Oracle Business Intelligence OBIEE 10g advanced installation with WebCenter Suite (Oracle Application Server)

There are two types of installations for OBIEE 10g.

1-     Basic Installation

2-     Advance Installation

Here we are going to install OBIEE 10.1.3.4.1 with advance installation type on windows 2003 server enterprise edition with Intel Xeon 2.3 x 2 GHz with 4 GB RAM.

Following are the pre-requisites for advanced installation type.

1-     Oracle Application Server 10.1.3.1.0 or later is required for Oracle Business Intelligence.

2-     The following Oracle Application Server components are required for Oracle Business Intelligence:

a.      Oracle HTTP Server

b.      Oracle Containers for J2EE (OC4J)

c.      Oracle Process Manager and Notification Server

NOTE: If you do not want to use Oracle HTTP Server after installing Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition, then disable Oracle HTTP Server in Oracle Application Server after the installation.

3-     Windows Login User should be “Local Administrator” of the machine. (This is to avoid any unwanted interruption during installation)

Before proceeding with the OBIEE 10g advance installation, you have to install Oracle Application Server 10.1.3.1.0 or later. For the installation and configuration of Oracle Application Server, refer to the post here) 

For OBIEE 10g installation, follow below steps ...

Download OBIEE 10.1.3.4.1 from here. 

I have  downloaded and unzipped into folder SW as shown below. 

Open folder "Server" and execute setup file ...

Click Run ...

Click Next ...

Provide the desired installation path as shown below ...

Select "Complete" ...

Provide the application server location (Refer to the post here for Oracle WebCenter Suite (Oracle Application Server) installation ...

Note:  You may encounter error "Please specify a valid Oracle Application Server 10g installation location" if your WebCenter Suite (Application Server) installation is incorrect.

To see more detail refer to:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E10415_01/doc/bi.1013/e10404/general.htm

It states:

1.4.9.16 Installer Requires the OC4J Instance to Be Named "Home" and Enabled - Advanced Option

This issue applies to Versions 10.1.3.3, 10.1.3.3.1, 10.1.3.3.2, 10.1.3.3.3, 10.1.3.4, 10.1.3.4.1, and 10.1.3.4.2.

When installing Oracle BI Enterprise Edition using the Advanced installation type, you must install Oracle Application Server before running the Oracle BI Installer. By default, Oracle Application Server creates an OC4J container called "home." This container is the location where all the Oracle BI Applications are deployed. The Oracle BI Installer requires the OC4J container called "home" to be present and enabled.

If a container called "home" does not exist, then follow the instructions located in Oracle Application Server Administration Guide to re-create the container.

If the OC4J instance named "home" is disabled, then the Oracle BI Installer does not proceed. You must enable the OC4J "home" instance for Oracle BI Installer to proceed. The Oracle BI Installer checks the existence of OC4J "home" instance and if it is enabled. If it is not, the Installer displays the following error message: "Please specify a valid Oracle Application Server 10g installation location. A valid Oracle Application Server 10g installation must have the default OC4J instance named 'home' and that 'home' OC4J instance must be enabled."

Click Next ... 

Click Next ... 

Click Next ... 

It will try to install .Net Framework 2.0. Since i have it already installed on my machine therefore it will throw error ... Nothing to worry just proceed ...

Click Finish, the installation of OBIEE 10g will be resumed ...

Click Next ...

Click Next ...

Click "Finish" to restart the machine and all should go well ...

BI URL will look alike ...

http://sampledomain:9704/analytics

Cheers ;)

Cache Management & Overcoming Cache Problems

It is possible that reports that you run after the load process will reuse the cache that existed prior to the load process. This can result in inconsistencies between reports.


Following are some workarounds to avoid such inconsistencies.

I.

If you want to use the cache and you have a regular load of data into your source for OBIEE, then you just need to ensure that the cache is cleared after your load. There is an ODBC command which will clear it:

Call SAPurgeAllCache();

You can put this in a sql file and then call it from a .cmd file:

nqcmd -d "AnalyticsWeb" -u Administrator -p <password> -s D:\OracleBI\server\Scripts\Common\purge_cache.sql -o D:\OracleBI\server\Scripts\Common\purge_cache.out

When you run this .cmd file it will clear the cache, and you can also schedule the command at regular intervals.


II.

If your data is changing all the time and you just don't want caching on then Turn off caching in the NSQConfig.ini (and restart the server service) or at the physical table level in the .rpd, to ensure you get the un-cached results, and can therefore see the SQL being generated each run, or drill down in Answers.

