A complete guide to setup CA APM Introscope 9 for monitoring SAP BI Platform 4.1 on Windows [PART 1/2]

The procedure to setup CA APM Introscope 9 (formerly known as Wily Introscope) for SAP BI Platform 4.1 has got a bit easier however, the documentation is still spread out across several locations.  In this article, I will give you a complete step by step example on how to get started monitoring your BI landscape using CA APM Introscope 9.  In this example, I have one host which will run the Introscope Enterprise Manager and another host where I am running SAP BI Platform 4.1 SP2 + default Apache Tomcat deployment.

Here is the workflow we will follow:

• Step 1:  Download the installation media from the Software Download Centre
• Step 2:  Install the Introscope Enterprise Manager
• Step 3:  Install the Diagnostic Agent on each BI node and application server node
• Step 4:  Configure each BI node and application server node
• Step 5:  Validate the installation/configuration is working

Step 1:  Download the installation media from the Software Download Centre

First, we need to download each piece of software from the Service Marketplace.  If you find that your S-USER does not have access to download one of these files then open a message under component XX-SER-SWFL and request access to download the file.  If you are installing to an operating system other than Windows x64 then search for the file names under Support Packages and Patches to find the version appropriate for your platform.  Furthermore, if you find that the downloads do not complete successfully using the links below, then instead search for the files in the software download centre and add them to your download basket.  Once they have been added to your download basket, you can then download them via the software SAP Download Manager.

Step 2:  Install the Introscope Enterprise Manager

SAP provides a read-only version of CA APM Introscope (RTV version) for free as part of your support contract.  This means that you can leverage the monitoring and root cause functionality provided by Introscope, without spending additional money on a full license.  Should you decide that you want to create alerts, customize dashboards, or utilize the Websphere/Weblogic power packs, then I encourage you to contact your account executive about upgrading to the SAP Extended Diagnostics package (SED).

The Introscope Enterprise Manager should be installed on a dedicated server which has 24/7 uptime.  All of the performance metrics are stored in the SmartStor database which is maintained by the Introscope Enterprise Manager.  For best performance, you should install to a dedicated hard disk with plenty of available disk space (300gb or more).  The Introscope Enterprise Manager makes frequent read/writes to this disk and works best if nothing else is reading/writing to this disk in parallel.

1. Copy the Introscope Enterprise Manager 9 SP15 media, Introscope 9 customizations SP15, SAPCAR*.exe, eula.txt, and osgiPackages.v9.1.5.0.windows.zip to a temporary folder on the host where you will be installing the Introscope Enterprise Manager
   
   
2. Open a command prompt and extract the contents of WILY_IS_EM15_0-20007498.SAR using the sapcar -xvf command
   
   
3. Edit the file eula.txt and change "reject" to "accept" to accept the end user license agreement
   
   
4. Edit the file ca-eula.txt and change "reject" to "accept" to accept the end user license agreement
   
   
5. Edit the file installer.properties and update the properties USER_INSTALL_DIR and silentInstallChosenFeatures
   
   
6. Double-click on the file introscope9.1.5.0windowsAMD64SAP.exe to launch the silent installer.  Wait about 2 minutes and check the install directory for failed log files.  If no failed log is generated then the install worked.  Confirm the install worked by checking your start menu
   
   
7. Next, we need to turn up the Max Java heap setting for Introscope Enterprise Manager.  Browse to your Introscope install bin directory and edit the file C:\usr\sap\ccms\apmintroscope\bin\EMService.conf.  Change the Maximum Java Heap Size to 2048
   
   
8. Next, copy the file SAPISMM24_0-10007429.SAR and SAPCAR.exe to the root directory of your Introscope Enterprise Manager install.  Then extract the contents to this directory
   
   
9. Next, go to Administrative Tools and restart the Introscope Enterprise Manager service
   
   
10. Copy the file SAP_BOBJ.jar and SAP_Apache_Tomcat_Basis.jar from <DRIVE>:\usr\sap\ccms\apmintroscope\sap\extra_modules to <DRIVE>:\usr\sap\ccms\apmintroscope\deploy
    
11. Go to start, programs, CA APM, then click on Introscope Workstation Webstart or browse to http://introscopehost:8081/workstation  (note, you need to Java 6 x64 JRE installed).  If prompted with a security warning, check the box that you want to accept the risks and click run.
    
