OBIEE - Oracle Business Intelligence 911

BI Publisher reports showing stale data?

2014-10-29T22:15:00.001-04:00

I have posted a new article on my new blog URL:

http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/2014/10/bi-publisher-reports-showing-stale-data.html

I will add links on this site to any article I post on new site for few months, to make transition easier.

Changing my Blog site to kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com

2014-10-29T22:13:00.000-04:00

To all my readers:

I am migrating my blog site to a new URL:

http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/

I will be posting new article to that site going forward. I have copied the content from this site to there. Thank you for visiting my blog site!!

Oracle Openworld 2014

2014-10-01T10:42:00.001-04:00

Gaining insight at Oracle Open World 2014. Here are few images from the event.

How to select last updated transaction for every ID from a history table?

2014-06-10T15:25:00.000-04:00

Here is the scenario:

You have multiple invoices in a table, with one record everytime the Invoice goes through a process, for example Invoice Created, Invoice Submitted, Invoice Approved etc. On top of that there could be multiple records for a step, for example an Invoice could be approved by multiple approvers, and that will end up being new records in the transaction history table.

If you need to create a report, that will show list of Invoices approved, and name of the last approver and the date, though could be tricky to get. After doing some research I found a simple way of determining that programatically:

We select the invoice along with timestamp of record, and sort them in descending order. We also select row_number for this query. The trick is to filter this result set where row_number is 1. Here is the exact sql if you need to refer:

Select User_Id, approve_date, Invoice_Id From (
Select Sth.User_Id user_id, Sth.Timestamp approve_date, Swpv.Property_Value Invoice_Id,
Row_Number() Over (Partition By Swpv.Property_Value Order By To_Char(Sth.Timestamp,'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS') Desc) R
From Sf_Transition_History sth, Sf_Workitem_Property_Values_V swpv
Where Sth.Workitem_Instance_Id = swpv.Workitem_Instance_Id
And Sth.Event_Name = 'Approved'
And Swpv.Property_Name = 'InvoiceID'
)
Where R = 1

Table not found in Database

2014-04-04T09:42:00.000-04:00

This could be annoying when analyzing databases for available tables in the schema. For quick reference, here is the query that can help locate any table in the database:

Select *

From Dba_Objects

where lower(object_name) = 'table_name';

OBIEE BI Publisher prompts not visible when added to dashboard page

2014-03-26T08:08:00.002-04:00

When creating a BI Publisher report from a BIP data model, we can add prompts on the report directly to have interactivity on the report. This is specifically useful if you end up creating a BIP report when all required field are not available in the Subject Area, and the report is more like a one-of report (not requiring any further Ad-Hoc analysis).

The report and prompts work well when accessed from a catalog directly. But when you try to add the same BIP report to a dashboard page, it does not show the prompts for some reason.

There are two workarounds for this problem:

1. Build the BI Publisher report from a Subject Area (and not a data model) and then use dashboard prompts to have interactivity on the report. This may not be an easy option for most cases, because if it was, you might not have started with a BI Publisher report in the first place.

2. Second and easy option is to create a link to BI Publisher report on the dashboard instead of directly adding it to the page. This is a bit tricky, but it allows report to be accessed through a dashboard link. If you try to add link, ordinarily, you will not be able to browse to the BI Publisher object:

To avoid the above situation, select "Destination" as URL, and copy the report URL there, but replace server name and port number by "../" . This is very important from migration to higher environments perspective.

Once the page is saved, navigating back to the dashboard page will show a link to the BI Publisher report:

Clicking on it does open the BI report with all the interactivity required.

Date column showing values 0/0/0 12:00:00 AM in OBIEE 11g

2014-03-21T19:26:00.001-04:00

Noticed strange appearance of dates in certain cases as below:

I checked the database, the date values for these records was null. It appears there is an easy fix for the problem:

Open RPD > go to the problem date field > find physical layer column for that field > open physical layer column properties.

The date might have been set to be Not Nullable. Make sure to Check 'Nullable' property in the physical layer

From data perspective the physical layer properties doesn't make much difference, but BI uses this for formatting reasons. An another example might be if you have a varchar field of length 150, but in physical layer you set it to 100, then BI presentation layer will only display upto 100 characters and truncate the rest. This situation is particularly possible when database changes are made by DBA after importing physical table in the RPD, and changes are not communicated to OBIEE architects.

Thankfully this was an easy fix (very annoying though)

How to export entire OBIEE dashboard to excel (all tabs) in one shot?

2014-02-27T16:14:00.001-05:00

Its a common request, you have an OBIEE dashboard, with multiple tabs on it. How do you export the entire dashboard to excel in one go?

I just found out that in the version OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1, you can do exactly that. Look at the dashboard below with seven tabs. Navigate on top right to page options > Export to Excel > Export Entire Dashboard:

So cool, it saves entire dashboard into an excel file, with one excel tab for each dashboard tab:

There is one caveat to this functionality, i.e. you will have to make sure all dashboard have been defaulted to the right prompt which you want to download. Other than that, its great addition to OBIEE.

Update: This option is available through Agents as well in 11.1.1.7.1 version:

Here is the exact version number of OBIEE for reference:

DateTime field conversion to a Date field in OBIEE

2014-02-25T11:15:00.001-05:00

If you have a field in physical table which is of type DateTime, but you want to display it as only date in the report, then you this can be converted. There are two approaches to it in the RPD:

1. In the physical layer, navigate to the physical table and double click the datetime column. Next change the datatype from 'DATETIME' to 'DATE'.

This will make only cosmetic change, i.e. anytime the field is exposed in answers, it will not display the time, but for calculations (or joins), it will use the database value of date time.

