"Are you BI Administrator managing the BI system undergone multiple updates having large history of minor release(s) or Service Pack(s) and/or Patch(es) and thinking how to get rid of these obsolete intermediate versions of the BI packages?"
"And having challenges manage the ever growing footprint (size on hard disk) of the BI deployment and observing update installations take longer time for the initial screen to launch?"
Then this blog is for you and you need to consider the "SAP BusinessObjects ONE Uninstaller" tool to overcome the above mentioned challenges.
Wondering what is this tool and how to use this, let's see what it is.
SAP BusinessObjects ONE Uninstaller is an interactive lightweight command line tool, written in java as an executable jar. Using this tool, you can optimize the footprint of BI packages installed in your BI system. This tool enables the removal of redundant/obsolete intermediate versions like Service Pack(s) and Patch(es) without following traditional uninstallation process.
So what are the Benefits of using this tool?
- Tool will free up the hard disk space drastically by removing the obsolete BI Package’s SP(s) and/or Patch(es).
- Future update installation launching will take comparatively less time, as the number of versions to be calculated will become less.
- Simple and elegant way to get rid of intermediate versions of BI Packages, where in which you do not need to uninstall and reinstall the latest version.
- Multiple intermediate versions of different packages of BI Suite in a BI System can be uninstalled in ONE go.
- Tool does not require any downtime of the BI system servers or services and applications.
Supported Scenarios and platforms:
- This tool can run on any BI 4.x system.
- Supported on all OS platforms, where the BI suite of packages is supported.
- This tool will consider BI platform add-ons SAP Lumira Server, SAP Analysis for Microsoft Office, SAP Data Services, SAP Information Steward and Explorer.
- This tool can also run on the system where only BI Suite Client tools packages like SAP BusinessObjects BI platform Client Tools and SAP Crystal Reports are installed.
- Tool can be executed with the “SAP JVM” which comes with the BI Package’s installation. You can also run the tool with Oracle Java 7 or 8.
Important Note(s):
- This tool should not be run when any Installation operation is going on, including Fresh / Update / Modify / Repair / Uninstallation of any BI Suite of products or packages in the system either through interactive mode or silent. This is not a supported scenario.
- On Unix platforms, this tool should be launched by the User, with which BI and Explorer Installation is performed. And more importantly this tool should not be launched by root user.
- This tool should be run in all nodes/machines of the Cluster setup to be in compliance with the recommended best practice to keep the BI Packages Install History same or similar in all nodes of the Cluster.
- Before executing this tool to clear intermediate versions in any BI Landscape, as a precautionary step, it is recommended to take the Backup of BI Landscape includes full system backup (in case of Virtual Machines, a snapshot) along with CMS DB and FileStore (FRS) and any other files, configurations and components which you take as a backup in usual update installation scenario.
- And to clarify, this tool will work only on the Installed binaries (footprint) on harddisk, and does not alter or change or remove or add in CMS DB and any other system repositories.
How to get the ONE Uninstaller tool:
- Download the attached archive from Note 2846512 and copy it to BI machine where the obsolete intermediate versions need to be uninstalled.
- Once you extract the contents of the archive, you can find the main executable of the tool “jar” along the “lib” folder and the help guide “SAP_BusinessObjects_ONE_Uninstaller_Guide.pdf”.
Steps to execute:
- Need to keep the “lib” folder always in the same directory where the “jar” exists for the successful execution of the tool.
- And, you need to ensure write permissions for the user executing the tool on the parent folder the jar file as the tool will create the logs folder with “OneUninstallerLogs” as its name, at the same level as the jar file exists.
- Command to execute to the tool java -jar OneUninstaller.jar <BI_Install_Dir>
Note: <BI_Install_Dir> is the path of the installation directory where in which the BI suite of package(s) installed.
For Example – Using the bundled “SAP JVM” :-
Windows: “<BI_Install_Dir>\SAP BusinessObjects\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\win64_x64\sapjvm\bin\java” -jar “<BI_Install_Dir>\SAP BusinessObjects”
Linux: <BI_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/linux_x64/sapjvm/bin/java -jar OneUninstaller.jar <BI_Install_Dir>
Solaris: <BI_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/solaris_sparcv9/sapjvm/bin/java -jar OneUninstaller.jar <BI_Install_Dir>
AIX: <BI_Install_Dir>/sap_bobj/enterprise_xi40/aix_rs6000_64/sapjvm/bin/java -jar OneUninstaller.jar <BI_Install_Dir>
Smart features of this tool are:
This tool will calculate the obsolete versions for deletion keeping in mind the overall products including BI platform, Clients and Add-ons.
And it first suggests the list of obsolete versions which can be safely removed, and asks the user to select any particular version(s) or all of that list.
This tool will only work on the InstallCahce folder under InstallData folder to clear the cache related to obsolete versions, and will not alter anything else in the installation directory.
In addition to the above point, this tool ensures to keep cache of the base version for future Modify operations, and also it keeps the latest version, again for the same Modify as well as Repair operations.
This means this tool in any circumstances will not remove both "base version" and "lastest version(s)" of any product.
And the beauty of this tool, it avoids the pain of traditional Un installation as it requires to follow last in first out(LIFO) order, this tool allows to remove obsolete intermediate versions.
Once the selection is made out of the suggested versions of obsolete SP(s)/Patch(es), tool performs the uninstallation for different BI packages installed in a BI system, related to those selected versions for uninstallation and removes them in one iteration.
And this tool can be executed during the production time it self, as it does not require to bring down any BI servers/services, as it only works on the InstallCache and the manifest file under the InstallData folder.
And one more important point, this tool will take comparatively very less time, when compared with traditional uninstallation, moreover traditional uninstallation requires the down time where this tool does not.
Coming to logging functionality -
It records all the actions what it is performing in the log file simultaneously as the execution goes on.
And maintains the log file separately for each iteration/launch of the tool with a separate log file named OneUninstaller.log under a timestamp folder under the OneUninstallerLogs folder
And also as a precautionary step, this tool along with writing log file, takes the backs up of Install Manifest db file from the InstallData folder to the corresponding log folder for that iteration.
This tool will also ensure to remove the corresponding entries from the Add/Remove Programs list in Windows and from the list of Installed Products in Unix.
Important Points to consider and remember:
- Any action performed by this tool is irrevocable that means the obsolete intermediate versions got removed cannot be brought back to the system.
- This tool is not for uninstalling the latest version / recent version, for that you need to perform the regular uninstallation.
Let us see some use cases:
Use Case 1 - Simple Standalone BI platform deployment with only one intermediate version.

