Let’s take a minute to look at the Linux versions currently supported by SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise. SAP supports both Red Hat Enterprise Linux (rhel) and SUSE Linux Enterprise by Novell, but the exact version depends on the version of SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise.
The SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI R2 SP6 for Linux – Supported Platforms guide indicates support for the following Linux editions:
Red Hat 4.0 Advanced Server
Red Hat 4.0 Enterprise Server
SUSE Linux 9.0 Enterprise Server
The SAP BusinessObjects Enterprise XI 3.1 SP2 for Linux – Supported Platforms guide indicates support for the following Linux editions:
Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server 4
Red Hat Linux Advanced Server 4
Red Hat Linux Enterprise Server 5
Red Hat Linux Enterprise Advanced Platform Server 5
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 9 SP3
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10
SUSE Linux Enterprise Server 10 SP2
Next, let’s look at free versions of Linux. These Linux distributions aren’t supported by SAP as production platforms! However, they are perfectly suited to determining if Linux is a good fit for your business intelligence system architecture. CentOS is an “Enterprise-class Linux Distribution derived from sources freely provided to the public by a prominent North American Enterprise Linux vendor”. That vendor is Red Hat. On the SUSE front, Novell offers openSUSE.
Although I’ve installed XI R2 on Linux for customers multiple times, I did not until recently install XI 3.1. Eric Vallo has a valuable set of posts related to installing BusinessObjects Enterprise on CentOS. I’ve been using his posts as a guide and will have more to say about my own experiences soon.
Resources
- Eric Vallo‘s excellent SAP BusinessObjects & Linux series on the EV Technologies blog.
