Oracle Business Intelligence(OBIEE)::Allam's

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2018-10-21T14:13:00.003+05:30

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List of all the new features introduced with OBIEE 11.1.1.7

2013-09-04T15:41:00.004+05:30

Here is a list of all the new features introduced with OBIEE 11.1.1.7, the information has been extracted out from several locations within the Oracle BI 11g documentation suite and summarised so that it is easier to read and with all new features in listed one place.

The list covers new features for BI Presentation Layer, BI Mobile, BI Server, Server Administrators and BI Publisher. If you notice any other additional 11.1.1.7 features then please post a comment at the bottom!

New Presentation Features

1) Recommended Visualizations Feature for Creating Views

· When you create a view, you can choose a recommended view type based on the data in your analysis and, optionally, what you want to use it for (for example, to analyse trends).

· You can choose a suggested "Best Visualization" as well as a "Recommended Subtype". Or you can instead choose the "Recommended Visualization" option, for which you specify your intent for the new view.

2) Breadcrumbs

· Breadcrumbs have been added to help users understand their current location within Oracle BI content and the path that they have used to navigate Oracle BI content.

· Breadcrumbs display at the bottom of the page, and users can click a breadcrumb or the breadcrumb overflow button to navigate to a specific location on their breadcrumb trail.

3) Enhancement to Dashboards

· The ability to create custom print layouts for high-fidelity printing of dashboard pages (i.e. automatic creation BI Publisher reports)

· A new default style called FusionFX (instead of "blaf")

· The addition of the Freeze Column option to the Column Properties menu. This option allows you to freeze a column at an edge (top or left) of a dashboard layout

· The addition of "Size" and "Page Size" options that allow you to control the position and size of columns and sections

· The ability to export an entire dashboard or a single dashboard page to Microsoft Excel 2007+

· A new "Replace Analysis in " option added to Answers to replace an analysis on a dashboard

· A new "Return to " option within Answers to return to a dashboard from the Analysis editor

4) Enhancements to Graphs

· 3 new graph types: Waterfall graph, Stacked graph and 100% Stacked graph (the latter two are subtypes of Bar and Area graphs)

· Zoom to data range. This option lets the system evaluate the range of values on an axis, and choose appropriate minimum and maximum values for the scale. This is useful when graphing a set of large values that are all within a small percentage of each other

· Hide sliders in graph views that listen to master-detail events. For graphs in master-detail relationships, if you want to simplify the appearance of an analysis or dashboard, you can hide the slider that is created to accommodate detail columns

5) Enhancements to Views

· A new view type named performance tile. This view type displays a single aggregate measure value in a manner that is both visually simple and prominent

· Action links in trellis views. In simple trellis views, action links can now be used on inner graphs per unit, including the context of the outer edges. Action links can also be used in legends and in axis labels. In advanced trellis views, action links can be used in microcharts, where the microchart functions as a single unit (such as an aggregate number), including the context of the outer edges

· For map views, you can now vary the width of a line by measure to accentuate a feature

· You can link a map view as a detail in a master-detail relationship

· Auto Correct option for Map views (as errors in Map views can occur for various reasons). If the issue appears to be related to missing layers, maps, or styles, then it might be possible to correct the map by replacing the missing map view components with similar items that exist in the spatial metadata

· Legend and formatting highlighting

· Null suppression at view and analysis levels. You can set null suppression options at the view level (which overrides the analysis level) for data views including: table, pivot table, trellis (both simple and advanced), graph, gauge, and funnel views when the entire row or column contains nulls

· Ability to include or exclude calculated items and groups at the view level for columns and column headers. Specifically, two new options have been added: Include Custom Member and Exclude Custom Member

For tables, pivot tables, and advanced trellises:

· The ability to ◦specify the method to be used to browse data — either scrolling or paging controls

· Resize rows and columns

· Row count. If your table or pivot table view contains a grand total or subtotal on the row edge, the display totals, that is the grand total and subtotals, are now included in the Rows per Page count for content paging. In prior releases, if you had the Rows per Page count set to 10 for example, the table or pivot table would display more than 10 records if display totals were shown in the view results

· For right-click interactions, the ability to specify whether the Hide Columns interaction is available at runtime

