OBIEE Security - Default BI/Application Roles

Default BI Role:

Authenticate User : BI Administrative/Administration User

Default Application Roles

An application role defines a set of permissions granted to a user or group.Default application roles have corresponding default system user groups used in assigning catalog permissions and system privileges.

The Following are the Default Application Roles:

• The BIAdministrator role grants administrative permissions necessary to configure and manage the Oracle Business Intelligence installation. Any member of the BIAdministrators group is explicitly granted this role and implicitly granted the BIAuthor and BIConsumer roles.

• The BIAuthor role grants permissions necessary to create and edit content for other users to use, or to consume. Any member of the BIAuthors group is explicitly granted this role and implicitly granted the BIConsumer role.

• The BIConsumer role grants permissions necessary to use, or to consume, content created by other users. By default, every Oracle Business Intelligence authenticated user is part of the BIConsumers group and does not need to be explicitly added to the group or role

Sharing Schemas Required by Oracle Business Intelligence

The Repository Creation Utility (RCU) creates the BIPLATFORM and MDS schemas that are used when you install OBIEE 11g.

Now if you run a multi-node system what do you do, can you use the same RCU created schemas, or do you have to create parallel ones?

This extract from the Oracle OBIEE documentation (http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/bi.1111/e10539/c3_requrmnts.htm#BABBICDA) provides the answer, which states that:

If you scale out a system from a primary node, the new nodes share the same RCU schemas as the primary.
A new OBIEE system needs separate RCU schemas.

------------------- extract ---------------------
If your organization has an MDS schema installed in a supported database, you do not need to install the MDS schema again with the RCU. You can use the existing MDS schema for your Oracle Business Intelligence installation. For this option, deselect the Metadata Services schema in the Select Components screen of the RCU. Then, when you install Oracle Business Intelligence, specify the details for the existing MDS schema in the MDS Schema screen.

However, each Oracle Business Intelligence system (BI domain) requires its own BIPLATFORM schema. Two or more systems cannot share the same BIPLATFORM schema, although they can share the same database. Therefore, you must run the RCU and install the BIPLATFORM schema and the MDS schema (if no MDS schema exists) before installing each distinct Oracle Business Intelligence system (BI domain). For example, if you plan to install two Oracle Business Intelligence systems, you must run the RCU and install the required schemas twice, or once for each system.

This requirement does not apply when you scale out an Oracle Business Intelligence system. In a scaled-out (clustered) system, you only run the RCU and install the database schemas once, before installing the primary node of the Oracle Business Intelligence cluster (the BI domain for the cluster is created at that time). Additional Oracle Business Intelligence nodes that you install during the scale-out process become members of that domain and, therefore, use the same set of schemas.

OBIEE: Handy hint - Pagination using RCOUNT

Pagination.

How many rows are returned by my query.

Add a column already in the query and edit the Formula max(rcount(1))

Now assuming each 'page' of output is 25 lines, how many pages of output are there: once again
Add a column already in the query and edit the Formula CEILING(max(rcount(1))/25)

We are busy paging through our report and want to know how many pages in we are:
Add a column already in the query and edit the Formula CEILING((rcount(1)-1)/25)+1

Remember you can cast the output as INTEGER and that will ensure that the output is integer and not double (doesn't show the .00).

OBIEE 11.1.1 - How to turn off EM centralized control

Note: This is not for the faint hearted and is not recommended, but is available in emergencies.

There is a flag in the central config file which can be used to turn off all of the EM central configuration. Edit the biee-domain.xml file from location ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\config\fmwconfig.  The flag is near the top; it says: centralConfigurationEnabled="true" . If you change this to "false", then none of the config files will be modified centrally.

(You will need to restart the managed server and BI System Components)

So what happens: In OBIEE 11G, The instanceconfig.xml file stores the OBI Presentation Server configuration settings. Many configuration settings are available in Enterprise Manager and those should be set within EM only. If any particular setting is not available in EM then we make changes directly in the instanceconfig.xml file. Like changing the default value of the maximum number of rows in a pivot table.

If you change any of the settings directly under EM control, as soon as you restart the BI components you will find the original values returned and your settings overridden. Setting centralConfigurationEnabled="false" will disable the EM settings overwriting any new values.

Important Note: Turning off EM centralized control for managing BI config files is NOT recommended.

OBIEE Online Virtual Box 11.1.1.7.1

Well, colour me excited, no more download of the SampleApp to peek at the new features. Actually I probably will continue to download, but this a a fascinating first for Oracle. Making the sample dashboard available online - wow.

The Sample Application (SampleApp) for Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition is a comprehensive collection of examples designed to demonstrate Oracle BI capabilities and design best practices. It brings together several integrated Oracle BI products & technologies and illustrates how they can seamlessly work together in solving functional problems. These examples include latest OBIEE functionalities and OBIEE architecture examples (Semantic layer modeling, Multi-source federation, Integration with Essbase, ORE, TimesTen and more).


http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-foundation/obiee-samples-167534.html

What’s New in OBIEE Sample App 309

http://www.youtube.com/user/OracleBITechDemos

OBIEE Link: http://slc02okm.oracle.com:7780/analytics/

UserName: Prodney
Password: Admin123

OBIEE How to reset the lost Weblogic Admin User password?

You installed OBIEE 11G and you did not write down the Weblogic Domain admin password, or you’ve had it installed for a while and can’t remember what the password is to get into the WebLogic Admin console to make a change. There is a (technical and tricky) way to reset this password.

1. Make sure all the services are down
2. change directory to <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin
cd <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin
3. Source the setDomainEnv.cmd(Windows) / setDomainEnv.sh (Linux) script so we can get all the WebLogic variables set correctly
In windows: setDomainEnv.cmd
In Linux: . setDomainEnv.sh
4. Now change the directory to security directory in your instance.
cd <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\security
5. Move the DefaultAuthenticatorInit.ldift to a backup file
In Windows:
mv DefaultAuthenticatorInit.ldift DefaultAuthenticatorInit_old.ldift
In Linux:
mv DefaultAuthenticatorInit.ldift DefaultAuthenticatorInit_old.ldift
6. Run the “java weblogic.security.utils.AdminAccount newuser newpassword .” to generate a new DefaultAuthenticatorInit.ldift with a new user with the assigned password within the security directory
eg: java weblogic.security.utils.AdminAccount weblogic weblogic123 .
Note: replace newuser and newpassword with a user and password of your choosing. Ensure the password is a minimum of 8 characters and contains at least one numeric character. Also, don’t forget the period “.” at the end of the above command, it is required.
7. Change directory to <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\security
cd <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\security\
8. Edit the boot.properties file and replace newpassword and newusername with the user and password you defined in step 6. Do this for all the servers in the domain.
password=newpassword
username=newusername
The boot.properties will get encrypted once the admin server starts up
9. Rename or remove directory <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\data\ldap as it will get recreated once the WebLogic Admin server starts.
e.g:
rename <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\data\ldap <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\data\ldap_OLD
10. Change directory to <Middleware_Home>\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin and start the Weblogic Admin Server
In Windows: startWebLogic.cmd
In Linux:  ./ startWebLogic.sh
11. Once the weblogic server is up, you’ll be able to login to Console with the new weblogic Admin user and password.

