OBIEE Notes Deck Flashcards
OBIEE 10g Certification
describe saved selections options in dashboards
Ans: we need to pick 3 options and the one which we need to eliminate out of 4 is the one with excel import option
Oracle recommended OBI implementation practice?
iterative approach
In which oracle BI configuration file is the web catalog specified?
- The name of the web catalog is specified in the instanceconfig file on the web server. It is found at BI Data/ web/Config folder. You also set sessin expiration parameters in this file. The settings in this file must align with nqsconfig.ini.
what are the oracle stages of a project
There are six Implementation Project Stages.
1. Define Stage
2. Discover Stage
3. Design Stage
4. Configure Stage
5. Validate Stage
6. Deploy Stage
During the Discover Stage, the project team concentrates on refining and documenting the
functional and technical requirements that are needed to support the business goals.
what are common Oracle recommendations on performance improvements?
- using caching
- dash boards design should have less data to return
what are iBots?
Delivers makes use of intelligence agents or Bots (called iBots). iBots are software-based agents
driven by schedule or events that access, filter, and perform analytics on data based upon defined
criteria. Users receive information from iBots in the form of alerts that appear on their designated
delivery devices or dashboards.
To create an iBot, Oracle Business Intelligence administrators and users use Delivers to define the
actions the iBot is to perform. Oracle BI Presentation Services gathers information about the priority,
delivery devices, user, and other characteristics; packages that information into a job; and tells
Oracle BI Scheduler when it wants the job to execute.
The active BI Scheduler instance processes jobs and executes iBot requests.
Communication occurs between BI Presentation Services and BI Scheduler for BI Delivers. When a
web user submits an iBot request, BI Presentation Services establishes communication with BI
Scheduler. BI Presentation Services uses the username and password stored in its credential store
under the alias of “admin” to connect to BI Scheduler. This username and password must match the
BI Scheduler Administrator credential for successful authentication to occur.
connection pooling
one connection pool for each physical layer
The Oracle BI Server can authenticate users through database logons. When a user attempts to log
on to Oracle BI Presentation Services, the Oracle BI Server attempts to use the logon name and
password to connect to the authentication database, using the first connection pool associated with
it. If this connection succeeds, the user is considered to be authenticated successfully.
star schema?
normalization of dimention tables
why do we use aliases on physical layer
in order to avoid circular joins
question of expression builder utility
we need to select 3 options….I remember I selected the last 3 options.
describe the cache manager
Must open rpd in online mode to clear cache, make changes to apply directly Can set max number of rows in cache manager. Polling is managed separately and done at physical layer. Table obieecache contains table names to be refreshed at given interval
catalog manager - what are not recommended?
- giving access to every user
- modifying web catolog in on line mode
What are key terms in Partitioning?
Look for Fact Based and Value Based
what is the difference between and use of session variables and repository variables
/ System variables (e.g. user, group)
Session
\ Non-system variables
/ Dynamic (e.g. yesterday)
Repository
\ Static -- only one of these four NOT refreshed with initialization block
~(e.g. select system -1 for yesterday...)
what are scatter charts
?
question on many to many relation
bridge table - used to smoothly join via I’d relationships between two tables. joins two facts typically. Example from Yves: Passenger bridge to segment
What is a cache hit?
Doesn’t hit the database just shows result from cache
Type 1,2 and 3 slowly changing dimensions
Type 1 overwrites Type 2 tracks history (most common) Type 3 has columns with previous and new values
Setting up aggregate tables = what looks like and when you’d use it
Seema explained the use with various levels on tables. Eg by month
Configuring in the physical layer, bmm or presentation layer
Define CARDINALITY in the physical layer ONLY
What is BI publisher?
Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher is Oracle’s application for creating highly formatted reports. The Oracle BI Publisher environment consists of the Oracle BI Publisher Enterprise server and Oracle BI Publisher Add-ins to Word, Excel, and Acrobat Professional.
Publishing web catalog, web catalog manager tool
You can use Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager to manage the Presentation Catalog.
Oracle Business Intelligence can copy and merge contents of selected Presentation Catalog folders
between instances of Oracle BI Presentation Services. The replication configuration can be split into
individual tasks. The replication task is an instruction to periodically merge catalog contents for
specified catalog folders from one server to another. Two-way replications are possible.