6) Enhancements to Prompts

· This release includes an enhancement to the SQL Results prompt option. If you are working with double columns, you can now write the SQL statement so that filtering is done on code values rather than display values

· An enhancement to the prompt constraint option. The prompts designer can now limit a column prompt value list by more than one column

· This release includes enhancements to the parameters for prompted links

7) New Menu Options for Exporting Views and Results

This release adds the Excel 2007+ and PowerPoint 2007+ options for exporting views and results

8) Total Member Placement for Hierarchical Columns

This release includes an enhancement that allows placement of total members on a hierarchy

9) Browse Catalog Search Results by Object Attributes

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

10) Navigate from the Total or Grand Total in a Table or Pivot Table

If an analysis contains a total or grand total and the associated attribute or hierarchical column contains an action link or a conditional action link, the action link (or conditional action link) is applied to both the column and the total or grand total

11) New BI Desktop Tools Available for Download

· Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office

· Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting Studio (if Essbase is installed)

· Oracle Essbase Studio Console (if Essbase is installed)

· Oracle Essbase Administrative Services Console (if Essbase is installed)

12) Enhancement to Favourites

This release provides the capability to organize your favourites from the Category Tree area and the Selected Category area in the Manage Favourites dialog. In previous releases, you could organize favourites from the Category Tree area, only

13) Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System

With this release, OBIEE is integrated with Enterprise Performance Management Workspace (as part of the installation process)

Recommended Visualizations Feature for Creating Views

Breadcrumbs

Enhancement to Dashboards

Enhancements to Graphs

Enhancements to Views

Enhancements to Prompts

New Menu Options for Exporting Views and Results

Total Member Placement for Hierarchical Columns

Browse Catalog Search Results by Object Attributes

Navigate from the Total or Grand Total in a Table or Pivot Table

New BI Desktop Tools Available for Download

Enhancement to Favourites

Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System

New BI Mobile Features

14) Maximize views with double-tap gesture

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

15) New view and graph types

The following new graph types are supported with BI Mobile: Performance tiles, Waterfall graphs, 100% stacked graph, stacked graph

16) Fixed headers

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

17) Changing Orientation

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

18) Breadcrumbs

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

19) Security toolkit

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

20) Viewing of Oracle BI Publisher reports in dashboards

21) Integrated Full-Text Catalog Search

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

New BI Server Features

22) Changing the Repository Password From the Command Line

You can now change the repository password from the command line using the obieerpdpwdchg utility

23) New Options to Enforce Consistent Versions in Multiuser Development Environments

You can now add options to the multiuser development option file to enforce Administration Tool, MUD protocol, and RPD version consistency among MUD developers

24) New Utilities Available to Generate and Compare Logical Column Type Information

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

25) Additional Database Support for Cardinality Estimates in Oracle BI Summary Advisor

The Prefer Optimizer Estimates feature, which improves performance by using cardinality estimates during the Summary Advisor process, is now available for Microsoft SQL Server and IBM DB2

26) Oracle BI Summary Advisor Measure Subset Recommendations

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

27) Model Check Manager Enhancements

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

28) Access to Apache Hadoop Data Sources

Oracle BI EE now supports Apache Hadoop as a data source

29) Support for Multi-Source Session Variables

Oracle BI EE now supports session variables that can be populated from multiple data sources and retain values from all source systems

30) NUMERIC Data Type Support for Oracle Database and TimesTen

You can now change a configuration setting to enable NUMERIC data type support for Oracle Database and TimesTen

31) Ability to Map Flex Object Changes Using the biserverextender Utility

You can now use the biserverextender utility to import flex object changes from ADF data sources and map them to the Business Model and Mapping layer and Presentation layer

32) Support for Servlet Communication Between the Oracle BI Server and Oracle OLAP

The Oracle BI Server now uses a servlet for communication with Oracle OLAP data sources, rather than relying on the JavaHost service

New Features for Administrators

33) Support for Oracle Endeca Server

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

34) Support for Multitenancy

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

New BI Publisher Features

· Connect Directly to Oracle BIEE Subject Areas to Create Reports

· Excel Template Builder Enhancements (supports automatic insertion of fields and repeating groups)

· Layout Editor Enhancements (Time series axis formatting, Hide axis option, Independent axis formatting)

· Enhanced Create Report Guide

· PDF to PCL Conversion for Embedding PCL Commands in RTF Templates

· Support for PDF 1.7 Specification

· MDX Query Builder

· Support for Local XML File Data Source

· Support for CSV File as a Data Source

· Support for Endeca as a Data Source

· Support for Private Data Sources

· Enhancements for Sample Data Usability.