OBIEE Security log Debug Switch

Very simple configuration but import if you want to debug the Security which plays a vital role everywhere.

Perform the following steps in order to switch the debug setting on/off

1) Log in to WebLogic Server
2) Navigate over left pane and expand the Environment node->select Servers.
3) Select the desired server from the available servers.
4) Click on Debug tab and expand Weblogic option available in Debug Scopes and Attributes table
5) Expand the security->atn and check DebugSecurityAtn option.
6) Click on Enable/Disable button at the top or bottom of the table.

Remember with all changes on the Weblogic Administration Console you will need to "Lock & Edit", make your change and then "Activate Change" once complete. The buttons to do so are at the top left of the console.

The output allows us to debug LDAP connections, see the groups and users, which allows us to check what filters we are applying.

OBIEE New Features in 11.1.1.7

New Presentation Features

1) Recommended Visualizations Feature for Creating Views

• When you create a view, you can choose a recommended view type based on the data in your analysis and, optionally, what you want to use it for (for example, to analyze trends).
• You can choose a suggested “Best Visualization” as well as a “Recommended Subtype”. Or you can instead choose the “Recommended Visualization” option, for which you specify your intent for the new view.

2) Breadcrumbs

• Breadcrumbs have been added to help users understand their current location within Oracle BI content and the path that they have used to navigate Oracle BI content.
• Breadcrumbs display at the bottom of the page, and users can click a breadcrumb or the breadcrumb overflow button to navigate to a specific location on their breadcrumb trail.

3) Enhancement to Dashboards

• The ability to create custom print layouts for high-fidelity printing of dashboard pages (i.e. automatic creation BI Publisher reports)
• A new default style called FusionFX (instead of “blaf”)
• The addition of the Freeze Column option to the Column Properties menu. This option allows you to freeze a column at an edge (top or left) of a dashboard layout
• The addition of “Size” and “Page Size” options that allow you to control the position and size of columns and sections
• The ability to export an entire dashboard or a single dashboard page to Microsoft Excel 2007+
• A new “Replace Analysis in <Dashboard>” option added to Answers to replace an analysis on a dashboard
• A new “Return to <Dashboard>” option within Answers to return to a dashboard from the Analysis editor

4) Enhancements to Graphs

• 3 new graph types:  Waterfall graph, Stacked graph and 100% Stacked graph (the latter two are subtypes of Bar and Area graphs)
• Zoom to data range. This option lets the system evaluate the range of values on an axis, and choose appropriate minimum and maximum values for the scale. This is useful when graphing a set of large values that are all within a small percentage of each other
• Hide sliders in graph views that listen to master-detail events. For graphs in master-detail relationships, if you want to simplify the appearance of an analysis or dashboard, you can hide the slider that is created to accommodate detail columns

5) Enhancements to Views

• A new view type named performance tile. This view type displays a single aggregate measure value in a manner that is both visually simple and prominent
• Action links in trellis views. In simple trellis views, action links can now be used on inner graphs per unit, including the context of the outer edges. Action links can also be used in legends and in axis labels. In advanced trellis views, action links can be used in microcharts, where the microchart functions as a single unit (such as an aggregate number), including the context of the outer edges
• For map views, you can now vary the width of a line by measure to accentuate a feature
• You can link a map view as a detail in a master-detail relationship
• Auto Correct option for Map views (as errors in Map views can occur for various reasons). If the issue appears to be related to missing layers, maps, or styles, then it might be possible to correct the map by replacing the missing map view components with similar items that exist in the spatial metadata
• Legend and formatting highlighting
• Null suppression at view and analysis levels. You can set null suppression options at the view level (which overrides the analysis level) for data views including: table, pivot table, trellis (both simple and advanced), graph, gauge, and funnel views when the entire row or column contains nulls
• Ability to include or exclude calculated items and groups at the view level for columns and column headers. Specifically, two new options have been added: Include Custom Member and Exclude Custom Member

For tables, pivot tables, and advanced trellises:

• The ability to ◦specify the method to be used to browse data — either scrolling or paging controls
• Resize rows and columns
• Row count. If your table or pivot table view contains a grand total or subtotal on the row edge, the display totals, that is the grand total and subtotals, are now included in the Rows per Page count for content paging. In prior releases, if you had the Rows per Page count set to 10 for example, the table or pivot table would display more than 10 records if display totals were shown in the view results
• For right-click interactions, the ability to specify whether the Hide Columns interaction is available at runtime

6) Enhancements to Prompts

• This release includes an enhancement to the SQL Results prompt option. If you are working with double columns, you can now write the SQL statement so that filtering is done on code values rather than display values
• An enhancement to the prompt constraint option. The prompts designer can now limit a column prompt value list by more than one column
• This release includes enhancements to the parameters for prompted links

7) New Menu Options for Exporting Views and Results
This release adds the Excel 2007+ and Powerpoint 2007+ options for exporting views and results

8) Total Member Placement for Hierarchical Columns
This release includes an enhancement that allows placement of total members on a hierarchy

9) Browse Catalog Search Results by Object Attributes
The capability to use full-text search to find catalog objects and then filter the search results by attributes. This search is available when the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Endeca Server. After the full-text search results are returned, the Catalog area displays a list of matching items, and the Search pane displays the search results grouped by attribute (that is, Type, Name, Path, and Created By)

10) Navigate from the Total or Grand Total in a Table or Pivot Table
If an analysis contains a total or grand total and the associated attribute or hierarchical column contains an action link or a conditional action link, the action link (or conditional action link) is applied to both the column and the total or grand total

11) New BI Desktop Tools Available for Download

• Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office
• Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting Studio (if Essbase is installed)
• Oracle Essbase Studio Console (if Essbase is installed)
• Oracle Essbase Administrative Services Console (if Essbase is installed)

12) Enhancement to Favorites
This release provides the capability to organize your favorites from the Category Tree area and the Selected Category area in the Manage Favorites dialog. In previous releases, you could organize favorites from the Category Tree area, only

13) Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System
With this release, OBIEE is integrated with Enterprise Performance Management Workspace (as part of the installation process)
Recommended Visualizations Feature for Creating Views
Breadcrumbs
Enhancement to Dashboards
Enhancements to Graphs
Enhancements to Views
Enhancements to Prompts
New Menu Options for Exporting Views and Results
Total Member Placement for Hierarchical Columns
Browse Catalog Search Results by Object Attributes
Navigate from the Total or Grand Total in a Table or Pivot Table
New BI Desktop Tools Available for Download
Enhancement to Favorites
Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System

New BI Mobile Features

14) Maximize views with double-tap gesture
With this new feature, you can access on your iPad more data—even within dense dashboards—without the restrictions of the smaller form factor. You expand an individual view by double-tapping on it. The individual view then displays within the full screen of the iPad. This maximizing of views can be done on views accessed within a dashboard, and also when viewing an analysis independent of a dashboard. See “Working with Analyses and Dashboards.”

