Performance testing of BPC?

[Former Member]

Hi guys

I'm wondering if anyone has experience of load-testing BPC?

We run the Windows Server version (currently 5.1), and I'm looking into the benefits of v7.0.

However, I would like to have much more than just anecdotal evidence, so I would like to stress test both environments.

I have had HP LoadRunner mentioned to me, but as I have no experience of running this kind of testing, I have a few questions:

1. "LoadRunner for SAP Products" is a specific tool on HP's site, but does this also work well (or at all) with SAP BPC?

2. How simple is it to setup, configure and (more importantly) uderstand at the end (output reports, etc.)

3. Does it run alongside either/both the Application and/or SQL servers, or does it need a separate server to run?

4. Are there any other tools on the market that work well with BPC that are either better or "just as good but cost less"?

5. Speaking of cost - Any idea of (approximate) licensing costs for any of these applications?

If anyone has any suggestions, they would be most welcome.

Thanks

Craig

[Former Member]

SAP provides "BPC Toolkit for LoadRunner" to support LoadRunner for performance testing. It is very use to use. The How-to guides are also available in this URL:

http://wiki.sdn.sap.com/wiki/display/BPX/EnterprisePerformanceManagement%28EPM%29How-to+Guides

This toolkit supports BPC 5.1, 7 MS and 7 NW versions.

For simulation of Network Transaction Load, Fiddler is suggested in those documents. The download links are available in the document itself. The document is self explanatory for LoadRunner Testing.

[Former Member]

Thanks guys.

I'll look through the documentation on the toolkit and find out what Fiddler is.

@Mark - We run SQL 2005 presently, with no plan as yet to upgrade to 2008. I need to look into the licensing costs before I suggest that particular upgrade.

I also appreciate that 5.1 is now out of support, but due to errors in the BPC software (Suppression flags) at the time that we were looking to upgrade last December, we couldn't deploy at that time, so now have to wait for another suitable business time to do it.

[james_lim]

Craig,

7 version improved its performance through code optimization for reporting and submitting data but if you want to use SQL2005 and your dimension has some kind of complex dimension formula, I strongly recommend using SQL2008 for your reporting performance.

Microsoft improved Analysis Service MDX calculation engine performance using 'Block computation' method in SQL2008.

Based on my test result with Apshell in BPC, query performance improved almost 4 times!

You can capture one of MDX statement and compare its performance using SQL server management studio.

I hope it will help you.

James Lim

[Former Member]

Craig,

There are several articls on load testing on http://www.sdn.sap.com/irj/scn/articles-epm-all

I have not used load runner with SAP BPC, but have knowledge of other load runner products. They do take quite a lot of time to set up, but can give good results.

One definate advantage with upgrading is that you will be on fully supported software. 5.1 has been discontinued since the end of March.

One thing that does make a performance difference is use of SQL Server 2008. According to SAP this gives a significant performance boost over 2005. Then if you already have 2005, just upgrading to 7.0 is easier as you don't have to change any dtsx packages. This is the stage we are at at present. We upgraded to 7.0 in March, and are currently working towards upgrading the SQL server element separately. We did this to spread the risk, and development time.

Regards,

Mark