logon to the CMC you can see that a new entry has been created under 'Organize' to manage 'Lumira Datasets'.

If you click on 'Servers' you can see that under 'Service Categories' a new server category called 'Lumira Services' is created.

The next step in the installation procedure is the configuration of the SAP Lumira add-on. To configure the Lumira add-on to work with SAP HANA involves the following steps:

• Setting up the assertion ticket
• Configuring the services
• Configuring the timeout for Lumira add-on services
• Configuring the default REST access URL
• Configuring support for mobile devices

Assertion tickets are used by the RESTful web services to communicate securely with SAP HANA. First we need to download the CommonCryptoLib librarylibsapcrypto.so and the SAP Cryptographic tool sapgenpse to generate the assertion tickets.

In the Software Download Center http://service.sap.com/swdc, expand Support Packages and Patches and select Browse our Download Catalog. Choose SAP Cryptographic Software. Expand SAPCRYPTOLIB and choose SAPCRYPTOLIB 5.5.5 (or the latest version). Download the package that matches your SAP HANA machine; for example, Linux on x86_64 64bit. Unpack the .sar. file you downloaded to get the files libsapcrypto.so and sapgenpse.

Perform the following steps to generate the assertion ticket:

1. Log into the SAP HANA machine as root user.

2. Copy the files sapgenpse and libsapcrypto.so to this directory: /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/security/lib/

3. Set execute permissions on these files, for example: chmod 755 sapgenpse chmod 755 libsapcrypto.so

4. Set an environment variable for the /lib/ path, for example: export LD_LIBRARY_PATH=/usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/security/lib

5. Switch to your HANA SID user name for the remaining steps in this procedure, for example: su <SID>adm

6. Create the sec directory under /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<InstanceNum>/<servername> if it does not exist: mkdir /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB00/<servername>/sec

7. Go to the directory that contains the crypto files: cd /usr/sap/<SID>/SYS/global/security/lib/

8. Create the trust stores and signing request using the following certificate specifications:

• CN = servername
• C = country
• S = state
• O = company
• OU = departmentNote

• sapsrv.pse

          ./sapgenpse gen_pse –p /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<InstanceNum>/<servername>/sec/sapsrv.pse –x "" "CN=<servername>,C=CA,S=BC,O=SAP-

          AG,OU=HR"

• sapcli.pse

          ./sapgenpse gen_pse –p /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<InstanceNum>/<servername>/sec/sapcli.pse –x "" "CN=<servername>,C=CA,S=BC,O=SAP-

          AG,OU=HR"

• saplogonSign.pse

          ./sapgenpse gen_pse –a DSA –p /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<InstanceNum>/<servername>/sec/saplogonSign.pse –x ""

          "CN=<servername>,C=CA,S=BC,O=SAP-AG,OU=HR"

The following files will be created in /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<InstanceNum>/<servername>/sec:

• sapcli.pse
• saplogonSign.pse
• sapsrv.pse

Next step is to configure the SAP HANA services to use the assertion ticket. Please open the SAP HANA studio and select the system.

Launch the 'Administration designer'.

Select the 'Configuration' tab.

Expand 'indexserver.ini' and then expand 'authentication'.

Right-click on 'saplogontickettruststore' and select 'Change'.

Enter the path to saplogonSign.pse: /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<InstanceNum>/<servername>/sec/saplogonSign.pse

Expand 'xsengine.ini' and then expand 'authentication'.

If the 'authentication' and 'saplogontickettruststore' sections do not exist right-click on xsengine.ini and select 'Add Section'.

Enter 'authentication' as section name then click 'Next'

Click 'Next' to assign values to the system level.

Enter saplogontickettruststore as the Key and the file location for saplogonSign.pse as the value. Example: /usr/sap/<SID>/HDB<InstanceNum>/<servername>/sec/saplogonSign.pse7.

Click 'Finish'.

Please stop and start the HANA server.

In part 2 of this blog How to install SAP BusinessObjects BI add-on for SAP Lumira (Part 2) - Ramp-Up! I will continue with setting up a user in SAP HANA,  configure the Lumira add-on services, and finally publish datasets and stories to the BI platform.

Thanks for reading my blog so far and please contact me if you have any questions!

With kind regards,

Martijn van Foeken

[Henry_Banks]

Brilliant as always Martijn, thank you so much for your contribution

[Former Member]

Great resource for our customers Martijn. This is extremely helpful. We'll be directing anyone with an issue with this process here. Thank you for documenting this.

[Former Member]

Your welcome!

[Former Member]

Thanks! I do have an issue though getting content published to the SAP BI server from Lumira desktop. That's also the reason why part 2 of this blog has not been published yet. As soon as I have resolved the issue I will release part 2 and document known pitfalls!

