These questions are related to what previously known as Siebel Analytics is now known as OBIEE i.

e Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. Define repository in terms of Siebel Analytics o Repository stores the Meta data information. Siebel repository is a file syste m, extension of the repository file. rpd. o META DATA REPOSITORY o With Siebel Analytics Server, all the rules needed for security, data modeling , aggregate navigation, caching, and connectivity is stored in metadata reposito ries. o Each metadata repository can store multiple business models. Siebel Analytics Server can access multiple repositories What is the end to end life cycle of Siebel Analytics? o Siebel Analytics life cycle 1. Gather Business Requirements 2. Identify source systems 3. Design ETL to load to a DW if source data doesn t exist. 4. Build a repository 5. Build dashboard or use answers for reporting. 6. Define security (LDAP or External table ) 7. Based on performance, decide on aggregations and/or caching mechanism. 8. Testing and QA. What were you schemas? How does Siebel Architecture works? Explain the three lay ers. How do you import sources? o there are five parts of Siebel Architecture. 1. Clients 2. Siebel analytics Web Server 3. Siebel analytics server 4. Siebel analytics scheduler 5. Data sources o Metadata that represents the analytical Model Is created using the Siebel Anal ytics Administration tool. o Repository divided into three layer 1. Physical Represents the data Sources 2. Business models the Data sources into Facts and Dimension 3. Presentation Specifies the users view of the model; rendered in Siebel answer If you have 3 facts and 4 dimension and you need to join would you recommend joi ning fact with fact? If no than what is the option? Why you won t join fact to fac t? o In the BMM layer, create one logical table (fact) and add the 3 fact table as logical table source What is connection pool and how many connection pools did you have in your last project? o connection pool is needed for every physical database. o It contains information about the connection to the database, not the database itself. o can use either shared user accounts or can use pass-through accounts -Use: USE R and PASSWORD for pass through. o we can have multiple connection pools for each group to avoid waiting Purpose of Alias Tables o An Alias table (Alias) is a physical table with the type of Alias. It is a ref erence to a logical table source, and inherits all its column definitions and so me properties from the logical table source. A logical table source shows how th e logical objects are mapped to the physical layer and can be mapped to physical tables, stored procedures, and select statements. An alias table can be a refer ence to any of these logical table source types. o Alias Tables can be an important part of designing a physical layer. The follo wing is a list of the main reasons to create an alias table: To reuse an existing table more than once in your physical layer (without having to import it several times)

To set up multiple alias tables, each with different keys, names, or joins o to help you design sophisticated star or snowflake structures in the business model layer. Alias tables are critical in the process of converting ER Schemas t o Dimensional Schemas. How do you define the relationship between facts and dimensions in BMM layer? o Using complex join, we can define relationship between facts and dimensions in BMM layer. What is time series wizard? When and how do you use it? o We can do comparison for certain measures (revenue. sales etc.. ) for current year vs. previous year, we can do for month or week and day also o Identify the time periods need to be compared and then period table keys to th e previous time period. o The period table needs to contain a column that will contain Year Ago informatio n. o The fact tables needs to have year ago totals. o To use the Time series wizard . After creating your business model right click th e business model and click on Time Series Wizard . o The Time Series Wizard prompts you to create names for the comparison measures that it adds to the business model. o The Time Series Wizard prompts you to select the period table used for the com parison measures o Select the column in the period table that provides the key to the comparison period. This column would be the column containing Year Ago information in the per iod table. o Select the measures you want to compare and then Select the calculations you w ant to generate. For ex: Measure: Total Dollars and calculations are Change and Percent change. o Once the Time series wizard is run the output will be: a) Aliases for the fact tables (in the physical layer) b) Joins between period table and alias fact tables c) Comparison measures d) Logical table sources o In the General tab of the Logical table source etc. you can find Generated by T ime Series Wizard in the description section o Then you can add these comparison measures to the presentation layer for your reports. o Ex: Total sales of current qtr. vs. previous qtr. vs. same qtr. year ago Did you create any new logical column in BMM layer, how? o Yes. We can create new logical column in BMM layer. o Example: Right click on fact table -new logical column-give name for new logic al column like Total cost. o Now in fact table source, we have one option column mapping, in that we can do all calculation for that new column. Can you use physical join in BMM layer? o yes we can use physical join in BMM layer. When there is SCD type 2 we need co mplex join in BMM layer. Can you use outer join in BMM layer? o yes we can. When we are doing complex join in BMM layer, there is one option t ype, and outer join is there. What are other ways of improving summary query reports other than Aggregate Navi gation and Cache Management Indexes Join algorithm Mat/view query rewrite Web proper report design its optimal by making sure that it is not getting any a ddition column or rows What is level-base metrics? o Level-base metrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of the di mension. For Example, if you have a measure called Dollars , you can create a Level Based Measure called Yearly Dollars which (you guessed it) is Dollars for a Year. T

his measure will always return the value for the year even if you drill down to a lower level like quarter, month etc. To create a level based measure, create a new logical column based on the original measure (like Dollars in the example ab ove). Drag and drop the new logical column to the appropriate level in the Dimen sion hierarchy (in the above example you will drag and drop it to Year in Time D im o A LBM is a metric that is defined for a specific level or intersection of leve ls. o Monthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales are the examples. o You can compare monthly sales with quarterly sales. You can compare customer o rders this quarter to orders this year What is logging level? Where can you set logging levels? o You can enable logging level for individual users; you cannot configure a logg ing level for a group. o Set the logging level based on the amount of logging you want to do. In normal operations, logging is generally disabled (the logging level is set to 0). If y ou decide to enable logging, choose a logging o level of 1 or 2. These two levels are designed for use by Siebel Analytics Ser ver administrators. o Set Logging Level 1. In the Administration Tool, select Manage > Security. 2. The Security Manager dialog box appears. 3. Double-click the user s user ID. 4. The User dialog box appears. 5. Set the logging level by clicking the Up or Down arrows next to the Logging L evel field What is variable in Siebel? O You can use variables in a repository to streamline administrative tasks and m odify metadata content dynamically to adjust to a changing data environment. The Administration Tool includes a Variable Manager for defining variables What is system variable and non-system variable? O System variables O System variables are session variables that the Siebel Analytics Server and Si ebel Analytics Web use for specific purposes. System variables have reserved nam es, which cannot be used for other kinds of variables (such as static or dynamic repository variables, or for non-system session variables). O When using these variables in the Web, preface their names with NQ_SESSION. Fo r example, to filter a column on the value of the variable LOGLEVEL set the filt er to the Variable NQ_SESSION.LOGLEVEL. o Nonsystem variables. o A common use for Nonsystem session variables is setting user filters. For exam ple, you could define a Nonsystem variable called Sales Region that would be ini tialized to the name of the user s sales region. You could then set a security fil ter for all members of a group that would allow them to see only data pertinent to their region. O When using these variables in the Web, preface their names with NQ_SESSION. Fo r example, to filter a column on the value of the variable Sales Region set the filter to the Variable NQ_SESSION.SalesRegion. What are different types of variables? Explain each. o There are two classes of variables: 1. Repository variables 2. Session variables. Repository variables. A repository variable has a single value at any point in time. There are two typ es of repository variables: Static: This value persists, and does not change until a Siebel Analytics Server administrator decides to change it. Dynamic: The values are refreshed by data returned from queries. When defining a dynamic repository variable, you will create an initialization block or use a p reexisting one that contains a SQL query. You will also set up a schedule that t

he Siebel Analytics Server will follow to execute the query and periodically ref resh the value of the variable. Session Variables Session variables are created and assigned a value when each user logs on. There are two types of session variables: 1. System 2. No system. What are the cache management? Name all of them and their uses. For Event pollin g table do u need the table in your physical layer? o Monitoring and managing the cache is cache management. There are three ways to do that. o Disable caching for the system. (INI NQ config file), Cache persistence time f or specified physical tables and Setting event polling table. o Disable caching for the system. (INI NQ config file: You can disable caching for the whole system by setting the ENABLE parameter to NO in the NQSConfig.INI file and restarting the Siebel Analytics Server. Disabli ng caching stops all new cache entries and stops any new queries from using the existing cache. Disabling caching allows you to enable it at a later time withou t losing any entries already stored in the cache. o Cache persistence time for specified physical tables: You can specify a cacheable attribute for each physical table; that is, if queri es involving the specified table can be added to the cache to answer future quer ies. To enable caching for a particular physical table, select the table in the Physical layer of the Administration Tool and select the option Make table cache able in the General tab of the Physical Table properties dialog box. You can als o use the Cache Persistence Time settings to specify how long the entries for th is table should persist in the query cache. This is useful for OLTP data sources and other data sources that are updated frequently, potentially down to every f ew seconds. o Setting event polling table : Siebel Analytics Server event polling tables store information about updates in the underlying databases. An application (such as an application that loads data into a data mart) could be configured to add rows to an event polling table eac h time a database table is updated. The Analytics server polls this table at set intervals and invalidates any cache entries corresponding to the updated tables . o For event polling table, It is a standalone table and doesn t require to be join ed with other tables in the physical layer What is Authentication? How many types of authentication. o Authentication is the process by which a system verifies, through the use of a user ID and password, that a user has the necessary permissions and authorizati ons to log in and access data. The Siebel Analytics Server authenticates each co nnection request it receives. Operating system authentication External table authentication Database authentication LDAP authentication What is object level security? O There are two types of object level security: Repository level and Web level O Repository level: In presentation layer we can set Repository level security b y giving permission or deny permission to users/groups to see particular table o r column. O web level: this provides security for objects stored in the Siebel analytics w eb catalog, such as dashboards, dashboards pages, folder, and reports you can on ly view the objects for which you are authorized. For example, a mid-level manag er may not be granted access to a dashboard containing summary information for a n entire department. What is data level security? O This controls the type and amount of data that you can see in a report. When m ultiple users run the same report the results that are returned to each depend o

n their access rights and roles in the organization. For example a sales vice pr esident sees results for all regions, while a sales representative for a particu lar region sees only data for that region. What is the difference between Data Level Security and Object Level Security? O Data level security controls the type and amount of data that you can see in a reports.Objectlevel security provides security for objects stored in the Siebel analytics web catalog, like dashboards, dashboards pages, folder, and reports. How do you implement security using External Tables and LDAP? O Instead of storing user IDs and passwords in a Siebel Analytics Server reposit ory, you can maintain lists of users and their passwords in an external database table and use this table for authentication purposes. The external database tab le contains user IDs and passwords, and could contain other information, includi ng group membership and display names used for Siebel Analytics Web users. The t able could also contain the names of specific database catalogs or schemas to us e for each user when querying data o Instead of storing user IDs and passwords in a Siebel Analytics Server reposit ory, you can have the Siebel Analytics Server pass the user ID and password ente red by the user to an LDAP(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol ) server for au thentication. The server uses clear text passwords in LDAP authentication. Make sure your LDAP servers are set up to allow this. If you have 2 fact and you want to do report on one with quarter level and the o ther with month level how do you do that with just one time dimension? O Using level base metrics. Did you work on a standalone Siebel system or was it integrated to other platfor ms? O Deploying the Siebel analytics platform without other Siebel applications is c alled Siebel analytics Stand -Alone .If your deployment includes other Siebel An alytics Application it called integrated analytics -You can say Stand-Alone Sieb el analytics How to sort columns in rpd and web? o sorting on web column, sort in the rpd its sort order column If you want to create new logical column where will you create (in repository or dashboard) why? O I will create new logical column in repository. Because if it is in repository , you can use for any report. If you create new logical column in dashboard then it is going to effect on those reports, which are on that dashboard. You cannot use that new logical column for other dashboard (or request) What is complex join, and where it is used? O we can join dimension table and fact table in BMM layer using complex join. Wh en there is SCD type 2 we have to use complex join in BMM layer. If you have dimension table like customer, item, time and fact table like sale a nd if you want to find out how often a customer comes to store and buys a partic ular item, what will you do? o write a query as SELECT customer name, item name, sale date, sum(qty) FROM cust omer_dim a, item_dim b, time_dim c, sale_fact d WHERE d.cust_key = a.cust_key AN D d.item_key = b.item_key AND d.time_key = c.time_key GROUP BY customer_name, it em_name, sale_date You worked on standalone or integrated system? o Standalone. If you want to limit the users by the certain region to access only certain data , what would you do? o using data level security. o Siebel Analytics Administrator: go to Manage -> Security in left hand pane u w ill find the user, groups, LDAP server, Hierarchy What you can do is select the user and right click and go to properties, you wil l find two tabs named as users and logon, go to user tab and click at permission button in front of user name you have selected as soon as u click at permission you will get a new window with user group permission having three tabs named as general ,query limits and filter and you can specify your condition at filter t ab, in which you can select presentation table ,presentation columns ,logical ta

