© 2012 wellesley information services. all rights reserved. correctly sizing your landscape for...

© 2012 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

Correctly Sizing Your Landscape for Scalable, High-Performing Dashboards

Dr. Bjarne BergComerit

© SAP AG 2009 / 2

Deployment,Testing & Change

Management

Best-in-Class Dashboards

Performance & Security

Options & Prototyping

• Scoping vs. requirements gathering • KPI definitions• Required skills and resources• Data connectivity deep dive• Key criteria to retrieve data sets

• Dashboards vs. reports• Answers to dashboard FAQs• SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

4.0 overview• Product updates and

implementation criteria• Recent changes to dashboard

terms

• Key dashboard roll-out decisions• Mobilizing your dashboard• Support organization• Volume, stress, and UAT• Training and change management

Day 1

Day

3

Seminar Roadmap

Landscape, Connectivity &

Sizing• Hands-on lab: Build a dashboard

with BOBJ Dashboards 4.0• Sizing and scaling recommendations• User management and access

control• SAP NetWeaver® BW

Accelerator and SAP HANA

• Hands-on lab: Advanced techniques• Web service integration and Adobe

Flex Builder• Panel discussion: Dashboard Projects

•Ownership and branding•Post-production changes

1

78

9

10

12 2

Customization, Branding & Governance

Day 2

• Common causes of poor dashboard performance

• Effective performance testing• Performance-enhancing design

techniques• Preventing unauthorized access

to dashboards• Password protection

and SSO

14

13

11

5

3

We are here

4

6

3

In This Session …

• We’ll start by doing a step-by-step sizing effort of a dashboard project and look at five real-world sizing examples

• Then we will conduct a structured walkthrough of compatible and required software components

• We’ll end by taking a quick peek at dashboard performance options with in-memory processing from SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator and SAP HANA

What We’ll Cover …

• Sizing environment for SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 and SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

• Core components of SAP BusinessObjects Dashboard and SAP BusinessObjects BI

• Compatibility requirements• In-memory performance options• Wrap-up

4

The Sizing Tool — Getting Started

SAP has provided a sizing tool for the SAP BusinessObjects BI environments. It is based on Flash and is actually a dashboard itself.

Download it: www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/1055c550-ce45-2f10-22ad-a6050fff97f1

5

This tool can help you size your SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 environments with a few key assumptions and inputs

Output Area (Sizing Results)

Input Areas (items and users)

The Sizing Tool — Entering Users

First, you have to enter the estimated Active Concurrent Users (ACU) for the following user types:• Information

Consumers • Business Users • Expert Users

6

The Sizing Tool — Online Help User Definitions

The tool provides online definitions of the user types and guidelines on how to determine Active Concurrent Users (ACU). This is defined as approximately 10% of the active users.

7

Many dashboard users in large organizations may be classified as Information Consumers. They may not wait five minutes between clicks, but typically do little drill down and filtering.

8

The Sizing Tool — Assumptions

• The next step is to make an assumption on size of the dashboards • The sizing tool classifies small dashboards as having 25 rows in

the result set; medium having 250; and large dashboards having 2,500 rows

Assumptions: The tool was based on supporting two queries per dashboard and benchmarked for accessing two relational data sources — One with 6 dimensions with 77,000 entries and 400,000 line items, and one with 6 dimensions with 7,000 rows and 40,000 line items

The Sizing Tool — Output

The output of the tool is measured in SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS). 100 SAPS is defined as 2,000 fully business-processed order line items per hour.

It is a measure that hardware vendors can use to decide which of their configurations can meet your performance requirements. All hardware vendors are familiar with this measure and this is what you will provide them when requesting a hardware quote. 9

The Sizing Tool — Memory Requirements

10

The sizing tool also provides a sizing estimate for the hardware memory required for each of the tiers. This is measured in Gigabytes.

