VNC Server password reset

A very useful utility for linux users / admins is the VNC server / client that provides GUI interface. It is much simpler than the x-windows utilities and achieves the same goal of launching GUI applications on linux. Conceptually, you login to linux using putty application and give following command to launch vncserver

$ vncserver

This will prompt you to create a password, which can be anything. Upon successful launch, it will inform you of the vncserver details, including the port number.

Next on your windows client, install "VNC Viewer" software and connect to this server. Thats it!! Now if you give command "firefox" this should open up a web browser window. You can launch any GUI application like RCU or OBIEE installer.

Now if you end up forgetting VNC server password that was given earlier, perform following steps:

• Kill vnc process 'Xvnc' that was started by given user
• remove file in users home directory /home/userid/.vnc/passwd

• Remove file /tmp/.X1-lock to release the port used by previous vnc server session - This is optional step. If lock is not removed, vnc will assign next available port to the server, but make sure to use assigned port when connecting from VNC Viewer.

OBIEE 11g services started but coreapplication is down / red.

Our OBIEE 11.1.1.6.5 instance was runing fine, I had to restart the BI services, after which I noticed obiee application was not working properly. I checked in em, all services were up and running:

However the coreapplication parent status in the tree structure was still showing as red:

This appears to be a common problem, and solution seems to be stopped deployments in weblogic console.

Open weblogic console and navigate to deployment:

Search deployments with the status of 'Prepared' (sort by the status) and select them. Next, click on start:

This will prompt you if you want to start the selected deployments, choose yes:

This will change the status from prepared to 'Active'

Once this has been done for all stopped deployments, go back to EM and refresh the screen, All services should appear to be started now:

User unable to view any dashboards or reports to which he has access

We had  a new OBIEE user, that was added to an application role, but was still not able to vew dashboards and reports. This user did not have any subject area access, nor did he have access to create new reports / analysis. The user was just BI Publisher consumer which were also added to dashboards, and not for Analysis reports. We checked following, but nothing seems to fix the issue:

-The user was added to an application role, and this application role had read permission to the folder, right from root, all the way to dashboard and report level.
-The user was part of the application role that had access to my reports and my dashboards area.
-Other users part of same application role were able to view dashboards intended for the role.
-We were unable to add user directly to catalog group (or any user)
-When admin used 'act as' functionality, the dashboard was still not showing up even for admin

After trying several combination, we added the user to another application role, to see how permissions change. After doing this, we noticed that user was able to view the new dashboards as well as the dashboard which he was intended to view. Next, we removed the user from newly added role, and now the dashboard permissions kept working.

Appears to be clearly a bug. For solution like these the going goes, implementing BI is an art, as echoed by my client as well. It is more true for OBIEE 11g per say. Just an FYI, we had this issue on 11.1.1.6.9

Arun~

Catalog Manager does not launch / open in version 11.1.1.7.1 (and 11.1.1.7.0)

Issue:

I was unable to launch catalog manager for 11.1.1.7.0 / 11.1.1.7.1 version of OBIEE. I installed Catalog Manager using client tools installation for 64bit machine.

 

The full path where OBIEE 64bit client tools were installed was:

C:\Program Files\Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Tools\

 

The AdminTool works fine but catalog manager does not open. When I launch CatalogManager from programs menu, nothing happens.

I went to the following path using windows explorer:

C:\Program Files\Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client Tools\oraclebi\orahome\bifoundation\web\catalogmanager

and manually executed  - runcat.cmd 

And got error

Solution:

Then I edited the  runcat.cmd file and specified the actual path for variable $USER_INSTALL_DIR$. Note since the path has space in it, we have to provide path in quotes. This appears to be known bug for 11.1.1.7.x version of OBIEE.

The above should resolve the issue for most. If you still face issue, the easiest thing to do would be to uninstall the client tools and reinstall it under C:\obiee folder instead of c:\program files OR with any folder which doesn’t have a space in its path.

Hiding Export to Excel or CSV function in OBIEE 11g dashboards

OBIEE 11g has multiple export options including PDF, Excel, Powerpoint, Web Archive, CSV, Tab delimited, XML etc. There could be a need where business do not want users to download the report and edit the data before sharing it. This can be prevented by disabling excel / CSV etc options.

 

 

 

The way to do this is uncheck 'Export' Option in the dashboard properties, and leaving the 'Print option' checked. This will give following two options and excel of CSV will be disabled.

 

 

OBIEE 11g Catalog Manager Extract Report

Last year I posted an article about Catalog manager export in 10g version, below it the link for anyone's reference.

http://obiee911.blogspot.com/2012/05/how-to-find-rpd-column-usage-in-bi.html


There was an issue in this export in 10g, i.e. export would sometime insert uneven number of 'Tabs' as seperation for columns. This would mess up when opening the export in excel, as columns would get misaligned and make analysis difficult.

Looks like Oracle has made some fixes to handle this in 11g. I saw option to make export excel compatible:

After using this option, I have so far not faced any issue of misalignment, hopefully the issue is resolved for good!!. This is a big achievement according to me, as it helps us developers as well as business analysits for mapping the columns usage in the reports and dashboards.

The catalog manager report extract provides a list of presentation columns used in the reports, and similar report created from RPD admin tool, can provide mapping from presentation layer all the way to physical column name. This is a big help for Subject Area any clean up excercises or when making a decision on column changes which impacts multiple dashboards.

For your info, I tried this on OBIEE 11.1.1.6.6 version.



OBIEE 11g query appears to be not working

I noticed queries generated in OBIEE 11g seems to have following line as part of the database query

select distinct 0 as c1 

I am not sure why BI adds this, but for long time I though my report is having issue becuse of this line in the query. After lot of research, I found actual issue to be something else, but the above line always seem to appear even in working queries. Not sure why and whats the use of it??

Achieved OBIEE 11g Foundation Suite Implementation Certification? What next?

Oracle's OBIEE certification path has four different exams, all leading to independent certifications. Oracle's exam 1Z0-591 is the key exam to become Oracle 11g certified implementation specialist. It just has one exam that will get the certification required. The screen shot below shows the basic details of this exam:

The above page can be accesed by clicking here (follow this link two times, it only works the second time from what I have noticed)

Once this is cleared, Oracle provides three other complementary certifications, which will add value to any one looking to get more out of the certifications:

1. First is the  "Oracle Database 11g Data Warehousing Essentials" ; Exam Number: 1Z0-515;

Above page can be accessed by clicking here

This really requires working on database side, data mining and Exalytics. It complements OBIEE 11g exam# 1Z0-591. Both #591 and #515 are independent certifications. Note: passing score for this exam is 78%, which is a lot more than 63% for #591.

2. Next exam is "Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 7 for CRM Essentials"; Exam number 1Z0-524

 Above page can be accessed by clicking here

This exam includes BI Apps components, i.e. out of the box mappings, DAC, RPD etc and required knowledge of CRM BI Apps.

3. Next is the "Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 7 for ERP Essentials"; exam number 1Z0-525

Above page can be accessed by clicking here

This exam is some overlap in topics with #524, as it also includes BI Apps. But this one focuses on eBusiness Suite side of BI Apps.

