Business Objects Administration - File Repository Servers

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Hi Everyone, am just moving this blog from my personal space to here. hope this will be useful and interesting.lets have a look.

FileStore refers to the disk directories where the actual report files reside. The BusinessObjects File Repository Servers(FRS) are responsible for listing files on the server, querying for the size of a file, querying for the size of the entire file repository, adding files to the repository, and removing files from the repository. FRS also responsible for the creation of file system objects such as exported reports, and imported files in non-native formats.

FRS can be found on your disk at  <Business Objects Home>\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12\FileStore (for XI 3.x) in default installation. The two main directories under this location are Input and Output. The Input directory stores the report templates and thumbnail images, while the Output directory stores the results from running those templates. Thus, the Output directory is normally many times larger than the Input directory. Each of these directories is managed by its own BO XI File Repository server.

File Repository Servers in CMC

In every BusinessObjects Enterprise implementation there is an Input and an Output File Repository Server. Both manage their respective directories and handle all aspects of file management.

Input File Repository Server

The Input File Repository Server manages all of the report objects and program objects that have been published to the repository. It can store .RPT, .CAR, .EXE, .BAT, .JS, .XLS, .DOC, .PPT, .RTF, .TXT, .PDF, .WID files. In the case of .RPT files, they are stored as report definition files only which do not contain any data.The Report Properties page of the CMC shows you the location of the Input report files. The RPT report template can be found at frs://Input/a_084/004/000/1108/ca067d4f1710cbc.rpt

     Exploring to this location shows two files: the RPT file with the name indicated on the report properties page of the CMC and a JPEG file, which serves as the thumbnail image.

CMC Settings for Input FRS

Property	Description
Maximum Retries for File Access	Specifies the number of times the server tries to access a file.Default value is 1.
Maximum Idle Time (minutes)	Specifies the length of time that the server waits before it closes inactive connections. Setting a value that is too low can cause a user's request to be closed prematurely. Setting a value that is too high can cause excessive consumption of system resources such as processing time and disk space.Default value is 10 minutes
Temporary Directory	Specifies the directory where temporary files are created when necessary. Default value is %DefaultInputFRSDir/temp%
File Store Directory	Specifies the directory where repository objects are stored.Default value is %DefaultInputFRSDir/%

Output File Repository Server

     The Output File Repository Server manages all of the report instances (saved data copy of the report) generated by the Report Job Server or the Web Intelligence Report Server, and the program instances generated by the Program Job Server. It also manages instances generated by the Web Intelligence Report Server and the LOV Job Server. It can store the following files: .RPT, .CSV, .XLS, .DOC, .RTF, .TXT, .PDF, .WID. For .RPT and .WID files are stored as reports/documents with saved data.

Since Output FRS stores the report instances, deleting instances would remove instances not the actual reports. However the report structure will be stored in the Input FRS.

Using Query Builder we can find the location of the Output File repository files. The following query may be handy if you already know the report name.

SELECT SI_NAME, SI_KIND, SI_FILES, SI_INSTANCE from CI_INFOOBJECTS

Where SI_NAME ='xxxx'

If the SI_INSTANCE value is false then the InfoObject is the actual report and SI_PATH will be in Input FRS. If SI_INSTANCE is true then the InfoObject would be an Instance and the SI_PATH will be in Output FRS.

Exploring to this location shows the actual instance file pertaining report data with the appropriate export format based on the scheduling parameters.

CMC Settings for Output FRS

Property	Description
Maximum Retries for File Access	Specifies the number of times the server tries to access a file. Default value is 1.
Maximum Idle Time (minutes)	Specifies the length of time that the server waits before it closes inactive connections. Setting a value that is too low can cause a user's request to be closed prematurely. Setting a value that is too high can cause excessive consumption of system resources such as processing time and disk space. Default value is 10 minutes.
Temporary Directory	Specifies the directory where temporary files are created when necessary. Default value is %DefaultOutputFRSDir/temp%
File Store Directory	Specifies the directory where repository objects are stored. Default value is %DefaultOutputFRSDir/%

Diagnosing File Repository Servers

Repository Diagnostic Tool (RDT) is a command-line tool that scans, diagnoses, and repairs inconsistencies between your Central Management Server (CMS) system database and the File Repository Servers (FRS) filestore, or inconsistencies that can occur in the metadata of InfoObjects stored in the CMS database. This inconsistencies may occur during unexpected events such as disaster recovery, back-up restoration, or network outages. During these events, the CMS system database may be interrupted while performing a task. This can cause inconsistencies with objects in the CMS system database.

List of inconsistencies that could potentially occur in repository which RDT can identify are

Inconsistency	Description	Repair Actions
InfoObject exists, but no file	It is possible that an InfoObject exists in the CMS, but there is no file FRS	Delete the InfoObject, unless otherwise told
File exists but no InfoObject	It is possible the file exists but there is no corresponding InfoObject	User is notified to republish the object
Invalid Parent ID	An InfoObject can potentially have an invalid parent reference	The object and its children will be moved Into a folder call ‘Repair’.
Last Successful Instance	The reference to the last successful scheduled instance could be invalid	Remove the ID and let the CMS automatically recalculate it
Invalid Target ID	A shortcut could be pointing to an invalid object	The shortcut object will be deleted, unless told otherwise.
File size is wrong	There can be information discrepancies between the InfoObject and actual file	Update the InfoObject
Empty folders in the system	There may be empty folders due to old objects	Remove the empty directories, unless otherwise told.

Limitations for File Repository Servers

• The Input and Output File Repository Servers cannot share the same directories. This is because one of the File Repository Servers could then delete files and directories belonging to the other.
• In larger deployments, there may be multiple Input and Output File Repository Servers, for redundancy. In this case, all Input File Repository Servers must share the same directory. Likewise, all Output File Repository Servers must share a directory.

Thanks for Reading!