How to set up your MicroStrategy Mobile Environment with just your iPhone and Laptop. No WiFi required.

Over the last couple of years I have noticed that BI departments are spending considerable amount of IT resources on the installation and configuration of a MicroStrategy (MSTR) Mobile Environment for simple Proof of Concepts (POC).  What is also frustrating, is that after all the time and effort involved, when it comes time to showcase the mobile capabilities, either the servers are unavailable, the WiFi is down, or the iPad simply cannot connect to the corporate’s LANs. But even worse, in some cases, the IT department inherits the POC configuration for their development environment, which most likely would not have been their first choice if they had a better understanding of the Mobile BI functionaltiy and user’s final requirements.

For this reason I want to share a relatively simple way of setting up your MSTR Mobile POC environment using just your Windows Laptop, an iPhone, and the MSTR’s installation package. The best part of this set up is that there is no need for a WiFi or a cellular network to showcase the Mobile BI functionality.

Ideally, setting up your environment should take no more than one day, but, depending on how familiar you are with the installation of MSTR products, it might require an extra day to get fully acquainted with all of the components.

In a nutshell, these are the steps you’ll need to follow to set up your mobile BI environment in your Windows Laptop and iPhone:

1. Install MicroStrategy Intelligence Server.
2. Install a web application server. I prefer Tomcat because it is free and, in my personal opinion, easier to use than Windows IIS.
3. Deploy and configure MicroStrategy Web and Mobile Servers in your Web Application Server.
4. Install Connectify to set your laptop as a WiFi Hotspot.
5. And finally, configure your iPhone to connect to your laptop’s MSTR Mobile Server.

If this is the first time you work with MSTR Installations, it is likely that you will need to do some trial and error so don’t be discouraged. If you face any issues while trying to connect your components, in my experience, MSTR’s Knowledge Base and MSTR’s Product Manuals are your best source for answers.

1. Installing MicroStrategy Intelligence Server

In order to install MSTR’s IServer on your laptop the first thing you’ll need to obtain is a valid license key and the installation package. If you work for a company that already uses MSTR, this should be no problem, but if this is not your case, then I would recommend using MSTR free version software. Assuming you qualify, you should be able to obtain a 10 user license key and download the installation package from the same URL.

Extract the installation package and follow the setup instructions. These are available through the “readme” file that comes with the installation files. Double check, before anything else, that your laptop’s operating system is supported for installing the MSTR I-Server. You can find this information under readme > Intelligence Server Readme and Release Notes > Certified and Supported Configurations > Operating Systems.  For this post I’ve downloaded MSTR v9.3 on a Windows 7 laptop.

Follow the installation steps and make sure that you select the components on the images below. If you install additional components you might be required to have certain libraries or applications that, usually, are not available on every Windows installation (e.g. IIS). In order to avoid problems of this kind I would recommend to only installing the components checked on these screenshots.

After your installation completes and your machine is restarted, you can make sure your MSTR I-Server is up and running by opening your service manager application. You can access this application at Start > All programs > MicroStrategy > Tools > Service Manager.

2. Installing Tomcat Web Application Server

A web application server is required to deploy your MicroStrategy Web and Mobile Servers. Traditionally, in a Windows box the MicroStrategy Web and Mobile servers are deployed through Internet Information Services (IIS), however, based on my personal experience, using Tomcat has been more reliable and easier to use for POC purposes, but I will say it again, this is definitely my own personal opinion. For this reason, in my post, I’ve decided to use Tomcat as my Web Application Server.

The first thing to do is download tomcat from their website. Tomcat Web Application Server is open source, which means: It’s Free! But before you start your download, make sure you download a version that is supported by MSTR Web and Mobile Servers. This information is available through MSTR’s Readme files under MicroStrategy Web Universal Read Me and Release Notes>Certified and Supported Configurations> MicroStrategy Web Universal JSP server general requirements. For this post, I’ve downloaded Tomcat 7. 0 (64-bit Windows zip).

After you’ve download and uncompressed your tomcat application server, you will need to confirm you have an installed java runtime environment (jre). You should be able to do this by going into your command line window (go to the start menu and type the word ”cmd” in the search box) and type the word “java”. If you see something like this you’re good.

If not, you will need to install a jre that is compatible with your MicroStrategy and Tomcat installation. For the purpose of this post, I used jre6 (SUN JDK 1.6 (32-bit version)). You can download the jre and find the installation instructions from Oracle’s website.