Depending of what you are working on currently, any of these complimentary exams can be given without any specific exam order, as they are all independent certifications. Hope this information helps.

OBIEE 11g Navigation to other reports does not pass all prompt / attribute values

I created a summary and a detail report in 11g. When I was clicking on a number in summary, it was navigating to the detail, but it did not pass the prompts for Year and month that was selected in summary. I cheked the detail report, the year and month filters were present.

After much deliberation, I found the issue in the way I was creating the prompt. In 11g, we have the option of selecting columns from multiple subject areas in the prompt, and I was using this to add same fields using icon below:

When you are in select columns dialog box, the green icon at the top allows you to select different subject area, following by letting you add columns from that SA. That works good, but the problem is that syntax of column in summary report and here in drill report will now be different, which will make drill down/navigation not to pass values to target.

To avoid this, start with subject area that has all the fields from where drill down needs to pass values, then add columns from other SA. Hope this helps.

Open World Registration is open!!!

I just got my Oracle OpenWorld 2013 registration confirmed!!! Im really excited about it. Here is the link if anyone is interested :

http://www.oracle.com/openworld/register/packages/index.html#tab

OBIEE 11.1.1.7.1 released?

On OTN's download page, we see Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 11.1.1.7.1. Its a bit confusing. The version series is from OBIEE platform while the name is from OBIA. The last available applications version was 7.9.6.4.

When I click on 'All Supported Platforms", it shows the break down. The platform version is 11.1.1.7.0 while BI Apps is 11.1.1.7.1. So looks like version series jumped from 7.9.6.4 to 11.1.1.7.1 ?

Im not sure if we should expect OBIEE 11.1.1.7.2 version for platform or 11.1.1.7.1 just as a catch up platform version.

OBIEE RPD password lost?

Is there a way around if password for OBIEE RPD is lost?

In the days of OBIEE 10g, we had an option in NQSCONFIG.ini file to bypass the authentication by changing authentication type, and setting it to bypass, using the following parameter:

When we save this file, after that RPD will open no matter what user ID / password is specified.

However, this security loophole was plugged in OBIEE 11g. If password for RPD is lost for 11g, starting from scratch might be the only option.

The above loophole can be especially dangerous, if someone can get a copy of production RPD, which points to production databases. It can be used (or misused) to build reports pointing directly to production databases (which does not require someone to know password for production database).

OBIEE 11g Scalling Vs High Availability

Scalling and High Availability go hand in hand, but they are different.

Scalling is used to achieve higher capacity of the system in terms of ability to handle more load, but it may or may not provide high availability.

High Availability on the other hand is achieved through a way of scalling out an installation.

More documentation on this topic available at following link:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/bi.1111/e10541/part3.htm#BABBHIJB

OBIEE 11g with two RPD? Can we do that?

I get this question asked frequently, that can we deploy two RPDs to OBIEE servers?

Straight answer to that is no we cannot, however the workaround is to build two BI stacks if there is a need. For example, HR and Finance teams might have different RPD for security reasons. In most of these cases, there will also be a need to have separate development or maintenance teams. Thats why two BI stacks will make sense. In rest of the cases, a multi user development env (MUD) might be enough.

OBIEE services 11g on windows does not start

So I installed OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0 on windows, everything worked well after installation was complete.

But first time I restarted windows machine, I entered incorrect weblogic password. Now it just remembers the incorrect password and does not prompt again for right password. I keep getting following error:



#### <[ACTIVE] ExecuteThread: '0' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)'> <> <> <> <1365250636463>  
#### <[ACTIVE] ExecuteThread: '0' for queue: 'weblogic.kernel.Default (self-tuning)'> <> <> <> <1365250636572>  
####

<> <> <> <1365250636572> weblogic.security.SecurityInitializationException: Authentication denied: Boot identity not valid; The user name and/or password from the boot identity file (boot.properties) is not valid. The boot identity may have been changed since the boot identity file was created. Please edit and update the boot identity file with the proper values of username and password. The first time the updated boot identity file is used to start the server, these new values are encrypted.
at weblogic.security.service.CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.doBootAuthorization(CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.java:959)
at weblogic.security.service.CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.initialize(CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.java:1050)
at weblogic.security.service.SecurityServiceManager.initialize(SecurityServiceManager.java:873)
at weblogic.security.SecurityService.start(SecurityService.java:141)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.SubsystemRequest.run(SubsystemRequest.java:64)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:209)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)
Caused By: javax.security.auth.login.FailedLoginException: [Security:090304]Authentication Failed: User weblogic javax.security.auth.login.FailedLoginException: [Security:090302]Authentication Failed: User weblogic denied
at weblogic.security.providers.authentication.LDAPAtnLoginModuleImpl.login(LDAPAtnLoginModuleImpl.java:261)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.LoginModuleWrapper$1.run(LoginModuleWrapper.java:110)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.LoginModuleWrapper.login(LoginModuleWrapper.java:106)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invoke(LoginContext.java:769)
at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.access$000(LoginContext.java:186)
at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext$4.run(LoginContext.java:683)
at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.invokePriv(LoginContext.java:680)
at javax.security.auth.login.LoginContext.login(LoginContext.java:579)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.JAASLoginServiceImpl.login(JAASLoginServiceImpl.java:113)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.utils.Delegator$ProxyInvocationHandler.invoke(Delegator.java:57)
at $Proxy39.login(Unknown Source)
at weblogic.security.service.internal.WLSJAASLoginServiceImpl$ServiceImpl.login(WLSJAASLoginServiceImpl.java:89)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.service.JAASAuthenticationServiceImpl.authenticate(JAASAuthenticationServiceImpl.java:82)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke0(Native Method)
at sun.reflect.NativeMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(NativeMethodAccessorImpl.java:39)
at sun.reflect.DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.invoke(DelegatingMethodAccessorImpl.java:25)
at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Method.java:597)
at com.bea.common.security.internal.utils.Delegator$ProxyInvocationHandler.invoke(Delegator.java:57)
at $Proxy57.authenticate(Unknown Source)
at weblogic.security.service.WLSJAASAuthenticationServiceWrapper.authenticate(WLSJAASAuthenticationServiceWrapper.java:40)
at weblogic.security.service.PrincipalAuthenticator.authenticate(PrincipalAuthenticator.java:348)
at weblogic.security.service.CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.doBootAuthorization(CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.java:929)
at weblogic.security.service.CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.initialize(CommonSecurityServiceManagerDelegateImpl.java:1050)
at weblogic.security.service.SecurityServiceManager.initialize(SecurityServiceManager.java:873)
at weblogic.security.SecurityService.start(SecurityService.java:141)
at weblogic.t3.srvr.SubsystemRequest.run(SubsystemRequest.java:64)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.execute(ExecuteThread.java:209)
at weblogic.work.ExecuteThread.run(ExecuteThread.java:178)
>
####

<> <> <> <1365250636635>  

####

<> <> <> <1365250636635>  

####

<> <> <> <1365250636635>  

####

<> <> <> <1365250636650>  

Solution: 

Edit the boot.properties file located at following path:

C:\MiddleWareHome\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\security

Update the password to right one, and you should be good to go.

