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BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation 7.0 (10.5.1) Copyright © 2008 Business Objects, an SAP company. All rights reserved. Please refer to the user guide for a list of Business Objects’ patents. Business Objects and its logos, BusinessObjects, Business Process On Demand, BusinessQuery, Crystal Applications, Crystal Enterprise, Crystal Reports, Crystal Vision, Desktop Intelligence, Inxight and its logos, Star Tree, Table Lens, ThingFinder, Timewall, Let There Be Light, Metify, NSite, Rapid Marts, RapidMarts, Voyager, Web Intelligence, and Xcelsius are trademarks or registered trademarks in the United States and/or other countries of Business Objects and/or affiliated companies. SAP is the trademark or registered trademark of SAP AG in Germany and in several other countries. All other names mentioned herein may be trademarks of their respective owners. Third-party Contributors Business Objects products in this release may contain redistributions of software licensed from third-party contributors. Some of these individual components may also be available under alternative licenses. A partial listing of third-party contributors that have requested or permitted acknowledgments, as well as required notices, can be found at: http://www.businessobjects.com/thirdparty 2008-07-31 Contents Chapter 1 Introduction 9 About this guide.........................................................................................10 Intended audience................................................................................10 Document conventions.........................................................................10 Business Objects technical support...........................................................12 What's new in version 10.5 SP1 of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation.............................................................................................13 What's new in version 10.5 SP1 of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation........................................................................................13 What's new in the documentation of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation version 10.5 SP1...........................................................14 Contents of the CD of the version.............................................................14 Chapter 2 Administrating the data sources 17 Data source manager................................................................................18 Connecting to the data source manager..............................................18 Administration console...............................................................................19 Configuring the Administration console's advanced settings...............19 Managing sources................................................................................25 Managing users....................................................................................31 Securing the Administration console.........................................................33 Creating a password for the Administation console ............................33 Filtering the data sources.....................................................................34 Defining the location of the CtApplicationDataSources.xml file...........37 Managing a remote data source manager...........................................38 Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers......................39 CtStartServer.vbe.................................................................................39 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 3 Contents CtStopServer.vbe.................................................................................41 CtRestartServer.vbe.............................................................................43 CtSendMessage.vbe............................................................................46 Procedure for creating scheduled tasks...............................................48 Chapter 3 Administrating the databases 51 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 engine settings..............................................52 General settings...................................................................................52 NUMA mode.........................................................................................53 Modifying the degree of parallelism.....................................................54 Activating the READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT option....................54 Recommendations for improving performance....................................54 Backing up databases using the simple recovery model.....................55 Oracle 10g engine settings........................................................................56 Oracle installation requirements...........................................................56 Database requirements........................................................................56 Recommendations for improving performance....................................57 Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation.............................................................................................63 Description of the WDDLHOOK table..................................................63 Creating the WDDLHOOK table...........................................................64 Configuration of the WDDLHOOK table...............................................66 Chapter 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web 71 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web advanced options.......................................................................................................72 Reconnecting automatically.................................................................72 Activating the Businessobjects FinanceWeb technical log..................73 Supporting long-term HTTP sessions with firewalls.............................73 Selecting the display languages...........................................................74 Configuring Internet Explorer with ActiveX...........................................74 4 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Contents Limiting the size of Excel folders..........................................................75 Publishing documents via a URL.........................................................75 Restricting schedules containing hierarchies.......................................75 Frequency of messages from the administrator...................................76 Enabling HTTP compression................................................................76 Adjusting the timeline of a Web session...............................................77 Customizing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Home page...........................................................................................................77 Publishing documents via a URL...............................................................78 XML file structure.................................................................................79 Configuration........................................................................................79 URL syntax...........................................................................................85 Chapter 5 Managing users and user security 87 Using security in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation......................88 Managing users using BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 authentication..89 Managing users using the LDAP directory................................................91 Configuring LDAP user authentication with Active Directory...............91 Creating LDAP users for Active Directory in Businessobjects Finance.93 LDAP Authentication other than Active Directory.................................94 Creating LDAP (other than Active Directory) users in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation .......................................................................95 Connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation using Single Sign On..............................................................................................................96 Configuring the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation servers......97 Configuring the Web portal...................................................................98 Chapter 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform 101 Availability management .........................................................................102 Planned downtime..............................................................................102 Unplanned downtime..........................................................................103 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 5 Contents Requirements.....................................................................................103 Availability management in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation.106 Installing BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components on a cluster......................................................................................................109 Requirements.....................................................................................109 Installation..........................................................................................110 Configuration......................................................................................110 Operation............................................................................................111 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web with firewalls.112 Configuring DCOM for firewalls...............................................................114 Specifying the recommended configuration.......................................115 Specifying a range of ports in DCOM.................................................115 Diagram of the network traffic between the different components.....118 Example of a firewall in use................................................................118 Chapter 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation 121 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode........................................................................................................122 Load balancing between servers.......................................................125 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode........................................................................................................127 Configuring Web load balancing........................................................129 Recycling the servers..............................................................................134 CtServerSchedulingRobotCleaner.vbe..............................................134 Optimizing memory use...........................................................................136 Customizing the application server connection.......................................137 Chapter 8 Appendix 139 DCOM configuration................................................................................140 Checking the default DCOM configuration defined by the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation setup............................................................141 6 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Contents Configuring the CtController process.................................................145 Configuring the default properties......................................................146 Specific configuration for Windows Server 2003 SP1.............................147 Specific DCOM configuration with different domains.........................147 Configuring Internet Explorer.............................................................149 Recommendations for using Uniprint on a Citrix platform..................150 Chapter 9 Troubleshooting 151 Object: Connection error..........................................................................152 Object: Setup in successive restarts.......................................................152 Object: Connection error..........................................................................153 Object: Connection error..........................................................................154 Object: Problem occurring when uninstalling the product.......................156 Object: Failed to migrate the database....................................................157 Object: Connection error..........................................................................157 Object: Connection error..........................................................................158 Object: Connection error..........................................................................158 Object: Connection error..........................................................................159 Object: Problem when printing................................................................159 Object: Problems opening a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Web Schedules schedule........................................................................160 Object: Web server or servers do not start..............................................160 Object: Problem connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web.........................................................................................................161 Chapter 10 Technical logs 165 Windows technical log.............................................................................166 Concepts of the Windows technical log.............................................166 XML configuration files.......................................................................171 Example of an XML configuration file using the Windows Events Viewer................................................................................................187 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 7 Contents Example of an XML configuration file using different output destinations involving a remote computer..............................................................188 Examples of logs................................................................................192 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log..193 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log configuration.......................................................................................194 Appendix A 8 Get More Help BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 199 Introduction 1 1 Introduction About this guide About this guide The BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation administration guide contains the following: • Information on BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation administration. • A chapter on troubleshooting. • An appendix containing additional information. Intended audience This document is intended for systems administrators who are in charge of the installation, configuration and technical administration of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. Architects should be experienced in systems and networks and be familiar with the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment. This document will provide you with the information you need to set up all of the installation tasks. To find out more on using the product, please consult the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation user guide. The user guide is available in PDF format on the installation CD or in HTML format in the Help menu after installation. Document conventions 10 Formatting Meaning Bold Names of windows, dia- The Installation Direclog boxes, menus, menu tory dialog box will apcommands and buttons pear. > Command menu Menu command BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Example Select New > data source. Introduction About this guide Formatting Meaning Example Code Command line CtStopServ er.vbe_SrvBroker_Fi nance_"" Code on gray background All or part of a configura- <add key=" tion file to be checked CompressionLevel" value="Normal" /> or changed 1. Right-click to select New > Virtual Directory. 2. The following dialog box will appear: Numbered list Procedure or series of steps to be performed 3. Click Next. 4. Open a Command Prompt dialog box. 5. Run the C:\>iisre set /restart command line. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 11 1 1 Introduction Business Objects technical support Formatting Meaning Example <> Value to be set <datasource_name>_ _ Compulsory space between settings CtStartServ er.vbe_<data source_manager> "" To be inserted if spaces <"datasource_pass word"> are used in a setting [] Optional setting <"datasource_pass word">_[<server>] Business Objects technical support If you encounter difficulties during the installation, configuration or administration of the product, please consult the Troubleshooting chapter in the Administration guide first. If this does not provide an answer to your problem, you should contact the person within your workgroup who is in charge of centralizing queries. He/she will then liaise with your IT team and if required, with the Business Objects Software Support team. You should provide the following information when reporting the problem: 12 • The version number of the product installed on your computer. • The environment used (Web, Citrix, Windows, etc.). • the type of database (e.g. Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, etc.) and its version • The operating systems of the servers and client computers. • the network connection, e.g. RNIS, WAN, LAN, etc. and other software components such as Internet Explorer, IIS, Apache HTTP Server, etc. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Introduction What's new in version 10.5 SP1 of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation • The exact text of the messages that appear when a problem occurs. • a clear problem statement • How you tried to solve the problem. You should also provide the corresponding screen shots, log files, error messages and any other tools to identify the problem. What's new in version 10.5 SP1 of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation What's new in version 10.5 SP1 of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation • Support of Windows Vista SP1 • Support of Microsoft Office 2007 • Support of ActivePDF Server 3.8 • License and users A user license is now granted to your company. This license entitles you to a certain number of users. The license takes into account active users, as opposed to inactive users whose activity has been suspended. Consequently, the inactive users in your base are not counted among the users authorized by your license. For more information, see the "Configuring standard parameters" chapter. • End of support for the following database engines and OS: • Oracle 9i • Microsoft SQL Server 2000 • Microsoft Windows 2000 • Microsoft Office 2000 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 13 1 1 Introduction Contents of the CD of the version What's new in the documentation of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation version 10.5 SP1 • Web Services deployment test To ensure that the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web services are correclty deployed, a test procedure has been added to the documentation. • Installing BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Web Schedules Addion of an additional MIME type (.xlam) when configuring IIS following the installation of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Web Schedules module. Contents of the CD of the version BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is composed of several CDs: "BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation" CD This CD contains the standard setup for the main BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application. Instructions on how to use this CD are available in this guide. This CD also contains: • in the About folder: general documents accompanying the release: the release note, the architecture and recommendations, installation, administration guides that are available in French and English. • In the C_FINANCE\tools folder: the tools used to implement certain advanced features, such as database migrations, specific migration of security and documents, automatic stop and start programs, etc. CD "BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Web Schedules" The contents of this CD correspond to the setup for enabling this module, whose installation is covered in this guide. 14 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Introduction Contents of the CD of the version Note: • • This module is sold separately from BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation and must be acquired separately by the client (see the Notice of Copyright) . the standard BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation setup installs all the components required for running the module. However, the module is enabled using a specific setup which must be run on the machine on which the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application server has been installed. "BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Link" CD This CD contains the setup of the Web Excel Link application. This CD, available upon request, can be used to install a "light" version of Excel Link which can be operated via a Web server. It is no longer necessary to install a "fat" client to operate Excel Link. Note: • • The "fat" client installation is not compatible with the main BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application and cannot be performed. Thanks to its reduced size, the "light" setup can be made available on the network or on an intranet (to be downloaded). Specific documentation dealing with Excel Link is available in the About folder on this CD in both English and French. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 15 1 1 Introduction Contents of the CD of the version 16 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources 2 2 Administrating the data sources Data source manager Data source manager The BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application is made up of a number of components. One of these components is the database, which is hosted on a database engine located on a server. Other components include the application servers, the HTTP servers, etc. and an authentication server if the LDAP directory service is used You must define and store all of this information: the login and password for connecting to the database, the login and password of the LDAP directory service administrator, etc. This is the role of the data source manager. The data source manager ensures that this information is managed at a single point in the network. It was designed to be the storage point of all this information. When you try to connect to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, you will contact the data source manager to select the database that you want. You can change one of the servers in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application without affecting users in any way. Only the data source definition is changed. Except in specific cases, there should only be one data source manager. It is included in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation server installation. It does not require many resources and can be installed on any server in your environment or by itself on another machine. It can also be installed in a cluster environment. Note: The data source manager is identified by the CtBroker.exe process. Connecting to the data source manager When you start BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, the data source manager is used to connect to the application with the correct settings. You 18 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Administration console use the Start the Application dialog box to select the required information from the data source manager. 1. Select the computer on which the data source manager is located. 2. Select the data source you want to use. The data source will indicate which database you will connect to. 3. Enter the login and password or select the Use Windows account option. Administration console Configuring the Administration console's advanced settings Tip: You can edit each parameter by double-clicking on it. A properties box will appear and you can change or delete the value in it as required. Caution: You cannot change the console's settings once the data source is running. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 19 2 2 Administrating the data sources Administration console AdvancedDbString This parameter enables you to optimize database performance. This parameter is made up of the following three options: • Use temporary table when this option is activated, the worktables containing a large amount of data (for example those generated during consolidation or when saving packages are managed in the database as global temporary tables. This option enables you to reduce the number of logs generated when the Oracle instance is in ARCHIVE_LOG mode, or when the SQL base is in "Full" archive mode. Work tables that do not contain a large volume of data will always be managed as standard tables. If you activate this option, verify that the temporary tablespace of your Oracle instance is big enough, or that the database tempdb has enough space. Note: If temporary tables are activated, some limitations might present themselves in your SQL rules. The main one is that you cannot create indexes for your temporary tables once data has been added to them. The temporary tables used by BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation are GLOBAL TEMPORARY type. To find out more on the limitations of temporary tables, see the documentation on your DBMS. • Advanced data access Caution: You should not activate this option with Oracle 9i. This option enables you to change the filter query strategy. When it is activated, a permanent table called ct_filter_result is created instead of the usual worktables. This option enables you to reduce the size of the redo-log under Oracle and generally improve performance under SQL and Oracle. We recommend that you activate this option, except in the case of Oracle 9i. Note: The following option is dedicated exclusively to the Oracle engines. • 20 Load direct path BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Administration console This option will activate the HINT APPEND clauses when the worktables are used and thereby reduce the size of the log. For this option to function correctly, you must activate the NOLOGGING option for the tablespace dedicated to worktables. • Native OLE DB provider • For SQL Server: Provider=SQLOLEDB;Data Source=<database_servername>;Initial Catalog= <database_name> • For Oracle: Provider=MSDAORA;Data Source=<service_name> • For Oracle9i RAC: With Oracle9i RAC (Real Application Clusters), you should use the following OLE DB connection string to ensure high availability: Provider=MSDAORA;Data Source=<service_name>;FEN=T;FRC=5;FDL=5 You must configure the Oracle clients so that Oracle 9i RAC can be implemented (file TNSListener.ora). Note: Please note that you must fill in the login and password for connecting to the database. Tip: When you create a data source using the Application Data Source Wizard, the drop-down menu in the Select the OLE DB connection string dialog box will display an example of each type of syntax. You should fill each field with the information specific to your BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment, e.g. server and database names, logins and passwords. The four parameters below are registry keys and are used to manage the size of the client and server cache: here they are filled in by default. If required, you can customize the default values of each parameter for the any of the servers in a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation multi-server configuration. You can do this by creating the following keys in the registry folder below: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE/SOFTWARE/CARTESIS/ObjectServer/Cache. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 21 2 2 Administrating the data sources Administration console Tip: You can use the executable provided with the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation installation CD in the \tools directory called CacheParamCleaner.exe which cleans the registry of all existing values so that only the values in the console will be taken into account. The parameters that start with "Client" correspond to the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation clients (Finance.exe). The parameters that start with "Server" correspond to the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation servers (CtServer.exe). ServerHeapMaxSize (numerical value) DWORD value. This is the maximum size of the memory allocated to server data (in MB). Recommended value = 1536. Cache used by the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation server and BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web. ServerCleaningFrequency (numerical value) DWORD value. This is the frequency with which the server cache is cleaned (in seconds). Recommended value = 86400 (24 hours) ClientHeapMaxSize (numerical value) DWORD value. This is the maximum size of the memory allocated to client data (in MB). Recommended value = 1536. Cache used by the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Windows client. ClientCleaningFrequency (numerical value) DWORD value. This is the frequency with which the client cache is cleaned (in seconds). Recommended value = 86400. Note: • 22 If the values in the Administration console differ from those in the registry, the ones in the registry will be used. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Administration console • The recommended values specified above are for a standard Windows configuration. If the /3G mode is activated on your servers, you can increase the value of the ServerHeapMaxSize parameter up to 2800. The four following parameters are used to manage the various locks handled by BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. These parameters are useful especially when one of the components fail. For example, one of the application servers may stop because of hardware problems. The users who were connected to it will have to reconnect to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. The objects that they were working on before being disconnected, such as a package, may still be locked by other components in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. To avoid these problems, a leasing mechanism which is used to reserve a resource for a specific amount of time has been implemented. The objects are locked as long as the component that calls them updates the lease. When one of the components in the application becomes unavailable, it will be unable to renew the lease at the end of the leasing period and the lock on the corresponding objects will be automatically removed. Note: You should not change the settings below without the help of a Business Objects expert. The default values enable optimal performance. ClientLeaseTime Period of lease for an application server resource allocated to a given client. The default value is 180 seconds. ClientLeaseRenewalTime Frequency of the lease renewal for an application server resource allocated to a given client. The default value is 50 seconds. ServerLeaseTime Period of lease for a given application server resource. The status of the lease period is stored in the database by the application server. The default value is 125 seconds. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 23 2 2 Administrating the data sources Administration console ServerLeaseRenewalTime Frequency of the lease renewal for a given application server resource. The default value is 30 seconds. ClientMessageReceiveTime Client computers regularly query the application servers to refresh their cache. This parameter enables you to set the frequency of the calls. The parameter value cannot be set at less than 20 seconds. Note: The more often the caches are refreshed, the heavier the load for the application servers. ServerMessageReceiveTime Application servers regularly call the database servers to refresh their cache. This parameter enables you to set the frequency of the calls. The parameter value cannot be set at less than 20 seconds. Note: The more often the servers are refreshed, the heavier the load for the application servers and the database servers. MaxServerSessionsOpenedSinceStart As soon as the total number of sessions open on the application server process (CtServer.exe) reaches the number indicated in this parameter, the process recycles itself. MaxServerVirtualMemory As soon as the virtual memory of the CtServer.exe process reaches the size indicated in this parameter, the process recycles itself. 24 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Administration console Note: The value specified by default is for a standard Windows configuration. If the /3G mode is activated on your servers, you must increase the value of the ServerHeapMaxSize parameter up to 2800. MaxSchedulerServerTasks This enables you to specify the maximum number of tasks run by the processing server defined in the SchedulerComputerName variable. These tasks are performed by users in the Task List and Task Scheduler views in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. If you do not specify a value here, then the value from the MaxServerTasks variable will be used. MaxServerTasks This enables you to specify the maximum number of tasks run by all of the application servers for a given data source. These tasks are performed by users in the Task List and Task Scheduler views in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. If you do not specify a value here, then the default value is 4. Note: If several processing units are required, you should increase the performance of the application server used. Managing sources The Operation view lists the computers defined for a data source and the status of the instances and data sources run on each computer. To manage the data sources, you can select the Operationview and perform tasks for all of the servers defined for a given data source. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 25 2 2 Administrating the data sources Administration console Status of data sources and instances When a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation data source starts running, the instances start running automatically on all of the related active computers. The number of instances running on each computer can be configured under ServerComputerName in the Administration console. The computers that are not active are not taken into account. When a source stops running, all of the instances stop running automatically too. When the source is restarted, the instances can be recycled automatically. For each active source machine, the data source manager (CtBroker component) manages how instances are recycled and started. It bases itself on the maximum number of instances. You can, however, intervene manually to change how the instances function: the administrator can stop an existing instance or start an additional one. Certain situations can therefore occur when a data source is running even though no instances are running. In such a case, the started status of the 26 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Administration console source authorizes the CtBroker component to start and manage the instances on the active computers: new instances will appear in the console. If the source is not running, none of the instances can be started automatically. Caution: That is why you must stop a data source in the Operation view. Stopping all of the existing instances will not stop the data source. There are three levels in the Operation view: • Name of the data source There are three possible statuses: Started, Stopping or Stopped. You cannot change the data source's settings once it is running. Note: • • • When a source is running, it appears on screen in green. A data source must be running for you to be able to use it. The computer (managed at the lowest level) Each computer belonging to a source can be Active or Inactive. When the status is Active, the computer is taken into account in the data source. When the status is Inactive, it is not taken into account. This status enables you to temporarily disconnect a computer from the source if, for example, you have some maintenance work to perform, without removing it completely from the data source. • The instance (managed on the right-hand side of the console) You can start one or more instances of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation server on each active computer. You may find it useful to be able to run several instances on each computer if the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation configuration is relatively complex, since this will enable you to reduce the amount of memory used by each instance. It is better to have two servers using 1 GB of memory than one single server using up all of the 2 GB of memory. These instances can then be recycled automatically depending on the recycling settings chosen in the Administration Console (MaxServerSessionsOpenedSinceStart and MaxServerVirtualMemory keys). BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 27 2 2 Administrating the data sources Administration console Commands available in Operation The commands available at this level enable you to manage the data source. • Start Data Source Here, you can start the data source and all of the instances defined on all of the servers belonging to the source whose status is Active. Tip: If a WebServerURL has been defined, the Start data source command will also start the Web server. • Stop Data Source Here, you can stop all of the instances on all of the active computers belonging to the data source. The mode will then change to Stopped. If there are clients connected to the application, this command will wait for them to disconnect before stopping the instances. Even if a new user connects, it will not be possible to automatically start a new instance. • Start Data Source in Exclusive Mode Here you can start the data source in exclusive mode. A single instance will be started on one of the computers belonging to the data source in order to perform operations which require only the administrator to be connected (i.e. receiving a configuration). • Stop Data Source in Forced Mode Here, you can stop all of the instances on all of the active computers immediately without waiting for the clients to disconnect. The connected clients will be disconnected by force. • 28 Send Message BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Administration console Here, you can send a message to all of the users connected to the data source. Commands available for Computers Commands at this level enable you to manage the instances on each active computer. • Activate Machine This command activates the computer. The instances are not started automatically as is the case when a data source is started. They are automatically started when users log on. • Deactivate Machine Deactivate the machine The existing instances are stopped. • Start Instance This command enables you to start a new instance over and above those that are already running. • Stop All Instances This command waits for the clients to disconnect before stopping all of the instances that are running. • Stop All Instances in Forced Mode This command stops all of the instances that are running and throws out any connected users. • Send Message BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 29 2 2 Administrating the data sources Administration console Here, you can send a message to all of the users connected on each active computer. Note: Stopping an instance does not stop the computer. Commands available for Instances • Stop Instance Stops the instance currently running. • Stop Instance in Forced Mode This command stops the instance that is running and throws out any connected users. • Recycle Instance This command forces the instance to be recycled, i.e. it stops the selected instance and starts a new one. • Send Message This command enables you to send a message to all of the users connected to the instance running. Once you have started the data source, the Administration console will display the following information: 30 • The number of CtServer.exe process instances being run by active servers. • The number of clients connected indicates the number of executables connected to the instance. • The number of users indicates the number of user sessions that are open in the instance. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Administration console Instances can have one of the following statuses: • Initialized: The instance has been started and clients can connect to it. • Stopped: The instance has been stopped. If the application is started and the server is active, an instance can start automatically. • Unavailable: the server might be unavailable for any of the following reasons: the machine has stopped, typo when entering the console's settings, DCOM configuration issue, etc. • Does not accept any more connections: The server is in the process of stopping (not "forced"). The instance is waiting for all connected users to disconnect before stopping. • Migration: The server is migrating the database. • Stop: The instance is in the process of stopping. • Initialization: The instance is being started. Note: In the case of a stand-alone installation, connecting the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Windows client to a local data source will automatically start this data source. Managing users The Activity view displays the information on the sessions open on the server. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 31 2 2 Administrating the data sources Administration console In this example, two users are connected. Note: To disconnect a user, right-click on the user and select Disconnect. The right pane of the Administration console displays the following information: • User: this indicates the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation login used. • Server: this indicates the application server to which the user is connected. • Server PID: this indicates the process ID of the application server. • Client: this indicates the name of the client computer. • Client process: this indicates the executable used by the client. Finance.exe for a Windows client, CtServer.exe for the Web, and Excel.exe for Excel Link. • Client PID: this indicates the process ID of the client executable. • Windows User: this indicates the Windows login used by the client. For Web clients, the login is the Windows account used to run the Web server. • Connection date. • Session type: the session type can be: • 32 Interactive: each client session is interactive. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Securing the Administration console • Batch processing: this indicates an independent session opened to run scheduled tasks. Securing the Administration console Creating a password for the Administation console You can ensure that the Administration console is secure by assigning a password to each data source. This is used to secure access to some configuration and operation tasks. 1. For the data source you want to protect, right-click on the Configuration view and select Change password from the contextual menu. You can also right-click in the contents pane of the Configuration view to select this command. 2. The Change Password dialog box appears. 3. Enter the new password in the New password field and confirm it. If the data source already has a password and you want to change it, enter it in the Old password field. Click on OK. Note: To activate the password, you chould close and open the Administration console again by double-clicking CtAdmin.msc. When you next open the Administration console and select the Configuration or Operation view of the protected data source, the following dialog box appears. * 4. Enter the password and click on OK. You can now perform configuration and operation tasks on the protected data source. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 33 2 2 Administrating the data sources Securing the Administration console Note: • • For security reasons, the CtApplicationDataSources.xml file is also encrypted. You cannot edit it in the Internet browser or in a text file. If you try to open it, nothing will be displayed. If you have protected the data source by assigning a password in standalone configuration, the application server will not start automatically. You need to enter the password if you want to: • Access the Configuration view in the Administration console. • Perform an operation on a server, e.g. stop, start or migrate it. • Disconnecting a user from the console. Note: Even if a given data source is password-protected, you can still disconnect a user without having to enter the password. Filtering the data sources You can, if required, make only certain data sources appear in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Start the Application dialog box. Note: This applies to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Windows and the action must be carried out on client computers. 1. On each of the client computers where you want to restrict the data sources displayed, you must create a registry key called DatasourceFilter in HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Cartesis/APCom/Connection/. 2. In DatasourceFilter, you must create one registry key for each data source that you want to display. Note: The case of the registry keys (upper or lower) must be identical to that of the data sources. 34 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Securing the Administration console Example: The four data sources below were configured for the server shown in the example. Because the MagTest and MagDev data sources are used only for testing purposes, the administrator does not want them to appear when users connect to Magnitude. To display the other two data sources, the administrator must therefore create the following registry keys: • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Cartesis/APCom/Connection/DatasourceFilter/MagProd • HKEY_CURRENT_USER/Software/Cartesis/APCom/Connection/DatasourceFilter/MagExploit You should create these two registry keys as shown in the example below. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 35 2 2 Administrating the data sources Securing the Administration console When a user connects to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, the data sources available in Start the Application dialog box will appear. 36 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Securing the Administration console Defining the location of the CtApplicationDataSources.xml file By default, this file is stored in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation installation folder. You can, however, move it to another folder, e.g. a folder where backups are performed on a regular basis. By storing the file in another folder, you ensure that the same data source configuration is kept when upgrading product versions as the setup will not overwrite the file. To store the CtApplicationDataSources.xml file somewhere other than the installation folder, you create a registry key that will specify its location. 1. You create a new string value called DataSourceFilePath in the following tree structure: HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Cartesis\Broker or HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\Cartesis\Broker. If the key is created in both locations, the system will use the HKEY_CURRENT_USER key first. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 37 2 2 Administrating the data sources Securing the Administration console 2. Specify the path to the CtApplicationDataSources.xml. Note: You must create this registry key on the machine hosting the data source manager. Managing a remote data source manager The console connects by default to the computer where it was installed. You can, however, connect to another data source manager if you need to manage data sources remotely. Note: BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation must first be installed on the computer to which you want to connect. 1. Right-click on CARTESIS Administration and select Connect to a different machine from the contextual menu. The Select Data Source Manager dialog box appears. 2. Enter or select the computer to which you want to connect and click on Finish. The new data source manager will be displayed in the Administration console. Note: You cannot connect to more than one data source manager using this menu. 38 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers By using the Windows Scheduled Task Wizard, you can schedule the servers to start and stop automatically at a given time, on a regular basis if required. For example, you can schedule backups at night if your RDBMS must be stopped before performing the backup of the database. You can use the CtStartServer.vbe, CtStopServer.vbe and CtRestartServer.vbe scripts to schedule the tasks. Characters used in scripts: Character Description <> Value to be set _ Compulsory space between settings "" To be inserted if spaces are used in a setting [] Optional setting CtStartServer.vbe This script enables you to start a server. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 39 2 2 Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Syntax [/BrokerComputerName:<broker_host>] /DatasourceName:<datasourcename> [/DatasourcePassword:<datasourcepwd>] [/ServerComputerName:<server_host>] /Help List of configuration settings Parameter Definition BrokerComputerName Name of the computer No default value hosting the data source Optional setting manager DataSourceName Name of the data source DataSourcePassword Default value No default value Compulsory setting Password for accessing N/A the data source No default value ServerComputerName 40 Optional setting Name of the computer hosting the server to be If nothing is entered, started then all of the servers configured for the data source will be started. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Parameter Definition Help Displays the help files on the syntax used in the settings Default value Examples of the syntax CtStartServer.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/DataSource Name:Finance_/DataSourcePassword:"pwd" This command will start all the servers defined for the data source in the DATASOURCESRV data source manager. The password "pwd" is defined for this source. CtStopServer.vbe This script is used to stop all the instances of a data source on a server or to stop the entire source. Syntax [/BrokerComputerName:<broker_host>] /DatasourceName:<datasourcename> [/DatasourcePassword:<datasourcepwd>] [/ServerComputerName:<server_host>] [/ForceUninit:<True|False>] /Help BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 41 2 2 Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers List of configuration settings Parameter Definition BrokerComputerName Name of the machine No default value hosting the data source Optional setting manager DataSourceName Name of the data source DataSourcePassword Default value No default value Compulsory setting Password for accessing N/A the data source Name of the machine hosting the instances to be stopped ServerComputerName ForceUninit 42 If nothing is specified, the source will be stopped, together with all instances on all servers configured for the data source. No default value Optional setting Boolean "True" or "False" value indicating whether or not the serv- False er should be stopped, Optional setting even if clients are still connected to it. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Parameter Definition Help Displays the help files on the syntax used in the settings Default value Examples of the syntax CtStopServer.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/DataSource Name:Finance_/DataSourcePassword:"pwd" This command means that the server will not establish any new connections and will wait for the users connected to disconnect before stopping the source. CtStopServer.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/DataSource Name:Finance_/ForceUninit:True This command will stop the source in forced mode, and therefore will also stop all instances in forced mode. CtStopServer.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/DataSource Name:Finance_/ServerComputerName:SrvApp1 /ForceUninit:True This command will stop the instance of the SrvApp1 server in forced mode. The source will not be stopped, and the instances running on the other servers will not be stopped. CtRestartServer.vbe This script is used to recycle server processes, i.e. to stop and then restart a server. The server will not establish any new connection during the process recycling and will wait for the users connected to disconnect before stopping. It will then restart. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 43 2 2 Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Syntax [/BrokerComputerName:<broker_host>] /DatasourceName:<datasourcename> [/DatasourcePassword:<datasourcepwd>] [/ServerComputerName:<server_host>] [/ForceUninit:<True|False>] /Help List of configuration settings Parameter Definition BrokerComputerName Name of the machine No default value hosting the data source Optional setting manager DataSourceName Name of the data source DataSourcePassword 44 No default value Compulsory setting Password for accessing N/A the data source Name of the machine hosting the server to be started ServerComputerName Default value If nothing is entered, then all of the servers configured for the data source will be started. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide No default value Optional setting Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Parameter Definition Default value ForceUninit Boolean "True" or "False" value indicating whether or not the serv- False er should be stopped, Optional setting even if clients are still connected to it. Help Displays the help files on the syntax used in the settings Examples of the syntax CtRestartServer.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/Data SourceName:Finance_/ DataSourcePassword:"pwd" This command means that all of the servers defined for the data source whose password is pwd will wait for any users connected to disconnect before stopping and restarting. CtRestartServer.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/Data SourceName:Finance_/ ServerComputerName:SRV1 This command means that the SRV1 server defined for the data source with no password will wait for any users connected to disconnect before stopping and restarting. CtRestartServer.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/Data SourceName:Finance_/ForceUninit:True This command means that all of the servers defined for the data source whose password is pwd will stop and restart in forced mode without waiting for the users connected to disconnect. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 45 2 2 Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers CtSendMessage.vbe This script enables you to send a warning to users who are still connected to a server. Syntax [/BrokerComputerName:<broker_host>] /DatasourceName:<datasourcename> [/DatasourcePassword:<datasourcepwd>] [/ServerComputerName:<server_host>] /Message:<message> /Help List of configuration settings Parameter Definition BrokerComputerName Name of the machine No default value hosting the data source Optional setting manager DataSourceName Name of the data source DataSourcePassword 46 Default value No default value Compulsory setting Password for accessing N/A the data source BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Parameter Definition Default value ServerComputerName Name of the machine No default value hosting the server to be Optional setting started Message Message to be sent Help Displays the help files on the syntax used in the settings Note: When a message is sent to the Web client, it may take a few minutes before it is received. Examples of the syntax This command will send "message" to all of the servers defined for this data source. CtSendMessage.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATASOURCESRV_/DataSource Name:Finance_/Message:"message" Examples of how scheduled tasks can be used: • You can create a CtStopServer task to stop the server in order to perform backups. • You can create a CtStartServer task to restart the application server once the backup process has ended. • You can create a task to restart the server automatically when the system starts. This is useful in case of a power failure or in case you forget to do so manually. You create a scheduled task using the Scheduled Task Wizard in the Windows Control Panel. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 47 2 2 Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers Note: You can also schedule tasks using other types of software. Procedure for creating scheduled tasks To schedule a task using the Scheduled Task Wizard in Windows. 1. Create a .bat file containing the stop server or start server commands with the settings corresponding to the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment. In this .bat file, you must enter the full path for the .vbe file. Example: D:\Businessobjects Finance\CtStartServer.vbe. 2. In the Windows Control Panel, double-click on Scheduled Tasks and then on Add Scheduled Task. The Scheduled Task Wizard appears. 3. Click Next. The next dialog box is used to select the program you want to run. 4. Click Browse and select the .bat file created in step 1. 5. Click Next. 6. Enter a name for the task and specify when the task should be performed. 7. Click Next. The following dialog box is used to specify the frequency of the task, depending on the option selected in the previous dialog box. 8. Specify the time and if required, the day, month or date the task should be performed. 9. Click Next. The following dialog box is used to indicate the user account used to run the task. 10. Enter the name and password of the user whose account will run the task. 11. Click Next. 12. Check the Open advanced properties for this task when I click Finish option. Click on Finish. 48 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers The advanced properties dialog box for the task appears. Note: You can change the scheduling of the task if required. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 49 2 2 Administrating the data sources Creating scheduled tasks for starting and stopping servers 50 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases 3 3 Administrating the databases Microsoft SQL Server 2005 engine settings Microsoft SQL Server 2005 engine settings When you install Microsoft SQL Server 2005, you can use the default settings proposed by the setup. General settings In the Recovery model groupbox, select the following option: 52 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Microsoft SQL Server 2005 engine settings • Full if you want to activate the log. • Simple if you do not want to activate the log. Note: If you activate the log, you must regularly back up your database logs. If you do not do so, the database log will be completely filled. In the Settings groupbox, we recommend that you select the following options: • Auto create statistics • Auto update statistics The others are optional. Caution: You should not select the Auto shrink and Auto close options on a server so as to not decrease its performance. Only one login is required to connect to the base with SQL Server 2005. This login must be the dbo of the base. This login can be different from the sa login. Caution: You cannot log in using a login with the same rights as the dbo. The database collation should be one that uses the 125X code page, e.g. the Latin1_General collation with the 1252 code page. You should select a case-insensitive (CI) and accent-sensitive (AS) sort order. Example: Latin1_General_CI_AS. NUMA mode If the SQL Server 2005 engine is installed on a server with NUMA architecture, you should deactivate the NUMA mode in the server BIOS. Note: We recommend that you test these settings to make sure that they actually improve performance. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 53 3 3 Administrating the databases Microsoft SQL Server 2005 engine settings Modifying the degree of parallelism The following settings can improve performance, especially when BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is used with a large number of concurrent users (more than 50 concurrent users). 1. Edit the properties of the SQL Server 2005 engine. 2. Select the Advanced tab. 3. Set the Max degree of Parallelism setting to 1 processor. Activating the READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT option The following setting improve performance, especially when BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is used with a large number of concurrent users. Caution: This option is mandatory. 1. Log on to the SQL Server 2005 server. 2. Select the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation databases. 3. Run the following query: USE master go ALTER DATABASE Mybase SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON go Caution: The database must not be running during this query. If a connection remains open on this base, the query will be blocked. Recommendations for improving performance In order to increase the performance of the SQL Server engine, we recommend that you separate the data files from the log files and store them on different disks. 54 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Microsoft SQL Server 2005 engine settings Files containing data should ideally be stored on one secure disk volume (e.g. RAID 5), while log files should be stored on another (e.g. RAID 1). These two volumes can be managed by two RAID controllers with cache memory or by one multi-channel RAID controller with cache memory. If the latter option is selected, then each volume will be managed by a separate channel. The speed of the hard disks will directly affect the processing speed of the database. We also recommend that you allocate the most RAM possible to SQL Server. When the space available in the database is less than 15%, SQL Server's performance will decrease. We therefore recommend that you monitor the database to ensure that there is always 20% available disk space in it. Backing up databases using the simple recovery model If the Simple recovery model is used for a SQL Server database, bcp or insert into type commands cannot be used when backing up the database. Since BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation uses commands such as insert into during consolidation operations, running a consolidation operation at the same time as a backup is performed may cause the consolidation to fail. We recommend you switch the database to the Bulk-Logged recovery model before performing the backup. You can then switch the database back to the Simple recovery model. You can switch from one model to another using the following SQL queries: • To switch the database to "bulk logged" recovery model: ALTER DATABASE <MyBase> SET RECOVERY BULK_LOGGED • To switch the database to the Simple recovery model: ALTER DATABASE <MyBase> SET RECOVERY SIMPLE These commands can be included in backup scripts so that the consolidation processing can run correctly during backup operations. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 55 3 3 Administrating the databases Oracle 10g engine settings Oracle 10g engine settings Oracle installation requirements When installing the Oracle database engine, the required components are the Oracle server on the DBMS server and the Oracle Net/Net8 client on the application servers. All the other components are optional. Oracle Corporation recommends that you upgrade your client software to match the current server software and use the latest patch releases. Tip: We recommend that you install the client layer delivered with your database engine on the application server. Note: To find out more about the operating systems supported, recommended patches as well as installation procedures, you can consult the Oracle website at: http://www.oracle.com. Database requirements BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation requires the database to be configured in dedicated server mode and does not support the shared server mode (formerly known as multi-threaded server mode). The character sets recommended for a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation database are, in order of preference: WE8MSWIN1252, WE8ISO8859P15, US7ASCII. The national character set recommended is AL16UTF16. When the database is configured in archive log mode, make sure sufficient disk space is available for the archived redo logs and that the system is sized appropriately to support the system overhead associated with archiving. You should also change certain settings for the Oracle client on the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application server. To find out more about the configuration of the Oracle client, see the Installation guide. You can also apply the same settings to the Oracle server so as to avoid configuring the Oracle client on all the application servers. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation uses a single Oracle account to store all its database objects and to manage all its connections to the Oracle 56 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Oracle 10g engine settings server. Typically, multiple simultaneous connections to the server will be established with this single user account at any given time. Different schemas to separate development and production environments can coexist in the same database. The Oracle user account requires the following privileges: • CONNECT, RESOURCE If your company's security policy prevents you from applying these privileges, then you can grant the following ones: • CREATE SESSION, CREATE TABLE, CREATE SEQUENCE, CREATE CLUS TER, CREATE TYPE For customization projects, the following additional privileges may be required: • CREATE PROCEDURE, CREATE TRIGGER, CREATE VIEW Tip: Business Objects technical support can provide an Oracle Database Configuration Asistant's template or a sample database creation script and initialization parameter file customized for BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, which can be edited to suit the requirements of your site. Caution: You must not assign the SELECT ANY TABLE privilege or assign a role including this privilege (example: DBA) to the owner of the schema. Note: To find out more about the different server mode configurations, archiving and other database administration topics, you can consult the Oracle Administration Guide. Recommendations for improving performance Operating system For optimum performance, Cartesis recommends that you dedicate the database server and Oracle instance to the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application and that you use a data distribution system across BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 57 3 3 Administrating the databases Oracle 10g engine settings a number of disks, such as RAID. The most common RAID levels in Oracle database installations are RAID 0, RAID 1 and RAID 5. Furthermore, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation can be configured to store tables and indexes in separate tablespaces in order to improve performance. To find out more, . Related Topics • Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation on page 63 Initialization parameters The appropriate values for the Oracle initialization parameters depend on the following: • The resources available on the server. • Size of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation consolidated data tables. For optimum performance, the value of the db_cache_size parameter should be at least three times the size of the largest consolidated data table. You should also take the RAM available on the server into account when setting the value of this parameter. An Oracle connection uses 500 KB to 1 MB of RAM on the server. Because there can be as many open connections as users connected in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, you should ensure that there is sufficient memory available on the server to manage these connections. For most of the Oracle parameters, you can use the default values for BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. The parameters we recommend be changed are listed below. This example is valid for a server that has 1 GB of RAM. With Oracle 10g, automatic management of the settings is 58 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Oracle 10g engine settings supported but you will get better performance if you set the parameters manually. DB_BLOCK_SIZE = 16384 (*) DB_CACHE_SIZE= 629145600 (**) LOG_BUFFER = 524288 SHARED_POOL_SIZE = 67108864 SHARED_POOL_RESERVED_SIZE = 0 JAVA_POOL_SIZE = 0 LARGE_POOL_SIZE = 0 PROCESSES = 300 (**) WORKAREA_SIZE_POLICY= AUTO PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET=209715200 (**) OPEN_CURSORS = 1000 SESSION_CACHED_CURSORS = 100 DB_FILE_MULTIBLOCK_READ_COUNT=8 OPTIMIZER_MODE=ALL_ROWS RECYCLEBIN=OFF (*) depending on the type of server e.g. Windows, Unix, etc. (**) depending on the server characteristics e.g. RAM, number of users, etc. Moreover, Oracle recommends setting a PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET parameter to define the total amount of memory available for all user sessions, instead of using the SORT_AREA_SIZE parameter, used only for backward compatibility. The amount of RAM dedicated to the sort area is no longer limited to a fixed value per connection as was the case in Oracle8i. Instead, it is now allocated dynamically from Oracle9i. If more memory is available on the server, you should increase the values of the DB_CACHE_SIZE and PGA_AGGREGATE_TARGET parameters. Please note that the value of the DB_CACHE_SIZE parameter depends on the memory available on the server and on the size of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation consolidated data tables. For optimum performance, its value should be at least three times the size of the largest Businessobjects Finance consolidated data table. For example, if your database contains a consolidated data table whose size is 150 MB, the value of the DB_CACHE_SIZE parameter should be 471859200, i.e. 450 MB of RAM. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 59 3 3 Administrating the databases Oracle 10g engine settings Input/output configuration To improve performance, you should try to distribute the I/O load for the database as evenly as possible over the available disks and to use different tablespaces for user data, indexes and undo data. If using RAID subsystems or an equivalent, you should apply strategies that are different from those used when using I/O distribution (e.g. data on one disk, index on another). In addition to performance considerations, you should also take into account the availability requirements for specific files, such as the (archived) redo log files. For this reason, I/O configurations differ considerably from site to site. The least complicated I/O configuration uses a single volume, which is then striped across all available disks (RAID). We recommend, however, that you use another set of disks dedicated to the redo logs so that there is no interference between sequential redo log write operations and random datafile read operations. When running in archive log mode, you should use two disks so that the reading of the redo log file by the archive process does not interfere with the writing to the redo log file by the log writer process. For performance and availability reasons, you should store the archived redo log files on another disk or on a different striped volume with multiple disks for faster access. You do not usually need to separate the tables from the indexes because the I/O on these database objects occur sequentially and therefore does not cause I/O contention. However, for administrative and I/O tuning purposes, you should consider storing the most frequently accessed tables and the other tables and indexes separately. This makes it easier to identify I/O intensive files. There is no optimal configuration for BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. Because each server has different characteristics, the DBA should decide how best to configure them. Configuration of tablespaces and database object storage In BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, you can specify the settings for storing tables and indexes using the WDDLHOOK table. To find out more, see Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial 60 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Oracle 10g engine settings Consolidation on page 63. Specifying the correct values enables you to use the space available optimally and to improve performance. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation manages the following types of table: • Tables containing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation setup. • Tables containing user data e.g. packages, consolidations, journal entries, etc. • Worktables, which may be compared to temporary tables. The tables containing the setup are not large and grow slowly as BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is used. The tables containing data are generally large and tend not to be modified once they are created. They are generally filled in as soon as they are created, and are rarely modified afterwards. The user data tables whose name starts with CT_PK, CT_CO, CT_CO_ENTRY, CT_PC, CT_PC_ENTRY, CT_PK_ENTRY and CT_OPBAL. The worktables can contain a large amount of data, but their life span is limited. The name of these tables always starts with letter T. Furthermore, since these tables are only used for processes, it is not necesary to archive their contents. The ARCHIVE_LOG mode can therefore be deactivated on these tables to improve performance. To do this, create a TABLESPACE dedicated to these worktables with the NOLOGGING option. For ease of administration, the storage configuration for the three tables above can be different. You can also use temporary tables by activating the Use Temporary Table option in the administration console (by editing the properties of the AdvancedDBString parameter). If you do so, the largest worktables are managed like temporary tables. You should therefore provide enough space for the temporary TABLESPACE. From the Oracle 9i engine, you can manage the size of segments automatically. This is known as local mode, and replaces the dictionary mode available in Oracle 8i. With this mode, you no longer need to specify the size for the segments, and performance should be improved. This mode is configured at tablespace level. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 61 3 3 Administrating the databases Oracle 10g engine settings Example: CREATE TABLESPACE <Table_Space> DATAFILE …. EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL AUTOALLOCATE; You can, however, set specific storage parameters for each table using the WDDLHOOK table. For worktables, you should create a dedicated tablespace in NOLOGGING mode. You should also configure the WDDLHOOK table so that the temporary tables will use this dedicated tablespace. Example of a tablespace creation script for worktables : /* Create tablespace in NOLOGGING mode */ CREATE TABLESPACE tbs_data_MAGTEMP DATAFILE 'd:\oracle\oradata\cart\finance\tbs_data_MAGTEMP.dbf' SIZE 500M EXTENT MANAGEMENT LOCAL AUTOALLOCATE NOLOGGING; /* Create WDDLHOOK table to take the dedicated tablespace into account */ CREATE TABLE WDDLHOOK (TABLENAME char(65) CONSTRAINT wddl hook_tablename_pk PRIMARY KEY, TYPO char(65), CREATETBL var char2(256), CREATEIDX varchar2(256)); INSERT INTO WDDLHOOK (TABLENAME, CREATETBL, CREATEIDX) VALUES ('T*','TABLESPACE tbs_data_MAGTEMP',' TABLESPACE tbs_data_MAGTEMP '); Note: If the worktables are managed like temporary tables, you do not have to manage them using the WDDLHOOK table. 62 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring the optimizer Business Objects recommends you activate Dynamic Sampling with the following initialization parameters: Optimizer-dynamic_sampling = 2 optimizer_index_caching = 0 optimizer_index_cost_adj = 100 optimizer_mode = ALL_ROWS From Oracle 10g, the GATHER-STATS-JOB collects the statistics. The execution window for this job is WEEKNIGHT-WINDOW (Monday to Friday between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.) and WEEKEND-WINDOW (noon Saturday to noon Sunday). Depending on your environment, it may be necessary to modify the execution windows to minimize their impact. Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Description of the WDDLHOOK table BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation dynamically creates different types of tables and indexes when specific tasks are run. For example, when you run a consolidation processing operation, the server will send SQL statements to the database server so that it creates a new consolidation table with one or more indexes, which in turn will use several temporary worktables during the processing. To create these database objects, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation uses standard ANSI-compliant SQL syntax, valid for all currently supported databases. These SQL statements can be customized to add the proprietary syntax of the Microsoft SQL Server or Oracle database server. This enables you to store different types of tables in different locations, to separate tables BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 63 3 3 Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation from indexes and to use specific storage parameters unique to the RDBMS thus improving I/O performance. The mechanism used to adapt the settings of the databases and to modify the SQL command generated by BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is called WDDLHOOK. This is a table that contains the syntax corrections that need to be applied to the SQL commands that are used to create the tables and indexes. Creating the WDDLHOOK table To implement this mechanism in the database, you must manually create a table called WDDLHOOK for Oracle ("wddlhook" in the lower case for SQL Server). This table must be created before the control tables of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application are created when the database is initialized via the administration console. If this is not done before initialization, the WDDLHOOK configuration will not be applied. The table below describes the WDDLHOOK table: Column Type Description CHAR(65) NOT NULL Regular expression corresponding to the name of the table to be customized (e.g. ct_co* or T*) TYPO CHAR(65) Enables the existing definition to be reused for the regular expression CREATETBL VARCHAR(256) SQL query customizing the creation of the table TABLENAME 64 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Column Type Description CREATEIDX VARCHAR(256) SQL query customizing the creation of the indexes • The first column, TABLENAME, contains a regular expression corresponding to a table name. For example: ct_pk* corresponds to the tables that start with ct_pk, and ct_co*1 corresponds to tables that start with ct_co and that end with 1. Note: The names of the tables must be entered in lowercase, except for T* tables, which must be entered in uppercase. • If the second column, TYPO, also contains a regular expression, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation will use the row of the table whose TABLENAME column contains the regular expression. • The CREATETBL column contains a character string. This string will be added to the end of the table-creation query. • The CREATEIDX column contains a character string. This string will be added to the end of the index-creation of the table queries. The syntax you use to create the WDDLHOOK table will depend on your database engine: Note: For Oracle, Business Objects Technical Support can provide a sample WDDLHOOK script, which can be edited to suit the requirements of your site. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 65 3 3 Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation For Microsoft SQL Server create table wddlhook ( tablename char(65) not null, typo char(65), createtbl varchar(256), createidx varchar(256)) go create unique index wddlhook_i1 ON wddlhook ("tablename" ) go For Oracle CREATE TABLE WDDLHOOK ( TABLENAME char(65) CONSTRAINT wddlhook_tablename_pk PRIMARY KEY, TYPO char(65), CREATETBL varchar2(256), CREATEIDX varchar2(256)); Configuration of the WDDLHOOK table When a new table is created, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation will check if the WDDLHOOK table exists. If it does not exist, the table and its indexes will be created without any specific configuration. If it exists, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation will check the TABLENAME column to see if one of the regular expressions corresponds to the name of the table. If so, the contents of the CREATETBL field will be added to the query for creating the table and the contents of the CREATEIDX field will be added to the query for creating the indexes. If none of the regular expressions correspond to the name of the table in the TABLENAME column, then the table and its indexes will be created without any specific configuration. 66 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Caution: • • Because the contents of the CREATETBL and CREATEIDX fields are added to the queries for creating the table and the indexes without any modification, you should check that the syntax is correct. If it is not, the application will not be able to create the new table or indexes. The option that enables you to manage the work tables as temporary tables only applies to tables containing large volumes of data. Activating this option will not delete the small T* tables in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation database. Example: In an Oracle database, the WDDLHOOK table contains the following data: TABLENAME CREATETBL CREATEIDX T* tablespace CT_TEMP_DATA nologging tablespace CT_TEMP_DATA nologging ct_co* tablespace CT_AMOUNTS tablespace CT_INDEX tablespace CT_APP tablespace CT_INDEX ct_pk* ct_* TYPO ct_co In this example of the WDDLHOOK table, the creation of tables will be customized as follows: BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 67 3 3 Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation T15393065 table Table T15393065 corresponds to the regular T* expression. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation will therefore take the character strings in the first row of the WDDLHOOK table: • create table T15393065(id int(4)) tablespace CT_TEMP_DATA nologging; • create index T15393065_idx on T15393065(id) tablespace CT_TEMP_DATA nologging; CT_CO0992 table The CT_CO0992 table corresponds to the ct_co* regular expression. The strings of characters from the second row of the table will be used: • create table CT_CO0992(accnt …) tablespace CT_AMOUNTS; • create index CT_CO0992I on CT_CO0992(accnt)tablespace CT_INDEX; CT_PC0105 table The CT_PC0105 table corresponds to the ct_pc* regular expression. In the WDDLHOOK table, this expression is redirected to the ct_pk* expression. The strings of characters from the ct_pk* row will therefore be used: • create table CT_PC0105(period …)tablespace CT_AMOUNTS; • create index CT_PC0105_IDX1 on CT_PC0105(entity, accnt) ta blespace CT_INDEX; CT_ENTITY table The only regular expression corresponding to CT_ENTITY is ct_*. The strings of characters from the last row of the WDDLHOOK table will be used: • 68 create table CT_CONTROL(id …) tablespace CT_APP; BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation • create index CT_CONTROL_IDX on CT_CONTROL(id) tablespace CT_INDEX; BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 69 3 3 Administrating the databases Customizing the configuration of the tables in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation 70 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web advanced options Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web advanced options You can change several optional settings in the web.config file located in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application deployment folder. \Inetpub\wwwroot\Finance: Note: These settings will only be taken into account once you restart the HTTP engine and BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. The several options settings are the following: • Reconnecting automatically • Activating the Businessobjects FinanceWeb technical log • Supporting long-term HTTP sessions with firewalls • Selecting the display languages • Configuring Internet Explorer with ActiveX • Limiting the size of Excel folders • Publishing documents via a URL • Restricting schedules containing hierarchies • Frequency of messages from the administrator • Enabling HTTP compression • Adjusting the timeline of a Web session Reconnecting automatically When problems arise on the Web server, e.g. the HTTP engine stops or the connection is broken, the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector can locate the application servers to which it was connected before the incident occurred. This can be done when you specify the name of the 72 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web advanced options folder containing the connection information in the AutoRestoreDirectory parameter. <add key="AutoRestoreDirectory" value="" /> Note: You should specify one folder for each application deployed. Activating the Businessobjects FinanceWeb technical log The Log4NetInitFile parameter is used to indicate that the technical log for the Web will be enabled. You specify the location of the XML configuration file for the deployed application and its name. <add key="Log4NetInitFile" value="" /> Supporting long-term HTTP sessions with firewalls Certain components of the network infrastructure (firewalls, proxy, etc.) can interrupt HTTP connections that are open but unused. As some HTTP queries can require a lot of time to run, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation uses a "keep-alive" mechanism to maintain the sessions open. The length of time is indicated in seconds and the default value is 30 seconds. <add key="FlushResponseInterval" value="30" /> BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 73 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web advanced options Selecting the display languages The WebSiteLangages parameter is used to indicate which languages can be used in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web and the order in which they will be displayed in the user preferences. You can indicate one language only if required. <add key="WebSiteLangages" value="en;fr;de;es;ja" /> Configuring Internet Explorer with ActiveX The following parameter applies to the configuration of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Web Schedules. <add key="BrowserFlags" value="false" /> The BrowserFlags parameter from the web.xml file is used to load an ActiveX plug-in on client computers, which will enable the Browse in same window option automatically. The default value is false (disabled). To enable it, you should specify true. Note: • • 74 If you want to implement this ActiveX, the user who opened the session must have the local administrator rights. There is no default ActiveX plug-in in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web advanced options Limiting the size of Excel folders The following variable is used to specify the maximum size for Excel folders saved on the database. It is expressed in bytes and the default value is 20 000 000. <add key="EWSCompressedFileSizeLimit" value="20000000" /> Publishing documents via a URL You can run BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation schedules via a simple URL. However, for security reasons, you should not authorize users to run a schedule with just any values. The administrator must therefore define the documents that are to be run and their initialization values. This is known as publishing. The number of publications is not limited. Publishing is defined in an XML configuration file. The name of this XML file (as well as its path) must be specified in the setting below. <add key="PublicationFile" value="name and path of the XML publication file " /> • To find out more about configuring this file. Related Topics • Publishing documents via a URL on page 78 Restricting schedules containing hierarchies This parameter enables you to restrict the number of reference values to be displayed when you initialize a schedule containing hierarchies. The more reference values you authorize, the longer the pages will take to display. By BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 75 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web advanced options default, the value of the parameter is set to 300. This corresponds to a page weighing approximately 100KB. <add key="HierarchyPreviewSize" value="300" /> Frequency of messages from the administrator The BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment administrator can send messages to all the Windows client computers using the CtSendMessage.vbe program delivered with BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. To ensure that Web client workstations also receive the messages, the Web client regularly checks the Web server to see if any messages have been sent. The parameter below enables you to set how frequently the client checks the server for messages. The default value is every 1 minute. <add key="MessageInterval" value="1" /> Enabling HTTP compression The following settings are used to enable or disable HTTP compression. • None: compression is not enabled. • Low: when this option is selected, speed is the priority. • High: when this option is selected, high compression is the priority • Normal: the rate of compression is normal. HTTP compression is enabled by default and set to "Normal". <add key="CompressionLevel" value="Normal" /> 76 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Customizing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Home page Note: You should not change the other settings of the compression filter. Adjusting the timeline of a Web session When users are logged on to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web, they remain connected to the application even if they do not use it. However, if they are unexpectedly disconnected, i.e. due to a network problem, the ASP.NET session can be shut down automatically after a certain space of time. This will enable you to free up any locks that are still open on BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation objects. The timeout parameter enables you to set the number of minutes after an unexpected disconnection that the ASP.NET session can be shut down automatically. <sessionState mode="InProc" stateConnectionString="tcpip=127.0.0.1:42424" sqlConnectionString="data source=127.0.0.1;Trusted_Connec tion=yes" cookieless="false" timeout="20" /> Note: We recommend that you set the timeout at less than 5 minutes. Customizing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Home page You can customize a section of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Logon window and Home page as well as the Contacts window. You can customize these areas as follows: BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 77 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL 1. Create a file called left_side.html, containing the HTML code of the web page that you want to display in the banner of the Logon window and Home page. 2. Copy and paste this file in the custom folder located at the root of the Magnitude application deployment folder. This will replace the sample file of the same name provided with BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. 3. If you want to add and customize your contacts, you should create a file called contacts.html and insert it in the same place. Note: This operation must be repeated for each application deployed on your Web servers. Example: You should insert the left_side.html file in ..\XXX\Finance\custom. Publishing documents via a URL To run a schedule via a URL, the following information must be configured in an XML publication file. The name of this XML file as well as its path and location must be specified in the web.config file of the application you deployed, as shown in the setting below. <add key="PublicationFile" value="name and path of the XML publication file " /> The XML configuration file must contain the following information: • The name of the publication Note: A file can contain several publications. 78 • The name of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation user who runs the schedule • The name of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation schedule to be run BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL • The data sources that are to be queried • The dimensions that are to be queried • The sheet selected in the case of multi-sheet schedules XML file structure <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <publicationslist> <publication name="name of the publication"> <user>login</user> <schedule>name of the schedule</schedule> <sourceslist> <source>description of source 1</source> <source>description of source 2</source> … </sourceslist> <dimensionslist> <dimension>description of dimension 1</dimension> <dimension>description of dimension 2</dimension> … </dimensionslist> <sheet>description of the sheet </sheet> </publication> <publication name="name of the publication"> … </publications> … </publicationlist> Configuration The following are required settings: • <publication name>: name of the publication to be specified in the URL • <user>: name of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation user who will run the schedule • <schedule>: name of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation schedule to be run BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 79 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL The following are optional settings: • <sourceslist>: the data sources to be queried • <dimensionslist>: the dimensions to be specified • <sheet>: the sheet selected, in the case of a multi-sheet schedule Note: If optional settings required for running the schedule are not specified, the dialog boxes for selecting their value will appear, enabling the user to set these required variables. Data Sources If you want to query data sources, the settings to be specified in the <source> field are the values concerning the following sources: • Consolidated data • Preconsolidated data • Package data You can specify properties for each type of source, as well as an amount type. The syntax will be as follows: [<Name of the source>]:[<Name of the property>] The values for the various fields are as follows: • • • Consolidated data • Name: CO-AMOUNT • Properties: AMOUNT, CONVAMOUNT, CONSAMOUNT, DATA-COMMENT Preconsolidated data • Name: PC-AMOUNT • Properties: AMOUNT, DATA-COMMENT Package data • 80 Name: PK-AMOUNT BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL • Properties: AMOUNT, DATA-COMMENT If a setting is incorrect both in terms of syntax and code validity, the dialog box for selecting the corresponding source will be displayed. Dimensions If you want to query dimensions, the settings to be entered in the <dimen sion> field are the dimension codes as well as the initialization methods. The syntax takes the following form: • <CodeAlpha Dimension>:ALLVALUES [:<Grouping method>]: corresponds to the All Values selection method. • <CodeAlpha Dimension>:NULLANDALL[:<Grouping method>]: corresponds to the All or No Values selection method. • <CodeAlpha Dimension>:NULLVALUE[:<Grouping method>]: corresponds to the No Value selection method. • <CodeAlpha Dimension>:VALUE:<Name of the reference value>: corresponds to the All Values selection method. • <CodeAlpha Dimension>:FILTER:<CodeAlpha of the fil ter>[:<Grouping method>]: corresponds to the Filter selection method. • <CodeAlpha Dimension>:CHARAC:<CodeAlpha of the characteris tic>:<CodeAlpha of the value of the charact.>[:<Grouping method>]: corresponds to the characteristic of a dimension value. • REFPERIOD:<Code of the reference data entry period >: corresponds to date type dimensions with relative values. The <dimension> flags may appear in any given order, except for identical dimensions that appear in different blocks. In the former case, the nth initialization of the dimension in the publication is associated with the nth dimension to be set with the same ID. If it is missing or invalid, the dialog box for selecting the dimension values will be displayed. Like for the sources to be set, for each dimension whose initialization is not specified in the publication or that is incorrect (syntax, validity of the codes, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 81 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL consistency of selection methods, values, etc.), the dialog box for selecting the dimension values will be displayed. If a grouping method is used, it can have the following values: AGGREGATED Aggregated HEADERDETAILTOTAL Header, itemized, total DETAILTOTAL Itemized, total after TOTALDETAIL Total before, itemized HEADERDETAIL Header, itemized DETAILLED Itemized This method is optional and will only need to be specified if it is to be set. If there is a grouping method but it has not been specified in the publication file, the AGGREGATED value will be used by default. Multi-sheets In the case of multi-sheet schedules, the settings to be entered in the <sheet> field are the values necessary for identifying the sheet. Only the last one is taken into account. A sheet is described by the list of dimension and /or characteristic values that characterize it. The syntax takes the following form: <Value1>:<Value2>:<Value3>. Each value must appear in exactly the same order set in the schedule. The number of dimensions/characterisitics to be set for the sheet should at least be equivalent. 82 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL Each value will take the following form: • <CodeAlpha of the RefValue> • NULL • TOTAL If no sheet corresponds to the settings of the publication, the dialog box for selecting the sheet will be displayed. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 83 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL Example: Example of XML file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <publicationslist> <!-==================================================--> <publication name="MULTIDIM-VALIDVAL"> <user>DOC</user> <schedule>D-EXE02</schedule> <sourceslist> </sourceslist> <dimensionslist> <dimension>RU:VALUE:AUHE001</dimension> <dimension>REFPERIOD:VALUE:2001.12</dimension> <dimension>DP:VALUE:2001.12</dimension> </dimensionslist> </publication> <!-==================================================--> <publication name="MULTIDIM-MIXEDVAL"> <user>DOC</user> <schedule>D-EXE02</schedule> <sourceslist> </sourceslist> <dimensionslist> <dimension>RU:VALUE:WRONGRU</dimension> <dimension>DP:VALUE:2001.12</dimension> <dimension>REFPERIOD:2001.12</dimension> </dimensionslist> </publication> <publication name="MULTISHEETS"> <user>PACKAGE1</user> <schedule>D-MF01</schedule> <sourceslist /> <dimensionslist /> <sheet>A21500:TOTAL</sheet> <sheet>A27600:FRDR003</sheet> <sheet>A31300:USFO003</sheet> </publication> <!-==================================================-- 84 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL URL syntax The URL used for running a schedule must specify a publication name. It will take the following form: http(s)://serveur/appli/URLExecute.ashx?Name=<publication name> BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 85 4 4 Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Publishing documents via a URL 86 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing users and user security 5 5 Managing users and user security Using security in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Using security in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation enables you to manage users and user security in a variety of ways: • • The following is managed in the InternalAuthentificationConfigString key: • Integrated security: Users and passwords are managed directly by and in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, • Integrated Windows security: users and passwords are authenticated by Windows in Windows NT-type domains (not LDAP). The following is managed in the ExternalAuthentificationConfigString key: • BOE (BusinessObjects Enterprise) Authentication: the users are managed by the BOE XI R3 platform. • LDAP/Active Directory directory: the users are managed by an LDAP Active Directory. • LDAP security: the users are managed by an LDAP other than Active Directory. • Script or Plugin security: security is managed by an external module not supplied by Cartesis. This last method enables you to use a different authentication system from those available by default. Note: Script or plugin-based security is not documented. If you want to implement it, please contact Business Objects. You can use the InternalAthentificationConfigString and ExternalAuthentificationConfigString keys for the same data source at the same time. You can therefore have some users managed by an LDAP directory and others managed directly by BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. You cannot, however, use several different LDAP for the same data source, unless you create a plug-in that will be used in plug-in-based authentication. 88 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing users and user security Managing users using BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 authentication Managing users using BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 authentication The BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 client must be installed on each BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application server, and on the datasource manager if it is located on another server. You must select the following options during the installation process: • Developer Components • BusinessObjects Enterprise Java SDK • BusinessObjects Enterprise Web Services SDK Note: You must install the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 client on each application server and also on the data source manager if it is not installed on the application server. You must then configure BusinessObjects XI R3 user authentication in the Configure external authentication dialog box of the Application Data BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 89 5 5 Managing users and user security Managing users using BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 authentication Source Wizard or directly in the ExternalAuthenticationConfigString setting. 1. You should enter the fields in this dialog box as shown in the example below: 2. Configure external authentication: select the Business Objects XI R3 authentication. 