OBIEE 12c Architecture vs 11g

Quite a lot has happened architecturally under the covers with the release of OBIEE 12c.

OBIEE 12c Architecture diagram

OBIEE 11g Architecture Diagram

There is one major difference...... OPMN is gone in OBIEE 12c.

OBIEE components are now started via a series of commands run from {DOMAIN_HOME}/bitools/bin

• start
• stop 
• status

and it is also possible to run the 'commands' to stop and start the components in (the new look) FMW Enterprise Manager.

OBIEE - Remember Username and Password

I came accross this 'hack' and thought it may be worth a mention if used sparingly on a non-production (i.e. DEVELOPMENT) environment.

Use at your own risk.

Remember Username and Password in Obiee11g

Go to your BIPS config path, for example like below,
D:\OBIEE11G\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1

and the search Security tab in your instanceconfig file and add

<AllowRememberPassword>true</AllowRememberPassword>

Then save it and restart bips servervices.
Include the elements and their ancestor elements as appropriate, as shown in the following example:

<Security>
<!--This Configuration setting is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control-->
<ClientSessionExpireMinutes>210</ClientSessionExpireMinutes>
<AllowRememberPassword>true</AllowRememberPassword>
<CookieDomain>value</CookieDomain>
<CookiePath>/analytics</CookiePath>
<InIFrameRenderingMode>prohibit</InIFrameRenderingMode>
</Security>

Save your changes and close the file.

Restart Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services using OPMN

Login to your BI Home page ..then logout and login again. OBIEE will remember your Username and Password and go straight to your BI home page.

For More please refer to the Oracle documentation,
http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/bi.1111/e10541/psconfigset.htm#BIESG1292

OBIEE 11g : RPD Consistency Check

A Consistency Check ensures that the repository is in a fit state to process any queries passed through.

A "Consistency Check" is a feature of the Administration Tool that checks whether a repository has met certain requirements, such as the following:

•  All logical columns are mapped directly or indirectly to one or more physical columns.
•  All logical dimension tables have a logical key.
•  All logical tables have a logical join relationship to another logical table.
•  There are at least two logical tables in the business model: a logical fact table and a logical dimension table. Both can map to the same physical table. 
• There are no circular logical join relationships. 
• A subject area exists for the business model.

You can check consistency for the entire repository or for a single object:

For the entire repository: select File > Check Global Consistency.  or Tools > Show Consistency Checker.

For an individual repository object: select the object, right-click and select Check Consistency. You can select multiple objects and check their consistency.

When you check in changes to a repository you are also prompted to Check Consistency before saving, this however is for the entire repository. A large repository can take some time to complete a check.

It is good practise to keep checking consistency in the local area you are working and making changes. You may even notice that the consistency checker has reported no errors but has 'fixed' some inner workings. It may be worth digging in to what is actually being adjusted automatically to suit what the consistency checker expects. If anyone knows please drop me a line.

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.9.0

Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.9.0 is now available.

The newest version of OBIEE is now available to download from OTN.

The patching and upgrading looks fairly straightforward and I'll let you know what happens and how it happened as soon as I've done the upgrade.

Instructions and documentation on upgrading are available here.

General documentation about 11.1.1.9 is available here.

Until then

Oracle BI Mobile Apps - Latest Update Available from App Store

Oracle has released new version 11.1.1.7.0 (11.6.20) of Oracle BI Mobile HD app for Apple.

Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile for Apple iPad is a mobile analytics app that allows you to view, analyze and act on Oracle Business Intelligence 11g content

So what's new:

•  iOS 8 Support
• Immersive Mode. Changes and improvements including show/Hide options for the Prompts bar, the Page bar, and the title bar.
• Local iOS Notification for Alerts. Receive your Oracle BI Mobile alerts in the iOS Notification Center, from which your alerts take you directly to the app.
• iPhone: Improvement to First-Time Help. Now you can reset the first-time help so that it shows again whenever you like.
• iPad: Improvements to UI. Simplified welcome dialog allows you to quickly choose the demo, the server configuration screen, or offline mode. Simplified sharing options in the Settings screen.
• Translation Update

Compatibility: 

Requires iOS 7.1 or later. Compatible with iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. This app is optimized for iPhone 5, iPhone 6, and iPhone 6 Plus.

Android App is currently in version 11.1.1.7.0.195 and was updated at last in November 2014.

