XI3.1 SP2 Installation on Windows

Product versions: BOE XI 3.1 SP2

This article is finished. This BOpedia page is provided by the RIG team. Don't hesitate to add comments. Main Contributors : Hansen C, Balaji K, David G With the help of Carrie E

Contents Root cause of the problem Possible workaround How do I perform a silent installation? (A silent installation is quicker than an U.I. installation.) How do I know when a silent installation has finished? What setup time should I expect to create a ".ini" file (for silent mode) ? What setup time to expect to upgrade from XI 3.1  Server to SP2? What size should I expect to upgrade from SP1 RTM (English Only) to SP2 upgrade?  Upgrading a system that is above the XI3.1 FP 1.5 level A client installation needs a client package!

Root cause of the problem

One of the main reasons for this problem is the use of the MSP (Microsoft Patch) installer that we are using for the Service Packs (as well as the Fix Packs) installations on the XI3.1 platform.

The install/validate check routine in this process takes approximately 80% of the install time. When using this installer the process to find and replace a large number of files takes a long time.

We use the MSI installer for the SP/FP installs in XIR2 which is a faster technology and will be moving back to this with the XI3.1 Fix Pack installations.

Possible workaround

The only available workaround currently available to address the SP2 installation time is by using the silent installation mode. This will skip this install/validate check routine and hence will be much quicker.
Another preventive measure to be taken is disabling the Antivirus program before starting the installation so that the Antivirus program does not interfere with the installation process.

How do I perform a silent installation? (A silent installation is quicker than an U.I. installation.)

The file below (we named it response.ini file, but you can name it whatever you like)  is simply a file that contains the configuration information that would normally be entered in the setup wizard. This file is a text file that can be used to record the different options selected when running the setup in 'recording mode' (in our case we called it "response.ini" as it was in the official documentation). This will allow you to easily run a silent installation.

Regarding how to run in Silent mode, please refer to the installation guide "xi31_sp2_install_en.pdf" page 21 for detailled information.

In simple words, generate an ini file first. To do so: Open a command line console. From the directory that contains the BusinessObjects setup.exe file, run the setup.exe command with the write option (-w) specified:

setup.exe -w <filepath>\<filename>.ini
where <filepath>is the location where you want the file created and filename.ini is the name you have given to your file. Some people named this file the "response.ini"  file.

Press Enter to launch the installation program. Follow the on-screen instructions to enter your preferred installation settings until you reach the Start Installation dialog box. Click Cancel to abort the installation. (see the screen shot below).  The file will be automaticaly created (after few minutes).

 
----------------------------------

Then run the silent installation with the command line:
setup.exe -r <filepath>\<filename>.ini
where <filepath> is the path to the <filename>.ini file that you created.

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This file (in ourcase we named it response.ini) should be like that :
[OTHER]
QUIET=/qa
[INSTALL]
AS_ADMIN_IS_SECURE="false"
AS_ADMIN_PASSWORD=""
AS_ADMIN_PORT=""
AS_ADMIN_USERNAME=""
AS_APPSERVER_ID=""
AS_DIR="C:\<Installation_Path>\Tomcat55"
AS_GROUP_ID=""
AS_INSTANCE="localhost"
AS_SERVICE_NAME="BOE120Tomcat"
AS_VIRTUAL_HOST=""
AUTODEPLOY_WAR_FILES="1"
BOE_CORE_INSTALLER="1"
CLIENTLANGUAGE="EN"
CMSPASSWORD=""
ENABLELOGFILE="1"
INSTALLDIR="C:\<Installation_Path>\"
NAMESERVER="ComputerName"
NEWCMSPASSWORD=""
NSPORT="6400"
REINSTALL="ALL"
SS_BIAR_IMPORTED="done"
SS_INDEX_LOCATION="C:\<Installation_Path>\BusinessObjects Enterprise 12.0\data/search"
SS_SEARCH_SERVICE="1"
WDEPLOY_LATER=""
[FEATURES]
REMOVE=""
ADDLOCAL="CMCService,WebApplicationContainer"
ADDSOURCE=""
ADVERTISE=""

How do I know when a silent installation has finished?