How to apply case statements in where clause in OBIEE?

This could be a common reporting scenario and I just wanted to write this post, on how to create a case statement inside of a filter condition. This also works if dashboard has two or more prompts, and they should filter data using a combination of values. For example, consider the following requirement:

You have data for year 2009 and 2010. Per the requirement, you want to select quarter 1 if year is 2009, while you want to select quarter 2 if its year 2010. So, its two different sets of criteria for which data should be selected.

The case statement may be more complex than this example, the solution below will still work.

This is done per the steps below:

1. Add a filter on Year to report.

2. Edit filter > Advanced > convert this filter to SQL

3. In Advanced SQL Filter, type the filter per the expression below:


1 = case
when Date."Report Year" = 2009 and Date."Report Qtr" = 1 then 1
when Date."Report Year" = 2010 and Date."Report Qtr" = 2 then 1
else 0 end

Click results, and verify ..

Viola, it works. We are successfully able to apply a case statement in a filter criteria. This can be used in any further combinations per requirements.

Explanation:

What we are doing in the case statement is that we are bucketing records we want to select as 1, and everything else as 0. Next we have "1 = ". So for every records we bucket as 1, the condition becomes 1 = 1 which is true, while for rest it becomes 1 = 0, which is false, simple?

To demonstrate this, lets take the expression from filter, and add it as a column (remove "1 =" and add rest of the expression) as below:

Hit results:

Clearly you can see, our records are marked as 1, while things to be filtered out are 0.

Here is how BI fires the query for this:

select distinct T1161285.RPT_YEAR as c1,
     T1161285.RPT_MONTH as c2,
     T1161285.RPT_QTR as c3
from
     INVRDM.WC_CALENDAR_D T1161285 /* DIM_WC_CALENDAR_D */
where  ( case  when T1161285.RPT_QTR = 1 and T1161285.RPT_YEAR = 2009 then 1 when T1161285.RPT_QTR = 2 and T1161285.RPT_YEAR = 2010 then 1 else 0 end  = 1 )
order by c1, c3


This is a perfect way to add case statements inside the where clause.

To take is a step forward, now imagine user need to select month and quarter in the prompts. For example user wants to select year 2009 and quarters 1, 2 and 3.

In this case, we will add the year and month as filter and set them to is prompted. This is in addition to the case statement above as shown below:

Basic Information for any new 11g user

I found the link below really useful, specially to inform end users about basic functionality:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/bi.1111/e10544/appuserinfo.htm#sthref861

OBIEE 11.1.1.7 Documentation

Follow the link below for 11.1.1.7 documentation:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E28280_01/bi.htm

or following to see documentation for older versions:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/documentation/index.html

New Features for Oracle BI EE 11g 11.1.1.7

This is directly from Oracle, here is list of new features:

New features in Oracle BI EE 11g  11.1.1.7 include:

• "Recommended Visualizations Feature for Creating Views"
  
• "Breadcrumbs"
  
• "Enhancement to Dashboards"
  
• "Enhancements to Graphs"
  
• "Enhancements to Views"
  
• "Enhancements to Prompts"
  
• "New Menu Options for Exporting Views and Results"
  
• "Total Member Placement for Hierarchical Columns"
  
• "Browse Catalog Search Results by Object Attributes"
  
• "Navigate from the Total or Grand Total in a Table or Pivot Table"
  
• "New BI Desktop Tools Available for Download"
  
• "Enhancement to Favorites"
  
• "Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System"

Recommended Visualizations Feature for Creating Views

In this release, when you create a view, you can choose a recommended view type based on the data in your analysis and, optionally, what you want to use it for (for example, to analyze trends).
You can choose a suggested "Best Visualization" as well as a "Recommended Subtype". Or you can instead choose the "Recommended Visualization" option, for which you specify your intent for the new view. For example, will the view compare values, compare percentages, visualize trends, or something else? From a list of suggested view types that is ordered with the best option at the top, you can then choose your preferred view type. See "What Is the Recommended Visualizations Feature?" for more information.

Breadcrumbs

Breadcrumbs have been added to help users understand their current location within Oracle BI content and the path that they have used to navigate Oracle BI content. Breadcrumbs display at the bottom of the page, and users can click a breadcrumb or the breadcrumb overflow button to navigate to a specific location on their breadcrumb trail. See "Navigating With Breadcrumbs" for more information.

Enhancement to Dashboards

This release provides the following enhancements to dashboards:

• The ability to create custom print layouts for high-fidelity printing of dashboard pages. See "About Creating Custom Print Layouts for High-Fidelity Printing of Dashboard Pages".
  
• The new default style is FusionFX. See the "Dashboard Properties dialog".
  
• The addition of the Freeze Column option to the Column Properties menu. This option allows you to freeze a column at an edge (top or left) of a dashboard layout. See "Properties Buttons for Objects".
  
• The addition of the following options that allow you to control the position and size of columns and sections:
  
  • Size option in the Additional Formatting Options area of the "Section Properties dialog" and the "Column Properties dialog"
    
  • Page Size option in the "Dashboard Properties dialog"
• The ability to export an entire dashboard or a single dashboard page to Microsoft Excel 2007+. See "Exporting Dashboards and Dashboard Pages".
  
• The addition of options to replace an analysis on a dashboard and to return to a dashboard from the Analysis editor:
  
  • The Replace analysis in option was added to the Save As dialog. This option displays when the user is viewing a dashboard, clicks an embedded analysis' Analyze or Edit link, edits the analysis, and selects Save As to rename and save the analysis. The Replace analysis in option allows the designer to choose to include the modified analysis on the dashboard. See "Save As dialog" for additional information.
    
  • The Return to option was added to the Analysis editor. This option displays in the Analysis editor when the user is viewing a dashboard and clicks an embedded analysis' Analyze or Edit link. The designer can click this option to easily move from the Analysis editor to the dashboard. See "Analysis editor" for additional information.

Enhancements to Graphs

In this release graphs have been enhanced in various ways.

• New graph types include:
  
  • Waterfall graph. A waterfall graph lets you visualize how a value increases or decreases sequentially and cumulatively. An initial value is summed with subsequent values (both negative and positive changes or deltas) to arrive at an end value, focusing your attention on h ow each measure contributes to the whole.
    
  • Stacked graph as a new subtype to the area graph. A stacked graph is useful for comparing the proportional contributions within a category. A stacked graph displays the relative value that each part contributes to the whole.
    
  • 100% stacked graph as subtypes to the bar graph and the area graph. A 100% stacked graph, like the stacked graph subtype, lets you compare the parts to the whole. But while the stacked graph shows cumulative total in the units of the measure, the 100% stacked graph always shows units as percentages of the total, and the axis scale is always zero to 100 percent.
  See "What Types of Graphs Are Available?" for additional information about the new graphs in this release.
  
• Zoom to data range. This option lets the system evaluate the range of values on an axis, and choose appropriate minimum and maximum values for the scale. This is useful when graphing a set of large values that are all within a small percentage of each other. See "Graph Properties dialog: Scale tab" for additional information.
  