After successfully installing your jre, confirm the JAVA_HOME variable is properly initialized or create one. Follow the steps below to confirm or create your JAVA_HOME variable:

1. In your desktop, right click on “Computer” and select properties.
2. On the left pane, select “Remote Settings”.
3. Go to the Advanced Tab and click on the “Environment Variables…” button.
4. You should be able to see a JAVA_HOME variable under the “System Variables”. If it is not available then create one and point it to the home directory of your jre installation as shown below.

After your JAVA_HOME configuration is complete, you are ready to start your tomcat application server. No additional installation is required. You can do this by running the “startup.bat” file under the apache-tomcat-7.0.37\bin folder of your tomcat home directory.

A command line window will open and your tomcat web app server should be up and running.  In order to confirm this is the case, all you need to do is go to the following URL: http://localhost:8080/.  If everything is working as expected, you should be able to see the tomcat manager page that is deployed in your application server by default.

To stop your server, all you need to do is run the “shutdown.bat” file under the same directory as your startup batch. The http://localhost:8080 web page should no longer be accessible.

To troubleshoot or get detailed information about running your Tomcat Web Application Server, you can read the “RUNNING.txt” file in the root of your tomcat folder (e.g.: \apache-tomcat-7.0.37\)

3. Deploy and Configure your MSTR Web and Mobile Application Servers

Once you have successfully installed your Tomcat Web Application Server, the next step is to deploy and configure your MSTR Web and Mobile Servers. Follow the next steps in order to complete the deployment process:

1. First, make sure your Tomcat server is not running.
2. Then, create an administrator account in your Tomcat application server by editing the “tomcat-users.xml” file under the apache-tomcat-7.0.37\conf folder in your tomcat home directory.  Add the following two lines of code right before the “</tomcat-users>” text.

   <role rolename="admin"/>  
   <user username="admin" password="adminpwd" roles="admin" />

3. Under your MicroStrategy installation directory locate the following two files:
   • C:\Program Files (x86)\MicroStrategy\Mobile Server JSP\ MicroStrategy Mobile.war
   • C:\Program Files (x86)\MicroStrategy\Web JSP\MicroStrategy.war
4. Copy and paste these two files under the apache-tomcat-7.0.37\webapps folder of your tomcat home directory. Your folder should look something like this:
5. After the files are copied, start your Tomcat Web Application Server by running the “startup.bat” file. The command line window should open and should take longer to process. Tomcat is extracting and deploying your MSTR Web and Mobile Servers as seen below.

6. Once startup is complete, you will notice two new folders under your Tomcat’s webapps folder.
7. After deployment is complete, all that is remaining is configure your web and mobile servers by connecting them to your MSTR I-Server. To do this, first, connect to your MSTR Web Admin page by using the following URL: http://localhost:8080/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWebAdmin. You will be prompted for a user and  a password. Use your tomcat administrator credentials configured on step 2 (user: admin, pwd: adminpwd).  You should be able to see the following MSTR Admin page:
8. Add a connection to your I-server by entering the text ”localhost” in the “Add a server manually” text box and click the “Add…” button.
9. The properties page should open. Select the properties below and click “Connect”.
10. Your server will appear in the connected servers, which means you are done with MSTR Web. You can access your MSTR mobile environment through this URL: http://localhost:8080/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWeb
11. To configure microstrategy mobile, repeat steps 7 to 9, however, this time access the administrator page through this URL: http://localhost:8080/MicroStrategy Mobile/servlet/mstrWebAdmin

Congratulations! You have a fully functional MSTR BI Environment in your own computer. All that is left is enable a connection for your iPhone.

4. Install Connectify

In order for your iPhone to reach the MSTR Mobile server hosted on your computer without a LAN or WiFI, you need to convert your laptop into a WiFi hotspot.  Although there are several products that will help you achieve this functionality, I’ve always been familiar with Connectify. This has been my preferred application as it is quite easy to use and the company offers a lite version which is free.

You can download Connectify Lite and find the installation instructions at their website. In short, all you need to do is run the installation package,  read and approve all options and finally restart your computer

Once you restart your computer and start your Connectify application you should be able to see the application window in the bottom right corner of your screen as shown below. Provide a hotspot name and a password you can remember. The rest of the settings will allow you to connect to your laptops internet from your iPhone, however I believe this is not available in the lite version so you might as well ignore it.

