OBIEE 11g : RPD Consistency Check

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

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

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

For entire repository: select File > Check Global Consistency.
For an individual repository object: select the object and then select Tools > Show Consistency Checker, or right-click the object and select Check Consistency. You can select multiple objects and check their consistency.

You can save a repository in offline mode even though the business models may be inconsistent.

Using the validaterpd Utility to Check Repository Consistency :

You can use the Oracle BI Server utility validaterpd to check the validity of all metadata objects in a repository on any platform supported by the Oracle BI Server. Running this utility performs the same validation checks as the Consistency Check Manager in the Administration Tool. Please note, don't forget to run bi-init.cmd / bi-init-sh before running this utility.

UtilityLocation: ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation/OracleBIApplication/coreapplication/setup

How to Run: validaterpd -R repository_name -O output_file_name [-P repository_password]

Here repository_password is optional, generally not recommended. Check output_file_name file for messages.

--Asif Pathan

OBIEE High Level Design Template/Document

Just wanted to share how High Level OBIEE Design Template looks like

Introduction

< Give a brief background about the project and the objectives of the design document.>
Purpose

<Provide the purpose of this document here.>
Scope

< Provide the scope of this document >
Design Overview 

<This section defines the overview of the Design document, including the key points in the design>
Environment Setup

<This section contains details about the environment setup.>

Description
<This section shall contain the details of the proposed architecture for the OBIEE application. Include a brief description about the components of the OBIEE application here.>

System Environment
<This section shall contain the information about the server configurations done for OBIEE in the development, testing and the production environment. Also include the diagrams here.>

Development
<This section shall contain details about how the development is done – How the repository is configured (whether multi-user development environment is set up for repository configuration or each developer is working on the repository asynchronously).
Specify how the reports and dashboards will be created  (whether on the developers local machine and the catalog objects copied to the servers’ catalog later or is the development done on the server directly).>

Repository

This section contains a brief description of the OBIEE repository, including the 3 layers of the repository. Also specify the following details:

·        How the business models and presentation catalogs will be created in the repository

·        List the presentation catalogs to be created

Presentation Catalog	Description	Intended Users	Business Model Source
< Name of the presentation catalog.>	<Description of the presentation catalog>	<Intended user groups  of the presentation catalog>	<Source of the Presentation Catalog>

·        How the OBIEE application users would be authenticated

·        Data level security to be implemented

Repository Group	Data level security
<Name of the repository group>	Data level security to be implemented on the repository group

·        How the cache management would be done.

Presentation Catalog

This section shall contain the following details:

• A brief description about the components of the presentation catalog that will be used to create the reports, dashboards and iBots
• Dashboard and reports to be created.
• List the iBots to be created and their purpose.
• How the dashboard and report level security is implemented.

Dashboard	Dashboard Page	Report Name
<Name of  the Dashboard>	<Name of the dashboard page>	<Name of  the Report>
		<Name of  the Report>
	<Name of the dashboard page>	<Name of  the Report>
		<Name of  the Report>

iBot	Purpose
<iBot Name>	<Purpose of the iBot>

Dashboard Name	Intended Users
<Name of the Dashboard>	<Intended users of the dashboard>

 Backup and Recovery Plans

<Specify the backup and recovery plans for this project.

Consider the following:

• How do you plan to back up the repository and the presentation catalog?
• How often do you plan to back up?
• What are the necessary requirements for recovery?

    Are there any legal requirements for backup or recovery?>

--Asif Pathan

OBIEE Gathering Business Requirements

Gathering requirements will be approached from several ways to ensure the requirements are full fill. And it differs with application environment. Here is what we follow to get the requirements for quick ad-hoc reports. 

Overview :

Brief description of project. Include expected business benefits to be accumulate out of this effort.