During the installation/upgrade a log file is created in the folder: C:\Documents and Settings****\Local Settings\Temp. In parallel, your task manager is working a lot.

When the installation/upgrade is finished, this file is moved to your <Installdir>\logging. 

You can open this file, go to the end of the file, and look for the following  sentence: completed successfully.

What setup time should I expect to create a ".ini" file (for silent mode) ?

Please note that if you go through the Silent Mode and an "ini" file (in our case we called it "response.ini" as it was in the official documentation) this ini file creation can take quite a bit of time.

	Computer XXX1 Vwmare Windows 2003 SP2 2 Gb of Ram 1 CPU  3 languages: French, German, English Of course this time is only a example and can change depending of your hardware, network, etc.
Click on setup.exe	started: 0:00
Get the "welcome to the BusinessObejcts .." screen.	0:09
Fill all screens and click "cancel" before the installation start.	0:10
Get the "Setup is not complete. If ..." screen and click "Exit Setup".	0:10
Get the screen "BusinessObjects ... was interrupted ..." and click "OK".	0:11
The screen disappears.	0:18
	18 minutes to create the ini file.

Measured manually.

What setup time to expect to upgrade from XI 3.1  Server to SP2?

Of course, depending on your computer, disk, CPU, and network ,you won't have the same time to upgrade your XI 3.1 installation.
So we decided to measure different installation types on the same computer and give you these metrics.

If your installation has one language (English), after the upgrade you will get one "BOE_SP2_Install_0.log"  file. If your installation has multiple languages, after the upgrade you will get mutliple files, for example: BOE_DE_SP2_Install_0.log and BOE_FR_SP2_Install_0.log.

(**) We measured these values with the log file created during the upgrade: BOE_SP2_Install_0.log (in the folder <Installdir>\logging) (and BOE_FR_SP2_Install_0.log & BOE_DE_SP2_Install_0.log  for the multilanguages)

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=== Verbose logging started: 8/11/2009  16:03:12

....................................

MSI (c) (90:C8) [17:02:52:484]: Product: BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP2 -- Configuration completed successfully.

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What size should I expect to upgrade from SP1 RTM (English Only) to SP2 upgrade? 

You can install your BusinessObjects product on the C disk or on other disks such as D, E ...disks.

**Note: This assumes that the C drive is your system drive (the drive where windows is installed).

Even if you install your BusinessObjects product on D and/or E disks you will need space on the C disk.  But the installer checks only the space on the disk you have installed the XI3.1 BusinessObjects product. If you have installed BusinessObjects XI3.1 on the D disk, the installer will check the space on D and not on C. 

If you don't have at least 4.5Gb on C, during the installation, when you run out of space on C, you will get an error with the message: "not enough space on C:"

However, you will need around 4.5 Gb of Disk space on C for English only during the installation. Once the installation is finished, the installer will keep around 2.5 Gb of this 4.5 Gb on C: .

We describe below the folder and files used by the installer. Some of these files will stay on your system when the installation is finished, some will be automaticaly deleted.

Upgrading a system that is above the XI3.1 FP 1.5 level

If you are upgrading any fixpack after FP1.5 then all the newer versions of a particular binary from FP1.6, FP1.7, FP1.8 will be replaced with the SP2 version of the file, which means you will lose those fixes inlcuded in these FP. You won't be prompted to warn you.  So once your SP2 is installed, you need to install immediately the FP2.1 in order to get these fixes.

Same thing, if you are in XI3.1 FP1.9 and if you want to upgrade to SP2, once the SP2 is installed, you need to install immediately the FP2.3.

Please contact your account manager, if you have any question about this installation path.

A client installation needs a client package!

We will provide mutliple packages for the following products:
• BusinessObjects Enterprise XI
• BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Client Tools
Note:
If you installed client tools using the Client Tools option from the full
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI installation program, you will need to use
the BusinessObjects XI update package to update those tools. The Client
Tools update package will work only if the tools were installed by
BusinessObjects Enterprise XI Client Tools installation program.

Otherwise ,you will get the following error: BusinessObjects Enterprise XI3.0 client tools have been detected. BusinessObjects Enterprise XI3.1 cannot be installed: STW00247