Starting with BIPST 2.1 Patch 4, you can now automate the Landscape Configuration setup programatically. This is especially useful for installer packages and OEM scenarios where you want a silent way to deploy the BIPST client. Setup Automation is supported for the BIPST client on both Windows and Linux hosts.
Overview:
The BIPST AutoConfig was designed to help decrease the time it takes to configure a new landscape. When you first launch BIPST on a new client, one of the first steps is to define a new BI landscape, add the web application servers as well as all corresponding JMX & SAP Host Agent settings. Although this task is still a requirement, you now have two options for configuring your new landscape.
- OPTION 1 : Use the BIPST user interface to manually configure the landscape as described on other pages throughout this guide.
This is suitable if you only plan on using BIPST on a single client and do not expect the need to setup your BI landscapes multiple times on different servers/ workstations. - OPTION 2 : Use the BIPST AutoConfig. This involves defining the landscape parameters once in a JSON input file. Once the file is created, it can then be used multiple times to silently configure BIPST on different hosts.
- OPTION 1 : Use the BIPST user interface to manually configure the landscape as described on other pages throughout this guide.
Use this option if you expect to run the BIPST client in multiple locations and want to connect to the same BI cluster(s) from each location. Or if you are an SAP partner and plan to bundle BIPST as part of your installation package, the AutoConfig option provides a way to silently configure the BI landscapes without the need to use the BIPST interface.
Important Notes:
- If you plan to use the SAP Host Agent with BIPST or would like to have BIPST extract data from Tomcat, it is required to configure the SAP Host Agent and JMX for Tomcat prior to running the BIPST AutoConfig. The BIPST AutoConfig will set the all values within the BIPST "Landscape Configuration" tab. It will not configure JMX on Tomcat or preinstall or configure the SAP Host Agent on the your BI or Tomcat server.
- If the landscape already exists (IE its already been defined either through the ui or a previous attempt in AutoConfig), the landscape definition will be overwritten with the new values as specified in the provided JSON file. The BI cluster name is used to differentiate your landscapes within BIPST.
- The input file can be given any name, but must use the .json file extension.
STEP #1 - Building the JSON Input File:
The JSON file is used as an input file when running BIPST in AutoConfig mode. It holds all of the landscape information needed to configure BIPST. The BIPST application will read from the JSON file and commit all of the corresponding values to the user's preferences.xml. There are two sample JSON files below. Click on either name to expand the contents. Use either file as a starting point and replace the field values with your own server info.
- landscape1.json - shows what the format would look like for a single server BI landscape with Tomcat running on the same host.
- landscape2.json - is an example of how to define multiple BI and Web Application nodes within the same landscape. In this example, there are 4 BI nodes and 2 Web Application nodes to show how the file structure can be expanded to match larger landscapes.
Use the JSON samples below to build your own file.
The following table describes each section in the JSON file.
| Field Name | Description |
|---|---|
| InstanceType | Defines the instance or node type as a BI node or a WebApplication node. Requires one of the following values: "BobjClient" or "TomcatClient" |
| Hostname | The hostname of the given server. |
| SHA_user | SAP Host Agent user name. In most cases this will be "sapadm". This field exists for both the BI node and WebApp node. |
| SHA_pwd | SAP Host Agent password. This field exists for both the BI node and WebApp node. |
| HTTP_port | The value representing the Tomcat listening port. |
| JMX_port | The value representing the JMX listening port. The JMX protocol allows remote monitoring and managing of Apache Tomcat. Refer here for steps to configure JMX on Windows, here for configuring on Linux. |
| JMX_user | If you've configured JMX authentication, this is the username defined in the jmxremote.access and jmxremote.password files. |
| JMX_pwd | If you've configured JMX authentication, this is the password string defined in the jmxremote.password file. |
| JMX_auth_required | Requires one of the following values: "true" or "false" |
| JMX_firewall_support | This should only be needed if you have a firewall blocking TCP ports between the BIPST client and the Apache Tomcat server. Requires one of the following values: "true" or "false". |
| JMX_rmiRegistryPortPlatform | When configuring JMX for firewall support, the value represents the rmiRegistryPortPlatform port set in the server.xml. This setting and "JMX_rmiServerPortPlatform" work together and are required if setting "JMX_firewall_support" to true. |