• Hide sliders in graph views that listen to master-detail events. For graphs in master-detail relationships, if you want to simplify the appearance of an analysis or dashboard, you can hide the slider that is created to accommodate detail columns. See "Defining the Detail View" for more information.

Enhancements to Views

This release includes enhancements to various view types, including those in the following list:

• A new view type named performance tile. This view type displays a single aggregate measure value in a manner that is both visually simple and prominent. See "Editing Performance Tile Views" for additional information.
  
• Action links in trellis views. In simple trellis views, action links can now be used on inner graphs per unit, including the context of the outer edges. Action links can also be used in legends and in axis labels. In advanced trellis views, action links can be used in microcharts, where the microchart functions as a single unit (such as an aggregate number), including the context of the outer edges. For more information, see "What Are Action Links and Action Link Menus?"
  
• For map views:
  
  • Vary the width of a line by measure to accentuate a feature. See "Line (Layer) dialog" for additional information.
    
  • Link a map view as a detail in a master-detail relationship. See "Defining the Detail View" for additional information.
    
  • Auto Correct option. A map view error can occur for various reasons. If the issue appears to be related to missing layers, maps, or styles, then it might be possible to correct the map by replacing the missing map view components with similar items that exist in the spatial metadata. See "Editing Map Views" for additional information.
    
  • Legend and formatting highlighting. See "What Are the Components of Map Views?" for additional information.
• Null suppression at view and analysis levels. You can set null suppression options at the view level (which overrides the analysis level) for data views including: table, pivot table, trellis (both simple and advanced), graph, gauge, and funnel views when the entire row or column contains nulls. See "Understanding Null Suppression" for additional information.
  
• Ability to include or exclude calculated items and groups at the view level for columns and column headers. Specifically, two new options have been added: Include Custom Member and Exclude Custom Member. These interactions are available for tables, pivot tables, and trellises. See "Creating Groups and Calculated Items" for additional information.
  
• For tables, pivot tables, and advanced trellises, the ability to:
  
  • Specify the method to be used to browse data — either scrolling or paging controls. For more information, see "Table Properties dialog: Style tab", "Pivot Table Properties dialog" and "Trellis Properties dialog: General tab".
    
  • Resize rows and columns. For more information, see "Resizing Rows and Columns in Table Views, Pivot Table Views, and Advanced Trellis Views".
• Row count. If your table or pivot table view contains a grand total or subtotal on the row edge, the display totals, that is the grand total and subtotals, are now included in the Rows per Page count for content paging. In prior releases, if you had the Rows per Page count set to 10 for example, the table or pivot table would display more than 10 records if display totals were shown in the view results. See "Editing Views" for additional information.
  
• For right-click interactions, the ability to specify whether the Hide Columns interaction is available at runtime. See "Right-Click Interactions in Views" for additional information.

Enhancements to Prompts

This release includes enhancements to prompts, including those in the following list:

• This release includes an enhancement to the SQL Results prompt option. If you are working with double columns, you can now write the SQL statement so that filtering is done on code values rather than display values. For more information, see "New Prompt dialog".
  
• This release includes an enhancement to the prompt constraint option. The prompts designer can now limit a column prompt value list by more than one column. For more information, see the Limit values by component in the "New Prompt dialog".
  
• This release includes enhancements to the parameters for prompted links. For more information, see "What Are Prompted Links?".

New Menu Options for Exporting Views and Results

This release adds the Excel 2007+ and Powerpoint 2007+ options for exporting views and results.
See "Export Menu Options for Views and Results".

Total Member Placement for Hierarchical Columns

This release includes an enhancement that allows placement of total members on a hierarchy. See "Analysis Properties dialog: Data tab" for additional information.

Browse Catalog Search Results by Object Attributes

This release provides the capability to use full-text search to find catalog objects and then filter the search results by attributes. This search is available when the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Endeca Server. After the full-text search results are returned, the Catalog area displays a list of matching items, and the Search pane displays the search results grouped by attribute (that is, Type, Name, Path, and Created By). See "What Results are Returned from a Full-Text Catalog Search?" for additional information.

Navigate from the Total or Grand Total in a Table or Pivot Table

If an analysis contains a total or grand total and the associated attribute or hierarchical column contains an action link or a conditional action link, the action link (or conditional action link) is applied to both the column and the total or grand total. See "What Are Actions?" for additional information.

New BI Desktop Tools Available for Download

This release adds the following tools to the list of BI desktop tools that are available for download:

• Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office
  
• Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting Studio (if Essbase is installed)
  
• Oracle Essbase Studio Console (if Essbase is installed)
  
• Oracle Essbase Administrative Services Console (if Essbase is installed)

See "Downloading BI Desktop Tools" for additional information.

Enhancement to Favorites

This release provides the capability to organize your favorites from the Category Tree area and the Selected Category area in the Manage Favorites dialog. In previous releases, you could organize favorites from the Category Tree area, only. See "Organizing Favorites" for additional information.

Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System

With this release, Oracle BI EE is integrated with Enterprise Performance Management Workspace. See "Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System".

OBIEE 11.1.1.7 available

Great news, OBIEE 11.1.1.7 version is available for download. 

Follow the link below:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/downloads/bus-intelligence-11g-165436.html



OBIEE 11g administration link is missing

Sometimes Administration link could be missing due to priveledges issue, at other times, its just a setting.

Try to enter following URL manually and check if this gets you to admin page:

 http://IPaddress:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Admin

If this works, easiest way to access would be to bookmark this link for future.

OBIEE 11g Patch Installation

Just to give you an idea of how easy the patch intallation is for 11g, I am writing here steps per readme.txt file for patch installation of one of the patches.

Note: Step 9 is the actual step when patch gets applied using utility "opatch". Rest of the steps are for preparation and verification.


14223977 - Patch 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 (1 of 7) Oracle Business Intelligence Installer
===============================================================================

Readme updated: 12 July 2012


Section 5: Patchset Installation Instructions
---------------------------------------------
1. Backup the Oracle BI System, including the following:
* the ORACLE_HOME\bifoundation\server directory
* the ORACLE_INSTANCE\bifoundation\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplication_obis1\repository
* the \bifoundation\jee\mapviewer.ear\web.war\WEB_INF\conf\mapViewerConfig.xml, if you have modified it

2. Download the following Oracle BI 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patch zip files from My Oracle Support into the Oracle BI Home directory:

* 14223977
* 14226980
* 13960955
* 14226993
* 14228505
* 13867143
* 14142868

Tips:
* Find all the above patches together by entering the following search criteria:
  - Product/Family = Oracle BI Suite EE
  - Release = 11.1.1.6.2 BP1

* The location of the Oracle BI Home directory will depend on where Oracle BI was originally installed, and the platform. For example:
  - on Linux, AIX or Solaris, the Oracle BI Home directory might be prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1
  - on Windows, the Oracle BI Home directory might be c:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1


3. Download the following JDeveloper patch zip file from My Oracle Support:
* 13952743


4. Stop the BI System (in the order shown):
* BI system components, by typing the following at the command prompt: opmnctl stopall
* WebLogic Managed Server(s)
* WebLogic Admin Server


