Cleanly Stopping and Starting Business Objects Servers

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I really cannot explain why it is that I have NEVER seen any documentation that advises Business Objects XI administrators on how to stop and start Business Objects properly. For those of us running part of our business on BO XI we are very concerned about minimizing errors for users and scheduled jobs while we are restarting Business Objects.

The Cleanest Method to Stop a Business Objects Environment

I have discussed this topic with my senior engineers and the following is based on the input I received from them and from my own experience and knowledge. I will label optional steps that will make your stop and start as graceful as possible; these are optional, but they are the best method to follow if you have the time to do so. Also when following the steps make certain that the step is complete and the server is completely stopped/started before proceeding to the next step. Additionally if you have a clustered environment, and you should if at all possible, then you can stop all servers of the same kind in any order or even simultaneously.:

  1. Please first make note of any pre-existing disabled servers to be sure that you do not enable them mistakenly later on. Screenshots are useful and fast, just be sure to save them.
  2. Shutdown your web/application layer. This will stop your users from launching new jobs and from getting strange errors as you are in the midst of your shutdown. You could just disable a proxy server (if you use one to cut off the access, but (Graceful Option) you may want to completely flush the system by completely stopping the web server.
  3. (Graceful Option) Through the Central Management Console (CMC) or through the Central Configuration Manager (CCM) Disable all BO servers except for the CMS, Input FRS, Output FRS, and Destination servers.
  4. (Graceful Option) Wait as long as reasonable/acceptable or until all user sessions/requests have cleared the disabled servers before proceeding to the next step. Usually 30 to 60 minutes is sufficient for any valid threads being processed.
  5. Shutdown the Event Servers (use CCM or CMC). This would stop any related scheduled jobs from launching.
  6. Shutdown all Job Servers (WebI, DeskI, Program…).
  7. Shutdown the Destination Servers.
  8. Shutdown all Report Servers (WebI, DeskI, Crystal…).
  9. Shutdown any other non-CMS Servers that are still up and running.
  10. Shutdown CMS. CMS should always be last. This is essential and it will make your CMS shutdown go much faster and more smoothly. It may also help reveal any problems that your CMS may be having (for example, if it won’t shutdown you’ll know it is not because of any other lingering servers in the cluster).
  11. With the CMS completely shutdown you are official and completely down.

The Cleanest Method to Start a Business Objects Environment

It is assumed that EVERYTHING is down prior to beginning these steps. If your environment is only partially down we strongly recommend that you first shut it down completely before attempting a start/restart. You want to have a clean environment so do yourself and your users this favor. When starting groups of the same kind of server you can start them one by one or simultaneously, jsut be sure that all are started before proceeding to the next step. (Graceful Option) If you disabled any servers prior to the shutdown (as part of a graceful shutdown) then you should enable them immediately after they have been started:

  1. Start the CMS servers. This will take a little while depending mostly on the number of objects in your environment.
  2. Start Destination Servers, Input FRS, and Output FRS.
  3. Start Event Servers. Also as a side note, please be aware that Event Servers must always be restarted following the restart of any CMS in the cluster.
  4. Start all Report Servers.
  5. Start all Job Servers.
  6. Start any other servers that have not yet been started.
  7. Start your web/application layer.

    8. The Value of the (Graceful Stop/Start Method)

    Disabling Business Objects XI servers allows the servers to retain and complete their current threads/work, but it stops it from accepting any new work. Nevertheless, this requires caution. If users retain access to the environment (web and application layer are up) while you are disabling servers and you disable ALL servers, or most of them to a point below capacity demands, then you will cause errors for users! Therefore, if the users do retain access to the environment disabling servers would only be done partially to the collection of similar servers (with reason). Also do not forget to enable the servers after the servers are restarted!!!

    Please also see the article “The Best Way to Stop a Business Objects Server“.

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53 thoughts on “Cleanly Stopping and Starting Business Objects Servers”

  1. Hi Julian,
    Thanks for such an informative post. I have one basic doubt here. I know that you can start/stop CMS only through CCM but I also know that all the requests go through CMS and if CMS is down, you can’t perform other tasks. So my question is which server handles requests made by CCM about configuration changes? Can I log in to CCM if CMS is down since there is no server to validate userid/password entered in CCM login?

