© 2011 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved. Compatability requirements and sizing...

© 2011 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved.

Compatability requirements and sizing your BusinessObjects landscape

Dr. BergComerit Inc.

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This Session• This session explores important system sizing concepts for performance

• We look a five real-world sizing examples

• We will analyze some of the factors that could influence your sizing and scaling decisions.

• Look at in-memory processing options with HANA and BWA

• You will get details how to do a sizing for your dashboards and software configuration

• Take-home resource: a T-Shirt sizing model you can adapt to your requirements

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What We’ll Cover …

• Background • The Components of the Landscape• Real-Word Examples• The SAP Xcelsisus Sizing Components• The T-Shirt Sizing Model• In-Memory Performance Options• High volume User Management and Access Control • Wrap-up

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The Components of BI 4.0

The complete components of the BI landscape consists of a variety of software.

Each of these components have their own requirements

Many customers will connect their dashboards directly and will not use

BO 4.0 as their deployment method

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The NetWeaver Version Requirements for Analysis BICS connections

There are several version possibilities to take advantage of the BICS connectors for OLAP - Analysis. Make sure your BW system is at a minimum level.

Before you start, make sure your SAP BW system is at least on one of these options: BW 7.0 ServicePack 23 BW 7.0 Ehpk 1, ServicePack 5 BW 7.3 , Any ServicePack

BICS connectors are 20-40% faster than MDX based OLAP Universes, so

this interface is what you really want to make your BI 4.0 really fast

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Hardware BI 4.0 Server Side Requirements

From a Server sizing perspective you need:

Minimum CPU POWER5 (IBM-AIX) UltraSPRACT24 (Sun) 2.0 GHz Intel Core CPU (Windows & Linux); Compiled files

using Windows, can use CPUs from both Intel and AMD.

Minimum Memory of ServerMin of 4.0 GB Memory (more based on number of users)

Minimum Disk Space: If you only install English: 11 GB Windows; 13 GB AIX/Solaris; and 14 GB for Linux

If you install all languages: 14 GB Windows; 15 GB AIX/Solaris; and 16 GB for Linux

This is where sizing the environment really matters.

We will come back with some sizing guidelines later, but these

are minimum requirements

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Operating System BI 4.0 Server Side Requirements

From an OS on the Server side, the following versions are supported

All server components only support 64-bit operating systems

The Mobile Server is currently only supported on Windows operating systems

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Data Base Server Options

Microsoft SQL Server Express 2008 is included with BI 4.0, but you may also use databases from Oracle, Sybase or IBM.The database is used for storing CMS and the audit repository of BI.

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

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Application Server Requirements

The Application server handles the logic of BI 4.0 and can run on a variety of hardware. The core supported application servers include:

Sizing the application server is part of the BI 4.0 sizing and has changed to be based on SAPS instead of CPU and Memory (as we did in XI 3.x).

Note: AIX supports WebLogic Servers with Java 5.

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Web Portal Requirements - BI 4.0 SP1

The web rendering occurs through a web portal. You can use WebLogic, WebSphere or the standard SAP Enterprise Portal

There are many severs and components to consider. Sizing each component is critical to overall solid performance.

All major operating systems are supported for the web portal

Source: SDN: SF. Gonzales, 2011

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PC Hardware Requirements Client Side BI 4.0

From a PC client perspective you need:

MemoryMin of 1.0 GB Memory (really want more in practice)I recommend: 2.0 GB (or more if you can afford it)

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

Screen SizeRecommended resolution size is

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

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Operating System - Client Side Requirements BI 4.0

Most Windows Operating systems are supported by BI 4.0 at the client side.

Mac OS/X is currently not supported for other than the Crystal report viewer

While all desktop components of BI 4.0 are 32-bit, you can use either 32-bit of 64 bit operating systems

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Web Browser Requirements

There are several different browser requirements for WebIntelligence and Analysis, this list is specifically for dashbords. Please consult other products for their browser requirements.

Quick rule: when in doubt, go for the higher versions (IE 8 or Firefox 3.6). Also only 32-bit browsers are supported.