[Former Member]

I just managed to resolve the issue. I documented it in the blog but the SAP HANA user should not have more than 12 characters otherwise the assertion ticket will no work and the following error message is displayed.

[Former Member]

Great! Thanks for the thoroughness of this post and part two. Top notch instruction.

[former_member197846]

Great document Martinjn.

One query that I have is, as I understand the steps listed above will allow the user to create visualization on SAP Lumira Server application and publish the same to SAP BI Platform. But in case I am looking for only SAP BI Platform Add on installation to be used with SAP Lumira Desktop application (creating visualization in SAP Lumira desktop application and publishing the same to SAP BI Platform) will the steps remain same excluding the SAP HANA configuration part mentioned?

Regards,

Abhijit

[Former Member]

Hi Abhijit,

Great you like the document! The blog explains how to install the BI add-on for SAP Lumira. The pre-requisite for this installation is that you have both a BI platform and a HANA server. The visualizations (and stories) and stored in the CMS of the BI platform, the aquired dataset is stored on the HANA server. So without a HANA server you can't use the BI add-on.

However this is not the same as Lumira Server where both the dataset and visualizations on the HANA platform. This is done in a seperate schema and datasets stored via the BI add-on are not accessable via Lumira Server and vice versa.

Hope this answers your question, if not please let me know!

With kind regards,

Martijn

[former_member197846]

Thanks for the response Martijn. It answers my question.

So as I understand when the visualization or story is exported to BI platform the dataset is exported to HANA server. But in that case, does it have live connectivity with the back end. e.g. if the visualizations are created on Universe with oracle database and is exported to BI Platform then the dataset that gets exported to HANA server does it have any connectivity to original Universe on oracle database or it is a snapshot of the data without any live connectivity?

Regards,

Abhijit

[Former Member]

Hi Abhijit,

When the dataset is moved to the BI platform and pushed into SAP HANA it loses the live connectivity to the backend. However if the dataset is based on a universe stored on the same BI platform you can use the refresh functionality of the BI platform to refresh the universe, which pulls the most recent version of the data from the universe and pushes it into the SAP HANA database, allowing users to view the most recent data in their stories.

You can schedule a dataset to refresh at specified times, or you can refresh on-demand. Unlike scheduling a report, scheduled dataset instances contain a record of the scheduled refresh but they not contain the data. Only the data for the most recent dataset refresh is stored.

With kind regards,

Martijn

[former_member197846]

Thanks a lot Martijn for the information.

This means that clients can not use "Export to BI Platform" functionality if they do not have SAP HANA.

Regards,

Abhijit

[Former Member]

Hi Abhijit,

No problem! For now that is indeed the conclusion . So far I haven't seen a roadmap update that explictly mentions this integration being available without SAP HANA. Big issue is that you need to store and access data sets and the BI platform is not the place to do that. It's not a database...

With kind regards,

Martijn

[Former Member]

Hallo Martijn,

thx for the great article! We are running a BI 4 platform but do not have an SAP HANA installation.

Can you confirm, that it is not possible to use the Lumira add-on to the BI platform without SAP HANA??

Thx, Christian

[Former Member]

Hi Christian,

Great to hear you liked the article! I have to confirm indeed that the Lumira add-on to the BI platform can only be used if you have a HANA installation. Good news however is that this license to run HANA as part of the BI suite is now included. So if you purchase a certified appliance or virtualize one you can use it. More information can be found in this article: HOT NEWS: Free HANA for BI Suite? 11 initial questions&amp;hellip; and answers. | Andy Steer | Linke...

If you want more information please contact me directly!

With kind regards,

Martijn

[Former Member]

Martijn, This is very good article.

What I understand is without HANA installation we cannot deploy Lumira add-on to the BI-Platform. Is there any additional license required to install Lumira add-on?

Kind regards,

Hari

[Former Member]

Hi Hari,

Thanks for the compliment!

I'm not fully aware which license on the BI platform side is required to run the Lumira add-on. You have to contact your reseller or SAP account manager for that.

Some news has been shared last week that SAP is working on storing data sets on the BI platform as well so there is no need from a technical point of view to run SAP HANA. What obviously remains is that running Lumira without HANA might not provided the responsiveness needed with large amounts of data.

With kind regards,

Martijn

[Former Member]

This is indeed an excellent article and, as far as I can tell, most of it has been directly converted into the official SAP documentation, so congratulations.

We are now in the process of installing a test/demo environment for Lumira Server and Lumira Add-on on a showcase BI platform we have but we cannot make the Lumira client publish datasets to the BI platform. We get an error message back saying "Unable to retrieve datasets. Error retrieving dataset information from SAP BI Repository: {0} {HDB 05412}". Everything has been installed and configured according to the documentation and connectivity between the BI platform and HANA servers has been verfied. The only small difference with respect to the manual is that the extension to wacshttpconfig.xshttpdest was not created under sap/bi/content as recommended but under an initial dataset that was loaded for that purposes. Do you think this could be causing the error? Is there a way to remove the file extension and create a new one in the right place? I couldn't find one.

