HP Business Process Insight
Release Notes
June 2008
This document provides an overview of the changes made to HP Business
Process Insight (HPBPI)
for HPBPI version 7.50. It contains important information not included
in the manuals or in the online help.
In This Version
Installation Notes
Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds
Problems with Associated Software
Support
Legal Notices
If you have not
installed HPBPI before, you do not need to read this section.
HPBPI version 7.50 includes the following new and revised features; these features are covered briefly
in the following list and are more
fully described in the Business Process Insight Installation Guide:
- Alignment of product version number with Business Availability Center.
The HPBPI version number has skipped from version 02.20 to version 07.50 in order to align
with the Business Availability Center version number.
- Microsoft SQL Server version support changes.
HPBPI no longer supports Microsoft SQL Server 2000. This means that you need to migrate your SQL
Server database and the HPBPI data, before you start the upgrade.
- The following terminology alignments have also been made with Business Availability Center 7.50:
- Flow becomes Business Process; for example: Flow Diagram is now Process Diagram and
Flow Simulator is now Process Simulator.
- Node becomes Business Process Step; for example, Node Status is now Process Step Status.
- Metric becomes Monitor; for example, Metric Definer is now the Monitor Definer.
- Alert becomes Violation; for example, Threshold Alert is now a Threshold Violation.
- Weight becomes Process Value, for example, Absolute process value within the Monitor Definer.
- The Integration with Business Availability Center is enhanced and the following additional options are now available:
- Sharing models with Business Availability Center whereby HPBPI models are stored in UCMDB as CIs.
- Single sign on.
- Support for SLM violations and Business Availability Center reporting.
- Business Availability Center violations and notifications based on business process service-level objectives.
- Additional Portlets: Business Performance Portlet (modification of the Threshold Dial portlet in 2.20),
and Business Performance History Portlet. These are in addition to the existing and unchanged Business
Process Portlet.
- When you enable the integration with Business Availability Center:
- Instance violations continue to be viewed using the HPBPI Dashboard; however, all other violations (Backlogs,
Throughputs, and Durations) are viewed only through the Business Availability Center Dashboard.
- Dials and statistical threshold information for HPBPI are shown using the My BAC portlets and not using
the HPBPI Business Process Dashboard.
- The Collection Interval defined for Business Process Monitors is aligned with the Business Availability
Center Data samples send interval.
- You use Business Availability Center to define statistical thresholds within HPBPI 7.50.
- HPBPI statistical threshold data is stored in the UCMDB and not the Business Process Insight database.
This might have an impact on reporting applications that you are using with HPBPI in that data that
was previously available in the HPBPI database is no longer populated and will become outdated over time.
- You no longer set thresholds on monitors within HPBPI, you now use Business Availability Center to
set Objectives on KPIs when raising violations against statistical monitor values or durations.
- SLA and SLO email notifications are no longer available using the HPBPI Email Notification Server; they
are set using Business Availability Center.
- The following are changes specific to the behavior of the Monitor Definer when the integration
to Business Availability Center is enabled:
- all statistical thresholds that were defined before the integration to Business Availability Center
was enabled are available to be edited; however, you cannot change the value for their Types, nor
create any new statistical thresholds.
- when a Monitor is exported, the Collection Interval is saved in the exported .zip file and not the Data
sample send interval.
- when the a monitor is imported, the Collection Interval is imported and saved. The Collection Interval
is then available to use if you subsequently disable the integration to Business Availability Center.
- You can configure HPBPI to integrate with Transaction Vision.
- Email, and other notifications of statistical violations, are configured through Business Availability Center
when the integration between HPBPI and Business Availability Center is enabled.
The following are features that are no longer available in HPBPI version 07.50
- The ability to link to Service Desk service details from the HPBPI Dashboard
- The integration with HP OpenView Internet Services (OVIS).
If you are upgrading from a version of HPBPI prior to version 2.20, read the Business Process
Insight Installation Guide for details of the new features introduced in early versions of HPBPI.
Installation requirements and instructions for installing HPBPI are
documented in the Business Process Insight Installation Guide. This
guide is provided in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) and Web (.htm) format on the product's
distribution media.