2. A better way might be to use cast function to convert the field to date in the logical layer expression builder as below:

Adding cast function to this field will append TRUNC function in the physical query fired to the database. Had to add this post, in the expression builder, there is no truncate function in "Calendar Date/Time Functions". While if you look documentation, for cast, it clearly states that it supports DateTime as well as Date data types:

Catalog Manager - point release upgrade

2014-02-13T09:12:00.002-05:00

I tried to open OBIEE 11.1.1.6.9 catalog manager using OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 client tools, but I get following error thrown back

Unable to conned to OracleBI Presentation Server. Please check if Presentation ServerfWebServer is running and URL is corredly typed http:fI< host>/analytics/saw.dll. {urn:f/oracle.bi.webservices/private/v8)SAWSessionService is not a valid service. Valid services are: (urn://oracle.bi.webservices/v6}SAWSessionService,,{urn:f/oracle.bi.webservices/v6}W ebCatalogService1(urn://oracle.bi.webservices/vt}XmlViewService,(urn://oracle.bi.we bservices/v6}SecuritySei-vice,(urn://oracle.bi.webservices/v6}ConditionService,{urn:// oracle.bi.webservicesfv6}HtmlViewService,{urn://oracle.bi.webservicesfv6}IBotService ,{urn://oracle.bi.webservices/v6}JobManagementService,{urn:f/oracle.bi.webservices/ Æ}MetadataService,{urn://oracle.bi.webservices/v6}ReplicationService{urn://oracle.b i.webservicesfv6}ReportEditingService

Looks like even though its just a point release, yet we will have to go through upgrade assistant utility (ua.bat) in order to move to new version. Note, this is not true for RPD version. When I open the RPD version, it pops open with no issues. When saving the RPD, it gives a message that you are upgrading version of the RPD file, and once upgraded, it cannot be opened in older version of AdminTool (which makes perfect sense. Anyways it’s a good idea to work on a copy of RPD file to revert back just in case).

OBIEE generating incorrect SQL Query - Query fails with error Invalid Identifier

2014-02-12T16:39:00.002-05:00

This post is a different variation of a post I wrote last time, which was causing BI to generate incorrect query (click here to read that blog article)

I'm designing a RPD model based on a relational database model, and have run into a really weird issue, that I never even though was possible. The model does work for several combinations, but in few instances, I get following error when I run an analysis report:

View Display Error

Odbc driver returned an error (SQLExecDirectW).

Error Details

Error Codes: OPR4ONWY:U9IM8TAC:OI2DL65P

State: HY000. Code: 10058. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 43113] Message returned from OBIS. [nQSError: 43119] Query Failed: [nQSError: 17001] Oracle Error code: 904, message: ORA-00904: "T380"."REQUISITION_LINE_ID": invalid identifier at OCI call OCIStmtExecute. [nQSError: 17010] SQL statement preparation failed. (HY000)

…………………….

So far so good, but I uncover a strange phenomenon, when I pull up the SQL query generated by the BI Server:

WITH
SAWITH0 AS (select distinct T8727.SEGMENT1 as c1,
     T8727.SEGMENT2 as c2
from
     PO_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL T1819 /* Fact_PO_DISTRIBUTIONS_ALL */ ,
     PO_REQUISITION_LINES_ALL T533 /* Fact_PO_REQUISITION_LINES_ALL */ ,
     MTL_CATEGORIES_B T8727 /* Dim_MTL_CATEGORIES_B_Purch_Category */
where ( T380.REQUISITION_LINE_ID = T533.REQUISITION_LINE_ID and T533.CATEGORY_ID = T8727.CATEGORY_ID ) )
select D1.c1 as c1, D1.c2 as c2, D1.c3 as c3 from ( select distinct 0 as c1,
     D1.c1 as c2,
     D1.c2 as c3
from
     SAWITH0 D1
order by c2, c3 ) D1 where rownum <= 65001

Notice carefully the where clause, it refers to alias table T380, but that alias table does not exist in the FROM clause. Weired?? Totally!! I was expecting a "Unable to Navigate" error if BI could not determine the join path and in no case an incorrect query, and yet here we have it.

I start digging into a work around, and a reason behind this. I did following while modelling my physical and business layers:

Created physical joins the way relational tables are joined, just making sure that there was only one path to reach every table, and not multiple. (BTW, news flash on a side note: OBIEE does support circular joins in physical layers, not in logical BMM layer though).
I created a logical star schema in the BMM layer, by pulling all the facts columns into one logical fact table, and pulling the attributes to respective dimensions. This also meant most logical table sources had more than one physical table sources.
For attributes that were coming from fact source tables, I created another logical dimension, and pulled those attributes to this logical table, and joined it to logical fact in the BMM layer.
The logical dimension that was getting attributes from fact sources, had more number of sources than the logical facts, as I did not want to create logical dimension for every single attribute.

The last point #4 was causing several query errors, so I gave up being lazy, and next I created a dimension for every attribute not coming from the fact sources. This was to ensure logical sources in Fact table were the same as logical sources in fact details dimension.

I did end up with lot less errors, but occasionally I still get issues on the front end. I'm still trying to find a solution for all the scenarios, hopefully I can write next article as soon as I have a solution to this. Stay tuned.

My first observation is the issue happens if your source is a heavily relational data model, where one logical table has multiple sources. The source is also heavily snow-flaked.

Second it could be linked to OBIEE version 11.1.1.7.0 or close to that. As I have never experienced this kind of issue in the past. Lets see. Hopefully soon I will have an answer.

Table in the physical query, but not in join criteria

2014-02-03T15:05:00.002-05:00

Setup:

I have a physical dimension, which has a primary key (not exposed to any logical column)
Few fields from this dimension as exposed to a logical table. I added this table in excising LTS of a dimension to which this is snow flaked.
There is no consistency error on the RPD.

Issue:

When I pull fields from dimension in to analysis, it brings up two tables in the query, but this dimension is not joined to any other in the query. The join criteria is missing that I was expecting in the query.

Resolution:

It was my mistake during defining the physical layer join. When I double clicked the physical layer join to view the criteria, I noticed I had defined a self join like below:

Table1.primay_key = table1.primary_key

Instead the correct join key should have been:

Table1.primary_key = table2.primary_key

Very simple mistake, but very annoying to get it fixed, especially if you have several physical tables to troubleshoot.

I noticed another variation to the problem above. Click here to read my second blog post.

Steps to connect to Oracle Database from RPD

2014-01-20T17:04:00.000-05:00

Method One - ODBC - for Oracle and non Oracle databases:

1. Check the version of Oracle database using the command below:

SELECT version FROM V$INSTANCE

2. Download & install database client for this version from Oracle's website. Note: Please install "full client" as not doing so may have issues when trying to import tables into RPD from Oracle database. You may get error in AdminTool Log file as below:

[2014-01-17T14:51:46.000-05:00] [OracleBIServerComponent] [ERROR:1] [] [] [ecid: ] [tid: 7c0] [nQSError: 93001] Can not load library, oracore11.dll, due to, The specified module could not be found.