15) New view and graph types
The following new graph types are supported with BI Mobile: Performance tiles, Waterfall graphs, 100% stacked graph, Stacked graph

16) Fixed headers
In analyses with fixed headers, you can use a single-finger drag gesture to scroll through data in all directions

17) Changing Orientation
It is now possible to change between landscape and portrait orientation while viewing Oracle BI content

18) Breadcrumbs
You can see the navigation path you have taken while moving through the catalog as a trail of breadcrumbs (near the top of the screen by the Back arrow). In this way, you can see your current location and how you got there, then decide whether to use the Back arrow to navigate in reverse, or to use the Home icon to quickly return to the Home screen

19) Security toolkit
The Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile Security Toolkit provides the ability to generate a signed version of the Oracle BI Mobile HD application. The toolkit includes the instructions and necessary content to build this application making use of Apple’s Xcode and the IOS SDKs. The Oracle BI Mobile Security Toolkit will be updated on a regular basis in order to synchronize with the Oracle BI Mobile HD application available on the Apple App store. See “Using the Security Toolkit for Mobile Device Management.”

20) Viewing of Oracle BI Publisher reports in dashboards

21) Integrated Full-Text Catalog Search
As in the desktop version of Oracle BI EE, you can use full-text search to find catalog objects in Oracle BI Mobile based on attributes such as author and column name. This search is available after the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Endeca Server

New BI Server Features

22) Changing the Repository Password From the Command Line
You can now change the repository password from the command line using the obieerpdpwdchg utility

23) New Options to Enforce Consistent Versions in Multiuser Development Environments
You can now add options to the multiuser development option file to enforce Administration Tool, MUD protocol, and RPD version consistency among MUD developers

24) New Utilities Available to Generate and Compare Logical Column Type Information
You can use the Administration Tool utilities Generate Logical Column Type Document and Compare Logical Column Types to generate a list of logical column types, and then compare it with logical column types in a subsequent version of the repository. You can also use the command-line utility biservergentypexml to generate the list of logical column types

25) Additional Database Support for Cardinality Estimates in Oracle BI Summary Advisor
The Prefer Optimizer Estimates feature, which improves performance by using cardinality estimates during the Summary Advisor process, is now available for Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB2

26) Oracle BI Summary Advisor Measure Subset Recommendations
Oracle BI Summary Advisor now recommends only aggregates that contain specific measures that are both present in the analyzed query workload, and that can optimize the query workload if aggregates are created

27) Model Check Manager Enhancements
Model Check Manager now runs parallel queries against the database for better performance. In addition, you can now check models from the command line using the validaterpd utility with the -L option

28) Access to Apache Hadoop Data Sources
Oracle BI EE now supports Apache Hadoop as a data source

29) Support for Multi-Source Session Variables
Oracle BI EE now supports session variables that can be populated from multiple data sources and retain values from all source systems

30) NUMERIC Data Type Support for Oracle Database and TimesTen
You can now change a configuration setting to enable NUMERIC data type support for Oracle Database and TimesTen

31) Ability to Map Flex Object Changes Using the biserverextender Utility
You can now use the biserverextender utility to import flex object changes from ADF data sources and map them to the Business Model and Mapping layer and Presentation layer

32) Support for Servlet Communication Between the Oracle BI Server and Oracle OLAP
The Oracle BI Server now uses a servlet for communication with Oracle OLAP data sources, rather than relying on the JavaHost service

New Features for Administrators

33) Support for Oracle Endeca Server
You can configure Oracle Endeca Server as a search engine for full-text searching

34) Support for Multitenancy
You can configure Oracle BI EE so that it supports the use of multiple tenants  (Dont confuse with multi-instance installs!)

New BI Publisher Features

• Connect Directly to Oracle BIEE Subject Areas to Create Reports
• Excel Template Builder Enhancements (supports automatic insertion of fields and repeating groups)
• Layout Editor Enhancements (Time series axis formatting, Hide axis option, Independent axis formatting)
• Enhanced Create Report Guide
• PDF to PCL Conversion for Embedding PCL Commands in RTF Templates
• Support for PDF 1.7 Specification
• MDX Query Builder
• Support for Local XML File Data Source
• Support for CSV File as a Data Source
• Support for Endeca as a Data Source
• Support for Private Data Sources
• Enhancements for Sample Data Usability

Validating the Catalog

Over time, inconsistencies can develop in the catalog as links are broken, users are deleted, or NFS file system issues are encountered. These inconsistencies can eventually lead to incorrect behavior, such as the inability to edit an agent's recipient list. You can periodically take the production system offline and validate the catalog, to be informed of and to take corrective action on inconsistencies.

Tasks in the Validation Process

The validation process performs the following tasks:

• Ensures that each object in the catalog is larger than zero bytes.
• Ensures that each item in the catalog has a valid corresponding .atr file.
• Ensures that each link in the catalog is valid.
• Ensures that the files in the account cache are valid.
• Ensures that all XML objects in the catalog pass schema validation.
• Attempts to repair object names that were damaged by ftp programs.

 Important Guidelines for Validating the Catalog

Before you validate the catalog, keep the following guidelines in mind:

• You must refresh the user GUIDs before validating the catalog. If you attempt to validate a catalog whose user GUIDs are not synchronized, then the validation process assumes that all accounts have been deleted and effectively removes all account information from the catalog.
• Use care when validating a catalog in a development environment, if that environment has a different security store from the production environment. If the validation is performed with a different security store, then many accounts might be removed from the catalog.
• When you turn on any validation of the catalog, all ACLs (that is, all privileges and every item's permissions) are "scrubbed," which means that dead accounts are removed from them and any changed items are written to disk. Therefore, even if you simply create a report without fixing any broken items automatically, you might find that the catalog is still extensively "changed."
• Before validating the catalog in a clustered environment, do one of the following:
• Shut down the Presentation Services cluster and run the validation directly against the cluster's catalog.
• Make a copy of the cluster's catalog and run the validation against that copy.
• Before using the 7-Zip utility to make a copy of a catalog, first shut down all nodes in the Presentation Services cluster or put all nodes in that cluster into Maintenance Mode (which is the recommended approach).
• Be aware that any changes that are made to the catalog online concurrently to the validation process are not included in the validation.

While backing up the catalog is always good practice, there is no practical difference between running validate against the catalog directly versus running the validation on a backup copy.