OBIEE 11g: Exceeded configured maximum number of allowed input records

Oracle have limited various numbers of outputs for rows, columns, prompts, cells and pivots to default values. These values are ususally set high enough to never become an issue, but for really large reports you will bump up against an error message saying you have exceeded some maximum.

So what do you do?

Step 1

Edit the instanceconfig.xml file. Typically, this file is located in the following directory: <OBIEE11g_install>\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1
If you are running a load balanced environment please make sure all environments have the same settings (or share the same settings) or you'll be forever chasing down 'weird' customer experiences.

Step 2

There are parts of the instanceconfig.xml you cannot edit directly and those sections will be marked as only being updateable via Oracle Enterprise Manager. The parts we can edit I have marked in bold.

<Views>
<Pivot>
<!--This Configuration setting is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control-->
<DefaultRowsDisplayedInDelivery>75</DefaultRowsDisplayedInDelivery>
<!--This Configuration setting is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control-->
<DefaultRowsDisplayedInDownload>2500</DefaultRowsDisplayedInDownload>
<!--This Configuration setting is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control-->
<DisableAutoPreview>false</DisableAutoPreview>
<MaxCells>10000000</MaxCells>
<MaxVisibleColumns>1000</MaxVisibleColumns>
<MaxVisiblePages>1000</MaxVisiblePages>
<MaxVisibleRows>10000</MaxVisibleRows>
<MaxVisibleSections>25000</MaxVisibleSections>
<DefaultRowsDisplayed>128000</DefaultRowsDisplayed>
</Pivot>
<Table>
<!--This Configuration setting is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control-->
<DefaultRowsDisplayedInDelivery>75</DefaultRowsDisplayedInDelivery>
<!--This Configuration setting is managed by Oracle Enterprise Manager Fusion Middleware Control-->
<DefaultRowsDisplayedInDownload>2500</DefaultRowsDisplayedInDownload>
<MaxVisiblePages>1000</MaxVisiblePages>
<MaxVisibleRows>10000</MaxVisibleRows>
<MaxVisibleSections>2000</MaxVisibleSections>
<DefaultRowsDisplayed>64000</DefaultRowsDisplayed>
<MaxCells>10000000</MaxCells>
</Table>
</Views>

Note that the value you choose for <MaxCells> should never be more than <MaxVisibleColumns> * <MaxVisibleRows>.

In the case above <MaxVisibleColumns>1000</MaxVisibleColumns> * <MaxVisibleRows>10000</MaxVisibleRows> = <MaxCells>10000000</MaxCells>

Please restart all presentation services to pick up the new settings.

OBIEE - Catalog Cleanup

Catalog Cleanup

Do you sometimes look at the catalog and wonder what kind of timebomb is lurking in there? I have nightmares. You've designed a catalog layout and asked developers to follow standards and follow the guidelines, but one year later......? What about two or even three years later? What Answers work has been started and abandoned, unfinished and unworking? What Answers remain from 'deleted' or 'hidden' dashboards and now no longer work due to repository changes?

The challenge

We are a small team of developers so so for us automation of tasks is key. For each report in the catalog what we need to know is:
Does this report generate a useable query? (Is it broken)?
Is this report on a dashboard, or more than one dashboard?
If the report is on a dashbord, is it in the correct directory?

We anticipate that this will be repeated periodically, you can never be sure what creeps in and slips through the cracks, but at least the generation of the report can be automated and scheduled.

At a high level what we do is to combine the output of some Catalog reports output, and use NQCMD to generate logical queries and track the outputs.

The Catalog Reports

Firstly we will generate a Dashboard Report and then an Analysis Report, and we'll upload the data into some database tables and stitch the two together with an outer join so we can see those reports on dashboards as well as those without.

We call the Analysis Report and a Dashboard with a script like below; Note, your system will have different settings.

D:\OBI\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\catalogmanager\runcat.cmd -cmd report -excelFormat -distinct -offline D:\OBI\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\catalog\samplesales -forceOutputFile D:\CatalogCapture\Analysis.txt -type "Analysis" "Name" "Path" "Table" "Column" "Subject Area"

D:\OBI\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\catalogmanager\runcat.cmd -cmd report -excelFormat -distinct -offline D:\OBI\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\catalog\samplesales -forceOutputFile D:\CatalogCapture\Dashboard.txt -type "Dashboard" "Name" "Path" "Dashboard Style" "Dashboard Page Name" "Dashboard Page Path" "Dashboard Page Description" "Analysis Name" "Analysis Path"

Join the two outputs on "Path" and "Analysis Path" - think outer join here because we still want to process those Analysis not on dashboards.

