Integration of BW in SAP EP (Enterprise Portal)

Introduction:

I think a lot of people after installing SAP Enterprise portal, look at how to connect it to existing SAP systems (BW, R/3, CRM etc.). Me too. I spent a lot of time searching for a guide that describes it in detail. And in one piece also. There are a lot of documents on activities in backend systems, portal itself. But I couldn't find The-One-Full-How-To. So I prepared it with all sequence of steps need to be followed including some troubleshooting tips.

You will need basic knowledge of J2EE tools, SAP Basis and Portal. Please note that these steps worked for me. But depends on your scenario, some extra settings might be required to complete the integration.

Prerequisites:

Before you are starting BW system integration, you need to check whether following BI Components were deployed to Portal system or not.

1. BI INFORM. BROADCASTING 7.00
2. BI WEB APPLICATIONS 7.00
3. BI BASE SERVICES 7.00
4. BI REPORTING AND PLANNING 7.00
5. BI WEBDYNPRO ALV 7.00
6. VCKITBI

Sequence of Steps:

1. User Management in BW and Portal systems
2. Java to ABAP and ABAP to Java communication
3. SSO Configuration
4. Maintain portal system settings for portal
5. Create BW System in portal
6. Maintain ABAP system in Portal SLD
7. Create Webdynpro Jco Connection
8. Create PUBLIC Logon Group in BW system
9. Activate BI Templates in RSA1
10. Troubleshooting

Step 1: User Management in BW and Portal Systems:

1. Create a user on ABAP system with “SAP_BC_JSF_COMMUNICATION”, “SAP_BC_USR_CUA_CLIENT_RFC” roles.
2. Probably you will have to generate profiles for these roles.
3. Assign following BI Roles to the portal user which is a copy of Administrator user (This user can be used to maintain the settings related to portal).
4. Also assign the groups “SAP_BC_JSF_COMMUNICATION”, “SAP_BC_USR_CUA_CLIENT_RFC” to the user to which above roles assigned.
   

Step 2: Java to ABAP and ABAP to Java Communication:

1. Create RFC Connection in BW system with below input values (you can use the same naming convention):

Technical Settings:

RFC Destination: <BW-SID>_<portal_hostname>_<Portal-SID>
Connection Type: T (TCP/IP Connection)
Description: Mention some description for the connection







Program ID: <Portal-hostname>_PORTAL_<Portal-SID>
Gateway Host: BW System Hostname
Gateway Service: sapgw<BW System number>

Logon & Security:

Logon Procedure: Select Send SAP Logon Ticket
MDMP & Unicode:If your system is Unicode, you need to select Unicode under this tab.
Save your entries. Once you create the RFC connection in Java System, you can test this connection.

2. Create JCo RFC Connection in Portal system with below input values:

Open Visual Administrator from \usr\sap\<SID>\sap\j2ee\admin\go.bat and Goto Server -> Services -> Jco RFC Provider -> select any existing connection and edit the properties as below:

Program ID: <Portal_Hostname>_PORTAL_<Portal-SID> (should be same as the Program ID given in BW RFC Destination)
Gateway Host: Fully Qualified Domain of BW system
Gateway Service: sapgw<Bw System Number>
Server Count(1….20): 20
Application Server Host Name: Fully Qualified Domain of BW system
System number: System number of BW system
Client: <BW_PROD_Client>
Language: EN
User: Provide the user which was created in Step 1.
Pwd: Password for the user
Once all the input values are entered, click on Set button to save the RFC Connection. And start the connection.

Step 3: SSO Configuration:

To enable the communication between BW and Portal systems through logon ticket, SSO Configuration is required. Follow below steps to configure SSO.

1. Below two profile parameters need to be maintained in instance profile of BW system to generate and accept logon tickets.
1. login/create_sso2_ticket = 2
2. login/accept_sso2_ticket = 1
2. Export BW system certificate and import to Portal system:


1. Go to tcode: strustsso2 in BW system and double click on Own Certificate.
2. Click on Export button as below:
3. Give file name to certificate: <Portal-SID>_Certificate.crt and save. Here the File format to should be Binary.

4. Now import the saved certificate to portal system through Visual Admin. Open Visual Admin of Portal system and go to <SID>-> Server#-> services-> Key Storage. There under Views select Ticketkeystore. Under Entry click Load and select the saved BW system certificate.

