Increasing Maximum Character Stream Size...

[nscheaffer]

I have one user that is trying to run a WebI report that returns a lot of data and she is getting the following error...

Maximum character output size limit reached. Contact your BusinessObjects administrator. (Error: ERR_WIS_30272)

This same user had this issue a few months ago and at that time I increased the Maximum Character Stream Size within the WebIntelligenceProcessingServer properties from 5 MB to 50 MB.  So I guess I need to increase it further.

On page 983 of the The Business Intelligence Platform Administrator Guide it says the maximum value for this is 65535 MB.  I realize I probably shouldn't go to the max, but what is reasonable?  Also, the default is 5 MB and the default of the Binary Stream Maximum Size is 50 MB.  Should these values be kept in proportion?

We are on 4.1 SP01 Patch 2.

Thanks,

Noel

[former_member188911]

Hi Noel,

this is set by default to a value that should not create performance problems.

If one tries to process a massive Excel spreadsheet and broadcast it through the network you may end having either high load on the processing server, or in the web application server, or through the network. In the worst of the hypothesis, in more than one or in all three components.

Therefore if you have plenty of resources and network bandwidth you may wish to increase that value, otherwise you should be aware of the risks you run into when you set a higher threshold.

Thanks

Simone

[former_member182521]

Hi Noel,

Maximum Character Stream Size, Maximum Binary Stream Size are one of the two important parameters which you should always keep an eye on.

We do not have the standard/resonable value for them instead adjustable. Please note webI is a adhoc reporting tool and not pixel perfect standard reporting tool with millions of rows.

Our approach on setting these two parameters will be proactive rather than reactive. We will keep on monitoring report schedules and their associated instances twice a month for size of the instances using custom SDK code. Based on results of my code we will keep adjusting the maximum size.

This is because of the fact that reports that takes more time to refresh and bigger in size will be always scheduled. For Adhoc reports we will go for extensive performance testing based on our benchmark thresholds. If it exceeds the threshold we will always recommend the users to schedule the report instead of refresh them on demand.

Regards

Mani

[Former Member]

Hi Noel,

The sizes completely depend on how much your server available memory is and how big a data set user wants to see in run time.

I recently increased these parameter in our server for a similar issue and we have set it with 

Max char stream size : 40 Mb

Max Binary stream Size : 150Mb

This configuration is working for us for fairly large data set however we had a large physical memory availability in our server (128 Gb)..

[nscheaffer]

We have two load balanced servers each with 48 GB of memory.

Is there any significance of the value relative to each other?

Noel

[Former Member]

Well... its not really related and especially if your server is not having any memory bottle neck..

Looking at your server memory I will suggest to make these two parameter as which should not hurt and should be sufficient to avoid the issue in present and in medium term future..

Max char stream size : 30 Mb

Max Binary stream Size : 120Mb

You can decide on increasing to more if the issue persists after this increase.. Also remember to restart those server for the new config to take effect after you change them..

[Former Member]

Hi Noel,

I will agree with Durga on this stream Size.

Note:

Instead of setting the value to the High , i'm suggesting you to increase it slightly and monitor your platform. it depends on so many other factors. Seems like your reports and Data are heavy.

We need to fine tune these parameters based on the report usage and Data.

[nscheaffer]

My settings were as follows...

Maximum Character Stream Size:  50 MB

Binary Stream Maximum Size: 300 MB

I have updated the Maximum Character Stream Size to 100 MB and left the Binary Stream Maximum Size as it was.  After the change my user that was having trouble was able to run her report.

Thanks,

Noel

[Former Member]

Nice to know your issue is fixed..

However as Manikandan Elumalai put in nicely its always better to be proactive than reactive for these two parameters. Also its quite unusual for any adhoc report allowed with such high size. If user needs to access that much amount of data I am pretty sure he will be OK to have the report scheduled rather than retrieve the data in run time. That high parameter value which worked means the report uses a very high number of records which is unusual to be used effectively in run time.

Also please keep in mind that solving a problem just by allowing with a max limit in parameter will cause negative impact in long run.

That is why SAP has setup the defaults low as when there is many users running large report and thus creating a bottle neck for memory in the server. So its always better to setup some kind of limitation that the user can run the report in run time.

[nscheaffer]

Most of my users WebI reports are not this big.  However, what is the appropriate tool to get large amounts of data from BusinessObjects on an occasional basis (once per quarter to satisfy an audit requirement)?

Thanks,

Noel

[Former Member]

A scheduled report (crystal preferably )  scheduled to run on off business hours with a destination to a file system should work much better than a ad hoc report...

However if there is no formatting needed for the output and the output is more of a data dump then its a ETL extraction to CSV file scenario..

[nscheaffer]

Can Crystal Reports for Enterprise only use UNX universes?  I have a third-party UNV universe that I need to pull this data from so it would seem that I cannot use Crystal Reports for Enterprise, right?

Noel

[Former Member]

Enterprise version supports only UNX universes. if you want to use UNV universes, you have to use Crystal Reports 2011.

Check this link for comparisions.

Crystal Reports for Enterprise 4.0: Concept - Compare Crystal Reports 2011 and Crystal Reports for e...