ble and logical columns where you can apply the condition according to your requ irement for the selected user or groups. If there are 100 users accessing data, and you want to know the logging details of all the users, where can you find that? O To set a user s logging level 1. In the Administration Tool, select Manage > Security. The Security Manager Dialog box appears. 2. Double-click the user s user ID. The User dialog box appears. 3. Set the logging level by clicking the Up or Down arrows next to the Logging L evel field How do implement event polling table? O Siebel Analytics Server event polling tables store information about updates i n the underlying databases. An application (such as an application that loads da ta into a data mart) could be configured to add rows to an event polling table e ach time a database table is updated. The Analytics server polls this table at s et intervals and invalidates any cache entries corresponding to the updated tabl es. Can you migrate the presentation layer only to different server O No we can t do only presentation layer. And ask him for more information and use one of the above answers O Create an ODBC connection in the different serve and access the layer. o Copy the Rpd and migrate it to other server Define pipeline. Did you use it in your projects? o Yes, pipelines are the stages in a particular transaction. Assessment, finance etc. How do you create filter on repository? O Where condition on content tab. How do you work in a multi user environment? What are the steps? O Create a shared directory on the network for Multi-user Development (MUD). o Open the rpd to use in MUD. From Tools->Options, setup the MUD directory to po int to the above directory. o Define projects within the rpd to allow multiple users to develop within their subject area or Facts. o Save and move the rpd to the shared directory setup in point 1. o When users work in the MUD mode, they open the admin tool and start with o MUD ->Checkout to checkout the project they need to work on (not use the File open as you would usually do). o After completely the development, user check-in the changes back to the networ k and merge the changes. Where are passwords for userid? Ldap, external table authentication stored respe ctively? o passwords for userid are in Siebel analytics server repository Ldap authentica tion in Ldap server external database in a table in external database Can you bypass Siebel analytics server security? if so how? o yes you can by-pass by setting authentication type in NQSCONFIG file in the se curity section as: authentication_type=bypass_nqs.instanceconfig.xml and nqsconf ig.ini are the 2 places Where can you add new groups and set permissions? o you can add groups by going to manage>security>add new groups> You can give pe rmissions to a group for query limitation and filter conditions. what are the things you can do in the BMM layer? O Aggregation navigation, level base metrics, time series wizard, create new log ical column, complex join. what is ragged hierarchy? And how do u manage it o Ragged Hierarchy is one of the different kinds of hierarchy. o A hierarchy in which each level has a consistent meaning, but the branches hav e inconsistent depths because at least one member attribute in a branch level is unpopulated. A ragged hierarchy can represent a geographic hierarchy in which t he meaning of each level such as city or country is used consistently, but the d epth of the hierarchy varies.

o For example, a geographic hierarchy that has Continent, Country, Province/Stat e, and City levels defined. One branch has North America as the Continent, Unite d States as the Country, California as the Province or State, and San Francisco as the City. However, the hierarchy becomes ragged when one member does not have an entry at all of the levels. For example, another branch has Europe as the Co ntinent, Greece as the Country, and Athens as the City, but has no entry for the Province or State level because this level is not applicable to Greece for the business model in this example. In this example, the Greece and United States br anches descend to different depths, creating a ragged hierarchy. What is the difference between Single Logical Table Source and Multiple Logical Table Sources? o If a logical table in BMM layer has only one Table as the source table then it is Single LTS. o If the logical table in BMM layer has more than one table as the sources to it then it is called Multiple LTS. o Ex: Usually Fact table has Multiple LTS , for which sources will be coming from different Physical tables. Can you let me know how many aggregate tables you have in your project? On what basis have you created them? o As per resume justification document How do you bring/relate the aggregate tables into the Siebel analytics Logical l ayer? o One way of bringing the Aggregate Tables into the BMM layer is by bringing the m as Logical Table sources for the corresponding Fact table. o This is done by dragging and dropping the aggregate table into the correspondi ng fact table. After doing that establish the column mappings and the set the ag gregation levels. How do you know which report is hitting which table, either the fact table or th e aggregate table? o After running the report, go to Administration tab and go to click on Manage Sess ions . There you can find the queries that are run and in the View Log option in the Session Management you can find which report is hitting which table. Suppose I have report which is running for about 3 minutes typically. What is th e first step you take to improve the performance of the query? o Find the sql query of the report in Admin->manage Session-> run the sql query on toad ->read the explain plan output ->modify the SQL based on the explain pla n output Suppose you have a report which has the option of running on aggregate table. Ho w does the tool know to hit the Aggregate table and for that what the steps you follow to configure them? o Explain the process of Aggregate navigation Have you heard of Implicit Facts? If, so what are they? o An implicit fact column is a column that will be added to a query when it cont ains columns from two or more dimension tables and no measures. You will not see the column in the results. It is used to specify a default join path between di mension tables when there are several possible alternatives. o For example, there might be many star schemas in the database that have the Ca mpaign dimension and the Customer dimension, such as the following stars: Campaign History star. Stores customers targeted in campaign. Campaign Response star. Stores customer responses to a campaign. Order star. Stores customers who placed orders as a result of a campaign. In this example, because Campaign and Customer information might appear in many segmentation catalogs, users selecting to count customers from the targeted camp aigns catalog would be expecting to count customers that have been targeted in s pecific campaigns. To make sure that the join relationship between Customers and Campaigns is throu gh the campaign history fact table, a campaign history implicit fact needs to be specified in Campaign History segmentation catalog. The following guidelines sh ould be followed in creating segmentation catalogs:

Each segmentation catalog should be created so that all columns come from only o ne physical star. Because the Marketing module user interface has special features that allow user s to specify their aggregations, level-based measures typically should not be ex posed to segmentation users in a segmentation catalog. What is aggregate navigation? How do you configure the Aggregate tables in Siebe l Analytics? o Aggregate tables store pre-computed results, which are measures that have been aggregated (typically summed) over a set of dimensional attributes. Using aggre gate tables is a very popular technique for speeding up query response times in decision support systems. o If you are writing SQL queries or using a tool that only understands what phys ical tables exist (and not their meaning), taking advantage of aggregate tables and putting them to good use becomes more difficult as the number of aggregate t ables increases. The aggregate navigation capability of the Siebel Analytics Ser ver, however, allows queries to use the information stored in aggregate tables a utomatically, without query authors or query tools having to specify aggregate t ables in their queries. The Siebel Analytics Server allows you to concentrate on asking the right business question; the server decides which tables provide the fastest answers. (Assume you are in BMM layer) We have 4 dimension tables, in that, 2 tables need to have hierarchy, then in such a case is it mandatory to create hierarchies fo r all the dimension tables? o No, it s not mandatory to define hierarchies to other Dimension tables. Can you have multiple data sources in Siebel Analytics? o Yes. How do you deal with case statement and expressions in Siebel analytics? o use expression builder to create case when then.. end statement Do you know about Initialization Blocks? Can you give me an example where you us ed them? o Init blocks are used for instantiating a session when a user logs in. o To create dynamic variable you have to create IB to write sql statement. what is query repository tool? o It is utility of Seibel/OBIEE Admin tool o allows you to examine the repository metadata tool o for example: search for objects based on name, type. o Examine relationship between metadata objects like which column in the present ation layer maps to which table in physical layer what is JDK and why do we need it? o Java Development Kit (JDK), A software package that contains the minimal set o f tools needed to write, compile, debug, and run Java applets. Oracle doesn t recommend Opaque Views because of performance considerations, so wh y/when do we use them? o an opaque view is a physical layer table that consists of select statement. An opaque view should be used only if there is no other solution. Can you migrate the presentation layer to a different server. o No we have to migrate the whole web & rod files How do you identify what are the dimension tables and how do you decide them dur ing the Business/Data modeling? o Dimension tables contain descriptions that data analysts use as they query the database. For example, the Store table contains store names and addresses; the Product table contains product packaging information; and the Period table conta ins month, quarter, and year values. Every table contains a primary key that con sists of one or more columns; each row in a table is uniquely identified by its primary-key value or values Why do we have multiple LTS in BMM layer? What is the purpose? o to improve the performance and query response time. what is the full form of rod? o there is no full form for rod as such, it is just a repository file (Rapid fil e Database)

how do I disable cache for only 2 particular tables? o in the physical layer, right click on the table there we will have the option which says cacheable How do you split a table in the rpd given the condition. (The condition given wa s Broker and customer in the same table) Split Broker and customer. O we need to make an alias table in the physical layer. What type of protocol did you use in SAS? O TCP/IP How do you set the logging level to a group of users? Why did you set the Administrator logging level to 3 or 7 compared to 2 or 1? Does OBIEE 10g support multiple rpds at the same time? What type of architecture s support this? Why was Web logic introduced as a layer in OBIEE 11g? Scalability, performance a dvantages gained out of it? How easy is it to support multiple rods at the same time in 11g? Is there a simp le migration path from 10g to 11g if we are hosting multiple rods already in 10g ? What type of integrations have been done in your environment between OBI Applica tions in OBIEE 10g platform and custom data warehouse and reports in OBIEE 11g p latform? What do you think about these kind of integrations? Do you think the security architecture in OBIEE suit enterprise environments? Wh at components involve the OBIEE security architecture? 53. What are parameterized nested loop joins (PNLP)? Where are they used? Can yo u configure a PNLP in your physical or logical layer? 54. You are running a dashboard report and check whether it is using cache? What are the different caches that can be used to serve its customer faster? (Rememb er we are not talking about cache in BI Server only) How does a dashboard reques t gets served from all available caches? 55. Is it better to cache a fact table or dimension table or both in the BI Serv er level? Why? (Forget other caches from above question) 56. You recently changed the columns of your presentation catalog as your manage r wants to enforce naming standards for all customer facing apps. What happens t o all the dashboard requests written prior to this change? Do they function prop erly or do they appear broken? If Yes, they will function how does they work? If No t, reports appears broken what can you do to fix this? Give examples. 57. What are the different hierarchy types available in OBIEE? When would you us e them? 58. How do you create radio buttons on your OBIEE dashboard? 59. Can you create a Master Detail Report in OBIEE and how would you do it? 60. How do you deal with a situation like this when data is coming from a snowfl akes data warehouse. Fact > Dimension 1 > -< Dimension 2 > < Dimension 3 Dimension 1 and Dimension 2 is an M: M relationship and the same for Dimension 2 and Dimension3. 61. How do you resolve an M: M relationship other than using a bridge table? 62. Let s say that you have three tables joined to each other which have been set to be cacheable at physical layer with Table 1 set at cache persistence time 45 min, Table 2 with 60 min and Table 3 with 30 min. You ran your answers request a t 9 AM and again at 9:15 AM and again at 9:45 AM. Is the result set the same for all these 3 runs at different times? If so, Why? If Not, why not? There are tra nsactions going on and data is being updated in these tables almost every 10 min . 63. Let s say you are on your local box with an rpd and want to make sure that it can be edited only in offline mode. How can you accomplish this? Is this possibl e? What settings would you change? 64. Assume there is no MUDE in your environment. Three developers have been work ing on three seperate projects and they have developed their rpds. As a Server A dmin, you were asked to promote these three rpds. What are the next steps for yo u as an admin to take care of to move them to QA and production? Are there any O BIEE tools that can be handy with this situation?

65. How do you get this type of interaction in your dashboard report? When click ed on a report column, I want multiple options for drill down. Remember that I d id not create any hierarchies in my rpd. 66. Let s say that you want to include a prompt to your dashboard with Start Date, End Date and some measures and dimension attributes. You want to use SQL Results feature to automatically populate Start Date and End Date with Start Date as tru nc(sysdate 1) and End Date as trunc(sysdate). What would you do? Will you encoun ter any errors? How do you rectify this problem? 67. How many business models can a presentation catalog refer to? How many prese ntation catalogues be created from a single business model? 68. How can we create nested presentation folders (nested presentation tables) i n your presentation catalog? Let s say we have Facts all lumped together in one fold er and sub divide these facts as Facts Logical and Facts Strategic folders? How would you create this nested structure in presentation catalog? 69. What are logical keys? Why would you need to create them? Does the physical key gets automatically converted to logical key when the table is moved from phy sical layer to business model? 70. Let s say you have a report with 4 dimensional attributes and 2 fact measures in the report. What s the default sort behavior of OBIEE when you try to run the r eport? On what column/columns does it sort? How do you know this? 71. In the above scenario, is it better to have at least one column defined in y our criteria manually or just leave it without any sort criteria mentioned? What s the difference in performance? Define repository in terms of OBIEE? Repository stores the Meta data information. The extension of the repository fil e is .rpd . With OBIEE Server, all the rules needed for security, data modeling, aggregate navigation, caching, and connectivity is stored in metadata repositori es. Each metadata repository can store multiple business models. OBIEE Server ca n access multiple repositories Repository is divided into three layer, 1. Physical Represents the data Sources 2. Business model the Data sources into Facts and Dimension and apply business logic 3. Presentation Specifies the user s view of the data rendered in OBIEE answers cl ient What is the end to end life cycle of OBIEE? OBIEE life cycle: 1. Gather Business Requirements 2. Identify source systems 3. Design ETL to load data to the Data Warehouse 4. Build a repository 5. Build dashboards and reports 6. Define security (LDAP or External table) 7. Based on performance, decide on aggregations and/or caching mechanism. 8. Testing and QA. If you have 3 facts and 4 dimension and you need to join would you recommend joi ning fact with fact? If no than what is the option? Why you won t join fact to fac t? Instead of joining fact with fact we can create one logical table (fact) and add the 3 fact tables as logical table source in the BMM layer. What is connection pool and how many connection pools did you have in your last project? Connection pool is needed for every physical database. It contains information about the connection to the database, not the database i tself. Can use either shared user accounts or can use pass-through accounts

