Category: Business Intelligence (BI) Development

Business Intelligence (BI) Development, Business Intelligence Platform, Reporting

OBIEE 10g: Unable to sort table although “Enable column sorting in dashboards” is checked

I discovered an interesting scenario recently. Although “Enable column sorting in dashboards” was checked (turned on), I was unable to sort on a particular table.  The mouse icon changed when I moused-over the column headings which gave the impression that it would sort, but it simply did not work.

Turns out there was an invalid “view” above the Table object in the Compound Layout. This happens when an object is removed from an analysis/request and its placeholder is not removed from the Compound Layout. See the screenshot below – notice the empty placeholder above the table with the message “The view that was in this position the the Compound Layout is no longer available. …”.

To fix the problem, simply remove/delete that invalid view from the compound layout and you will now be able to sort the table.

Business Intelligence (BI) Development, Reporting

The difference between using logical columns and physical columns in derived columns calculations

When you define a calculated measure column using a logical column, OBIEE performs the aggregation for the columns used in the calculation first, before applying the calculation.

So for example, if a calculated measure (Total Revenue) is derived from the product of two LOGICAL columns (Unit Price x Number of Items), then OBIEE will create SQL such that the Unit Price and Number of Items columns are aggregated first, and then the multiplication.

However, if the calculated measure is derived from the product of two PHYSICAL columns, then the multiplication will be executed first, and then the aggregation after.

This can make a difference in some cases, so know what you want to accomplish and then carefully choose the appropriate column type for your derived column.

BI Administration, Business Intelligence (BI) Development, Business Intelligence Platform

OBIEE 10g and OBIEE 11g directory structure comparisons

I got this chart from one of Oracle’s documents, and thought it would be handy to post for easy lookup and it might come in handy for someone searching for information on the directory parallels between OBIEE 10g and OBIEE 11g.

OBIEE 11g Key Directories and the corresponding 10g directories

Directory or Files 10g & 11g Locations
AdminTool.sh equalizerpds.sh/equalizerpds.exe JobManager.sh MigrateEUL.sh NQClient.sh nqcmd.sh/nqcmd.exe 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Bin

 

11g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/bifoundation/server/bin
DBFeatures.INI NQSConfig.INI 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Config

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OracleBIServerComponent
/coreapplication_obisn
NQClusterConfig.INI 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Config

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/config/OracleBIApplication
/coreapplication
NQQuery.log NQSAdminTool.log NQServer.log 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Log

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/diagnostics/logs
/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obis1
Oracle BI Server repository directory:

  • SampleAppLite.rpd
  • paint.rpd
 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Repository

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation
/OracleBIServerComponent/coreapplication_obisn/repository
Samples:

  • order.xml
  • Product.xml
  • samplesales.udml
 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Sample/samplesales

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation/OracleBIServerComponent
/coreapplication_obisn/sample/SampleAppFiles
Usage Tracking:

  • SQL_Server_Time
  • UsageTracking.rpd
  • UsageTracking.zip
 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Sample/usagetracking

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation/OracleBIServerComponent
/coreapplication_obisn/sample/usagetracking
Other Schemas (for example):

  • Oracle_alter_nq_acct.sql
  • SAACCT.DB2.sql
  • SAACCT.MSSQL.sql
  • SAACCT.Oracle.sql

Note: Use the Repository Creation Utility to install the Oracle BI Schema

 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/server/Sample/Schema

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation/OracleBIServerComponent
/coreapplication_obisn/schema
  • credentialstore.xml
  • instanceconfig.xml (for Presentation Services)
  • userpref_currencies.xml
 10g: OracleBIData/web/config

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/config
/OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent/coreapplication_obipsn
  • JavaHost
  • sawlog0.log
 10g: OracleBIData/web/log

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/diagnostics/logs
/OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent/coreapplication_obipsn
catalogmanager.exe 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOMEwebcatalogmanager

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCEbifoundation
OracleBIPresentationServicesComponentcoreapplication_obipsn

catalogmanagerruncat.cmd
instanceconfig.xml (for Oracle BI Scheduler) 10g: OracleBIDatawebconfig