Generating a Logical Query

What we are going to do is pass the each analysis into NQCMD using the current repository to test whether a valid Logical Query.

Create a text file called cred.txt and make the contents something like
login=weblogic
pwd=weblogic123

Now using the report output from part 1 we can run the following to extract the query from the catalog for the answer. The Query will be saved into a file called myquery.lsql
D:\OBI\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1\catalogmanager\runcat.cmd -cmd report -online http://%SERVR%/analytics/saw.dll -credentials "D:\CatalogCapture\creds.txt" -forceOutputFile "myquery.lsql" -folder "/shared/...../myreport" -type "Analysis" "SQL"

One of two things happen here:
1. The file containing the query is generated, or
2. An "empty file" is generated.

If we have an empty file the Answer failed to generate a Query and should be flagged for investigation.

However, if we have a query in the file, we need to pass the contents through NQCMD to see if the Answer works.

Extending into NQCMD

We have previously used NQCMD to do impact analysis on repository changes and can use the functionality almost unchanged.

"D:\OBI\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin\nqcmd.exe" -d coreapplication_OH140093583 -u weblogic -p weblogic123 -s "myquery.lsql" -o "output.lres"

Once again one of two things can happen here:
1. The logical query passed in returns a result, or
2. An error is generated.

The error may be something like

[10058][State: S1000] [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: S1000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred.
[nQSError: 43113] Message returned from OBIS.
[nQSError: 43119] Query Failed: 
[nQSError: 17001] Oracle Error code: 942, message: ORA-00942: table or view does not exist
 at OCI call OCIStmtExecute.
[nQSError: 17010] SQL statement preparation failed.
Statement execute failed


Processed: 1 queries
Encountered 1  errors

Once again flag the error.

Wrapping things up and bringing it together

From each Answer we now know
1. Is it used on a dashboard?
2. Where is the Answer stored?
3. Does it generate a logical query?
4. Does the logical query work?

Now we can focus efforts on fixing, rewriting or deleting those Analysis on dashboards, then those that are not on a dashboard but do not work.
Your initial steps may just be to identify those Answers that don't generate a logical query for a maintenance routine?

OBIEE - OBI_METRICS_AGENT on Windows

OBI_METRICS_AGENT

I would like to firstly extend my thanks to Rittman Mead for making this freely available. It managed to fill the gap in performance analysis that I had been struggling to fill. Yes, I had started down the WLST route and was pulling my hair out.

So what did I do to get it to work for me?

So what's the setup: OBIEE 11.1.1.7 on Windows Server 2008 64.

Firstly, download the zip file containing the obi_metrics_agent from https://github.com/RittmanMead/obi-metrics-agent.

The zip file contains a python script, and being windows nothing is easy, we have to go and download and install python. Please make sure you download the correct version for your machine. I donwloaded Python 2.7 for 64Bit Windows (python-2.7.6.amd64.msi) and ran the installer and put Python into C:\Python27.

Job done....... not quite. The obi_metrics_agent needs the lxml library. Fortunately my trusty steed "Google" was at hand and kept nudging me in the right direction.

It transpires that you need to run ez_setup.py and this will download the setup tools allowing you to "easy install" other packages and any dependant packages. Download the ez_setup.py script and place it in the C:\Python27 directory.

Easy I thought and from the command line: C:\Python27\python.exe ez_setup.py and apart from a few error messages about proxy unavailable.... nothing. A few minutes of head-scratching later and I realised that none of the Servers can access the internet, so a few minutes more on the good steed "Google" grazing the plains of knowledge, I dowloaded the setuptools-3.4.4.zip file and placed it in the C:\Python27 directory. Now the ez_setup.py script command completed without error.

Now I have the easy_install.exe and can download the lxml-2.3-py2.7-win-amd64.egg file - once again make sure you get the correct version for your Python install. You will find the easy_install.exe in the Python27\scripts folder, so once again placing the egg file on the server we run c:\Python27\Scripts\easy_install.exe lxml-2.3-py2.7-win-amd64.egg. This unpacks into the C:\Python27\Lib\site-packages directory.