We can have multiple connection pools for each group to avoid waiting What is the purpose of Alias Tables? An Alias table is a physical table with the type of Alias. It is a reference to a physical table, and inherits all its column definitions and some properties fr om the physical table. A logical table source shows how the logical objects are mapped to the physical layer and can be mapped to physical tables, stored proced ures and select statements. An alias table can be a reference to any of these lo gical table source types. Alias Tables can be an important part of designing a physical layer. T he following is a list of the main reasons to create an alias table: 1. To reuse an existing table more than once in your physical layer (without hav ing to import it several times) 2. To set up multiple alias tables, each with different keys, names, or joins 3. To help you design sophisticated star or snowflake structures in the business model layer. Alias tables are critical in the process of converting ER Schemas to Dimensional Schemas. How do you define the relationship between facts and dimensions in BMM layer? Using complex join we can define relationship between facts and dimensions in BM M layer. Did you create any new logical column in BMM layer, how? Yes. We can create new logical column in BMM layer. Example: Right click on fact table> select new logical column>give name for new logical column like Total cost. Can you use physical join in BMM layer? Yes we can use physical join in BMM layer. Can you use outer join in BMM layer? Yes we can. When we are doing complex join in BMM layer in the join properties w e have an option to change the type of join to left outer, right outer, full out er or inner. What is level based metrics? Level based metrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of the dim ension. A LBM is a metric that is defined for a specific level or intersection of levels . Monthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales are the examples. Ex: if you have a measure called Dollars , you can create a Level Based Measure calle d Yearly Dollars which is Dollars for a Year. This measure will always return the value for the year even if you drill down to a lower level like quarter, month, etc. To create a level based measure, create a new logical column based on the o riginal measure (like Dollars in the example above). Drag and drop the new logic al column to the appropriate level in the Dimension hierarchy in the above examp le you will drag and drop it to Year in Time Dim. What is logging level? Where can you set logging levels? You can enable logging level for individual users. We can set the logging level based on the amount of logging you want to do. In n ormal operations, logging is generally disabled (the logging level is set to 0). If you decide to enable logging, choose a logging level of 1 or 2. These two le vels are designed for use by Siebel Analytics Server administrators. Set Logging Level: 1. In the Administration Tool, select Manage > Security.

2. The Security Manager dialog box appears. 3. Double-click the user s user ID. 4. The User dialog box appears. 5. Set the logging level by clicking the up or down arrows next to the Logging L evel field What are different types of variables? Explain each. There are two classes of variables: 1. Repository variables 2. Session variables Repository variablesA repository variable persists from the time the repository is started. Static: This value does not change until a Siebel Analytics Server administrator decides to change it. Dynamic: The values of these variables change with the values returned by querie s. These variables are linked to an initialization block. An initialization bloc k contains a SQL query. When the repository is started the value returned by the query in the initialization block will be assigned to the dynamic variable. Session VariablesSession variables are created and assigned a value when each user logs-on (when a new session is started). There are two types of session variables: 1. System: System variables have reserved names, which cannot be used for other kinds of variables (such as static or dynamic repository variables, or for non-s ystem session variables). Ex: To filter a column on the value of the variable LOGLEVEL set the filter to t he Variable NQ_SESSION.LOGLEVEL. 2. Non-system: A common use of non-system variables is for setting user filters. Ex: you could define a non-system variable called SalesRegion that would be initialized to the name of the user s sales region. You could then s et a security filter for all members of a group that would allow them to see onl y data pertinent to their region. For example, to filter a column on the value o f the variable SalesRegion set the filter to the Variable NQ_SESSION.SalesRegion. What is Authentication? How many types of authentication do we have in OBIEE? Authentication is the process by which a system verifies a user with the help of a user ID and password. It checks if user has the necessary permissions and aut horizations to log in and access data. There are 4 main types of Authentication in OBIEE: Operating system authentication External table authentication Database authentication LDAP authentication What is object level security? There are two types of object level security: Repository level and Web level Repository level: In presentation layer we can set Repository level security by giving permission or deny permission to users/groups to see particular table or column. Web level: this provides security for objects stored in the OBIEE web catalog, s uch as dashboards, dashboards pages, folder, and reports you can only view the o bjects for which you are authorized. For example, a mid-level manager may not be granted access to a dashboard containing summary information for an entire depa rtment. What is data level security? This controls the type or amount of data that you can see in a report. When mult iple users run the same report the results that are returned to each depend on t heir access rights and roles in the organization. For example a sales vice presi dent sees results for all regions, while a sales representative for a particular region sees data for that region.

What is the difference between Data Level Security and Object Level Security? Data level security controls the type and amount of data that you can see in a r eport. Object level security provides security for objects stored in the OBIEE w eb catalog like dashboards, dashboards pages, folder and reports. How do you implement security using External Tables and LDAP? Instead of storing user IDs and passwords in a OBIEE Server repository , you can maintain lists of users and their passwords in an external database ta ble and use this table for authentication purposes. The external database table contains user IDs and passwords, and could contain other information, including group membership and display names used for Siebel Analytics Web users. Instead of storing user IDs and passwords in a OBIEE Server repository , you can have the OBIEE Server pass the user ID and password entered by the use r to an LDAP(Lightweight Directory Access Protocol ) server for authentication. The server uses clear text passwords in LDAP authentication. Make sure your LDAP servers are set up to allow this. If you have 2 fact and you want to do report on one with quarter level and the o ther with month level how do you do that with just one time dimension? Using level base metrics. If you want to create new logical column where will you create (in repository or dashboard) why? It would be better if we create a new logical column in repository because if it is in repository you can use it for any report. If you create new logical colum n in dashboard then it is going to affect only those reports which are on that d ashboard. We cannot use that new logical column for other dashboards. What is complex join, and where it is used? To join a dimension table and fact table in BMM layer we use a complex join. If you want to limit the users by the certain region to access only certain data , what would you do? Using data level security. In the Admin tool: go to Manage -> Security in left hand pane u will find the us er, groups, LDAP server, Hierarchy What you can do is select the user and right click and go to properties, you wil l find two tabs named as users and logon, go to user tab and click at permission button in front of user name you have selected as soon as u click at permission you will get a new window with user group permission having three tabs named as general ,query limits and filter and you can specify your condition at filter t ab, in which you can select presentation table ,presentation columns ,logical ta ble and logical columns where you can apply the condition according to your requ irement for the selected user or groups. If there are 100 users accessing data, and you want to know the logging details of all the users, where can you find that? Set the user s logging level 1. In the Administration Tool, select Manage > Security. The Security Manager Dialog box appears. 2. Double-click the user s user ID. The User dialog box appears. 3. Set the logging level by clicking the Up or Down arrows next to the Logging L evel field How do implement event polling table? In OBIEE Server event polling tables store information about updates in the unde rlying databases. These tables are used for cache management. An application tha t loads data into a data mart could be configured to add rows to an event pollin

g table each time a database table is updated. The Analytics server polls this t able at set intervals and invalidates cache entries corresponding to the updated tables. Define pipeline. Did you use it in your projects? Yes, pipelines are the stages in a particular transaction, assessment, finance, etc. How do you work in a multi user environment? What are the steps? Create a shared directory on the network for Multi-user Development (MUD). Open the rpd to use in MUD. From Tools->Options, setup the MUD directory to poin t to the above directory. Define projects within the rpd to allow multiple users to develop within their s ubject area or Facts. Save and move the rpd to the shared directory setup in point 1. When users work in the MUD mode, they open the admin tool and start with MUD ->Checkout to check-out the project they need to work on (not use the File o pen as you would usually do). After completing the development, users check-in the changes back to the network and merge the changes. Can you bypass Siebel analytics server security? if so how? Yes we can by-pass by setting authentication type in NQSCONFIG file in the secur ity section as:authentication_type=bypass_nqs.instanceconfig.xml. What are the things you can do in the BMM layer? We apply the business login in the BMM layer like creating new logical columns, Aggregation navigation, level based metrics, time series wizard, complex join. What is the difference between Single Logical Table Source and Multiple Logical Table Sources? If a logical table in BMM layer has only one Table as the source table then it i s Single LTS. If the logical table in BMM layer has more than one table as the sources to it t hen it is called Multiple LTS. Ex: Usually Fact table has Multiple LTSs, for which sources will be coming from different Physical tables. How do you bring/relate the aggregate tables into the Siebel analytics Logical l ayer? One way of bringing the Aggregate Tables into the BMM layer is by bringing them as Logical Table sources for the corresponding Fact table. This is done by dragging and dropping the aggregate table into the corresponding fact table. After doing that establish the column mappings and the set the aggr egation levels in the content tab of the LTS. How do you know which report is hitting which table, either the fact table or th e aggregate table? After running the report, go to Administration tab and go to click on Manage Sessio ns . There you can find the queries that are run and in the View Log option in the S ession Management you can find which report is hitting which table. Suppose I have report which is running for about 3 minutes typically. What is th e first step you take to improve the performance of the query? Find the SQL query of the report in Admin->manage Session-> view log then run th e SQL query on toad if it takes the same time even in TOAD then modify the query to reduce the query time. If the query runs normally in TOAD then we need to ma ke changes in the repository. What is aggregate navigation? How do you configure the Aggregate tables in OBIEE

? Aggregate tables store pre-computed results, which are measures that have been a ggregated (typically summed) over a set of dimensional attributes. Using aggrega te tables is a very popular technique for speeding up query response times in de cision support systems. Ex: If you observe that most of the queries are fired on aggregated values like yearly or monthly data rather that day level data then to speed up the report we can create an aggregate table containing month level and year level data and ma p it to the respective logical table and set the aggregation levels in the conte nt tab of LTS. We have 4 dimension tables, in that 2 tables need to have hierarchies then in su ch a case is it mandatory to create hierarchies for all the dimension tables? No, it is not mandatory to define hierarchies to other Dimension tables. Can you have multiple data sources in OBIEE? Yes, we can have multiple data sources of different types. Do you know about Initialization Blocks? Can you give me an example where you us ed them? Initialization blocks are used for instantiating the value of a variable. To create dynamic variable you have to create IB to write SQL statement. The res ult of the query would be assigned as value to the variable. What is query repository tool? It is utility of OBIEE Admin tool It allows you to examine the repository metadata Examine relationship between metadata objects like which column in the presentat ion layer maps to which table in physical layer Ex: we can search for objects based on name, type. Can you migrate the presentation layer to a different server? No, we cannot migrate only one particular layer to another server, we have to mi grate the complete repository or the web catalog. How do you identify what are the dimension tables and how do you decide them dur ing the Business/Data modeling? Dimension tables contain descriptions that data analysts use as they query the d atabase. Ex: the Product table contains product packaging information; and the Period table contains month, quarter, and year values. The tables which contain numeric values used for calculations are used as Fact tables. Why do we have multiple LTS in BMM layer? What is the purpose? To improve the performance and query response time. How do i disable cache for only 2 particular tables? In the physical layer, double click on a table on the general tab we have an opt ion Cacheable we can either enable it or disable it for that particular table. How do you split a table in the rpd given the condition? (The condition given wa s Broker and customer in the same table) Split Broker and customer. We need to create alias tables in the physical layer and use which ever columns are required 1) Tell me your experience in OBIEE, along with your roles & responsibility in projects? 2) 3) What is the architecture of OBIEE? What is the difference between Siebel Analytics, OBIEE 10.x & OBIEE 11.x

4) Have you worked in BI Publisher? If yes, tell me the process of generati ng published report? 5) Have you scheduled reports? If yes tell me the process (from scratch) of creating scheduled reports. 6) 7) How do you migrate development environment changes to QA / production? What are the types of Security, how do you implement them?

8) If you forget administrator password to access your repository, what cor rective actions you would be taking? 9) If your client addresses performance issue in some most prominent report s, accessed by many end users, what corrective actions you would be taking? 10) What is Authentication / Authorization? What process you follow to impleme nt authentication for end users? 11) What is Cache Management? How do you implement auto cache management?

12) What was the most challenging task you handled in you obiee project. What action you took to overcome that? 13) 14) 15) How you implement dimensional Hierarchy? Can you create calculated column in rpd. If yes tell me the process. What you need to do to create trend based reports?

16) How can you reorder & club multiple tables / columns, based on client requ irements? (Nesting of Folders) 17) 18) 19) 20) What types of dashboard objects you have worked. Give me the examples? What type of views you have created, while generating reports? Tell me the process of merging Repository? How to create dashboard?

21) How to restrict / grant access rights to various presentation services fea tures. 22) 23) 24) 25) 26) 27) How can you move dashboard report from one dashboard to other? How to apply web based object level security? Difference between Table / Pivot & Gauge View? Difference between Narrative, Ticker & Static Teat? How to customize no result data display? How to apply presentation Variables to Dashboards & Reports?

28) What is guided navigation used for, give me some practical example you imp lemented guided navigation?

29)

What is the scope of bins, how you implement them?

30) What is the process of merging multiple physical tables to single logical table? 31) 32) How do you create Aggregate Tables? How do you Implement Usage Tracking?