5. Clear the files associated with the Oracle BI EE Catalog Manager binary cache as follows:
a. Go to the /bifoundation/web/catalogmanager/configuration/ directory (using a file manager application or the command line). For example:
* on Linux, AIX or Solaris:  if the Oracle BI Home directory is prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1, go to the following directory:
       prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1/bifoundation/web/catalogmanager/configuration/
* on Windows: if the Oracle Home directory is C:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1, go to the following directory:
       c:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\catalogmanager\configuration\
b. Remove the following Catalog Manager cache directories (if they exist):
* org.eclipse.osgi
* org.eclipse.equinox.app


6. In the Oracle BI Home directory, unzip each of the Oracle BI 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patch zip files into a subdirectory below the Oracle BI Home directory. For example:
* on Linux, AIX or Solaris: you might extract patch 14223977 into prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1/14223977
* on Windows: you might extract patch 14223977 into c:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1\14223977


7. At the command prompt, change directory to the Oracle BI Home directory using the command appropriate for the operating system.
For example:
* on Linux, AIX or Solaris: if the Oracle BI Home directory is prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1, type the following:
       cd prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1

* on Windows: if the Oracle BI Home directory is C:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1, type the following:
       cd c:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1


8. At the command prompt, set the ORACLE_HOME, PATH, and JAVA_HOME environment variables as appropriate for the operating system.
For example:
* On Linux, AIX or Solaris: if you are using a command shell derived from the C shell, set the environment variables by typing the following:
       setenv ORACLE_HOME $PWD
       setenv PATH $ORACLE_HOME/bin:$PATH
       setenv JAVA_HOME $ORACLE_HOME/jdk
       setenv PATH $JAVA_HOME/bin:$PATH
       setenv PATH $ORACLE_HOME/OPatch:$PATH

* On Windows: if the Oracle BI Home directory is C:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1, set the environment variables by typing the following:
       set ORACLE_HOME=C:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1
       set PATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
       set JAVA_HOME=%ORACLE_HOME%\jdk
       set PATH=%JAVA_HOME%\bin;%PATH%
       set PATH=%ORACLE_HOME%\OPatch;%PATH%


9. At the command prompt, for each of the extracted Oracle BI 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patch directories (starting with 1 of 7, then 2 of 7, and so on):
a. Change directory to the extracted patch directory.
For example:
* on Linux, AIX or Solaris: if you extracted patch 14223977 into prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1/14223977, type the following:
       cd prod_mwhome/Oracle_BI1/14223977

* on Windows: if you extracted patch 14223977 into C:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1\14223977, type the following:
       cd c:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1\14223977

b. Apply the patch using the command: opatch apply
c. When the message 'Opatch Succeeded' is displayed, repeat the above steps for the next patch directory until all the patches have been applied.


10. Verify the Oracle BI 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patches have been applied successfully as follows:
a. At the command prompt, change directory to the Oracle BI Home.
b. Run the following command to list the patches that have been applied to the Oracle home specified by the ORACLE_HOME environment variable (currently the Oracle BI Home):
        opatch lsinventory
c. Confirm that all the Oracle BI 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patches shown in Section 1 appear in the list of applied patches (along with any other patches that have previously been applied to the BI System).


11.  Copy the BIPublisherDesktop32.exe and BIPublisherDesktop64.exe files from the Oracle BI Home/clients/bipublisher/repository/Tools directory to the Middleware Home/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/config/bipublisher/repository/Tools directory.


12. If you backed up mapViewerConfig.xml because it had been modified, copy the backed up file to its original location at \bifoundation\jee\mapviewer.ear\web.war\WEB_INF\conf\


13. You can now apply the JDeveloper patch 13952743 (that you previously downloaded), by following the instructions in the JDeveloper patch Readme file. Note the following:
* As described in the JDeveloper patch Readme file, you apply the JDeveloper patch to the Oracle Common Home directory. Therefore, be sure to follow the instructions in the Readme to change the ORACLE_HOME environment variable to the / directory before applying the JDeveloper patch.
* You must complete the final step to start the Weblogic Admin Server, and then to start Managed Server(s)).


14. When you have applied all the BI EE 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patches and the JDeveloper patch, start the BI system components by typing the following at the command prompt: opmnctl startall


15. Having installed the Oracle BI 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patches, you must also update the Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools (Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool, Oracle Business Intelligence Job Manager, and Oracle Business Intelligence Catalog Manager) as follows:
a. Deinstall the Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools from the Windows machine on which they have been installed, by following the instructions in chapter 5 of the "Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence".
b. Reinstall the Oracle Business Intelligence Client Tools by following the instructions in chapter 5 of the "Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence".


16. (Recommended) Minimize disk usage by:
* deleting the downloaded BI EE 11.1.1.6.2 BP1 patch zip files and the JDeveloper patch zip file
* deleting the extracted patch directories (for example, C:\prod_mwhome\Oracle_BI1\14223977)



Section 6: Post-Installation Instructions
-----------------------------------------

Section 7: Deinstallation Instructions
--------------------------------------

Section 8: Bugs Fixed By This Patch
-----------------------------------

Section 9: Known Bugs With This Patch
-------------------------------------

OBIEE 11g mobile development documentation

This is good stuff. Anyone looking for development of reports to cater to mobile based users can refer to following documentation:

http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/bi.1111/e25318/toc.htm

Note: the document seems to cater to just Apple OS devices. Im still looking for documentation to cater to Blackberry and Android devices.

Sort order and display order

It is a common requirement to display one field while sort by another. For example month names > Jan > Feb > Mar, etc should always be sorted by month number and not the month name.

Well its a simple fix to enable that:

Open RPD > Navigate to the "month name" in logical layer > open column properties > click on General Tab > Specify "Month number" in 'Sort Order Column'

Viola !! When you display Month Name in the report, it will be correctly sorted from Jan to Dec. If you see the query from session log, you will see both name and number columns used in the query.

OBIEE 11.1.1.6.9 available

OBIEE 11.1.1.6.9 Bundle Patch was released on March 8th 2013. This patchset is available for all customers who are using Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.6.0, 11.1.1.6.1, 11.1.1.6.2, 11.1.1.6.2 BP1, 11.1.1.6.4, 11.1.1.6.5, 11.1.1.6.6, 11.1.1.6.7, and 11.1.1.6.8

There are no new features in this patchset, only bug fixes. Bundled Patch Details are as below:

(1 of 7) Oracle Business Intelligence Installer.  16287811

(2 of 7) Oracle Real Time Decisions.   16287778

(3 of 7) Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher.   16237960

(4 of 7) Oracle Business Intelligence ADF Components.   16287840

(5 of 7) Enterprise Performance Management Components Installed from BI Installer 11.1.1.6.x.   16287854

(6 of 7) Oracle Business Intelligence.   16227549

(7 of 7) Oracle Business Intelligence Platform Client Installers and MapViewer   16287884

Follow the link below to download:
https://blogs.oracle.com/proactivesupportEPM/entry/obiee_11_1_1_65