So, if everything has worked so far, you are nearly good to go.

I then unpacked the obi_metrics_agent.zip into the middleware home directory (on my machine D:\OBI) which created a subdirectory off called D:\OBI\obi-metrics-agent-master and here's where the main script resides.

After some faffing around, I settled on the following as appropriate for my needs, yours may be different.

C:\Python27\python.exe D:\OBI\obi-metrics-agent-master\obi-metrics-agent.py --opmnbin D:\OBI\instances\instance1\bin\opmnctl.bat --data-directory D:\OBI\obi-metrics-agent-master\data --interval 10

Now I must admit I have spent a fair amount of time going through the different options and outputs and it realy works, I'll eave it to you to judge, but thanks Rittman Mead.

I have jobs that run every couple of minutes loading the data into a database allowing us to monitor the internals against usage - amazing!

OBIEE - Automatically Generate Repository Documentation

I have strived to close the loop with automating all of the internal reporting on OBIEE.

So far we have automated the capture of what reports, filters and prompts are on our dashboards.

We have in place an automatic system for recording the performance of the reports on the current dashboards. This we run every night and the results uploaded to the database.

We have the option of running an 'after' script which compares the output from dashboards (logical sql, row counts and timings) when we upload a new repository, this gives us impact analysis.

What we lacked was a way to automate the generation of the repository documentation. This was the manual step that was sometimes skipped.

Having a report on the repository, from physical to presentation and then joining this data to what's on the dashboards gives us a view of what's being used where and where the data is sourced from.

Now I must admit, this seems like a 'hack' and I wouldn't use it on any environment where I couldn't freely break things without causing damage. Oh, and it is windows only - there is no AdminTool for Linux/Solaris - sigh.

The Repository Command Script

So what do we have to do?

We are going to use the /command switch of the AdminTool to run a script of, you guessed it, .... commands.

The command script we've called report_rep.build and put in the following few lines, replacing MWHOMW with your own settings, repository with your own and the repository password with your own.

OpenOffline <MWHOME>\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIServerComponennt\coreapplication_obis1\repository\repository.rpd <repository password>
DescribeRepository D:\scriptoutput\repository_report.csv UTF-8
Close
Exit

The next part involves creating a script to run the AdminTool and pass in the script file. Just to be safe it may be worth setting the environment using some of the bits from the bi-init.cmd as follows:

@echo off
set ORACLE_HOME=<MWHOME>\Oracle_BI
set ORACLE_INSTANCE=<MWHOME>\instances\instance1
set ORACLE_BI_APPLICATION=coreapplication
set JAVA_HOME=<MWHOME>\Oracle_BI1\jdk
set ESSBASEPATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\clients\epm\Essbase\EssbaseRTC
call %ORACLE_INSTANCE%\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\%ORACLE_BI_APPLICATION%\setup\user.cmd
set PATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\common\ODBC\Merant\5.3\Drivers;%ORACLE_HOME%\bifoundation\server\bin;%ORACLE_HOME%\bifoundation\web\bin;%ESSBASEPATH%\bin;%ORACLE_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
<MWHOME>\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin\AdminTool.exe /command d:\scripts\report_rep.build

Before running the above script we copy the latest repository to one side and call it repository.rpd. Not very imaginative I know but that way we don't muck around with the actual repository and, in theory, if we script it right, this will always be a copy of the latest and most up to date RPD.

You should be left with a CSV report of your repository (all being well).

Upload to your favourite database and analysis tool.

OBIEE - Displaying the Value of System Variables

Following from the previous article here on the subject of displaying your repository variables, I thought it may be time to look at showing some of the system variables

On a dashboard, drag in a text item and edit the contents to include something like

We are running OBIEE version [u][b]-@{system.productVersion} [/b][/u]
This is the @{dashboard.name} dashboard
and we are on the @{dashboard.currentPage} page.

OBIEE - Report Footer

Report Footer

You can create a report footer by adding another Title view and editing the layout.
- set the display text to custom and enter "Confidential" or some sort of disclaimer text.
- set the style to show the text as centered, bold and Italic.
- there you go, a confidential footer for your report.

OBIEE - Aggregation Rules and Functions

The following list describes the aggregation rules that are available for measure columns in the "Layout pane" and for columns in the "Edit Column Formula dialog: Column Formula tab". The list also includes functions that you can use when creating a calculated item.