Be aware that HPBPI has a requirement on J2SE;
HPBPI 7.50 supports J2SE version 1.5. This version of the J2SE can
be downloaded from the following location:
http://java.sun.com/products/archive/
If you intend to enable the integration between Business Process Insight and Business Availability Center,
you need to make sure that you have installed:
- J2SE development kit version 5.0 update 12
- J2SE development kit version 5.0 update 14 or later
You cannot use versions of the J2SE development kit prior to update 12, or update 13 when
integrating with Business Availability Center.
Accelerator for SAP Applications
The HPBPI Accelerator for SAP Applications has not been revised for version
7.50; however, version 2.20 has been certified with HPBPI and can be installed and used
with HPBPI 7.50.
Upgrading with Significant Amounts of Data in Database
If you have a significant amount of process and business process monitor data in your database,
be aware that the upgrade to HPBPI version 7.50 can take some time.
The amount of time the upgrade takes, depends on the database type (Oracle Server, or Microsoft SQL Server),
your machine type and the amount of data; however, with hundreds of thousands of business monitor instances,
it could take hours,
rather than minutes, for the upgrade to complete.
HPBPI Uses Nodelocked Licensing
You must have a license key password to use HPBPI, specifically the HPBPI Server. Following your
initial installation, you are automatically assigned a 60-day trial license. Within this 60
day period, you must obtain either a trial license extension, or a permanent license key password.
HPBPI uses a Nodelocked license based on the short hostname (not the fully-qualified hostname)
of the machine where the HPBPI Server is installed. You must supply a short hostname for the
machine where you intend to run HPBPI when completing your license request form. You can
obtain the short hostname using the following command from a Windows Command Prompt:
hostname
Do not supply an IP Address when applying for your license key as you will not be able
to use the generated password to unlock your HPBPI installation.
The following is an example of a short host name:
server1
The following is an example of a fully-qualified hostname:
server1.hp.com
The following is an example of an IP Address:
11.22.33.44
Installation Problems
Installation Procedure Failure Due with Error Indicating a Service is Still Running
If you are installing HPBPI and the installation notifies you
that there is a service running that you cannot detect using the Administration Console,
you can check for active services as follows:
You must not use a non-ASCII directory name for your HPBPI or J2SE (JDK) installation;
the home directory for HPBPI or the J2SE installation must consist only of ASCII characters.
If you do install HPBPI or the J2SE into a non-ASCII directory, the HPBPI installation
procedure is successful, but the HPBPI components fail to start.
There is a problem with the installer and using the Back button to make changes to previously entered
values in the installation.
If you progress through the installation questions, and then decide to go back and modify a value of a parameter
already entered, and the parameter is used as part of subsequent answers, the
subsequent answers shown might not reflect the modified values. In this case, you need to correct the
values as appropriate and continue with the installation.
You can adjust the logging levels for the HPBPI components as described in the
Business Process Insight System Administration Guide.
However, if you set the logging levels to be FINE or FINER, a significant amount of
logging information is generated that can quickly fill up disk space. Much of this logging
information is RMI logging information.
You can selectively set the RMI logging information to the INFO level, and keep the HPBPI component logging
at FINE or FINER, to significantly reduce the amount of information produced.
To do this, modify each of the HPBPI component logging property files (listed in the
Business Process Insight System Administration Guide)
and add the following lines:
# This is intended to turn off RMI logging. RMI only logs at FINE or FINER, so setting these to
# INFO effectively turn off RMI logging.
sun.rmi.server.level=INFO
sun.rmi.loader.level=INFO
sun.rmi.server.level=INFO
sun.rmi.client.level=INFO
sun.rmi.dgc.level=INFO
sun.rmi.loader.level=INFO
sun.rmi.transport.level=INFO
sun.rmi.transport.tcp.level=INFO
sun.rmi.transport.proxy.level=INFO
You also need to change the template file for the HPBPI logging property files. If you do not, the
changes that you made are reset by the contents of the
template file whenever you apply changes to HPBPI components through the HPBPI Administration Console.
The template logging property files are located as follows:
bpi-install-dir\newconfig\DataDir\conf\bia\...
You now need to run the following file to make the changes to the configuration file,
or files, active on your HPBPI system:
- On Windows
bpi-install-dir\bin\biaadmin.bat applyconfig
-
On HP-UX
bpi-install-dir/bin/biaadmin.sh applyconfig
Running either of these commands causes all template configuration files to replace the active
configuration files with any new or revised settings.