A typical scenario where replication is useful is when you use one instance of Oracle BI Presentation
Services to prepare and publish shared reports, and use two or more production instances to support
the users. In this scenario you share the catalog from Instance 1 to two production instances and
then share the catalogs on each production instance with the other. To accomplish this, you set up
the following replication tasks in the Oracle BI Presentation Services Replication Agent’s (sawrepaj)
configuration file:
■ /shared: Instance1 to Instance2
■ /shared: Instance1 to Instance3
■ /users: Instance2 to Instance3
■ /users: Instance3 to Instance2
When an instance of Oracle BI Presentation Services participates in replication, either as a publisher
or subscriber, it tracks changes made to catalog items that are marked to be replicated and keeps
them internally in replication log files. Another instance of Oracle BI Presentation Services can make
a SOAP call to request to export those changes to a file or to import and replay modifications
recorded in a file exported earlier from another instance. The Oracle BI Presentation Services
Replication Agent uses SOAP to manage replication related activities on all instances of Oracle BI
Presentation Services and performs import and export operations. For information on the SOAP calls
used, read Oracle Business Intelligence Web Services Guide.
Dynamic vs static system and non-system variables. Session variables.
/ System variables (e.g. user, group)
Session
\ Non-system variables
/ Dynamic (e.g. yesterday)
Repository
\ Static -- only one of these four NOT refreshed with initialization block
~(e.g. select system -1 for yesterday...)
Level based measures
?
Troubleshooting aggregate tables and queries leveraging aggregate tables
?
Name the logs
NQquery.log - logs queries subnitted to the db
NQserver.log - logs server process changes
Log level of 0 = no logging. 10 = high. Seldom set above 5
Key files for OBIEE
dbfeatures. ini - fine tuning performance, seldom updated
nqsconfig. ini - specifies rpd, set cache size, parms, locale, case sensitivity, usage tracking (involves 4 tables), possibly to bypass security by settings in this file
instanceconfig. xml - specifies web catalog, session expiry parms; must align with nqsconfig.ini
nqclusterconfig. ini - specify primary and secondary machine names; provides ssl mappings
credentialstore. ini - where credential information is stored that is used by BI Scheduler component
If you wish to see sales data for a product by quarter how would you structure this?
?
Logs and cache management
?
Of what components is the Oracle Business Intelligence comprised?
The Oracle Business Intelligence components consist of:
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Server
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Java Host
What do Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services provide?
The Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services provides the framework and interface for
presentation of Business Intelligence data to web clients. It maintains a Presentation Catalog
service on the file system for the customization of this presentation framework. It is a standalone
process and integrates with the Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services Plug-in
from which it receives web client requests. It communicates with the Oracle Business Intelligence
Server using ODBC over TCP/IP.
What is the Oracle Business Intelligence Server?
The Oracle Business Intelligence Server is a stand-alone process that maintains the logical data
model which it provides to BI Presentation Services via ODBC. Metadata is maintained for the
data model in a local proprietary file called the repository file (rpd). On the back-end, the BI
Server connects to customer data stores via data source adaptors.
What is the Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler?
The Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler is an extensible scheduling application for scheduling
reports to be delivered to users at specified times. It is the engine behind the Oracle Business
Intelligence Delivers feature.
What is the Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher?
The Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher generates highly-formatted, pixel-perfect enterprise
reports.
What does the Oracle Business Intelligence Java Host provide?
The Oracle Business Intelligence Javahost provides services to BI Presentation Services for
Charts, Gauges and PDFs. The services are provided based on request-response model.
What is the Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services Plug-in?
The Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services Plug-in is the entry point for web client
requests to BI Presentation Services. There are two types of BI Presentation Services Plug-ins.
For Oracle Business Intelligence that is serviced by J2EE application servers, the BI Presentation
Services Plug-in is a Java Servlet. For Oracle Business Intelligence where the web server used is
Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS), the Oracle BI Presentation Services Plug-in is an
ISAPI Plug-in.
What are the Oracle BI Cluster Server Components?
The components that comprise the BI Cluster Server feature are:
■ “Oracle Business Intelligence Cluster Controller”
■ “Clustered BI Servers”
■ “Master BI Server”
■ “BI Scheduler”
■ “Cluster Manager”
What does the following diagram represent?
Oracle BI components deployed in a clustered
environment.
What must BI components deployed in a clustered environment share?
A shared storage device such as NAS or SAN may be used.
NOTE: On Windows, the BI services must run under a domain account in order to access network
shares. Do not use the LocalSystem account.
■ Presentation Catalog
■ File Limits
■ Snapshots
■ Repository Publishing Directory
■ Cluster-Aware Cache
■ Scheduler Scripts
Linux or UNIX machines saving to an NTFS qtree in Data ONTAP versions 6.0.3 through 6.3 may
see permission errors when trying to save designs. The following setting may be used that works
to silently ignore attempts to set UNIX permission on NTFS qtrees after the design file is saved:
options cifs.ntfs_ignore_unix_security_ops on
What are the log files for each of the following BI components?
BI Server
BI Cluster Controller
BI Scheduler
BI Presentation
Services
NQServer.log
NQCluster.log
NQScheduler.log
sawlog*.log
host*.log.*
What does the following diagram depict?