3. CMS server name: enter the name of the Central Management Server (CMS). Once you have defined Business Objects XI R3 as the authentication provider in the Administration console, you should create BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation users corresponding to the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 users. Note: A user defined using external authentication in Businessobjects Finance will not be able to connect using internal authentication, even if this is authorized in the Administration console. This is because the two 90 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing users and user security Managing users using the LDAP directory authentication types (internal and external) are mutually exclusive in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. You can create users in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation as follows: 4. In the Users view, create a new user and select the Authentication tab. 5. Select Use external authentication and enter the BOE user name in the Login field. Once you have saved this user in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, he/she will only be able to connect using the BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R3 login and password. Managing users using the LDAP directory You can use BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation to manage user authentication using an LDAP directory. The chapter below provides the procedure to follow when using an Active Directory or when using LDAP authentication other than Active Directory Configuring LDAP user authentication with Active Directory You can configure user authentication via LDAP in the Configure external authentication dialog box of the Application Data Source Wizard or directly in the ExternalAuthenticationConfigString setting. 1. You should enter the fields in this dialog box as shown in the example below: BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 91 5 5 Managing users and user security Managing users using the LDAP directory 2. Configure external authentication: select LDAP authentication/Active DIrectory from the drop-down menu. 3. Select machine: enter or select the computer or the domain where the LDAP directory is located. Tip: You can specify the name of the domain in the two fields. The computer hosting the LDAP directory will be retrieved automatically. 4. Enter the domain: enter the name of the domain managed by the LDAP directory. Once you have defined LDAP as the authentication provider in the Administration console, you should create BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation users corresponding to the LDAP users. 92 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing users and user security Managing users using the LDAP directory Creating LDAP users for Active Directory in Businessobjects Finance Users in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation are identified by a code and a login. The login is used to serve as the correspondence between the application and the LDAP directory. You connect for the first time with the ADMIN user, which is authenticated by the application (internal authentication). Next, you should create users corresponding to the LDAP directory users. Once you have finished defining them, you should disable internal authentication. Tip: You can enable and disable the two authentication types in the Administration console. Note: • • A user defined using external authentication in Businessobjects Finance will not be able to connect using internal authentication, even if this is authorized in the Administration console. This is because the two authentication types are mutually exclusive in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. The correspondence between a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation user and an LDAP directory user is based on the login indicated in the Authentication tab and not on the code indicated in the General tab. You can create users in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation as follows: 1. In the Users view, create a new user and select the Authentication tab. 2. Select Use external authentication and enter the LDAP directory user name in the Login field. 3. Once you have saved this user in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, he/she will only be able to connect using the LDAP login and password. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 93 5 5 Managing users and user security Managing users using the LDAP directory LDAP Authentication other than Active Directory You can also manage user authentication via an LDAP directory other than Active Directory. Note: This type of authentication replaces script-based authentication. You can customize the settings in the Configure External Authentication step of the application data source wizard or by editing the properties of the ExternalAuthenticationConfigString setting. 1. You should enter the fields in this dialog box as shown in the example below: 2. Configure external authentication: select LDAP authentication from the drop-down menu. 94 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing users and user security Managing users using the LDAP directory 3. Select the primary and secondary host machine: enter or select the computers or the domains where the LDAP directory is located. Tip: You can directly enter the domain name in the first field if your LDAP allows you to do so. The computer hosting the LDAP directory will then be retrieved automatically. 4. Enter the domain: enter the name of the "base object" managed by the LDAP directory. 5. Enter the distinguished name of the LDAP access account: this account is used for looking for the LDAP users. If this field is left empty, the searches in the LDAP will be conducted anonymously. Note: If your LDAP does not authorize anonymous access, you must fill in this field. 6. Enter the password of the LDAP access account: this is the password of the Distinguished Name. 7. Enter the search string: select the filter to be used in the LDAP query for finding a user. This is a compulsory field. Once you have defined LDAP as the authentication provider in the Administration console, you should create BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation users corresponding to the LDAP users. Creating LDAP (other than Active Directory) users in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation You can create users in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation as follows: 1. In the Users view, create a new user and select the Authentication tab. 2. Select the Use external authentication option. In the Login field, enter the user name corresponding to the %u variable value provided in the search string. 3. Once you have saved this user in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, he/she will only be able to connect using the LDAP login and password. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 95 5 5 Managing users and user security Connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation using Single Sign On Connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation using Single Sign On BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation enables Web users to connect without entering a login and password via Single Sign On. For BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, this function is integrated into a Web portal and allows users who have already been authenticated to connect. A specific URL is used in which the HTTP query header is overridden with the parameters required for user identification. The principle of SSO identification used with BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is based on the "Shared Secret" concept: this consists of defining a secret (string of characters) which is shared by BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation and the system managing authentication. The accuracy of this value is the only security criterion considered before a session is opened or not. Note: This system should be implemented by technical teams with Internet technology expertise, as it involves a certain level of Web portal development. 96 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing users and user security Connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation using Single Sign On Configuring the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation servers In order to activate the SSO functionality on the Web, you must add the following rows to the web.config file of the application deployed on the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation web servers:  <appSettings> <add key="AutoRestoreDirectory" value="" /> <add key="Log4NetInitFile" value="C:\Cartesis\Web95LogCon fig.xml" /> <add key="FlushResponseInterval" value="30" /> <add key="WebSiteLangages" value="en;fr;de;es;ja" /> <add key="BrowserFlags" value="false" /> <add key="EWSCompressedFileSizeLimit" value="20000000" /> <add key="PublicationFile" value="" /> <add key="HierarchyPreviewSize" value="300" /> <add key="MessageInterval" value="1" /> <add key="SSOLoginParameter" value="Login" /> <add key="SSOSharedSecretParameter" value="Secret" /> <add key="SSOSharedSecret" value="MySecret" /> <!-- Note: SSO is active as soon as these lines are added. You should add the following parameters: • The SSOLoginParameter parameter describes the name of the field containing the user login. Note: This login is the login entered in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, not the code of the user. To find out more, see the Users chapter in the User Guide. • The SSOSharedSecretParameter parameter describes the name of the field containing the shared secret. • The SSOSharedSecret parameter defines the shared secret (string of characters). BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 97 5 5 Managing users and user security Connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation using Single Sign On Note: • • The values of these parameters are selected based on the constraints set by your Web portal. SSO functions with BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web regardless of the type of authentication selected in the Administration console. Configuring the Web portal The SSO connection is established by calling a .ashx file (SSOLogin.ashx) and overriding the HTTP query header. As the header cannot be modified directly from the client computer, it is modified from the Web portal. Note: This type of modification should be performed with the help of technical teams, as it involves a certain level of Web portal development. The parameters to be added to the header are the two parameters entered in the web.config file: the login and the secret. Both parameters should be added to the HTTP header as follows: GET /magnitude/SSOLogin.ashx HTTP/1.1 Accept: */* Accept-Language: fr User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 5.5; Windows NT 5.0; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) Host: Client01 Connection: close Cookie: WebSiteLanguage=0 Login: USER01 Secret: MySecret The response to this SSOLogin.ashx call must be transferred to the client machine with the session cookie provided by the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation server. Note: • • 98 The client workstation does not have to undergo a specific configuration. You can still connect normally to the Web site. If you want to prevent normal connection and force users to switch to SSO mode, simply remove BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing users and user security Connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation using Single Sign On the Login.aspx file from the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web site that you deployed. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 99 5 5 Managing users and user security Connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation using Single Sign On 100 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Availability management Availability management Availability management is the ability to deliver consistent, predictable access to both application and data so that interruptions resulting from planned or unplanned events do not affect users. This chapter describes how you can ensure data and application accessibility in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment during planned and unplanned downtime. This chapter: • Identifies the planned and unplanned events that can occur. • Lists the requirements to be met in order to ensure availability. • Describe how the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment can provide availability management solutions for planned or unplanned downtime. Planned downtime There are two types of planned downtime: • • 102 Downtime due to operations performed on the system: • upgrading hardware or software components. • updating the operating systems. • replacing disks. • etc. Downtime due to specific operations performed on the database: • defragmenting the disk on which the database is located • performing maintenance tasks on the database • performing cold backups • etc. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Availability management Unplanned downtime There are three types of unplanned downtime: • Downtime due to the occurrence of disasters, requiring a disaster recovery plan. • Downtime due to problems in the system, e.g. hardware or software failure. • Downtime due to data corruption, requiring the restoration of the database. Requirements By applying availability management solutions, planned or unplanned downtime can be reduced or eliminated. You should, however, first ensure that requirements are met for the following elements: Environment This refers to the whole physical environment surrounding the application and the machines. You can check the following points: • the storage conditions for the machines: provide adequate climate control, maintain humidity control, take precautions against fire risks, ensure adequate wall thickness, etc. • Power conditioning: provide an uninterruptible power supply (UPS). • Data storage: perform regular backups and archive backup tapes at a remote location. If storage servers are used, these should also be located offsite. • Serviceability: ensure regular maintenance of equipment, components, etc. through contractual arrangements made with suppliers or third parties. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 103 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Availability management Network and security In order to manage availability, you should first have a secure network and reliable security. • Network reliability: ensure that both active and passive components are taken into account. • Passive components: Use the required network accessories and ensure adequate interconnection of computers with cables, duplicated network cards, etc. • Active components: Implement Internet access with proxies, firewalls, etc. and use Web load balancers, compression and encryption software. • Security: • Implement intrusion detection software and other software security measures. • Authenticate users using a reliable method, e.g. by implementing rolling password changes to protect against data corruption or denial-of-service attacks. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components The table below lists the components that are unique and should be deployed in a clustered environment and those that may be duplicated. COMPONENTS IN A CLUSTERED COMPONENTS IN A MULTI-SERVENVIRONMENT ER ENVIRONMENT Database server Application server Data source manager (CtBroker.exe) Windows Terminal Services server 104 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Availability management Example In the example above, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is installed using an architecture that ensures high availability. • The database engine is installed in a clustered environment that provides failover support or load balancing. The RDBMS providers supported by BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, i.e. Microsoft, Oracle and IBM, can provide clustering solutions with specific product versions. This ensures high availability of your database. • BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is used with multiple application servers and multiple Web servers. If one of the application or Web servers should fail, only the users connected to the failed server will be disconnected. They can, however, reconnect immediately to the application using one of the other servers. This ensures that the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application remains accessible at all times. • The CtBroker component must be unique in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation and is deployed in a clustered environment providing failover support. If the module stops, the next attempt by one of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 105 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Availability management BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components to access it will restart it automatically. If the cluster node hosting the module fails, CtBroker will also stop. However, the next attempt by one of the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components to access the module will restart it automatically. Once the module restarts, it will revert to its previous state automatically and quickly (a few seconds). The temporary unavailability of the module does not affect the users. • Access to the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web servers is ensured by the Web load-balancer installed before the Web servers. Availability management in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation You can apply the availability management solutions described below in order to reduce or eliminate planned and unplanned downtime. Upgrading hardware or software components The recycling of server processes enables you to upgrade components on the application servers or Web servers without disrupting application or data accessibility. The recycling process means that although a server is unavailable for an undetermined length of time while maintenance tasks are being performed on it, users can continue working. Before the server is recycled, the users connected are warned that they will be disconnected after a specific time and that they can reconnect immediately. Once they do so, they will be allocated to one of the available servers. Note: • • 106 In order to be able to recycle server processes, you must configure BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode. The components mentioned above do not include Businessobjects Finance components. If you need to upgrade the version of the application, you must stop the entire system. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Availability management Related Topics • Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode on page 122 Operations performed on the database When hot backups are performed, neither the database engine nor the application need to be shut down. However, with certain engines, it is necessary to carry out cold backups. This type of activity then requires a planned shutdown of the application. Disaster recovery Unplanned downtime may occur as a result of natural disasters, fires, floods or terrorist attacks, etc. The countermeasure in this case is the recovery of data and application accessibility. Depending on the recovery time and budget available, you can do this in two ways: • Perform data duplication: Data duplication consists of storing backups of the database performed on a regular basis (e.g. daily) at a remote location as well as product installation CDs in order to reinstall the application and restore the database quickly. In BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, all of the product configuration settings are stored in the database itself. This makes data recovery easier as nothing is stored on the application servers. • Set up a redundant environment: This method consists of setting up the same environment at another site by using redundant servers and deploying a redundant network with the relevant network accessories in a side-by-side configuration. By maintaining a hot site or disaster-recovery site, you ensure complete operation continuity because no time is lost in reinstalling the application or restoring the database. You should, however, ensure that the data at the redundant site is constantly updated with that from the production site. In the case of Oracle, you can also back up and replay the transaction logs against the duplicated database to maintain the data. As all of the product BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 107 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Availability management configuration settings are stored in the database, this makes data synchronization easier. Data corruption Data may be corrupted as a result of manipulation errors or software failure, etc. The countermeasure consists of conducting regular backups and restoring the database from backups to the last point before the corruption occurred. As all of the product configuration settings are stored in the database, there is no risk of data loss and you can revert back easily to the most current version. Note: Site redundancy does not protect you from data corruption due to manipulation errors, as this can also affect the duplicated database. Component failure There are two types of component failure: hard disk failure on any of the computers in the application environment or hardware/software failure, which is more difficult to detect. • The countermeasure to hard disk failure consists of ensuring application accessibility by using secured disk storage, e.g. RAID 1 or RAID 5. • The countermeasure to hardware and software failure consists of adopting the two-pronged approach below: • Clustering for all the components that are unique: database, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation synchronization components (CtBroker). In a cluster with failover support, users do not need to reconnect to the application during an outage. They can continue working by simply repeating the operation that failed. Note: A user saves a package at the same time as a component becomes unavailable: In such a case, either the recovery is transparent, or the user will get an error message and will have to repeat the save operation. The user will not need to reconnect to the application. 108 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Installing BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components on a cluster • All other components are in multi-server configuration: application servers, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web servers, TSE servers. Having serveral servers makes it possible to offer machine redundancy, and therefore machines can be stopped without affecting the application. This chapter provides details on how to deploy BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in a multi-server configuration. For more information, Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode on page 122. In a multi-server architecture, the user must reconnect. However, this can be done quickly. Users do not need to wait for the machine to restart since the connection is supported by other machines that are already running and available. In a clustered environment, components must be restarted on another cluster node thus leading to a slight delay in response, whereas in a multi-server environment, all of the servers are running and immediately available. Installing BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components on a cluster The CtBroker module can be used in a Microsoft cluster providing failover support. The other BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components may not be used in a cluster because they can be installed in a multi-server configuration. There can only be a single CtBroker.exe module in each BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment. To ensure availability at all times, you should therefore install this module in a cluster. Requirements You must have a Cluster Service that functions under Windows 2000 or Windows 2003 on at least two machines providing failover support. The load balancer is not supported. Note: To find out more about the requirements, the installation and the configuration of the Microsoft clusters, please consult the Microsoft documentation. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 109 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Installing BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components on a cluster BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation must be installed on each cluster node. Installation We strongly recommend that BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation be installed on the standard Quorumcluster , as the CtBroker.exe process will be linked to the "Cluster Group ". We recommend that BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation be installed on each node after the other node has been physically shut down. This is because the system setup may reboot the computer during the installation process and the Quorum disk may then be taken over by the other node. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation must be installed in the same folder on both nodes. You install Magnitude in the cluster nodes in the same way as you install the application on a server. You must select Administration console to install the CtBroker.exe process Configuration You must then create a new cluster resource: • The resource type is "Generic Service" and it will be assigned to the "Cluster Group" resource group. • You are not required to run this resource in a separate resource monitor. • This resource should depend on the "Cluster Name" resource. • The service name to be used is CtBroker, and there are no Start Parameters. • You must select the "Use Network Name for Computer Name" option. • You are not required to specify the registry keys to be replicated. Once you have created the resource, you should only use the name and IP address of the cluster and not those of its nodes. 