Note that if you reinstall HPBPI for any reason, the template logging property
files are overwritten
and you will need to reapply your changes.
You can access the complete set of
documentation and training material for Business Process Insight on the
distribution media. The documents include:
- Release Notes (this document)
- Quick Start Guide, which describes how to complete a basic HPBPI installation, using
Microsoft SQL Server as the database.
- Installation Guide, which describes how to install all the HPBPI components.
- Concepts Guide, which describes HPBPI and the concepts on which it is based.
- System Administration Guide, which provides details of how to manage your HPBPI components.
- Reference Guide, which provides details of the architecture of the HPBPI system and how
HPBPI integrates with other products.
- Problem Solving Guide, which provides details of how to trouble shoot your HPBPI system.
- Accelerator for SAP Guide, which describes the HPBPI integration with SAP.
- Integration Training Guide - Business Events, which provides detailed information about creating
adapters to accept events from underlying business applications into your HPBPI system.
- Integration Training Guide - Modeling Processes, which provides detailed information about how to create
Processes and link them to underlying operational and business events.
- Integration Training Guide - Defining Business Monitors, which provides detailed information about how design
and create business process monitors and monitor thresholds for your business processes.
- Integration Training Guide - Importing BPEL, which provides information about how import BPEL definitions
into the HPBPI Model Repository.
To check for updates to the HPBPI guides, or to verify that
you are using the most recent edition of a guide, visit the following web site:
http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv/
The following are known problems and restrictions that apply to Business Process Insight:
HPBPI Server Restrictions
This section covers restrictions related to the HPBPI Server components:
-
Failure to Receive Updates on Status of HPBPI Steps from Business Availability Center
Under certain circumstances, HPBPI does not receive updates for BPI Steps from
Business Availability Center.
If you have configured an Operational Service Source for Business Availability Center
before creating any Business Processes for the Business Availability Center integration, you will not experience
this problem.
If you configure an Operational Service Source for Business Availability Center after deploying the Business
Processes that you want to monitor, you need to stop and re-start the HPBPI Service Adapters
component a second time to ensure that HPBPI starts receiving updates for
BPI Steps from Business Availability Center. Wait for all the HPBPI components to start before re-starting the
Service Adapters component.
You can stop and re-start the
Service Adapters from the Administration Console
Status page, or from Windows Services (
OVBPIServiceAdapters).
-
Modifying Servlet Engine Files
If you intend to modify the Servlet Engine (Tomcat) configuration files, you need to be aware
that changes made directly to the Servlet Engine files are overwritten by HPBPI configuration files.
As an example, if you want to configure another form of Tomcat Realm security, you would expect to make
the changes in the web.xml and server.xml files under the following Tomcat
directory:
bpi-install-dir\nonOV\jakarta-tomcat-5.0.19\conf
However, before making any changes to these files, you need to be aware of how
HPBPI manages configuration changes to the Tomcat files. HPBPI overwrites the Servlet Engine
configuration files in order to add HPBPI-specific configuration details and as a result of
your making changes to configuration parameters using the Administration Console.
HPBPI overwrites the Tomcat configuration files whenever a change is made to any parameter
using the Administration Console, it does not have to be a Servlet Engine (Tomcat) specific change.
If you want to make changes to the Servlet Engine configuration files, you need to make the modifications
in the HPBPI-specific
configuration files and then make sure that HPBPI propagates these modifications to the Servlet Engine files.
HPBPI had a number of configuration files, the Servlet Engine files related to
web.xml and server.xml are located under the following directory:
bpi-install-dir\newconfig\DataDir\conf\bia\tomcat\conf
These files are database specific and you need to modify the files that are appropriate to your
configuration. If you are using Oracle, you need to modify the following files:
bpi-install-dir\newconfig\DataDir\conf\bia\tomcat\conf\server.engine.oracle.xml
bpi-install-dir\newconfig\DataDir\conf\bia\tomcat\conf\server.views.oracle.xml
If you are using SQL Server, you need to modify:
bpi-install-dir\newconfig\DataDir\conf\bia\tomcat\conf\server.engine.mssql.xml
bpi-install-dir\newconfig\DataDir\conf\bia\tomcat\conf\server.views.mssql.xml
When you have made the required changes to these files, you need to artificially make a change
to any parameter using the Administration Console and apply the change. As a result, the Administration
Console updates all the relevant configuration files, including the Servlet Engine files, and your
modifications are then propagated to these files.