Authentication In OBIEE

OBIEE Support four types of authentication.

 

1)LDAP Authentication : Users are authenticated based on credentials stored in LDAP.This is the BEST method to do authentication in OBIEE and it supports company’s Single Sign On (SSO) philosophy as well.

 

2)External Table Authentication : If users belongs to multiple groups ,that information is being pulled from the data base scheme table.This usually implemented with LDAP Authentication

 

3)Database Authentication: The Oracle BI Server can authenticates user based on database logins. If a user has read permission on a specific database.Oracle BI Presentation Services authenticates those users

 

4)Oracle BI Server User Authentication: User are directly crated in OBIEE and are authenticated against those credentials. This is the worst authentication method if company has larger then few people using the system. Believe me Maintenance is a nightmare here.

 

Two authentication methods are usually combined together.like LDAP and external table authentication.

And as i said earlier LDAP and/or LDAP with external table are BEST authentication(Again each case is different)

 

Oracle BI Server User Authentication is not quite popular as it has its support/maintenance issue associated ,once system grows beyond certain users

OBIEE - Change Repository Password

If you need to change your repository password, the one you use to 'unlock' the repository for editing or uploading, it is relatively simple to change

Open the repository as normal...


In the File menu is a “Change Password” option

Click and change the password, couldn't be simpler.

OBIEE version 11.1.1.7.131017 has been released

The Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.7.131017 patch set has been released, and is available to download from My Oracle Support (https:\\support.oracle.com).

Per the patch readme:
This patch set is available for all customers who are using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.7.0 and 11.1.1.7.1.

It is also available for Exalytics customers who have applied the Exalytics PS3 patch.

Patch 17530796 - OBIEE BUNDLE PATCH 11.1.1.7.131017 (Patch) is comprised of the following patches, which are not available separately:

    Patch 16913445 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (1 of 8) Oracle Business Intelligence Installer (BIINST)
    Patch 17463314 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (2 of 8) Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BIP)
    Patch 17300417 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (3 of 8) Enterprise Performance Management Components Installed from BI Installer 11.1.1.7.0 (BIFNDNEPM))
    Patch 17463395 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (4 of 8) Oracle Business Intelligence Server (BIS)
    Patch 17463376 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (5 of 8) Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services (BIPS)
    Patch 17300045 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (6 of 8) Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services (BIPS)
    Patch 16997936 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (7 of 8) Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services (BIPS)
    Patch 17463403 - Patch 11.1.1.7.131017 (8 of 8) Oracle Business Intelligence Platform Client Installers and MapViewer

Also you must download:

Patch 16569379 - Dynamic Monitoring Service patch

The instructions to apply the bundle patch are given in the patch readme along with some important notes if you are upgrading from 11.1.1.6.x versions.

The new functionality in this patch includes:

    Support for Microsoft Internet Explorer 10
    Support for Oracle BI Mobile App Designer
    Support for improved exporting functionality into Microsoft Excel
For more information please refer to document:
OBIEE 11g 11.1.1.7.131017 is Available for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and Exalytics (Doc ID 1595219.1)
In addition we strongly recommend you review this document:
OBIEE Suite Bundle Patches (Doc ID 1591422.1), which explains the new naming convention, the strategy behind bundle patches and other interesting facts about OBIEE patching. Please take some time to review it.

OBIEE 11g: Do You Need Separate Mds, Biplatform Schemas for each Instance

Do you need separate MDS, BIPLATFORM schemas per OBIEE instance?

For example, say you have 5 developers, do you need to run the RCU Wizard 5 times to create 5 different MDS and BIPLATFORM schemas each with a different prefix? Or can the different OBIEE instances share the same OBIEE Database repository Schemas?

The answer disappointingly is: NO.

Different OBIEE instances cannot share a single database repository schema.

It is one OBIEE instance per schema.

For more information please see "Sharing Schemas Required by Oracle Business Intelligence":

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/bi.1111/e10539/c3_requrmnts.htm#BABBICDA

OBIEE 11.1.1 - Error: "Too many running queries. Server is too busy to process any more queries at this time"

Symptoms:

 

During normal users load, OBIEE fails frequently with the following error:

"OAMP2OPY:GIQKCQ7 Too many running queries. Server is too busy to process any more queries at this time."

Possible Causes / Solution:

1. The Oracle Database instance is configured by default to run only 150 PROCESSES; the maximum load for dedicated connections is determined by the PROCESSES parameter. When the listener believes the current number of connections has reached maximum load, it may set the state of the service handler for an instance to "blocked" and begin refusing incoming client connections with the following error (in biserver1.log set in debug level):

"TNS-12516 TNS:listener could not find instance with matching protocol stack"

Tip: Verify the Oracle database processes parameter setting.  It is also a good idea to make sure the Oracle database sessions and open cursors settings are large enough.

2. Increase the number of concurrent client connections (sessions) to OBI server. Each client request to OBI Server uses one SERVER_THREAD. Each SERVER_THREAD uses 0 or more DB_GATEWAY_THREADs depending upon the number of DB queries executed. Following NQSConfig.INI parameters need to be tuned (refer to OBIEE tuning guide for details on initial values to be set):
[ SERVER ]
MAX_SESSION_LIMIT
SERVER_THREAD_RANGE
DB_GATEWAY_THREAD_RANGE

3. Cleanup Web catalog via instanceconfig.xml using the steps documented in "Validating the Catalog" in System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

4. In instanceconfig.xml file for each instance, add the following parameters within Cache/Query tags:

<Cache>

       <Query>

           <MaxEntries>10000</MaxEntries>

           <AbsoluteMaxEntries>20000</AbsoluteMaxEntries>

           <CruiseEntries>3000</CruiseEntries>

           <ForceLRU>true</ForceLRU>

       </Query>

</Cache>

5. Make sure you have enough system resources available on BI Servers (sawserver, nqsserver).

 6. Unstable network connection link between OBIEE servers and Database server.

OBIEE Date Expressions and Calculations

PREVIOUS - (YEAR/ QUARTER/  MONTH)

First Day of the Previous Year
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_YEAR , -1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , EXTRACT( DAY_OF_YEAR FROM CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

First Day of Previous Quarter
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_QUARTER , -1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAY_OF_QUARTER( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

First Day of the Previous Month
TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_MONTH, -1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAYOFMONTH( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

Last Day of Previous Year
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , EXTRACT( DAY_OF_YEAR FROM CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1,  CURRENT_DATE))

Last Day of Previous Quarter
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -(1), TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAYOFMONTH( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

Last Day of the Previous Month
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -(1), TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAYOFMONTH( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

CURRENT - (YEAR/ QUARTER/  MONTH)

First Day of the Current Year
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , EXTRACT( DAY_OF_YEAR FROM CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)

First Day of Current Quarter
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAY_OF_QUARTER( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)