FYI, AdminTool log file is located at following location:

C:\OBIEE\oraclebi\orainst\diagnostics\logs\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplication\NQSAdminTool.log

Follow link below for Oracle client:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/database/enterprise-edition/downloads/112010-win64soft-094461.html

3. Make sure you create an environment variable TNS_ADMIN, and give full path of any folder, where you would like to create and save tnsnames.ora file. You may not find network\admin folder in this install!!

In folder above, create tnsnames.ora file using text editor if not alread present, and add your databases's TNS entry.

4. Create a ODBC connection to your database

Start > Control Panel > Administrative Tools > Data Sources (ODBC) > System DSN > New:

Create new by selecting the just installed client as highlighted above.

Here you should be able to view list of TNS entries that were added to tnsnames.ora file. Provide login and test connection.

5. Now, in RPD, following import metadata wizard:

File > Import Metadata... > and select ODBC 3.5 when asked.

Method 2 - For Oracle databases only (easy method):

1. Click File > Import Metadata...

select connection type as OCI 10g/11g

2. In data Source Name, give data base details in the following format:

//hostname:port_number/SID

On the next screen, make sure you uncheck Keys, and only select Tables, as we create joins only on Alias tables created after the import.

That is it. Rest of the steps are straight forward!! Remember, if you dont see your schemas or tables, then probably you need to install full Oracle database client first.

OBIEE Live demo from Oracle

2014-01-16T15:38:00.000-05:00

Oracle has now made available a live OBIEE 11g environment for anyone who wishes to try it out.

Follow the link below to Oracle OBIEE sample app page:

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

and click on 'Try it Live'

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

This would take you to OBIEE login page, which will have user name and password listed (i.e. 'Prodney\Admin123'). I have seen that link does not work at times.

Well as this is a demo environment only, I would not rely too much on it, but could be a stop gap arrangement till have one installed on your local machine.

Top 10 OBIEE Upgrade Strategies and considerations

2014-01-16T10:37:00.002-05:00

In this post, I list top OBIEE upgrade strategies and consideration, not necessarily in any specific order, as the order of significance would depend upon individual implementation scenarios.

Oracle offers multiple starting points for OBIEE upgrade. The strategy that would be best applicable to a situation is dependent upon multiple factors. Following the considerations that any organization must review before selecting an upgrade strategy:

What is the current version of OBIEE / Siebel Analytics - Some upgrades are performed in-place while others are fresh install. The method applicable will be dependent upon starting and target versions, and also on known issues on upgrading between these versions. An in-place upgrade is best when the upgrade is performed of relatively recent prior version. This would typically mean less issue, less testing, and easier upgrade. However when the upgrade has to be made on a very old version of OBIEE, it would require out of place upgrade. Even if technically it was possible, it makes sense to upgrade on a sandbox, and to find out how the upgrade process responds in terms of issues or ease of upgrade. However in case of an in-place upgrade, typically if dev environment is upgraded to newer version, its very difficult to go back to older version. So even in that case, my personal recommendation is to perform an out of place upgrade on a sandbox and make sure the process goes smoothly and any issue encountered is manageable / non show stoppers, before doing an in-place upgrade of development.

For some cases, you may have to make multiple hops for the upgrade. For example if someone is still on Siebel Analytics version 7 (or earlier), they will have to go to version 10.1.3.4.1 and then finally upgrade to 11g. Obviously this poses significant upgrade risks in terms of number of issue and unknown problems that could creep up. Best process is to keep doing incremental upgrade every year or every other year and avoid such problems down the road.

When do you expect to go live with new version (considering time required for testing, and commitment from business to verify the upgrade along with other factors) - Duration of upgrade projects vary and depend on volume of reports / dashboards that are in production. It also depends how many components are being upgraded and factors like:

Do you have BIAPPS in OBIEE?
How many modules of BI Apps are implemented?
Is BIAPPS being upgraded too?
Is Informatica / ODI / ETL tool being upgraded too?
Is database platform being upgraded too. ?
Finally, is source system getting upgraded too?

More the number of components, higher is the complexity of the upgrade. Some upgrade decisions are made by companies to be able to stay supported by Oracle, because Oracle stops supporting older versions after a period of time.

When can we commit on getting a code freeze in the current version of OBIEE - this should be calculated backward from the expected go live date - This is one of the toughest piece to pull off for a larger upgrade. Often OBIEE upgrade ends up being an in-flight upgrade. Meaning, changes are made to current production version of OBIEE while the upgrade is being done to a newer version. In such cases, upgrade team has to make sure any additions / changes to current version are brought over to upgraded version before the go live. There are two ways of doing this:

Rebuild additions in the new version
Re-migrate OBIEE in a sand box, and copy over the changes.

The choice of path to bring additions will also depend on where the changes are? RPD, Reports, Dashboards, Scheduler, BIP etc? In no case you want to allow significant changes to be made to older version once upgrade process has kicked in. Significant 'addition' of completely new models although might still be ok, which can be easily copied over. Finally, going for a re-upgrade with all changes would be the last option, as this would mean doing a complete sanity check all over again, and a headache for upgrade team as well as the end user testers.

Do you have BI Publisher content in current installation ? If yes, then how many reports are there in BIP? - BIP has had significant architecture changes from 10g to 11g. Some of which would require rebuilding the code.

Do you have iBots/Agents in current install? If yes, then how many? - Again this might mean re scheduling of jobs, as database structures over the years have changed. The decision is a factor of difference between new and older versions.

Do you want to upgrade all code at once (big-bang) or in parts (this might mean two OBIEE environments in production running in parallel till everything is brought over). - Although not recommended, but sometime due to the volume of code partial upgrade might be the only option. The separation could be made between independent departments or subject areas, which don’t use conformed dimensions. Only caveat to this approach would be if there are users who access all areas, they might have to login to different servers for reports.

How will the security model be in old vs new version? Will it remain the same or there will be changes made to it? - Security implementation has significantly changed between 10g and 11g. This is a one time setup, but may mean redoing the security - especially LDAP based security in 10g, which was RPD based, is not weblogic based in 11g. Although data level security may not require any changes, as its often external table driven. But if data level security was applied using RPD group filters, that might have to be redone.

