FAQ

I will post frequently asked questions that I have experience on this page for quick reference. The list will keep growing with time, and they will show up as one page, not multiple blog entries. Note, these are not the questions asked frequently in interviews, that is not my intent to provide interview questions here.


Que. What is OBIEE - Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition?

Ans. Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite (OBIEE+ and Essbase) is a complete, open, and architecturally unified business intelligence system (computer software) for the enterprise that delivers abilities for reporting, ad hoc query and analysis, online analytical processing (OLAP), dashboards, and scorecards.

Que. Im a hiring manager with a consulting / non consulting company, could we hire you for a full time role?

Ans - At this point, I am not looking for a new role. Feel free to network with me on linkedin and stay in touch.

Que. Why are there so many advertisements on your blog site?

Ans - I write this blog just for pleasure, and I do not need to generate any revenues out of it. However, I included the ads from Google Adsense to fund the non profit organization I support, i.e. WorldVision, to any additional extent possible. All profits from ads will directly go to WorldVision comunities I support (located in India).

Que. What minimum RAM size would you recommend to install OBIEE 11g?

Ans - 4 GB. If you install on a machine with any lesser RAM, your services could crash unexpectedly. If database is also on the same machine then 6GB. Oracle Installer does not limit installation even if you have 1GB of RAM, but services will not function properly after installation if you continue.

Note to above: I have successfully test installed 11g on a machine with 3 GB RAM also, although the database was on another machine on the network. You can try to install 11g with simple install option. Checkout the video of installation I posted on this blog.

http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/p/videos.html

Que. My personal laptop has 3 GB of RAM, can it be upgraded to 4 GB?

Answer. Depends on the Operating System as well as hardware, you will have to check yourself. Windows XP supports only up to 3 GB of RAM, even if your hardware allows it, your operating system will not recognize it. Windows 7 home edition support upto 8GB, while Windows 7 Profession will support higher than 8GB. RAM limit also depends on 32 bit vs 64 bit platform. For more details, refer to following link to Microsoft's website:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/aa366778(v=vs.85).aspx#physical_memory_limits_windows_7


Que. I want to install OBIEE 11g on my personal laptop, I have 3GB of RAM, which is maximum supported by Windows XP Home edition. Do you think I can install 11g on it?

Ans. Possibly yes. Choose "Simple Install" which has a smaller footprint, refer to videos I posted on videos page. Anything less than 3GB of RAM will most definitely result in services crashing at run time, you might be able to install although.

Que. Does Oracle have any certification program for OBIEE 11g?

Ans - Yes, see my blog post http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/2013/01/obiee-11g-certification-exam.html

Que. What are quick steps to manually start OBIEE 11g?

Ans - View my blog - http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/2013/01/starting-obiee-11g-services.html

Que. Im unable to complete installation, is there workaround so I can look at the application?

Ans - Yes, there are two workarounds:

         1. Look at live demo environment from Oracle. My post has more details:
             http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/2014/01/obiee-live-demo-from-oracle.html
          2. Download and install SampleApplication virtual machine v309. This comes with all application components preinstalled. v309 is newer version of SampleApp, cleared of old bugs in V207. Here is a post about v207 issue I had in the past, just FYI: http://kumar-oraclebi.blogspot.com/2013/01/obiee-11g-bi-server-not-starting-due-to.html