First Day of the Current Month
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAYOFMONTH( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)

Last Day of Current Year
TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_YEAR, 1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , EXTRACT( DAY_OF_YEAR FROM CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)))

Last Day of Current Quarter
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -(1), TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_QUARTER , 1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAY_OF_QUARTER( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)))

Last Day of Current Month
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -(1), TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_MONTH , 1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAYOFMONTH( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)))

NEXT - (YEAR/ QUARTER/  MONTH)

First Day of the Next Year
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_YEAR , 1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , EXTRACT( DAY_OF_YEAR FROM CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

First Day of Next Quarter
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_QUARTER , 1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAY_OF_QUARTER( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

First Day of the Next Month
TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_MONTH, 1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAYOFMONTH( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE))

Last Day of the Next Year
TIMESTAMPADD(SQL_TSI_YEAR, 2, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -1, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , EXTRACT( DAY_OF_YEAR FROM CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)))

Last Day of Next Quarter
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -(1), TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_QUARTER , 2, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAY_OF_QUARTER( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)))

Last Day of the Next Month
TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , -(1), TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_MONTH , 2, TIMESTAMPADD( SQL_TSI_DAY , DAYOFMONTH( CURRENT_DATE) * -(1) + 1, CURRENT_DATE)))

How to disable or enable Cache in OBIEE 11g ?

The following configuration setting of NQSConfig.INI file, is managed by Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Manager.

[Cache]
ENABLE = YES

If you change this entry directly in NQSConfig.INI file then it will revert to the original value whenever you restart the BI server.

You need to login to Oracle EM 11g Fusion Middleware Control and navigate to
Farm_bifoundation_domain
  ->Business Intelligence
     -> coreapplication
Click on 'Capacity Management' tab and 'Performance' subtab.

Then click on 'Lock and Edit Configuration' ,
under 'Enable BI Server Cache'
uncheck the checkbox
 'Cache Enabled'

Click on 'Apply' to apply the changes, then 'Activate Changes' and restart BI Server.

This would automatically change the Cache entry in NQSConfig.INI file.

  See the direct link to the OBIEE Administration guide:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/bi.1111/e10541/querycaching.htm#i1005378

Update

You change the settings in the instanceconfig.xml file to force the OBIEE server to never use cache.

<ServerInstance>
———
<Cursors>
<ForceRefresh>false</ForceRefresh>
</Cursors>
——–
</ServerInstance>

Now restart the OBIEE Presentation server service and test the results.

Note: Keep in mind that this parameter will cause the Presentation Server to always bypass its cache.
You would probably only ever want to use this setting if you were doing some kind of performance testing where having no cache is the requirement, but also potentially in some development environments with fast changing data streams.

OBIEE 11g 11.1.1.7.1 is Available

The Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 11.1.1.7.1 patch set has been released.  This patch set is available for all customers who are using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.7.0. 

Now available to download from My Oracle Support  

Patch 16556157: OBIEE BUNDLE PATCH 11.1.1.7.1

This single OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 patch set download is comprised of the following:

• 1 of 6 Oracle Business Intelligence Installer (BIINST)
• 2 of 6 Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher (BIP)
• 3 of 6 EPM Components Installed from BI Installer 11.1.1.7.0 (BIFNDNEPM))
• 4 of 6 Oracle Business Intelligence Server (BIS)
• 5 of 6 Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services (BIPS)
• 6 of 6 Oracle Business Intelligence Platform Client Installers and MapViewer

Ensure to review the readme file on the Installer download for important installation instructions
The following is also required to be downloaded and applied:
Patch 16569379: Dynamic Monitoring Service patch

Additional important notes are available in  the following document:
Document 1566124.1: OBIEE 11g 11.1.1.7.1 is Available for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition

OBIEE Content in an IFrame

We had a customer who wanted a dashboard to appear on the departmental display. This display rotates through several URLs in turn displaying each for 30 seconds and then the next one.

So a dashboard is an ideal candidate for inclusion in this display.

Unfortunately though the software used to display content embeds the content in an IFRAME.

A quick test with a bit of static HTML

<html>
<head>
<title>iFrame test</title>
</head>
<body>
<iframe src="http://myserver:9704/analytics" height=500 width=500></iframe>
</body>
</html>

Gives you an error which boils down to OBIEE doesn't work inside an IFRAME.

Fortunately by changing a few configuration settings you can be up and running.

Firstly in the instanceconfig.xml located in
[OBIEE_HOME]\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\


add the following line 
<Security>
<InIFrameRenderingMode>allow</InIFrameRenderingMode>
<!--This Configuration setting is managed by Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Manager-->
<ClientSessionExpireMinutes>210</ClientSessionExpireMinutes>
</Security>

Secondly in the web.xml file located in [OBIEE_HOME]\oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\app\WEB-INF\
add the following snippet before the <login-config> node

 </servlet-mapping>

   <context-param>

   <param-name>oracle.adf.view.rich.security.FRAME_BUSTING</param-name>

   <param-value>never</param-value>

   </context-param>

    <login-config>

Thirdly restart opmn.

Finally, clear your browser cache or you will continue to get errors.

There should now be no problems with the IFRAME and we can add a list of GO URLS to the display rotator.

OBIEE - Testing the Repository Using NQCMD

You have finished making your changes to the repository and the consistency check reports no errors or warnings. Great, it's all working as planned. Unfortunately all that the consistency checker does, is make sure that logically the repository hangs together, not that your business logic is correct. A consistency check means that most common problems with the construction of the physical layer and the facts and dimensions.

Now to test that the outputs are as expected. (see also Generating an OBIEE performance Test Harness)

NQCMD

We can automate this using nqcmd and sample reports.

Before starting NQCMD run bi-init (found in ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation/OracleBIApplication/coreapplication/setup) to give a properly configured command line environment to run the OBI commands.

A look at the help for the command reveals a load of options:

C:\obiee11g\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin>nqcmd -?

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
          Oracle BI ODBC Client
          Copyright (c) 1997-2013 Oracle Corporation, All rights reserved
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Argument error near: -?
Command: nqcmd - a command line client which can issue SQL statements
                 against either Oracle BI server or a variety
                 of ODBC compliant backend databases.
SYNOPSIS
         nqcmd [OPTION]...
DESCRIPTION
         -d<data source name>
         -u<user name>
         -p<password>
         -s<sql input file name>
         -o<output result file name>
         -D<Delimiter>
         -C<# number of fetched rows by column-wise binding>
         -R<# number of fetched rows by row-wise binding>
         -a (a flag to enable async processing)
         -f (a flag to enable to flush output file for each write)
         -H (a flag to enable to open/close a request handle for each query)
         -z (a flag to enable UTF8 in the output result file
         -utf16 (a flag to enable UTF16 for communicating to Oracle BI ODBC driver)
         -q (a flag to turn off row output)
         -NoFetch (a flag to disable data fetch with query execution)
         -NotForwardCursor (a flag to disable forwardonly cursor)
         -v (a flag to display the version)
         -ONFormat<FormatString, i.e. TM9, 0D99>

Before we go further go to answers and build a test query against the part of the repository you wish to test, in the advanced tab copy out the query and save this to a file. This will be the SQL file used in the test.