The Apple Safari Browser 4.0 is

supported only by the Mac OS X

operating system

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Other Software Requirements

To run the system correctly, there are several components needed on the client side. The use of these depends on the software deployed. These is required:

To use the enterprise monitoring feature of BI 4.0, you need Flash version 10.

SAP will no longer support Windows XP in the next 4.1 release.

Office 2010 is now also Supported!!

Some have reported issues with large flash files. For example: Flash v10.1 seems to be stuck in 'initializing' phase when files are over 2MB. This seems to less of an issue for

smaller files and many have reported no significant issues in version 10

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Real-Word Examples

Since most client has only started to test BI 4.0, so the numbers below are for planned rollouts for five companies that have installed BI 4.0 on their hardware platforms and have a go-live this fall. Performance numbers are based on initial testing and limited rollouts.

PortalManufacturing

CompanyAirline

Pharma distributor

Paper company Defense company

BW Version 7.0 Enpk 1 7.0 Enpk 1 7.0 7.0 Enpk 1 7.0 Enpk 1Named Users (#) ~175 ~30 168 42 -Concurrent Users (#) 5-8 6-10 26 11 -Simultaneous Requests (#) 5-10 4-10 4-20 3-8 -Named Users (#) - - - ~30 ~100Concurrent Users (#) - - - 7 14-15Simultaneous Requests (#) - - - 2-3 7-10Named Users (#) 40 84 - ~30 ~1800Concurrent Users (#) 6 22 - 7 ~80-100Simultaneous Requests (#) 4-5 5-15 - 2-3 20-50Server Memory 8 GB 4 GB 8 GB 8 GB 16 GBServer Disk 100 GB 75 GB 100 GB 50 GB 150 GBPC Memory (standard) 2 GB 2 GB 2 GB 1 GB 2-4 GB

PC CPUs (standard)2.33 GHz

(dual core)2.0 GHz

2.0 GHz (dual core)

1.8 GHz (single core)

2.0 GHz (dual/quad core)

Portal version WebSphere SAP v7 SAP v7 SAP v7 SAP v7Server Operating System AIX Win 2008 Win 2008 Win 2008 Win 2008Flash version 9 10 10 9 10Database Version SQL express SQL express SQL express SQL SQL expressPerformance overall (1-10) 9 8 9 7 8

Dashboards

Analysis

WebI

Hardware

Other

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Key Factors that Determines Performance of your Dashboard• Some of the servers:

CMS Repository database (minor impact to sizing) File Repository Servers (FRS) Adaptive Processing Server (APS) Page server (CR) and Cache servers (Web Intelligence Processing Servers & other tools)

Source: SAP AG 2011

Examples are including BI 4.x server

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More Key Factors that Determines Dashboard Performance

• Concurrent number of users during peak load times of system

• Logical design of dashboards Simple, complex, and incredible complex Number of records retrieved by the

dashboards

• Number of nodes in the cluster (BI 4.0). This is uses for spreading service loads on multiple nodes.

• Number of CPUs and Available Memory of each server

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The SAP BI Scalability

BI is highly scalable.

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

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

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The T-Shirt Sizing Model• Calculating the BI 4.0 tier memory is somewhat more complicated. We recommend 4GB per core as the BI 4.0 platform is native 64 bit. Using the information above, 36 GB is the recommended amount. The memory for the Backend tier is largely dependent on the size of the EDW. You should involve your DBA in calculating the Backend memory.

PS! Many customers will connect their dashbaords directly and will therefore not use BO 4.0 as their deployment method (they can still

link to them in BI 4.0 through a web page).

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Concurrent Vs. Named Users

• SAP has new terminology in their sizing: Power Users is called "expert user" Casual User are called "information consumers" Executives are still called "executive user".

• The load on the system depends on the user type. I.e., an information consumer user have typically 20% the number of reloads and navigations of an Expert User (trips back to the backend server)

• The system sizing depends on the number of concurrent users. For load testing and sizing we assume a max load of

20% of named users

For stress testing we may test at 40% load of the named users. Many do this to see how the system reacts, but do not actually size their system to handle this (cost issue)

I recommend using a 40% sizing number if the

dashboards are externally facing and poor

performance may reflect negatively on the company

image and service levels

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The T-Shirt Sizing Model

• SAPS is a 'unified' measure of system performance.• It allows hardware vendors to benchmark what is needed to support a

SAP system.• All hardware vendors are familiar with this benchmark.

