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THE OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF THE ORACLE APPLICATIONS USERS GROUP
SPECIAL
CONFERENCE
ISSUE
Top 10 Tips and Tricks
for Oracle Business
Intelligence
SPRING 2014
IMPLEMENTATION OF A
GLOBAL HRMS UTILIZING
MULTIPLE LANGUAGES
global solutions
This article appeared in the spring 2014 issue of OAUG Insight magazine,
the official publication of the Oracle Applications Users Group
(OAUG), and is reprinted with permission.
Top 10 Tips and Tricks for
Oracle Business Intelligence
By Patrick Callahan, AST Corporation
Sometimes you just want to cut to the chase, sidestep all
of the product jargon, find out what works best and hear tips and tricks from the experts.
This article provides my favorite Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 11g implementation tips and
tricks, providing context and highlighting the value around the related 11g product features and capabilities.
As an introduction, the Oracle BI platform offers many features while providing an open architecture
consolidated into a common enterprise information model. (See Figure 1.)
COMMON
ENTERPRISE
INFORMATION
MODEL
• Common Metadata Foundation across all Data Sources
• Common Security, Access Control, Authorization, Auditing
• Common Request Generation & Optimized Data Access Services
• Common Clustering, Workload Management & Deployment
• Common Systems & Operational Lifecycle Management
Figure 1
Tip #1
Dig Into What’s
New in 11g and
Recent Releases
Whenever I’m asked what’s new
in OBIEE 11g, I often respond “what
isn’t new?” I truly believe that’s the case.
OBIEE 11g was a substantial release,
and each dot release further tweaks
the capabilities and quietly offers new
features. I think the new look and feel
is great, but the enhanced interactions
and animations on top of the new
features really turned out quite well.
I recommend jumping in and
using the basic Sample App offered as
part of the installation or grabbing the
expanded one. You’ll quickly realize
the high-fidelity charting across the
powerful user interfaces with interactive
analytics that include animated
transitions and master-detail linking.
There is more to come on those fronts.
Moreover, BI Publisher has a
brand new online layout builder, which
finally brings development into the
OBIEE environment. BI Publisher is
a strategic solution for Oracle and will
continue to get enhanced. The new
editor is page oriented and interactive
with instant preview capabilities – all
well-received features of the editor.
Another new component of 11g
is Oracle Scorecard and Strategy
Management (OSSM), Oracle’s new
strategic solution for performance
scorecards (replacing Hyperion
Performance Scorecard). Its integration
By Paul Martin and Fred Janzen,
Western University Canada
­30
OAUG SOLUTION
1
oaug insight
into OBIEE is a big plus, with all
of your BI metadata (metrics, etc.)
available to feed into and enrich your
scorecards. The standard methodologies
are supported (Balanced, Six Sigma,
Baldridge). Overall, the solution
offers strategy visualization with
strategy maps and trees, cause and
effects, watch lists and annotations.
With the recent OBIEE 11.1.1.7
release, there are more features to
support Oracle Essbase, a new “Oracle
Fusion Apps” look and feel, new graph
types (waterfall, performance tile, 100
percent stacked bar, etc.), visualization
suggestions and breadcrumbs when
drilling into reports (finally). All of
these new features, mostly visualizations,
are worthy of experimentation.
Tip #2
Learn the
Architecture and
Terminology Not to be overlooked is the fact that
much of the OBIEE 11g architecture
has changed, and with that comes new
terminology that must be understood.
A key differentiation is the fact that
OBIEE now resides or is deployed within
WebLogic (WLS) as a WLS domain.
The following terms are important
for understanding how the BI system
within 11g functions and is managed.
In general, they apply to Oracle’s
architecture schematic (See Figure 2).
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Oracle BI Domain - the overall
OBIEE system.
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WebLogic Domain - set of WebLogic
instances servicing applications.
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Admin Server (WebLogic) - provides
management of both the WebLogic
OAUG FEATURE
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spring 2014
Figure 2
and BI Domain; only one (1) per
WebLogic Domain.
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Managed Server (WebLogic)
- contains deployed J2EE BI
application.
Node Manager (WebLogic) - daemon
process that provides remote server
start, stop and restart capabilities in
addition to monitoring.
Oracle BI System Components – this
includes the BI Server, Presentation
Server, Scheduler, Cluster Controller
and Java host.
Oracle BI J2EE Components – this
includes BI Publisher, BI Office,
Action Framework Service, BI SAW
Bridge Plug-in, Security and Web
Services for SOA.
This architecture applies to the
installation as well. No longer just an
option, repositories must be created
before installation using the Repository
Creation Utility (RCU); minimally,
the MDS and BIPLATFORM
schemas are needed. From there,
you have a few installation options
that I would like to explain:
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Simple – For development machines/
laptops only; this installation option
combines Admin and Managed
Servers so it cannot be “scaled out.”
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Enterprise - Includes configuration
steps; generally used when
doing primary server installs.
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Software Only - Configuration
is separate; generally used when
scaling out or adding components.
If you are simply sampling OBIEE
11g, go with the simple install. For
recommendations on sizing and capacity
planning, I suggest referring to Doc ID
1323646.1, available online from Oracle.
Related to installation, there are
a couple of configuration tidbits to
consider. First, installing a separate
web server is recommended for HTTP
compression and caching, especially for
larger user bases. WebLogic’s embedded
web server is not optimal; installing
and configuring Oracle HTTP Server
is now an option during install and you
can enable compression / caching by
editing the httpd.conf file. For earlier
11g installs, you can separately install
oaug.org
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The OBIEE Model
USER
REQUESTS
Logical Queries
PRESENTATION
CATALOG
BUSINESS
MODELS
PHYSICAL
MODELS
DATA
SOURCES
Dimensional
Models
Star Schemas
Snowflakes
SQL
Multi-Dimensional
XML/A
Normalized
Denormalized
Native SQL
XML Files
XML, CSV, Excel,
Flat Files, etc.
Role-Based
Subject Areas
Figure 3
and configure Oracle HTTP Server or
your web server of choice. Though BI
is dynamic in nature, the platform can
still benefit from such optimizations.
Oracle also provides an Upgrade
Assistant in 11g to help users migrate
from 10g and Patch Set Assistants
ongoing. These upgrade the repository
(RPD) and presentation catalog. The
Upgrade Assistant actually deploys
everything as well. As a result, you
need a working BI 11g environment
for this to work. This is necessary
because the UA ports users from the
10g RPD into WebLogic; users are
no longer in the RPD in 11g. Thus,
when migrating 11g environments,
one must migrate the Identity Store,
Credential Store and Policy Store.
One last note: New in 11.1.1.7 is
the OBIEERPDPWDCHG utility that
allows one to change RPD password
from command line. Cool stuff!
Tip #3
Don’t Ignore
Your Data
Warehouse
Design
Yes, OBIEE 11g is a great BI
solution offering robust features, even
federated data sources. I consider
federated configurations as earlystage solutions since sophisticated
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OAUG SOLUTION
analytics solutions typically require
data quality applications and well
architected models at the physical layer
to produce the desired results. To that
end, I generally architect a data mart
(warehouse) underlying OBIEE to
support my analytics requirements.
Going into this activity, I try to
follow some core data warehousing
and BI modeling principles gleaned
from experts like Ralph Kimball*:
1. Target a business process
or subject area.
2. Solidify the level of detail
or grain. By default, capture
the lowest level of detail that
promotes drill-down capabilities
and makes BI “operational.”
3. Identify the dimensions by which
data needs to be analyzed. This is
how to slice and dice the data?
4. Identify the metrics to be included
for analysis. This is what numbers
and calculations are desired.
FOOTNOTE: *Kimball, Ralph; Margy
Ross (2013). The Data Warehouse
Toolkit: The Definitive Guide to
Dimensional Modeling (3rd ed.).
Wiley. ISBN 978-1-118-53080-1
For the basis of modeling, I always
target snowflake (dimensions in multiple
tables) and star (dimensions in single
table) schemas since such models are
well supported by every BI solution (not
just Oracle) and eventually translate well
into multi-dimensional implementations
within Essbase or otherwise.
When you are modeling, also
adhere to data modeling standards.
If you don’t currently have defined
data modeling standards, the Oracle
Business Analytics Warehouse Data
Model Reference is a good start.
Finally, the physical implementation
of a data warehouse model is important
as every RDBMS has many options
to choose from. First and foremost, all
dimension tables need primary keys
and, with few exceptions, these ought
to be surrogate keys. Natural keys must
still exist as attributes and be used
by ETL. A “dummy” (blank/zero/
placeholder) record is recommended
for each dimension. All fact tables
must have foreign keys to dimensions,
and these ought to have indexes.
In Oracle, choose from standard,
bitmap or bitmap-join indexes (stores
rowid for primary key as well – uses
more storage). If bitmap or bitmapjoin indexes are implemented and
STAR_TRANSFORMATION_
ENABLED=TRUE, the Oracle
database will force sub-queries
against the dimensions before the
oaug insight
fact. Partitioning will almost always
help in a BI environment and
materialized views are often a good
choice for generating aggregates.
For larger implementations, one
might consider Oracle Exalytics for its
optimized BI connectivity, advanced
data visualization capabilities and its
plug-and-play architecture. Another
benefit of Oracle Exalytics is that it
can also support Oracle EPM solutions
like Hyperion Planning on top of
Oracle Essbase; some of our clients
co-mingle these on the same machines.
Tip #4
Allocate Enough
Time for Oracle
BI Repository
Design
With very little change from
10g, the OBIEE repository is the
“nuts and bolts” of an Oracle BI
implementation. The connections
to data sources, analytics modeling,
definition of presentation subject
areas and all related metadata are
managed here. The schematic in
Figure 3 highlights the key areas.
Moving from right to left in the
schematic, the Physical Models define
components for physical queries,
aligning with data source structures and
encapsulating source dependencies for
portability and federation purposes.
The most important aspect of
the BI repository is the Business
Model in the center. Here, analytic
behavior is defined, abstraction of
sources occurs, mappings for each
logical column (decision rules, etc.) are
implemented and dimensions and their
related hierarchies are confirmed.
Finally, the Presentation Catalog
offers a structured view of the
dimensional business model and general
organization of objects with desired
names and descriptive overrides.
Within Oracle’s BI Administration
tool, the facility where the RPD is
created and modified, there are some
very helpful utilities available through
the menu options. For the bulk work
associated with building and maintaining
models and subject areas, the Replace
Columns or Table in Logical Table
Sources, Rename Wizard, Update
Physical Layer and Remove Unused
Physical Objects options are great.
In particular, the Rename Wizard
is great for initial model cleanup of
names, such as making them more
discernible for business users and
less like physical database names.
For metadata documentation, the
Repository Documentation (delimited
output) and Generate Metadata
Dictionary (will need to configure
online access) options are great. For
deploying change, the Generate
Deployment File option works well.
Not necessarily an RPD utility but
a new option in 11g is the Creating
Subject Areas for Logical Stars,
Snowflakes facility that is available
when you select a business model and
right mouse-click to get a pop-up
menu. With this, the facility simply
creates a subject area for every fact in
the selected business model, including
all necessary metrics and dimensions.
This is a creative way to quickly kick off
design and POC development efforts.
Finally, you may want to further
look into the “externalizing” metadata
objects for localization requirements
and the use of new lookup tables in 11g
for translations of dimensional data.
Tip #5
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spring 2014
objects (charts). Within the layout
editor of the Results tab for an analysis
definition, go ahead and move a
report element into the section area
below the graph prompts, and ensure
the “Display as slider” checkbox is
checked. It’s that easy to do and surely
will be well-received by your users.
Another neat, new feature of 11g
is Chart Zooming. This is a simple
enhancement to the UI that may benefit
some users. First, on the graph properties
page (on the Canvas tab), one can
selectively enable “Zoom and Scroll”
for the vertical and horizontal axes.
With that set, the zip option (seen as a
magnifying glass icon), is available along
the lower left side of the chart. When
selected, the zooming occurs in-line, and
the scrolling window can be adjusted by
sizing the bar within the scrolling widget
itself. Occasionally, we encounter some
flaky behavior with this feature, but all in
all, it’s a nice facility to have available.
In 11.1.1.6, one could enable
“freeze panes” to replace the pagebased navigation through data
records (this requires a change to the
instanceconfig.xml file). However,
this becomes the default in 11.1.1.7.
Also in 11.1.1.7, one can give
users the ability to select, add, remove,
group, calculate, sub-total, etc., during
runtime; these settings are on the
Analysis Properties page (Figure 4).
Once enabled, users can do much more
without having to “edit” an analysis.
Take Full
Advantage of User Experience
Enhancements
We’ve seen our users fully
embrace the use of “sliders” in lieu of
standard prompts. Honestly, slidertype dashboards and page prompts
are less attractive. Here, I’m talking
more about sliders used within analysis
Figure 4
oaug.org ­33
Tip #6
Make BI
Interactive
I’m a big proponent of the
interactive features of OBIEE 11g,
the “wow factor” it often has on users
and the overall role it has in making
BI “actionable.” The key component
of this in OBIEE is what is referred
to as the “Action Framework,” which
includes agents and actions. In many
respects, agents are the new generation
of iBots from 10g and earlier; they
enable business processes and provide
event-driven alerting, scheduled
content publishing and conditional
event-driven actions. Agents have
various subscription and recipient
options, and complex layered triggering
requirements can be implemented.
Moreover, “alerts” (via
agents) can be delivered:
1) To the alerts section of
the Home page.
2) To the first page of My Dashboard.
3) On any dashboard page.
4) Within the dialog displayed
from the “Alerts!” button
in the global header.
5) To specific delivery
devices (phones, etc.).
Finally, actions allow for
enabling navigation or invoking
of services or other requests.
Another interactive feature of
OBIEE 11g is “Master-Detail Linking,”
which is the interaction between separate
analyses (charts, reports). This capability
is helpful in making a dashboard page
come alive and effectively react to
the actions of the user. For example,
selecting a year, department or product
in one chart flows down to “linked”
charts or tables across the dashboard
– the effect is great. At a high level,
this interaction is done by an event
­34
OAUG SOLUTION
being initiated by a driving analysis
with other analyses listening for the
specified event. First, pick a driving
column (report element) on the “Master”
to initiate the event, also specifying a
channel name. Second, have the “Detail”
analyses listening; it’s possible to list
multiple event channels. In the end, it
is quite easy to set up and implement
for key dashboards in your OBIEE
11g deployment. This same linking
capability can be applied to maps.
Tip #7
Leverage
Integrated
Hyperion
Solutions
New with version 11.1.1.7, there
are many integrated Hyperion-related
tools. OBIEE adds these tools to the
list of BI desktop tools that are available
for download. The first tool is Oracle
Hyperion Smart View for Office,
which provides more robust features
than the previous/current BI Office
solution. Also, if Essbase is selected
as part of the installation, you get the
following: Oracle Hyperion Financial
Reporting Studio, Oracle Essbase
Studio Console and Oracle Essbase
Administrative Services Console.
To get Smart View set
up, follow these steps:
and clicking on the “View Designer”
option. You’ll notice the subject
areas look familiar, and the user
interface is pretty self-explanatory.
Tip #8
I think most people who implement
technical solutions realize that you have
to be prepared for and offer solutions
to users of all types and skill levels.
That is no different with analytics
solutions, even though they are supposed
to be inherently straightforward.
With its core report building and
ad hoc capabilities, OBIEE 11g is,
in fact, quite easy for most users.
For those users who could benefit
from a wizard-driven approach, you
can enable BI Composer, a little known
component of OBIEE 11g. There is
some configuration required; those
steps are easily accessible online.
To turn BI Composer on, go to
account settings while logged into
OBIEE and set “Analysis Editor” to
Wizard (or turn “Accessibility Mode”
on in earlier 11g releases). Once this
mode is enabled, you’ll notice that your
1) Download and install from the “BI
desktop tools” area of home page.
2) Go into Microsoft Excel.
3) On SmartView ribbon,
click on “Panel” and set up
a Private Connection.
4) Choose OBIEE for the provider.
5) Enter Server and Credentials
(for the server, change as
follows:../analytics/jbips).
Once installed and configured,
one can begin designing and building
content by going to the “Oracle BI
EE” ribbon within Microsoft Excel
Consider All
of Your Users
Figure 5
oaug insight
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options change in OBIEE and “analysis”
now means something different.
Creating a new analysis now
takes you to the BI Composer
wizard. (See Figure 5.)
This whole approach does not seem
well thought out, and I’m uncertain as
to whether or not this functionality will
survive in future releases. It would have
been nice to have the option to use the
wizard or not without enabling a mode
that changes the process. Go ahead
and give it a try; it may be just what
some of your users are looking for.
Tip #9
Utilize Metrics
for System
Performance
The move to WebLogic has
additional benefits, as Enterprise
Manager (EM) now offers a ton of
information for you to assess and
investigate the performance of your
OBIEE 11g environments and
applications. By logging into EM,
navigating to the AdminServer area
and selecting “Performance Summary”
from the drop down menu at the top,
you’ll quickly gain access to a ton of
available performance metrics. These
include many variations around resource
usage and performance areas. Plus, the
timeframe to be analyzed can easily be
targeted with the on-screen options.
The metric palette on the right-hand
side of the “Performance Summary”
screen organizes the available metrics
for selection. (See Figure 6.)
Figure 6
But it’s important to be iterative and
make progress each time, offering
new, actionable content with every
release. Commit to a continuous
cycle of data gathering, analysis,
planning and action. (See Figure 7.)
I have found the following online
documentation areas and examples
quite helpful in starting with 11g:
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Tip #10
BI is truly a process and an
evolution for any organization.
Depending on where you are starting,
goals can be conservative or aggressive.
Sample Applications:
– “Lite” comes with installation.
– Full version of SampleApp
available for download: http://
www.oracle.com/technetwork/
middleware/bi-foundation/
obiee-samples-167534.html
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OBIEE Tutorials
(Oracle by Example):
and good luck with your OBIEE 11g
implementations! Many thanks to the
AST BI team members and Oracle
PTS BI experts that offered their
experience and insights to this article.
Patrick Callahan is the senior practice
director of Business Intelligence/EPM at
AST Corporation (astcorporation.com),
additionally product manager of AST’s
Grants Analytics and ASTRA BI
solutions for Airports and Transits. His
experience centers in BI and EPM, data
warehousing, program management,
Oracle Applications and core technologies.
Patrick has presented at Oracle OpenWorld,
COLLABORATE, Oracle Tech Days,
Oracle Developer Tools User Group
(ODTUG) and many regional conferences.
–http://www.oracle.com/
technetwork/middleware/
bi-foundation/obieesamples-167534.html
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Finally, Be
Iterative!
spring 2014
OBIEE Documentation:
–http://download.
oracle.com/docs/cd/
E21764_01/bi.htm
Conclusion
In summary, OBIEE 11g
has a lot to offer. Digging in
and getting your hands dirty
is the way to go. Best wishes
Gather Data
Assets
Take
Action
Derive
Strategies
Consolidate
Information
Analyze &
Report Insights
Figure 7
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