Functional Requirements :

Describe in detail with a focus on how you are going to use this report/dashboard data. Add screenshots, flow diagrams as needed. The more details you provide, the easier it would be for us to build

-        In case you have UI mock-ups please attach them

-        List any charts / graphs needed

Data :

List the data elements ("columns") in below format, and add rows as needed. If you are unaware of the data source leave this blank, but getting information on data sources would speed up the process

Data Elements (Columns)
"Data Element"  "Source"  "Description"    "If this is a calculated field please provide the calculations here"
 
How are you getting this data at present? (Leave blank if this is a new request)
How do you want to analyse the data?  (e.g. by date, by POD, by server, by tier, by customer etc. etc) Please list here
Data load job schedule time
Data retention period in days

Distribution :

Type of Report   :   Online / Periodic Mailer/Both
If periodic          :   Frequency of mailers
Any preferred data/time of mailing?
Would this have exec visibility?

Users:

User Name and emailid to give access.
Any user/group to be specifically excluded due to information protection requirements? 

GUI :

Any alerts needed based on data thresholds (e.g. storage usage > 80% for a week)? Please provide details here.

-Asifkhan

OBIEE 11g Key Features

OBIEE 11g Key Features
+++++++++++++++++++++
New capabilities enable your organization to take better decisions, take informed actions, and implement more efficient business processes.


Interactive Dashboards :
This feature provides fully interactive dashboards and reports with rich variety of visualization. Different objects can be customized and can give role based access. Users can customize their reporting with filters.

Ad hoc Analysis and Interactive Reporting :
This feature provides ability to create reports from scratch or modify existing reports.

Enterprise Reporting :
This feature delivered via Oracle BI Publisher, which is tightly integrated with OBIEE11g platform. What it does is, it allows the creation of highly formatted templates/reports or documents such as flash reports/checks and many more. 

Proactive detection and alerts :
This is powerful feature, obiee engine will trigger business events and notify stakeholders via their preferred media or channel. With this feature we can send SMS/Mails on schedule time.

Actionable Intelligence :
OBIEE 11g action framework turn inside into action by providing the ability to invoke business processes from within in business intelligence dashboards and reports. 

Microsoft Office integration :
This will allow to include reports/charts/tables into Microsoft documents.

Spatial Intelligence via Map-based Visualizations :
This will allow users to visualize analytic data using maps.

Scorecard and Strategy Management :
This gives the capability to establish specific goals and define how to measure success.  

Server based query, reporting and analysis :
OBIEE 11g generate optimized queries for each database, it also appropriately aggregate them and presents the users.

-A

Direct Database Request (DDR) - OBIEE10g\11g

What is Direct Database Request in OBIEE?

The Direct Database Request (DDR) allows you to perform SQL statement directly on database. Users with the appropriate permissions can create and issue a direct database request directly to a physical back end database. The results of the request can be displayed and manipulated within Oracle BI Answers, and subsequently incorporated into Oracle BI Interactive dashboard.

What are the advantages of DDR?

Use any complex query for reporting directly, without doing rpd mappings.
Check physical connectivity to the database.
Check report or dashboard performance issues
Can be used for performance tuning techniques
Check the result retrieval time if the reports are fetching data slowly.
Write any complex table function query.

What are the disadvantages of DDR?
User can by pass a data level security defined in RPD.
User overload production database.
Users can modify the data in the database object.
It’s always recommended to disable DDR option to Production users.

Warning: You can perform SELECT but also CREATE or even DELETE and DROP statement!
The query will directly hit the database and will not connect to any BMM layer and Security.

How to create a Direct Database Access?

Firstly, provide privileges to the users
Admin tool

Go to manager – Security – Select the user name – Permission.
Select Allow on the Execute direct database request.

http://santoshbidw.wordpress.com/category/obiee-10g/obiee-10g-answers/direct-database-request/

Answers – Settings – Administration

Go to Manage Privileges


Search by Direct database request and add User to the permission.

Create Direct Database Request

In the OBIEE11g, go to global header, click on new, click on Analysis, then click on create Direct Database request.