-
Severe Error in Web Services Provider Error Log When
Configuring the HPBPI Adapter from Within HP Operations Dashboard
If you find an error message similar to the following in the Web Services Provider log file and
following a new installation of HPBPI, it could be due to a known problem with the HPBPI integration
with HP Operations Dashboard:
Fail to create XML registration file:C:\Program Files\HP OpenView\OVBPI\data\datafiles\ovbpi_registration.xml
com.hp.ov.ed.adapter.datasource.InitializationException: Fail to create XML registration file:C:\Program Files\HP OpenView\OVBPI\data\datafiles\ovbpi_registration.xml
at com.hp.ov.ed.adapter.util.ServiceRegistrationHandler.(Unknown Source)
This error occurs only once when you configure the HPBPI Adapter for the first time.
The error is reported because the first time that the HPBPI Adapter is configured and created
from within
HP Operations Dashboard, the Registration file does not exist.
The error can be ignored as it does not have an impact on the integration with HP Operations Dashboard or
the operation of the HPBPI system.
-
Servlet Engine Appears not to Start Following System Restart
Very occasionally, following a system restart, the Servlet Engine appears not to have started,
both within the HPBPI Administration Console and as a Windows Service. The Servlet Engine service is
actually in the processes
of starting, but is taking a long time, possibly due to other applications causing delay; for example,
the database can take a long time to start when it is very full.
As a result of this scenario, the display of the status of the Servlet Engine service is not
correctly synchronized through
the Administration Console and the Windows Services. This is not a problem for your HPBPI system as the Servlet
Engine is running and the displays will correct themselves following another system restart; however, if
you want to resynchronize your displays immediately, complete the following steps:
- From the
Status screen on the Administration Console, click the
Start button for the
Servlet Engine.
- Click the
Stop button for the Servlet Engine as soon as it is
enabled.
Your Servlet Engine services are now synchronized and the Servlet Engine is not started. You can
now restart the
Servlet Engine as normal.
-
Cannot Subtract Dates in Filter/Binding Expressions
There are restrictions when entering filter/binding expressions where you want to subtract dates.
If you see the following error in the HPBPI Engine log file, it is because
you have used an expression that the Engine is unable to process:
Invalid operator for data type. Operator equals multiply, type equals datetime,
Check the binding expressions that you have entered through the HPBPI Modeler, for example,
you should be able to use a binding expression as follows:
(event.dateProp - this.dateProp) > days (2) + hours (12)
This expression tests whether the difference between two dates is greater than
two days and 12 hours. However, the HPBPI Impact Engine cannot process expressions where
one date is subtracted from another date. In order to work around this restriction,
you need to change the above expression to:
(this.dateProp + days (2) + hours (12) > event.dataProp
In this case, the duration is added to one date and tested against the second date
to achieve the same result.
-
Unable to Contact HPBPI RMI Registry During Component Startup
If you receive an error message indicating that HPBPI is unable to contact the RMI Registry on
port 44,000, this is likely to be due to a port number clash.
The HPBPI RMI Registry uses port 44,000, and if another application or service is temporarily using this port, then
the RMI Registry cannot start. To resolve this problem, you can:
-
Failure to Draw Service Map through HPBPI Dashboard
If the HPBPI Dashboard does not display a service map for a Service that HPBPI is configured to use, it
could be because the Dashboard is trying to access the HP Operations Manager Root_Services service.
The default HPBPI Business Process Dashboard is unable to display a service map image for the HP Operations Manager Root_Services
Service in the ServiceHealth.jsp page.
Make sure that HP Operations Manager service that you synchronize with through the HPBPI Modeler is not the HP Operations Manager Root_Services
service.
-
Failure to Display SOA Manager Service within HPBPI Business Process Dashboard
If the HPBPI Dashboard returns an error similar to the following when you attempt to link
to a SOA Manager-defined Service, it is likely to be because you are using a version of the
Business Process Dashboard that does not recognize the Service definition:
File: dash1-1_error.gif
In this example, you are running a Business Process Dashboard based on HPBPI version 2.02. The
integration with SOA Manager was introduced in HPBPI version 2.10. As a result, the HPBPI Dashboard
version 2.02 does not understand the SOA Manager Service and is not able to render it.