33) If you want to aggregate your data (Product Revenue based) on monthly basi s & display data w.r.t fiscal years & country. How you will generate report? 34) 35) 36) 37) 38) 39) 40) 41) 42) 43) 44) 45) 46) b) 47) 48) 49) 50) 51) 52) 53) 54) What is Slowly Changing Dimension? How do you implement them? What is conformed dimension? Have you worked in Time Series Function, Give me the practical example? How to implement level based measure? What is Logical Table Source used for? How do you localize your dashboard settings? How to implement implicit fact column. Why it is required? What is Alias Table & why it is used? How to implement MUDE (Multi User Development Environment)? What types of Dimensional Hierarchy are there? How you implement them? What is gauge view? Where it is used? How to you implement partitioning in presentation layer? (Bins) How to implement Fragmentation from rpd? (LTS, Fragmentation in content ta How do you calculate number of elements at any level of hierarchy? How to implement non system session Variable? Can you specify expression in complex join? If yes how? How to design time dim. Hierarchy. What are mandatory constraints? How do you build Data Template? How to build RTF Template? How to configure Dillivers How to configure Scheduler

1Functional (Based on your Exp. ) 2Client < -> Presentation Server <-> BI Server <-> Data source 3? Difference of Siebel & OBIEE a. In OBIEE, we can use Evaluate fn

b. Time series wizard s used in Siebel whereas ago & todate functions added in O BIEE c. OCI call interface connection is available in OBIEE d. Presentation variables are introduced e. Meta data dictionary is there in obiee f. Multi select feature (contains any, begins with, ends with, wildcards like %) are available in obiee ? Difference of OBIEE 10g and 11g a. In 10g OC4J (Oracle container for java) . In 11g its Web logic server b. Security is managed by RPD in 10 g. In 11g the security is managed by the web logic server. c. In 10g we had foreign key join (physical layer) & complex key join (BMM). We only have a New Key Join in case of 11g , which is used at both the BMM & Physic al layer. d. 11g supports cross join hierarchies example we can move from customer dimensi on to product dimension during drilling down. Supports ragged hierarchies etc. e. 11g also has column hierarchies available in the presentation services, which are created simply by dragging the dimension hierarchies from the BMM layer to the presentation layer in RPD. When column hierarchies are used to build an anal yses the default view is Pivot table. f. The time series functions Ago & ToDate which where only available in the RPD with 10g are now also available in the presentation services along with a new fu nction RollingPeriod. g. The analyses can now by reconstructed at run time that means we can move colu mn attribute from the x-axis to the y-axis and reverse as well. h.KPI s are available in the 11g along with KPI Watchlist on which they are deploy ed to be viewed by the end user. Key Performance indicators (metrics very essent ial for the business) i. Concept of scorecards is available in 11g, which can measure the goal/mission by using KPI s as the building blocks for the same j. concept of Selection s is now available in the presentation services in 11g. k. There is a single portal for the bi publisher/bi intelligence. The reports th at are built in the BI Publisher are stored in the same catalog, as the analyses created using the bi intelligence. l. 11g has Action Framework which can by used to invoke, existing analyses, html , java procedures. 4Functional (Based on your Exp. ). 5Steps as mentioned below: ? Login to Fusion Middleware ( EM ) ? Navigate to (Business Intelligence > coreapplication > Deployment>Scheduler & Mail ? Do editing & save by activate changes. ? Login to OBIEE Web (http://yourservername:7001/analytics) ? Click New in the Global header and then select Agent and Actionable Intellige nce ? Navigate to Different Tabs & do relevant updates. ? Save the agent and Run it. 6Rpd : Merging Changes & Migration & Webcat (files & folders movement) 7Security Types (Object Level & Data Level ), implemented through Init Blo cks & variables. 8Edit NQSConfig.ini security section ( 3rd Authentication type remove # ), bounce services, open offline rpd & change password. 9If query fetching ok at DB, then update connection pool settings or creat ing separate con pool for authentication / authorization, will solve the purpose to some extent. Cache Seeding or aggregation also solves the purpose. 10- In short Authentication ( Login Access ) Authorization ( Access Rights ). D one by configuring Session Variable Initialization Blocks. 11- Cache Management Process to maintain cache for performance & update at cert ain duration. Auto Cache Mgmt can be attained by setting EPT (event pooling tabl e ).

12- Functional ( Based on your Exp. ) 13- In BMM Layer. 14- In BMM Layer done by Expression Editor. 15- Implement Time Series Calculations in BMM Layer. 16- Done in Presentation Layer ( Prefix [in 10g] / -> [in 11g] before table nam e) 17- Types ( Section/ link or image/ folder/ embedded content/ guided navigation /etc.). Example ( Exp.) 18- Table / Pivot / Charts/ Narrative/ static text/ ticker/ filters/ title/ leg end/ funnel/ gauge/ No Result/ etc. 19- 3 way merge process ( Original, Modified {latest}, current {older to be upd ated}. 20- Functional ( Based on your Exp. ) 21- (a) In Rpd Presentation Catalog --> Properties --> Permission & (b) In Analytics --> Administration --> Manage Dashboard (Set a s per Roles & groups) 22- By Manage Catalog Feature 23- In Rpd Presentation Catalog --> Properties --> Permission 24- Table First Row is heading, Pivot Headings in Rows & columns (Cross Table) M easures within them. , Gauge Graphical data view in form of Dial or bulb & measu re fields have pointer / values associated to it. 25- Narrative Use the narrative view to show the results as one or more paragrap hs of text. You can type in a sentence with placeholders for each column in the results, and specify how rows should be separated. Ticker - Use the ticker view to show the results of the request as a ticker or m arquee, similar in style to the stock tickers that run across many financial and news sites on the Internet. You can control what information is presented and h ow it scrolls across the page. Static Text - Use the static text view to include static text in the results. Yo u can use HTML to add banners, tickers, ActiveX objects, Java applets, links, in structions, descriptions, graphics, and so on, in the results. 26- From No Results View 27- In Dashboards - From Prompts & in Reports from Filter --> Variables option. 28- Guided Navigation - Certain data display based on specific condition of repo rt. Example, based on your experience. 29- Bins Available in Filter dialog & are used to fragment data as per business requirement. 30- To remove complexity or converting physical snowflake to star business model schema. 31- See - http://obieetutorialguide.blogspot.in/2012/03/creating-aggregate-table s-in-obiee.html 32- Long Process Will Update Later 33- See similar process as in 31 34- Tracking changes in dimension with respect to time is referred as slowly cha nging dimensions. 35- Confirmed Dimension - Dimension directly linked to multiple fact tables. 36- See - http://obieetutorialguide.blogspot.in/2012/03/time-series-functions-ob iee.html (Example Based on Experience) 37- Level Based Measures Measure columns associated to certain levels of dimensi onal hierarchy. (Settings done in LTS) 38- Logical Table Source It s one of the most important part of BMM designing & is used for Joining multiple tables, fragmentation, aggregation, formulation, filt ration of data, etc. 39- Set Language Preference settings from My Account 40- Implicit Fact Column From Rpd Presentation Catalog --> Properties --> Set (I mplicit Fact Column). Used to increase query response time for dimension only qu eries. What are Alias tables? Why they are used?

Ans: Physical Table that inherits all properties of its parent table are Alias T ables. They are important in many aspects like: a) b) For multiple use of physical table. To avoid circular join.

2What settings you can do in physical layer to enhance end user query res ponse time? Ans: For Performance Enhancement, most of the settings are performed in connecti on pool. Some of the important tasks handled by Connection pool are : a) Updating Maximum Connection (default =10) based on : No. of concurrent u sers to No. of reports per dashboard. E.g. If a dashboard contains 5 reports per dashboard page & number of concurrent users are 100 then, Max. Connection will be= 20% * (No. of concurrent users)*(No. of reports per dashboard page).=.2*100* 5 = 100 b) You must also use separate connection pool for Aggregate Tables / Initia lization Blocks / Data Tables that effect execution time of other randomly used DB tables. This also enhances overall query response time. 3- How to perform time series calculations? Ans : Time Series Calculations are performed with measure columns (Columns in fa ct table) with respect to time dimensional hierarchy (make sure time dimension h ierarchy is configured properly, with chronological keys set at the levels). Tim e Series Functions are available in functions & can be configured in Business Mo del & Mapping Layer. Type of Time Series calculations you can perform are : Ago() Todate() periodrolling() 4What operations can be performed in Business Model & Mapping Layer, that cannot be performed from physical layer. Ans: Business Model & Mapping (Semantic) Layer is the most important layer in Me tadata Repository, that task performed includes: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) h) 5Ans: a) b) c) d) e) f) g) Dimensional Hierarchy Creation. Creating New Logical Columns (Based on certain calculations). Updating Dimensional Modeling (to enhance performance). Creating Level Based Metrics (Measures). Aggregating Tables. Time Series Calculations. Fragmenting Data (Content Tab of LTS). Filtering Data (Content Tab of LTS). What are the common tasks performed in Presentation Layer? Rename Tables / Columns. Reordering Tables. Nesting Tables. Setting Object Level / Data Level Security. Setting Variables (Session / Repository). Authentication / Authorization Settings. Manual Cache Management.

6What are common task performed in User Interphase? Ans: Task performed includes: a) Adhoc Report Creation / Modification.

b) c) d) e) f)

Dashboard Creation / Modification. Publishing Reports. Scheduling Reports. Setting KPI. Manage Web Catalog.

7Which utility you need to run to execute & generate Aggregate Tables in Database & Metadata Repository? Ans: nqCmd.exe Utility (available in OracleBI\Server\Bin for 10g & OBIEE_Home\Or acle_BI1\bifoundation\server\bin folder for 11g). However run the utility throug h command prompt. 8How to open a repository, without knowing its Password? Ans: Update NQSConfig.ini file (available in OracleBI\Server\Config folder for 1 0g & OBIEE_Home\instances\instance1\config\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplicati on_obis1 for 11g ) Security Section & unhash (remove # - sign) [AUTHENTICATION_ TYPE = BYPASS_NQS; ] Note: Feature only applicable to open repository in Offline mode. 9Which utility is used to run disconnected Analytics? Ans: sadis.exe available in OracleBI\Server\Bin folder. 10What a DBA needs to do, to enhance query response time (Performance Enhan cement)? Ans: Most of the time, it is Database which is responsible for Query execution time. So DBA need to take corrective actions to enhance query performance. Most important task that a DBA can perform includes: a) b) c) Bitmap Indexing (Fact Foreign Key / Bitmap Join Index) Partitioning Dimensional Attributes (Eg. Time Key). Compressing Data.

1.Explain the Architecture of OBIEE And How what each components do? Answer :- OBIEE Consists of Presentation Services(Web),Oracle BI (Analytics Engi ne) Server The client (Answers) constructs sql and passes it to the Analytic Engine and the n the Oracle BI (Analytic Engine) parses the physical sql to the Datasources and retrieve the data back to the Engine and presents to the presentation Services . 2.how to get sql from obiee for reports? Answer :- There are many ways to get the sql a. Modify the request and click Advanced in that you get xml code and also the a ctual sql. b.In the catalog Manager click Tools >Create Report .In the Create Report Window > Click Request SQL and save the sql to the physical path in your PC. c.Enable Loglevel to 2 in the OBIEE Admin Tool from Mange-> Security and enable the log level to 2 by clicking properties for the user, then go to the NQQuery.l og in BI_HOME/OracleBI/Server/Logs.You will find the SQL for that User. d. by clcking Administration->Manage sessions-> view sql 3.How will you tune the SQL in Oracle if you find nested loops in the explain pl an! 4. How will you do sort in Reports in OBIEE Answers. Answer :- click modify and then click sort (order by icon) on the relevant colum n in the criteria pane. 5. How will you do different types of narrative Reports in OBIEE? Answer:- By clicking modify request and Narrative View and by giving @1 for the first column result and @2 for the 2nd column and son on and we can also give a

heading for No Results by clicking the Narrative view. 6.How will you create Interactive Dashboards ? Answer:- By clicking Administration and Manage dashboards and by adding column s elector also by using view selector etc.and also by using prompts. 7.what is write-back in obiee ? Answer:-In Reports of Answer you can give a column as updatebale and then view t he reports,this option is called write back. 8.How will you execute Direct SQL in OBIEE? Answer:-By clicking Direct Database Request below the subject area in Answers. 9.how will you create report from two subject areas Answer:- From the Criteria Pane of the Report Created from First Subject Area come to the bottom of the page and click combine request. but the options are li mited for combining like union etc.. 10. What is the most tough issue you have faced while developing reports? 11.How will you Port changes for dashboards,reports,rpd from development to prod uction? Answer:- for the rpd use the Merge option in Admin Tool and for dashboards and r eports use Content Accelerator Framework. 12.What are the different types of variables in OBIEE? Explain Answer:-There are two types of variables in obiee. a. Repository variable. This variable is for the whole repository. b. session variable . session variable can be system variable and non system var iable. system variable uses NQ_SESSION. - (system reserved variable). examples of non system variables are user defined filters etc. 13.How will you enable or disable caching in the system level and table level. Answer:-In the NQSConfig.ini file use ENABLE under CACHE Section for System Leve l for tables .If you want to enable the cache at table level , open the repository in offline mode(not the current working repository). this should be different f rom the current repository and click enable or disable the cache . right click t he table and properties and click the cache or deselect the cache. then merge th e repository with the current working one. 14.How will you go about adding additional column to the repository in the prese ntation layer. Answer :- check whether the table is already existing if so add in physical laye r ,then BMM and then Presentation layer, then reload server metadata ,then it wi ll be visible to all users. 15.How will effect the changes for a report , if for certain users only the colu mn heading in the report should be changed? Answer:-using session variables for that user. 16.what is a table alias in obiee? and where and how will you create it. Answer:- Table alias can be created by right clicking the table in the physical layer then click alias, Table alias is mostly used for creating self joins. 17.Have you created Hierarchy in obiee. if so where and how? Answer:-Yes we can create hierarchy in BMM Layer of obiee in dimensions for the dimension tables. this can be done by right clicking the dimension table and cli ck create dimension and then we should manually define the hierarchy and its lev els. 18.What is Level Based Metrics.How will you create it? Answer:-Leval-base matrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of the dimension. Monthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales are the examples. To create a level based measure, create a new logical column based on the origin al measure (like Sales in the example above). Drag and drop the new logical colu mn to the appropriate level in the Dimension hierarchy (in the above example you will drag and drop it to Month in Time Dimension. 19.what are the different layers of OBIEE Repository? Answer:-a. Physical Layer, b. Business Model and Mapping Layer,c. Presentation L ayer