3. Export Portal system certificate and import to BW system:


1. Login to portal using user Administrator and go to System Administration-> System Configuration-> Keystore Administration.
2. There select SAPLogonTicketKeypair-cert and click on Download verify.der File

3. Login to BW system and go to tcode strustsso2
4. Click on Import Certificate button.
5. Browse for the file verify.der and click on OK.
6. Now click on Add to Certificate List button. It will add the new certificate to the list of cerficates.
7. Click on Add to ACL to add the Access Control List for the certificate:
8. You should be provide the valid entries for the Access Control List as below

System ID: <Portal_SID>
Client: <Value of the parameter – login/ticket_client: this can be checked in configtool of the Portal system-see below screen shot)

4. Entries to be done in service Security provider:

Note: In the Service Security Provider under Ticket, perform the following steps to ensure that the SAP J2EE Engine accepts the SAP Logon Tickets from the BI system as an external system.
Start the SAP J2EE Engine Administrator with %INSTALLATION_ROOT%\admin\go.

1. Connect to the portal server.
2. In the tree, choose <SID>/Server<#>/Services/Security Provider.
3. Under Component, choose Ticket.
4. Choose the Authentication tab page.
5. Change the options for com.sap.security.core.server.jaas.EvaluateTicketLoginModule and enter the following values:
   
   • trustedsys<Number>=<BW_SID>, <BW_CLIENT> (for example, BWP, 000)
   • trustediss<Number>=<ISSUER_DISTINGUISHED_NAME> (z. B. CN= BWP, OU=SAP Web AS, O=SAP Trust Community, C=DE)
   • trusteddn<Number>=<SUBJECT_DISTINGUISHED_NAME> (z. B. CN= BWP, OU=SAP Web AS, O=SAP Trust Community, C=DE)

5. In addition, you have to maintain the values under evaluate_assertion_ticket:


1. Start the SAP J2EE Engine Administrator with %INSTALLATION_ROOT%\admin\go.
2. Connect to the portal server.
3. In the tree, choose <SID>/Server<#>/Services/Security Provider.
4. Under Component, choose evaluate_assertion_ticket.
5. Choose the Authentication tab page.
6. Change the options for com.sap.security.core.server.jaas.EvaluateAssertionTicketLoginModule and enter the following values:
• trustedsys<Number>=<BW_SID>, <BW_CLIENT> (for example, BWP, 000)
• trustediss<Number>=<ISSUER_DISTINGUISHED_NAME> (z. B. CN= BWP, OU=SAP Web AS, O=SAP Trust Community, C=DE)
• trusteddn<Number>=<SUBJECT_DISTINGUISHED_NAME> (z. B. CN= BWP, OU=SAP Web AS, O=SAP Trust Community, C=DE)

Note: The values correspond to the values listed above under Application Ticket.



Step 4: Maintain Portal Server settings for portal:
In this activity you designate a default portal. You can also make settings that are relevant to information broadcasting. If you do not maintain this table, the corresponding menu entries for publishing in the BEx Web Application Designer and BEx Query Designer are deactivated.

Execute the following steps to maintain the portal server settings for the portal:

1. Start table view maintenance (transaction code SM30).
2. Enter RSPOR_T_PORTAL as the table.
3. Choose Maintain.
4. Choose New Entries to create a new entry.
5. Maintain the connected portal:

• RFC destination: <RFC_DESTINATION>
• System name: <SYSTEM_ALIAS>
• Default: <DEFAULT>
• Portal-URLprefix:<PORTAL_URL_PREFIX>,for example, http://<portalserver><domain>:<port>
• Prefix of RM for BW Metadata: <KM_RM_METADATA_PREFIX>, for example, /bw_metadata
• KM service URL: <blank>

Step 5: Create BW system in portal
Execute the following steps to create a BI system in the portal:

1. Log on to the portal.
2. Start the iView System Administration -> System Configuration -> System Landscape.
3. The systems are maintained with the Portal Content Studio.
4. Choose New -> System from the portal catalog context menu.
5. Choose R/3 with Load Balancing (SAP_R3_LoadBalancing) or Dedicated Application Server for R/3 System(SAP_R3_Dedicated) as the template.
6. Maintain the most important properties with the property category Display All:
• Logon methods: SAPLOGONTICKET or UIDPW
• Type of user mapping: admin,user
• Type of ticket authentication: SAP Assertion Ticket
• Name of logical system: <SID>CLNT<MANDANT>
• The recommended convention for logical system names consists of the system ID and client.
• Remote host type: 3
• SAP client: <CLIENT>
• SAP system ID (SID) [R/3 Name]: <SID>
• System type: SAP_BW
• System name: <SID>CLNT<CLIENT>
• WAS description: <DESCRIPTION>
• WAS host name: <HOSTNAME>:<PORT>
• WAS path: /sap/bw/bex
• WAS protocol: http or https

Note: You can determine the WAS host name, WAS path and WAS protocol settings using function module RSBB_URL_PREFIX_GET(transaction code SE37).

