Installation

What is it?

The SAP Business Objects Connector installation consists of multiple steps that are required to complete the installation successfully. The steps install a Windows Agent, the SAP Business Objects Connector, and the SAP Business Objects Windows job subtype, and then configure the connector.

note

The SAP Business Objects Connector requires a Windows Agent because it runs as a Windows batch job. You can install the connector on a central server, or you can install an agent on the SAP Business Objects server.

Supported software levels

The following software levels are required to implement the SAP Business Objects Connector:

• OpCon Release 19.0 or higher
• Embedded Java OpenJDK 11 (part of the installation)
• SAP Business Objects 4.2

Installation overview

The installation process consists of four steps, performed in order:

1. Install the OpCon Windows Agent.
2. Install the SAP Business Objects Connector.
3. Add the SAP Business Objects Connector job subtype to Enterprise Manager.
4. Configure the SAP Business Objects Connector.

Step 1 — OpCon Windows Agent installation

The SAP Business Objects Connector requires an SMA OpCon Windows Agent. You can install the Agent on either of the following:

• The OpCon server.
• The same system as the SAP Central Management Console server.

Step 2 — SAP Business Objects Connector installation

To install the connector, complete the following steps:

1. Copy the supplied install file SAPBOConnector-win.zip to the installation directory.
2. Extract the contents into the installation directory.

After extraction, the root installation directory contains the following:

Item	Purpose
boxi.exe	Connector executable
Encrypt.exe	Utility that encodes passwords stored in Connector.config
Connector.config	Connector configuration file
java\ directory	Embedded Java software (OpenJDK 11) required to run the connector
emplugins\ directory	Job subtype plug-in for Enterprise Manager

Step 3 — Create the SAPBOPath global property

Create a global property SAPBOPath that contains the full path of the installation directory.

tip

The Connector Path field on every SAPBO job definition references this property. Setting it once means you do not need to update individual jobs if the install path ever changes.

Step 4 — Job subtype installation

To install the Enterprise Manager job subtype plug-in, complete the following steps:

1. Copy the Enterprise Manager plug-in from the installation_dir\emplugins directory to the dropins directory of the Enterprise Manager installation.
2. If the dropins directory does not exist, create it off the root directory.
3. Restart Enterprise Manager.

A new Windows job subtype called SAP Business Objects is now visible.

caution

If the new job subtype is not visible, restart Enterprise Manager using Run as Administrator. After this, you can use Enterprise Manager normally.

SAP Business Objects Connector configuration

Configuring the SAP Business Objects Connector requires setting the required values in the Connector.config file. The Connector.config file contains the following:

• The address of the Business Objects Server that the connector uses to issue requests to Business Objects.
• Credentials for writing reports to disk.
• Definitions for FTP servers. The header name of each FTP definition is used to extract the correct connection definitions.

You can define multiple FTP connections by changing the header value (for example, [FTP1] defines the connection for server1 and [FTP2] defines the connection for server2). The Indicator field on a job's Ftp destination selects which one to use.

warning

Any passwords entered into Connector.config must be encoded using the Encrypt.exe utility provided with the connector. Do not enter passwords as plain text.

Encrypt utility

The Encrypt utility supports a -v argument and displays the encoded value.

To encode a value on Windows, run the following command, substituting your value for abcdefg:

Encrypt.exe -v abcdefg

caution

Despite its name, Encrypt.exe encodes passwords rather than encrypting them. It applies no cipher and uses no key, so anyone who can read Connector.config can recover the original password. Encoding stops a password being read at a glance, and that is all it does.

Restrict access to Connector.config with operating system permissions, and treat every password in it as recoverable. Use a separate account and password for each destination rather than sharing one.

Connector.config configuration

Configure the Connector.config file in the installation directory by setting the required information. The file is divided into named sections, each introduced by a header in square brackets.

[CONNECTOR] section

Property name	Value
CONNECTOR_NAME	A label for the connector. It is read at startup and has no effect on behaviour.
DEBUG	Sets the connector into debug mode, which increases the detail written to the connector log. Value either ON or OFF. Required — the connector fails to load its configuration if this property is absent, so set it to OFF rather than removing it. The supplied Connector.config sets it to ON.

