Vertica Quickstart for SAP Business Objects

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The Vertica QuickStart for SAP Business Objects (SAP BO) is a sample BI application implemented as a set of SAP BO dashboards powered by the Vertica Analytic Database. The dashboards present sample retail data for analysis. The QuickStart shows how retail companies could use Vertica and SAP BO to quickly explore, visualize, and gain insight into their data stored in Vertica.

You can download the Vertica QuickStart for SAP Business Objects from the following location:

https://www.vertica.com/quickstart/vertica-quickstart-for-sap-business-objects/

About the Vertica QuickStarts

The Vertica QuickStarts are free, sample applications created using front-end products from Vertica technology partners. For an overview, watch this short video:

The QuickStarts are posted for download on the Vertica QuickStart Examples page.

Note The Vertica QuickStarts are freely available for demonstration and educational purposes. They are not governed by any license or support agreements and are not suitable for deployment in production environments.

About SAP Business Objects

The SAP Business Objects Business Intelligence platform is a suite of front-end applications that allows business users to view, sort, analyze, and share business intelligence data. For product details, visit the SAP Business Objects website.

Requirements

The Vertica QuickStart for SAP BO requires a Vertica database server with a standard installation of the VMart example database, a Vertica client driver, and SAP BO 4.0 or later.

The QuickStart was created using SAP BO Web Intelligence. Web Intelligence provides a self-service environment for creating ad-hoc queries and analyzes data both online and offline.

Installation and Setup

To install the software that is required for running the QuickStart, follow these steps:

Install the Vertica Database Server

If you do not already have Vertica, you can download the Community Edition free of charge:

  1. Navigate to Vertica Community Edition.
  2. Log in or click Register Now to create an account
  3. Follow the on-screen instructions to download and install the Vertica Community Edition.

Install the VMart Example Database

The Vertica QuickStart for SAP Business Objects assumes a default installation of the Vertica VMart example database.

To install VMart, follow the instructions in the Vertica documentation:

For details, see VMart Example Database Schema, Tables, and Scripts.

Install SAP BO

Follow the instructions on the SAP help portal to install SAP BO on Windows or Linux.

Install the Vertica Client Driver

SAP BO can use either the JDBC or the ODBC client driver to connect to Vertica. Before you can connect to Vertica using SAP BO, you must download and install the Vertica client package. This client package includes the JDBC and ODBC drivers that SAP BO uses to connect to Vertica.

To download and install the Vertica client package:

  1. Go to the Vertica Client Drivers page on the Vertica portal.
  2. Download the Vertica client package that matches your operating system and the version of Vertica that you are using.
  3. Follow the steps for installing the Vertica client as described in the Vertica documentation.

    Note Vertica drivers are forward compatible, so you can connect to the Vertica server using previous versions of the client. For more information, see Client Driver and Server Version Compatibility in the Vertica documentation.

Download the QuickStart

  1. Navigate to vertica.com/quickstart
  2. Select Vertica QuickStart for SAP BO.
  3. Log in or create an account.
  4. Click Download.

Deploy the QuickStart for SAP Business Objects Dashboards

Connect to Vertica

You can connect SAP BO to Vertica using either the ODBC or the JDBC driver. For more information, see Vertica Integration with SAP Business Objects: Connection Guide.

The QuickStart example was created using the ODBC driver. You can change the ODBC Data Source Name (DSN) details of the reports. You can also switch to connecting using the JDBC driver.

