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Silent Installation Enhancements introduced in BI 4.3

VenkateswaraGupthaY
Product and Topic Expert
Product and Topic Expert
‎2020 Jun 13 12:15 PM
4,923
Does your organization have large number of end users having any of SAP BusinessObjects BI suite of client packages in their personal systems? Wondering how to simplify IT tickets to modify, repair or remove these package(s) or patch(es)...

 
Do you manage multiple BI platform landscapes spanned on multiple nodes each running different BI System in a clustered environment and looking to modify or repair BI platform packages and its add-ons remotely?

 

Gone are those days where BI / IT Administrators managing the BI Client packages in the end user systems by attending personally at their desk to address modify or repair requests of BI packages.

From SAP BusinessObjects BI platform 4.3 release onwards administrators can remotely address such requests with the introduction of Silent Installation Enhancements.

So, the important point to note here is, to use this enhanced functionality of the Silent Installation you need to bring your system to BI 4.3 and above level.

 

So Let's see how to perform Modify, Repair Installation or Uninstallation silently / remotely:

With these enhancements included, you can perform all the maintenance operations Modify, Repair and Remove as well remotely like how we were doing the Installation and Update using the same command-line flast "-w" and "-r" along with the response file.

 

Steps to perform these operations:


  1. Navigate to the Installation directory



  2. Using the setup file existing in that directory Create response file by following command



    • setup.exe (.sh) -w <response_file_path_including_name> -i <prouduct_key_name>





  3. In the installer UI launched choose the relevant option "Modify", "Repair" or "Remove" based on the scenario you want to capture in the response file, along with relevant information for the other options in the following screens based on the package you are working on, and navigate through all the installer screens until the "Start Installation" or "Uninstall Confirmation" screen.



  4. Open the response file generated and edit sensitive information like remotecmsadminpassword if any exists in the response file based on the package you are working on, with proper value and save the file.



  5. Using the response file saved in the above step and as mentioned like in step 2 using the setup file in the installation directory, run the following command to perform the desired operation



    • setup.exe (.sh) -r <response_file_path_including_name> -i <prouduct_key_name>






Note:



  • Once you perform the steps until 4, you can automate step 5 by using any software configuration tool or any custom automation framework to perform the desired maintenance operation remotely in silent mode like how you are doing per Fresh Installation or Update Installation all these days.



  • For complete list of Product key name list refer the following page "Product Key name list" in "Business Intelligence Platform Installation Guide for Windows".



  • "SkipRemoteCMSLoginWarning" property will be written in response file while generating response file for silent maintenance of server products only, that to if the maintenance operation selected is Repair or Remove only.



  • And default value for "SkipRemoteCMSLoginWarning" will be set to "no". This property can be used by setting the value to "yes" to ignore the CMS Login warning in case, if the CMS is not up and running or not reachable and at the same time, need to perform Repair or Remove operation.



To explain why the "SkipRemoteCMSLoginWarning" will be available only for Repair or Remove operations, is because during these options only setup engine gives the option to skip the CMS Logon Failure. Please refer the following warning message


             CMS Logon Failure comes as a warning during the Repair or Remove Server products


Whereas during the Modify installation operation CMS Logon Failure will be thrown as Error where you cannot skip, hence the response file generation for the same scenario will not write "SkipRemoteCMSLoginWarning"


        CMS Logon Failure comes as a error during the Modify of Server products


 

 

Sample Commands:

 

Windows






    • Example:




"setup.exe -w response.ini -i bipclient"   ==> To write response file


"setup.exe -r response.ini -i bipclient"   ==> To read response file and modify / repair / un-install silently.


In case if Patch present in the system, Then to un-install patch we need to use the below commands:






    • Example:




"setup.exe -w response.ini -i bipclientpatch"   ==> To write response file
"setup.exe -r response.ini -i bipclientpatch"   ==> To read response file and un-install silently.


Unix








      • Example:






"./setup.sh -w response.ini -i bipclient"   ==> To write response file
"./setup.sh -r response.ini -i bipclient"   ==> To read response file and modify / repair / un-install silently.


or








      • Example:






"./modifyOrRemoveProducts.sh -w response.ini -i bipclient"   ==> To write response file
"./modifyOrRemoveProducts.sh -r response.ini -i bipclient"   ==> To read response file and modify / repair / un-install silently.


 

In case if Patch present in the system, Then to un-install patch we need to use the below commands:








      • Example:






"./setup.sh -w response.ini -i bipclientpatch"   ==> To write response file
"./setup.sh -r response.ini -i bipclientpatch"   ==> To read response file and un-install silently.






    • or

      • Example:






"./modifyOrRemoveProducts.sh -w response.ini -i bipclientpatch"   ==> To write response file
"./modifyOrRemoveProducts.sh -r response.ini -i bipclientpatch“   ==> To read response file and un-install silently.


NOTE: Using "bipclientpatch" keyword and so on, will always un-install the latest patch installed in the system.


