SAP BPC Template Troubleshooting

07 Mar SAP BPC Template Troubleshooting

Nate Crawford New Nate Crawford

BPC Version 10

Scenario:

If you’re involved in the support and administration of BPC, then you have most likely been involved in conversations or even attempts to isolate performance issues. Users will often say things like “it used to work fine” or “It works great in the test system” but there is only one to get to the bottom of it.

Trace it.

Next time your users or support team request help on BPC template performance try these steps and study the results. Keep in mind; it will take some collaboration between teams (Functional, BPC, BW and sometimes infrastructure groups) to piece it together at first. In time, you’ll quickly understand where the bottlenecks are.

Part 1 – Trace the execution of the template:

Steps to troubleshoot:

Pre – Req:

Tracing:

  • Get local admin rights on your PC.
  • Locate this file: C:\Program Files (x86)\SAP BusinessObjects\EPM Add-In\FPMXLClient.dll-ExcelLogConfig
  • Change the config in this file as follows:

Search for the code block shown below

  • <logger name=”Trace.Performance”>
  • <level value=”ERROR” />
  • <appender-ref ref=”PerfTraceFileAppender” />
  • </logger>

Change to this:

  • <logger name=”Trace.Performance”>
  • <level value=”TRACE” />
  • <appender-ref ref=”PerfTraceFileAppender” />
  • </logger>

Save the file. Tracing is now enabled for EPM via Excel.

Troubleshooting Steps:

  1. Get a copy of the template or the name and confirm how user is opening it.
    1. Is it local on their PC or on server? Is it Ad-hoc?
    2. What prompts are they using?
    3. Did it ever work and if so – how long did it take in the past?
    4. Any recent changes? Check with developers and get a list of any recent changes.
      • This will possibly help correlate errors in the trace file.
  1. Run the template just like the user would.

Trace file which will be located here:

  1. C:\Users\<Insert LAN ID>\AppData\Local\Temp\log – Go to most recent trace file.
    1. Note: In some cases these folders might be hidden. Work with IT to resolve that or try right clicking on the parent folder and unchecking the “Hidden” attribute.
    2. There will be a few types of trace files generated. The “PerfTrace_sessionID” trace file is a good place to start. More granular details are stored in the “Trace_sessionID” file.
  2. Scroll through the file and search for errors, exceptions or big time gaps. Also keep watch for the EV functions being called and check this against the list of EV functions still supported. http://scn.sap.com/blogs/vinaymadhadi/2012/06/18/epm-100-functions-vs-evdre-7x-functions-in-bpc-100

 

Example of what to look for:

Time Gaps: (I inspect any step taking longer than a couple of seconds)

“2014-10-03 11:12:16,561” TRACE Performance FPMXLClient.Connection.RESTConnection.Connect

“2014-10-03 11:13:17,170” TRACE Performance FPMXLClient.BPCProxy.Session.

Also look for the “Duration” which is usually on the far right side of the file. Note: Many times the duration will reflect the total time spent within a series of steps.

Time gaps can be explained by a variety of factors. Sometimes it is due to refresh settings within the template but the causes could be numerous for example, formula errors, BPC dimension issues or even backend BW problems. Some of this will be discussed further in part 2.

Errors:

2015-01-31 10:12:43,845|ERROR|ReportManagement|FPMXLClient.Office.EPMExcel

Errors and exceptions will be clearly marked within the trace file. Search on the word “ERROR” and the most obvious issues will be found. Each error line will indicate the type of component related to the error and give some general wording about the issue. Compile the list of errors and work through the list with your BW and template designers to zero in on the most relevant areas.

As mentioned above, the more you use the trace tool for BPC templates, the more familiar you will become on where the issues are and what the messages in the file mean.

  1. In addition to the local trace file, there will most likely be some information in the following BW tcodes:
    1. SLG1 – Look through the log and find the error based on time stamp (make note of the error information)
    2. STAD – Review the error based on the user ID. (Make note of the error information)
    3. SM21 – Go into log and get the “task number” associated with the error.

(The above tcodes give parts of the story – See blog by Mike Pink on UJSTAT usage for tracing methods within SAP BW)

 

Nate Crawford is a SAP Business Intelligence Developer. Over the years, he has helped numerous companies build robust and efficient reporting solutions.  Nate can be reached at nate.crawford@phxend.com

 

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