How to Apply Patches Using Opatch utility in OBIEE 11g

2013-03-26T17:22:00.003+05:30

Step:1 Ensure you have the latest Opatch:

Make sure you have the latest supported version of OPatch downloaded.

You can download the latest Opatch and install it in the directory on your machine under:
D:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\OPatch

Step 2 : Download the patch to PATCH_TOP

Download the patch to PATCH_TOP directory, as instructed in the README

Step: 3
cd to patch (for example 10042883) directory:
D:\PATCH_TOP>cd 10042883

Step 4 : Make sure Opatch is in the PATH
Add D:\OPatch to the PATH:
D:\PATCH_TOP\10042883>set PATH=%PATH%;D:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\OPatch
Verify that the PATH is set:
D:\PATCH_TOP\10042883> PATH
Step 5 : Set ORACLE_HOME

Set ORACLE_HOME to your BI Home.
For example, in this case, BI Home is set to D:\Oracle\Middleware\Oracle_BI1
D:\PATCH_TOP\10042883>set ORACLE_HOME=D:\BI11\Oracle_BI1
Verify that the Oracle Home is set correctly:
D:\PATCH_TOP\10042883>echo %ORACLE_HOME%

Note: You are setting ORACLE_HOME for this command-prompt session only. This is set to only facilitate patch application/rollback/inventory, etc. Do not make this a permanent environment variable as it will affect other Oracle Products running on your system which may need a permanent ORACLE_HOME environment variable.

Step 6 : Verify Opatch version

Verify you have the correct OPatch version:
D:\PATCH_TOP\10042883>opatch version
Invoking OPatch 11.1.0.8.3
OPatch Version: 11.1.0.8.3
OPatch succeeded.
Step 7 : Apply the OBIEE patch (for example 10042883)
7.1: Shutdown all BI services:
Apply patch 10042883 -- Before applying any OBIEE patch, make sure all
BI Services are shut down.
Start->Programs->Oracle BI->Stop BI Services
7.2: Apply the patch:
D:\PATCH_TOP\10042883>opatch apply

If you are running a 64-bit OS: Windows64bit / Linux 64bit / AIX 64bit, make sure
you use the following command:
opatch apply -jre %ORACLE_HOME%/jdk/jre
OPatch succeeded.
Step 8 : lsinventory command
Verify that the patch was applied correctly by checking the inventory:
D:\PATCH_TOP\10042883>opatch lsinventory
If you are running a 64-bit OS: Windows64bit / Linux 64bit / AIX 64bit, make sure
you use the following command:
opatch lsinventory -jre %ORACLE_HOME%/jdk/jre

For more info refer below Oracle Doc:

Thanks,
Allam

Evaluate() Function in OBIEE to Embedded DB Functions

2013-03-26T16:32:00.000+05:30

This Evaluate functions (since version 10.1.3.3) enables users and administrators to create more powerful reports by directly calling Database functions in OBIEE from:

Either By Oracle BI Answers.
OR by using a Logical column (in the Logical Table source) within the Metadata (repository).

The following new BI Server database functions are supported

Functions For

1. EVALUATE( ) --> It is a scalar function that are computed post-aggregation and analytic calculations

2. EVALUATE_AGGR ( ) --> It is a aggregate function with group by clause

EVALUATE( ) Function :

Syntax:
EVALUATE('db_function(%1...%N)' [AS datatype] [, column1, columnN])

Example:

1. Evaluate('TO_DATE(%1,%2)' AS CHAR ,'20130326','YYYYMMDD')

2. Evaluate('substr(%1,%2,%3)' as Char,'AllamNarasingaRao','1','5')

Passes the specified database function with (optional) referenced columns as parameters to the back-end data source for evaluation. This function is intended for scalar and analytic calculations, and is useful when you want to use a specialized database function that is not supported by the Oracle BI Server, but that is understood by the underlying datasource.

The embedded database function may require one or more columns. These columns are referenced by %1 ... %N within the function. The actual columns must be listed after the function.