Promote the Dashboards

To deploy the QuickStart dashboards on SAP BO, you must change the connection information for an imported universe using the Information Design Tool. This tool is part of SAP BO BI Platform 4 Client Tools. Before you deploy the QuickStart, make sure you have the following:

  • Access to Central Management Console (CMC)
  • Administrative rights to access the Promotion Management tool form CMC
  • Server details and credentials of the SAP BO environment

Within CMC, Promotion Management is a tool option for users. To use the Promotion Management tool, follow these steps:

  1. Login to CMC (http://<IP Address>:8080/BOE/CMC) as an administrator.
  2. From the dropdown menu in the upper left corner, select Promotion Management. The Promotion Jobs console opens.
  3. Select Import > Import File. The Import from file window opens.
  4. Select File System.
  5. Click Browse.
  6. Select the VerticaQuickstartforSAPBOlcmbiar file you downloaded.
  7. Click OK. It might take a few minutes for the file to load. Do not click OK again. The New Job tab opens.
  8. Rename your job. Optionally enter a description, and keywords and save in job details.
  9. In the Source dropdown, select From File.
  10. In the Destination dropdown, select Login to New CMS. The Login To System window appears.
  11. Provide the credentials for the destination CMC and click Login.
  12. The window closes. Click Create. A new window appears with seven reports.
  13. Click Promote. The Promote window appears.
  14. Click Promote. The job is being promoted to the SAP BO server.
  15. To check the status of the promotion, click the History button.
  16. Once the status changes to Success, close the window.

The SAP BO client promotes the job to the SAP BO server.

Access the Sample Dashboards

  1. Log in to the SAP BO web server console (URL: http://<IPAddress:8080>/BOE/BI)
  2. Click the Documents All reports are visible in MyFavorites?~WebIntelligence/VerticaQuickStartforSAPBO.
  3. Click a report to run it.

Change ODBC DSN

Note These steps assume you have already created an ODBC DSN. In this example, the DSN is named VMartConn.

Follow these steps if you want to change the ODBC DSN. Changing the DSN is optional.

  1. From the SAP BO platform client tool list, open the Information Design tool (IDT).
  2. In the Repository Resources tab, select Insert Session. The New Session window opens.
  3. Enter the System, User Name, and Password.
  4. Click OK.
  5. In the Repository Resources tab, select the DSN you created. The DSN tab opens.
  6. Click Edit.
  7. Change the User Name and Password for your DSN.
  8. Click Finish.
  9. Click Test Connection to verify a successful connection.

Change Driver Option

Follow these steps if you want to change to the JDBC Driver. This is optional.  

  1. From the SAP BO platform client tool list, open the Information Design tool (IDT).
  2. In the Repository Resources tab, select Insert Session. The New Session window opens.
  3. Enter the System, User Name, and Password.
  4. Click OK.
  5. In the Repository Resources tab, select the DSN you created. The DSN tab opens.
  6. Click Change Driver.
  7. From the wizard, follow the instructions to create the JDBC connection.
  8. Click Test Connection to verify a successful connection,
  9. Click Save.
  10. To start using the JDBC connection, restart SAP BO.

QuickStart Example Dashboards

The QuickStart dashboards present sample business and operational data that a large retail chain might track over time. The chain operates brick-and-mortar stores and an online marketplace. It sells a wide variety of products that it purchases from different vendors.

Note The data in your dashboards will not match the data in the screenshots in this document. This is because the VMart data generator generates data randomly.

Executive Dashboard

The Executive Dashboard presents a high-level view of business data. You can use this dashboard to analyze the overall functioning of the business over time. In this instance, you see a summary of store sales between 2003 and 2005. You can filter selections using the dropdown menus on the left of the dashboard.

executive.png

Online Sales Dashboard

The Online Sales Dashboard presents an overview of the online business. You can use this dashboard to analyze the performance of the chain’s online sales over time. In this dashboard, you can see that the West Coast had the highest sales profits and the Northwest showed the lowest sales profits. Perhaps you want to know why sales are comparably lower in the Northwest than in the rest of the country.

online.png

Store Sales Dashboard

The Store Sales Dashboard presents an overview of the traditional business conducted in the brick-and-mortar stores owned by this retail chain. In this dashboard, you can see store sales are clustered on the East and West Coasts. 2004 had the highest store sales of the three years presented in this dashboard. Perhaps you want to know why store sales dropped between 2004 and 2005 across all regions.

store.png 

For More Information