Bugs fixed by patches:
1. 16287811(BI Installer)-->

• 13404296 BI PROVISIONING FACADE MUST TRIM RPD IN INSTANCE FOR SELECTED FA OFFERINGS
• 13485655 T2P: ERROR MSG EXECUTING WLST SCRIPT APPEARS DURING BIINSTANCE PASTECONFIG
• 13504454 BLK: BIINSTANCE COPYCONFIG FAILURE: ESSBASE MAXL LOGIN IS FAILING 
• 13510938 NEED OFFICIAL WAY TO INVOKE _CONFIGURERPD
• 13560245 BIDOMAIN/CONFIG/JDBC NOT FOUND
• 13565722 BLK: BI T2P PASTECONFIG ERRORED OUT WITH UNABLE TO PARSE JMS_WEBLOGIC_JNDI_URL
• 13589944 BI T2P: PASTECONFIG INSTANCE IS FAILING WITH JAVA.LANG.UNSATISFIEDLINKERROR
• 13619973 INCLUDE ESSSERVER HOST NAME IN THE MOVEPLAN
• 13628293 EMPTY PROCUREMENT DASHBOARD IN RC4
• 13683204 STRESS:FA:CRM ERROR RESPONSE[NQSERROR: 43082] ILLEGAL OPERATION ATTEMPTED CLOSED

2. 16287778 (RTD)

• 13240778 QA: ACCESS: ERE: RGRN: ERROR ACCESSING LOV VIA KEY; CAN'T SELECT VIA KEY
• 13347251 QA: UNABLE TO SEE ERE IN "DYNAMIC" PAGE IN SAFARI, CHROME
• 13360752 UNABLE TO LOAD ALL EXTENSION COLUMNS FOR CUSTOMER IN RTD STUDIO
• 13408870 QA: SDCONFIG 3X VALUES COPIED TO 11G, BUT NOT USED THERE
• 13409526 QA: UPDATE DOC, COPYRTDDATA_README.TXT FOR STOP/START 11G
• 13472560 QA:ACCESS:HIGH CONTRAST SETTING APPEARS CLUTTERED, SOME ITEMS NOT VISIBLE
• 13506987 COPYRIGHT INFORMATION NEEDS TO BE EXTENDED TO 2012
• 13537093 BACKPORT BUG 13537093 TO 11.1.1.6.2
• 13539353 BACKPORT BUG 13539353 TO 11.1.1.6.2
• 13567294 REMOVED 1ST VALUE IN RULE BECOMES NAN

3. 16237960 (BIP)

• 10022187 ACC: SELECTED ITEM IN FOLDERS PANE GETS LOST AFTER USING UP/DOWN ARROW TOO MUCH
• 10046249 ACC: SCHEDULE PAGES HAVE "GRIDTABLE" TABLES THAT CAN'T BE NAVIGATED
• 11678983 QA:LDAP CONFIG ASSUME ADMIN IS DEFINED UNDER DISTINGUISHED NAME FOR USERS
• 11906714 QA: TIMEZONE NOT IN SYNC IN JOB MANAGER - JOB HIISTORY
• 12312461 NLS:MB DATA GARBLED IN JOB HISTORY USING SQL SERVER
• 12542914 ACC: REPORT VIEWER STRUCTURE HAS ERRORS - NO IFRAME AND NO LANG ATTRIBUTE
• 12645567 NLS:WRONG WEEK OF YEAR FOR ORACLE DATE FORMAT CONTAINING WW
• 12825409 INTERACTIVE VIEWER CONDITIONAL FORMATTING FAILS FOR NON DISPLAY COLUMN
• 12877824 WEBSERVICE API - GETSCHEDULEDREPORTSTATUS ALWAYS RETURNS JOB STATUS AS SCHEDULED
• 12912473 BI PUBLISHER 11G SHARE REPORT XMODE=3 AND XMODE=4 NOT WORKING FOR PDF OUTPUT

4. 16287840 (ADF components)

• 13365954 ERROR WHILE OVERWRITING AN ANALYSIS VIA BI COMPOSER
• 13520338 STRESS:FA:CRM:SPD HEAVY CONTENTION ON FACTORYMANAGER.CREATEMODELOBJECT
• 13597290 11.1.1.7.0 ESSBASE DATA CONTROL CODE IS PRINTING UNWANTED DEBUG MESSAGES
• 13733098 REPORTS AND ANALYTICS, CANNOT SAVE NEWLY CREATED REPORT
• 13789351 RUP2 ST3 (PS5 RC4) - NPE WHILE TESTING OL FLOW IN KOREAN LANGUAGE
• 13858848 BIADFCOMPS - ANALYSIS CREATED USING COMBINE UNION IS NOT EDITABLE IN BI COMPOSER
• 13958089 BI COMPOSER: CAN NOT SAVE ANALYSIS AFTER FAILOVER WLS MANAGE SERVER
• 13973674 MAIN: NAMECLASHEXCEPTION WHEN MULTIPLE INSTANCES OF ESSBASEDC ARE LOADED
• 14081217 STRESS:FA:CRM:SPD BIADAPTERDCSERVICE HOLDING LARGE IN HEAP CAUSING OOM
• 14183506 ALWAYS SAME NPE AND STACKTRACE NO MATTER THE PROBLEM IS 

5. 16287854  (EPM)

• 10623654 FA: NLS:PS1:DATE AND TIME NOT LOCALIZED IN FR SCHEDULED BATCHES DETAIL INFO.
• 11652873 FA: FR ANNOTATION VIEW PANE HAS PERMISSION ISSUES FOR ANNOTATION ON TEXT OB
• 11735177 REHOSTING TOOL IS NOT TRANSFERRING PROPER USERNAME IN PARTITION DEFINITION
• 11924085 UNABLE TO RUN AN ESSBASE CALC SCRIPT IN WEB ANALYSIS
• 12404364 ESSBASE READ ONLY ACCESS INSUFFICIENT PRIVILEGE WITH PROMPT
• 12530876 PERFORMANCE OF FR REPORT QUERYING ESSBASE W/LARGE NUMBER OF DYNAMIC CALCULATIONS
• 12601370 FUSION B17: SAVED QUERY DOES NOT REFRESH, BUT NEW QUERY WORKS ON THOSE MEMBERS
• 12722750 FA: FF 5.0 GIVES BLANK SCREEN FOR HTML BOOK PREVIEW
• 12723793 NEED DIFFERENT URL FOR SMARTVIEW INSTALLER IN FUSION MODE
• 12765822 DMS LOGS LOTS OF ERRORS WHEN ESSBASESERVER1 IS DOWN

 6. 16227549  (OBI - Main patch for most of us)