 

Following are some scenarios to understand more about the benefits of these enhancements:

 

Scenario 1: Modifying BI platform Client Tools package

In this scenario, you can see how a BI Administrator successfully modified their end user systems having BI platform client tools package. Until now, their organization's semantic layer was in .unv format hence their end users who are universe developers are working with only "Universe Design Tool", though the "Information Design Tool" was introduced long back with the advanced format of .unx they did not migrated their semantic layer to this new format, hence their end user systems does not have these new tools like "Information Design Tool" and "Translation Management Tool" etc.

But now during their plans to update their BI deployments to BI 4.3 release, they decided to migrate their semantic layer investment to new format .unx, and also want to start using the translation capabilities for the InfoObjects, hence the need for adding these new client tools to their end users systems.

After completing the BI 4.3 update, following steps are performed...


        Initiating the process for creation of response file for modifying the BI platform Client Tools package, bipclient as product key name



Note:



  • In Windows platforms you need to launch the command prompt in Administrator mode.



  • And the parent folder chosen for the response file saving should exist already before running these commands.




Select Modify option in Application Maintenance installer screen


 


         Select Information Design Tool and Translation Management Tool from the Select Features Installer screen


 


          response File created as for the selections made for Modifying BI platform Client Tools package - part 1



          response File created as for the selections made for Modifying BI platform Client Tools package - part 2


 


       Perform the Modify Installation using the response file created above to Modify the BI platform          Client Tools to add Information Design Tool and Translation Management Tool in silent mode.


 


           Information Design Tool and Translation Management Tool got added to the system successfully


 

 

Scenario 2: Modify BI platform package

Similar to the above scenario, here BI Administrator planning to modify BI platform package existing in multiple systems belonging to nodes of different BI landscapes in their organization to add the newly introduced features "Workflow Assistant" (Originally introduced during the BI 4.2 SP05 release with "Automation Framework" as it's name, now renamed as "Workflow Assistant" and also integrated into "Central Management Console") and "Promotion Management Wizard" (Thick client version of "Promotion Management" functionality available in "Central Management Console").

After the BI 4.3 update is completed, BI Administrator performs the following steps:


     Creating the response file to modify BI platform package, bipserver as product key name



Note:



  • In Unix platforms you need to perform the workflow with the same OS login with which the actual BI package installation was performed.




        Selecting Workflow Assistant and Promotion Management Wizard features from Select Features Installer screen


 


Enter Administrator Password


 