• Default — Applies the default aggregation rule as in the Oracle BI repository or by the original author of the analysis. Not available for calculated items.
• Server Determined — Applies the aggregation rule that is determined by the Oracle BI Server (such as the rule that is defined in the Oracle BI repository). The aggregation is performed within Presentation Services for simple rules such as Sum, Min, and Max. Not available for measure columns in the Layout pane or for calculated items.
• Sum — Calculates the sum obtained by adding up all values in the result set. Use this for items that have numeric values.
• Min — Calculates the minimum value (lowest numeric value) of the rows in the result set. Use this for items that have numeric values.
• Max — Calculates the maximum value (highest numeric value) of the rows in the result set. Use this for items that have numeric values.
• Average — Calculates the average (mean) value of an item in the result set. Use this for items that have numeric values. Averages on tables and pivot tables are rounded to the nearest whole number.
• First — In the result set, selects the first occurrence of the item for measures. For calculated items, selects the first member according to the display in the Selected list. Not available in the Edit Column Formula dialog.
• Last — In the result set, selects the last occurrence of the item. For calculated items, selects the last member according to the display in the Selected list. Not available in the Edit Column Formula dialog.
• Count — Calculates the number of rows in the result set that have a nonnull value for the item. The item is typically a column name, in which case the number of rows with nonnull values for that column are returned.
• Count Distinct — Adds distinct processing to the Count function, which means that each distinct occurrence of the item is counted only once.
• None — Applies no aggregation. Not available for calculated items.
• Server Complex Aggregate — Applies the aggregation rule that is determined by the Oracle BI Server (such as the rule that is defined in the Oracle BI repository). The aggregation is performed by the Oracle BI Server, rather than within Presentation Services. Not available for calculated items.
• Report-Based Total (when applicable) — If not selected, specifies that the Oracle BI Server should calculate the total based on the entire result set, before applying any filters to the measures. Not available in the Edit Column Formula dialog or for calculated items. Only available for attribute columns.

OBIEE - Connection Pools

Apart from creating your connection pool, filling in the type of database, username and password, do you give much thought to the connection pool.

If you have heavy usage, you should increase the maximum number of connections from the default of 10.
You will definately need a connection pool seperate from the others to set your session variables.
You will also need a separate connection pool for usage tracking.
Keep a separate connection pool for write back.

Just a few thoughts

OBIEE - Custom Login Message

OBIEE - Customised Login Message

The first thing your users see if they need to login id the login screen and with a little effort you can customise this to "up" the wow factor and provide information.

We will customise the following file.
OBIEE_HOME\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\msgdb\pages\common\signin.html

and as always !!!BACKUP!!! before making changes.

On our non production environments we have a message like below.
...
<div align="center" class="centerDiv">
<table width="180" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
   <tr>
      <td class="lefttop"></td>
      <td class="topmiddle" width="100%" height="12"><span style="background-color:#F6CED8;text-align:center;font-weight:bold;color:#000000">
        You are connecting to a Non-Production environment!
   </span></td>
      <td class="righttop"></td>
   </tr>

   <tr>...

Customised Login Images

You can go further by adding images

Locate the <form id="logonForm" tag, then the table tag below it:
            <table width="100%" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">

Underneath add the following lines (assuming that Your_Logo.png is the image):

<tr>
<td>
<img src="fmap:login/Your_Logo.png" style="visibility: visible;" class="defaultHidden" width="280" align="bottom" height="120" alt="Description of Your Logo"/>
</td>
</tr>

Remember if you are uploading an image to put the "Your_Logo.png" file in the following three locations

OBIEE_HOME\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\bi_server1\tmp\_WL_user\analytics_11.1.1\7dezjl\war\res\sk_blafp\b_mozilla_4

OBIEE_HOME\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\bi_server1\tmp\_WL_user\analytics_11.1.1\7dezjl\war\res\sk_blafp\login

OBIEE_HOME \Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\app\res\sk_blafp\login

OBIEE - Sample Administration Documentation

As I mentioned in Part 1 of a previous article here, you really need to have documentation around your OBIEE environment.


Not the most glamerous of suggestions surely, but your boss and sysadmin will love you. Start by documenting where to find stuff middleware home, logfiles, config files (instanceconfig.xml etc.), the URLs used for administration.

Then move on to documenting the config changes made after the install, what settings were changed and if known what the default values were before and what they are now. What are the connection details for your RCU schemas (BIPLATFORM and MDS). Capture things like server names and directory structures.