BI platform stand alone installation with only one Intermediate version
In this scenario, as we can see, BI system contains only BI platform server installation with base installation starting at BI 4.2 SP3 and after that two updates to it. Hence the intermediate version is only one i.e. BI 4.2 SP04.
If in case if you decided to uninstall that intermediate version, then with the traditional uninstallation process you need to follow the Last In First Out order, hence first you need uninstall the latest update applied and then uninstall BI 4.2 SP04 update (intermediate version) and after that reinstall the previously uninstalled latest update.
That means total three operations you need to perform just to get rid of one intermediate version. And not only that it requires to bring the system down hence during these operations system will not be available, so, entire downtime.
Having said that you cannot simply uninstall the intermediate version as it is not the recommended way of uninstallation.
But if you use this ONE Uninstaller tool, then definitely it is safe to uninstall the intermediate version without following the above mentioned traditional process. And also with no downtime. And with this tool it finishes the uninstallation approximately ~5 mins., no way comparison to the normal uninstallation.
Use Case 2 - Standalone BI deployment with multiple products and add-on.
When BI Administrator planning for the next update there is a blocker for the same due to
insufficient disk space and observed that
update installer took longer time to launch.
Then BI Administrator executes the “SAP BusinessObjects ONE Uninstaller” tool and successfully resolves the blocker and also observes that after the successful uninstallation of obsolete intermediate versions update installer took less time to launch in comparison.

Disk Space Check prerequisite failed due to insufficient disk space

BI Suite of packages installed in the system and the obsolete versions suggested.

All Obsolete Intermediate Versions Suggested for uninstallation were selected.

After successfully uninstalling the obsolete intermediate versions Disk Space Check passed.
In this scenario, tool uninstalled the 11 versions of different products in about ~20 min. time in a single iteration.

Another Example BI system similar to what is explained in Use case 2.
Use Case 3 - No Intermediate versions available for uninstallation

Wondering why Intermediate version not being suggested for uninstallation
In the above scenario though the intermediate version BI 4.2 SP8 Patch 2 update exists for BI platform and BI platform Client Tools packages but still it has not been suggested for uninstallation, wondering why, because if you observe the list, there is another product Explorer exists but that product's latest version is not at the same level as that of BI platform and Client Tools package, and the latest version for Explorer is BI 4.2 SP08 Patch 2, hence the tool will not consider that version for uninstallation to safeguard the common binaries between BI platform and Explorer packages being deleted.
This way this tool is very cautious about calculating the intermediate versions for uninstallation.
Hope this helps. Happy cleaning and welcome to the optimized BI system with respect to disk space footprint.
For full list of new features and enhancements Please read my blog on the same "
SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.3 : What’s New".
For Information related to all releases and to know how the tool evolved, refer the table available at the end of the Note 2846512
-Venkat.