EVALUATE_AGGR( ) Function:
Syntax:

EVALUATE_AGGR('db_agg_function(%1...%N)' [AS datatype] [, column1, columnN])
Example:

EVALUATE_AGGR('sum(%1)', "sales"."quantity")

Passes the specified database function with (optional) referenced columns as parameters to the back-end data source for evaluation. This function is intended for aggregate functions with a GROUP BY clause.
The embedded database function may require one or more columns. These columns are referenced by %1 ... %N within the function. The actual columns must be listed after the function.

Let see How can use the Evaluate Function properly.

Need Click on the Edit column Formula>f(...) to select the Evaluate( ) Function.

In Insert Option Dialog prompt need to select the DB Functions to specify the Evaluate Function.

After select the Evaluate Function in the Prompt dialogbox, the syntax of the Evaluate function will see like the above in screen shot.

There we need to replace the inner things with our valid syntax formate. As specified Below

Here

Evaluate('substr(%1,%2,%3)' AS Char,'AllamNarasingaRao','1','5')

Evauate ( ) is the function we know about it.
Substr ( ) is the DB Function. It needs to enclosed in the single quotes, like this 'substr( )'
AS Char is the Datatype, We need to specify this also after enclosed your DB function. Then after we need to place the , .
'AllamNarasingaRao','1','5'

In our example the above 3 strings are the perameters, those we need to pass into the Evaluate Function by specifying the %1 for first string ('AllamNarasingaRao'), %2 for Second String ('1') and %3 is for Third String ('5').

Lets run this by clicking on the Results Tab. And See what will happen.

In this case we will get one common error in Evaluate Function that is

[nQSError: 42015] Cannot function ship the following expression:Evaluate( substr(%1,%2,%3),'AllamNarasingaRao', '1', '5') . (HY000)

This Error is came beacouse of taking the only one column that too it has Evaluate function. In this case we can resolve this error by taking at least one more column from exisiting subject area.

Like the following above steps we can resolve that type of errors comming while using the Evaluate function. Note: We need to add at least one more column to the exsisting Evaluate function column.

Here I am specifying some examples with Evaluate function used in the OBIEE 11g.

1. Evaluate('TO_CHAR(%1 ,%2)' AS CHAR ,"Itemwarehouse"."Last Update Date",'DD-MON-YYYY')

2. Evaluate('NEXT_DAY(%1,%2)' ,"Itemwarehouse"."Last Update Date",'SUNDAY')

3. Evaluate('TO_DATE(%1,%2)' AS CHAR ,'20130326','YYYYMMDD')

4. Evaluate('TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(%1,%2),%3)'AS CHAR ,'20130326','YYYYMMDD','DD-MON-YYYY')

5. Evaluate('TO_CHAR(TO_DATE(%1,%2),%3)'AS CHAR ,"Itemwarehouse"."Last Update Date",'DD/MM/YY HH:MI:SS AM','DD-MON-YYYY HH:MI:SS AM')

---The End---

OBIEE 11g installation on Windows XP

2013-02-11T18:02:00.002+05:30

Just finished my OBIEE 11g successful installation on Windows XP Professional – SP3 with 2GB Memory and 50 GB available disk space.

I have my local Oracle instance is running on the same machine as well. Before writing this article, I tested couple of demo reports and yes they are working, So If you are looking for the simple and clean installation steps, here you go ….

1) The first step is to download software.
Yes it is around 5 GB; you have to have high speed uninterrupted connection. Otherwise you end up with couple of hours in waiting to complete the download.

Please follow following links to download OBIEE11g and RCU (Repository Creation Utility).

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/downloads/bus-intelligence-11g-165436.html

Accept the license and download all the four files belongs to”Oracle Business Intelligence, v. 11.1.1.3.0 (for Microsoft Windows x86 (32-bit)" and one file for”Repository Creation Utility (11.1.1.3.3) for Microsoft Windows (32-bit)"

2) If your system uses the dhcp to access network, make sure to install Look Back Adopter. Please refer following URL for installation details.How to install the Microsoft Loopback adapter in Windows XP

3) make sure you have enough disk space. Software needs 11 GB of free disk space,

4) Unzip the RCU zip file into some directory and run the rcu.bat under BIN directory. Make sure your database is up before running the RCU; this will install the BI and Metadata schema.