7. You must also maintain the following BI properties for SAP NetWeaver 2004s:
   
   • BI Directory Provider: true

Note: If the indicator is set, the BI system is displayed in open dialog when selecting queries or InfoProviders. This property is usually activated.

• BI Documents for InfoProvider : <KM_REPOSITORY_PATH>
• BI Documents for Master Data: <KM_REPOSITORY_PATH>
• BI Documents for Metadata:<KM_REPOSITORY_PATH>

The properties BI Documents for InfoProvider, master data and metadata contain the paths to Knowledge Management

BI Master System: true
Note: The property BIMaster System means that the BI system is the central persistence storage for the portal. The BI master system is used to read and execute Web templates. The running BI Web runtime requires exactly one BI master system within a portal.

8. In the System Aliases view, maintain an alias for the system.
9. Save your entries.

Step 6: Maintain ABAP system in Portal SLD

1. Go to RZ70 in BW system and enter fully qualified Portal host name and the gateway as below.

2. Click on icon Start Data Collector without Job Scheduling

3. Click on Yes in the dialog box below:

d. This will create the ABAP Technical System in portal system SLD.

Step 7: Create Webdynpro Jco Connections
To start Planning Modeler and Planning Wizard without any errors, the below Jco RFC Connections must be created with the respective settings
BI_METADATA, WD_ALV_METADATA_DEST & BI_MODELDATA, WD_ALV_MODELDATA_DEST
The following settings are required for the two JCo connections BI_METADATA and WD_ALV_METADATA_DEST:

• The data type must be set to Dictionary MetaData.
• The connection type must use load balancing.
• You need to select the Message Server of the ABAP system.
• Authentication must be set using a user/password.
• The user defined in the authenication must have authorization to access BW system

The following settings are required for the two JCo connections BI_MODELDATA and WD_ALV_MODELDATA_DEST:

• The data type must be set to Application Data.
• The connection type must use load balancing.
• You need to select the Message Server of the ABAP system & Logon Group PUBLIC.
• Authentication must be set ticket.

Note: The only difference between BI_METADATA, WD_ALV_METADATA_DEST & BI_MODELDATA, WD_ALV_MODELDATA_DEST is, the datatype and Authentication mode.
Step 8: Create PUBLIC Logon Group in BW system:
Create the logon group with PUBLIC in BW system if not exists.

1. Go to tcode SMLG and click on New to create the Logon group and provide the name PUBLIC for the new logon group.

Step 9: Activate BI Templates in RSA1:

1. Goto RSA1 Tcode in BW system and select BI Content

2. Select Object Types -> BEx Web Template -> Select Objects -> 0ANALYSIS_PATTERN -> Transfer Selections.

3. Drag “Analysis” to the right side box and expand all. Click on Select All button as below

4. Click on Install button
   

       e.  Save all the setting what you did and exit from RSA1.

        f. Once above all steps are done, it would be good practice to restart Portal and BW systems to take some settings affect.

Step 10: Trouble shooting:

Error: Error loading template 0BROADCASTING_TEMPATE70



Solution: Goto RSA1 in BW system. BI content -> Object Types -> Web Template -> Select Objects -> 0BROADCASTING_TEMPLATE -> Transfer Selections.



Drag 0BROADCASTING_TEMPLATE to right side box. And click on Select All button.



Click on Install button.



Save all the changes



Error: RSOBJS 171 Unable to generate history entry error when saving or executing the webtemplate in BEx Web Application Disigner



Solution: Activate the personalization using tcode: RS_PERS_ACTIVATE



Error: This system rejects all logons using SSO tickets error when accessing the BW tcodes from Portal system

\

Solution: The parameter Login/accept_sso2_ticket = 1 might be missing in instance profile of the BW system. Add this parameter to the profile.

Error: Could not load of refresh node Tree creation failed on node: pcd:portal_content/com.sap.pct/platform_add_ons/com.ip.bi/iViews when you try to access the BI Default iViews provided by SAP.



Solution: Deploy Portal Core Services latest Patch (SAP Note: 1105800) to avoid this error
Error: The error RSWWW 240 The Object cannot not be processed due to transport problem can be occurred when saving the Webtemplate in BEx Web Application Designer.


Solution: Go to tcode RSA1 and select Transport Connection. Now click on Object Changeability.


Right click on BTMP and select Everything changeable