Instance strategy and MUD environments - while upgrading you might want to revisit number of instances required 'during' the upgrade as well as final list of instances. During upgrade typically you would have additional sandbox instances. The number of sandboxes might depend on number of components that are being upgraded. For example, if you are upgrading BI Apps as well as underlying database, you might want to keep two instances to better utilize development resources. One team would work on platform upgrade of OBIEE, while the other could perform testing against new database. A key consideration here is for the MUD sandbox. You want to make sure that MUD sandbox where code is tested before being pushed to development is the same environment as the dev/test/prod. If prod OBIEE is on a non windows based machine then it might mean having two boxes for MUD, one for client tools (if you don’t want developers to have client tools on their machines) and second the BI Server on a unix box.

Bug fixes available in newer version - decision to upgrade could also be based on the fact that newer version has a bug fix or a functionality that is required by the organization. This is more important if the issue is in production, and needs a solution. Other factors like Essbase integration of OBIEE makes a strong case for some organizations to upgrade.

In addition to above considerations, while upgrading, you might want to take advantage of new features of the target version, for example mobile platform support in 11g, like iPads i.e. iOS mobile devices. Android fans no need to be broken hearted yet, as OBIEE has plans for android support in its pipeline. They plan to have their charts and graphs delivered in HTML5 language, which will slowly transition to support in Android I believe at some point in 2014 or 2015.

OBIEE 11.1.1.3 to OBIEE 11.1.1.7 - known issues and work around

2014-01-10T17:04:00.000-05:00

In this post, I have compiled a list of key known issues in OBIEE release versions from 11.1.1.3 to 11.1.1.7 along with available work around provided by Oracle:

Oracle Business Intelligence Server fails to start if the connect string used for the

connection pool is missing in the $ORACLE_HOME/network/admin/tnsnames.ora file.

To work around this issue, ensure that a valid connect string is present in the

tnsnames.ora file.

Graphs and scorecard objects do not render properly in web browser - source of this issue could be the adobe flash player version is out of date. OBIEE requires adobe flash player version of at-least 10.1 or higher

Microsoft ODBC Data Source Administrator Crashes while Closing - this is a known issue with no solution. It has no impact on server, so it can be ignored.

Out of Memory Error When Crawling the Catalog -

In certain situations, you might experience an out-of-memory issue while crawling or data loading the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog for full-text searching. This issue can occur if the catalog is large or has a deep folder structure.

To work around this issue, you can segment the crawl or data load into smaller pieces:

1. Open the BISearchConfig.properties file for editing.

2. Change the "RootNode" value to specify the start location.

3. Change the "ExcludePaths" value to specify the folders to exclude.

4. Save the changes and close the file.

For example, suppose that the catalog has the following folder structure:

/users

/shared

/shared/Reports

/shared/Dashboards

Create agents to crawl or data load the following paths:

/users folder structure

/shared (excluding all sub-folders)

/shared/Reports

/shared/Dashboards

Characters Supported in Folder Names by BI Presentation Services Not Supported by BI Publisher

Characters not supported by BI Publisher are:

~, !, #, $, %, ^, &, *, +, `, |, :, ", \\, <, >, ?, ,, /

Folders named with these characters might exhibit unexpected behavior if you log in directly to BI Publisher; for example, the folder might not be visible, the folder might not expand properly, or the name might appear garbled.

To work around this issue, do not use these characters in folder names.

Issues with WebLogic LDAP User Passwords - If you experience issues with WebLogic LDAP user passwords that contain non-ascii characters, then reference bug #9929485 for details of a

patch.

Poor Performance Starting Up WebLogic Server

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2

If you are running BI Publisher using a shared catalog with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition, you might experience a prolonged delay when restarting the WebLogic server using either the "Activate Changes" button in the WebLogic console, or using the WebLogic.sh script.

To improve startup performance, you can move or delete the following sets of folders from the /config/bi publisher/repository. Removing these folders has an impact during runtime, therefore ensure that you understand the impact before moving or removing the folders.

- Tools - this folder contains the BI Publisher Desktop Tools executable binary files that are available from the user Home page Tools download links. These links no longer function when the Tools directory is removed. No other BI Publisher functionality is affected. The BI Publisher Desktop Tools are also available from the install media and from the Oracle Technology Network (OTN).

- Reports/Samples - the Samples folder contain the sample reports and data models

delivered with BI Publisher.

If English is the only language required for your system, then you can also remove the

following:

- Admin/Translation - these folders contain the translation files for languages other

than English.

Error When Installing Oracle Business Intelligence Against a SQL Server Database

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2, 11.1.1.7

If you are using an MS SQL Server database when installing Oracle Business Intelligence, then the mds-owsm and bip_datasource JDBC data sources has an invalid test table. This stops the WebLogic Server automatic connection testing from functioning. For example, if the database stops, WebLogic Server does not recognize a hanging or invalid connection.

The workaround is to edit the Test Table Name parameter to allow a SQL string to be executed to test the connection. To do so, set the parameter in the WebLogic Server Administration Console to SQL select 1.

Antivirus Software Might Block the Installation in a Windows Environment

If you are deploying to a mapped network drive on a computer running a supported Windows operating system, then ensure that the antivirus software is not set to block the remote creation of autorun.inf files. As a best practice, disable the antivirus, this will also speed up the installation a bit.

Oracle Business Intelligence Installer Stops at Administrator User Details Screen

If you attempt to install on a Windows system that is using DHCP, does not have a primary DNS suffix, and does not have a loopback adapter configured, then the Oracle Business Intelligence installer stops at the screen that prompts for the Administrator user details. This is displayed as a red cross in the tree on the left-hand side of the installer. This issue is caused by the installer not being able to resolve the IP address to a host name.

The workaround is to configure a loopback adapter or primary DNS suffix.

Issues When Installing Oracle Business Intelligence on Windows 2008

When you install Oracle Business Intelligence on Windows 2008, you might experience issues such as OPMN failing to start processes.

The workaround is to run the installation and configuration steps with the Run as Administrator option.

Installing Oracle Business Intelligence on a Shared Drive Might Fail

Attempting to install Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive might fail, resulting in the following error message:

Installation Failed. Prepare Session failed You may not have enough space on your drive for a successful install. Do you still want to continue?