    Thank you !!

  2. Hi Asd, CCM in XIR2 requires no password to access it; but you do need access rights to the server. In fact, on Windows you don’t even need to access CCM, you could just start the Windows service for the CMS and other servers. This all change with BO XI 3 though. The services are wrapped up inside a “super service” called the SI Agent which accesses them. CCM in BO XI 3 connects to the SI Agent in order to administer the services (BO servers).

    So to answer your question, “which server handles requests made by CCM about configuration changes?”, I would say that the OS of the server manages this. If you have rights on the server to access the CCM program then that is all that is needed. No further authentication is needed.

  3. Hi Julian,
    Thanks a lot ! When you say “CCM in XIR2 requires no password to access it; but you do need access rights to the server”, do you mean the Window’s user needs access to all the servers installed on it?
    If so, what happens in case of distributed BO installation? Can I change properties of all the servers from one machine (by accessing other machines through network) or do I need to go to each machine, on which BO servers are installed, to change properties?

  4. Hi Asd,
    Good questions. BO terminology causes some confusion here, so let me try to be more precise and careful…

    Business Objects Servers: CMS, WebI Report Server, Event Server, Job Servers… Let’s call these BO Servers

    Windows Server or Machine: This is the physical, or even virtual machine on which the Windows server operating system is installed and configured as a single Windows server isntance. This is what you access through Terminal Services or Remote Desktop Connection. Let’s call it the Windows Server.

    In general, the basic Windows “Power User” or “Administrator” roles on the Windows Server will provide the access needed to administer CCM on the server. Through CCM, you will have access to the BO Servers.

    CCM in XIR2 has a little drop-down box in the right-hand top corner that will allow you to enter in Windows Server names where other CCM installation exist that can contain your distributed BO Server architecture. You will require the proper access to these Windows Servers to be able to administer the BO servers in CCM whether you log in to the servers themselves, or you use CCM on another Windows Server to access them.

    *It should be noted that if you are using CCM on one Windows server to access another Windows Server’s BO Servers then you can only stop/start those BO Servers, you cannot make changes to their configuration.

    **Also note, that the Windows Servers that you administer remotely through CCM need not be in the same CMS cluster, they only need to have CCM installed.

  6. Great article,

    This raises a question for our environment. We require that BO access a network share so we had the AD folks create a network account that we could configure to run these services. Now what do we tell the server folks on how to configure this network account. Is there a main Windows service for BO? Can you open services.msc and set BO to run with the privelages of a network account?

  7. In BO XI 3 there is one main service that manages all of the BO servers/services; it is called the “SI Agent”. I believe within it you can configure the restart order.

    If you are using BO XI R1/R2 then each service is on it own initially. However, you could create a batch file that would start each service in the order you specify, you may have to build in “wait” statements to ensure they don’t all start immediately one after the other.

    The “service” account should have rights enough to run the services on the machine, it does not need to allow interactive log in (a security gap). Then on each service you just set it up to run the service as the user (Log On tab of the Windows service) by entering the [domain]/userid and password under the “This account” option.

  9. Thanks again Julian this worked very well for us. We did have to play with the Windows permissions on the folder a bit but the BO service started perfectly and is working well πŸ™‚

  11. Hello,
    i have Business Objects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP2, i need a script to stop all BO servers to make a cold backup.
    I tried to use commands similar to the following:

    “C:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12.0\win32_x86\ccm.exe” -managedstart CMS_NAME.AdaptiveJobServer -cms CMS_NAME:6400 -username XXX -password XXX -authentication secEnterprise

    It work for all servers but it doens’t work for the CentralManagementServer …

    I tried to use command like: TASKKILL / F / IM sia.exe but it doesn’t work…it don’t stop the process sia.exe….

    have you find a solution? If yes which?

    Thanks a lot!!!

  13. Hello All,

    We are about to implement stopping the BO XI 3.1 Server via Script. Script shows stopping the Servers and restarting the Server but disable. But according to above content it needs to disbale the Server first in sequence then Stopping the Server and restaring the Server. So, could you please let me know running the Script for stating and stopping the Bo Enterprise Server is really ” Cleanest Method to Start a Business Objects Environmen”.