Size Concurrent Users

Named Users**

Front-End (SAPS)

Backend-End (SAPS)

Front-End (Memory - GB)

Backend-End (Memory GB)

Small (S) 25 125 3,620 1,690 8 8

Medium (M) 50 250 7,230 3,380 16 8

Large (L) 100 500 14,460 5,070 24 16

Extra Large (XL) 150 750 21,690 8,440 36 16* For systems with more than 150 concurrent users, a dedicated architecture should be built** Assumes 20% concurrent users

SAP references 'named users' between 10-20%, so a small system (s) can handle between 125 to 250 users

depending on load. I recommend using the lower number.

Source: Jason DeMelo, SAP AG

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Why In-memory processing?

• Disk speed is growing slower than all other hardware components

In-memory data stores

Multi-channel UI, high event volume, cross industry value

chains

Application-aware and

intelligent data management

Disk-based data storage

Simple consumption of apps (fat client

UI, EDI)

General-purpose,

application-agnostic database

1990 2011

Architectural Drivers Improvement20111990

216 Addressable

Memory

3508x70.15MB/$

0.02MB/$

Memory

5823x291.17MIPS/$

0.05MIPS/$

CPU

Technology Drivers

702MBPS

5MBPS

Disk

Data Transfer

140x

1000 x100Gbps

100Mbps

Network Speed

264 248x

Source: 1990 numbers SAP AG 2011 numbers, Dr. Berg

Physical hard drive speeds only grew by 140 times since 1990. All other hardware components grew faster.

In Memory Processing - General Highlights - BWA

SAP BW

InfoCubes

DSOs

1. Indexing and compression stored on a file system

2. Indexes copied into RAM on blades

BI Analytical Engine

3. Queries are routed to BWA by the Analytical engine

User expectations have changed in the last 2-3 years.

Today, dashboard users tends to spend less than 14-20 seconds before clicking the back button, refresh, or abandoning the site.

In-memory processing of the data fetches can significantly improve the performance.

In Memory Processing - Creating Indexes from external data

If you need to get external data into your dashboards, it is tempting to simply load it into a spreadsheet.

However, this create significantly more manual steps to maintain the solution.

A better way may be to include Data Services in the landscape and move the data directly into memory and query the data from there.

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HANA - How is it Evolving?

Hana is available as version 1.0 and can only replicate data from ECC to an in-memory platform. However, in ServicePack 3, HANA will be able to do the same for BW data. This was formerly known as HANA v 1.5).

The long-term idea with HANA is to replace the databases under BW and ECC with in-memory processing databases, instead of traditional relational databases.

This means much faster query response time and more compressed data (smaller database).

But for now, BWA is for BI data and HANA is for in-memory operational reporting.

Vs.

FYI: More on in-memory

options tomorrow

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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

Only in rare cases should you use a big-bang approach. Since user patterns are hard to predict,

this may cause significant performance issues.

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Current Resources

• Creating Dashboards with Xcelsius: Practical Guide by Evan Delodder and Ray Li (SAP PRESS)

• SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards 4.0 Cookbook by David Lai and Xavier Hacking (Packt Publishing)

• Xelcisus Forum on SDN http://forums.sdn.sap.com/forum.jspa?forumID=302

• Xelcisus Tutorials on SDN http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/boc/dashboards-elearning

• SAP MarketPlace for Sizing guidelines

• BusinessObjects Expert (on-line magazine and web site) businessobjectsexpert.wispubs.com

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7 Key Points to Take Home• There are many areas to performance tune - look at all

• Size your system based on concurrent users and SAPS

• Use the SAP system guides on marketplace, but plan to operate your system at max. 70% load for 'spare capacity'

• Keep the BI 4.0 environment on a separate stack from BW

• Give the system its own Java install (do not share with other components)

• 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.

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Your Turn!

How to contact me:Dr. Berg

[email protected]

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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.

© 2011 Wellesley Information Services. All rights reserved. Compatability requirements and sizing...

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