How to use http compression for BPC report

[Freeter]

When using EPM Add-in as the report tool for BPC NW version, the http compression can be used to reduce the network transfer time and improve the overall performance for reports.

This setting is very useful for the big reports with lots of records, and it is also helpful for the user accessing system with VPN.

1.When to check this setting?

To catch the http request by Fiddler, and check whether much time is spent on the network.

Network time = ServerDoneResponse – ServerBeginResponse (roughly estimation)

ServerBeginResponse - Exact time that Fiddler got the first bytes of the server's HTTP response.

ServerDoneResponse - Exact time that Fiddler got the last bytes of the server's HTTP response.

In following example, it is 17.262 sec (total is 24.972), and seems most of the time is on network transmission.

2. To check the content is compressed or not

Click on the request got in Fiddler, and select “Inspectors” in right panel.

Click the RAW button for the http response (lower part).

If you can’t find “content-encoding: gzip”, it means the content is not compressed when it is sent from server to fiddler.

Sample without compression

Sample with compression

3. Compression can be used or not

There are some preconditions to use this compression:

• The protocol should be http 1.1.
• Clients can decode gzip content. (check it in the request head)

4. How to set it

1. Logon BW server, and type T-code: SICF,   and select “ALIAS” as shown below.

2. Expand the node “default_host”, and double click “/sap/bpc”.

3. Set parameter “Compression” to “YES” and save.

5. Other setting

• Profile parameter ict/disable_compression: You can use this profile parameter to deactivate the compression of an instance. The standard value of this parameter is FALSE.
• Profile parameter ict/min_compression_size: This profile parameter specifies the data volume (in bytes) from which a compression should be performed. The standard value of this parameter is 1024.
• Profile parameter ict/exclude_compression specifies a negative list to specify which type of files you don't want to compress.