Run the following, your connection data source name will be different, as hopefully will your username and password.

nqcmd -d coreapplication_OH206444865 -u weblogic -p weblogic -s C:\Test\test.sql -o C:\Test\test.txtv -D; -utf16

Note that the -D is the delimiter between SQL statements in the input file if more than one select statement is in there.

Your output file should contain the query and end something like
....
....
ORDER BY 1, 2 ASC NULLS LAST
FETCH FIRST 250001 ROWS ONLY

-------------------------
s_0          s_1         
-------------------------
0            00/000008/  
-------------------------
Row count: 1
-------------------------


Processed: 1 queries

If you set up a DSN to the other server you can run the same command line and only change the contents of the -d flag, then compare the results.

Always useful if you want to test that nothing is broken prior to releasing a change.

Update :
See here for an worked example of how to automate all this in Generating an OBIEE Performance Test Harness

OBIEE - Clear Cache -SAPurgeAllCache()

Warning !!!!
What follows is technical (geeky) and should be approached only by those personnel wearing appropriate safety equipment!

One command to remember

Call SAPurgeAllCache()

Login to dashboards as normal, and go to Administration and then Issue SQL

In the box that appears input the command from above.
Call SAPurgeAllCache()

Click Issue SQL

Server Cache cleared! I’ll leave you to clear the browser cache.

Here’s what the server cache looks like.

You can also clear the cache of specific databases.
Call SAPurgeCacheByDatabase( ‘MYDB’ );

Will clear just the MYDB database cache i.e. the OBIEE physical database in the right column.

There are other similar commands to clear specific tables / queries. That I’ll leave to you.

OBIEE MUDE

It's been a while since I last put up any substantial post so I thought maybe it was time to leave you with a brain dump of what I've (been attempting to) achieved over the past month.

Two major things stand out;
1. MUDE - Multi User Development Environment.
2. Integration with SVN Subversion.

The first was a no-brainer really, a few too many developers in the repository at once, lots of half finished code, the nightmare of promoting the repository to production based on what was complete or mostly complete. Definately time for MUDE.

For those of you unaware of MUDE and what it is, not many I'm sure, it is a method of segregating the repository into various projects, where each project is self contained and has all the component parts required to function. The projects can be checked out to a local install by developers where they work, in isolation, before merging their changes back into a central repository.

MUDE

To setup MUDE you need three things; a bi server, a shared directory on that server and a full local install of OBIEE.

On the server create a shared directory and ensure that all your users have sufficient priveleges to merge changes back.
The MUD Administrator then copies in the Repository required and this will become the MUD master against which all changes are published.
The repository is opened offline and divided into projects - again by the MUD Administrator.

On the client side the users open the OBIEE administration tool and in the Tools --> Options --> Multiuser Tab, point the where the MUD master shared directory (\\server\muddir) is and describe the environment (eg DEV Machine)

When a developer wants to work they will start the OBIEE administration tool on their local installation. From the File menu they will then select Multiuser and then checkout. Select the project, as setup by the MUD Administrator, on which you want to work and open.

The local repository consists of only those details required to make the top level components in the repository work. The project may not have specified the physical layer to include and this will be added at checkout by the MUD process.

The developer, using their local install, will make changes and test outputs against their local answers queries for that project.

Once changes are made the operator has several options;
1. Discard changes - revert to how things were.
2. Refresh subset - pick up any changes in the master MUD repository that have occured since the checkout, that affect this project.
3. Compare to original - show what has changed.
4. Publish to Network - promote changes back to the MUD Master repository.

When you publish back to the MUD Master repository, a merge takes place and if conflicts arise, you need to resolve them by selecting what goes through for publication.

The MUD Master repository will then be uploaded through EM and changes promoted up through your environments.

Just bear in mind the following;

You may require named user plus licensing to be financially viable
MUD is more complex than online development, but makes sense when you know how it works
MUD Administrator divides main repository into projects; self-contained RPD subsets
Master repository is then published to a network share
Projects are then worked on independently, and then merged back into the master RPD
Uses the repository compare and merge features under the covers
Works best when each developer has a full OBIEE “Sandbox” environment to develop with and unit test their work License considerations

Integration with SVN follows.

Decimal difference to hours and minutes in OBIEE

Just has one of those issues of different interpretations of the same item by different people in different ways.

Actually, if I'm honest, I'm glad someone's out there manually checking all the hard work we put in here.

And what is this magical value that causes so much confusion - the difference between two time values displayed as a number of hours. Does the value 5.08 mean a. five hours and eight hundredths of an hour, or b. five hours and eight minutes.

Turns out it's we thought it was the first - five hours and eight hundredths of an hour and (some of) the users thought it was five hours and eight minutes.

In the interests of sanity it was decided that a disclaimer should be put against the report in question to clarify the issue and all metadata altered to definitively reflect that this was an decimal representation of hours and fractions thereof.

But the question arose - how difficult is it to show the value 5.08 as hours and minutes.

To derive 5.08 in the database we had subtracted the start date from the end date and multiplied the result by 24 giving us the difference in hours. Oracle does offer us the opportunity to do this calculation and have the result as an interval (day-to-second), but that gets stuck in the database hence the numeric difference in hours.

Thinking the solution through it is immediately apparent the first number is the hours regardless of what comes after the decimal point. For this we can use the FLOOR function which returns 5.

FLOOR(5.08) = 5

calculating minutes is working with what's left after we remove the hours.

5.08 - FLOOR(5.08) = 0.08

which in minutes is

60*0.08 = 4.8

Which is very different to the 8 minutes assumed by some users. We could carry on and work out the seconds implied by the 0.8 of a minute, but for the purpose of this discussion, rounding the result is sufficient. Putting the last piece together gives

ROUND(60*(5.08 - FLOOR(5.08)))

so sticking it all together to make it look pretty means we'll have to cast our numbers to CHAR

CAST(FLOOR(5.08) AS CHAR) || ' hours and ' || CAST(ROUND(60*(5.08 - FLOOR(5.08))) AS CHAR) || ' minutes'

Problem solved.

Aggregates, source control and Monitoring

I have been fortunate enough to have some time to do some housekeeping on the OBIEE systems.

Monitoring.

I think it's fair to say that we had very little monitoring in place, and we knew things were bad when users phoned to say that their pages were 'slow'. Now to get a user to phone you takes some doing, usually they'll live with it, so things must get pretty bad before they do. Luckily this is only n our exploratory areas, otherwise people would be questioning just what it is we do.