Click next...

Select Create option and click next…

Provide the Database connection details. Use the user, which has SYSDBA privilege. Better use the sys or system user to avoid any confusion. This user will be used to create the schema.

Oops!!, Warning !! . My Oracle database version is 10.2.0.2.0, while it is required minimum 10.2.0.4. Any way I clicked the ignore, so you can do the same or get the right version...

You can select an existing prefix or select the next prefix.

Check the Oracle Business Intelligence. Please note down the schema name. You will need it during OBIEE installation. It is DEV1_BIPLATFORM in this case. Metadata Services is already checked for you

Click Next.

The second part is OBIEE installation

Unzip all 4 zip files in one folder and open the Disk1 folder and run the setup.exe

Click next on welcome page...

Select the simple installation for demo purpose. Click Next
It will check the Prerequisite,
On Next step, specify the location, where you want to install the software. Make sure it has around 11gb free disk space.

Select the username, password for weblogic server, the same userid, and password will be use to access the OBIEE.

Click Next…

On Configuration component, select the component. I installed all three components.

On Database details screen, enter the Database details where we have installed the BI schema through RCU. Our Database Schema was DEV1_BIPLATFORM, though, you see DEV1_BIPLATFORM in the above screen shot. Please do not get confuse, and enter the correct Schema as DEV1_BIPLATFORM and the password.

Skip the next screen security Updates and click Next...

Review the installation summary on following screen and click install...

After clicking the Install button, Installation process will start. The process will take some time, so have patient. In the middle of the process you will see a blank command window...

The installation proves will take around 20 minutes. It could be more or less depend on the available resources.

The next step is Configuration Progress, this will automatically start after completion of installation and it took around 30 minutes for me.

Finally the configuration 100% completed. Click the next button.

We can access the Enterprise Manager to administrator Web logic Server through http://localhost:7001/em and analytics as http://localhost:9704/analytics URL.

Let’s see if we can access the most awaited webpage. If everything goes smooth during installation, you can access the presentation services through http://localhost:9704/analytics URL. Enter the use rid and password, the one we set during Weblogic server installation.

Here is the Home page...

Let's test one simple report to make sure, everything works fine.

Go to open tab and click it, it will open the Open popup window. Select the Revenue Budget Actual and Detail.xdo, this is a BI Publisher Report from Sample Lite folder.

If everything is fine, the report should render within the Report viewer

If you could able to make up to this point, you have installed your OBIEE11g successfully.

Congratulation…!!!.

Oracle Business Intelligence(OBIEE): How to split comma (,) separated string and pass to IN clause of select statement

2012-11-11T12:19:00.000+05:30

Oracle Business Intelligence(OBIEE): How to split comma (,) separated string and pass to IN clause of select statement

How to split comma (,) separated string and pass to IN clause of select statement

2012-10-25T13:59:00.003+05:30

In some cases, we get a comma separated string as output (say from another select statement) that we would need to pass to the IN clause of a select statement.

This article explains how to achieve that using regexp_substr (DB >=10g).

For example, assume a select statement returns the following
'ALLAM,NARASIMHA,JONES,SMITH'

Now, we would need to pass this to another select statement as IN clause and get the output.
SQL> Select * From EMP where ENAME in ('ALLAM,NARASIMHA,JONES,SMITH' );
no rows selected

this is not our expected output. We expect the query to return 4 rows. This can be achieved by splitting the comma separated string to individual strings and pass it to the IN clause.

Oracle provides regexp_substr() function, which comes handy for this scenario.

First, we will form a query, that splits this comma separated string and gives the individual strings as rows.

SQL> select regexp_substr('ALLAM,NARASIMHA,JONES,SMITH' ,'[^,]+', 1, level) from dual
connect by regexp_substr('SMITH,ALLEN,WARD,JONES', '[^,]+', 1, level) is not null;

The above query iterates through the comma separated string, searches for the comma (,) and then splits the string by treating the comma as delimiter. It returns the string as a row, whenever it hits a delimiter.

We can pass this query to our select statement to get the desired output.