  14. Hello All,

    I have just tested the script to enable and disbale the Web Intelligence Processing Server and its works fine. Change the information according to your environment.

    -disbale information avaiable for Unix in Admin Module and it works fine for windows too.

    cd “XXX:\Program Files\Business Objects\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12.0\win32_x86”

    ccm.exe -disable XXXX.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer -cms XXX:Port No(XXX) -username XXXX -password XXXX -authentication secEnterprise

  15. Team,

    I have installed BO 3.1 on a new box.Now i have only 2 services enabled,apache tomcat 5.5 and SIA.I m able to login to CMC with administrator and blank password in enterprise authentication,but when i try to login to the designer with the same credentials it says login failed.Pls let me know if i have missed out something.

  16. This is a bit off-topic, but when you use CMC are you running it from a browser on the server? Are you running Designer on the server? What I am getting at is if everything is as you say, and nothing is overlooked, and no CMC crashed, then I think your problem must be a network issue.

  17. Julian,

    Thanks a lot for your response,i checked into the CMC>License Keys,it seems to be a request for authorised license.Now with the new license key,i m able to use the designer.In the CCM when i login to Manage servers,i couldn’t find any of the services enabled except the Central Management Services,so i logged into the CMC and hit on Servers> Nodes>New Server and added all the required services manually.Now the issue is resolved.

    Thanks,
    Trishna

  18. Hi Julian,

    We are recently facing some issue while server outages.
    We face this issue, When ever BO server or the DB Server attached to CMS is down due to an outage and it comes back.
    BO services doesn’t work and schduled reports fails give some operating system error. To resolve this we have to goto CCM and start all the server again then things work fine. what is the cause of it?
    i follow this sequence for shutdown and reverse for restart.
    1. Web server
    2. Apache tomcat server
    3. SIA agent

    can you please confirm is it correct sequence and the real cause of this issue.
    I am new to BO so will appreciate some advise for this.

    Thanks a lot.
    Monica

  19. Hi Monica, that is a good basic approach. The reason that is good is only because it prevents InfoView and Web Intelligence users from getting in to your system as it goes down. There are more details in the article about the order of server shutdown. In general, I do not recommend shutting down the SI Agent unless you cannot access CMC of CCM’s server controls first. In a perfect world I would use CMC to cleanly shutdown all job server and reporting servers first then work my way up to the CMS and then the SIA.

    Your errors are probably due to communication errors between your CMS and the database. Check your server’s event log. In Windows you want to look at the “Application” section. Try to match the times to the failures, you should see something there. Hopefully it might show you so reasons for the behavior.

  20. Hi Julian,

    We are using BOXI 3.1 with SP3.We are facing some issues in the server.Processing servers are getting stopped and CMS stops running..What would be reason behind this? Please suggest.

    Thanks in Advance.

    Nisha

  21. Hi Nisha, a CMS that keeps stopping by itself can be the result of many things. I would check database and network connectivity over time. License keys missing can sometimes cause strange issues.A server without enough processing power or RAM could result in strange behavior like this. A full hard disk could also cause this. The best place to start is to view the system messages that are logs by the failed CMS (such as in Event Viewer in Windows). Also, you can look for Core dumps as well and any default race files might give you more info. If not you could also enable tracing to see if something gets captured there that you could detect. Good Luck, Julian

  22. Hi,

    I tried disabling service in BOXI3.1 using ccm.exe -disable XXXX.WebIntelligenceProcessingServer -cms XXX:Port No(XXX) -username XXXX -password XXXX -authentication secEnterprise

    It works fine.Is there any option to stop the service. We are planning to automate our weekend server restrat activity which would require staop and strat the service.We cant use net stop & start for other services in 3.1 as they are no longer individual windows services .Please let me know if anyone knows abt it.

  23. To the best of my knowledge you can use these:
    -start or -stop: for SIA only. So if you put all of you WebI Processing Servers in a SIA this would definitely work for you.
    -managedstart or -managedstop: for use with the complete server name.
    -managedforceterminate: Force stop of a server, using full server name, without completing processing.
    -enable or -disable: for use with the complete server name.

  24. Hi Julian,

    BOXI31,windows 2003, SIA service needs to be restarted automatically on week ends thr batch file. could you please send me the complete command line code for excution?

