Tune, Scale, De-mystify Tomcat Server for SAP BusinessObjects

SAP BusinessObjects is built on J2EE framework that use Tomcat services for security, messaging, transaction coordination. All HTTP requests and returning web pages and other static or dynamic content.

Below are some common problems that our clients experience with Tomcat:

Session Time out in BI Launchpad

The first step to managing session time outs is understanding SAP BusinessObjects default behavior.

• The default timeout for a logon tokens at BI platform is 20 minutes (1200 seconds), and this is calculated from the last interaction with JAVA server.
• In the platform Enterprise sessions are generated for each connection, and one enterprise session is valid up to 60 minutes.
• Online sessions for Crystal Enterprise and WebIntelligence applications are swapped to hard disk for performance reasons after 10 minutes inactivity.
• Generally, data connection sessions will be disconnected after 30-60 minutes’ inactivity.

Solution

1. Go to <BI 4.0 Install folder>\SAP BusinessObjects\Tomcat6\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF folder
2. Open xmlin Notepad and search for the following tag:

<session-config>
<session-timeout>20</session-timeout>

</session-config>

3. To modify to 60 minutes, change the value of <session-timeout> xml tag. This example increases the timeout up to 60 minutes.

<session-config>

<session-timeout>60</session-timeout>
</session-config>

4. Save the file and restarttomcat

Preserving BI Launchpad Customizations (Logo, SSO, custom settings)

It is very frustrating to lose the changes after the service pack or patch upgrade. With below settings, you can preserve the customizations of Tomcat Server.

Solution

BI Launchpad

Copy Custom files <INSTALL DIR>\tomcat\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\custom

to: <INSTALL DIR>\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\warfiles\webapps\BOE\WEB-INF\config\custom

Explorer

<INSTALL DIR>\tomcat\webapps\explorer\WEB-INF\classes

<INSTALL DIR>\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\warfiles\webapps\explorer\WEB-INF\classes

Dashboard

<INSTALL DIR>\tomcat\webapps\dswsbobje\WEB-INF\classes

<INSTALL DIR>\SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 4.0\warfiles\webapps\dswsbobje\WEB-INF\classes

Tomcat Memory Issues

In some cases after the service pack upgrades tomcat will not start automatically. This could be due to a memory parameters issue.

Solution

Make sure Initial Memory Pool is always less than the Max memory pool. If you are upgrading to BI 4.2 set MAX memory pool should have minimum 4GB.

Getting Max Permsize errors frequently

Solution

Increase -XX:MaxPermSize value to 512M+

Tomcat went down and not sure what caused it?

Solution

Increase -XX:MaxPermSize value to 512M+

1. Check Dump and HPROF files under <INSTALL DIR>\tomcat.
2. Check the date these are created.
3. You can use JMETER or MEMORYAnalsys tools to identify the root cause