• 10137467 ENABLE "ZOOM TO DATA RANGE " IN OBIEE 11G
• 10165057 QA:THE EDGES OF MAP VIEW GOT TRUNCATED AFTER EXPORTED/PRINTED TO PDF/HTML
• 10167311 ADD TEST CASES FOR MDSXUDML GENERATOR AND PARSER
• 10199188 CHARTS X AXIS LABEL IS BLURRED AT 45/60 ANGLE
• 10391144 WEIRD BEHAVIOUR OF FILE OPEN DIALOG ON WINDOWS 7 COMPUTER
• 10409969 BH9:QA: TIMESTEN ODBC ERR INCOMPATIBLE FACT IF CONDITION STEP FEDERATED MEASUR
• 10419667 UT:USAGE TRACKING ERROR TEXT OF FAILED QUERY IS NOT LOGGED
• 10647655 COLUMN DATA FORMAT IS IGNORED ON WRITEBACK
• 11657725 QA:REG:MALFORMED URL ERROR WHEN PRINT KPI WATCHLIST TO PDF ON DASHBOARD PAGE
• 11810127 ADMINTOOL TESTS FAIL: EXTERNALIZATION

7. 16287884 (Client installers and Map viewer)

• 13794002 BISHIPHOME 11.1.1.6.2 CUMULATIVE PATCH 1
• 14054848 RUP4: BISHIPHOME CLIENT INSTALL 11.1.1.6.3 PATCH 1
• 14533251 REL6: BISHIPHOME CLIENT INSTALL 11.1.1.6.31 PATCH 2
• 14646289 REL6: BISHIPHOME CLIENT INSTALL 11.1.1.6.31 PATCH 3
• 14672002 REL6: BISHIPHOME CLIENT INSTALL 11.1.1.6.31 PATCH 4
• 14711062 REL6: BISHIPHOME CLIENT INSTALL 11.1.1.6.31 PATCH 5
• 14712346 11.1.1.6.5 CLIENT INSTALLER AND MAPVIEWER PATCH
• 14740701 REL6: BISHIPHOME CLIENT INSTALL 11.1.1.6.31 PATCH 6
• 15839347 11.1.1.6.6 CLIENT INSTALLER AND MAPVIEWER PATCH
• 15860153 REL6: BISHIPHOME CLIENT INSTALL 11.1.1.6.31 PATCH 7 

  I think Oracle keeping up with its release volume as one patch set per month. So we can expect 11.1.1.7 next month in April 2013, or is it going to be 11.1.1.6.9.1 ?

 

 

PDF dumps for OBIEE 11g Certification exam

I have compiled a list of PDFs that I used for preparing for certification exam. To download the same, follow the steps here:

1. Visit the Oracle documentation page:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/documentation/index.html

2. Click view library - This will open up HTML documentation, which is not very convinient to read, especially for offline reading, so we look for pdf documents.

3. Click Installation Guide - Stop - Once you see table of contents, on the top right side, click on 'PDF' and save a copy. Thats it, you got it.

4. Hit back, and repeat above steps for following documents:

Enterprise Deploymentet Guide
UserGuide
RPDGuide
AdminGuide

These are the 5 documents that I feel are most important to prepare for certification. There are no other dump files for certification, good luck.


Revision: For those of you just starting out OBIEE, Oracle has a live demo environment, which could help you look at the tool before you even start. Follow the post below to view more details:

http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/2014/01/obiee-live-demo-from-oracle.html

Great news!!! I cleared OBIEE 11g certification

This past Friday, I cleared OBIEE 11g certification (scored 86%). I was relieved at last. Well, as expected exam was not straight forward, and requires practical experience and good knowledge base of concepts including data warehousing concepts.

Don't be surprised, as there are non scoring questions in the exam, which Oracle specifies before the exam begins. So you may feel you have answered minimum passing questions correctly, yet, overall score may be less. In terms of time allowed, I felt there was plenty of time to attempt all questions, in fact I was done with the exam in under 75 min (out of 120 mins) which includes reviewing questions I marked for later.

My advise to any applicant would be to study basic concepts thoroughly, and read all 11g documents (installation, configuration, RPD and users guide etc).. pretty much everything, unless of course you are lucky enough to be sponsored by your employer for instructor led training meant for certification.

In the results, Oracle specified topic, where you incorrectly answered, so that we can go and pick up those topics later.

Hope this helps.. Good luck.

Update: For anyone interested in the link to Oracle's certification page or to knowing more about complementary Oracle certifications can look at my following blog post about certification paths:

http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/2013/05/achieved-obiee-11g-foundation-suite.html



~~Arun

OBIEE 11g 11.1.1.6.8 Patch Released

Oracle has released the 11.1.1.6.8 patch set and its available for download as of Feb 20th 2013.

Following is a list of bugs that were resolved in this patch (For BI component, patch #6 of 7 total):


11824623: NLS:FR:DOUBLE PERCENT SIGN AND WRONG DATA IN PIVOT TABLE ON FRENCH LOCALE
13065019: USAGE TRACKING ISSUE AFTER APPLYING PATCH 12925206- QUERY NOT INSERTED IN LOG
13802667: COMMA DELIMITED CSV FORMAT FOR AGENTS/IBOTS.
13949566: MASTER DETAIL VIEW INTERACTION CONTEXT IS LOST
14262536: OBIEE SSL DOES NOT WORK FOR ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE/ACTION LINK
14496280: OBIEE 11.1.1.5.0 CREATING HUGE CORE DUMP FILES
14509257: UNWANTED EXPANDATION OF BACKGROUND OF GAUGE CHART/BULB
14532515: SINGLE ACTION LINK POPUP ISSUE
14597361: OBIEE 11.1.1.6.2: UNABLE TO DELETE HEADER FROM NEWLY ADDED COMPOUND LAYOUT
14781767: QA: PROMPTS: RUNTIME PROMPTS IS NOT WORKING IN FIREFOX 16
14832439: BLOCKING ANALYSES BASED ON CRITERIA NOT WORKING ON RESULTS TAB
14832723: BLOCKING ANALYSES IS BROKEN AFTER SAVNG AND REOPENING THE ANALYSIS
15856175: NO METADATA AUTOSAVE IN NQSMODIFYMETADATA AND NQSIMPORTMETADATA PROCEDURES
15879674: WHEN A VALUE WITH THE '&' SIGN IS CHOSEN, SCORECARD WATCHLIST RESULTS ARE NOT BE
15886643: QA: CALC ITEM DISPLAY 0 OR NAN IN TABLE IF EDIT MEASURE FORMULA, EXCLUDED COL,
15891959: PRESENTATION SERVER CRASH
15899791: DRILLDOWN ADDS FILTER FOR THE EMPTY STRING ALTHOUGH THE VALUE IS NULL OR SPACES
15905237: CUSTOM COLUMN HEADING DOES NOT REFLECT IN THE FILTERS VIEW
15908937: OBIEE AUTHENTICATION PROCESS CHANGED AFTER UPGRADE FROM 11.1.1.6.0 TO 11.1.1.6.4
15917103: DISABLED LTS DURING AFTER UPGRADE FROM OBIEE 10 TO OBIEE 11 CANNOT BE ENABLED
15934601: NQSERROR22032 WHEN SORT ON COMBINED RESULTS BASED ON UNIONS,INTERSECT,MINUS
15934766: BIPS FAILS TO START WITH DNSUTILS::DNSNAMELOOKUPFAILED
15954886: GCMAP/GCWAP: ERROR IN CAMPAIGN LOADS AND LAUNCHES
15958318: 11.1.1.6.5 -EXPORT TO EXCEL/PDF DISPLAYING VIEW DISPLAY ERROR-LENGTH URL EXCEEDS
15961449: REQUEST VAR DEFAULT VALUE SET BY REPOSITORY VARIABLE DOES NOT WORK CORRECTLY
15963008: DIFFERENT RESULTS ARE SHOWN WHEN ACTION LINKS ARE USED WITH CONDITION
15966182: CSV FORMAT OF REPORT AND AGENT DELIVERED REPORT ARE NOT THE SAME OUTPUT
15998971: QA:PINNED KPI KEEPS SPINNING WHEN OPENING A KPI WATCHLIST
16059256: SAWSERVER MAY ALLOCATE VERY LARGE ALLOCATION WITH ODBC ERROR
16169478: ADMIN TOOL AND JOB MANAGER VERSION NOT UPDATED AFTER APPLYING 11.1.1.6.8 PATCHES
16219059: JOB MANAGER GETTING [NQSERROR: 86015] [NQSERROR: 77027] A FATAL ERROR OCCURRED