To avoid this issue when installing Oracle Business Intelligence on a shared drive, start the Oracle Business Intelligence installer from the command line using the ignoreDiskWarning option. For example, on Linux, use the following command:

./runInstaller -ignoreDiskWarning

Job Manager Does Not Start Due to Insufficient Permissions on Windows Operating Systems

Impacted Releases: 11.1.1.5, 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.2, 11.1.1.7

If certain permission settings are insufficient, then Job Manager does not open when you attempt to start it. You can resolve this issue by changing the permission settings on the bifoundation folder. This folder can be found in the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client installation directory.

To resolve this issue:

1. In Windows Explorer, access the bifoundation folder, found in the directory where you installed Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client. Typically, you can find this folder in the following directory:

C:\Program Files\Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus

Client\oraclebi\orainst\bifoundation

2. Right-click the bifoundation folder, and then click Properties.

3. Click the Security tab.

4. Click Edit.

5. Click Add. The Select Users, Computers, or Groups dialog window opens.

6. Click Authenticated Users, and then click OK.

7. In the Users or Groups pane, click Authenticated Users.

8. In the Permissions pane, click the Modify and Write check boxes so that check

marks are displayed in them.

9. Click OK.

10. Start Job Manager either from the Start menu or the command line.

Oracle Essbase Fails to Start on Microsoft Windows x64 (64-Bit). It shows the following error:

Network Error [10048]: Unable to Bind Host Server Socket On Port [9501]

This error occurs when Oracle Process Management and Notification (OPMN) components are started on both the cluster nodes of Oracle Essbase cluster environment, and the Essbase component that is stopped on the active cluster node1 tries to fail over to cluster node2 or back to cluster node1.

At this time, OPMN spawns Oracle Essbase and passes two command line arguments as ports. They are as follows:

1. Its main listening port (1423 - as configured in opmn.xml).

2. A ping port, where OPMN keeps pinging Essbase.

For the second command line argument, OPMN does a port scan to find a free port from a dynamic range specified in opmn.xml file from the following attribute:

The port scan reports port 9501 as a free port. This result is incorrect, as OPMN is already listening on port 9501. Thus, when OPMN sends the startup arguments to Essbase with a ping port of 9501, Essbase fails to start and shuts down. To work around this issue, specify the range in opmn.xml file as:

Job Manager Cannot Launch if the Client Tools Install Path Includes Multi-Byte Characters

When running the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Installer, if the install path contains any multi-byte characters, then Job Manager cannot launch. To avoid this issue you must change the install path if it contains any multi-byte characters. Ensure that the install path contains only ASCII characters.

I have also faced similar issue for launching AdminTool when path of installed location has spaces. Installing client tools directly in a folder under c: drive should resolve the issue.

Conditional Formatting Might Not Work After Upgrading from Oracle Business Intelligence Release 10g to Release 11g

If an attribute column's Value Suppression setting (in the Column Format tab of the Column Properties dialog) is not set to Repeat, then the measure is aggregated to the grain as defined by the position of the column with the format defined. This might cause a change in the conditional formatting after upgrading from Oracle Business Intelligence Release 10g to Release 11g. If the Value Suppression setting is set to Repeat, then the measure column that the conditional format is based on always uses

the detail grain of the table view, in which case the conditional formatting works as expected.

Issues Exporting Large Data Sets to Microsoft Excel

In Oracle Business Intelligence Release 10g, you might have been accustomed to exporting large data sets (that is, those over 10000 rows) to Excel format. In Release 11g, while it is still possible to export directly to an Excel format, you might notice greater performance when exporting large numbers of rows if you export first to CSV, then import that file into Excel. If Oracle Business Intelligence is installed on a computer with a 32-bit operating system, then you should export to CSV format for

greater performance. If you must export a large data set without using the CSV format on a computer with a 64-bit operating system, then you might experience an out-of-memory error. If you see this error message, then you must likely increase the heap size for the JavaHost service. The default heap size is 1024MB. Depending on the available memory on the computer, you might want to increase the heap size for the JavaHost service.

RPD Upgrade Process Fails If the 10g Administrator UserID or Password Contains any Non-Native Characters

The repository upgrade process from Oracle Business Intelligence 10g to Oracle Business Intelligence 11g fails if the 10g Administrator user ID or password contains any non-native characters, and the operating system is Windows or Non-UTF8 Linux. For example, "Administrator/bi10g-éíô" fails to upgrade. The upgrade utility might run to completion, but with error messages, and users cannot log on if you try to run the system using the upgraded repository. You must change the Administrator user

ID, password, or both the user ID and password to one that uses only native characters before running the repository upgrade command line utility or Upgrade Assistant wizard.

Errors Might Be Reported In Upgraded Analyses that Contain EVALUATE_ Database Analytic Function

To ensure system security, the ability to use the following database analytic functions in analyses is disabled by default:

- EVALUATE

- EVALUATE_ANALYTIC

- EVALUATE_AGGR

- EVALUATE_PREDICATE

Use of these functions in analyses is governed by the setting of the EVALUATE_SUPPORT_LEVEL parameter in the NQSConfig.INI file. When upgrading systems that previously provided support for these functions in Oracle BI Answers, you must manually add the EVALUATE_SUPPORT_LEVEL

parameter to the NQSConfig.INI file and set it appropriately. See Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for information about the EVALUATE_SUPPORT_LEVEL parameter.

Existing Dashboard Prompts Based on Columns Renamed in the Business Model Do Not Work

If a column is renamed in the Business Model, then existing dashboard prompts based on that column do not work with newly created analyses. The workaround is to use Catalog Manager to rename the column in the catalog.

Gauge Views Might Be Cut Off and Not Visible Under Certain Conditions

Under certain conditions, if the size of the canvas assigned to a gauge view is very small, and the legend is set to display on the left, then some of the gauges in the gauge view might be cut off and not visible. The workaround is to edit the gauge view and change the Legend position to Right, Top, or Bottom. Alternatively, you can increase the size of the gauge view canvas so that all gauges display.

Numerical Units on a Dashboard Prompt Slider Might Not Be Translated Correctly

The numerical units (such as million or billion) that are displayed on a dashboard prompt slider might not be translated correctly.

The workaround is to modify the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file as follows:

1. Open the obiprp.promptcomponents.xml file for editing. You can find the file here:

ORACLE_INSTANCE\bifoundation\web\msgdb\l_XX\messages\uicmsgs

2. Ensure that each entry for a numerical unit (such as tag name kmsgSliderBillion, kmsgSliderMillion, or kmsgSliderDecillion) is translated correctly.

3. Restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components. For information on how to restart the Managed Servers, the Administration Server and all Oracle Business Intelligence Java components, and the Oracle Business Intelligence system components, see Oracle Fusion Middleware System Administrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

Scorecard Diagrams on Dashboard Pages Might Print as Tables

When you print a dashboard page that contains multiple scorecard diagrams (for example a strategy tree, strategy map, custom view, and cause & effect map) in PDF or HTML format, some of the diagrams might print as tables rather than diagrams. The workaround is to scroll down the page and wait until all the diagrams have fully rendered before printing.

Agent Deliveries Fail with Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Virtual Directory

If you are using Microsoft Active Directory and Oracle Virtual Directory, then agent deliveries fail.

The workaround is to apply the Oracle Virtual Directory Patch Number 9904956 - GUID Returned for AD User Cannot Be Used in Search Filter.

There are more known issues identified by Oralce. Refer to the product documentation to find out more known issues for the release.

Oracle BI Disconnected Analytics Missing?

2014-01-10T16:14:00.003-05:00

Have you noticed that Oracle BI disconnected analysis that used to come with OBIEE 10g is missing? This was the component where users download some of the reports on their laptop and use it in disconnected / 'offline' mode. It was helpful for sales guys give real looking demos to their clients.

Well, Oracle has pulled this product off its stack and this is no longer available from Releases 11.1.1.5 and later. There are no plans to bring it back either. After a little research I found out that this module posed a data security risk, due to which it is discontinued. Once the data is downloaded, OBIEE is no longer able to authenticate the rightful owner of the objects.

Per Oracle, if you still need to use this product, do not upgrade to 11.1.1.5 or higher versions. However you will have to find an alternate to disconnected analytics as not upgrading will eventually make your production version of OBIEE not supported one day. On the other hand OBIEE Mobile capabilities well serve the same purpose of disconnected analytics in a better way!

Selective caching BI Server

2014-01-10T10:55:00.000-05:00

While there are several methods available in BI to clear the cache, I did want to write about selective caching. If your repository has report coming directly from the EBS or other real time data sources, then you want to make sure that caching for those specific tables is completely disabled, otherwise, you will not reap the benefit of connecting to real time sources.

To do so, open table properties in physical layer:

Check 'Override Source Table Caching Properties' (if it is an alias table)
Uncheck 'Cacheable'

Or to optimize, you can leave it Cacheable, but set cache persistence time to 1 hour.

Now this will fix the BI Server cache problem, however there still is an BI presentation level cache (and Internet Explorer cache, laotop cache blah blah blah....). For BI presentation level cache, it is typically set to an hour at server level for all reports, and it is not recommended to reduce it. The work around for this would be to inform users to use the 'refresh' link on the dashboards, which bypasses the BI presentation level cache.

For as to IE level cache, you will have to clear it yourself, it it appears to apply!!

OBIEE 11.1.1.7.x Patches available

2014-01-09T12:58:00.001-05:00

Following is a list of patches available that applies to 11.1.1.7.0 and 11.1.1.7.1 versions of OBIEE, linux x86-64 platform:

Patch Name Description
13841651 KEEP ONLY FUNCTIONALITY NOT WORKING CORRECTLY WITH ESSBASE HIERARCHICAL COLUMN (Patch)
14104352 EVENT POLLING TABLE DOES NOT WORK TO PURGE CACHE FOR OLAP SOURCE (Patch)
14205175 ERROR ON SORTING A MEASURE TREAT AS AN ATTRIBUTE COLUMN (Patch)
14768894 AXIS TICKS AND INTERVALS NOT ROUNDED, EVEN NUMBERS (Patch)
14781615 UNION SORT IS NOT WORKING ON TABLE VIEW (Patch)
15875397 SHUTDOWN CRASH IN NQSCHEDULER - CLUSTER PING DESTRUCTOR THREAD/INHERITANCE CLASH (Patch)
15901783 DEPLOYING ANALYTICS CAUSING SERVLET EXCEPTION IN SSL ENABLED ENVIRONMENT (Patch)
16068402 GRAPHS NOT SHOWN ON IE WHEN OBIEE IS BEHIND A REVERSE PROXY (Patch)
16264896 OBIEE 11G - LTS FILTER CONDITION NOT GETTING ADDED TO QUERY (Patch)
16345484 SIMPLIFY CONSTANT EXPRESSIONS IN LOGICAL SQL (Patch)
16403098 QA:KPI ACTION LINK DOES NOT PASS PARAMETER CORRECTLY FROM STRATEGY TREE VIEW (Patch)
16524882 UNABLE TO DRILL TO DETAILS USING INTERSECTIONS AND UNIONS (Patch)
16599775 OBIEE:REPORT RUNS AFTER THE CONDITION OF SECTION ON WHICH IT IS EMBEDDED FAILS (Patch)
16682358 QA: ERROR ON CREATING A TABLE VIEW WITH OVER 250 COLUMNS (Patch)
16685997 SMART WATCHLIST RESULTS IN ERROR: UNABLE TO FIND BUSINESS OWNER ID (Patch)
16740955 GRAND TOTALS ARE INCORRECT WHEN FILTERS APPLIED ON PIVOT TABLE (Patch)
16742971 DXE EXPRESSION INTERPRETER ERROR AS INVALID POS ATTRIBUTE VALUE (Patch)
16746990 REPORTS FAIL WHEN PRESENTATION VARIABLE IS USED IN COLUMN FORMULA (Patch)
16769606 WRITEBACK FAILS FOR DATE/TIME FIELD JAVASCRIPT ERROR 'DATETIMEPARSER' UNDEFINED (Patch)
16775551 CRASH IN NQSSERVER (SEGMENTATION FAULT) (Patch)
16781436 DEFAULT TIME ZONE FOR BI SERVICES INCORRECT (Patch)
16809631 USING BIND PARAMETERS INSIDE REPORT_AGGREGATE THROWS [NQSERROR: 42039] ERROR (Patch)
16819138 'FORMAT SECTION' ON DASHBOARD PAGE DOES NOT WORK CORRECTLY (Patch)
16827646 INIT BLOCK PROXYLEVEL FAILS AFTER UPGRADE TO OBIEE 11G CAUSING ACT AS FAILURE (Patch)
16832299 SMARTVIEW IS UNABLE TO IMPORT LARGE REPORTS FROM ANSWERS IN OBIEE (Patch)
16848479 SELECTION STEP "OVERRIDE WITH PROMPT" OPTION NOT WORKING ON DASHBOARD LOAD (Patch)
16875993 CHANGING SLIDER VALUE-YEAR,VERTICAL AXIS VALUES DISAPPEAR IN CHART WITH STYLING (Patch)
16884223 EDIT NUMBER FORMAT FOR DATA LABELS IN GRAPHS DOES NOT WORK (Patch)
16906637 HIERARCHY ATTRIBUTES NOT WORKING IN GL BALANCES SA (Patch)
16919893 RETURN LINK CLEARS DASHBOARD FILTERS (Patch)
16977559 'INCLUDE NULL VALUES' OPTION RESULTS IN NOT DATA BEING RETURNED (Patch)
17004842 BISERVER 11.1.1.7.2 CUMULATIVE PATCH 1 (for FA customers ONLY) (Patch)
17004920 TRACKING BUG FOR MADMOBILE APP DESIGNER SUPPORT ON BIPS SIDE TO EXISTING BI 7.X (Patch)
17009066 OBIEE 11G: SCROLLBAR DISAPPEAR IN THE EDIT MEMBERS (Patch)
17025157 BIP REPORT PARAMETERS MISSING IN DASHBOARD WHEN IT IS EMBEDDED AS LINK (Patch)
17029364 OBI 11.1.1.7: MULTIPLE COLUMN SELECTORS REMOVES OTHER COLUMN SELECTOR VALUES (Patch)
17039849 NAVIGATION IN IE DOES NOT WORK WITH A FOOTER IN DASHBOARD PRINT OPTIONS (Patch)
17055647 MEDIAN INCORRECTLY COMPUTED IN OBIEE 11.1.1.7.0 (Patch)
17060797 PASSWORD NOT RESOLVED IN NQS_PASSWORD_CLAUSE (Patch)
17071629 PORTALPATH SESSION VARIABLE IS INEFFECTIVE (Patch)
17083234 ORA-24550: BI SERVER CRASHING FREQUENTLY (Patch)
17192703 OBIEE PORTAL CONTENT IS SHOWING IN GO URL REPORT IN 11.1.1.7.1 (Patch)
17198861 ASSERTION FAILURE:NEXPRS >= 2 IN FILTEREXPRSQLVISITOR FOR NULL VALUE IN PROMPT (Patch)
17220399 CANNOT GET BACK TO TOTALS USING PIVOT TABLE PROMPT (Patch)
17220944 PATCHSET BUG FOR MOBLLE APP DESIGNER 11.1.1.7.10BI-FAREL8-BP (Patch)
17239172 MANAGE PRIVILEGES SHOWS UNKNOWN ROLES WITH GUID VALIDATION DISABLED. (Patch)
17239730 SECTION CONDITION NOT BEING RE-EVALUATED WITH PROMPT ON DIFFERENT PAGE (Patch)
17242119 DATA FILTERS FAIL TO TRIGGER FOR CUST APP ROLE WITH PROXY FUNCTIONALITY ACT AS (Patch)
17246183 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 13861292 14281720 14578828 (Patch)
17261933 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17155518 16667503 (Patch)
17284527 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 16599775 16746990 (Patch)
17294458 REPORT PERFORMANCE DEGRADED AFTER 11.1.1.5-> 11.1.1.7.1 UPGRADE (Patch)
17296905 UNABLE TO CHANGE THE DEFAULT OPTION FOR DATA VIEWING TO CONTENT PAGING (Patch)
17311027 PROMPTING ON GROUPS CAUSES ERRORS WHEN EXPORTING REPORTS. (Patch)
17315976 MIX OF LONG RUNNING AND SHORT CONDITIONAL QUERIES FAIL FOR BUG#16599775 ON 7.X (Patch)
17328201 DASHBOARD DROP DOWN LIST DOESNT HAVE ARROWS IN IE7 (Patch)
17339542 PREFERRED DRILL PATH IS NOT FOLLOWING THE ORDER (Patch)
17341438 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 15882208 15883234 (Patch)
17349252 FILTER ON DATES IN COLUMN FORMULA NOT WORKING (Patch)
17371053 NQSERROR 42015 CANNOT FUNCTION SHIP EXPRESSION AFTER UPGRADE TO OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 (Patch)
17417461 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 16025137 16848479 (Patch)
17427667 UNABLE TO CREATE SECOND VIEW BASED ON ESSBASE CRITERIA. (Patch)
17427767 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 14738055 16756365 (Patch)
17449621 SELECTION ON HIERARCHY COLUMN : CAN'T SELECT MEMBER 'OK GREYED OUT' (Patch)
17459819 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 16819138 17039849 (Patch)
17476590 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17246183 17431982 (Patch)
17517013 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 16599775 17315976 17444267 (Patch)
17531741 PIVOT TABLE ACTION LINKS NOT WORKING IN A GO URL TO COMPOUND VIEW:2 (Patch)
17533166 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 14738055 16599775 16756365 (Patch)
17555629 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.3 FOR BUGS 17509877 17437777 17550496 (Patch)
17557698 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 16740828 16741133 (Patch)
17559257 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17254844 17308210 (Patch)
17566377 WEEK_OF_QUARTER FUNCTION USES INCORRECT FIRST DAY OF THE WEEK (Patch)
17593657 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17009066 17449621 (Patch)
17597985 SAVED FILTER WITH APOSTROPHE (') SHOWS AS ' IN FILTER VIEW (Patch)
17606196 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17261933 16068402 (Patch)
17609034 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 16687397 16878581 (Patch)
17629099 INSERTING A REPORT WITH A PROMPT DOES AN EXTRA UNFILTERED REPORT RUN (Patch)
17654039 OBIEE DASHBOARD/REPORTS FAILING WHILE REFRESHING THE TIMESTEN AGGREGATES (Patch)
17698346 CUMULATIVE: MLR ON TOP OF BI BP 11.1.1.7.131017 FOR BUGS 17437777 17491720 (for FA customers only) (Patch)
17721940 'SAVE AS' MISSING ON SEGMENT /TREE DESIGNER WHEN ACCESSED FROM SIEBEL MARKETING (Patch)
17768447 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17517013 16819138 (Patch)
17772328 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 14781615 17531741 (Patch)
17828032 AFTER APPLYING PATCH 17629099 REPORT FORMAT IS INCORRECT IN BI PLUGIN (Patch)
17860228 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17407230 17783679 (Patch)
17861611 MERGE REQUEST ON TOP OF OBIEE BP 11.1.1.7.1 FOR BUGS 17768447 17004920 (Patch)
17866532 AITCRM INTERNAL: CUMULATIVE PATCH: MLR ON TOP OF BI BP 11.1.1.7.131017 (Patch)
9952068 ASENG: REPORT WITH COMBINED SUBJECT AREAS HAS A BLANK "CATALOG" FOLDER. (Patch)

Before applying the patch, it might be best to check the readme file that comes with patch. Verify if this is a one-off patch or regular patch release. For one-off patches, oracle performs limited testing, so it may end up in leaving other issues, which the issue at hand is addresed with the patch. Good luck.