[BUSINESS OBJECTS] section

Property name	Value
BUSINESS_OBJECTS_SERVER_ADDRESS	The address of the SAP Business Objects server, including the protocol scheme and the port number — for example http://boserver:6405. The port is the listening port defined during SAP Business Objects installation (default 6405). The connector uses this value as the base of every web service URL, so the scheme is required.
BUSINESS_OBJECTS_DEFAULT_REPORT_FORMAT	The default report format if the attribute SCHEDULE-FORMAT is not present. Valid values: webi, pdf, xls, or csv.

[DISK] section

Used to define a DISK connection. Contains a valid user and password that is allowed to write files on the target disk.

Property name	Value
DISK_USER	A valid user code that has the required privileges to write onto the destination disk.
DISK_USER_PASSWORD	The password of the user. Encode this value using Encrypt.exe.

[FTP] section

Used to define a connection to an FTP server. An FTP destination definition includes this name as the first parameter of the value definition so the correct FTP server definitions can be used (for example, FTP=FTP1,..). You can add multiple definitions by changing the header value.

Property name	Value
FTP_SERVER_NAME	The address of the FTP server.
FTP_PORT_NUMBER	The port used by the FTP server.
FTP_USER	A valid user code that has the required privileges to log in to the FTP server.
FTP_USER_PASSWORD	The password of the user. Encode this value using Encrypt.exe.

Mail destinations do not use Connector.config

There is no SMTP section in Connector.config. Mail destinations are defined entirely in the job definition — the subject, the message and the recipient addresses — and the mail is sent by the SAP Business Objects server using its own configured mail settings.

If reports are not being delivered by email, check the mail configuration on the Business Objects server rather than the connector.

Example Connector.config file

Replace every value in angle brackets with your own, and use a separate account and password for each destination. Encode each password with Encrypt.exe before entering it.

[CONNECTOR]
CONNECTOR_NAME=SAP Business Objects Connector
DEBUG=OFF

[BUSINESS OBJECTS]
BUSINESS_OBJECTS_SERVER_ADDRESS=http://<business-objects-server>:6405
BUSINESS_OBJECTS_DEFAULT_REPORT_FORMAT=pdf

[DISK]
DISK_USER=<disk-user>
DISK_USER_PASSWORD=<encoded-disk-user-password>

[FTP1]
FTP_SERVER_NAME=<ftp-server>
FTP_PORT_NUMBER=21
FTP_USER=<ftp-user>
FTP_USER_PASSWORD=<encoded-ftp-user-password>

FAQs

Q: Where can I install the SAP Business Objects Connector? A: You can install it on a central server or on the SAP Business Objects server. The connector requires a Windows Agent on the same system because it runs as a Windows batch job.

Q: How do passwords get encoded in Connector.config? A: All passwords stored in Connector.config must be encoded using the Encrypt.exe utility provided with the connector. Run Encrypt.exe -v <value> and place the resulting encoded value in the configuration file. The output is encoded, not encrypted, and can be reversed without a key.

Q: Why is the SAP Business Objects job subtype not visible in Enterprise Manager after I copy the plug-in? A: Restart Enterprise Manager. If it is still not visible, restart Enterprise Manager using Run as Administrator.

Q: What does the SAPBOPath global property do? A: It contains the full path to the connector installation directory and is referenced by job definitions through the Connector Path field.

Glossary

Connector.config — The configuration file in the connector installation directory that defines the Business Objects Server address, FTP and SMTP server connections, and connector-level settings such as DEBUG mode.

dropins directory — The Enterprise Manager subdirectory where the SAP Business Objects job subtype plug-in is placed so Enterprise Manager loads it on startup.

Encrypt.exe — The utility supplied with the connector that produces an encoded form of any password stored in Connector.config. Despite its name it applies no cipher and no key, so its output is reversible and the file must be protected by operating system permissions.

SAPBOPath — The global property that holds the full path of the SAP Business Objects Connector installation directory.

Related topics

• SAPBO Connector overview
• Operation
• Release notes