| JMX_rmiServerPortPlatform | When configuring JMX for firewall support, the value represents the rmiServerPortPlatform port set in the server.xml. This setting and "JMX_rmiRegistryPortPlatform" work together and are required if setting "JMX_firewall_support" to true. |
| BILaunchpad_LoggingDir | Local path on the WebApp host where the BILaunchpad traces are written. These logs are written to a folder with the name "SBOPWebapp_BIlaunchpad_<IP Address>_<Port Number>". This is used to gather trace logs by the E2E trace wizard. For Windows paths, the string must use double slashes. Example: C:\\folder\\folder More info on E2E and the logging paths can be found here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2418437 |
| Cmc_LoggingDir | Local path on the WebApp host where the CMC traces are written. These logs are written to a folder with the name "SBOPWebapp_CMC_<IP Address>_<Port Number>". This is used to gather trace logs by the E2E trace wizard. For Windows paths, the string must use double slashes. Example: C:\\folder\\folder More info on E2E and the logging paths can be found here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2418437 |
| OpenDoc_LoggingDir | Local path on the WebApp host where the OpenDoc traces are written. These logs are written to a folder with the name "SBOPWebapp_OpenDocument_<IP Address>_<Port Number>". This is used to gather trace logs by the E2E trace wizard. For Windows paths, the string must use double slashes. Example: C:\\folder\\folder More info on E2E and the logging paths can be found here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2418437 |
| Dswsbobje_LoggingDir | Local path on the WebApp host where the dswsbobje traces are written. These logs are written to a folder with the name "SBOPWebApp_ws_<IP Address>_<Port Number>". This is used to gather trace logs by the E2E trace wizard. For Windows paths, the string must use double slashes. Example: C:\\folder\\folder More info on E2E and the logging paths can be found here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2418437 |
| Explorer_LoggingDir | Local path on the WebApp host where the Explorer traces are written. This is used to gather trace logs by the E2E trace wizard. These logs are written to a folder with the name "SBOPWebApp_explorer_<IP Address>_<Port Number>". This is used to gather trace logs by the E2E trace wizard. For Windows paths, the string must use double slashes. Example: C:\\folder\\folder More info on E2E and the logging paths can be found here: https://launchpad.support.sap.com/#/notes/2418437 |
| BI_ver | Defines the BI version of the landscape. Requires one of the following values: "4.1" or "4.2" |
| BI_user | Username you use to log into BI. This should be a user with Administrative privileges. |
| BI_pwd | Password for the BI username represented by "BI_user". |
** All fields are mandatory and should exist within your JSON file. If you are not using the SAP Host Agent, set the corresponding "SHA_pwd" field(s) to an empty string.
STEP #2 - Executing BIPST in AutoConfig mode:
- Open a cmd window and navigate to the folder where BIPST was extracted
- Run the BISupportTool64.bat as seen below passing the json file you configured above as an input file.
C:\> cd C:\BIPST C:\BIPST> BISupportTool64.bat -autoconfig "C:\BIPST\landscape1.json"
Example of the AutoConfig command and output:
STEP #3 - Validating the results:
The easiest way to validate is to open the BIPST gui and verify the settings within the "Landscape Configuration" tab for the landscape you just configured.
- Check whether each WebApp and BI nodes were created.
- If you intended to configure the SAP Host Agent, verify that the username, password are both set and that the 'Verified' button is set.
- If you configured JMX for Tomcat, check each Tomcat node and make sure the corresponding values are set.
- Lastly, if you set the WebApp logging directories under your WebApp nodes, verify that the paths are set to the correct values under each WebApp node.
Troubleshooting:
If errors were caught during any part of the configuration, the following message will be displayed in the cmd window:
In order to identify which configuration step failed, you will need to enable BIPST tracing and rerun the AutoConfig command again. 99% of the time, the problem will be in one of two places.
- Either the json file is malformed or has an incorrect/ missing a value.
- Or a prerequisite (SAP Host Agent or JMX) hasn't been setup correctly on one of the servers prior to running the AutoConfig.
Once you've enabled tracing and rerun the AutoConfig, open the tracelog in your text editor and filter or search for the lines containing the text "[AutoConfig]" without the quotes. The results should look similar to the image below. Focus on any lines with an error, these have a column with "|E|". The text in the far right column will explain what failed.
In the example below, the SAP Host Agent wasn't properly configured prior to running the BIPST AutoConfig. The values specified in the JSON file were set correctly but it failed during the validation phase.