Deployment of Oracle BI for High Availability
What are Oracle BI Client Tools and what are key installation considerations for them?
Installing Oracle BI Client Tools (Windows)
BI Client Tools are used to administer and manage BI components. These tools must be installed on
a Windows machine. Refer to the System Requirements and Supported Platforms for Oracle Business
Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition for information on the Windows operating systems that are
supported for Client Tools.
Which Oracle BI components are installed using the Oracle Business Intelligence Installer?
1 For Oracle BI Client Tools, select Basic installation type.
2 For Oracle BI Client Tools, select the setup type Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools.
After you perform this procedure, the following components are installed:
■ Oracle Business Intelligence ODBC Driver
■ Oracle Business Intelligence JDBC Driver
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Client
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager
■ Oracle Business Intelligence Job Manager
In what order should Oracle BI Components be deployed?
Installing Oracle BI Client Tools (Windows)
Installing Oracle BI Cluster Controllers
Installing Oracle BI Server
Installing Oracle BI Scheduler
Installing Oracle BI Presentation Services and Oracle BI
Javahost
Installing Oracle BI Presentation Services Plug-in
What are The Oracle BI components that are enabled for communication over SSL?
The Oracle BI components that are enabled for communication over SSL are:
■ Oracle BI Server
■ Oracle BI Presentation Services
■ Oracle BI JavaHost
■ Oracle BI Presentation Services Plug-in (Java Servlet or ISAPI)
■ Oracle BI Scheduler
■ Oracle BI Job Manager
■ Oracle BI Cluster Controller
■ Oracle BI Server Clients (For example, Oracle BI ODBC Client)
What is SSL?
SSL (Secure Socket Layer) is a secured communication protocol mainly used in communications over
the TCP/IP network protocol suite. By default, components of Oracle BI communicate with each other
using TCP/IP. To support secured network communication, the Oracle BI components need to be
configured for SSL.
Oracle BI components can communicate only through one protocol at a time. To enable SSL, you
must configure each of the Oracle Business Intelligence components listed below to communicate
over SSL. You must configure all instances of these components that occur in your Oracle BI
deployment.
The Oracle BI components that are enabled for communication over SSL are:
■ Oracle BI Server
■ Oracle BI Presentation Services
■ Oracle BI JavaHost
■ Oracle BI Presentation Services Plug-in (Java Servlet or ISAPI)
■ Oracle BI Scheduler
■ Oracle BI Job Manager
■ Oracle BI Cluster Controller
■ Oracle BI Server Clients (For example, Oracle BI ODBC Client)
SSL requires the server to possess a public key and a private key for session negotiation. The public
key is made available through a server certificate. The certificate also contains information that
identifies the server. The private key is protected by the server.
The SSL Everywhere feature supports mutually-authenticated SSL and server-only authentication.
Mutual authentication requires the two BI components involved in communications to both posses
certificates that identify the entities. Server-only authentication mode requires only the BI
component acting as the server to possess a certificate.
What are parameters found in the Execute schconfig located in OracleBI_HOME/setup for SSL?
See attached diagram.
Where do you specify certificate and key paths in BI Presentation Services Credential Store?
For Windows, OracleBIData_HOME\web\config
For Linux or UNIX, OracleBIData_HOME/web/config
Open the credentialstore.xml file for editing.
Add lines similar to the following to specify the paths to the server certificate and private key
files:
<credential><br></br> <key></key> encoding="pem"<br></br> passphraseFile="OracleBI_HOME\ssl\serverpwd.txt"<br></br> path="OracleBI_HOME\ssl\server-key.pem"/><br></br> <certificate><br></br> </certificate></credential>
NOTE: In the above example, the certificate and key paths are stored under the alias
“sawclient”. You may specify any alias value.
What authentication methods are supported by Oracle Business Intelligence?
Database authentication
The Oracle Business Intelligence repository is preconfigured for
database authentication. This may be changed using the Server Administration Tool. See
the Oracle Business Intelligence Server Administration Tool Online Help.
LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server authentication
Oracle Business Intelligence Server supports LDAP in both Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and regular (non-SSL) modes. An
LDAP server treats Oracle Business Intelligence Server as a regular LDAP client. Oracle Business Intelligence Server
supports authentication against multiple LDAP servers.
A DSI (Active Directory Service Interfaces) authentication
Oracle Business Intelligence Server supports ADSI in both Secure Socket Layer (SSL) and regular (non-SSL) modes. An
Active Directory Server treats Oracle Business Intelligence Server as a regular LDAP client. Oracle Business Intelligence Server supports authentication against multiple Active Directory servers. NOTE: Oracle Business Intelligence Server is still a LDAP client when it runs against ADSI.