Now comes the living documents which you can generate periodically and version. Run off a repository report and catalog reports. This will give you (and your colleagues) a better understanding of what the repository looks like and also what in the catalog is where on the dashboards.

As an added benefit you can now work backwards from the catalog reports through the repository reports to see where data comes from to fill reports, and vice-versa, from a physical column work your way through the repository to the catalog report to see where the data is used.

Remember, having no documentation means a risk to your business.

And keep it up to date, mark your calendar for a monthly review, most times , no change, but there will be that month.......

Here's a suggestion of some topics to get you started!

General Info about your OBIEE Install

Server
URL
DNS Shortcut
WebLogic Console
Enterprise Manager
Repository Name
Catalog Path

Install Type Information

Type
OS
Install Dir

OBIEE Configuration

writeback
EVALUATE_SUPPORT_LEVEL
Usage Tracking
Repository Monitoring

Users/Passwords

Schema Prefix
BIPLATFORM
MDS
weblogic
Repository

Custom Deployments

password_change.ear

Maps

OBIEE Lockdown - Part 1

Security Recommendations in Oracle Business Intelligence Installations

There are three key security recommendations for installing and securing OBIEE in your enterprise environment.

1.       Be serious about password management.

It is important to lock down the OBIEE environment and changing default passwords after installation.

The passwords for weblogic user should not be simple to guess or widely distributed. The best practice is to have different passwords throughout the environments. Moreover, I’d recommend replacing “weblogic user” with another obfuscated username. The username and password combination should be different throughout the environments (at least the password).

Change the default passwords for the RPD, as everyone knows “Admin123.”  If you are promoting an RPD, your password for Dev, Test, and Prod RPDs should be different as well to avoid a possibility of a developer making changes in a wrong environment.

Do not use the administrative account to present reports to the users and avoid providing it to users, there is high risk of breaking/deleting something by accident. Consider automating deployments to avoid having to deal with passwords manually.

2.       Take the authentication and authorization outside of OBIEE

Use whatever is standard in your organization for managing authentication (be it OID, Active Directory, or some other sort of LDAP). Not only does it improve user experience by removing the need to memorize yet another username/password, but it also saves time for the development team. Remember: They are not in the user management business. Another great use case is the ability to push this functionality further by automating users’ authorization by managing LDAP groups’ memberships and mapping them to the OBIEE’s application roles.

3.       RPD Security Objects

Unfortunately, the Administration Tool does not allow development separation within the repository objects (one needs to be an administrator to edit the RPD file – no way around it), hence anyone with the RPD/Admin password can do pretty much anything within the RPD. At this time, there are limited built-in options to audit or keep track of the RPD development changes. One must rely on a custom developed solution if this functionality is important. An easy and practical option is to keep an XLS spreadsheet of the major development milestones. It’s simple; however, its disadvantage is, that there is an overhead associated with maintaining it, especially during active development periods. Another option would be to use an Administration tool utility to create metadata repository document on a regular basis and track deltas. Finally, more advanced options would include MUDE (multi user development environment) projects and XML export.

OBIEE - Increase Map Joins

OBIEE has a default limit of 500 joins to a map.

There are occasions where you may need to up this limit and you will need to make changes to this setting if more points of contact to the map exist.

You will need to add something like the below into your instanceconfig.xml file

<SpatialMaps>
<ColocatedOracleMapViewerContextPath>/mapviewer</ColocatedOracleMapViewerContextPath>
<RemoteOracleMapViewerAbsoluteURL/>
<LayerDataLayout>
<MaxRecords>1500</MaxRecords>
</LayerDataLayout>
</SpatialMaps>

OBIEE Repository Variable Report

You can create a report to show what your repository variables are set to by doing something like below:

Create a 'dummy' report with a static text view and enter something like below and make sure you have selected the contains HTML Markup box.

[u][b]Predefined Presentation Variables[/b][/u][br/]
[b]session.language:[/b] @{session.language}[br/]
[b]session.locale:[/b] @{session.locale}[br/]
[b]DISPLAYNAME:[/b]@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.DISPLAYNAME']}[br/]
[b]USER:[/b]@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.USER']}[br/]
[b]GROUP:[/b]@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.GROUP']}[br/]
[b]ROLES:[/b]@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.ROLES']}[br/]
[b]ROLEGUIDS:[/b]@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.ROLEGUIDS']}[br/]
[b]PERMISSIONS:[/b]@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.PERMISSIONS']}[br/]
[b]USERGUID:[/b]@{biServer.variables['NQ_SESSION.USERGUID']}[br/]

Update: See more on System Variables here.

