Configuring the Central Management Server (CMS)

The Central Management Server (CMS) is using a cache service running in memory. Administrators have to check and update the performance of the CMS cache (especially the CMS cache size) by tuning the CMS cache service properties if necessary.

Considerations:

When adjusting the CMS properties, consider the following points:

• The CMS saves object meta-data in a cache. Reading from memory is faster than reading from a database.
• The SAP BI 4.3 Sizing Guide states that a CMS uses over 1 gigabyte of memory. This assumption means that each object is around 10 kilobytes, but could be more or less.

Check the CMC for the number of objects in your system database. Consider increasing the CMS size if the number of objects is over 100,000.

At any given time, you can check the metrics of the CMS. You can also see how many objects there are in total in the system database. Few objects make it unlikely that you need to increase the value for the CMS cache. However, if you have a million (or more) objects in the CMS system database, it is worth increasing the value for better performance.

Considerations:

• CMS clustering is having more than one CMS in the same system, either on the same machine and/or several machines.
• CMS clustering offers many benefits in a large BI implementation.
• Central Configuration Manager (CCM) is used to configure CMS clustering at the Server Intelligence Agent (SIA) level.

Overview on CMS Clustering:

Consider the following points about CMS clustering:

• A cluster includes two or more Central Management Servers (CMS) working together utilizing a single CMS system database.
• Organizations with large implementations usually run several CMS servers on several machines together in a cluster.
• If a single machine that is running one CMS fails, a different machine running another CMS will continue to service SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025 requests.
• CMS clustering gives high availability support, making sure that SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025 users can still access information when equipment fails or on a single machine deployment, handing a large amount of requests (such as users logging in or out and handing scheduled requests).

Requirements:

A cluster consists of two or more CMS servers working together against a common CMS system database.

Before clustering CMS machines, you must make sure that each CMS is installed on a system that meets the detailed requirements (including version levels and patch levels) for operating system, database server, database access method, database driver, and database client.

In addition, you must meet the following clustering requirements:

• For best performance, the database server that you choose to host the system database must be able to process small queries very quickly. The CMS communicates frequently with the system database and sends it many small queries. If the database server is unable to process these requests in a timely manner, BI platform performance will be greatly affected.
• For best performance, run each CMS cluster member on a machine that has the same amount of memory and the same type of CPU.
• Configure each machine similarly (same operating system, same version of the BI platform, connects to the CMS system database with the same ODBC drivers, same CMS running operating system account, same system time, same Local Area Network).

Note

Make sure you follow the prerequisite requirements and are met when clustering CMS machines: (Clustering Central Management Servers).