SQL> Select ENAME,EMPNO,ESAL
          From EMP
          Where ENAME in (
                     Select regexp_substr('ALLAM,X,Y,Z,K,N' ,'[^,]+', 1, level) as Names from dual
                     connect by regexp_substr('ALLAM,X,Y,Z,K,N', '[^,]+', 1, level) is not null );

Now, the query returns what we expected.

Protect Filter in OBIEE

2012-09-27T21:49:00.001+05:30

The feature was already there from OBIEE 10g versions. We need to take some extra precautions before applying this in request filters which can be adopted as best practice in report development.

This ensures that the filter used in the request is not lost or overwritten by another filter or dashboard prompt that may supersede the request.
This option is only available if a value has been specified in the filter. If the filter item is set to “is prompted” then the Protect Filter option if not available.

To apply it as the filter in the Answers Request:

Select Filter Options button> Check the Protect Filter option as seen in the screen below...

And The filter is looks like the this. With the "key" icon on the filter icon to lock the values to restrict the change.

Upgrade OBIEE 10g RPD and web catalog to OBIEE 11g

2012-09-26T19:09:00.001+05:30

Before running Upgrade Assistant configures TNSNAMES.ora in your 11g system so that it connects to any databases used by the RPD.

In addition, any custom changes to the Oracle BI EE 10g configuration files, for example, instanceconfig.xml, are not upgraded by Upgrade Assistant. You must manually edit the 11g configuration files to re-apply the customizations.

The following configuration changes may be necessary before running Upgrade Assistant:

Confirm any data sources used by your RPD are configured in the 11g system.
If you configured the nqsconfig.ini file in the 10g system for database authentication, you must copy over the same configurations to the 11g version of the files.

For example, to add the following parameter in the nqsconfig.ini file for this type of authentication:

SECURITY

AUTHENTICATION_TYPE = DATABASE;

DATABASE

DATABASE = "orcl";

Note: The Admin Server and the Managed Server must be running during the upgrade process.

Upgrade Assistant

OBIEE 11g upgrade assistant is installed by default and is located under Oracle fusion middleware home $ORACLE_FMW/bin.

Pre-Requisites:

Start up all the OBIEE 11g related services (BI Services and Web logic Server) and check that you can log in to Enterprise Manager,WLS Admin Console and OBIEE Answers.

         Enterprise Manager   : http://localhost:7001/em
         Web Logic Server Admin Console: http://localhost:7001/em console
         OBIEE Answers/Dashboard   : http://localhost:9704/analytics

All the relevant TNS names used in the 10g rpd connections are present in /Oracle_BI1/network/admin/tnsnames.ora file

Step-1

In Windows:

Navigate to /Oracle_BI1/bin/ua.bat . This batch file is the Upgrade Assistant wizard. Launch the wizard by double clicking on it.

In UNIX:

/app/oracle/product/Oracle_BI1/bin

[oracle@linux-db102 bin]$ ls -ltr ua

-rwxr-x— 1 oracle oinstall 12640 Jun 1 2010 ua

To launch the Upgrade Assistant GUI, just run the command ua

Step-2:

In this page select "Upgrade Oracle BI RPD and Presentation Catalog" radio button. Click NEXT.

Step-3:

Here check the "Upgrade Repository (RPD)" checkbox.
Specify the location of the 10g RPD file.
Enter the Administrator credentials of the old 10g RPD file.
Specify the password for the upgraded 11g RPD and confirm it once again.

Step-4: Specify the Weblogic Admin Console username and password. Port number is 7001

Click Next

During the examination process, Upgrade Assistant checks for the following:
• The source directory exists.
• The source directory is readable and contains a file for upgrade.
Under the Status column, the word succeeded should appear. If instead, the word failed appears, inspect the log file for details.

Step-5: Check the upgrade summary and click UPGRADE to start the upgrade process.

Step-6: Once the upgrade process completes the process log output is available at \Oracle_BI1\upgrade\logs.

The new RPD will be created as sh.rpd and

Placed at the following path:

\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplication_obis1\repository.

As part of upgrade, security is also upgraded from 10g to 11g. This includes the Users and Groups.
Manual customizations to files like instanceconfig.xml are not upgraded and must be redone after upgrade.

Same applies for nqconfig.ini, even though the nqconfig.ini parameters are fully controlled from the Enterprise Manager in OBIEE 11g.