Source Control

No-one like interrupting their work to perform a manual step, like source control. it is one of those things that somehow gets missed the one time you really need it. I've been looking at ways to automate this, behind the scenes, totally hands off using SVN (Subversion)

Aggregates 

Need I say more. Level heirarchies and aggregates go hand in hand. If you can provide the least number of rows back to satisfy your answers report, it will run a lot faster that running an aggregate operation over raw data.

Expect a couple of posts over the coming days detailing just what I've been doing.

Renaming Objects in the Business Layer

Rename Wizard

If you need to rename of your business layer objects in the repository, try using the Rename Wizard, found under Tools > Utilities > Rename Wizard. You can also right click objects in the Business Model and Mapping or Presentation layer and Select the rename option from the context menu.

Actually the first line should start WHEN.

You will be able to quickly and globally replace underscores with spaces, database names with business names, change from all caps to first letter capitalized only, and perform many other useful Find and Replace operations. 

The Wizard allows you to create an ordered sequence of operations, and select which repository objects to include in the processing. Be aware though, if you include objects from the presentation layer, the original object names will be preserved as aliases once you have renamed them using the Wizard.

You will be asked to approve all changes before they are applied.



See more in the Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition -- Chapter 18

OBIEE - Mapviewer Error after 11.1.1.7 Upgrade

You may get an error after upgrading your 11.1.1.6 environment to 11.1.1.7.

Here is what to do:

After upgrading to OBIEE 11.1.1.7 mapviewer shows error:

  "HTTP 500 Internal server Error"

When trying URL:

  http://localhost:9704/mapviewer


The log contains :

java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: oracle/adfinternal/view/faces/taglib/html/HtmlHtmlTag
at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:2389)
at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2699)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance0(Class.java:326)
at java.lang.Class.newInstance(Class.java:308)
Truncated. see log file for complete stacktrace
>
<Watch 'UncheckedException' with severity 'Notice' on server 'bi_server1' has triggered at Jul 9, 2013 12:00:02 PM CEST. Notification details:
WatchRuleType: Log
WatchRule: (SEVERITY = 'Error') AND ((MSGID = 'WL-101020') OR (MSGID = 'WL-101017') OR (MSGID = 'WL-000802') OR (MSGID = 'BEA-101020') OR (MSGID = 'BEA-101017') OR (MSGID = 'BEA-000802'))
WatchData: DATE = Jul 9, 2013 12:00:02 PM CEST SERVER = bi_server1 MESSAGE = [ServletContext@285430038[app:mapviewer module:/mapviewer path:/mapviewer spec-version:2.5 version:11.1.1]] Root cause of ServletException.
java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError: oracle/adfinternal/view/faces/taglib/html/HtmlHtmlTag
at java.lang.Class.getDeclaredConstructors0(Native Method)
at java.lang.Class.privateGetDeclaredConstructors(Class.java:2389)
at java.lang.Class.getConstructor0(Class.java:2699)
......
......
......
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)
SUBSYSTEM = HTTP USERID = SEVERITY = Error THREAD = [ACTIVE] ExecuteThread: '1' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)' MSGID = BEA-101017 MACHINE = VMBO TXID = CONTEXTID = 3f3d2d8955322f32:-750ddf2f:13fc2ab56ea:-8000-00000000000012de TIMESTAMP = 1373364002231
WatchAlarmType: AutomaticReset
WatchAlarmResetPeriod: 30000
>

CAUSE

Known issue

Need to clean some files

SOLUTION

There is a known issue when upgrading to 11.1.1.7

Here is the workaround:

Workaround:

A number of files have to be removed from the MapViewer deployment and the
Weblogic internal cache of the MapViewer application needs to be deleted.

- Stop the managed server, e.g. bi_server1

(Note : the following step is also required if 11.1.1.7.1 patches are to be
applied)
- Delete the following files from MapViewer deployment, e.g. <middleware
home>/Oracle_BI1/bifoundation/jee/mapviewer.ear

web.war/WEB-INF/lib/adf-faces-api.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/adf-faces-impl.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/commons-digester.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/commons-logging-1.1.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/jsf-api.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/jsf-impl.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/jsr173_1.0_api.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/mvutil.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/lib/xdb.jar
web.war/WEB-INF/adf-faces-config.xml
web.war/WEB-INF/orion-web.xml

- Recursively delete the directory: <middleware
home>/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/servers/bi_server1/tmp/_WL_use
r/mapviewer_11.1.1


- Restart the managed server.

Internal Reference:
Bug 16906739 - UPGRADE OF BIEE FROM 11.1.1.6.0 TO 11.1.1.7.0 CAUSES MAPVIEWER RUNTIME FAILURE

Also documented in the Release notes:

41.6.1.4 MapViewer Runtime Failure After Upgrading from Release 11.1.1.6 to Release 11.1.1.7 (link http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/doc.1111/e14770/biee.htm#CHDJIDBD )

MUD - Multi User Development (option file)

Recommendation - Each user of MUD ie. those that will check out projects, make changes and check those changes in, should have a full (simple) install on their local machine.

Before going 'big-bang' on MUD, try all the features in a simple and controlled manner.

Pay particular attention to creating the (hidden) repository.opt file and using the correct options. This has a big impact on the way you will work.

1. The MUD options are set in a file that you create in the MUD shared directory.
2. The filename should be be the same as the MUD master repository ie. if your MUD master is called BIREP.rpd, then your options file should be called BIREP.opt.
3. The file attributes should be set to hidden using the file properties dialog box.
4. As an additional step you may want to disallow edit permissions to all users (beyond a nominated set of administrators).

Note: Any options not explicitly set are considered to be turned off by default.

The contents of the opt file are as below:
[Options]
BuildNumber = Yes
Enforce Build Number = 11.1.1.7.0
Enforce MUD Protocol Version Number = 1
Prevent Rpd Upgrade = Yes
Admin = weblogic;joebloggs
Mandatory Consistency Check = Yes
Equalize During Merge = Yes

To turn an option off either, remove it from the file or set the value from Yes to No.

BuildNumber = Yes - when set to Yes this displays the build version of the administration tool in MUD history.

Enforce Build Number = 11.1.1.7.0 - When set this means that only users with an exact match of Administration Tool version can make changes. To unset this option remove it from the opt file.

Enforce MUD Protocol Version Number = 1 - This option will only allow those users with an exact match of MUD version number to perform changes. Remove this option to disable the enforcement.

Prevent Rpd Upgrade = Yes - Only users with an exact match of repository version can perform changes using MUD. It is possible for later versions (client side) to check out and make changes to the repository and potentially (though unlikely) make changes incompatible with the current master MUD repository . Set to No or remove to disable this option.

Admin = weblogic;joebloggs - This is the list of MUD administrators, seperated by semicolons. Only administrators listed here can delete MUD history.