20.What is Authentication? How many types of authentication. Answer:-Authentication is the process by which a system verifies, through the us e of a user a. Operating system authentication b. External table authentication c. Database authentication d. LDAP authentication 21. What are the different types of security you have worked in obiee? Answer :- Object Level and data level 22.what is a bridge table ? Answer:- If you want to connect two tables where there is no relationship you ca n use a third bridge table for connecting them which will have common columns in both tables, this is used in BMM Layer. 23.You come Morning to the office. and all the users are complaining about the o biee reporting system is very slow(dashboards). what is your approach to resolve the issue? Answer:- Mainly check NQServer.log and in Admin Tool -> click Session Manager. c heck if there is any bottleneck and accordingly resolve. 24.What are the different Log files in OBIEE? Answer:-NQServer.log , NQQuery.log,NQSAdminTool.log mainly.25.Name few Configura tion files in obiee. 25.What are the Key Configuration Files in OBIEE? Answer:- NQSConfig.ini,NQSCluster.ini,odbc.ini,instanceconfig.xml 26.How will change port of obiee answers? by changing its port in instanceconfig.xml 27.What is ClusterServices in obiee ? why its used? Answer:-To Scale up the Performance by clustering and distributing the services across multiple Servers ClusterServices are used. 28.Can you Change the location of the OBIEE Repository? Answer:- Not in Standalone OBIEE Install. you can give shared location in NQSClu ster.ini if the OBIEE is clustered. 29.How many BI Services Node can be clustered together? Answer :- 16 30.Can you run multiple rpd s in a Single OBIEE Instance? Answer :- No . you should create another instance in the same server , then its possible. 31.How will you implement security in obiee, so that subjects areas accessed by one group are not accessed by another group. Answer:- Using Security Manger in OBIEE Admin Tool, by creating two user groups and allowing only part of the subject area for one group and other part to the o ther user group. 32.What is SCD type 1 and 2. Answer:- SCD is slow changing dimensions. in type 1 we replace the changed dimen sion with old dimension. in type 2 we use surrogate keys and keep both the recor ds(rows). Advantage of SCD2 is we keep history of the old dimension. 33. What is Star Schema and What is Snowflake Schema Answer:- Star is one fact and many dimensions whereas Snowflake design is one fa ct and many dim s and dim s can have additional dim relations. 34.How to startup obiee in Linux? Answer:./run-sa.sh start #starts obi server ./run-saw.sh start #start saw server ./run-sch.sh start #start scheduler How do you implement security using External Tables and LDAP? Instead of storing user IDs and passwords in a Siebel Analytics Server repositor y, you can maintain lists of users and their passwords in an external database t able and use this table for authentication purposes. The external database table contains user IDs and passwords, and could contain other information, including group membership and display names used for Siebel Analytics Web users. The tab

le could also contain the names of specific database catalogs or schemas to use for each user when querying data Instead of storing user IDs and passwords in a Siebel Analytics Server repositor y, you can have the Siebel Analytics Server pass the user ID and password entere d by the user to an LDAP (Lightweight Directory Access Protocol) server for auth entication. The server uses clear text passwords in LDAP authentication. Make su re your LDAP servers are set up to allow this. If you have 2 fact and you want to do report on one with quarter level and the o ther with month level how do you do that with just one time dimension? Using Level-based metrics Did you work on a standalone Siebel system or was it integrated to other platfor ms? Deploying the Siebel analytics platform without other Siebel applications is cal led Siebel analytics Stand -Alone .If your deployment includes other Siebel Anal ytics Application it called integrated analytics -You can say Stand-Alone Siebel analytics How to sort columns in rpd and web? Sorting on web column, sort in the rpd its sort order column If you want to create new logical column where will you create (in repository or dashboard) why? I will create new logical column in repository because if it is in repository, y ou can use for any report. If you create new logical column in dashboard then it is going to effect on those reports, which are on that dashboard. You cannot us e that new logical column for other dashboard (or request) What is complex join, and where it is used? We can join dimension table and fact table in BMM layer using complex join. When there is SCD type 2 we have to use complex join in BMM layer. If you have dimension table like customer, item, time and fact table like sale a nd if you want to find out how often a customer comes to store and buys a partic ular item, what will you do? Write a query like SELECT customer_name, item_name, sale_date, SUM(qty) FROM customer_dim a, item_di m b, time_dim c, sale_fact d WHERE d.cust_key = a.cust_key AND d.item_key = b.it em_key AND d.time_key = c.time_key GROUP BY customer_name, item_name, sale_date You worked on standalone or integrated system? Stand-alone. If you want to limit the users by the certain region to access only certain data , what would you do? Using data level security. Siebel Analytics Administrator: go to Manage -> Security in left hand pane u wil l find the user, groups, LDAP server, Hierarchy What you can do is select the user and right click and go to properties, you wil l find two tabs named as users and logon, go to user tab and click at permission button in front of user name you have selected as soon as u click at permission you will get a new window with user group permission having three tabs named as general ,query limits and filter and you can specify your condition at filter t ab, in which you can select presentation table ,presentation columns ,logical ta ble and logical columns where you can apply the condition according to your requ irement for the selected user or groups. If there are 100 users accessing data, and you want to know the logging details of all the users, where can you find that? To set a user s logging level 1. In the Administration Tool, select Manage > Security. The Security Manager Dialog box appears. 2. Double-click the user s user ID. The User dialog box appears. 3. Set the logging level by clicking the Up or Down arrows next to the Logging L evel field How do implement event polling table? Siebel Analytics Server event polling tables store information about updates in the underlying databases. An application (such as an application that loads data

into a data mart) could be configured to add rows to an event polling table eac h time a database table is updated. The Analytics server polls this table at set intervals and invalidates any cache entries corresponding to the updated tables . Can you migrate the presentation layer only to different server? No we can t do only presentation layer. And ask him for more information and use o ne of the above answers Create an ODBC connection in the different server and access the layer. Copy the rpd and migrate it to other server Define pipeline. Did you use it in your projects? Yes, pipelines are the stages in a particular transaction. Assessment, finance, etc., How do you create filter on repository? Where condition on content tab in BMM Layer. How do you work in a multi user environment? What are the steps? Create a shared directory on the network for Multi-user Development Environment (MUDE). Open the rpd to use in MUDE. From Tools->Options, setup the MUDE directory to po int to the above directory. Define projects within the rpd to allow multiple users to develop within their s ubject area or Facts. Save and move the rpd to the shared directory setup in point 1. When users work in the MUD mode, they open the admin tool and start with MUD ->Check-out to check out the project they need to work on (not use the File open as you would usually do). After completely the development, users check-in the changes back to the network and merge the changes. Where are passwords for USERID? LDAP, external table authentication stored respe ctively? Passwords for USERID are in Siebel analytics server repository LDAP authenticati on in LDAP server external database in a table in external database Can you bypass Siebel analytics server security? If so how? Yes, you can by-pass by setting authentication type in NQSCONFIG file in the sec urity section as: AUTHENTICATION_TYPE = BYPASS_NQS Where can you add new groups and set permissions? You can add groups by going to Manage>Security>add New Groups> you can give perm issions to a group for query limitation and filter conditions. What are the things you can do in the BMM layer? Aggregation navigation, level base metrics, time series wizard, create new logic al column, complex join. What is ragged hierarchy? And how do you manage that? Ragged Hierarchy is one of the different kinds of hierarchy. A hierarchy in which each level has a consistent meaning, but the branches have inconsistent depths because at least one member attributes in a branch level is unpopulated. A ragged hierarchy can represent a geographic hierarchy in which th e meaning of each level such as city or country is used consistently, but the de pth of the hierarchy varies. For example, a geographic hierarchy that has Continent, Country, Province/State, and City levels defined. One branch has North America as the Continent, United States as the Country, California as the Province or State, and San Francisco as the City. However, the hierarchy becomes ragged when one member does not have a n entry at all of the levels. For example, another branch has Europe as the Cont inent, Greece as the Country, and Athens as the City, but has no entry for the P rovince or State level because this level is not applicable to Greece for the bu siness model in this example. In this example, the Greece and United States bran ches descend to different depths, creating a ragged hierarchy. What is the difference between Single Logical Table Source and Multiple Logical Table Sources? If a logical table in BMM layer has only one Table as the source table then it i

s Single LTS. If the logical table in BMM layer has more than one table as the sources to it t hen it is called Multiple LTS. Ex: Usually Fact table has Multiple LTS , for which sources will be coming from di fferent Physical tables. Can you let me know how many aggregate tables you have in your project? On what basis have you created them? Justify the answer as per your resume. How do you bring/relate the aggregate tables into the Siebel analytics Logical l ayer? One way of bringing the Aggregate Tables into the BMM layer is by bringing them as Logical Table sources for the corresponding Fact table. This is done by dragging and dropping the aggregate table into the corresponding fact table. After doing that establish the column mappings and the set the aggr egation levels. How do you know which report is hitting which table, either the fact table or th e aggregate table? After running the report, go to Administration tab and go to click on Manage Sessio ns . There you can find the queries that are run and in the View Log option in the S ession Management you can find which report is hitting which table. Suppose I have report which is running for about 3 minutes typically. What is th e first step you take to improve the performance of the query? Find the SQL query of the report in Admin->manage Session-> run the SQL query on toad ->read the explain plan output ->modify the SQL based on the explain plan output Suppose you have a report which has the option of running on aggregate table. Ho w does the tool know to hit the Aggregate table and for that what the steps you follow to configure them? Explain the process of Aggregate navigation Have you heard of Implicit Facts? If so what are they? An implicit fact column is a column that will be added to a query when it contai ns columns from two or more dimension tables and no measures. You will not see t he column in the results. It is used to specify a default join path between dime nsion tables when there are several possible alternatives. For example, there might be many star schemas in the database that have the Camp aign dimension and the Customer dimension, such as the following stars: Campaign History star: Stores customers targeted in campaign. Campaign Response star: Stores customer responses to a campaign. Order star: Stores customers who placed orders as a result of a campaign. In this example, because Campaign and Customer information might appear in many segmentation catalogs, users selecting to count customers from the targeted camp aigns catalog would be expecting to count customers that have been targeted in s pecific campaigns. To make sure that the join relationship between Customers and Campaigns is through the campaign history fact table, a campaign history implic it fact needs to be specified in Campaign History segmentation catalog. The foll owing guidelines should be followed in creating segmentation catalogs: Each segmentation catalog should be created so that all columns come from only o ne physical star. Because the Marketing module user interface has special featur es that allow users to specify their aggregations, level-based measures typicall y should not be exposed to segmentation users in a segmentation catalog. What is aggregate navigation? How do you configure the Aggregate tables in Siebe l Analytics? Aggregate tables store pre-computed results, which are measures that have been a ggregated (typically summed) over a set of dimensional attributes. Using aggrega te tables is a very popular technique for speeding up query response times in de cision support systems.