OBIEE - Repository System Session Variables

Session variables are similar to dynamic repository variables in that they obtain their values from initialization blocks. Unlike dynamic repository variables, however, the initialization of session variables is not scheduled. When a user begins a session, the Oracle BI Server creates new instances of session variables and initializes them.

Two types of session  variables:

• System Session Variables
  
• Nonsystem Session Variables
  

Sytem Session Variables : 

System session variables are session variables that the Oracle BI Server and Oracle BI Presentation Services use for specific purposes. System session variables have reserved names that cannot be used for other kinds of variables (such as static or dynamic repository variables and nonsystem session variables).

When you use these variables for Oracle BI Presentation Services, preface their names with NQ_SESSION. For example, to filter a column on the value of the variable LOGLEVEL, set the filter to the variable NQ_SESSION.LOGLEVEL.

 

Variable	Description
USER	Holds the value the user enters as his or her logon name. This variable is typically populated from the LDAP profile of the user.
PROXY	Holds the name of the proxy user. A proxy user is a user that has been authorized to act for another user.
GROUP	Contains the groups to which the user belongs. Exists only for compatibility with previous releases. Legacy groups are mapped to application roles automatically.
WEBGROUPS	Specifies the Catalog groups (Presentation Services groups) to which the user belongs, if any. Note that the recommended practice is to use application roles rather than Catalog groups.
USERGUID	Contains the global unique identifier (GUID) of the user, typically populated from the LDAP profile of the user.
ROLES	Contains the application roles to which the user belongs.
ROLEGUIDS	Contains the global unique identifiers (GUIDs) for the application roles to which the user belongs. GUIDs for application roles are the same as the application role names.
PERMISSIONS	Contains the permissions held by the user, such as oracle.bi.server.impersonateUser or oracle.bi.server.manageRepository.
DISPLAYNAME	Used for Oracle BI Presentation Services. It contains the name that is displayed to the user in the greeting in the Oracle BI Presentation Services user interface. It is also saved as the author field for catalog objects. This variable is typically populated from the LDAP profile of the user.
PORTALPATH	Used for Oracle BI Presentation Services. It identifies the default dashboard the user sees when logging in (the user can override this preference after logged on).
LOGLEVEL	The value of LOGLEVEL (a number between 0 and 5) determines the logging level that the Oracle BI Server uses for user queries. This system session variable overrides a variable defined in the Users object in the Administration Tool. If the administrator user (defined upon install) has a Logging level defined as 4 and the session variable LOGLEVEL defined in the repository has a value of 0 (zero), the value of 0 applies.
REQUESTKEY	Used for Oracle BI Presentation Services. Any users with the same nonblank request key share the same Oracle BI Presentation Services cache entries. This tells Oracle BI Presentation Services that these users have identical content filters and security in the Oracle BI Server. Sharing Oracle BI Presentation Services cache entries is a way to minimize unnecessary communication with the Oracle BI Server.
SKIN	Determines certain elements of the look and feel of the Oracle BI Presentation Services user interface. The user can alter some elements of the user interface by picking a style when logged on to Oracle BI Presentation Services. The SKIN variable points to an Oracle BI Presentation Services folder that contains the nonalterable elements (for example, figures such as GIF files). Such directories begin with sk_. For example, if a folder were called sk_companyx, the SKIN variable would be set to companyx.
DESCRIPTION	Contains a description of the user, typically populated from the LDAP profile of the user.
USERLOCALE	Contains the locale of the user, typically populated from the LDAP profile of the user.
DISABLE_CACHE_HIT	Used to enable or disable Oracle BI Server result cache hits. This variable has a possible value of 0 or 1.
DISABLE_CACHE_SEED	Used to enable or disable Oracle BI Server result cache seeding. This variable has a possible value of 0 or 1.
DISABLE_SUBREQUEST_CACHE	Used to enable or disable Oracle BI Server subrequest cache hits and seeding. This variable has a possible value of 0 or 1.
SELECT_PHYSICAL	Identifies the query as a SELECT_PHYSICAL query..
DISABLE_PLAN_CACHE_HIT	Used to enable or disable Oracle BI Server plan cache hits. This variable has a possible value of 0 or 1.
DISABLE_PLAN_CACHE_SEED	Used to enable or disable Oracle BI Server plan cache seeding. This variable has a possible value of 0 or 1.
TIMEZONE	Contains the time zone of the user, typically populated from the LDAP profile of the user.