Thanks in advance for your input.

Best regards.

Antoni.

[Former Member]

Hi Antoni,

I believe that this might cause your issue. It has been a while but I remember I read something related to this. You can remove the file in the 'dataset' package via the SAP HANA Studio via the Development view. After that you can create an new extension under the correct package. Please let me know if this resolves the issue!

With kind regards,

Martijn van Foeken | Intenzz

[Former Member]

Thank you Martijn,

There is indeed a strange situation with this file. If I try to follow your procedure to delete it, it fails. In the job log I see this:

Message :

  Repository: Object not found in repository database;object can't be deleted because it does not exist

But the object remains visible in the explorer window and if I log into the XS Admin tool, the file is indeed there.

Any ideas?

Best regards,

Antoni.

UPDATE: I managed to brute force delete the extension by running

delete from "_SYS_REPO"."ACTIVE_OBJECT" where "PACKAGE_ID" like '%Lumira%'

But now if I try to extend the file again I get:

Error while creating HTTP Destination : Found a reference from object sap.bi.content/wacshttpconfig.xshttpdest to an object Lumiradataset/wacshttpconfig.xshttpdest.xshttpdest. The target object does not exist in the repository. An error occurred during activation of sap.bi.content/wacshttpconfig : Validation error: Value of variable "port" is not or only partly set.; row: 0 column: 0

Wed, 26 Nov 2014 06:48:27 GMT

I am afraid there will be no choice but to recreate this system from scratch, right? It's a test system on a VM so it is not too much of a pain, just an inconvenience.

Thanks for all your insight.

[Former Member]

Hi Antoni,

Yes. It is better to rebuild the system again. I know it is very painful task for you.

With regards,

Hari

[Former Member]

Hi Martijn

This is a great article for me to install BIP add-on.

However, I meet an error message when I want to publush the file to BI server.

It is about fail for Lumira load refresh service when publish to BI server.
I check th properties for lumira sever in CMC, it mentioned the " this service did not start".

Do I miss somting during the installtion?

Thank you for your help and great article.

Regards,

Willy

[BillyJoe]

Hi Martijn,

I have a 3 tier landscape:

• machine1 for BIP without Tomcat/Apache
• machine only for Tomcat/Apache
• and machine3 for Sybase Ase as db

I could successfully install the lumira addon on the BIP machine1.

But do I need to deploy any war files on the machine2 where Apache/Tomcat is installed?

I am getting the following message after the installation:

"java Web applications and web services are not deployed to a Web Application server. Run the WDeploy tool to deploy Java Web applications and Web Services."

Thank you

Babacar

[Former Member]

Hi Willy,

Thanks for the compliments! The Lumira Load Refresh Service handles data refreshes when the source of your Lumira dataset is based on a universe. Do you see any other warnings when displaying the Lumira add-on service in the CMC. Can you attach a screenshot?

With kind regards,

Martijn

[Former Member]

Hi Babacar,

I'm not sure, but there is more information in the Installation Guide regarding 'Complex deployments'. I suspect you need to install and deploy the Lumira add-on web tier to your 'machine2'.

With kind regards,

Martijn

[Former Member]

Hi Martijn

Thank you for the reply. We already try reinstall the Lumira Bi-add on and it works.

I suggest one point is that the requirement of installation is UAFL in new version of Lumira Bi-add,not AFL.    

here is the support matrix URL

SAP Lumira Family Supported Versions Matrix

We need to focus on this when you install the newer version of Lumira Bi-add on.

Thank you!

Regards,

Willy

[BillyJoe]

You are right Martijn!

Actually I installed the addon on the web tier and during the installation it automatically knows which components to install (when you are using Tomcat/Apache).

Thank you and regards,

Babacar

[Former Member]

Hi Willy,

Great to hear that it works! SAP did change some stuff regarding the AFL.

With kind regards,

Martijn

[timkorba]

Martijn,

Does the Lumira Storyboard have to be on top of a BOBJ universe in order to publish to BI Launchpad.  I am able to publish both types (one against universe and one directly against HANA View) but when I run the HANA view it states it isn't supported?  Let me know your thoughts on this.

Tim

[AlexeiGuliaev]

Hello Tim,

HANA Online scenario is not currently supported in Lumira Server for BI Platform as per User Guide (page 5)

http://help.sap.com/businessobject/product_guides/lumS4BIP1/en/lumS4BIP_127_user_en.pdf

We can also expect this functionality in the future as per PAM (page 28):

https://websmp210.sap-ag.de/~sapidb/011000358700000212382013E.pdf

Kind regards,

Alexei