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCEconfigOracleBISchedulerComponent
coreapplication_obischn
  • odbc.ini
  • user.sh
 10g: BI_ORACLE_HOME/setup

 

11g: ORACLE_INSTANCE/bifoundation/OracleBIApplication
/coreapplication/setup
BI Administration, Business Intelligence (BI) Development, Business Intelligence Platform

Troubleshooting OBIEE 11g

A couple tips on how to resolve some OBIEE 11g errors. When you receive an error such as …

“Supplementary information regarding operation: PROCESS:instance1:coreapplication_obisch1;FAILED_TO_START;
Operation Failed: start; OracleInstance: instance1; Component: coreapplication_obisch1; msg: 0 of 1 processes
started.”

or this …

“Error 500–Internal Server Error
From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol — HTTP/1.1:
10.5.1 500 Internal Server Error
The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request.”

1. First check to make sure your database instance and Listener are up and running.
You can do this through Enterprise Manager by connecting to the server/port.
https://hostname:1158/em/

If they are not running, then start them.
On Windows, you may need to make sure that the following Services are running:
. OracleServiceORCL
. OracleOraDb11g_home1ClrAgent
. OracleOraDb11g_home1TNSListener

2. Then check the status of other OBIEE components.
You can do this through the OBIEE Enterprise Manager.
http://hostname:7001/em/ then navigating to Business Intelligence -> coreapplication -> Availability tab.

or by running the opmnctl command as below
[Drive][FMW_HOME_DIR]instancesinstance1bin>opmnctl status
for example C:obiee11ginstancesinstance1bin> opmnctl status

In the example below, the BI Scheduler (coreapplication_obisch1) and the BI Presentation Server (coreapplication_obips1) are down.

Processes in Instance: instance1
———————————+——————–+———+———
ias-component | process-type | pid | status
———————————+——————–+———+———
coreapplication_obiccs1 | OracleBIClusterCo~ | 10136 | Alive
coreapplication_obisch1 | OracleBIScheduler~ | N/A | Down
coreapplication_obijh1 | OracleBIJavaHostC~ | 8396 | Alive
coreapplication_obips1 | OracleBIPresentat~ | N/A | Down
coreapplication_obis1 | OracleBIServerCom~ | 6736 | Alive

You can start the individual components using Enterprise Manager interface, or you may Stop BI Services and then Start BI Services from the Windows Start button
(Start -> All Programs -> Oracle Business Intelligence -> Stop/Start BI Services).

Business Intelligence (BI) Development, Business Intelligence Platform

Changing the name of a Subject Area in OBIEE 10g (in preparation for upgrade to 11g)

This article shares a few steps for renaming a “Subject Area” in OBIEE 10g.  OBIEE 10g allowed leading spaces in Subject Area names. You may have done this to alter the sort order of your Subject Areas without using leading numbers. This would result in only a Warning message when you checked the repository’s consistency.  However, leading spaces in Subject Area names is not allowed in OBIEE 11g, and will result in an Error.

So, if you are upgrading to OBIEE 11g then you will need to change the Subject Area name(s) to remove leading spaces or you may need to change Subject Area name(s) for other reasons.

Here are a few steps to consider but I recommend that you perform these steps for one subject area first, confirm all is well, then repeat steps for all subject areas.

  1. Stop the Presentation Server.
  2. In the Oracle BI Administration Tool, manually rename the Subject Area(s) in the Presentation Layer (and remove the leading spaces if that was the reason for the rename).
  3. Log into Catalog Manager in online mode, and navigate to Tools –> XML Search and Replace
  4. Carefully set the text you would like to replace with the new text – but make sure the text string is unique enough so that you do not inadvertently changed text that you don’t want to change.  Repeat for each name change that is required.
  5. You may need to manually open your prompts in Answers to change the Subject Area names in the custom SQLs used to generate defaults and drop down lists.
  6. Restart the Presentation Server and test your changes.