Whacking the WACS

I’m currently architecting a two-tier solution using with two Tomcat web application servers and two SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP3 servers. We’re using Microsoft Windows Server 2008 R2 Standard as our operating system and using the SAP Integration Kit (aka Integration for SAP Solutions). We first built sandbox and development environments using a single-server configuration.  Our QA/UAT and production environments each have four servers (two WAS and two BI). When doing a “new” install without the web components on the BI server, the Web Application Container Server, or WACS, secretly installs.  The WACS server is handy, because when you finish the SAP BI installation, there isn’t a “real” Tomcat server to test everything out yet. The WACS server allows you to log into the Central Management Console (CMC) immediately after installation to verify the installation. However, the SAP Integration Kit and the WACS server do not play nice together.  You’ll actually receive the following fatal error when installing the integration kit:

The installation of SAP BusinessObjects XI 3.1 Integration, version for SAP solutions applications SP3 cannot continue because the Web Application Container Server has been installed with SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise.

This is confirmed in the SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise Integration for SAP Solutions Installation and Administration Guide (S-ID required for link):

The Web Application Container Server (WACS) is not a supported application server for the Business Objects XI Integration for SAP Solutions. To use .NET InfoView on IIS together with BusinessObjects XI Integration for SAP Solutions, you are still required to install backend applications such as CMC or Web Services on a supported Java application server.

As with Osama Bin Laden, we must whack the WACS server. Unlike Osama Bin Laden, we do not need a covert operation with Navy SEALs to find the Windows Server Control Panel. To remove the WACS server from Windows Server, open the Windows Control Panel and choose Programs->Uninstall a Program. Find SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP3 in the list of installed programs and click the Change button. You’ll find the Web Application Container Server listed in the Server Components section. Choose to uninstall the feature. You will (sigh) need the original installation files, so if you already whacked those after the previous installation, you’ll have to put them back.

Here’s another perspective on the SAP Integration + WACS issue.

After this experience, I’m looking forward to the improved SAP business suite integration promised by SAP BusinessObjects Business Intelligence 4.0 (which uses the WACS for its new RESTful SDKs, which may make the WACS mandatory in your BI4 deployment). But the next time I need to combine XI 3.1 and SAP Integration, I’ll begin with a custom instead of new install and insure that WACS is not being installed.