If you are writing SQL queries or using a tool that only understands what physic al tables exist (and not their meaning), taking advantage of aggregate tables an d putting them to good use becomes more difficult as the number of aggregate tab les increases. The aggregate navigation capability of the Siebel Analytics Serve r, however, allows queries to use the information stored in aggregate tables aut omatically, without query authors or query tools having to specify aggregate tab les in their queries. The Siebel Analytics Server allows you to concentrate on a sking the right business question; the server decides which tables provide the f astest answers. (Assume you are in BMM layer) We have 4 dimension tables, in that, 2 tables need to have hierarchy, and then in such a case is it mandatory to create hierarchie s for all the dimension tables? No, it s not mandatory to define hierarchies to other Dimension tables. Can you have multiple data sources in Siebel Analytics? Yes. How do you deal with case statement and expressions in Siebel analytics? Use expression builder to create case when then... End statement Do you know about Initialization Blocks (IB)? Can you give me an example where y ou used them? Initialization blocks are used for instantiating a session when a user logs in. To create dynamic variable, System and non-system session variable you have to c reate IB to write SQL statement. What is query repository tool? It is utility of Seibel/OBIEE Admin tool allows you to examine the repository metadata tool for e.g. search for objects based on name, type. Examine relationship between metadata objects like which column in the presentat ion layer maps to which table in physical layer What is JDK and why do we need it? Java Development Kit (JDK), a software package that contains the minimal set of tools needed to write, compile, debug, and run Java applets. Oracle doesn t recommend Opaque Views because of performance considerations, so wh y/when do we use them? An opaque view is a physical layer table that consists of select statement. An o paque view should be used only if there is no other solution. Can you migrate the presentation layer to a different server? No, we have to migrate the whole web & rpd files How do you identify what are the dimension tables and how do you decide them dur ing the Business/Data modeling? Dimension tables contain descriptions that data analysts use as they query the d atabase. For example, the Store table contains store names and addresses; the Pr oduct table contains product packaging information; and the period table contain s month, quarter, and year values. Every table contains a primary key that consi sts of one or more columns; each row in a table is uniquely identified by its pr imary-key value or values Why do we have multiple LTS in BMM layer? What is the purpose? To improve the performance and query response time. What is the full form of rpd? There is no full form for rpd as such; it is just a repository file (Rapid file Database) How do you disable cache for only 2 particular tables? In the physical layer, right click on the table. You will get table properties w indow there we will have the option which says cacheable. You have to unselect t he check option so the cache will be disabled for the particular table. How do you split a table in the rpd given the condition? (The condition given wa s Broker and customer in the same table) Split Broker and customer. We need to make an alias table in the physical layer. .What you did in physical layer, BMM layer and Presentation layer? Ans: Physical layer: Physical layer is a connection between database and reposit ory by using connection pool. We can import the data from the different data sou

rces, no of connection pools, aliases like tables and columns, duplicate tables, opaque views and physical joins etc. BMM layer: Also called as Logical layer, actually we implemented the logic here. We can do the calculations, create the logical tables and columns, establish th e joins like physical and logical or complex joins, dimensions, level-based-metr ics etc. Presentation layer: We can show only the content which we want to show the end-u ser, We can implement authorization and authentication, Implicit fact column and sort order column etc. 2.What are Level-Based-Metrics(LBM)?How you use in your project? Ans: Level-based-metrics show the measures at different levels based on the dime nsion hierarchy. Generally LBMs will use to display the data at month, week and day level. To show this we will create the alias measure columns. Explain more details from your project. 3.What is Dimension Hierarchies? Explain the procedure to create the Hierarchy? Ans: Below link give the complete procedure for creating the dimension hierarchy .. http://oracletechnotalk.blogspot.in/2012/04/creation-of-hierarchy-in-obiee.html 4.What is Sort order columns? Ans: We can sort the columns at 2 levels 1. Repository: At the presentation layer, sort the one column values based on an other column 2. Answers: At the criteria tab->columns->sort the column values either ascendin g or descending order based on the requirement. 5.Rate yourself in SQL? Ans: Here you need answer very carefully because based on your rating they are r eady to fire the questions on SQL. You have the minimum knowledge in SQL like se lect statement, joins, performance concepts etc. 6.What is Implicit fact table and Implicit fact column? Ans: A common fact table for dimension tables is called as implicit fact table. An Implicit fact column is a column in a Implicit fact table, we can select the best path between the dimensions. Implicit fact column is decided in presentatio n layer. 7.Can we handle the nulls? Ans: Yes, we can handle either in repository and answers. ifnull(column_name,0)->at expression of the measure column 8.What is the use of connection pool? Ans: We can create different no of connection pools in the project. It has the d atabase connection details, no of minimum users can access the application. 9.What is security in OBIEE? Ans: Security in OBIEE can be implemented in 2 ways. 1. Authentication: Verify and validate the users against the system. 2. Authorization: Validate the users against the Data. 10. What is Authentication? How can we implement? Ans: Verify and validate the users against the system. We can implement the Auth entication in 4 ways 1. External table 2. Operating system 3. Data base 4. LDAP 11. What is Authorization? How can we implement? Ans: Validate the users against the Data. Data can be limited the users by 1. Object level 2. Data level 3. Reports/Dashboard level 1. Explain the Architecture of OBIEE and what each components do? Answer :- OBIEE Consists of Presentation Services(Web),Oracle BI (Analytics Engi ne) Server The client (Answers) constructs sql and passes it to the Analytic Engine and the n the Oracle BI (Analytic Engine) parses the physical sql to the Data sources an

d retrieve the data back to the Engine and presents to the presentation Services . ________________________________________ 2. How to get sql from obiee for reports? Answer :- There are many ways to get the sql a. Modify the request and click Advanced in that you get xml code and also the a ctual sql. b. In the catalog Manager click Tools >Create Report .In the Create Report Window > Click Request SQL and save the sql to the physical path in your PC. c. Enable Loglevel to 2 in the OBIEE Admin Tool from Mange-> Security and enable the log level to 2 by clicking properties for the user, then go to the NQQuery. log in BI_HOME/OracleBI/Server/Logs.You will find the SQL for that User. d. By clcking Administration->Manage sessions-> view sql. ________________________________________ 3. How will you do sort in Reports in OBIEE Answers. Answer :- Click modify and then click sort (order by icon) on the relevant colum n in the criteria pane. ________________________________________ 4. How will you do different types of narrative Reports in OBIEE? Answer:- By clicking modify request and Narrative View and by giving @1 for the first column result and @2 for the 2nd column and son on and we can also give a heading for No Results by clicking the Narrative view. ________________________________________ 5. How will you create Interactive Dashboards? Answer:- By clicking Administration and Manage dashboards and by adding column s elector also by using view selector etc.and also by using prompts. ________________________________________ 6. What is write-back in obiee ? Answer:- In Reports of Answer you can give a column as updateable and then view the reports, this option is called write back. ________________________________________ 7. How will you execute Direct SQL in OBIEE? Answer:- By clicking Direct Database Request below the subject area in Answers. ________________________________________ 8. How will you create report from two subject areas? Answer:- From the Criteria Pane of the Report Created from First Subject Area come to the bottom of the page and click combine request. but the options are li mited for combining like union etc.. ________________________________________ 9. How will you Port changes for dashboards, reports, rpd from development to pr oduction? Answer:- For the RPD use the Merge option in Admin Tool and for dashboards and r eports use Content Accelerator Framework. ________________________________________ 10. What are the different types of variables in OBIEE? Explain Answer:- There are two types of variables in obiee. a. Repository variable. This variable is for the whole repository. b. session variable . session variable can be system variable and non system var iable. system variable uses NQ_SESSION. - (system reserved variable). examples of non system variables are user defined filters etc. ________________________________________ 11. How will you enable or disable caching in the system level and table level? Answer:- In the NQSConfig.ini file use ENABLE under CACHE Section for System Lev el for tables .If you want to enable the cache at table level , open the repository in offline mode(not the current working repository). this should be different f rom the current repository and click enable or disable the cache . Right click t he table and properties and click the cache or deselect the cache. then merge th e repository with the current working one.

________________________________________ 12. How will you go about adding additional column to the repository in the pres entation layer? Answer :- Check whether the table is already existing if so add in physical laye r ,then BMM and then Presentation layer, then reload server metadata ,then it wi ll be visible to all users. ________________________________________ 13. How will effect the changes for a report , if for certain users only the col umn heading in the report should be changed? Answer:- Using session variables for that user. ________________________________________ 14. What is a table alias in obiee? and where and how will you create it. Answer:- Table alias can be created by right clicking the table in the physical layer then click alias, Table alias is mostly used for creating self joins. ________________________________________ 15. Have you created Hierarchy in OBIEE. if so where and how? Answer:- Yes we can create hierarchy in BMM Layer of OBIEE in dimensions for the dimension tables. this can be done by right clicking the dimension table and cl ick create dimension and then we should manually define the hierarchy and its le vels. ________________________________________ 16. What is Level Based Metrics.How will you create it? Answer:- Leval-base matrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of the dimension. Monthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales are the examples. To create a level based measure, create a new logical column based on the origin al measure (like Sales in the example above). Drag and drop the new logical colu mn to the appropriate level in the Dimension hierarchy (in the above example you will drag and drop it to Month in Time Dimension. ________________________________________ 17. What are the different layers of OBIEE Repository? Answer:- Physical Layer, Business Model and Mapping Layer, and Presentation Laye r. ________________________________________ 18. What is Authentication? How many types of authentication. Answer:- Authentication is the process by which a system verifies, through the u se of a user a. Operaing system autentication b. External table authentication c. Database authentication d. LDAP authentication ________________________________________ 19. What are the different types of security you have worked in OBIEE? Answer :- Object Level and data level. ________________________________________ 20. What is a bridge table ? Answer:- If you want to connect two tables where there is no relation ship you c an use a thrid bridge table for connecting them which will have common columns i n both tables, this is used in BMM Layer. ________________________________________ 21. You come Morning to the office. and all the users are complaining about the obiee reporting system is very slow(dasboards). what is your approach to resolve the issue? Answer:- Mainly check NQServer.log and in Admin Tool -> click Session Manager. c heck if there is any bottleneck and accordingly resolve. ________________________________________ 22. What are the different log files in OBIEE? Answer:- Following are the different log files inOBIEE NQServer.log , NQQuery.log, NQSAdminTool.log etc. There are mainly 25 Configuration files available in obiee.

________________________________________ 23. What are the Key Configuration Files in OBIEE? Answer:- NQSConfig.ini, NQSCluster.ini, odbc.ini, instanceconfig.xml ________________________________________ 24. How will change port of obiee answers? Answer:- By changing its port in instanceconfig.xml ________________________________________ 25. What is ClusterServices in OBIEE ? Why its used? Answer:- To Scale up the Performance by clustering and distributing the services across multiple Servers ClusterServices are used. ________________________________________ 26. Can you change the location of the OBIEE Repository? Answer:- No, Not in Standalone OBIEE Install. you can give shared location in NQ SCluster.ini if the OBIEE is clustered. ________________________________________ 27. How many BI Services Node can be clustered together? Answer :- 16 ________________________________________ 28. Can you run multiple rpd s in a Single OBIEE Instance? Answer :- No . you should create another instance in the same server , then its possible. ________________________________________ 29. How will you implement security in obiee,so that subjects areas accessed by one group are not accessed by another group. Answer:- Using Security Manger in OBIEE Admin Tool, by creating two user groups and allowing only part of the subject area for one group and other part to the o ther user group. ________________________________________ 30. What is SCD type 1 and 2. Answer:- SCD is slow changing dimensions. in type 1 we replace the changed dimen sion with old dimension. in type 2 we use surrogate keys and keep both the recor ds(rows). Advantage of SCD2 is we keep history of the old dimensiont. ________________________________________ 31. What is Star Schema and SnowFlake Schema? Answer:- Star is one fact and many dimensions where as Snowflake design is one f act and many dim s and dim s can have additonal dim relations. ________________________________________ 32. How to startup OBIEE in Linux? Answer:./run-sa.sh start #starts obi server ./run-saw.sh start #start saw server ./run-sch.sh start #start scheduler ________________________________________ 33. How you generally Approach to ur Analytics Project? Answer:- Any project should start from defining the scope of the project and the approach should be not to deviate from the scope. Then the project should be functionally divided into smaller modules generally d one by project managers along with technical and functional leads. The functional leads then decide on majorly three things: 1. According to the defined scope of the project they start gathering requi rements while interacting with the clients. 2. They had a discussion with the technical leads and try to reach a soluti on. 3. Technical leads decides what schemas to create and what requirements are going to fulfill by that schema. Technical leads discuss all this with the developers and try to close requiremen ts. Simultaneously testing and deployment is planned in a phased manner.