We can use this Oracle Link for any clarification:
http://www.oracle.com/webfolder/technetwork/tutorials/obe/fmw/bi/bi11115/upgrade/upgrade_to_11g.htm

How can we find the OBIEE 11g Log Files...

2012-09-26T18:50:00.002+05:30

In this post, we are going to see where the log files in OBIEE 11g reside.
In OBIEE 10g, we can check the different log files in the installation directory.
In OBIEE 11g, we have got Enterprise Manager Console, where we can check log files but we can still see these files in OBIEE install directory.

Enterprise Manager Console

Log on to EM Console (http://localhost:7001/em) . Once you logged on, in the left pane navigate to Farm_bifoundation_domain –> Business Intelligence–>coreapplications–>Diagnostics–>Log Messages
Here you can see the Most Recent Errors and Most Recent Warnings. After warning messages, you can also see all the log files grouped by categories using Log Viewer.
Available files:
• Presentation Services Log
• Server Log
• Scheduler Log
• JavaHost Log
• Cluster Controller Log
• Action Services Log
• Security Services Log
• Administrator Services Log

Manually open log files from your install directory

In this section will see these entire available log file and their paths in the hard disc. The log files for OBIEE components are found under /instances/instance1/diagnostics/logs (eg: C:\OBI\instances\instance2\diagnostics\logs)
These are the different type of log files:
Presentation Server log files
/instances/instance1/diagnostics/logs/OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent/coreapplication_obips1
Files: sawlog0.log, webcatupgrade0.log
BI Server log files
/instances/instance1/diagnostics/logs/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obis1
Files: nqquery.log, nqserver.log, servername_NQSAdminTool.log, servername_nQUDMLExec.log, servername_obieerpdmigrateutil.log
Scheduler log
/instances/instance1/diagnostics/logsOracleBISchedulerComponent/coreapplication_obisch1
Files: nqscheduler.log
Cluster Controller log
/instances/instance1/diagnostics/logs/OracleBIClusterControllerComponent\coreapplication_obiccs1
Files: nqcluster.log
ODBC log
/instances/instance1/diagnostics/logs/OracleBIODBCComponent/coreapplication_obips1
OPMN log
/instances/instance1/diagnostics/logs/OPMN/opmn
Files: debug.log, logquery~NUMBER.log, opmn.log, opmn.out, service.log
Installation logs
/logs

Use of Log Viewer: You can search for and view the log entries for Oracle Business Intelligence components using Fusion Middleware Control Log Viewer. The log files can be searched for log messages, and you can apply filters that can, for example, target a certain date range, user, user transaction, or level of message (error, warning, notification, and so on). You can also view log files in their entirety from the Fusion Middleware Control Log Viewer

Oracle BI 11g Architecture Diagram with Descriptions

2012-09-20T15:08:00.001+05:30

Below diagram depicts the standard logical architecture of Oracle business intelligence 11g.It also represents the essence of OBIEE11g pictorially with the proper workflow of the interdependent components.

Over all BI Domain:

Overall system is called “Oracle BI Domain” . This comprises of Java components deployed into J2EE containers , non java system components and required configuration files, metadata, repositories, and infrastructure. Oracle Enterprise Manager(OEM) acts as “Fusion Middleware Control” which together with Weblogic Admin Console are the basic backbone,the powerhouse and the Admin Activity controller for the entire domain .

Weblogic Server Domain: The logical domain consists of Admin server and Managed server .It comprises mainly with all the Java modules to trigger the java services .A peer handshaking has been done between WLSD and Oracle BI Instance.

Administration Server:

A JEE container that runs in a dedicated Java virtual machine that contains Java components for administering the system .It typically trigger the start,stop kind of admin activity for his peer Manager server processes.

Managed Server:

A JEE container that runs in a dedicated Java virtual machine that provides the run-time environment for the Java-based services and applications within the system.The services comprises of BI plugin , Security , publisher ,SOA ,BI Office services etc .

Node Manager:

Node Manager provides process management services for the Administration Server and Managed Server processes.Its a separate java utility runs to trigger the auto start , stop , restart activities for distributed Managed server.

Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server(OPMN):

It is monitored , managed and controlled by Fusion Middleware Controller(OFMW). It is also used for distributed process start/stop/restart i.e maintains the Oracle Business Intelligence system component processes.Also used for performance collection using Dynamic Monitoring System (DMS) .