The Sizing Tool — Terminology

If you get stuck on the terminology used in SAP sizing and performance benchmarking, there is a link to the SAP benchmark glossary in the tool

11

There are also performance benchmark and installation guides available on the SAP Service Marketplace for individual software components

The Sizing Tool — Saving Your Sizing Example

12

Your BI and dashboard sizing effort can be saved or printed from the tool and you can have many scenarios

The Sizing Tool — Demo

13

The Sizing Tool — Companion Guide

• With the BI sizing tool, there is also a sizing companion guide written by Jason DeMelo

• This document explains how each tool was benchmarked and the assumptions made when building the sizing tool

• You can download it from: https://service.sap.com/~sapdownload/

011000358700000307202011E/SBO_BI_4_0_Companion_V4.pdf

Requires login credentials for the SAP Service Marketplace

14

Involve your basis team in the sizing effort and also make sure that the assumptions you made are realistic from a functional standpoint (i.e., how complex and intensive are your dashboards)

PC Hardware Requirements for Client Side: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0

• From a PC client perspective you need:

Memory Minimum of 2.0GB memory

(really want more in practice) I recommend 4.0GB (or more if you can afford it)

Processor Minimum of 2.0 GHz core (more cores the better)

Disk Space Min of 3.5GB free space if you only install English Min of 7.5GB free space if you install all languages

Screen Size Recommended resolution size is

15

Make sure you build dashboards on a standardized screen resolution and size so that everyone sees the same images

Real-World Examples

16

Tool AreaManufacturing

CompanyAirline

Pharma distributor

Paper company

Retailer

SAP BW BW Version 7.3 7.3 7.0 Enpk 1 7.3 7.0 Enpk 1Named Users (#) 192 503 168 109 309Concurrent Users (#) 7-8 30-35 26 11-14 22Simultaneous Requests (#) 5-10 4-10 4-20 3-8 5-15Named Users (#) - - - 63 46Concurrent Users (#) - - - 7 6-8Simultaneous Requests (#) - - - 2-3 7-10Named Users (#) 45 84 - ~30 1604Concurrent Users (#) 6 22 - 7 60-70Simultaneous Requests (#) 4-5 5-15 - 2-3 18-40Server Memory 16 GB 16 GB 8 GB 8 GB 32 GBServer Disk 100 GB 95 GB 120 GB 70 GB 230GBPC Memory (standard) 4 GB 2 GB 2 GB 4 GB 4 GB

PC CPUs (standard)2.33 GHz

(dual core)2.0 GHz

2.0 GHz (dual core)

2.3 GHz (dual core)

2.3 GHz (dual/quad core)

Portal version WebSphere SAP SAP SAP SharePointServer Operating System AIX Win 2008 Win 2008 Win 2008 Win 2008Flash version 11 11 10 11 11Database Version SQL express SQL express SQL express SQL SQL

9 8 8 7 9

Dashboards

Analysis

WebI

Hardware

Performance overall (1-10) *Subjective

Other

These are real examples from companies that have been using SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 for at least six months





17

The Different Tiers in SAP BusinessObjects BI

• First we have the application tier. This includes theWeb Application Services such as the CentralManagement Console (CMC) and the BI Launch Pad. SAP recommends adding a Web application server for each 500

ACUs and that at least 5GB heap memory is assigned and 900 threads are configured

• The next is the intelligence or management tier. This includes the dashboard cache service, File Repository Service (FRS), and the CMS.• Only the first File Repository input and output service pair (FRS) to

register in the CMS is the active pair. If you add more FRSs, these are assumed to be passive backups for fault tolerance and failures.

• Lastly, we have the processing tier. This includes the Adaptive Job Service and the Processing Services for the various BI tools. • Each BI tool has different memory and processor requirements

18

The SAP BusinessObjects BI Scalability

19

SAP BusinessObjects BI is highly scalable

If you have a high number of users, you can split the application, processing, and intelligence layers on separate hardware servers

You can also horizontally partition the processing and intelligence layers on several servers

Tier Components for Processing

Tier Components for Intelligence

If you split the Web application components on multiple servers, make sure you also deploy a hardware load balancer

Dashboard Performance — Some Recommendations

• You can scale the number of instances based on the Active Concurrent Users (ACUs), and SAP has made some recommendations: The CMS can handle up to 500 ACUs per instance and you can

currently scale this to eight instances (will be increased in next release). You can add more CMSs if you see over 80% utilization of the CPUs.