    Regards…

  25. Hi Subs, if you think you need to restart your SIA on a weekly basis than this would be using a batch file as you state. The DOS batch commands you need are NET STOP "" and NET START "" where “Service Name” is the name you see in the Service Manager for the SIA.

  26. Hi Julian,

    Recently we encounter a problem on our Server where the BO is running. The server was rebooted(proper shutdown procedure was NOT implemented). After reboot we are now facing a problem on our Scheduler. We tried using the command line to refresh the reports but we still got the same error(Transport error: Communication failure.(FWM 00001)). Manual refresh works fine.

    Thanks you.

  27. Hi Dennis, I would try a clean stop and restart. That might fix your issues. Sometimes the job servers just need to be restarted as well (without restarting everything else). Try that first and try the complete restart afterward if needed.

  28. Hi,
    We are using Xcelsius Dashboards to display dyanmic dashboards which are using SAP BOE XI 3.1.
    Earlier there were few Dashboards and it all went fine.Now with the new requirement from client we have added few more dashboards and after this BOE server is going down very frequently.Can you please suggest some way out as we are using Web intelligence server for all this.

  29. Hi Manish, I recommend you take a look at the number of sessions that are being used. I would monitor the sessions on the CMS and I would also monitor the number of sessions on your WebI Processing Servers. You may need to add more capacity in the form of WebI Processing Servers or CMS Servers.

  30. Hi,

    We did the domain name changed on BO server last night and after that the BO services are not starting up. Currently all BO services are stopped except for CMS. In the event logs we are getting below error message

    1)Failed to register with the name server. Reason: The server name being registered is invalid. There might be another server registered using the same name. Choose another name or delete the corresponding server entry in the CMC.

    2) Fail to register with the nameserver. Please check for name duplication and validness of name used: Input.servername

    3) Fail to register with the nameserver. Please check for name duplication and validness of name used: servername.reportjobserver

    4) File Repository Server stopped

    5) Job Server stopped

    We checked the hostname of the server is already resolving and did reboot the server but still BO services are not starting up.

    Please advice.

    Thanks!

    Kind Regards,
    Tarun

  31. Hi Tarun, In my opinion BO servers are disposable in most cases. I suggest you record any changes to the parameters (and possibly to the registry) for these servers, disable them, and then you create new ones to replace them. Once the new ones are working to your satisfaction you can delete the old ones.

  32. Hi Julian,

    Thanks for the information.

    The issue has been fixed now basically we re-registered the BO server with the FQDN name of server in the services menu. once done we put it back the server name (as it was earlier) and registered it.

    Again, thanks for your timely response.

    Kind Regards,
    Tarun

  34. Hi, i have recently i have installed BO XI3.1 but apache tomcat66 server is not running and gives when tried from windows services and gives error-
    windows could not star apache tomcat5.5.20 on local computer.for more information review the system event log. If this is non-microsoft services contact the service vendor and refer the service specific error code 0.
    please advice what shall i do ?

  35. Hi kiran, you say first “tomcat66” and then the error you give is for “tomcat5.5.20”. (1) First of all let’s get this part straight. Business Objects XI 3.1 only supports Tomcat 5.5 as an application server. This is the version of Tomcat that is distributed with BOXI 3.1. (2) Secondly, if you have a different version of Tomcat running on the same server where you want to run BusinessObjects web applications then I suggest you uninstall that version. (3) Thirdly, I would recommend that you rerun the installer and you re-install Tomcat from the Business Objects XI 3.1 installer. This is the version that I always use and I have never had trouble, even on custom OS configurations. (4) Fourthly (if that is a word), I would make sure that you machine’s OS is supported for XI 3.1.

  36. Hi Julian,
    Thanks for the reply. As per your advice I uninstalled the old version of Tomcat and rerun the installer but still the same problem exist- it gives error- “windows could not start apache tomcat5.5.20 on local computer.for more information review the system event log. If this is non-microsoft services contact the service vendor and refer the service specific error code 0.”
    **** While installation after ‘Configure Tomcat’ dialog box I got a pop-up message named “PortConfirm – One of more ports you selected are in use. Do you to continue?” here I clicked on Yes button and later on the installation started which successfully finished also. But i am unable to login neither with Javainfoview nor .Net ifoview . I have kept all port no. as default and not changed anyone wherever it asked.
    kindly advice.
    thanks in advance
    KK

  37. Hi Julian,

    SAP BOE XI3.1 SP3, Windows server 2008.