Oracle Weblogic Server (Console):

It is the replacement of Oracle 10g R3 middle tier cluster topology based on Oracle Container for Java (OC4J) . It is a Java EE application server that supports the deployment of Oracle Business Intelligence Java components and primarily host the java component services inside Managed server .

Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console access has been provided by Fusion Middleware Control.Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console enables to monitor and manage a WebLogic Server domain. Its capabilities include the following:

Monitoring health and performance of JEE servers
Configuring WebLogic domains
Stopping and starting JEE servers
Viewing JEE server logs

Fusion Middleware Control:

Fusion Middleware Control is a browser-based tool and the recommended method for monitoring, managing, and configuring Oracle Business Intelligence components.

Fusion Middleware Control is used principally for managing the system components of a BI domain and provides support for the following:

Starting, stopping, and restarting all system components (BI Server,BI Presentation Server) and Managed Servers
Configuring preferences and defaults
Scaling out of system components
Managing performance and monitoring system metrics(DMS-Dynamic Monitoring System)
Performing diagnostics and logging (ODL-Oracle Diagnostic Logging)

Fusion Middleware Control also provides access to Oracle WebLogic Server Administration Console, where you monitor and manage Oracle Business Intelligence Java components.

To be very precise OFMW contains to components ..i.e. Java Components managed by Weblogic Server and System components managed by Oracle Process Manager and Notification (OPMN) and this includes below as well including BI components :

Oracle HTTP Server
Oracle Web Cache
Oracle Internet Directory
Oracle Virtual Directory
Oracle Forms Services
Oracle Reports
Oracle Business Intelligence Discoverer

OFMW Environment: Oracle Fusion Middleware environment contains Oracle WebLogic Server domain (including Administration Server, two Managed Servers) , an Oracle instance and Metadata repository .

Java components: Deployed as one or more Java EE applications:

Administrative Components — Enterprise Management applications and JMX MBeans for managing all configuration and run-time settings for Oracle Business Intelligence.
Oracle BI Publisher — This component provides an enterprise reporting solution for authoring, managing, and delivering all types of highly formatted documents to employees, customers, and suppliers.
Oracle BI Office — This component provides the integration between Oracle Business Intelligence and Microsoft Office products.
Oracle BI Action Services — This component provides the dedicated Web services that are required by the Action Framework and that enable an administrator to manually configure which Web service directories can be browsed by users when they create actions.
Oracle Real-Time Decisions (Oracle RTD) — This component provides enterprise analytics software solutions that enable companies to make better decisions in real-time at key, high-value points in operational business processes.
Oracle BI Security Services — This component provides dedicated Web services that enable the integration of the Oracle BI Server with the Oracle Fusion Middleware security platform i.e JPS (Java Platform Security) , CSF (Credential Store Framework) and users and groups managed by BI LDAP security.
Oracle BI SOA Services — This component provides dedicated Web services for objects in the Oracle BI Presentation Catalog, to invoke analyses, agents, and conditions. They make it easy to invoke Oracle Business Intelligence functionality from Business Process Execution Language (BPEL) processes.
Oracle BI Plugin — A JEE application that routes HTTP and SOAP requests to Oracle BI Presentation Services.

System components: Deployed as non-JEE components, such as processes and services written in C++ and J2SE:

Oracle BI Server — This component provides the query and data access capabilities at the heart of Oracle Business Intelligence and provides services for accessing and managing the enterprise semantic model (stored in a file with a .RPD extension).
Oracle BI Presentation Services — This component provides the framework and interface for the presentation of business intelligence data to Web clients. It maintains an Oracle BI Presentation Catalog service on the file system for the customization of this presentation framework.
Oracle BI Scheduler — This component provides extensible scheduling for analyses to be delivered to users at specified times. (Oracle BI Publisher has its own scheduler)
Oracle BI JavaHost — This component provides component services that enable Oracle BI Presentation Services to support various components such as Java tasks for Oracle BI Scheduler, Oracle BI Publisher, and graph generation.
Oracle BI Cluster Controller — This components distributes requests to the BI Server, ensuring requests are evenly load-balanced across all BI Server process instances in the BI domain.