110 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Installing BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation components on a cluster In no case should the Administration console be started connected to a node. It should always be connected to the cluster. Tip: Do not start the Administration console directly on one of the nodes. Connect via another computer and connect the Administration console to the cluster (not the nodes). Note: Only the CtBroker.exe process can be used in a clustered environment. You must not start other BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation processes on the cluster nor try to define them as cluster resources. Example: • The cluster is made up of two nodes: Node1 and Node2. The cluster resource configured for these two nodes is called ClusterMag. • BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is installed on the Node1 and Node2 computers. • The data source manager is defined for the ClusterMag cluster. In the Administration console, you connect to ClusterMag to manage the data sources. Operation The CtBroker component starts automatically when a Businessobjects Finance component accesses it (CtServer, Finance.exe, etc.). You do not need to start this module manually on the cluster. If CtBroker fails, the next attempt by one of the components to access it will restart it automatically. Because all of the information managed by CtBroker is located in the CtApplicationDataSources.xml file, CtBroker reverts to its previous state as soon as it restarts. Note: If you install BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation on the private disk of each node, you must update the CtApplicationDataSources.xml file for each node every time you make changes in the Administration console. Users will not experience any downtime when the CtBroker stops and restarts. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 111 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web with firewalls If a cluster node fails, CtBroker will also stop. The cluster will immediately switch over to the other node and the component will restart automatically as explained above. This ensures that the system is fault tolerant. Note: • • You must never start an Administration console on a physical node of the cluster, as the console tries to connect to the CtBroker.exe of the local machine. If the latter is not started, it will start automatically. You will then be working with a broker that is started on the physical node, but that is not managed by the cluster. You must always work with the broker of the virtual node. You can therefore manage the data sources either by opening a Terminal Services session on the virtual node of the cluster hosting the broker, or from a computer that is not part of the cluster, and by connecting to the virtual node. Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web with firewalls BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation uses the following 6 objects to communicate via the network using the DCOM protocol or HTTP. Each of the executable processes requires at least one IP port. The objects which take on the role of the DCOM server require a port in order to be called. Because DCOM allocates IP ports dynamically by default to each executable process serving DCOM objects on a computer, it is "firewall-unfriendly". If you want to use a firewall, you should configure the DCOM objects to use a specific range of IP ports. You will then be able to identify which port will be called and configure the firewall accordingly. 6 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation objects communicate using DCOM and 2 also communicate using HTTP. • CtBroker.exe: This executable process corresponds to the data source manager. It calls up CtServer.exe, CtController.exe and the Businessobjects Finance Web connector (via an HTTP query). It is called up by Finance.exe and the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector (started by the .NET framework). 112 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web with firewalls • CtServer.exe : This executable process corresponds to the application server. It calls up CtController.exe and the database. The objects that access it are Finance.exe, CtBroker.exe, CtController.exe (locally) and the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector started by the .NET framework. • Finance.exe: This executable process corresponds to the Windows client. It calls up CtBroker.exe and CtServer.exe. It is never called up. • Microsoft Excel Application : When Excel Link is used, Excel becomes a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation client using DCOM. It calls up CtBroker.exe and CtServer.exe. It is never called up. Note: If Excel Link is used, Excel communicates with the Web server using HTTP rather than DCOM. Therefore you do not need to configure a DCOM port if a firewall is used. • BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector : The connector is the ASP.NET application deployed in the .NET framework. It is located on the HTTP server. It calls up CtBroker.exe and CtServer.exe. It is called up by CtBroker.exe (via a HTTP query). Because this object is not called by DCOM, you do not need to configure a port for it. • CtController.exe: This executable process corresponds to the object that identifies and controls the CtServer server process on the local host. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 113 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring DCOM for firewalls It calls up different instances of CtServer.exe locally. It is called up by CtBroker.exe and CtServer.exe. Configuring DCOM for firewalls Clients discover the port associated with a particular object by connecting to and using the services provided by DCOM's Service Control Manager (SCM). The DCOM Service Control Manager always operates at a fixed network port on every computer, i.e. port 135. Because DCOM uses dynamic IP ports, you must change the configuration of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation objects so that they use a specific range of ports and BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation can pass the firewalls. In the case of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, 5 of the 6 DCOM objects used may be configured to use specific IP ports. The only object that cannot be configured is the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector, because this object is just a DCOM client, and not a DCOM server. It will therefore not be called up by an external program via DCOM. You are not required to define a range of ports for Finance.exe and Excel because they are not DCOM servers and will not be called up by objects. To use DCOM through firewalls, you must ensure that all of the computers can reach each other using DNS queries (with both IP addresses and Fully Qualified Domain Names recognized in both directions). For example, the Web server must be able to reach (ping) the application server by entering its full name e.g. finance.cartesis.com and vice versa. To provide name resolution of network names to IP addresses, you may be required to modify the following files on each of the computers: • LMHOSTS (Windows Name Resolution ou WINS), • HOSTS file (DNS resolution FQDN) You should open these files and add a row for each server you want to reach only if you encounter problems with the name resolution of the computers. Note: • 114 All the port numbers indicated in this chapter are example, you can use any number from 1024 to 65535. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring DCOM for firewalls • The DCOM protocol does not work when address translation is used. Tip: To find out more about using DCOM with firewalls, go to the following URL: http://www.microsoft.com/com/wpaper/dcomfw.asp. Specifying the recommended configuration The simplest way of setting up a firewall with Businessobjects Finance is to specify the range of ports on the computers hosting the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation servers. Contrary to previous versions of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, you no longer have to change the client computers' DCOM configuration. Specifying a range of ports in DCOM 1. Run the dcomcnfg utility and select the Default Protocols tab. The following dialog box appears. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 115 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring DCOM for firewalls 2. Select the TCP/IP protocol and click Properties. 3. The Properties for COM Internet Services dialog box appears. 4. Click on Add. The following dialog box appears. 5. Enter a range of ports between 1024 and 65535, then click OK. The range of ports will depend on the number of objects run on each computer. 116 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring DCOM for firewalls Each DCOM object instance requires one port to run. The CtBroker.exe and CtController.exe processes therefore use one port each. On the other hand, several CtServer.exe processes can run at the same time, either because an application is being recycled (one server is stopping and the other starting to replace the first one) or because several applications are hosted on the same server. The following rule can be applied to determine the range of ports: • CtBroker.exe: 1 port. • CtController.exe: 1 port. • CtServer.exe: 2 ports per application hosted on the server. Example: A server acting as the data source manager and the application server hosting three BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation applications will use 8 ports: • 1 for CtBroker.exe. • 1 for CtController.exe. • 2 X 3 = 6 for CtServer.exe. Note: You can no longer configure BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation without a range of ports. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 117 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring DCOM for firewalls Diagram of the network traffic between the different components Example of a firewall in use In the example below, the HTTP server is installed on a DMZ (demilitarized zone) host. 118 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring DCOM for firewalls The firewall connected to the HTTP server will accept inbound and outbound traffic through port 80 (HTTP). The firewall located between the HTTP server and the other servers will accept: • inbound and outbound traffic through port 135. • traffic flowing towards the HTTP server through port 80. • traffic flowing towards the data source manager through port 5000. • traffic flowing towards the application servers through ports 5000-5100. In the example above, there is no DNS server. The IP names and addresses of the different computers have therefore been added to the HOSTS files of the HTTP server, data source manager and application servers. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 119 6 6 Securing the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation platform Configuring DCOM for firewalls 120 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode To configure in multi-server mode, you should configure an additional parameter named Processing server. The tasks scheduled in the Task list view of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation are run on the application server. In a multi-server architecture, you should specify the server on which the tasks will be performed. In the Administration console, you specify the information on the processing server in the following string: SchedulerComputerName. Note: If you run a task scheduled for immediate execution, the properties defined in SchedulerComputerName will not be taken into account. Tasks that have been scheduled for immediate execution will be run on the application server to which you are connected. You configure this setting using the Application Data Source Wizard in the Administration console, via the Configure the servers window. 1. Enter the relevant information in the Configure the servers dialog box as shown in the example below: 122 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode 2. Specify the computer that will host the first server in the architecture. Once you have done this, you can add as many servers as required directly in the Administration console. 3. To add a server, right-click Configuration and select Add a server. The Add a server window appears. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 123 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode 4. Select the computer that will host the new server. 5. Set the load balance for the server in order to specify the number of concurrent users that can connect to the server. The default value is 100 users. This is used to avoid overloading the capacity of each application server. 6. Click Finish. 7. Repeat this procedure as many times as necessary to add the required number of application servers. The application servers will be listed in the configuration view of the Administration console. 124 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode 8. Select the server on which the tasks will be run by filling in the SchedulerComputerName field. Tip: In a multi-server configuration, you can activate and deactivate the servers independently of each other. Load balancing between servers You can set the load balance variable for a given server so that the concurrent users connected to the application can be distributed over the servers available. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 125 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multi-server mode In the example above, the first server, called ST-SRV4, has a load balance of 100 while ST-SRV5 has a load balance of 200. This means that the first server will be able to manage up to 100 concurrent users while the second will be able to manage a maximum of 200 concurrent users out of a total of 300 concurrent users connected. This enables you to allocate users or clients according to the performance of the computers hosting the application servers. When a user connects, the application will allocate: • ST-SRV4 for 1 connection out of 3. • ST-SRV5 for 2 connections out of 3. Note: When you run a task, it counts as one connected user during the time required for processing. A task run in the Task List view runs on the server currently in use, while a scheduled task runs on the SchedulerComputerName server. The data source manager uses a Weighted Round Robin algorithm to balance the load among the available servers. This algorithm takes the capacity of each server into account, as well as the number of users who are already connected. Users are distributed based on each server's load. Example: • Server1: Load balance 100, 40 users connected. • Server2: Load balance 50, 30 users connected. • Server1 index: 40/100 = 0.4. This server is using 40% of its maximum load capacity. • Server2 index: 30/50 = 0.6. This server is using 60% of its maximum load capacity. The next user who connects will therefore be connected to the first server. 126 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode This indicator is recalculated in real time each time a new user connects. Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode You must first deploy the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web application on each of the HTTP servers in your architecture. For more information on application deployment, see the chapter called Deploying the Businessobjects Finance Web Site in the installation guide. Once this is done, you should configure the Administration console. 1. Double-click on WebServerURL. The following dialog box appears. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 127 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode 2. Enter the URLs for the applications deployed on the different HTTP servers. 3. Click OK. The Administration console will indicate that Businessobjects Finance Web is configured with multiple HTTP servers. 128 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode Configuring Web load balancing When BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation uses multiple HTTP servers, several URLs can be used for connecting to the Web application. If you want users to connect to the Web application using one URL only, you can specify this using a load balancer that maintains session affinity. How load balancers work BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web servers are compatible with load balancers that maintain session affinity, also known as "sticky" sessions. This means that when a client browser is directed to a HTTP server by the load balancer, then future queries from that same browser session (using sessions IDs, known as ASP.NET_SessionId) will always be directed to the same HTTP server. Each time a query is sent between the HTTP engine and the web client, the ASP.NET_SessionId identifies the client so that the query is always sent back to the same web server. This ID remains unchanged throughout the session. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 129 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode Session affinity algorithm Step 1 The client sends a first query to the load balancer. This query does not have any ASP.NET_SessionId. GET /magnitude/ HTTP/1.1 Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/vnd.ms-excel, */* Accept-Language: fr Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) Host: tl3web1 Connection: Keep-Alive Cookie: WebSiteLanguage=0 Step 1b When the load balancer processes the incoming request, it cannot find an ASP.NET_SessionId. It redirects the request to one of the HTTP servers, depending on the load balancing algorithm deployed, e.g. round robin, cost-based, etc. In the diagram below, the request is redirected to Web server 2. 130 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode Step 2 The query is then processed by the HTTP engine which sends an answer containing the Set-Cookie field. This field contains the first occurrence of the ASP.NET_SessionId. Date: Thu, 16 Jun 2005 15:06:57 GMT Server: Microsoft-IIS/6.0 X-Powered-By: ASP.NET MicrosoftOfficeWebServer: 5.0_Pub X-AspNet-Version: 1.1.4322 Content-Encoding: deflate Set-Cookie: ASP.NET_SessionId=dv32yt45ygx2ub55w4lywk55; path=/ Cache-Control: private Content-Type: text/html; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Length: 284 Step 2b The server response is then processed and analyzed by the load balancer, which will take note of the ASP.NET_SessionId value and lock it to the server. Step 3 In receiving the response, the Web client learns the cookie it should present on subsequent requests. These queries will then contain a Cookie header field containing the same session ID value. GET /magnitude/emptywhite.html HTTP/1.1 Accept: image/gif, image/x-xbitmap, image/jpeg, image/pjpeg, application/x-shockwave-flash, application/vnd.ms-excel, */* Referer: http://tl3web1/Finance/ Accept-Language: fr Accept-Encoding: gzip, deflate If-Modified-Since: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 18:54:41 GMT If-None-Match: "c19b705b4970c51:22ec" User-Agent: Mozilla/4.0 (compatible; MSIE 6.0; Windows NT 5.2; .NET CLR 1.1.4322) Host: tl3web1 Connection: Keep-Alive Cookie: WebSiteLanguage=0; ASP.NET_Session Id=dv32yt45ygx2ub55w4lywk55 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 131 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode Step 3b The load balancer processes each request and redirects them to the corresponding Web server. 132 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Configuring BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation in multiple HTTP server mode Diagram BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 133 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Recycling the servers Recycling the servers Since recycling is now automatically supported by BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, including in standalone configuration, without service interruption, it is no longer necessary to set up recycling tasks as was the case with previous versions. If you set up recycling tasks in previous version, you must delete them using the script provided below. CtServerSchedulingRobotCleaner.vbe This script enables you to delete all scheduled tasks that are active for a given data source. 134 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Recycling the servers Syntax CtServerSchedulingRobotCleaner [/BrokerComputerName:<datasource_manager_name>] /DataSourceName:<datasource_name> [/DataSourcePassword:<datasource_password>] [/Verbose] Parameter Definition Default value BrokerComputerName Name of the machine No default value hosting the data source Optional setting manager DataSourceName Name of the data source No default value Compulsory setting DataSourcePassword Password for accessing N/A the data source Verbose Indicates the list of tasks created by the script in N/A the standard output medium Help Displays the help files on the syntax used in the settings BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 135 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Optimizing memory use Examples of the syntax CtServerSchedulingRobotCleaner.vbe_/BrokerComputerName:DATA SOURCESRV_/DataSourceName:Finance This command will stop the recycling mode defined for all of the servers of this data source. It will therefore delete all of the Windows scheduled tasks. Optimizing memory use If you are using a complex configuration and/or if a large number of users simultaneously connect to your servers, the 2 GB of RAM allocated for the CtServer.exe process may be insufficient. In such cases, the process is stopped. Two solutions may be implemented: • Start two instances per server instead of one. This way, each instance will manage half as many users. This can be done in the standard settings of the Administration console, in the ServerComputerName parameter. You must modify the Set number of instances to be started by default field and set it to 2. • If you have more than 2 GB of RAM on your physical machine, it may be advantageous to activate the /3G mode. This way, the maximum limit of memory allocated to the CtServer.exe process will be extended to 3 GB. Tip: If the /3G mode is activated on your servers, you must increase the value of the ServerHeapMaxSize and MaxServerVirtualMemory parameters up to 2800. Note: These two options may be activated at the same time. 136 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Customizing the application server connection Customizing the application server connection Users in a multi-server configuration may at times require a connection to a specific server in the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment. In order to do so, you can start the client using a command line. This command line will include the options for connecting to a specific server and not to the servers selected by the data source manager. Note: • • If this command line is used, the window for connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation no longer appears when the application is started. You can use the command lines for Windows and Web clients. You can start BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Windows using the following command lines: Finance.exe_/broker_<"datasource_manager_name">_/data source_<"datasource_name">_/user_<"user_name">_/password_<"us er_password">_/servers_<"server1">;<"server2"> • Finance.exe_/broker_<"datasource_manager_name"> This is the name of the computer where the data source manager is hosted (the broker). If you do not enter a computer name, then the computer on which BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is started will be used. • /datasource_<"datasource_name"> This is the name of the data source specified in the data source manager. Caution: This parameter is compulsory and you must enter the data source name in the correct case. • /user_<"user_name"> BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 137 7 7 Managing ramp-up in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Customizing the application server connection This is the name of the user specified in the Start the Application dialog box. If you do not enter any user name, then the Windows user account whose session is currently open will be used. • /password_<"user_password"> If you do not enter a password, then the password will be taken as null. • /servers_<"server1">;<"server2"> These are the application servers specified for the data sources indicated above. You must already have started the servers in the Administration console, otherwise the client will not be able to start. Caution: If ou do not enter the variables between quotation marks, the command may fail. You can start BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web using the following command lines: http://<HTTPserver>/<ConnectionURL>?Servers=server1;server2 This indicates: • the name of the HTTP server • followed by the URL in the Administration console and in IIS, • followed by the different application servers defined in the Administration console Specifying several servers will enable the user to connect to the next available application server on the list if any of the servers are unavailable or stopped. The command will function until the connection is established. The servers specified here, and not those indicated in the Administration console, will be taken into account when the application is started. Note: If the server to which the command line refers is stopped, BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation will not start. In the standard startup, however, if one of the servers is stopped, the client is connected to another server. 