If you want to show SOA Manager Services, you need to upgrade your Business Process Dashboard
to the latest version.
-
Restarting a Custom Adapter in a Cluster Environment
If you have created a custom adaptor using the openadaptor framework, and you are using the adaptor in a cluster
environment, you might need to add a socket timeout to your socket connection. You need only do this if your adaptor
is running on a machine that is outside the configured HPBPI cluster environment.
If you have this configuration, and the HPBPI Server is moved from one node in the cluster to another node as part of
an online failover, the virtual connections from your custom adaptor to the cluster are not dropped on the original machine
in the cluster in cases where the adaptor has sent a Business Event
to the HPBPI Server and is waiting for confirmation from the HPBPI Server that it has received the event. In this case, you
need to configure the adaptor to ensure the virtual connection is dropped in order that the adaptor can initiate a new
connection.
A new property for the SocketSink Class is available to provide this time out. The property is called:
SocketTimeout
This new property defines the amount of time the adaptor waits for a Business Event to be sent to the HPBPI Server and
a confirmation notification to be received back by the adaptor, before
the adaptor breaks the connection. The time is specified in milliseconds. If you do not include this property, a value of zero (0) is
assumed and no timeout is applied.
The following is an example of the SocketTimeout property:
A.Sock.SocketTimeout=300000
where:
A is the adaptor nameSock is the name of the component
-
Process Fails to Progress When Common Data and Event Definitions Split Out From Single Process
The following scenario results in a Process definition that cannot be progressed.
-
Create and deploy two Process definitions, each linked to the same Data definition.
-
Separate the Processes completely by creating a new Data definition with identical properties to the first Data
definition.
One of the Process definitions is now linked to the newly created Data definition and no changes are made to
the progression rules.
In this case, the Modeler should detect that the progression rules
are referencing a different Data definition, but it does not and as a result, no process instances are
created.
It is very time consuming to resolve this situation, therefore you are advised to use the Export and Import options
within the Modeler to make a copy of a Process
definition. You must also rename the definitions (not overwrite them).
Refer to the
Business Process Insight Administration Guide for details of making copies of your Process definitions.
HPBPI Monitor Definer Restrictions
This section covers restrictions related to the HPBPI Monitor definer component:
-
Illegal Exception Reported when Committing a Modification to Monitor Definer
The following error can be reported by the Monitor definer, most likely when you are
attempting to create or modify a Filter, Monitor or Threshold definition:
java.lang.IllegalStateException: Cannot forward after response has been committed.
This is a transient error. If you receive this error, click the
OK button
to dismiss the error page, re-select Process that you were modifying and repeat your modifications.
-
Warnings in Monitor Definer Log File
Each time a Business Monitor is created with an associated Monitor Threshold or Group, a warning is generated in the
Business Process Engine log file. This warning is added by Hibernate and can be ignored; there is not
a problem with the Business Monitor.
-
Monitor Definitions Ignored When Importing a Process Definition
If you try to import a previously exported Process definition into an HPBPI version 7.50
Modeler and the Process definition contains version 01.01 style business process monitor definitions,
these business
monitor definitions are ignored on import.
If you export a business process using the HPBPI version 01.01 Modeler, and
the definition includes one or more business monitor definitions, you
cannot then import the business monitor (or monitors) using your HPBPI
version 7.50 Modeler.
This is because the business monitor definitions have been moved from
the HPBPI Modeler into the Monitor definer, and the Modeler no longer has knowledge
of business monitors.
When you upgrade your HPBPI system, all the business processes and business
monitors, which are defined within the Modeler, are migrated. As a result,
your business monitors are moved to the new Monitor definer where they can
be managed. However, business processes that have been exported from the Modeler
in HPBPI version 01.01
cannot be migrated when they are imported into your HPBPI 7.50 system. As a result,
these business monitors have to be redefined using the HPBPI 7.50 Monitor definer.
HPBPI version 01.01 business processes can be successfully imported, this restriction impacts
only the monitor definitions.
HPBPI Modeler Restrictions
This section covers restrictions related to the HPBPI Modeler component: