Monday, January 5, 2009

Learning Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE)

I learned how to edit a user in OBIEE without breaking anything (thus no need for a new counter Jake).

At first I thought it would be done through the web application only to find no edit button associated with the user. I had to go through the online repository, update the user, and commit those changes. Not really sure what all that means yet, but it's a start.

I had a crash tutorial on this last week as the person I replaced was off to start his own company. OBIEE is a vast, vast world.

Where does one go to learn OBIEE from the bottom? OTN naturally. The Oracle By Example series is excellent so that's where I started.

First up, Creating a Repository Using the Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool . I've made it through the Physical Mappings and the Business Mappings so far, one more section to go. I can't say I completely understand all the lingo, but I'll catch on sooner or later. I'm more concerned with the basics of support at this point.

General
- Instrumentation

Official Oracle Documentation
- 11.1.1.5
- 11.1.1.3
- 10.1.3.4.1 and prior
- OBIA 7.9.6.3
- OBIA 7.9.6.2

Update 1/13/2011
I have noticed quite a bit of traffic comes to this page so I am going to continue to update it in regards to OBIEE 11g. I'll keep the 10g stuff here as well as many of the principles are the same, I'll just point to specific posts in this section.

Samples
Sample Applications for both 10g and 11g provided by Oracle are here. Good way to learn as you get to see how others do certain tasks.
11.1.1.5 Sample App (v107) is here.
OBIEE 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 - Sample Application (V207)

OBIEE 11g
- Oracle BI EE 11g – Upgrading from BI EE 10g – Repository & Web Catalog
- An Oracle Fusion Middleware 11g Primer for EBS Sysadmins - Don't let the EBS part fool you. Fusion Middleware is now the underpinning of OBIEE so understanding it is key.
- OBIEE 11g - Demystifying the directory structure - Great overview of the new directory structure. I still get lost trying to figure out what is what. Doesn't help that there are multiple folders under different roots with the same name...
--> Here's my take, Fun With Folders!

Startup/Shutdown Stuff

- Startup/Shutdown Script for Linux Installations
- Starting and Stopping Services on Linux (mine)
- OBIEE: Start/Stop Individual Components (Enterprise Manager)
- OBIEE: Start/Stop Individual Components (Manually)

Customization

- Customizing Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g
- OBE: Creating and Deploying Custom Styles, Skin, and Messages in Oracle BI EE 11g

Architecture Series
Mr. Rittman.

- So Just What Does WebLogic Server Do Within OBIEE 11g?
- So How Does Enterprise Manager work, Within OBIEE 11g?

Bob Ertl - Bob is the first person I have seen from the BI team to actually blog. What better place to get information than straight from the source?
- Oracle BI Server Modeling, Part 1- Designing a Query Factory
- Oracle BI Server Modeling 2- Dimensional Schema Shapes
- Oracle BI Server Modeling, Part 3- Conformed Logical Dimensions

OBIEE 10g 10.1.3.4
Blogs
- The RittmanMead blog is the premier online resource for all things OBI EE. It can be found here.
- John Minkjan over at OBIEE 101 has quite a bit of information. He posts often and detail posts. I've already been able to reference individual posts a number of times.
- gerardnico There are some great resources here.
- Christian Berg - who has helped me quite a bit writes over here.
- rnm1978 - same goes for this guy. Very helpful articles.
- OTN Forums

BI Architecture Series
This just started recently by Mark Rittman, I'm looking forward to future posts in this regard:

Inside the Oracle BI Server Part 1 : The BI Server Architecture
Inside the Oracle BI Server Part 2 : How Is A Query Processed?
Inside the Oracle BI Server Part 3 : BI Server In-Memory Joins

How ToInstallation
Miscellaneous
My articles on said subject can be found here.
I'm sure as time goes on my tastes will ebb and flow. I'll update as appropriate.
at

10 comments:

  1. Christian BergJanuary 6, 2009 at 5:15 AM

    Hi Chet,

    it looks like you got the best sources lined up there.

    Should you stumble upon something weird, Venkat's always a good place to have a look as well: http://oraclebizint.wordpress.com/

    Otherwise most of us are anyways in the OTN forums all the time ;-)

    Cheers,
    Christian

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ted SimpsonJanuary 6, 2009 at 5:15 AM

    I have been doing a bunch of DW work lately, too, though not -- ahem -- Oracle brand. ;-)

    Because of that, I have been listening a bit more closely to their BI people and I think they are making a lot of sense lately. I'll try to dig up some resources on this, but they are doing a good job of articulating what they mean by BI versus Analytics versus generic Reporting, etc.

    In the end that may make less of a difference technically, but it helps in the board room. (Do people actually use 'board rooms' any more?)

    ReplyDelete
  3. oraclenerdJanuary 6, 2009 at 9:40 AM

    I'll check that one out Christian, thanks!

    Forums...almost forgot. That's how I learned ApEx. That'll be the first place I go when I have questions.

    ReplyDelete
  4. oraclenerdJanuary 6, 2009 at 9:41 AM

    Ted,

    Sinner. You know you aren't allowed to use those "other" tools! ;)

    ReplyDelete
  5. laomaMarch 2, 2010 at 2:52 PM

    Hi Chet,

    I've been tasked to do everything you have done here. The basic set up works. Now the problems:
    Environment: BI Server on RH 5.3, client tools on Windows XP Pro. All the general processes work, I have connectivity, etc. The wrinkle in this setup is that in mid-stream front office suggested OBIA rpd instead of the default paint.rpd. A database was created with the requisite schema.

    When logging into the analytics, the dashboards are list on the top like they are supposed to be. However, when I click to open one up, this error happens:

    Error Codes: OPR4ONWY:U9IM8TAC:OI2DL65P
    State: HY000. Code: 10058. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 17001] Oracle Error code: 3135, message: ORA-03135: connection lost contact at OCI call OCISessionBegin. [nQSError: 17014] Could not connect to Oracle database. (HY000)

    Where is this being set? I thought I double check everything, but possibly the odbc.ini on the server(?) side??? There are a number of issues. Any help you can give to lead me to the light would be greatly appreciated.

    Rgds,

    laomgm

    ReplyDelete
  6. oraclenerdMarch 2, 2010 at 2:54 PM

    laoma,

    drop me a line at chet@oraclenerd.com, might be able to help you more quickly that way. One of us can post the result once it is resolved.

    chet

    ReplyDelete
  7. DeebzNovember 30, 2010 at 1:45 AM

    Hi,

    I created a repository in offline mode and saved it.
    Now, while opening it, I am prompted for username and password, though, I never set any username/password for it.
    What username/password should I use to open it ?
    Any idea ?

    Regards

    ReplyDelete
  8. oraclenerdNovember 30, 2010 at 2:30 AM

    try Administrator as the username and leave the password blank.

    ReplyDelete
  9. AnonymousMay 27, 2011 at 12:50 AM

    Hi,

    I am installing OBIEE 11.1.1.3.0 on Windows Server 2003 R2 - Enterprise Edition with System Local Administrator rights. When installation reached to 96% a notepad application instance opened and a warning message appears "The filename, directory name or volume label syntax is incorrect". When I opened installation log file "C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\logs" then I found follwing message in it:

    +[2011-05-26T12:33:11.778+04:30] [OUI] [NOTIFICATION] [] [OUI] [tid: 19] [ecid: 0000J0fEf739Hf^_xTx0iW1DrW4Y00000A,0] Exception occured during spawning :Cannot run program "E:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\wls10installer\server103_win32.exe": CreateProcess error=5, Access is denied+

    +[2011-05-26T12:33:11.778+04:30] [OUI] [NOTIFICATION] [] [OUI] [tid: 19] [ecid: 0000J0fEf739Hf^_xTx0iW1DrW4Y00000A,0] Spawning the modified command :C:\WINDOWS\system32\NOTEPAD.EXE E:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\wls10installer\server103_win32.exe -mode=silent -silent_xml=E:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\wls10installer\silent.xml -log=E:\Middleware\Oracle_BI1\wls10installer\product_silent.log+

    After this point; installation does not proceed further. Please suggest/advise what to do to solve this issue.

    Regards,
    Kamran
    kamranali100@hotmail.com

    ReplyDelete
  10. oraclenerdMay 30, 2011 at 11:01 PM

    @kamran

    I have not run across that error before. Have you been able to resolve it yet?

    From the log snippet you supplied, it appears to be a permission problem of some sort. Is your E:\ drive a network/mapped drive is a local secondary drive? I've seen issues before if it's a networked drive and the Local Administrator account does not have the necessary permissions to access it.

    chet

    ReplyDelete