138 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Appendix 8 8 Appendix DCOM configuration DCOM configuration This chapter describes how you should configure the DCOM protocol in order to connect the client workstation to the application server. Configuring DCOM enables you to choose the mode of authentication between the workstations and the server. Otherwise it is not possible to establish communication between a workstation and the application server. The DCOM protocol is based on Windows NetBIOS components. For DCOM to work, NetBIOS must therefore be able to run. The NetBIOS connection can be established between two computers only if the required access rights have been assigned. The connection must therefore be established with a Windows account that has certain rights. Both computers must recognize the logins used for the connection. If the computers are in the same domain and the account used to establish the connection is a domain account, the connection is authorized. If the computers are not in the same domain or the account used to establish the connection is a local account on one of the computers, the same account (with the same login) must also exist locally on the other computer. With Windows 2003 and Windows XP SP2, the concept of anonymous accounts was introduced. If an anonymous account is used and the DCOM objects are configured correctly, the two computers can communicate even though they are not in the same domain and do not have a common login. Authorizing the "Everyone" group enables any account recognized by the computer to connect. It does not enable any account to connect. Tip: To test that this works, try to connect one server to the other via a shared folder. The connection opened will use the current Windows session and simply checks if a connection is possible. You must therefore define the user accounts that will be used to configure the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation objects' DCOM properties and ensure that they can be used. By default, the setup configures DCOM so that the application can function correctly when the Windows session is closed on the server. However, if you encounter problems, you may need to check that the DCOM settings are as indicated in the chapters below. 140 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Appendix DCOM configuration Checking the default DCOM configuration defined by the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation setup 1. Select Run in the Windows Start menu. 2. Enter dcomcnfg.exe and click on OK. 3. Select one of the applications belonging to Businessobjects Finance to check their properties (CtBroker or CtServer). 4. For example select the CtServer application. 5. Click Properties to edit the properties of the CtServer application. The Ctserver Properties dialog box appears. 6. In the General tab, select [None] from the Authentication Level drop-down menu. 7. Select the Location tab. 8. Select the Run application on this computer option. 9. Select the Security tab. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 141 8 8 Appendix DCOM configuration 10. Select the Use custom access permissions option. Click on Edit to edit the option. The Registry Value Permissions dialog box appears. 11. Click on Add to add the user Everyone. The following dialog box appears. 142 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Appendix DCOM configuration 12. Select Everyone and click on Add. Click OK. The following dialog box shows that you have allowed access to Everyone: 13. Click OK. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 143 8 8 Appendix DCOM configuration 14. In the Security tab, select the Use custom launch permissions option. Click on Edit to edit the option. 15. Repeat the procedure described above and add the Everyone user. Note: • • The access and launch permissions must be configured in precisely the same way. You must not change the Use custom configuration permissions option. 16. Select the Identity tab. This tab appears as shown below. 17. In the Identity tab, select the This user option. 18. Select the user account that will run the application. Enter and confirm the password. The user can either be from a user domain or from the local system account. This user must have the Log on as a batch job privilege. 144 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Appendix DCOM configuration Tip: • • We recommend that you select a user who is also the local administrator of the computer. We recommend that you use a login with a password that will not expire so that you do not have to change the server's settings each time you change the password. 19. You have finished configuring the DCOM settings for the CtServer process. Repeat the same procedure for the CtBroker process. Note: Unlike the CtServer process, the CtBroker process is a service. Configuring the CtController process Like CtBroker, this object is a Windows service. Its configuration is identical to the processes described above, except for the Identity tab. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 145 8 8 Appendix DCOM configuration Configuring the default properties If BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation still does not run correctly, you can configure the default DCOM settings as shown below. Note: Please take great care when performing this action. 1. Select the Default Properties tab in the Distributed COM Configuration Properties dialog box. 2. Check the Enable Distributed COM on this computer option. 3. In the Default Distributed COM communication properties groupbox, select "None" from the Default Authentication Level drop-down menu. 4. Select Impersonate from the Default Impersonation Level drop-down menu. 146 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Appendix Specific configuration for Windows Server 2003 SP1 Specific configuration for Windows Server 2003 SP1 Specific DCOM configuration with different domains Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 introduces enhanced default security settings for the DCOM protocol. The new settings prohibit remote non-authenticated DCOM access. As authentication between two computers which are not in the same domain is not possible, the launch permissions must be changed so that they include the ANONYMOUS login. There is no need, however, to change the computer access permissions as they include the login by default. 1. Run the secpol.msc command. The following window displays the local security settings. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 147 8 8 Appendix Specific configuration for Windows Server 2003 SP1 2. Select the security policy called: DCOM: Machine Launch Restrictions in Security Descriptor Definition Language (SDDL) syntax. 3. Right-click on this line and click on Properties. 4. Click on Edit Security. The Launch Permission dialog box appears. 5. Click on Add. The following dialog box appears. 6. Enter ANONYMOUS LOGON in the text box and click on Check Names and then OK. The login has been added. 7. Check all the Allow options for this login and then click OK. Note: You must then add the ANONYMOUS LOGON account tot the CtServer and CtBroker processes. 8. Run the dcomcnfg.exe command. The Component Services window appears. 9. Select the CtBroker process and right-click on it to edit its properties. 10. In the CtBroker Properties dialog box, select the Security tab. 11. In the Launch and Activation Permissions groupbox, select the Customize option and click on the Edit button. The Lauch Permission dialog box appears. 148 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Appendix Specific configuration for Windows Server 2003 SP1 12. Click on Add. The following dialog box appears. 13. Enter ANONYMOUS LOGON in the text box and click on Check Names and then OK. The login has been added. 14. Check all the Allow options for this login and then click OK. 15. Also add the ANONYMOUS LOGON account in the Access Permissions groupbox. Note: You must not change the Configuration Permissions groupbox options. 16. Repeat the same procedure for the CtServer process. Configuring Internet Explorer 1. Start Internet Explorer and select Tools > Internet Options. 2. Select the Advanced tab. 3. Under the Security heading, check the Allow active content to run in files on My Computer option. Note: • This configuration is necessary on the Businessobjects Finance server application and on the client with a Terminal Services configuration. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 149 8 8 Appendix Specific configuration for Windows Server 2003 SP1 • This configuration is linked to the user's Windows profile. If working with Terminal Services, it must be configured for each BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation user. For the server, the configuration should be performed on the profile corresponding to the account that runs the CtServer.exe process. Recommendations for using Uniprint on a Citrix platform If using Uniprint on a Citrix platform: On the Citrix server: • keep only the "Uniprint driver" driver; delete all other printers from the list. On the Citrix client: 150 • Versions earlier than version 3.3b may pose problems. We recommend you use a 3.5.0 or higher client. • Acrobat Reader should be installed on the client workstations. • In the Uniprint client, specify that you want to print via Acrobat Reader. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Troubleshooting 9 9 Troubleshooting Object: Connection error Object: Connection error Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms When I start the application server using the Administration console, the following dialog box appears. It displays the following details on the error:"The software version number [8.0.451.451] and the database version number [0.0.0.0] are incompatible for schema 'MAG'. Please contact your system administrator." Explanation You have started the application server without first migrating the database To find out more, see the chapter on "Migrating the database" in the Installation guide. Object: Setup in successive restarts Platform: Windows 2000 152 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Troubleshooting Object: Connection error Version: 8.3 Symptoms The setup restarts the computer automatically after each component has been updated and continues doing so even after all of the system components have been updated. Explanation When there is not enough disk space available, the setup will go into successive restarts. You need at least 200 MB available disk space. If there is enough disk space but the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation setup still goes into successive restarts, you should delete the following registry key: HKEY_Local_Machine\Software\Cartesis\CTSYSTEM Caution: Modifying the parameters in the registry key may have serious consequences on the way your computer operates. We strongly recommend that you ask your system administrator to change the settings in the registry or that you exercise great care when performing this task yourself. If the registry settings are wrongly manipulated, your computer will not function correctly. Object: Connection error Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms When I start the application server using the Administration console, the following dialog box appears. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 153 9 9 Troubleshooting Object: Connection error It displays the following details on the error: "[Microsoft][ODBC Driver Manager] Data source name not found and no default driver specified". Explanation The Administration console could be incorrectly configured. For example, you may have made a typing error when entering the name of the data source in the Configuration view (default name of the empty database created during a standard installation: Finance). You should ensure that the name entered is identical to the ODBC data source you configured. To find out more, see Administration. Object: Connection error Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms When I start the application server using the Administration console, the following dialog box appears. 154 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Troubleshooting Object: Connection error It displays the following details on the error: "[Microsoft][ODBC SQL Server Driver][Shared Memory]SQL Server does not exist or access denied." Explanation In Windows 2000, the SQL server programs will start automatically as a service logged on the Local System account when your computer starts. Once you have restarted your computer after installing Magnitude, you should run the MSSQLServer service and proceed as described below. Select your server (which is usually the default one selected using the information provided during installation). BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 155 9 9 Troubleshooting Object: Problem occurring when uninstalling the product Select your server (usually a default value is specified based on information provided during installation), the MSSQLServer service and the Auto-Start service when OS starts option. You must do the same with the SQLServerAgent service which manages the local database maintenance plan. Select the Auto-Start service when OS starts option. Object: Problem occurring when uninstalling the product Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms When I uninstall BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, an error message appears, indicating that some dll files are locked and cannot be deleted. Explanation You should quit all applications, in particular Windows Explorer, before uninstalling BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation. If the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation installation folder is open in Windows Explorer, some of the files in it will not be deleted. If some files remain in the installation folder, you can delete them manually. Please ensure that you have closed Excel if you were using Excel Link. 156 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Troubleshooting Object: Failed to migrate the database Object: Failed to migrate the database Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms Even though my database engine is SQL Server, the migration of the database fails. Explanation The compatibility level of the database might be set at 65: you should reconfigure it to correspond to the default value of the engine which is 70 with SQL 7 and 80 with SQL 2000 (65 is incompatible with BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation). You can do so by running the following query: For SQL 7: "sp_dbcmptlevel 'db name', 70" For SQL 2000: "sp_dbcmptlevel 'db name', 80". You can also do this in the database's Properties dialog box in Enterprise Manager. Object: Connection error Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms When I start the application, the following dialog box appears. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 157 9 9 Troubleshooting Object: Connection error Explanation You have not started the server using the Administration console. To find out more, see the chapter on "Configuring the data sources" in the Installation guide. Object: Connection error Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms Message: "Failed to initialize structure. Failed to load one or more objects of type 'configuration'. Failed to initialize the cooperation services. Machine ABC is unavailable or does not exist. Explanation The computer on which the cooperation module is installed is not accessible. The setting is in the Administration console is incorrect. Object: Connection error Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms Error initializing the authentication provider. Failed to connect to the LDAP directory. 158 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Troubleshooting Object: Connection error Explanation The LDAP settings in the Administration console are incorrect. Object: Connection error Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 8.3 Symptoms When I start the application server using the Administration console, the following dialog box appears. Explanation The login or password in the Administration console is incorrect. Object: Problem when printing Platform: Windows 2000 Version: 9 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 159 9 9 Troubleshooting Object: Problems opening a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Web Schedules schedule Symptoms In BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, PDF reports generated using activeServer PDF and viewed in Acrobat Reader 6 display squares instead of spaces. Explanation This is a problem specific to Acrobat Reader 6. You can consult the solution at the following website: http://www.activepdf.com/en/sup port/ViewKB.asp?ID=1540. Object: Problems opening a BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Excel Web Schedules schedule Platform: Windows 2000 Version: Symptoms A problem occurs when downloading and the Excel Web schedule does not open. Explanation If add-ins are enabled on the computer, you should proceed as described below: 1. Disable all add-ins. 2. Open the Excel Web schedule. 3. Enable all add-ins again. Object: Web server or servers do not start Platform: Windows 2003 Version: 9.1 SP1 160 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Troubleshooting Object: Problem connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Symptoms When you start the application server via the Administration console, the Web server or servers do not start and the following message appears: It displays the following details on the error: Cannot connect to one or more Java servers when starting the application server located on machine "server_name" for the "data_source_name" data source. Syntax error in "SOURCE:CtSecurity.CtAPCOMUserLoader" character 36 Syntax error in "SOURCE:CtSecurity.CtAPCOMAuthentication Provider" character 48 Explanation 1. Configure all the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation DCOM objects on all the servers in your environment with the same login (same user name and same password). 2. Start the CtBroker service with an account other than the "system" account. If possible, use the same account as the other objects. Object: Problem connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Platform: All Version: BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 161 9 9 Troubleshooting Object: Problem connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web Symptoms When you start the application server via the Administration console, the Web server or servers do not start and the following message appears: Warning - an error has just occurred Please inform your system administrator that: The web server has been shut down If the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation log has been activated, you can see the following message: ERROR request.servlet.admin [] Admin task failed (action=start) This is a .NET framework configuration problem. Explanation 1. Edit the machine.config file located in the \Microsoft.NET\Framework\v1.1.4322\CONFIG\ folder. 2. Search for the following rows: <processModel enable="true" timeout="Infinite" idleTimeout="Infinite" shutdownTimeout="0:00:05" requestLimit="Infinite" requestQueueLimit="5000" restartQueueLimit="10" memoryLimit="60" webGarden="false" cpuMask="0xffffffff" userName="name" password="password" logLevel="Errors" clientConnectedCheck="0:00:05" comAuthenticationLevel="Connect" comImpersonationLevel="Impersonate" responseDeadlockInterval="00:03:00" maxWorkerThreads="20" maxIoThreads="20"/> 162 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Troubleshooting Object: Problem connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web 3. In the UserName and password fields, enter the login and password of a user account with local administrator rights. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 163 9 9 Troubleshooting Object: Problem connecting to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web 164 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Windows technical log Because BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is a complex distributed environment involving different components running across different layers, it is helpful to enable logging so that problems that occur can be located. The technical log enables you to trace the events and problems generated by application processes. It is the only tool that provides a precise context on all of the system processes. You can define the log parameters using an XML file. You can customize the log configuration as required, such as the type of event logged, the log contents or the output destination. The target of the log output can be a text file or the Windows Event Viewer, etc. This chapter: • explains the concepts involved. • describes the XML configuration files. • illustrates with examples of logs. Note: We recommend that you take special care when activating logs and defining their configuration files as this may affect the performance of the application. Concepts of the Windows technical log The technical log is made up of three main components: • Appender: this component is used to specify the target of the log output. • Layout: this component is used to specify the log message format and properties. • Logger: this component is used to filter the events to be reported. The technical log functions as follows: 166 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Each process generates a number of events that can be logged. The following events can be logged: • events external to BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, such as those related to the system (e.g. network interface or hard disk) or to the RDBMS (e.g. SQL errors or queries), etc. • events within BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation, such as those related to the opening of packages, the running of tasks or user connection. The basic information unit is the event, which is made up of the following elements: • a message • a category • a level Message: The text in the message can either originate from the product's code or from third-parties such as Windows or the DBMS. In either case, you cannot change or translate it. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 167 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Note: Example: "OLE DB error" Category: This specifies a hierarchy that gives you run-time control over which statements are logged. Categories use severity levels, which are separated by dots (e.g. security.user), to determine whether or not a log statement is reported. If a category is not assigned a level, then it inherits one from its closest ancestor in the hierarchy that has an assigned level. For example, "security" is the ancestor of the logger named "security.user", and "security.user" is the descendant. The root logger resides at the top of the logger hierarchy. Level: The standard levels of severity that appear in messages are displayed from most to least severe below: 168 • FATAL: Messages concerning serious errors that could cause the shutdown of the application, the integrity of the data is no longer ensured. • ERROR: Messages concerning unexpected errors but that allow the application to continue to run, but that can nevertheless compromise the integrity of the data. • WARN: Warning messages concerning unexpected errors but that do not compromise the integrity of the data. For example, a user who enters the wrong password will generate a warning. Instance shutdowns and startups are processed at the WARN level. • INFO: this message appears to inform you of the processing being run. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log The log components appear as variables in the XML configuration file as shown below: <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <log4cplus> <Appender name="myfile" class="FileAppender"> <param name="File" value="D:\\AppLog.log" /> <layout class="TTCCLayout"> <param name="CategoryPrefixing" value="true"/> </layout> </appender> <logger name="task.engine"> <level value ="info" /> <appender-ref ref="myfile"/> </logger> </log4cplus> Logger The logger is used to indicate the type of event to be reported in the technical log and the output destination (appenders). You should specify the following parameters for the logger: • a category: this is used to define the functional filter used to log events. For example, the "task.engine" value will trace events that occur in the processing engine. • a level: this is the maximum level of the events recorded. For example, setting a severity level of ERROR specifies that the levels ERROR and FATAL will be reported. You should also specify the appender(s) to be used for reporting the events. Appender The appender is used for specifying the target of the log output and its settings. Several appenders can be attached to one logger. If this is the case, then events will be reported in all of the output destinations specified. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 169 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log There are three types of output destination: • Simple file: FileAppender The events are recorded in a text file. The file can be called up at any time and its location may be configured (for example, in a network folder). The events of several processes may be stored in the same file.. • Archive file: RollingFileAppender This is similar to the simple file but is used to backup the log files when they reach a certain size, thus saving disk space. You can specify the maximum size of the file and once this size is reached, the file will be saved with the suffix ".1" and a new file will be created. You can then specify the number of backup files you want to keep. Caution: If RollingFileAppender is used, you should not send the events from multiple processes to the same file because this may result in the loss of data when the file is renamed. When you use the two appenders above, events will be logged synchronously in the file, i.e. rows are added when the event is generated. You can, however, use a bounded buffer so that the file is updated only once for a series of events. This enables fewer system resources to be used. Note: If the process stops, all the messages in the bounded buffer will be lost. The size of the buffer is set at 2048 characters. • Windows Event Viewer: NtEventLogAppender Log events are appended to the Windows event log system. A Windows event is characterized by two main parameters which are the log in which it is reported and the associated source. You can define the two parameters in the appender. If you define a new log or source in the XML file for the appender tag, the log system will create it automatically by updating the following registry key: SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Eventlog. Note: You should restart the computer once the log has been created by the log engine. 