Once you complete all required configuration, click on the “Start Hotspot” button.  Then, go to your iPhone WiFi settings and you should be able to see your new Hotspot Name in your available Networks. Use your new password to connect to the Connectify network as shown below.

Once connected, from your computer you should be able to go into the “Clients” tab of your Connectify application and see your iPhone’s connection as shown below.

To make sure you are able to connect to the MSTR Environment installed in your computer, from your iPhone, go to the Safari application and type in the URL: http://<your_computer_name>:8080/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWeb. You should be able to see MSTR Web landing page. Notice that you need to provide your windows computer name rather than typing the “localhost” text, as the web server is no longer in the same host.

You can follow the exact same procedure if you are trying to connect an iPad.

5. Configure your iPhone to connect to your laptop’s MSTR Mobile Server.

For this final part of the process, I’m going to assume you already have the MicroStrategy App installed in your iPhone, so I won’t provide additional details about it. Been said that, there are couple of ways you can configure your iPhone to connect to your MSTR Mobile Server:

• You can go directly to your iPhone and specify the connection parameters in your MSTR App, or
• You can use your MSTR Mobile Administration Page to generate a configuration URL to automatically configure your iPhone.

 In this post I’ve decided to use the configuration URL as, most likely, is the path your users will follow to configure their iPhones or iPads once you have a fully functional MSTR Mobile BI environment.

In order to create a configuration URL you will need to create a mobile configuration profile from the mobile server administration page.  A mobile profile specifies the I-Server, Project(s) and Landing Page that your mobile users will use. One server could have multiple configuration profiles and one profile could connect to multiple MSTR projects. Users could change profiles at any time assuming they have received separate configuration URLs. The steps below describe how you can create a simple profile to start using your MSTR Mobile BI Environment running on your personal laptop.

1. In your computer, type in the URL http://localhost:8080/MicroStrategy Mobile/servlet/mstrWebAdmin. If you are prompted for user and password, make sure to provide the Tomcat administrator credentials you configured before.  If your I-server does not shows as connected, make sure to click on the “Connect” button before proceeding with the next step.
2. On the left side panel, click on the “Mobile Configuration” link and then click on the “Define New Configuration” link. You will be asked to specify your device so choose the ”iPhone”.
3. Once the configuration page opens, provide a name under the “Configuration Name” texbox. Leave the default values in the “iPhone Settings” tab and click on the “Connectivity Settings” tab.
4. Provide your computer’s name in the “Mobile Server Name” text box and set all other settings as shown in the picture below.

5. If all settings are set correctly, when you click on the “Configure New Project” link a new set of settings will appear and you should be able to see all your available projects under the “Project Name” drop down list. Otherwise, you will get a connection time-out error message which, most likely, means that your computer name is wrong or your mobile web server is not connected to the I-Server.  Add as many projects as you want and, for now, use the default settings.

6. Save the configuration.
7. On the configuration list page, Click on the “Globe” icon under the “Actions” column. This will allow you to create a configuration URL that can be forwarded to your iPhone’s email account for automatic configuration. Provide your computer’s name under the “Server Name” text box and set all values as shown below.
8. Click on the “Generate URL” button.
9. Copy the new URL and paste in the body of an email.
10. Send the email to your iPhone’s email account. If you are using the Lite version of Connectify you might not have internet connection when connected to your laptops hotspot, therefore, disconnect your iPhone temporarily from the hotspot so you can receive the email with the new configuration URL. Once you receive it, connect back to your laptops hotspot.
11. Finally, from your iPhone’s email, click on the link you have just forwarded to yourself. The link will automatically forward you to your MSTR application, configure your MSTR App and show the default landing page. Your MSTR Mobile BI Environment is ready and you should be able to browse through the tutorial projects that reside in your computer’s MSTR I-Server.

Now you can create new reports, test all MSTR’s mobile functionality and even connect your MSTR application to your corporate data warehouse if desired, however, I would recommend keeping it simple and build your local database (e.g. access) with a sample of your client’s data.  In my experience, the more familiar your clients are with the information you showcase, the better the results of your POC. But remember, you want to have no dependency on other departments for a risk free and low cost POC.

Hope this post is helpful and don’t forget to read my disclaimer.