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.