Mandatory Consistency Check = Yes - A full consistency check is performed at publish to network. All errors in the repository will need to be fixed before publishing completes. Set to No or remove to disable this option.

Equalize During Merge = Yes - A equalisation process takes place during the merge process, potentially affecting performance. The equalization process ensures that objects in the two repositories that have the same name but different upgrade ids are treated as the same object, preventing unintended renaming during the merge.

iPad and OBIEE sessions

There are several users that connect via iPads to view dashboards.

Here's what they look like when connected and you view them in the session manager from the Administration page.

We haven't made any special accommodation for these devices, but they don't seem to suffer as a result of our unintentional neglect and their performance is no worse than through a browser over wifi.

Upgrade a Simple install to 11.1.1.7

Upgrading a simple install to 11.1.1.7 from 11.1.1.6.2 BP1

Following on from the previous article on upgrading an enterprise install of OBIEE here's how to do the same for a simple install.

Not as straightforward as the upgrade of the enterprise install where it is all wizard driven. For this upgrade you can start out as for the enterprise upgrade for the first couple of steps and then do the rest manually.

As with the enterprise upgrade do a software only install specifying the middleware home that you want patched

Then run the patch set assistant for the MDS and BIPLATFORM schemas. If you do this step manually make sure that you upgrade MDS first.

Now instead of running the configuration wizard, which runs all the steps for you, you will run the following manually.

Assume the following: 

the simple install is in the directory C:\obiee11g on windows.
our simple install is version 11.1.1.6.2 BP1

1. Upgrade the system components.

cd C:\obiee11g\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin
startweblogic.cmd
(once the server is in the RUNNING state)
set ORACLE_HOME=C:\obiee11g\Oracle_BI1
cd C:\obiee11g\instances\instance1\bin
opmnctl startall
cd c:\obiee11g\Oracle_BI1\opmn\bin
--note replace localhost with your servername if appropriate
run 
upgradenonj2eeapp.bat -oracleInstance c:\obiee11g\instances\instance1 -adminHost localhost -adminPort 7001 -adminUsername weblogic

Unregister instance...

Command requires login to weblogic admin server (V01228730):
  Username: weblogic
  Password:

Unregistering instance
Command succeeded.
redeploy NonJ2EEManagement.ear...

Command requires login to weblogic admin server (V01228730):
  Username: weblogic
  Password:

Redeploying NonJ2EEManagement Application...weblogic.Deployer invoked with optio
ns:  -adminurl V01228730:7001 -username weblogic -name NonJ2EEManagement -source
 C:\obiee11g\Oracle_BI1\opmn\applications\NonJ2EEManagement.ear -redeploy -uploa
d -noexit
<23-Apr-2013 14:12:42 o'clock BST> <Info> <J2EE Deployment SPI> <BEA-260121> <In
itiating redeploy operation for application, NonJ2EEManagement [archive: C:\obie
e11g\Oracle_BI1\opmn\applications\NonJ2EEManagement.ear], to configured targets.
>
Task 0 initiated: [Deployer:149026]deploy application NonJ2EEManagement on Admin
Server.
Task 0 completed: [Deployer:149026]deploy application NonJ2EEManagement on Admin
Server.
Target state: redeploy completed on Server AdminServer

Done
Command succeeded.
re-register instance...

Command requires login to weblogic admin server (V01228730):
  Username: weblogic
  Password:

Registering instance
Command succeeded.
Successfully upgraded NonJ2EEManagement.ear and the registeration.
C:\obiee11g\instances\instance1\bin>

2. update the shared libraries and security.

cd C:\obiee11g\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\bin
stopWeblogic.cmd
cd C:\obiee11g\oracle_common\common\bin
wlst
upgradeJRF('c:/obiee11g/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain')
upgradeOpss(jpsConfig="c:/obiee11g/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/config/fmwconfig/jps-config.xml", jaznData="c:/obiee11g/oracle_common/modules/oracle.jps_11.1.1/domain_config/system-jazn-data.xml")
exit()

wls:/offline> upgradeJRF('c:/obiee11g/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain'
)
upgradeJRF: skip, JRF is up-to-date.
wls:/offline>upgradeOpss(jpsConfig="c:/obiee11g/user_projects/domains/bifoundati
on_domain/config/fmwconfig/jps-config.xml", jaznData="c:/obiee11g/oracle_common/
modules/oracle.jps_11.1.1/domain_config/system-jazn-data.xml")
{upgradeJseStoreType=null, auditStore=null, password=null, user=null, url=null,
jdbcDriver=null, jaznData=c:/obiee11g/oracle_common/modules/oracle.jps_11.1.1/do
main_config/system-jazn-data.xml, jpsConfig=c:/obiee11g/user_projects/domains/bi
foundation_domain/config/fmwconfig/jps-config.xml}
Starting upgrade of opss configuration and security stores.
WLS ManagedService is not up running. Fall back to use system properties for con
figuration.
23-Apr-2013 14:28:05 oracle.security.jps.wls.JpsWlsPlatformFactory$2 run
WARNING: Cannot get server log directory. Reason: Cannot get audit log path by e
nvironment setting..
23-Apr-2013 14:28:07 oracle.security.jps.wls.JpsWlsPlatformFactory$2 run
WARNING: Cannot get server log directory. Reason: Cannot get audit log path by e
nvironment setting..
23-Apr-2013 14:28:07 oracle.security.jps.internal.tools.utility.JpsUtilMigration
AuditStoreImpl migrateAuditStoreData
INFO: Migration of Audit Store data in progress.....
23-Apr-2013 14:28:07 oracle.security.jps.internal.tools.utility.JpsUtilMigration
AuditStoreImpl migrateAuditStoreData
INFO: Migration of Audit Store data completed, Time taken for migration is 00:00
:00
23-Apr-2013 14:28:08 oracle.security.jps.internal.tools.utility.destination.apib
ased.JpsDstPolicy <init>
WARNING: No identity store associated with policy store found.
23-Apr-2013 14:28:09 oracle.security.jps.internal.tools.utility.destination.apib
ased.JpsDstPolicy migrateDataInternal
INFO: Migration of Admin Role Members started
23-Apr-2013 14:28:09 oracle.security.jps.internal.tools.utility.destination.apib
ased.JpsDstPolicy migrateDataInternal
INFO: Migration of Admin Role Members completed in 00:00:00
Upgrade of opss configuration and security stores is done.
wls:/offline>

3. Upgrade the catalog.

edit the instancecofig.xml
and replace the "false" with "true" in the upgradeandexit tag.


cd C:\oracle\Middleware\instances\instance1\bin\

opmnctl startproc ias-component=coreapplication_obips1

then set the instanceconfig.xml back to "false"

opmnctl stopproc ias-component=coreapplication_obips1

4. Start node manager, adminserver, managed server and OPMN.