Installation of SAP Business Objects BI 4.0 on Linux / Unix like Operating Systems

Unlike SAP BO 4.0 installation on Windows, Installation on UNIX like operating systems is a little complicated process, especially when you do not have root rights, and has to go and explain the “System Admin” why you need changes / new additions to libraries, kernel parameters, and environmental variables. So it will need lot of patience, discussions and planning.

I am just giving a screenshot by screenshot instruction of how to install BO4. The operating system I used is “Red hat Enterprise Linux 5.6”, although the process on all Linux / UNIX operating systems is almost same, there are some OS specific changes you may need to do on other OS like Solaris and Suse.

This Post assumes, you already completed Pre-Installation steps on your Linux / UNIX systems.

Pre-Installation Steps:-

1. Create a User Account under which Background process can run (Root access is not required, but nice to have, if you want to do system installation).
2. Create two folders, one for installation files, and one for the BO Installation and Make sure BO user has write and execute instructions.
3. Make sure you have all required Libraries installed. If not install them (Process varies from One Flavor to other).
4. Make sure all required commands/programs installed, if not install them.
5. Set the Kernel parameters as required by BO (and also DB2 if you want to use default database option).
6. Install and Configure ODBC clients and parameters if you choose not to use default database for CMS.

This is Optional: – If you have SElinux policy conflict, then you may need to change policy setting to premising or disabled config file.

Installation: -

Ok, now assuming you completed all the pre-installation steps. We now start Installation. The script for starting installation is setup.sh, this script takes Installation directory as parameter, or you can give the Installation directory at later point.

Ok now we executed the setup.sh script.

(I use SSH to remotely connect to my Linux server; there are many other programs  in the market like Putty etc.)

Next we need to choose the setup language.

Once you choose the language, you will be prompted to choose the installation folder. Please make sure that you select a folder on which BO user has written and execution rights.

Then the process will check for the machine settings, and give you the screen showing if all the requirements are met. (In my experience it’s hard to get all the “succeeded” s in the first try, you will miss something).

Next few pages will be usual license agreement.

Once user agreement is accepted, you will be prompted to enter your Key code, This key code will decide you licensing options, like how many user you licensed BO 4 for, and other features.

In the Next step you will choose language packs you need to install, you may need to select other language packs when you are doing a Multinational installation. The other countries users may want to use Business Objects in their own language.

I am doing a system install here as I have root access, but most of the times you end up doing user install.

Now we need to choose installation type

Full Installation: – Install all components on this system

Custom/ Expand: – For customizing the installation (like choosing which components to install) / For expanding already existing installation (Like adding a Node etc.)

Web tier: – For deploying Web tier components only to server (Useful in large installations, where we separate application and web tiers).

I am installing default database (In this case it is DB2).

Web application server is a Container server developer by Business Objects.  But Tomcat is default.

All other following steps are self-explanatory.

Version Control

SIA name and Port selection.

CMS Port.

Admin password and Cluster key (For future expansion)

Port for Default database DB2.

Tomcat Ports.

Listening port for Webservices.

Subversion configuration

Integration with Solution manager and Enterprise manager.

Finally we are ready for the installation; Pressing Enter will start the installation. installation will take few hours in my case (3-5 hrs).

Once you are done with the installation, we will receive some instructions on execution System Install script (Only for system installation). Now we have successfully completed the SAP business Objects BI 4.0 installation on Red hat EL 5.6