1. Locate this configuration file: <root
directory>\OracleBI\server\Config\NQSConfig.INI.
2. In the Query Result Cache Section, change the [ CACHE ] setting from ENABLE =YES; to ENABLE = NO;.
3. Save the NQSConfig.INI configuration file and restart the Oracle BI Server service.
4. After running an Answers report, check the SQL NQQUERY.log (on Windows, usually located in, :\OracleBI\Server\log\)


III.

Third one is that check wether Table is cacheable (table properties) in the physical layer, you can turn on/off it per table or can set a schedule to expire and refresh using "Cache Persistence Time".


IV.

Bypass Web Server Cache feature in Advanced tab of the corresponding reports is also a resolution.

Here are the steps to implement By Pass Server Cache;

1 Build Report with required fields,
2 Go to Advance SQL tab check the Check Box ' Bypass Oracle BI Presentation Services Cache'
3 Goto bottom of page look for 'Prefix' in text box type 'SET VARIABLE DISABLE_CACHE_HIT=1;'
4 Save the report

v.

Here is another one, If you always want to bypass the Presentation server cache add this to the instanceconfig file of the development presentation server:

add below lines in instanceconfig.xml  file then restart all bi services.


<WebConfig>
<ServerInstance>
<ForceRefresh>TRUE</ForceRefresh>
</ServerInstance>
</WebConfig>


VI.

You can manually purge all the cache entries:
1. Open the Oracle BI Administration Tool in online mode.
2. Click Manage, Cache to access the Cache Manager page and select all cache entries.
3. Click Action, Purge.


Cheers ;)

OBIEE - Repository Variables, Session Variables

Variables in the Oracle BI Server can be either repository or session variables, and are defined using the Variable Manager within the Oracle BI Administrator (Manage > Variables).

This brings up the Variable Manager, that divides variables out into repository and session variables, with a further subdivision into static and dynamic repository ones and system and non-system session ones. You can also define variables at the Presentation Server level, these are scoped to individual dashboards and are used amongst other things for setting dashboard prompt values and integrating the dashboard with BI Publisher parameters. Here’s a screenshot of a typical Variable Manager screen.

you can either have server variables that hold the same value across all sessions (in BI Server terms, a “repository” variable), or variables that hold a value specific to each user session (“session” variables in the BI Server). Furthermore, repository variables can either be constants (“static repository” variables) or can have values that vary over time (“dynamic repository” variables), with the dynamic ones refreshed to a schedule via SQL calls and session variables usually set at the time of logon by reference to an LDAP server or an SQL statement. So now that’s all clear, in what sort of situation would they be used?

Cheers ;)

While Saving the Report got the Message “Not Logged In“

This is a bug & appears in a special constellation of Username, Machine Name, Subject Area and Report Name.

Here is the woraround for this problem;

1)      1) Goto “Manage Catalog”

2)   2)   Rename the Report

Now you can save & modify report normally without getting the “not logged in” message. 

How to add images in OBIEE using local path

1. Upload the images to following two folders

D:\ORAHome\j2ee\home\applications\analytics\analytics\res\s_oracle10\images

(Oracle application server install)

D:\OracleBI\web\app\res\s_oracle10\images

(OBIEE install)

2. After adding images to the folders you need to restart the presentation services

3. In answers, edit the title view and add the following

   fmap:images/your_namename.gif

4. In dashboard you can use the same with image or link

   fmap:impages/your_gif.gif

How to add images on the Report using URL

Here are the instructions to add image on the Report:

1.        Copy the image URL from the Website you want to place on your Dashboard;

e.g. http://www.........com/img/logo40.png

2.       Go to Result Tab

3.       Choose Title from the Result View

4.       Paste the URL in the Logo Text Box

5.       Set the Result View Back to the Compound Layout.

6.       Save the Report.

How to add image on the dashboard using URL

Here are the instructions to add image on the dashboard: 

1.       Copy the image URL from the Website you want to place on your Dashboard;

e.g. http://www........com/img/logo40.png

2.       Go to dashboard where you want to add the image.

3.       Select Page Options > Edit Dashboard

4.       From the Page dropdown select the page on which you want to add the report link.

5.       Drag the Link or Image from the Dashboard Objects section and drop it on the section.

6.       Select properties button on the object newly added (Link or Image 1)

7.       Paste the URL in the image Textbox. Make Layout Adjustments if necessary.

8.       Save the Dashboard.