### Maintenance operation to perform

maintenancemode=modify



### Remote CMS administrator name

remotecmsadminname=Administrator



### Remote CMS administrator password

remotecmsadminpassword=Password1



### Remote CMS name

remotecmsname=BIDemo



### Remote CMS port

remotecmsport=6400



### Language Packs Selected to Install

selectedlanguagepacks=ar;en;fr;de;he



### Available features

### ------------------

### root

###   WebTier

###     JavaWebApps1

###     MobileServices

###       MobileServers

###       MobileAddon

###     IntegratedTomcat

###   Servers

###     PlatformServers

###       CMS

###       FRS

###       PlatformServers.IntegratedDB.SQLAnywhere

###       PlatformServers.EventServer

###       PlatformServers.WebAppContainerService

###       AdaptiveProcessingServer

###       AdaptiveJobServer

###       Platform.Action.Framework.backend

###       Subversion

###     ConnectionServices

###       ConnectionProcService

###     DataFederatorServices

###       DataFederatorQueryService

###     AdvancedAnalysisServices

###       MultidimensionalAnalysisServices

###       BExWebApplicationsService

###     CrystalReportsServers

###       CrystalReportsProcServices

###       CrystalReportSchedulingServices

###       CrystalReport2011ProcServices

###       CrystalReport2011SchedulingServices

###     WebIServers

###       WebIProcServer

###       WebISchedulingServices

###     XcelsiusServers

###     IntegrationServers

###       BWPublisherServer

###   AdministratorTools

###     Automation.Framework

###     PromotionManagementWizard

###     MultitenancyManager

###   DeveloperTools

###     BOE64bitNETSDK

###     SL_SDK

###       SL_SDK_java

###       SL_SDKSamples

###     WebI_REST_samples

###     SPL_Warehouse

###   DataAccess

###     DataAccess.DataFederator

###     DataAccess.HPVertica

###     DataAccess.MySQL

###     DataAccess.GenericJDBC

###     DataAccess.GenericOLEDB

###     DataAccess.OptionalDataDirectODBC.DataDirect7.1

###     DataAccess.MaxDB

###     DataAccess.SAPHANA

###     DataAccess.Snowflake

###     DataAccess.Denodo

###     DataAccess.Salesforce

###     DataAccess.Netezza

###     DataAccess.Microsoft_AnalyticalServices

###     DataAccess.MicrosoftExchange

###     DataAccess.MicrosoftOutlook

###     DataAccess.Microsoft_SQLServer

###     DataAccess.Microsoft_Access

###     DataAccess.Greenplum

###     DataAccess.PostgreSQL

###     DataAccess.Progress

###     DataAccess.IBMDB2

###     DataAccess.Informix

###     DataAccess.Oracle

###     DataAccess.Sybase

###     DataAccess.Teradata

###     DataAccess.SAPBW

###     DataAccess.SAPBW64

###     DataAccess.SAPERP

###     DataAccess.XMLWebServices

###     DataAccess.OData

###     DataAccess.SAP

###     DataAccess.PersonalFiles

###     DataAccess.JavaBean

###     DataAccess.OpenConnectivity

###     DataAccess.BigQuery

###     DataAccess.HadoopHive

###     DataAccess.Amazon

###     DataAccess.Spark

###     DataAccess.Hortonworks

###     DataAccess.Essbase

###     DataAccess.Peoplesoft

###     DataAccess.JDEdwards

###     DataAccess.Siebel

###     DataAccess.OracleEBS

###     DataAccess.Universe

###     DataAccess.MyCube

###     DataAccess.XML

###     DataAccess.ADO.NET

###     DataAccess.COMData

###     DataAccess.DataSet

###     DataAccess.SymantecACT

###     DataAccess.BDE

###     DataAccess.CDO

###     DataAccess.FieldDefinitions

###     DataAccess.FileSystem

###     DataAccess.NTEventLog

###     DataAccess.WebActivityLog

###     DataAccess.Btrieve

###     DataAccess.dBase.DataDirect7.1

###     DataAccess.UWSC

###     DataAccess.CMSDBDriver

###   Samples

features=JavaWebApps1,MobileServers,MobileAddon,MobileServices,IntegratedTomcat,WebTier,CMS,FRS,PlatformServers.IntegratedDB.SQLAnywhere,PlatformServers.EventServer,PlatformServers.WebAppContainerService,AdaptiveProcessingServer,AdaptiveJobServer,Platform.Action.Framework.backend,Subversion,ConnectionProcService,ConnectionServices,DataFederatorQueryService,DataFederatorServices,MultidimensionalAnalysisServices,BExWebApplicationsService,AdvancedAnalysisServices,CrystalReportsProcServices,CrystalReportSchedulingServices,CrystalReport2011ProcServices,CrystalReport2011SchedulingServices,CrystalReportsServers,WebIProcServer,WebISchedulingServices,WebIServers,XcelsiusServers,BWPublisherServer,IntegrationServers,Automation.Framework,PromotionManagementWizard,MultitenancyManager,AdministratorTools,BOE64bitNETSDK,SL_SDK_java,SL_SDKSamples,SL_SDK,WebI_REST_samples,SPL_Warehouse,DeveloperTools,DataAccess.DataFederator,DataAccess.HPVertica,DataAccess.MySQL,DataAccess.GenericJDBC,DataAccess.GenericOLEDB,DataAccess.OptionalDataDirectODBC.DataDirect7.1,DataAccess.SAPHANA,DataAccess.Salesforce,DataAccess.Netezza,DataAccess.Microsoft_AnalyticalServices,DataAccess.MicrosoftExchange,DataAccess.MicrosoftOutlook,DataAccess.Microsoft_SQLServer,DataAccess.Microsoft_Access,DataAccess.Greenplum,DataAccess.PostgreSQL,DataAccess.Progress,DataAccess.IBMDB2,DataAccess.Informix,DataAccess.Oracle,DataAccess.Sybase,DataAccess.Teradata,DataAccess.SAPBW,DataAccess.SAPBW64,DataAccess.SAPERP,DataAccess.XMLWebServices,DataAccess.OData,DataAccess.SAP,DataAccess.PersonalFiles,DataAccess.JavaBean,DataAccess.OpenConnectivity,DataAccess.HadoopHive,DataAccess.Amazon,DataAccess.Spark,DataAccess.Hortonworks,DataAccess.Essbase,DataAccess.Peoplesoft,DataAccess.JDEdwards,DataAccess.Siebel,DataAccess.OracleEBS,DataAccess.Universe,DataAccess.MyCube,DataAccess.XML,DataAccess.ADO.NET,DataAccess.COMData,DataAccess.DataSet,DataAccess.SymantecACT,DataAccess.BDE,DataAccess.CDO,DataAccess.FieldDefinitions,DataAccess.FileSystem,DataAccess.NTEventLog,DataAccess.WebActivityLog,DataAccess.Btrieve,DataAccess.dBase.DataDirect7.1,DataAccess.UWSC,Samples




           Perform the Modify Installation using the response file created above to Modify the BI platform to add Workflow Assistant and Promotion Management Wizard in silent mode.


 


Workflow Assistant Successfully added to the system


 


Promotion Management Wizard Successfully added to the system.


 

 

I believe with these enhancements, work of BI / IT Administrators managing BI deployments will be simplified.

 

For full list of new features and enhancements Please read my blog on the same “SAP BusinessObjects BI 4.3 : What’s New“.

 

-Venkat

 
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