    
12. Logon to Introscope using user Admin and password Admin89
    
    
13. Click Workstation, New Console.
    
    
14. Confirm that the BOE 4.0 dashboards are installed.  Confirm the Apache Tomcat dashboards are installed
    
    
    

Step 3:  Install the Diagnostic Agent on each BI node and application server node

The SAP Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent provides a framework from which the BI Platform 4.x c++ based processes can be monitored.  These servers connect to the agent listener port and collect/push Introscope metrics via the NCS libary (ncs.dll).  Additionally, the Diagnostics Agent also includes the SAP Host Agent which monitors operating system metrics via the SAPOSCOL.exe program.  It is recommended to install a Diagnostics Agent on each BI Platform node and also each node hosting a Java application server.  If you have a node that is hosting both the BI components and the application server components then only one Diagnostics Agent installation is needed.

It is a requirement that you use a local administrator or root account to execute this installation.

1. Copy the files SAPCAR*.exe and the diagnostic agent installer DIAGAGT73SP03_0-20006981.SAR to a temporary folder on each BI node and application server node
2. Open a command prompt, then unpack the Diagnostic Agent installation media using the SAPCAR -xvf command
   
   
3. Browse to the extracted folder SMD730_IM_WINDOWS_X86_64
   
   
4. Execute the Diagnostic Agent installer in stand-alone mode using the command sapinst SMD_INSTALLATION_SCENARIO=ishub
   
   
5. Expand Solution Manager Diagnostic Agent-->SAP Systems-->Standalone Engines-->Diagnostics agent in SAP Solution Manager then select Diagnostics Agent and click Next
   
   
6. You may be prompted that SAPinst needs to log you off in order to reliably continue the installation.  Click OK
   
   
7. Log back on again and the installation continues automatically.  On the next screen, confirm that the hostname where you are installing the agent is correct then click Next.  If you are installing to a machine with multiple virtual hosts, specify the hostname of the virtual host where you would like to install the agent to.
   
   
8. Next, specify the Diagnostics Agent System ID and the drive where you would like to install the agent to then click Next.  The agent will always be installed to the path <DRIVE>:/usr/sap/<SID>/. 
   
   
9. The Diagnostic Agent will create 3 user accounts which are needed to run the SMD Agent services.  Make sure local domain is selected so that it will create the user's locally on this host (and not on a Windows domain) then click Next
   
   
10. Next, you need to specify a password for the new user acccounts.  It is recommended to use the same password for all three user accounts and it is required that you use a strong password containing both upper-case and lower-case letters and numbers (9 or more characters).  After you have entered in both passwords, click Next
    
    
11. You will be prompted to add the service account user to the trusted users list.  Click Yes
    
    
12. Next, select a free instance number for this Diagnostics Agent.  If you do not have any other agents running on this host, choose the default instance number of 97.  Otherwise, enter another available instance number and click Next
    
    
13. On the Unpack Archives screen there are no changes needed here, click Next
    
14. On the Parameter Summary screen, click Next to start the installer
    
    
15. When the installation completes, you will be prompted.  Click OK
    
    
16. Open a command prompt, browse to <DRIVE>:\usr\sap\DAA\SMDA97\script then execute the following command to configure the agent to point to your Introscope Enterprise Manager:
    
    
    smdsetup.bat hostagentconf emhost:"IEMHOSTNAME" emport:"6001"
    
    
17. Next, run the following command to enable the host agent
    
    smdsetup.bat hostagent state:on
    
    
18. Download the attached SapAgentConfig.xml, copy it to <DRIVE>:\usr\sap\DAA\SMDA97\SMDAgent\applications.config\applications.config\com.sap.smd.agent.application.wilyhost and overwrite the existing SapAgentConfig.xml.  This file specifies the TCP port on which the agent listens for incoming metrics from BOE (NCS/c++ based) services.  By default, this port number is 59818
19. Go to Control Panel-->Administrative Tools-->Services and restart the SAPHostExec and SAPDAA_97 services (where my system id is DAA and instance number is 97)
20. Repeat the steps in this section for each BI and application server node

Continue to next part:  A complete guide to setup CA APM Introscope 9 for monitoring SAP BI Platform 4.1 on Windows [PART 2/2]