Describing the Central Management Server (CMS)

The Central Management Server (CMS) and the Central Management Server system database are crucial in SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025.

Watch this video to know about the three roles of the CMS.

The Central Management Server (CMS) is in charge of user authentication on SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025. To do that, CMS sessions are created.

Definition:

A simple tracking algorithm is used by the CMS to confirm your authentication.

• When you log on, a CMS session is created.
• On a recurring basis, the web application server notifies its active status to the CMS.
• The CMS preserves this CMS session until you log off, if the session was terminated or if it reaches the timeout setting.
• The CMS preserves this CMS session until you log off or when the web application shuts down and stops communicating with the CMS exceeding the timeout setting duration. The CMS deletes the CMS session then.

Detailed Steps When Logging On SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025:

The following steps explain the interaction of SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025 components to log on with BI Launch Pad:

1. The user sends the log in request from the BI Launch Pad web client through the web server to the web application server, where the BI Launch Pad web application is running.
   Note

   This log on process also applies to other web clients, such as the CMC.
2. The web application server determines that the request is a logon request. The web application server sends the username, password and authentication type to the Central Management Server (CMS) for authentication.
3. The CMS validates the username and password against the appropriate database. In this case, Enterprise authentication is used, so user credentials are authenticated against the CMS system database.
4. Upon successful validation, the CMS creates a session for the user in memory.
5. The CMS sends a response to the web application server to let it know that the validation was successful.
6. The web application server generates a logon token for the user session in memory. For the rest of this session, the web application server uses the logon token to validate the use against the CMS. The web application server also generates the next web page to send to the web client.
7. The web application server sends the next web page to the web server.
8. The web server sends the web page to the web client.

The Central Management Server (CMS) settings and properties can be viewed and updated in the Central Management Console (CMC). It is not recommended to update any value in the CMS properties if you do not know the impact of this update (a bad value can compromise the CMS execution). Contact the SAP support in case of doubt.

Servers and Services:

• When you change the CMS properties, you must restart the server for the changes to take effect.
• Server properties can be set for each BI platform server category:
  • Common Server Properties: The server properties apply to all server types (server name, node, port, auto-start, host identifier, configuration template, trace log).
  • Core Services Properties: They apply to core servers (Adaptive Job Server, Adaptive Processing Server, Central Management Server, Event Server, Input File Repository Server, Output File Repository Server).
  • Connectivity Services Properties: They apply to connectivity servers (Connection Server, Adaptive Processing Server).
  • Crystal Reports Services Properties: They apply to Crystal Reports servers (Crystal Reports Cache Server, Crystal Reports 2025 Report Application Server Properties, Crystal Reports 2025 Processing Server).
  • Web Intelligence Services Properties: They apply to Web Intelligence server (Web Intelligence Processing Server).

Note

Click on the following link to view the Common Server properties of the Central Management Server properties: (Central Management Server properties).

Server properties can be set for each BI platform server category.

A lot of metrics are generated by the Central Management Server (CMS). They can be monitored by administrators only from the Central Management Console (CMC).

Considerations:

• Metrics are the KPIs of the health of a server. The term "server" refers to an SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025 server, and not to the host that the product is installed or running on.
• Metrics of the Central Management Server (CMS) can be monitored only in the Central Management Console (CMC), like:
  • Connection to Auditing Database is Established: Indicates whether the CMS has a healthy connection to the auditing database. A value of "1" indicates that there is a connection. A value of "0" indicates that there is no connection to the auditing database. If the CMS is an auditor, this value should be "1". If it is "0", investigate why a connection to the auditing database cannot be established.
  • CMS Auditor: Indicates if the CMS Is acting as an auditor. A value of "1" indicates that the CMS is acting as an auditor. A value of "0" indicates that the CMS is not acting as an auditor.
  • Auditing Database Connection Name: The name of the auditing database connection. This is not necessarily the name of the auditing database itself. If this metric is empty, it indicates that a connection to the auditing database cannot be established.
  • Number of Sessions Established by All Users: The number of concurrent user sessions that are being handled by the CMS when the Metrics screen loads. The larger this number is, the larger the number of users that are using the system is. If this number is greater than 250, create an additional CMS.
  • Number of Sessions Established by Servers: The number of concurrent sessions that BI platform servers have created with the CMS. If this number is greater than 250, create an additional CMS.
  • System Database Connection Name: The name of the CMS system database connection. This is not necessarily the name of the CMS system database itself.
  • System Database Server Name: The name of the server where the CMS system database is running. This is not necessarily the name of the CMS system database itself.
  • Data Source Name: The name of the CMS system database connection.
  • Average Commit Response Time Since Startup (msec): The average length of time in milliseconds that it took the CMS to perform commit operations since the server was started. A response time greater than 1000 milliseconds may indicate a need to tune the CMS or the CMS system database.
  • Number of Commits Since Startup: The number of commits to the CMS system database since the server was started.
  • Currently Used System Database Connections: The number of connections to the CMS system database that the CMS is currently using. The number of connections that are being currently used may be smaller than or equal to the number of established system database connections. If the number of established connections and the number of used connections are identical for some time, this may indicate a bottleneck. Increasing the value for the System Database Connections Requested property on the Properties screen may improve the performance of the CMS. Tuning the CMS system database may also improve performance.
  • Number of Objects in CMS System Cache: The total number of objects that are currently in the CMS system cache.
  • Number of Objects in CMS System DB: The total number of objects that are currently in the CMS system database.

Note

Follow the link to display the Central Management Server metrics that appear in Central Management Console: (Central Management Server Metrics).

The CMS system database is a major database for SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025. Take care to not be confused about terms like Central Management Console (CMC), Central Configuration Manager (CCM), Central Management Server (CMS) and Central Management Server system database.

Considerations:

The CMS system database is a major database that stores SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025 information:

• On all objects (folders, servers, users, groups, schedules, and other objects).
• On all servers (configuration, properties).
• On security (user authentication, access levels, advanced rights).

When installing SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025, the administrator must choose one of the supported database types for the CMS system database:

• The install process will execute scripts to populate the database (unless an existing CMS system database is selected).
• If needed, the installation program can even install a default database engine.

Note

The CMS system database does NOT need to be on the machine as your organization's operational data. It's recommended to keep them separate.

The Central Management Server (CMS) will be used each time to process an incoming request, coming from a user or a server, and to find server resource for forwarding to it.

Detailed Steps When Running a Scheduled Program Object:

The following steps explain the CMS process flow when it handles the run of a scheduled program object on SAP BusinessObjects BI Platform 2025:

1. The Central Management Server (CMS) checks the CMS system database to determine if there is any scheduled program to be run at that time.
2. When the scheduled job time arrives, the CMS locates an available Program Scheduling Service running on an Adaptive Job Server. The CMS sends the job information to the Program Scheduling Service.
3. The Program Scheduling Service communicates with the Input File Repository Server (FRS) to obtain the program object.
   Note

   This step also requires communication (not shown in this diagram) with the Central Management Server (CMS) and the CMS system database to locate the required server and objects.
4. The Program Scheduling Service updates the CMS periodically with the job status. At this time, the status shows that it is processing.
5. The Program Scheduling Service sends a log file to the Output File Repository Server. The Output File Repository Server notifies the Program Scheduling Service that the object was scheduled successfully by sending an object log file.
   Note

   This step also requires communication (not shown in this diagram) with the Central Management Server (CMS) and the CMS system database to locate the required server and objects.
6. The Program Scheduling Service updates the CMS with the job status. At this time, the status is reported as a success.
7. The Central Management Server (CMS) updates the job status in its memory, and then writes the object instance information to the CMS system database.