The SELECT_PHYSICAL command provides the functionality to directly query objects in the Physical layer of the metadata repository, and to nest such a statement within a query against the Business Model and Mapping layer or the Presentation layer.

Syntax for the SELECT_PHYSICAL Statement

Basic syntax for SELECT_PHYSICAL queries is equivalent to  basic syntax of select statement  with the term

SELECT_PHYSICAL replacing the word SELECT, namely:

SELECT_PHYSICAL [DISTINCT] select_list
FROM from_clause
[WHERE search_condition]
[GROUP BY column {, column}
     [HAVING search_condition]]
[ORDER BY column {, column}] 

 Source:

http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E14571_01/bi.1111/e10540/variables.htm#BIEMG3104

Smooth(er) OBIEE Administration

I am one of those people who likes to know how things work. I'm constantly digging through the Oracle guides for OBIEE and trawling the net to find those nuggets of information that will make my life easier.

I have a confession to make at this point. I will go out of my way to avoid doing repetitive (boring) work. Like most people I would rather do  something new and exiting rather than push the same buttons in the same sequence day after day.

OBIEE administration is one of those jobs that could suck up hours and hours of your day unless you think smart. Unfortunately, most environments expect you to 'get stuck in' and then before you know it ......... the same thing day-after-day. Every OBIEE site has common issues that they struggle with; migration across environments, performance, testing, development, lineage.....

Part 1. OBIEE Documentation: 

Not the most glamerous of suggestions surely, but your boss and sysadmin will love you. Start by documenting where to find stuff middleware home, logfiles, config files (instanceconfig.xml etc.), the URLs used for administration.

Then move on to documenting the config changes made after the install, what settings were changed and if known what the default values were before and what they are now. What are the connection details for your RCU schemas (BIPLATFORM and MDS). Capture things like server names and directory structures.

Now comes the living documents which you can generate periodically and version. Run off a repository report and catalog reports. This will give you (and your colleagues) a better understanding of what the repository looks like and also what in the catalog is where on the dashboards.

As an added benefit you can now work backwards from the catalog reports through the repository reports to see where data comes from to fill reports, and vice-versa, from a physical column work your way through the repository to the catalog report to see where the data is used.

Remember, having no documentation means a risk to your business. View sample documentation here.

Part 2.  OBIEE Automation:

You don't already? You will need to think of all those tasks you do and tackle them one-by-one. It may take you some time to get to a state where executing a single script will do an entire day's work, but you can certainly make a start by taking simple startup and shutdown tasks and automating them. Join them together shutdown then startup, there you go you have a script to 'bounce' the environment. How much time did that save?

You will need to have scripts to help with testing connection pools and migrating RPDs and catalogs. You can generate scripts that 'auto-correct', they start up an environment if it is down or restart components of OPMN. How about migrating users and groups across environments.

When you create a script you put all the effort in up front and reap the benefits in the days that follow.

Part 3. OBIEE Procedures:

There is nothing wrong with doing all your tasks in an ad-hoc manner for a Proof of Concept Project. The nature of the POC is to rapidly change things to reflect the change in your customer's requirements.

But what ad-hoc work does is distract you and eats up your time. Before you know it, you've spent an entire day ad-hoccing (is that a word?) and have nothing to show for it.

If you have a thread of automation or a deployment script for promotion across environments then with a little planning and communication you can ease the workload.

So what do you need to know to deploy? What are you deploying, from where to where and what are the configuration details and security settings?

This doesn't have to become something heavy and cumbersome with reams of documentation, a couple of lines and provides project history and documentation as a byproduct.

Each project will have it's own lifecycle and demands but setting up a process and schedule for releases, do you absolutely have to release the latest developer build to test immediately or can it wait until an agreed time where several pieces of work can be batched and planned in. Immediately the level of distraction for you has dropped.

In conclusion, as you start to fill in some of the parts of administration, you start a feedback cycle that will over time reduce your workload, increase your inderstanding of OBIEE and make you more productive