170 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Layout The layout lets you choose the format of the event. An appender corresponds to a layout. There are two formats available: • SimpleLayout: this format displays the severity level in the logger (e.g. WARN, INFO, etc.) followed by the message. • TTCCLayout: this format displays the date, time, thread number, severity level, category and the message. XML configuration files When run, each process in the system will search for its XML configuration file. Most of these files must be created if you want to use them, but four files are available by default when BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation is installed. These files are available in the Tools sub-folder located in the Businessobjects Finance installation folder. You should move them to the root of the installation folder if you want to activate them. You can configure an XML file for each process on a server. The XML configuration file is located in the same place as the .EXE process file. Note: • • You are not required to create a configuration file for each process. However, no log will be generated for processes without a configuration file. If you make changes to the configuration file, you should restart the corresponding process in order for the changes to be taken into account. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 171 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Configuration file names BusinessObjects Financial ConsolCorresponding configuration file idation process CtBroker.exe CtBrokerLogConfig.xml CtServer.exe CtServerLogConfig.xml Finance.exe FinanceLogConfig.xml Specifying configuration files by data source In an architecture with several data sources, the same process is used several times on the same physical computer. However, you may want to manage the log differently, depending on the data source (for example, a CtServer process without a log and another CtServer process with maximum information). To do this, you should add the name of the data source as a prefix to the configuration file name. You should ensure that the name of the data source is identical to the one configured in the Administration console. Example: " SOURCE1ctserverlogconfig.xml " Note: This does not apply to the CtBroker process or the client as neither is associated with a data source. Tags in the XML configuration files The general architecture is as follows: a layout is included in an appender, which is in turn included in a logger. 172 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Note: A logger can have one or more appenders but each appender can have only one layout. Layout Main HTML tag: layout Attribute: class = type of layout. Parmi SimpleLayout and TTCCLayout Sub-elements: Param = parameters specific to the type of layout Attribute: name = parameter name value = parameter value Flag table: (the default values appear in bold font) Type of layout TTCCLayout Parameter Possible valCompulsory Description ues ThreadPrint ing true / false No Displays the thread number CategoryPre true / false fixing No Displays the logger name No Displays the name of the file that generated the event FilePrinting true / false BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 173 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Example: <layout class = "SimpleLayout"> <Param name = "ThreadPrinting" value = "false"/> </layout> Appender Main HTML tag: appender Attributes: name = name (as required, no particular syntax) class = type of appender. Parmi NtEventLogAppender, FileAppender, RollingFileAppender. Sub-elements: Param = parameters specific to the type of appender Attribute: name = parameter name value = parameter value Layout = layout associated with the appender (see paragraph above Flag table: (the default values appear in bold font) 174 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Type of appender Parameter Possible valCompulsory Description ues File Text field Yes File name and path Append true / false No If the value is "false", then each time the process is restarted, the file will be emptied. bufferedIO true / false No Asynchronous logging bufferedIO true / false No Asynchronous logging FileAppender Append true / false No If the value is "false", then each time the process is restarted, the file will be emptied. File Text Yes File name BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 175 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Type of appender Parameter Possible valCompulsory Description ues maxBackupIn Integer dex maxFileSize 176 Integer (KB, MB or GB) Yes Number of files kept Yes Maximum size of each file BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Type of appender Parameter server log Possible valCompulsory Description ues Text Text No Computer where the events will be stored. If blank, it is the local computer. No Name of the log. If this is not filled in, then events will be logged in the default application log. Yes Value of the "Source" column in the Windows Event Viewer. No Used to overwrite the value set in the logger NtEventLo gAppender source Text FATAL ERROR threshold WARN INFO BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 177 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Example: <appender name = "Appender1" class="FileAppender"> <Param name = "File" value = "D:\\Businessobjects\\Fi nanceLog"/> <Param name = "Append" value = "true"/> <Layout ... ... </Layout> </appender> Logger Main HTML tag: logger Attribute: Name = category of events to be saved Sub-elements: Level = threshold of the severity level of the events to be reported Attribute: value = value of the threshold (FATAL, ERROR, WARN, INFO) Appender-ref = appender Attribute: ref = name of the appender (= attribute name of the appender tag) Example: <logger name = "task.processengine"> <level value ="info" /> <appender-ref ref = "Appender1"/> <appender-ref ref = "Appender2"/> </logger> 178 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log List of BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation loggers Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment Loggers related to the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation environment system CtServer.exe / CtBroker.exe / Finance.exe System exceptions (e.g. Access violation, Stack overflow, Divide by zero, etc.) system.database CtServer.exe Problems arising from or information on the database system.net CtServer.exe / CtBroker.exe / Finance.exe Problems arising from or information on the network system.net.http CtBroker.exe Problems arising from or information on the HTTP protocol system.rpc CtServer.exe / CtBroker.exe / Finance.exe Problems arising from or information on DCOM Loggers related to the general functioning of servers and clients BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 179 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment client.desk Finance.exe Problems arising from or information on the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Desktop broker CtBroker.exe Problems arising from or information on the broker broker.operation CtBroker.exe Information on starting, stopping or migrating the servers CtBroker.exe Problems arising from or information on the configuration of the data source broker.activity CtBroker.exe Information on user session activity (successful user connection or disconnection) application.migration CtServer.exe Migrating the application CtServer.exe Problems arising from or information relating to the updating of the database schema broker.configuration ctdb.schema 180 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment application.start CtServer.exe Starting the application web.start CtServer.exe Messages on starting the Web application application.stop CtServer.exe Stopping the application web.stop CtServer.exe Messages on stopping the Web application caching Ctserver.exe / Finance.exe Problems arising from or information on the cache caching.cleaning CtServer.exe /Finance.exe Problems arising from or information on cleaning the cache util.configurationstring CtServer.exe / Finance.exe Configuration strings for the technical log CtBroker.exe Problems arising from the configuration of a data source datasource Loggers related to Web server messages BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 181 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment web CtServer.exe General messages on the Web application CtServer.exe Messages on Web user session activity (user connection or disconnection) CtServer.exe Messages on the communication between the CtServer process and the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector web.connexion web.servlet Loggers related to the IDM (loading the data, changing the data, saving the data, etc.) CtServer.exe Loading database structure and amounts into memory multidimensional.defini CtServer.exe tion Manipulating items in the structure that have been loaded into memory, e.g. dimensions, characteristics or filters multidimensional.re questing Queries for retrieving amounts loaded into memory multidimensional 182 CtServer.exe BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment multidimensional.concur CtServer.exe rency Locking objects loaded into memory dataengine Information on the data engine, i.e. the module that loads data from the database into memory Finance.exe Loggers related to the manipulation of business objects schedule Finance.exe Problems arising from or information on schedules data.requesting CtServer.exe Loading business objects into memory data.concurrency CtServer.exe Locking objects data.identification CtServer.exe Identifying objects data.storage.relation al.conversion CtServer.exe Queries on storing objects in the database CtServer.exe Module for saving objects in the database data.storage.serializa tion Loggers related to the tasks run BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 183 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment task.data Finance.exe / CtServer.exe Problems arising from or information on tasks, e.g. technical messages task.engine CtServer.exe Queries in the processing engine scheduling.engine CtServer.exe Problems arising from the calculation of scheduled tasks reportbundles.task CtServer.exe Information on the report bundles run consolidation.task CtServer.exe Information on the consolidation processing run Loggers related to the application of security in BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation 184 security.authentication Finance.exe Problems arising from or information on user authentication security.data Finance.exe / CtServer.exe Problems arising from or information on security objects, e.g. technical messages BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment security.principal CtServer.exe Opening or closing sessions security.user.function CtServer.exe Checking user access rights to product functionalities Loggers related to the operations performed on packages package.opening Finance.exe Information on the opening of packages package.process Finance.exe Information on the publication or integration of packages package.journalentry Finance.exe Information on local manual journal entries package.validation Finance.exe Information on the validation of the package Loggers related to report bundles reportbundles Finance.exe Information on reports Loggers related to journal entries BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 185 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Name of logger tag Processes involved Comment Journalentry Finance.exe / ctserver.exe Information on central manual journal entries Logger related to the execution of hooks hook.execution CtServer.exe Information on hooks Logger related to the category scenario Categoryscenario Finance.exe Information on the category scenario, e.g. validation or distribution Root logger The root logger has a specific tag used to define a filter for the level and the appenders for all categories. It does not have a "name" attribute because it includes all categories. It must however have the "level" and "appender-ref" attributes. Example: <root> <level value ="info" /> <appender-ref ref = "Appender1"/> <appender-ref ref = "Appender2"/> </root> To find out more about log4cplus, consult the following documentation: • 186 http://logging.apache.org/log4cxx/manual/Introduction.html BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Example of an XML configuration file using the Windows Events Viewer The administrator wants to log all events with the "fatal" and "error" severity levels using the Windows Event Viewer on the local computer for the CtBroker and CtServer processes. Explanation There should be one XML configuration file for each process. You should therefore create 2 XML files, similar to one another. In the file, the TTC layout is used with all of the default options. The name of the NTEventLogAppender appender is "logapplication" and is used to report events to the Windows Event Viewer. The only parameter you should change in the XML configuration files is "source". This parameter appears in the "Source" column in the Windows Event Viewer. "Magnitude Broker" values are used for events generated by CtBroker.exe while "Magnitude Server" values are used for events generated by CtServer.exe. No "server" parameter is set because the event viewer on the local computer is used (default setting). The only logger used is the root logger because you want to log all events without filtering them. The severity level is "error". This means that events with the "error" and "fatal" severity levels will be logged. The "logapplication" appender defined at the start of the file will be associated with the logger. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 187 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log CtBrokerLogConfig.xml file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <log4cplus> <appender name="logapplication" class="NTEventLogAppender"> <param name="Source" value="Magnitude Broker" /> <layout class="TTCCLayout"> </appender> <root> <level value="error" /> <appender-ref ref="logapplication" /> </root> </log4cplus> CtServerLogConfig.xml file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <log4cplus> <appender name="logapplication" class="NTEventLogAppender"> <param name="Source" value="Magnitude Server" /> <layout class="TTCCLayout"/> </appender> <root> <level value="error" /> <appender-ref ref="logapplication" /> </log4cplus> </root> Example of an XML configuration file using different output destinations involving a remote computer The admnistrator wants to save the errors from the data source manager in the Windows Event Viewer on the same remote server called: SRV-FINANCE. Furthermore, the administrator wants to log events with the "info" severity level for the "broker.operation" category of the CtBroker process in the Windows Event Viewer on the local computer. 188 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log Events with the "error" severity level should be logged in the Windows Event Viewer on SRV-FINANCE. All of the events generated should be stored in a file on the server's hard disk. This means that events with the "fatal", "error", "warn" and "info" severity levels will be logged in a file and those with the "fatal" and "error" severity levels will be logged in the Windows Event Viewer. Explanation • The log of the CtBroker has 2 appenders: one for the Windows Event Viewer of the local computer and another for the Windows Event Viewer of the remote computer. The Windows Event Viewer of the local computer, should only contain the information of the "broker.operation" category. You should therefore specify a special logger associated with this category that displays the "info" severity level and whose appender is called "loglocal". For the other logger, which is a root logger, you can reuse the same definition as CtWebApp. • For CtServer, two appenders are defined: one for the event viewer and another for a file. The "myfile" appender specifies that the output destination is a file in C:\FinanceServer.log. Because no specific category is required, the root logger is used with the "logapplication" and "myfile" appenders. In the root logger, the severity level is "info". This means that events with the "fatal", "error", "warn" and "info" severity levels will be reported. If you change the value of the threshold parameter to "error" in the "logapplication" appender, then events with the "fatal" and "error" severity levels will be reported. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 189 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log CtBrokerLogConfig.xml file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <log4cplus> <appender name="logapplication" class="NTEventLogAppender"> <param name="Source" value="Finance Datasource" /> <param name="Server" value="SRV-FINANCE" /> <layout class="TTCCLayout"/> </appender> <appender name="loglocal" class="NTEventLogAppender"> <param name="Source" value="Finance Web" /> <layout class="TTCCLayout"/> </appender> <root> <level value="error" /> <appender-ref ref="logapplication" /> </root> <logger name="broker.operation"> <level value="info"/> <appender-ref ref="loglocal" /> </logger> </log4cplus> 190 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs Windows technical log CtServerLogConfig.xml file <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8" ?> <log4cplus> <appender name="logapplication" class="NTEventLogAppender"> <param name="Source" value="Magnitude Server" /> <param name="Server" value="SRV-MAGNITUDE" /> <param name="threshold" value="error" /> <layout class="TTCCLayout"/> </appender> <appender name="myfile" class="FileAppender"> <param name="File" value="C:\\MagnitudeServer.log" /> <param name="Append" value="true"/> <param name="BufferedIO" value="false"/> <layout class="TTCCLayout"/> </appender> <root> <level value="info"/> <appender-ref ref="myfile"/> <appender-ref ref="logapplication" /> </root> </log4cplus> BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 191 10 10 Technical logs Windows technical log Examples of logs You can see an example of a log generated in the Windows Event Viewer below. 192 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log You can see an example of a log generated in a text file below. 01-26-04 16:12:27 [2420] INFO application.start - Initializing application server, datasource="test", version=10.8.1.11 01-26-04 16:12:33 [2420] INFO ctdb.schema - scheme 'MAG' ini tialized 01-26-04 16:12:35 [2420] INFO ctdb.schema - scheme 'ProcEng' initialized 01-26-04 16:12:35 [2420] INFO ctdb.schema - scheme 'CtCore' initialized 01-26-04 16:12:36 [2420] INFO ctdb.schema - scheme 'History' initialized 01-26-04 16:12:36 [2420] INFO ctdb.schema - scheme 'APCom' initialized 01-26-04 16:12:36 [2420] INFO ctdb.schema - schemes initial ization end 01-26-04 16:13:09 [2420] INFO caching.cleaning - Initializing cache cleaning: cleaning period=86400 seconds, heap max size=1536 Mb. 01-26-04 16:13:14 [2420] INFO task.engine - initializing pro cess engine 01-26-04 16:13:26 [2420] INFO application.start - application server initialized 01-26-04 16:15:58 [2436] INFO security.user.session - logon required with credentials 'UID=ADMIN' 01-26-04 16:15:58 [2436] INFO security.user.session - logon succeeded 01-26-04 16:17:04 [2648] INFO security.user.session - session ended by user 'UID=ADMIN' 01-26-04 16:17:07 [2436] INFO application.stop - Uninitializing application server 01-26-04 16:17:07 [2436] INFO task.engine - shutting down process engine 01-26-04 16:17:08 [2436] INFO ctdb.schema - unloading schemes 01-26-04 16:17:08 [2436] INFO application.stop - The applica tion server uninitialized. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log The technical log for the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web (Log4net) connector uses a concept similar to the one used for the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation (Log4cplus) application The XML configuration file contains similar parameters. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 193 10 10 Technical logs BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log configuration In the web.config configuration file for the deployed BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application, the Log4NetInitFile field is used to specify the name of the XML configuration file and its location. <add key=" Log4NetInitFile" value="" / Note: Unlike the technical log for the Businessobjects Finance application, you can specify the name and location you want. Tags in the XML configuration file Most of the tags are similar to the ones in the technical log for the BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation application. The only difference is in the main tag and the prefixes of layouts and appenders. • The main HTML tag in log4net is: <log4net>. • The prefix to be added to layouts and appenders is log4net. List of loggers 194 Name of logger tag Comment application Communication errors with the application server application.connection Managing user sessions and authentication BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log Name of logger tag Comment application.ping Connection between the ASP.NET and the Web server application.restore ASP.NET automatic restart option application.start Starting the application application.stop Stopping the application application.error Web application exception exception.connector ASP.NET - Web server connector exception Exception specific to enhancements exception.enhancementmanagerpro for the BusinessObjects Financial cessor Consolidation Excel Web Schedules module exception.fixedcolumnsparser Exception when reading a row in text with separators exception.include Exception when changing libraries exception.aspx Exception generated in a JSP file exception.session Exception linked to the management of a user session BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 195 10 10 Technical logs BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log Name of logger tag Comment navigation Messages associated with browsing through views and domains ressource.workinglanguages Messages associated with application and working languages xml.parser XML parser messages xml.transformerbase Messages generated during XSL transformation Example of Log4Net <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8" ?> <log4net> <appender name="FileAppender" type="log4net.Appender.FileAp pender"> <file value="D:/dvt/Config Files/logfile.txt" /> <appendToFile value="false" /> <layout type="log4net.Layout.PatternLayout"> <conversionPattern value="%d [thread %t] %-5p %c [%x] - %m%n" /> </layout> </appender> <root> <level value="DEBUG" /> <appender-ref ref="FileAppender" /> </log4net> </root> Note: The layouts and appenders described above are configured in the same way as those for the technical log. To find out more about the log4net, go to the links below: 196 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Technical logs BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log http://logging.apache.org/log4net/release/features.html To find out more about examples with the log4net, go to the links below: http://logging.apache.org/log4net/release/config-examples.html Related Topics • • Appender on page 169 Layout on page 171 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 197 10 10 Technical logs BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Web connector technical log 198 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Get More Help A A Get More Help Online documentation library Business Objects offers a full documentation set covering all products and their deployment. The online documentation library has the most up-to-date version of the Business Objects product documentation. You can browse the library contents, do full-text searches, read guides on line, and download PDF versions. The library is updated regularly with new content as it becomes available. To access the online documentation library, visit http://help.sap.com/ and click Business Objects at the top of the page. Additional developer resources https://boc.sdn.sap.com/developer/library/ Online customer support The Business Objects Customer Support web site contains information about Customer Support programs and services. It also has links to a wide range of technical information including knowledgebase articles, downloads, and support forums. http://www.businessobjects.com/support/ Looking for the best deployment solution for your company? Business Objects consultants can accompany you from the initial analysis stage to the delivery of your deployment project. Expertise is available in relational and multidimensional databases, in connectivities, database design tools, customized embedding technology, and more. For more information, contact your local sales office, or contact us at: http://www.businessobjects.com/services/consulting/ Looking for training options? From traditional classroom learning to targeted e-learning seminars, we can offer a training package to suit your learning needs and preferred learning style. Find more information on the Business Objects Education web site: http://www.businessobjects.com/services/training 200 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide Get More Help Send us your feedback Do you have a suggestion on how we can improve our documentation? Is there something you particularly like or have found useful? Drop us a line, and we will do our best to ensure that your suggestion is included in the next release of our documentation: mailto:[email protected] Note: If your issue concerns a Business Objects product and not the documentation, please contact our Customer Support experts. For information about Customer Support visit: http://www.businessobjects.com/support/. Business Objects product information For information about the full range of Business Objects products, visit: http://www.businessobjects.com. BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide 201 A A Get More Help 202 BusinessObjects Financial Consolidation Administration guide

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