Left Outer Joins

2014-01-08T12:57:00.000-05:00

Im writing this simple post to document left outer join and displess confusion around usage:

1. Syntax one (supported by oracle):

SELECT *
FROM employee LEFT OUTER JOIN department
ON employee.DepartmentID = department.DepartmentID

In above example, query will fetch all records from employee, even if department value is missing as it is specified on the "left"

If above is changed to below:

SELECT *
FROM department LEFT OUTER JOIN employee
ON employee.DepartmentID = department.DepartmentID

Now, the above will fetch all records from department even if employees are not present in that department. The above query and query below have same results:

SELECT *
FROM department RIGHT OUTER JOIN employee
ON employee.DepartmentID = department.DepartmentID

2. Alternate Syntax (deprecated - may not work in future releases):

SELECT *
FROM employee, department
WHERE employee.DepartmentID = department.DepartmentID(+)
This will fetch all records from employee, although the "+" is specified next to department. I think oracle decided to deprecate this as its non intuitive? We add + to department but query returns all records from employee? Non intuitive.

Note, Oracle BI does not use deprecated syntax, it is shown just for trouble shooting. To add outer joins in OBIEE RPD, navigate to logical layer and edit the join. This is shown below:

Now here is something to think about: developers often add outer join and then add prompts on the dashboard. As soon as prompts are applied, outer join would not work.

For example if you want to join sales fact to a product cost table, which may or may not have a cost type value for all cost types. This can be achieved by using an outer join. Next, if you want user to be able to select cost type from the prompt, this will now result in outer join to not work.

There are some work arounds for this too, for example use an opaque view in physical layer, specify a variable to filter for a cost type, and then in dashboard prompt, update value of the variable to change cost types. This ensures that outer join will keep working.

2014's First blog

2014-01-06T14:55:00.002-05:00

Just checked the page views, and looks like vthis blog is 10 more page views away from hitting 100,000 views. Thank you readers for checking out my blog! Stay tuned for exiting new blogs this year. I promise it will be the best year so far :)

VNC Server password reset

2013-12-26T15:03:00.000-05:00

A very useful utility for linux users / admins is the VNC server / client that provides GUI interface. It is much simpler than the x-windows utilities and achieves the same goal of launching GUI applications on linux. Conceptually, you login to linux using putty application and give following command to launch vncserver

$ vncserver

This will prompt you to create a password, which can be anything. Upon successful launch, it will inform you of the vncserver details, including the port number.

Next on your windows client, install "VNC Viewer" software and connect to this server. Thats it!! Now if you give command "firefox" this should open up a web browser window. You can launch any GUI application like RCU or OBIEE installer.

Now if you end up forgetting VNC server password that was given earlier, perform following steps:

Kill vnc process 'Xvnc' that was started by given user
remove file in users home directory /home/userid/.vnc/passwd

Remove file /tmp/.X1-lock to release the port used by previous vnc server session - This is optional step. If lock is not removed, vnc will assign next available port to the server, but make sure to use assigned port when connecting from VNC Viewer.

OBIEE 11g services started but coreapplication is down / red.

2013-12-26T14:33:00.001-05:00

Our OBIEE 11.1.1.6.5 instance was runing fine, I had to restart the BI services, after which I noticed obiee application was not working properly. I checked in em, all services were up and running:

However the coreapplication parent status in the tree structure was still showing as red:

This appears to be a common problem, and solution seems to be stopped deployments in weblogic console.

Open weblogic console and navigate to deployment:

Search deployments with the status of 'Prepared' (sort by the status) and select them. Next, click on start:

This will prompt you if you want to start the selected deployments, choose yes:

This will change the status from prepared to 'Active'

Once this has been done for all stopped deployments, go back to EM and refresh the screen, All services should appear to be started now:

User unable to view any dashboards or reports to which he has access

2013-12-16T11:42:00.002-05:00

We had a new OBIEE user, that was added to an application role, but was still not able to vew dashboards and reports. This user did not have any subject area access, nor did he have access to create new reports / analysis. The user was just BI Publisher consumer which were also added to dashboards, and not for Analysis reports. We checked following, but nothing seems to fix the issue:

-The user was added to an application role, and this application role had read permission to the folder, right from root, all the way to dashboard and report level.
-The user was part of the application role that had access to my reports and my dashboards area.
-Other users part of same application role were able to view dashboards intended for the role.
-We were unable to add user directly to catalog group (or any user)
-When admin used 'act as' functionality, the dashboard was still not showing up even for admin

After trying several combination, we added the user to another application role, to see how permissions change. After doing this, we noticed that user was able to view the new dashboards as well as the dashboard which he was intended to view. Next, we removed the user from newly added role, and now the dashboard permissions kept working.

Appears to be clearly a bug. For solution like these the going goes, implementing BI is an art, as echoed by my client as well. It is more true for OBIEE 11g per say. Just an FYI, we had this issue on 11.1.1.6.9

Arun~

Hiding Export to Excel or CSV function in OBIEE 11g dashboards

2013-12-12T09:57:00.001-05:00

OBIEE 11g has multiple export options including PDF, Excel, Powerpoint, Web Archive, CSV, Tab delimited, XML etc. There could be a need where business do not want users to download the report and edit the data before sharing it. This can be prevented by disabling excel / CSV etc options.

The way to do this is uncheck 'Export' Option in the dashboard properties, and leaving the 'Print option' checked. This will give following two options and excel of CSV will be disabled.