Platform Search Service Test

Platform Search enables you to search content within the SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence repository. It refines the search results by grouping them into categories and ranking them in order of their relevance.

The Platform Search service is the service in the Adaptive Processing Server, which has the logic to search the BOE content. The core functions of the service are indexing and searching. Before the content becomes searchable, the content needs to be indexed.

Indexing is a continuous process that involves the following sequential tasks:

• Crawling: Crawling is a mechanism that polls the CMS repository and identifies objects that are published, modified, or deleted. It can be done in two ways: continuous and scheduled crawling.
• Extracting: Extracting is a mechanism to call the extractors based upon the document type. There is a dedicated extractor for every document type that is available in the repository. New document types can be made searchable by defining new extractor plug-ins. Each of these extractors is scalable enough to extract content from large documents that contain many records.
• Indexing: Indexing is a mechanism that indexes all the extracted content through a third-party library, called Apache Lucene Engine.
• Content Store: The content store contains information such as id, cuid, name, kind, and instance extracted from the main index in a format that can be read easily. This helps to quicken the search process.

If Platform Search fails or is slow, it could be owing to one of the following reasons:

• The Platform Search service may not be available.
• The indexing mechanism may not be running.
• Indexing may be slow.
• Extractors may have failed.

In the event of the failure or slowdown of Platform Search, administrators can use the Platform Search Service test to determine the exact reason for the same. This test monitors the Platform Search service, reports the availability of that service on the monitored node, and if available, reveals the status of the indexing mechanism, the rate at which documents are indexed, and whether/not any extractor has failed. This way, the test leads administrators to the root-cause of problems with Platform Search.

Target of the test : A SAP BOBI Node

Agent deploying the test : An internal/remote agent

Outputs of the test : One set of results for the Platform Search service running in the node monitored.

Configurable parameters for the test

Parameter	Description
Test period	How often should the test be executed.
Host	Host name of the server for which the test is to be configured.
Port	Enter the port to which the specified host listens. This should be the port at which the web application server hosting SAP BOBI listens.
JMX Remote Port	Specify the RMI port number of the BOBI monitoring application. To know the RMI port number of the monitoring application, refer to Enabling the Monitoring Application of the SAP BOBI Platform.
JNDI Name	Specify the lookup name for connecting to the JMX connector of the BOBI monitoring application. To know the JNDI name, refer to Enabling the Monitoring Application of the SAP BOBI Platform.
JMX User and JMX Password	Enter the credentials of an enterprise authenticated BOBI user belonging to the default monitoring users group.
Confirm Password	Confirm the password by retyping it here.
Node Name	Specify the name of the BOBI node being monitored.

Measurements made by the test

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
Is service available ?	Indicates whether/not the Platform Search service is available on the monitored node.		The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed in the table below: Measure Value Numeric Value No 0 Yes 1 Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of the Platform Search service. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric values only.
Is indexing running?	Indicates whether/not the indexing mechanism is currently operational.		The values that this measure can report and their corresponding numeric values are discussed in the table below: Measure Value Numeric Value No 0 Yes 1 Note: By default, this measure reports the Measure Values listed in the table above to indicate the status of the indexing mechanism. In the graph of this measure however, the same is represented using the numeric values only.
Successful extraction rate	Indicates the rate at which the extractors are successfully called .	Extractions/Sec	A high value is desired for this measure.
Failed extraction rate	Indicates the rate at which the extractors failed.	Extractions/Sec	Ideally, the value of this measure should be 0. A non-zero value indicates frequent extraction failures, which can slow down indexing and consequently, Platform Search.
Document indexed rate	Indicates the rate at which documents are indexed.	Docs/Sec	Ideally, the value of this measure should be high. A low value indicates that indexing is slow, causing Platform Search to slowdown as well.