The dashboard cache can handle up to 400 ACUs per instance and you can add as many instances you want (no limitations), but you are unlikely to need more than one.

The dashboard processing is normally one per machine with no limitations (the server automatically spawns and manages child processes). If you need more, add more instances.

20

More Key Factors That Determine Dashboard Performance

• Concurrent number of users during peak load times of system• Logical design of dashboards

Simple, complex, and incredibly complex Number of records retrieved by the dashboards

• Network capacity• Database speed of source data

• Number of instances This is used for spreading

service loads on multiple nodes • Number of CPUs and available

memory of each server

21

22





The Components of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0

23

The complete components of the BI landscape consist of a variety of software

Each of these components have their own requirements

We will now look at each of these components and their respective size and version requirements

Compatibility Operating Systems: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 Server Side

• All server components only support 64-bit operating systems. The mobile server is currently only supported on Windows operating systems.

• For others, the following versions are supported:

24

Oracle/Sun

AIX 5.3 Power - TL

9SP3

AIX 6 .1 Power -

TL5

AIX 7.1 Power -

TL1SP1

Server 2003/2003

R2 and 2008 R2

x64 - SP2

Server 2008 R2 x64 - SP1

Solaris 10 SPARC -

Suse SLES 10 x86_64 -

SP2*

Suse SLES 11 x86_64 -

*

Red Hat EL 5 x86_64 - Update 2*

Red Hat EL 6 x86_64 - Update 2*

Business Intelligence platformAnalysis, edition for OLAP

Explorer

Web Intelligence

Crystal Reports- Enterprise

Crystal Reports 2011 (*3)

Dashboards (Xcelsius)

Mobile Server (*4)

64-bit BI Server

Products

IBM Microsoft Linux

Compatibility: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 and Database Servers

• Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 is included with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0, but you may also use databases from SAP, Oracle, Sybase, IBM, and MySQL

• The database is used for storing CMS and the audit repository

25

Using the SQL Server database that comes bundled with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 may save you a lot of money

VendorMySQL

AB

DatabaseIBM DB2

Workgroup Edition

IBM DB2 HANA MaxDBSybase Adaptive

Server EnterpriseSybase SQL Anywhere

SQL Server

ExpressMySQL

Version11g -R1 and R2

10g -R2

9.79.7; 9.5 and 9.1

SP 3&4 7.715.7; 15.5

and 1512.0.1 2012

2008 SP2/3 & R2

2005 SP3/SP4

2008 5.1

AIX

Linux

Solaris

Windows

Oracle IBM SAP Microsoft

Oracle DB SQL Server

Compatibility: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 and Application Servers

Sizing the application server is based on SAP Application Performance Standard (SAPS) instead of CPU and Memory

Note: WebSphere uses IBM Java SDK for all operating systems and v6 is not supported for Analysis, OLAP edition

AIX Linux Solaris Windows

Application Server Version Java Version IBM Java Sun JDK Sun JDK Sun JDK

Tomcat 6.0.20 and 7.0 Java 6

JBoss App. Server 5.0 and 5.1 Java 5 / Java 6

Java 5

JRockit 5.0

Java 6

JRockit 6.0

Java 6

JRockit 6.0

6.1.0.7* Java 5*

7.0.0.11 Java 6*

SAP NW CE 7.2 SP3 SAP JVM 1.6

SAP NW JAS 7.3 SAP JVM 1.6

10.3WebLogic

10.3.3, 10.3.4*, 10.3.5*, 10.3.6

WebSphere

Supported Java Application Servers

10

• The application server handles the logic of SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.x and can run on a variety of hardware

• The supported Java application servers include:

27

Hardware: Server-Side Requirements

• From a server sizing perspective, you need:

Minimum CPU 4 x 2.0 GHz Core CPU

Minimum Memory of Server Min of 8.0GB memory – 16GB

recommended (but more based on number of users)

Minimum Disk Space If you only install English: 11GB Windows; 13GB AIX/Solaris;

and 14GB for Linux If you install all languages: 14GB Windows; 15GB AIX/Solaris;

and 16GB for Linux

Compatibility: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 and Web Portals

• The Web Portal supported by SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 is extensive and covers all major portal servers and their latest versions

