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SAP BusinessObjects Sizing, Hardware & Licensing Models (Legacy)

This article concerns the sizing of SAP BusinessObjects software and how it relates to the choice of hardware to support it and licensing models.

In terms of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 it is important to make an informed decision on licensing and hardware based on a SAP BusinessObjects sizing exercise. The sizing exercise involves considerations for the specific Business Intelligence software products chosen to be implemented on Business Objects Enterprise and an analysis of the quantity and type of user that will be active on the BI System. A series of calculations are then performed based on the findings.

As an example consider Web Intelligence. One single Web Intelligence Report Server (service) running on Business Objects Enterprise can support between twenty five and forty users making simultaneous requests depending upon the report complexity. The Web Intelligence Report Server requires one CPU to support it. If more than forty users stress the Web Intelligence Report Server simultaneously there will be deterioration in performance. This can be rectified by configuring more Web Intelligence Report Servers and adding CPU or limiting the number of users. This principle holds true for several of the SAP BusinessObjects Servers running on SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise.

Whilst we can scale the system retrospectively in this way it is better to carry out the sizing upfront. The benefits are that it will provide an indication to number of SAP BusinessObjects Servers to configure, the number of CPUs required to support them, and the disk space that your BI System will require.

So sizing can be a useful guide to hardware procurement. However, it is also a guide to the most effective type of licensing to procure i.e. CPU based, Named User, or a combination of both. If sufficient licensing is not procured the BI System performance will suffer, but conversely no one wants to procure more costly software licensing than is necessary.

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