    Tomcat and SIA needs to be stop and start on weekend day. My request is – Do i need to perform the task manually (using NET STOP/NET START)every weekend or is there is any script which can take care of this task
    If so, kindly provide me full details of the script (how to prepare the script and how to run it).
    Also I want the SIA to stop first and then Tomcat and after that Tomcat should start first and then SIA.(Also let me know this approach is correct or not)
    And finally if there is a script, can i mention specific time (server time on which the script runs) in the script like SIA stop time, Tomcat stop time and the tomcat and SIA start times.

    Thanks in advance,
    Rajesh

  38. Hi Julian,

    SAP BOE XI3.1, SP3, Win NT server 2008

    My request: could you please provide me any script which is required for stop and start of Tomcat and SIA.
    my task is to prepare a script in which tomcat and sia are to be restaretd on a weekend day.
    As i have no idea about scripts, my humble request is if you can provide me any detailed script and also how the steps to deploy the script in the server.
    First SIA to stop and then tomcat. After that tomcat to start first and then SIA (is this a correct approach)
    As I am running short of time, i requset you to reply back ASAP.

    Thanks in advance for your valuable time.
    Regards,
    Rajesh

  39. Hi Kiran, I suggest you look into Tomcat modifications to change the default port numbers. I really can’t advise you on this.

  40. Sorry Rajesh, I don’t have a Windows script that I can offer you for this. On Unix Linus you could easily just run the following:

    stopservers
    tomcatshutdown.sh
    tomcatstartup.sh
    startservers

    Perhaps that translates to Windows in you set the path’s correctly on the “Path” environment variable.

  41. Hi Julian,

    BO XIR2 3.1 SP3

    Is there any way to automate the restart process for TOMCAT on “Microsoft Windows Server 2003 SP2”.

  42. Yes, this should be possible with a batch script using “NET STOP Tomcat5” and “NET START Tomcat5” for the service and Windows Task scheduler. I haven’t done it, but it should be possible.

  43. hi julian,

    Can you please tell me, when is the ideal time to restart BO servers. Is it 2 weeks?
    what should be the sequence 1. Tomcat 2. SIA
    or vice versa ?
    pls help. this is really important.

  44. Hi Meenal, sorry for the delayed response. Frequency of restart will depend on your system and usage. Only experience will tell you. Also, you may find that you can do a “rolling” restart (restarting only parts of the system, such as half of the WebI servers first then waiting and restarting the rest).

    If you are doing a full restart then you will want to stop in this order:
    1) Web Server (if you use a web server proxy)
    2) Application Server (Tomcat)
    3) Job Servers
    4) Webi/DeskI Servers
    5) All BO servers that is not CMS
    6) CMS
    7) Stop any SIA that are still running

    I suggest you start up in the opposite order. Of course, starting a SIA will start all of the servers in it.

  46. hi julian,

    i have another query.

    if we restart Tomcat, we should be able to login to infoviewapp, however it is not happening, we have to manually start it from tomcat manager.
    is there any way that it can start automatically?

    please help.

  47. Hi Julian,
    If all the Dashboard and PM servers are stopped and disabled, will the user still be able to access the My Dashboards section?
    This is regarding XI 3.1 SP3 FP3.6.
    The problem is that when the user clicks on My Dashboards, he gets the “PMUser missing or corrupted…” message. When I checked the servers, I found that all the dashboard and PM services are Stopped and Disabled.
    Can this be the reason for getting the error?

    Thanks.

  49. Hi Meenal, I think your Tomcat configuration has been changed. I usually work with WebLogic and we never have to start the web applications manually. My default Tomcat installations are also configured such that the web apps auto-restart when the Tomcat server is restarted. I wish I knew which setting it was to be able to tell you.

  50. hi Julian,

    thanks for the update, these kind of isssues can be resloved by reinstalling the Service Pack which caused the issue.

    it helped me so thought of sharing.

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