28

Note: Microsoft’s SharePoint portal product only runs on the Windows operating system

Sever Version2010200776.1.56.17.37.010.3.4*10.3.210.310

* as part of 10.3.2

MS SharePoint (.NET 3.5)

IBM Websphere

SAP NW Enterprise Portal

Oracle WebLogic

Supported Web Portal Servers AIX Linux Solaris Windows

29

Compatibility: SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 and Clients

• Most Windows operating systems are supported bySAP BusinessObjects BI 4.x at the client side

• All desktop components of SAP BusinessObjectsBI 4.x are 32-bit

Mac OS X is currently not supported except for the SAP Crystal Reports Viewer

Mac

Mac OS XWindows XP Prof. (SP3)

Windows Vista (SP2)

Windows 7 (SP1)

Server 2003 & 2003 R2 (SP2)

Server 2008 (SP2) & 2008 R2

(SP1)Dashboards (Xcelsius)

Web Intelligence Rich Client

Crystal Reports for Enterprise

Crystal Reports 2011

Crystal Reports Viewer 2011

Crystal Presentation Design

BI Client Tools – Client Components

Live Office

32-bit BI Desktop Products

ServersDesktop

Compatibility: BI 4.0 and Web Browsers

• There are various browser and Java requirementsfor SAP BusinessObjects BI depending on the typeof operating system you are using

30

• The Safari browser 5.1 is supported only by the Mac OS X operating system• Internet Explorer 8/9 standards mode is currently not supported by BI Launch Pad • For Firefox usage, you need the Extended Support Release (ESR)

Mac

Mac OS XWindows

XP Windows

VistaWindows

7Server 2003 &

2003 R2Server 2008

(SP2) & 2008 R2

Safari 5.1 (Apple 1.6)

Firefox 10* (JRE 1.6)

Internet Explorer 7 (JRE 1.5/1.6 for WebI)

Internet Explorer 8* (JRE 1.6)

Internet Explorer 9* (JRE 1.6)

Supported Browsers and Java Versions

Desktop Servers

PS: On server side, IIS is supported as Integration option in MS SharePoint V6 for Server 2003V7 for Server 2008V7.5 for Server 2008 R2

Other Software Requirements

• To run the system correctly, there are several components needed on the client side

31

• While SAP BusinessObjects Explorer requires at least Flash player 10.1, there have been some issues with large Flash files in SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

• For example: Flash v10.1 seems to be stuck in “initializing” phase when files are over 2MB. This seems to be less of an issue for smaller files and we have seen no significant issues in version 11.

Windows Mac OS

Microsoft Office 2010

Microsoft Office 2007 SP2

Microsoft Office 2003 SP3

Adobe Reader 10.0

Adobe Reader 9.3.x / 9.4.x

Adobe Reader 9.0

Adobe Flash Player 11

Adobe Flash Player 10

Software and Version

Product Connection BW 7.30 SPS 03+

BW 7.02 SPS 02+

BW 7.01 SPS 08+

BW 7.01 SPS 06+

DashboardsWeb IntelligenceCrystal Reports for EnterpriseDashboards BICS (NW BI Java)Analysis, edition for OLAP BICSDashboardsWeb IntelligenceCrystal Reports EnterpriseExplorerWeb IntelligenceLive Offi ceBEx Web Applications Integrated with BI 4Explorer BWA / HANACrystal Reports for Enterprise D2DCrystal Reports 2011 Directly to BW

BICS (transient universe)

OLAP Universe (MDX)

Multi source universe(SQL)

Compatibility — Connections to SAP NetWeaver BW

• There are many ways to connect the BI tools to anunderlying SAP NetWeaver BW system

• The following SAP NetWeaver BW versions aresupported with SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0:

32

Dashboards can also be built on SAP NetWeaver BW systems on SAP HANA through a relational universe if you have applied SAP HANA service pack 3 or 4





33

Why In-Memory Processing?

Focus

Improvement20121990

216 Addressable

Memory

3508x79.15MB/$

0.02MB/$

Memory

6083x304.17MIPS/$

0.05MIPS/$

CPU

Technology

702MBPS

5MBPS

Disk

Data Transfer

140x

1000 x100Gbps

100Mbps

Network Speed

264 248x

Source: 1990 numbers SAP AG, 2012 numbers, Dr. Berg

Disk speed is growing slower than all other hardware components, while the need for speed is increasing

Source: BI Survey of 534 BI professionals, InformationWeek,

34

In-Memory Processing — SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator (BWA)

SAP NetWeaver BW Accelerator is a tool that has been available for almost six years and is being used by hundreds of companies

It can load data in-memory from SAP and non-SAP sources and you can build dashboards on the data using standard BEx queries and BICS connections (as covered earlier)

35

An Example of an SAP HANA System We Installed Recently

• The long-term idea with SAP HANA is to replace the databases under SAP NetWeaver BW and SAP ERP with in-memory processing databases, instead of traditional relational databases. This means much faster query response time and a smaller database.

SAP HANA is an appliance that can be implemented fast, is cost effective, and can super-charge the data delivery and calculations in your dashboards!

SAP HANA is an appliance that can be implemented fast, is cost effective, and can super-charge the data delivery and calculations in your dashboards!

36

Looking Inside SAP HANA — In-Memory Computing Engine

BusinessObjects Data ServicesWe can also move the whole database that has the source data for your dashboards to the in-memory platform of SAP HANA. This makes the system much faster! (SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards can consume data from SAP HANA right now)

We can also move the whole database that has the source data for your dashboards to the in-memory platform of SAP HANA. This makes the system much faster! (SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards can consume data from SAP HANA right now)

Vs.

Disk Storage

Data

Volumes

Log

Volumes

Metadata

Manager

Authorization

Manager

Transaction

Manager

Relational Engine

-Row Store-Column Store

Load

Controller

SQL Script

Calculation

Engine

Replication Server

SQL Parser

MDX

Session Manager





38

High-Volume User Management and Access Control

• Plan for a gradual rollout to a limited number of users• Keep the numbers comparable, if possible

This will allow you to predict system loads and performance issues by stipulations from real performance data I.e., roll out to 50 users each week

• Simplified versions of high-impact dashboards may be created for casual users I.e., a dashboard with only one query and summarized data with

limited navigation and passing of variables• Create a hardware contingency plan and budget

accordingly

39

Only in rare cases should you use a big-bang approach. Since user patterns are hard to predict, this may cause significant performance issues.

40

Where to Find More Information

• SAP Sizing tool www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/index?rid=/library/uuid/1055c550-

ce45-2f10-22ad-a6050fff97f1• Evan Delodder and Ray Li, Creating Dashboards with Xcelsius:

Practical Guide, (SAP PRESS, 1st Edition; 1st New Edition, 2010). • David Lai and Xavier Hacking, SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards

4.0 Cookbook, (Packt Publishing, 2011).• Dashboard and Presentation Designer (Xcelsius) forum on SDN

http://forums.sdn.sap.com/forum.jspa?forumID=302• SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.x tutorials on SDN

www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/dashboards-elearning

41

7 Key Points to Take Home

• Use the SAP Sizing tool for initial sizing estimates• Size your system based on concurrent users and SAPS• Use realistic data volumes, users, and dashboard complexity in

your assumptions• Use the SAP system guides on the SAP Service Marketplace, but

plan to operate your system at max. 70% load for “spare capacity”• Keep the SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.0 environment on a separate

stack from SAP NetWeaver BW• Make sure the PCs have enough memory • Examine the “standard” PC of the users and developers; pay

attention to connectivity, screen size and resolutions, CPUs, and all software release versions to assure compatibility

Your Turn!

42

How to contact me:Dr. Bjarne Berg

[email protected]

Disclaimer

SAP, R/3, mySAP, mySAP.com, SAP NetWeaver®, Duet®, PartnerEdge, and other SAP products and services mentioned herein as well as their respective logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries all over the world. All other product and service names mentioned are the trademarks of their respective companies. Wellesley Information Services is neither owned nor controlled by SAP.

43

© 2012 wellesley information services. all rights reserved. correctly sizing your landscape for...

Documents

dashboard users

sizing tool assumptions

sap ag

started sap

dashboard performance

active users

cover sizing environment

stepbystep sizing effort