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SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 SP07 (SAP BI 4.2 SP7) Released!

Patrick_Perrier
Contributor
‎2019 Mar 04 1:55 PM
41,744


Source: Webi4Me



Announcement:


SAP BusinessObjects 4.2 SP07 Released on


March 4th, 2019!


 

Here we go again!  I'm happy to announce today the latest Service Pack aka Support Package for SAP BI 4.2 - version 14.2.7.3069.

Released just a day late from the planned Maintenance Schedule.


Source: Maintenance Schedule




What was released?


The usual suspects were released for a fresh Installation or Support Package:

  • SBOP BI Platform 4.2 SP07 Server

  • SBOP BI Platform 4.2 SP07 Client Tools

  • SBOP BI Platform 4.2 SP07 Live Office

  • SBOP BI Platform 4.2 SP07 Integration for SharePoint

  • SBOP BI Platform 4.2 SP07 NET SDK Runtime


 

  • SAP BusinessObjects Dashboards (Xcelsius) 4.2 SP07

  • SAP BusinessObjects Explorer 4.2 SP07

  • SAP Crystal Server 2016 SP07

  • SBOP BI Platform 4.2 SP07 Crystal Reports for Enterprise

  • SAP Crystal Reports 2016 SP07


 

Previous SAP BI 4.2 Support Pack releases:


 

Download Location


These packages are available from Software Downloads:

  • Installation:



Download: link




  • Support Package:



Download: link


 

Installing / Upgrading - How did it go?



  • Fresh Install


Installing on my Microsoft Azure Cloud VM Type: Standard B4ms (4 vcpus, 16 GB memory) took 1h 20 minutes.




  • Upgrade


After downloading couple of files over 6GB+ in size, patching from SAP BI 4.2 SP06 to SP07 on my Amazon Web Services (AWS) Type: t2.xlarge (4 vcpus, 16 GB memory) took xyz minutes (in progress).


Note: Apache Tomcat was upgraded from version 8.5.13 to 8.5.32.


Note 1: I'll let you know soon how I did my full and automated regression testing using 360Bind.


 

What's New?


There is a lot of very good stuff released with Support Package 7 and the usual great blogs, videos, white papers, etc have been released already.

My favorites, everything for the Fiori BILaunchpad of course!

  • What’s New in Web Intelligence and Semantic Layer:


SAP BI 4x: What’s New in Web Intelligence and Semantic Layer by christian.ah-soon


SAP BI 4.2 SP7: What’s New In Web Intelligence and Semantic Layer by christian.ah-soon


Web Intelligence Requests Released in SAP BI 4.2 SP7 (SAP Influence web site)


Semantic Layer Requests Released in SAP BI 4.2 SP7 (SAP Influence web site)




  • What’s New in BIPlatform:


SAP BI 4.2 SP07 : What’s New in BIPlatform by ashok.rajashekar




  • Few webinars have made it out also:


What’s New in Web Intelligence and Semantic Layer by 360Suite and gregory.botticchio on YouTube


What's New in SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4 2 SP07 by 360Suite and Maheshwar Singh (SAP) on YouTube




  • More from SAP:


What's New




  • LinkedIn Community:


Webi4Me


 

Documentation


The usual documents have been made available on the SAP Help Portal:

  • Fixed Issues


Update 05/03/2017: Fixed Issues





  • SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 4.2 SP07 Installation Guide


Windows


Unix





  • More Documents


BI Platform (SAP Help Portal)


SAP Analytics (SAP Help Portal)


 

Product Availability Matrix (Supported Platform)


Release to Customer (RTC):13.11.2015


General Availability (GA):08.03.2016


End of Mainstream Maintenance:31.12.2022


End of Priority One Support Phase:31.12.2024




  • URLs:


SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.2 Supported Platforms (PAM)


Product Availability Matrix | SAP Support Portal




  • Main additions:


OS:


Windows Server 2019


Oracle Linux 7.5


AIX 7.2 TL2


Browsers:


Microsoft EdgeHTML 17.x


Mozilla Firefox ESR 60.X


Safari 12


CMS Repository+Audit DB:


Oracle 18c


MySQL AB 8.0


Relational Data Sources:


MySQL 8.0


Postgre SQL 10


OLAP Data Sources:


Microsoft MSAS (Analysis Services) 2017


HANA:


SAP BW/4 HANA 1.0 SP09


Important:

Expiry of SAP BI 4.1 (Mainstream Maintenance) on 31/12/2018 (PAM)

Also the expiry of SAP BI 4.2 SP04 in November 2018: BI 4.2 Support Pack End of Life Dates

 

Maintenance Schedule - What's Next?



  • SAP BI 4.2 SP06:


Week 4 (January): SAP BI 4.2 SP06 - Patch 5


Week 10 (March): SAP BI 4.2 SP06 - Patch 6


Week 16 (April): SAP BI 4.2 SP06 - Patch 7




  • SAP BI 4.2 SP07:


12.04.2019: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 1 (14.2.7.3116)


17.05.2019: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 2 (14.2.7.3130)


18.06.2019: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 3 (14.2.7.3168)


23.07.2019: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 4 (14.2.7.3200)


05.09.2019: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 5 (14.2.7.3248)


11.10.2019: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 6 (14.2.7.3285)


29.11.2019: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 7 (14.2.7.3334)


30.01.2020: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 8 (14.2.7.3399)


11.03.2020: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 9 (14.2.7.3437)


24.04.2020: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 10 (14.2.7.3487)


06.06.2020: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 11 (14.2.7.3536)


07.08.2020: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 12 (14.2.7.3592)


26.09.2020: SAP BI 4.2 SP07 Patch 13 (14.2.7.3644) (last one)


Source: Maintenance Schedule


 

What's Next... Next!?


Since it was announced at #SAPPHIRENOW and in my blog earlier in June 2018, not much has come out regarding SAP BI 4.3.

I had the chance to Test Drive the new SAP BI 4.3 Launchpad though back in November 2018 at the UKISUG!  Thanks again ashok.rajashekar 🙂

This is what we know about the roadmap so far:

SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.3:

Q4 2019: SAP BI 4.3 (RTC)


Q1 2020: SAP BI 4.2 (GA)



Source: SAP


 

Conclusion


Well... is this going to be the last service pack for SAP BI 4.2?  Maybe not.  But most probably the final one in terms of new features.  I hear the guys at SAP are hard working in SAP BI 4.3 obviously.

For me, I look forward to working more with the Fiori BILaunchpad enhancements.  I see more and more customers using it for their "less mature" BI users where basic self-service and all is required.  And visualisation improvements of course.

I'm glad to see the continuous investment in SAP BusinessObjects.  And finally some clarity on the roadmap.  Sure the future in the long run will be a cloud solution with SAC or else but while we're waiting for something that is a real replacement (or alternative), BOBJ will be there to support you until at least 2026!

Which is why I'm surprised to hear time and time again statements from companies thinking about  dropping BOBJ for other BI vendor(s).  BOBJ may not be the shiniest thing out there but it has a solid platform, arguably the best semantic layer (Universe) and analytics solutions (Webi, CR, AO, etc) which can more than "do the job" and dare I say, still compete.

Not even talking about the fact that major acquisition investment is done, and surely an annual maintenance is less than buying something new?

Never mind rebuilding everything and training your developers and end users!

And a bit of gray hair doesn't hurt 🙂

Anyway!  My thoughts!  Clearly biased as an ex BOBJ employee and been doing this for 20 years!

What do you think?  What are your plans?  Issues?  Experience?  Please do share!

Keep in Touch!


Hope this blog was useful.   Please do share your thoughts and comments.

Feel free to "like" and post it on social media!

Always happy to connect: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pperrier/

Take care... A+

 
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