OBIEE 11g Configuration, log and script file locations

Although its best to configure BI using Fusion Middleware Control (also referred to as enterprise manager) or Fusion Middleware Control MBean Browser, yet some of the setting can be updated through text files only.

A warning to admins, each BI host has its own set of configuration files for the components that are deployedon that host. So any changes to one host, should also be made to all other hosts, this is specially true for clustered environments.


BI Configuration files:

1. NQSConfig.INI
and
logconfig.xml

\Middlewarehome\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplication_obis1

2. instanceconfig.xml

\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1

3. ClusterConfig.xml
ccslogging.xml

\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIApplication\coreapplication

4. instanceconfig.xml     (Second instanceconfig.xml dedicated file for BI Scheduler)
\instances\instance1\config\OracleBISchedulerComponent\coreapplication_obisch1

5. config.xml
logging_config.xml
\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIJavaHostComponent\coreapplication_obijh1

6. bridgeconfig.properties (For BI Persentation services Plug-in)

\Middlewarehome\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\config\fmwconfig\biinstances\coreapplication

7. opmn.xml   (OPMN Config file)
/Middlewarehome/instance/instance1/config/OPMN/opmn/opmn.xml
(It contains the PATH and LD_LIBRARY_PATH values for the system components and the port number for OPMN and optional SSL configuration.)

8. boot.properties
/Middlewarehome/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/servers/[managed_server]/security


Script files:

1. startNodeManager.sh
(Must be started to allow Managed Server to be started from Weblogic console)
/Middlewarehome/wlserver_10.3/server/bin/startNodeManager.sh

2. opmnctl(Command line tool to start BI services)
/Middlewarehome/instance/instance1/bin
-- OPMN can be used to automatically start BI on linux system. To do that following commands must be included in opmn startup script:

/Middlewarehome/instance/instance1/bin ./opmnctl startall

3. startWebLogic.sh(Script to start Weblogic server)
/Middlewarehome/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/bin.

./startManagedWebLogic.sh
/Middelwarehome/user_projects/domains/bifoundation_domain/bin
To start Managed Server - But this typically can be started from Webogic Console after weblogic server is in running mode.

./startManagedWebLogic.sh bi_server1 http://administration_server_host_name:7001

Log Files:

1. Admin Server (Or weblogic server issues)
\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\AdminServer\logs

2. Managed Server
\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\servers\bi_server1\logs\

3. BI Server
\Middlewarehome\instance\instance1\diagnostics\logs\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplication_obis1

4. BI Persentation Server:
\Middlewarehome\instance\instance1\diagnostics\logs\OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent\coreapplication_obips1

Modifying OBIEE 11g configuration settings

OBIEE 11g has miltiple configuration files and stored redundantly in different location. Changing configurations manually through text editor can be challenging, and admins have to take care that setting are updated and in sync in all the locations. This is even worse if environment is set to be clustered or has redundancy built in.

A better way to manage configuration is through one of the following two tools:

- Fusion Middleware Control - Also called enterprise manager - this is a web based tool that allows OBIEE 11g monitoring and configuration of basic components, like cache, RPD deployment etc. Tool can be accessed using following URL:

http://localhost:7001/em

- Fusion Middleware Control MBean Browser - This is much advanced tool for modifying OBIEE server settings. It internally takes care of multiple instances of config files in diferent directories and redundant servers.

The Mbean Browser can be accessed from within the Fusion Middleware Control, by navigating as below:

Weblogic Domain > bifoundation_domain > AdminServer > Weblogic Server drop down > System Mbean Browser

To start modifying, first step would be to take an exclusive lock on settings by following link:

Application Defined MBean > oracle.biee.admin > Domain:bifoundation_domain > BIDomain > BiDomain > Operations > lock > invoke

After that, admins can make any necessary changes that are required, and hit 'Apply'. After all changes have been applied, it required to select Commit from same screen where lock was acquired. Fortunately we also have rollback option, incase we want to revert at last minute.

Unexplained intermittent error in OBIEE UAT server only

We made few RPD changes and code was migrated to UAT server. Intermittently, in UAT, we were getting error on report side:

State: HY000. Code: 10058. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 27005] Unresolved column: "Dim - Derivative"."Derivative ID". (HY000)

As a work around, we would clear the cache, delete cookies, close browser completely and try again. This time error was gone. The error kept coming back next day, and we could also recreate the issue just be repeating steps for work around.

I asked admin team to look at it, and we found that this was happening due to clustered environment in UAT. Probably one of the server was still pointing to old RPD.

Timestamp fields in database not showing in SQL Developer

The new GUI for SQL developer from Oracle, does not seem to show "time" value for a timestamp field when doing a select statement. I tried setting options, but did not help. Till I get a real solution, here is a workaround:

select to_char(calendar_date,'DD-MON-YYYY HH24:MI:SS')) from W_Day_D

OBIEE - How to prevent automatic execution of reports in dashbaord

The ability to disable auto execution of reports is missing in BI. Neither it is not available in OBIEE 10g, nor in OBIEE 11g (up to 11.1.1.6.7 version). Some experts are saying its planned to be available in OBIEE 11.1.1.7 version. Going by number and speed of releases at one release a month, with currently 11.1.1.6.7, we should expect release of 11.1.1.7 within three month, i.e. May 2013.

In the mean time, here are few work around, if this cannot absolutely wait, or you don't plan to upgrade to new version in this time frame:

1. Use Prompts tab in Answers to create a prompt on a field. When this report is run on the dashboard, it will wait for the prompt to be selected, before execution will start. It may be difficult to integrate this with existing dashboard prompts though.

2. Another method is to default dashboard prompt to a dummy value, something like 'Select Month' etc, which will fetch 'No Results' unless users select an actual month. But this makes a prompt to be selected mandatory, and cant be left blank.

3. Last option that I can think of is to create an empty dashboard with just prompts and a basic answers report with out put as text field only. Ask users to select prompt values here, and make available a navigation link to actual dashboard. This way the values can pass either if the prompt has a scope set to "Dashboard", or through "guided navigation", as long as target dashboard has same set of filters.

Good luck.