Name the key Prerequisites for SSO Systems to Integrate With Oracle Business Intelligence
To enable SSO with Oracle Business Intelligence, the SSO system of choice must be able to provide
Oracle BI (specifically, the Oracle BI Presentation Services component) with the username of the
authenticated user that is issuing a request to Oracle BI. Oracle BI Presentation Services must
receive the username of the end user by one of the following mechanisms:
■ Through an HTTP header or HTTP cookie containing the username of the end user. The header
can be any valid HTTP header or cookie name.
■ Or, by using one of the following server-side options:
■ When using a J2EE Application Server and the BI Presentation Services Plug-In (Java
Servlet), from the getRemoteUser method of the
javax.servlet.http.HttpServletRequest.getRemoteUser API.
In this case, the SSO system must be able to integrate with the J2EE environment of choice
and set up the framework such that the getRemoteUser method returns the username of the
end user.
■ When using Internet Information Server (IIS) and the BI Presentation Services Plug-In
(ISAPI Plug-in), from the REMOTE_USER server variable that is populated with the username
of the end user.
REMOTE_USER is a server variable queried through the use of the ISAPI Extension API
GetServerVariable.
What are key Oracle recommendations to Improving Oracle BI Web Client Performance?
Static File Caching
Performance of the Oracle BI web client can be improved by caching small frequently used static files
such as .javascript, .gif and .css files. By enabling caching and content expiration on the web server,
web browsers can be directed to how often they should reload the static files from the server.
NOTE: Static file caching is enabled by default for Oracle HTTP Server when Oracle Business
Intelligence is deployed using Oracle Application Server. The Oracle HTTP Server must be installed
along with the J2EE Server for this automatic configuration to occur. The content expiry time is set
to seven days by default.
Static File Bypass
In deployments using J2EE based application servers, performance can be improved by configuring
the HTTP Server to serve the static files. By default, the static file requests for Oracle BI are served
by the J2EE server.
Because the Oracle BI static files reside outside the HTTP Server’s document root, you must configure
the HTTP Server to access the files from a file system that is not the document root for the HTTP
Server. Consult your vendor documentation for more information on configuring the HTTP Server to
access files not residing in the document root.
On Apache HTTP Servers, the Alias directive may be used to map file systems that lie outside
documentroot to the web space.
configure the bypass of Oracle BI static files from the J2EE server and
direct Oracle HTTP Server to serve the static file requests.
What do The Oracle Business Intelligence components consist of?
The Oracle Business Intelligence components consist of: ■ Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services The Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services provides the framework and interface for presentation of Business Intelligence data to web clients. It maintains a Presentation Catalog service on the file system for the customization of this presentation framework. It is a stand- alone process and integrates with the Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services Plug-in from which it receives web client requests. It communicates with the Oracle Business Intelligence Server using ODBC over TCP/IP. ■ Oracle Business Intelligence Server The Oracle Business Intelligence Server is a stand-alone process that maintains the logical data model which it provides to BI Presentation Services via ODBC. Metadata is maintained for the data model in a local proprietary file called the repository file (rpd). On the back-end, the BI Server connects to customer data stores via data source adaptors. ■ Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler The Oracle Business Intelligence Scheduler is an extensible scheduling application for scheduling reports to be delivered to users at specified times. It is the engine behind the Oracle Business Intelligence Delivers feature. ■ Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher The Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher generates highly-formatted, pixel-perfect enterprise reports. ■ Oracle Business Intelligence Java Host The Oracle Business Intelligence Javahost provides services to BI Presentation Services for Charts, Gauges and PDFs. The services are provided based on request-response model.
What does BI server use to optimize query generation?
- BI server uses DBfeatures.ini to optimize query generation
Note: this file is seldom changed and is found in Oracle BI/server/config folder.
what is found in the nqsconfig.ini file?
nqsconfig.ini - specifies rpd, set cache size, parms, locale, case sensitivity, usage tracking (involves 4 tables), possibly to bypass security by settings in this file
It is found in the directory Oracle BI/server/config
What is found in the nqclusterconfig.ini file?
nqclusterconfig.ini - specify primary and secondary machine names; provides ssl mappings
it is found in the directory Oracle BI/server/config
what is found in the credentialstore.ini file?
credentialstore.ini - where credential information is stored that is used by BI Scheduler component
it is found in the directory BI Data/web/config
what is the default driver installed when installing BI Server?
The default driver installed when installing BI Server is called “AnalyticsWeb”
When is a bridge table most often used?
To link two facts
Example:
FACT: Passenger > (1:1) DIM: Bridge (1:M) > FACT: Segment
What are ways to view and edit or update joins in BI Admin tool when modifying the rpd?
- Menu: MANAGE > Joins
- Right click > Physical Diagram
- Directly using buttons on menu bar
- One more I believe…