________________________________________ 34. How we are going to decide which schema we are going to implement in the dat a warehouse? Answer:- One way is what is mentioned in Question above. If one ask you to blindly create schemas for the warehouse without knowing any r equirements, You can simply first divide the schemas on the basis of functional areas of an O rganization which are similar to the modules in an ERP like sales, finance, purc hase, inventory, production, HR etc. You have to broadly describe the expected analysis an organization would like to do in every module. This way you would be able to complete at least 40-50 % of the requirements. To move ahead, study the data and business and you can create few more schemas. ________________________________________ 35. What are the Challenges You Faced while making of Reports? Answer:- Making of an report has never been a difficult task. But problem comes when users are reluctant to adopt a new system. Many developers have experienced that if they are not able to create the report in exactly the way they used to see, they will keep asking for the changes. Developers approach should be to fir st show them what they want to see and then add more information in the report. ________________________________________ 36. What you will do when your Report is not Fetching Right Data? Answer:- This is the biggest problem in report creation and verification. There could be two reasons for report not fetching the right data. 1. Mostly clients do not have correct data in their database and on top of that to correct the results they make some changes at the report level to bring the d esired result which you may not e aware of while creating the reports. Clients t ry to match the data with their existing reports and you never get the correct r esults. you try to discover the things and at later stage come to know of all th ese problems and you are held responsible for this delay. Hence always consult t he SPOC(Single Point of Contact) and try to understand the logic they have used to generate their reports. 2. If the database values are correct, there there could be a problem with the j oins and relations in the schema. You need to discover that analyzing and diggin g deep into the matter. ________________________________________ 37. How analytics Process Your Request When you Create your Requests? Answer:- Oracle BI server converts the logical SQL submitted by the client into optimised physical SQL which is then sent to the backend database. Also in betwe en it performs various tasks like converting the user operations like user selec tions to form a logical SQL, checking and verifying credentials, breaking the re quest into threads(as Oracle BI is a multi threaded server), processes the reque sts, manages the cached results, again converting the results received from the database into user presentable form etc. ________________________________________ 38. From where u Get the Logical Query of your Request? Answer:- The logical SQL generated by the server can be viewed in BI Answers. ________________________________________ 39. What are the Major Challenges You Faced While Creating the RPD?????? Answer:- Every now and then there are problems with the database connections but the problem while creating the repository RPD files comes with complex schemas made on OLTP systems consisting of lot of joins and checking the results. Th typ e of join made need to be checked. By default it is inner join but sometimes the requirement demands other types of joins. There are lot of problems with the da te formats also. ________________________________________ 40. What are Global Filter and how thery differ From Column Filter? Answer:Column filter- Simply a filter applied on a column which we can use to restrict

our column values while pulling the data or in charts to see the related content . Global filter- This filter will have impact on across the application. ________________________________________ 41. How to hide Certain Columns From a User? Answer:- We can hide a column in Application access level security Do not add the column in the report Do not add the column in the presentation layer. ________________________________________ 42. How to Enable Drills in a Given Column Data? Answer:- To enable Drill down for a column, it should be included in the hierarc hy in OBIEE. Hyperion IR has a drill anywhere feature where dont have to define and can drill to any available column. ________________________________________ 43. How the users Created Differs From RPD/Answers/Dashboards Level? Answer:- RPD users can do administrator tasks like adding new data source, creat e hirarchies, change column names where as Answers users may create new charts, edit those charts and Dashboard users may only view and analyse the dashboard or can edit dashboard by adding/removing charts objects. ________________________________________ 44. How Online/Offline mode impact Development and Delpoyment???? Answer:Online Mode- You can make changes in the RPD file and push in changes which will be immediately visible to the users who are already connected. This feature we may use in production environment. Offline mode- can be useful in test or development environment. 45. What is Guided Navigation? Answer:- Guided navigation is a feature of Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards that enables the content and layout of Oracle BI Interactive Dashboard to change dyn amically based on changes in the information being analyzed. Specifically, sections in a dashboard page can be set up and only appear when th ere is interesting information 1 What is OBIee ? OBIee is a business intelligence tool allowing to procuce reportings, mainly thr ough a web interface. It is a tool owned by Oracle that have been purchased in 2005 to Siebel (Siebel previously bought the tool to NQuire, which explains NQ prefixes for configuration files) becoming Oracle Business Intelligence 10g. 11g version has been released in 2010. 2 Architecture : what are the main components of Oracle Business Intelligence ? OBIee (from the 11g version) runs on a J2EE application server named Weblogic, c ontrollable by 2 interfaces : Enterprise Manager and Weblogic Console. There are 2 main services : Presentation services (corresponding to Answers and Dashboards modules to create and consult reports and dashboards) Oracle BI Server (corresponding to the repository rpd containing sources mapping s and business rules) The BI Publisher module, independent in previous versions, is now fully integrat ed in OBIee. It corresponds to the features "Published reportings", under New -> Analysis men u.

3 What kind of sources can be connected to OBIee ? OBIee can be plugged on Relational Databases, Cubes or Flat files, with the foll owing constraints : The sources must be modeled as star schemas or snowflakes schemas in order to ha ve an efficient and safe behavior. In case of multiple sources directly in OBIee used together, be aware that OBIee will conduct the needed joins itself, and OBIee is not a database. 4 - Is it possible to create a report based on two subject areas (example : Sal es and Supply chain) ? Theoretically, yes. In practice, the two subject area must come from the same bu siness model in the repository, which is quite useless. Then, we can consider th e two following alternatives : Create an analysis with combine request : one subrequest by subject area. Note that it s tricky to implement for standard users. Set up a transverse subject area, that will gather tables from both business top ics. 5 How to get real physical SQL sent by OBIee to the database First of all, check the value of your session variable LOGLEVEL. 5 is fine. Then, go into Administration -> Manage sessions. Find your query (at the bottom of the list), and click on View log . If you hit the cache, you will see cache hit on query . Otherwise, you will see the physical SQL below the logical SQL. 6 How to configure an OBIee environment ? In OBIee 11g, main configuration items are managed in Enterprise Manager (web in terface). However, some configurations are still located in configuration files, like NQSC onfig.ini, NQSCluster.ini, odbc.ini, and instanceconfig.xml. 7 In a troubleshooting perspective, how can I see log files ? Old method in 10g version consisted in opening log files on the server. Now, in 11g, log information is consultable in Enterprise Manager. What is the previous name of OBIEE and in which version you are currently workin g for? Siebel Analytics, Currently working with OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0

Define repository in terms of Siebel Analytics? Repository stores the Meta data information. Siebel repository is a file system, extension of the repository file. rpd. which called as META DATA REPOSITORY With Siebel Analytics Server, all the rules needed for security, data modeling, aggregate navigation, caching, and connectivity is stored in metadata repositori es. Each metadata repository can store multiple business models. Siebel Analytics Se rver can access multiple repositories. What is the end to end life cycle of Siebel Analytics? Siebel Analytics life cycle 1. Gather Business Requirements 2. Identify source systems 3. Design ETL to load to a DW if source data doesn t exist. 4. Build a repository 5. Build dashboard or use answers for reporting.

6. Define security (LDAP or External table) 7. Based on performance, decide on aggregations and/or caching mechanism. 8. Testing and QA. How does OBIEE Architecture works? Explain the three layers. How do you import s ources? There are five parts of Siebel Architecture. 1. Clients 2. Oracle BI Presentation Server 3. Oracle BI Server 4. Application Server (OC4J) 5. Data Source Metadata that represents the analytical Model is created using OBIEE Administrat ion tool. Repository divided into three layers 1. Physical Represents the data Sources 2. Business models the Data sources into Facts and Dimension 3. Presentation Specifies the users view of the model, rendered in Oracle BI ans wer If you have 3 facts and 4 dimension and you need to join would you recommend joi ning fact with fact? If no than what is the option? Why you won t join fact to fac t? In the BMM layer, create one logical table (fact) and add the 3 fact table as lo gical table source (LTS) What is connection pool and how many connection pools did you have in your last project? Connection pool is needed for every physical database. It contains information about the connection to the database, not the database i tself. It Can use either shared user accounts or can use pass-through accounts -Use: US ER and PASSWORD for pass through. We can have multiple connection pools for each group to avoid waiting. Purpose of Alias Tables An Alias table (Alias) is a physical table with the type of Alias. It is a refer ence to a logical table source, and inherits all its column definitions and some properties from the logical table source. A logical table source shows how the logical objects are mapped to the physical layer and can be mapped to physical t ables, stored procedures, and select statements. An alias table can be a referen ce to any of these logical table source types. Alias Tables can be an important part of designing a physical layer. The followi ng is a list of the main reasons to create an alias table: To reuse an existing table more than once in your physical layer (without having to import it several times) To set up multiple alias tables, each with different keys, names, or joins To help you design sophisticated star or snowflake structures in the business mo del layer. Alias tables are critical in the process of converting ER Schemas to Dimensional Schema.

How do you define the relationship between facts and dimensions in BMM layer? Using complex join, we can define relationship between facts and dimensions in B MM layer. What is time series wizard? When and how do you use it? We can do comparison for certain measures ( revenue, sales etc.. ) for current y ear vs. previous year, we can do for month or week and day also. Identify the time periods need to be compared and then period table keys to the previous time period. The period table needs to contain a column that will contain Year Ago information. The fact tables needs to have year ago totals. To use the Time series wizard , After creating your business model right click the business model and click on Time Series Wizard . The Time Series Wizard prompts you to create names for the comparison measures t hat it adds to the business model. The Time Series Wizard prompts you to select the period table used for the compa rison measures Select the column in the period table that provides the key to the comparison pe riod. This column would be the column containing Year Ago information in the perio d table. Select the measures you want to compare and then Select the calculations you wan t to generate. For ex: Measure: Total Dollars and calculations are Change and Pe rcent change. Once the Time series wizard is run the output will be: a) Aliases for the fact tables (in the physical layer) b) Joins between period table and alias fact tables c) Comparison measures d) Logical table sources In the General tab of the Logical table source etc., you can find Generated by Ti me Series Wizard in the description section Then you can add these comparison measures to the presentation layer for your re ports. Ex: Total sales of current Quarter vs. Previous Quarter vs. same quarter year ag o Did you create any new logical column in BMM layer, how? Yes. We can create new logical column in BMM layer. Example: Right click on fact table -new logical column-give name for new logical column like Total Revenue. Now in fact table source, we have one option column mapping, in that we can do a ll calculation for that new column. Can you use physical join in BMM layer? Yes, we can use physical join in BMM layer. When there is SCD type 2 we need com plex join in BMM layer. Can you use outer join in BMM layer? Yes we can. When we are doing complex join in BMM layer, there is one option typ e, outer join is there. What are other ways of improving summary query reports other than Aggregate Navi gation and Cache Management? Indexes

Join algorithm Mat/view query rewrite Web proper report design its optimal by making sure that it is not getting any a ddition column or rows What is Level based metrics? Level-based metrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of the dim ension. For Example, if you have a measure called Dollars , you can create a Level B ased Measure called Yearly Dollars which (you guessed it) is Dollars for a Year. Th is measure will always return the value for the year even if you drill down to a lower level like quarter, month etc. To create a level based measure, create a n ew logical column based on the original measure (like Dollars in the example abo ve). Drag and drop the new logical column to the appropriate level in the Dimens ion hierarchy (in the above example you will drag and drop it to Year in Time Di m A LBM is a metric that is defined for a specific level or intersection of levels . Monthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales are the examples. You can compare monthly sales with quarterly sales. You can compare customer ord ers this quarter to orders this year What is logging level? Where can you set logging levels? You can enable logging level for individual users; you cannot configure a loggin g level for a group. Set the logging level based on the amount of logging you want to do. In normal o perations, logging is generally disabled (the logging level is set to 0). If you decide to enable logging, choose a logging level of 1 or 2. These two levels are designed for use by Siebel Analytics Serve r administrators. Set Logging Level: 1. In the Administration Tool, select Manage > Security. 2. The Security Manager dialog box appears. 3. Double-click the user s user ID. 4. The User dialog box appears. 5. Set the logging level by clicking the Up or Down arrows next to the Logging L evel field What is variable in OBIEE? You can use variables in a repository to streamline administrative tasks and mod ify metadata content dynamically to adjust to a changing data environment. The A dministration Tool includes a Variable Manager for defining variables What is system variable and non-system variable? System variables: System variables are session variables that the Siebel Analytics Server and Sieb el Analytics Web use for specific purposes. System variables have reserved names , which cannot be used for other kinds of variables (such as static or dynamic r epository variables, or for non-system session variables). When using these vari ables in the Web, preface their names with NQ_SESSION. For example, to filter a column on the value of the variable LOGLEVEL set the filter to the Variable NQ_S ESSION.LOGLEVEL. Non-system variables: A common use for non-system session variables is setting user filters. For examp le, you could define a non-system variable called SalesRegion that would be init

ialized to the name of the user s sales region. You could then set a security filt er for all members of a group that would allow them to see only data pertinent t o their region. When using these variables in the Web, preface their names with NQ_SESSION. For example, to filter a column on the value of the variable SalesRegion set the fil ter to the Variable NQ_SESSION.SalesRegion. What are different types of variables? Explain each. There are two classes of variables: 1. Repository variables 2. Session variables Repository variables: A repository variable has a single value at any point in time. There are two typ es of repository variables: Static: This value persists, and does not change until a Siebel Analytics Server administrator decides to change it. Dynamic: The values are refreshed by data returned from queries. When defining a dynamic repository variable, you will create an initialization block or use a p reexisting one that contains a SQL query. You will also set up a schedule that t he Siebel Analytics Server will follow to execute the query and periodically ref resh the value of the variable. Session Variables: Session variables are created and assigned a value when each user logs on. There are two types of session variables: 1.system 2.non-system. What is the cache management? Name all of them and their uses. For Event polling table do you need the table in your physical layer? Monitoring and managing the cashe is cache management.There are three ways to do that. Disable caching for the system.(NSQconfig INI file), Cache persistence time for specified physical tables and Setting event polling table. Disable caching for the system.(INI NQ config file : You can disable caching for the whole system by setting the ENABLE parameter to NO in the NQSConfig.INI file and restarting the Siebel Analytics Server. Disabli ng caching stops all new cache entries and stops any new queries from using the existing cache. Disabling caching allows you to enable it at a later time withou t losing any entries already stored in the cache. Cache persistence time for specified physical tables: You can specify a cacheable attribute for each physical table; that is, if queri es involving the specified table can be added to the cache to answer future quer ies. To enable caching for a particular physical table, select the table in the Physical layer of the Administration Tool and select the option Make table cache able in the General tab of the Physical Table properties dialog box. You can als o use the Cache Persistence Time settings to specify how long the entries for th is table should persist in the query cache. This is useful for OLTP data sources and other data sources that are updated frequently, potentially down to every f ew seconds. Setting event polling table:

Siebel Analytics Server event polling tables store information about updates in the underlying databases. An application (such as an application that loads data into a data mart) could be configured to add rows to an event polling table eac h time a database table is updated. The Analytics server polls this table at set intervals and invalidates any cache entries corresponding to the updated tables . For event polling table ,It is a standalone table and doesn t require to be joined with other tables in the physical layer. What is Authentication? How many types of authentication. Authentication is the process, by which a system verifies, through the use of a user ID and password, that a user has the necessary permissions and authorizatio ns to log in and access data. The Siebel Analytics Server authenticates each con nection request it receives. Operating system authentication External table authentication Database authentication LDAP authentication What is object level security? There are two types of object level security: 1. Report Level 2. Web Level Repository level: In presentation layer we can set Repository level security by giving permission or deny permission to users/groups to see particular table or column. Web level: this provides security for objects stored in the OBIEE web catalog, s uch as dashboards, dashboards pages, folder, and reports you can only view the o bjects for which you are authorized. For example, a mid-level manager may not be granted access to a dashboard containing summary information for an entire depa rtment. What is data level security? This controls the type an amount of data that you can see in a report. When mult iple users run the same report the results that are returned to each depend on t heir access rights and roles in the organization. For example a sales vice presi dent sees results for all regions, while a sales representative for a particular region sees only data for that region. What is the difference between Data Level Security and Object Level Security? Data level security controls the type and amount of data that you can see in rep orts. Object level security provides security for objects stored in the OBIEE we b catalog, like dashboards, dashboards pages, folder, and reports. What exactly is OBIEE? This is a suite of tools for business intelligence and a Web services-oriented platform (the EE Plus part). The acronym stands for Orac le Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. The data and its business intellige nce analysis is housed on a data server. The interface between the data administ rator and the data server is Web-based, as is the interface with the client. 2. What are the components of the OBIEE system? The presentation service s provides the interface with the Wen client for reports. The business intellige nce server collects the data and maintains it in a logical data model along with related metadata. The BI scheduler delivers reports at specified times . The BI publisher generates the enterprise reports. The BI Java host provides services for charts, gauges and PDF files. The BI presentation services plug-in receives the Web client requests. The BI for Microsoft Office is self-explanatory.

3. What are pivot tables? These originated in Excel and consist of turnin g a two-dimensional on its side. A calendar usually has the days of the week acr oss the top (the column headings) and the weeks down the side (the row headings) and the dates as the values in the cells. If a calendar would be pivoted, the w eeks would become the column headings and the days of the week would head the ro ws. The danger of a pivot table is that the data integrity can be compromised if the data is calculated relative and absolute cell references need to be checke d. OBIEE has the pivot table function. 4. What is the relationship between a fact table and a dimension table? T he fact table is a logical table which defines measures of interest, namely cert ain business scenarios, in data warehousing.. These measures would be ways of m easuring information. A dimension table contains values that identify and catego rize data; these are categories of attributes by which the business is defined. The relationship between the two is that a fact table has the measures by which a company gauges its business operations and performance, while the dimension ta ble contains the data used to qualify these facts. 5. Cab you create an audit trail in OBIEE? The BI server has a built-in a udit tracker to know what is being run by whom (and when), occurrences of databa se optimization and aggregation, most frequently requested reports. Billing per department usage and more. 6. What is DAC? This is the data warehouse administration console the scr een(s) by which the DW administrator manages and generates DW procedures. There are many utilities and tools built into the DAC for the admin s more common needs. What does the time series wizard do? Because SQL has no simple methods for tim e comparisons, OBIEE has added an Ago function to compare current information to information from a specified time previous to the current time, and a ToDate fu nction to calculate information from a specified date to the present. What kind of information can be imported for BI analysis? Data to be imported and manipulated can come from any database, Web sites, and even Excel workbooks. How does OBIEE authenticate users? There are four ways to authenticate a user . The preferred method is LDAP authentication which is based on credentials sto red in LDAP. If the user belongs to multiple groups, external table authenticati on is used based on a scheme table. If the Oracle BI server uses database author ization, it is based on database logins. Oracle BI server user authentication re quires manual input so if a company has a lot of people needing access, this is a painstaking process. What is a dashboard in OBIEE? A dashboard is a container for reports and other content. It is created in the Administrator Console. Once created, it is comple tely customizable. It allows quick access to multiple reports displayed in a tab bed interface. Oracle PLM Business Intelligence offers integrated Business Intelligence that pr ovides Timely Analytics on Product Quality, Risk and Change Performance. PLM BI is built on industry leading Oracle Fusion Middleware components: Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) and Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition delivers unique next-generation, Extr act Load and Transform (E-LT) technology that improves performance, reduces data integration costs, eve n across heterogeneous systems. Unlike conventional ETL tools, Oracle Data Integrator EE offers the productivity of a declarative design approach, as well as the benefits of an active integrati on platform for seamless batch and real-time integration. In addition, hot-pluggable Knowledge Modules pr ovide modularity, flexibility, and extensibility. Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition Plus (Oracle BI EE Plus) is a comprehensive suite

of enterprise BI products that delivers a full range of analysis and reporting c apabilities. Featuring a unified, highly scalable, modern architecture, Oracle BI EE Plus provides intell igence and analytics from data spanning enterprise sources and applications empowering the largest communiti es with complete and relevant insight 1) How do I install/configure Oracle MapViewer with OBIEE 11g? The good news is that MapViewer is installed and configured as part of the OBIEE 11g installation process. The only post-installation configuration required is to configure MapViewer to point to the source(s) that contain your spatial data (Oracle Database) and provide you with background maps (Oracle Database, Oracle eLocation, Web Map Service provider, Google Maps or Bing Maps). 2) What is Oracle MapViewer? Oracle MapViewer is a J2EE web application that is used for rendering maps withi n a web page. It can be deployed to most J2EE application servers (such as OC4J, Apache Tomcat, Weblogic etc). Web-based applications such as OBIEE 11g can embed maps within their web pages s imply by making calls to Oracle MapViewer, there are many different functions (A PIs) available. With OBIEE 11g, the MapViewer engine is deployed to the WebLogic server. 3) What is Oracle MapBuilder? Oracle MapBuilder is development tool (written in Java) that enables you to buil d/configure your maps. Note that is does not enable you to draw maps from scratch, it relies on the fact that you have spatial information (such as country bounda ries) stored in a database somewhere. Using MapBuilder you can decide what spatial information is displayed on each ma p and how that information should be formatted. A map (or a Base Map to be more precise) consists of one or more Themes . Each fers to one type of information you might want to appear on a map. For example: Country Boundaries, Oceans, Highways, State Boundaries, Cities etc. Once you have prepared your Base Maps, you can upload the configuration to Oracl e MapViewer where they can then be integrated into your own applications. When it comes to Business Intelligence, you will normally define further Themes to represent the data you wish to overlay on each Base Map. For example, you cou ld have a Theme that will show all the World Countries but where each Country is colour coded depending on how much Revenue has been generated there in the prev ious year (high values in green, low values in red etc). 4) How does spatial or map information get stored? Theme re

You can store your spatial data in the Oracle database. The Standard/Enterprise editions of the Oracle Database have a special data type called SDO_GEOMETRY which can store anything from single points to complex 3D sha pes.

As an example for a World Map, there will be a table on the database consisting of all the boundaries for each Country. The table will consist of a geometry colum n (SDO_GEOMETRY datatype) and there will be one record per Country. The geometry column will actually store all the many Longitude/Latitude boundary c o-ordinates for a county in a single array-type structure (there could be 100s o r 1000s of these co-ordinates): COUNTRY_NAME =========== GEOMETRY ======== France (123, 83), (123, 84) ......... (189, 98) Germany (120, 10), (120, 11) ......... (115, 78) NOTE: this is a simplified representation! So for a World Map, all the Country geometries used to build up a map image will b e obtained from a single table. The COUNTRY_NAME column will be used to determine the label for each Country that appears on the map. If you want to display Highways, for example, then typically there will be anoth er database table that stores all the geometry co-ordinates for every Highway (c ontaining one record per Highway). 5) Are Google/Bing Maps Supported? Release 11.1.1.5 of OBIEE 11g supports the following sources for background maps : Internal e.g. Oracle Database) External e.g. Web Map Service (WMS) providers Oracle eLocation Google Maps Bing Maps

If you choose to use "Internal" background maps then typically you ll need to purc hase some form of digital map data which can then be imported into your Oracle D atabase. To get you started however, there is a sample set of World Map data suppl ied by NAVTEQ, Oracle Database customers are free to use this sample data. The sample data set does not of course contain everything, it contains all Countr y boundaries and then has further detail data going down to postcode or "zipcode" l evel in 3 locations only (London, Sydney and San Francisco). The sample map data can be downloaded on Oracle Technology Network (OTN). If you wish to purchase more detailed maps from NAVTEQ, then please Contact Us a t Peak Indicators where we will be happy to put you in touch with the right NAVT EQ representative. 6) What is Oracle Locator? Oracle Locator is perhaps a little-known (but very important!) component of the Oracle Database. Locator is actually a cut-down version of Oracle Spatial and is provided free with all Standard and Enterprise database editions. Locator gives you all the necessary functions to index, query, join and filter s patial data.

If you already have all the required spatial data and you just need to render it on a map, then Oracle Locator should be sufficient and you won t have to purchase licenses for Oracle Spatial. 7) What is Oracle Spatial? Oracle Spatial is a licensed database option and is only available with Enterpri se Editions of the Oracle database. It provides all the Oracle Locator functions plus much more. For example: Additional geometry functions Spatial aggregate functions Spatial analysis and mining functions Linear referencing system support Geo-coding support (e.g. finding out the Lat/Long co-ordinates for a Post Code) Geo-raster support Support for topology & network models If you need to modify or transform any spatial data, then the likelihood is that you'll need to purchase Oracle Spatial licesnes. 8) When do I need to purchase Oracle Spatial? As a general rule of thumb, if you need to manipulate any spatial data then you will have to purchase Oracle Spatial licenses on the database that performs the operation. At first, a lot of OBIEE 11g implementations may be able to survive with just th e functions provided with Oracle Locator. However, it is likely that at some point you will need to manipulate your spatia l data in some way. For example, you may wish to combine all your Country boundari es together to form Regions . This process is called Spatial Aggregation and licenses for Oracle Spatial are required in order to do this. The following link within the Oracle Database Documentation explains the differe nces between Oracle Locator and Spatial in more detail: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/appdev.112/e11830/sdo_locator.htm#i 632018 Or please Contact Us should you require any advice. 9) Are Google Maps free to use? * THIS IS ONLY FOR GUIDANCE, ALWAYS CONSULT GOOGLE TO BE SURE OF THE EXACT LICEN SING TERMS * Google Maps are free for anyone to integrate with whenever the maps are used for a web-site which is freely and publicly available on the internet. If your web-site or OBIEE 11g application is for an internal/private system then you may be subject to license fees to be able to integrate with Google Maps. Please consult Google to get the most up-to-date details on licensing. 10) Do we need extra licenses to use MapViewer with OBIEE 11g? No. As long as you are licensed for OBIEE 11g then you are able to use the MapVi ewer engine that is installed as part of the OBIEE 11g product suite.

Please note that you will need an Oracle Database for storing the "layers" (e.g. country boundaries) that are to be rendered on top of your background maps. Lic enses for the Oracle Database are not included with the OBIEE 11g suite, so you will have to purchase the database licenses separately. 11) Can OBIEE 11g Maps be displayed in BI Publisher 11g Reports? Currently, it is not possible to display OBIEE 11g maps within the integrated BI Publisher 11g reports. 12) How does OBIEE 11g and MapViewer Integration perform? There are several characteristics of the OBIEE 11g / MapViewer / Spatial integra tion architecture that provide excellent performance and scalability: The Oracle Database comes equipped with spatial indexing, caching and many other capabilities to optimise spatial operations on the database The Oracle MapViewer engine has its own caching abilities that keep previously g enerated Base Map and Theme images stored so that they can be re-used again. Thi s cache works effectively even if a sub-set of a map is required OBIEE 11g also has two levels of caching to optimise not only the querying of re port data but also the presentation of report objects (charts, tables etc) The Oracle Database, MapViewer and BI EE are all horizontally scalable , so you get the full benefits of a scalable and high-availability architecture throughout t he technology stack OBIEE 11g only passes over the summarised data to Oracle MapViewer. So if you are displaying data for 5 World Regions on a map, then OBIEE 11g will first aggregate the data and then pass over only 5 pieces of information to Oracle MapViewer (ev en if your data set consists of millions of records on the database) Note that OBIEE 11g does not need to pass over any geometry information to MapView er. For example, to display a data for 5 World Regions on a map it will only nee ds to pass: Europe 100,000 North America 150,000 South America 111,000 Asia 90,000 Australia 74,000 Oracle MapViewer will then take this small amount of information and then render the Regions listed on the map by getting the geometries from its own underlying Oracle database (unless cache entries exist, in which case the relevant images will be obtained direct from cache). 13) Is there any training available on OBIEE 11g and MapViewer Integration? Yes. Peak Indicators have developed a special 2-day training focussed on SOA and Spatial integration with OBIEE 11g. Peak Indicators can deliver this training p ublicly (through Oracle University) or privately upon request. Please click here to see more details: OBIEE 11g Advanced SOA Spatial Or for further information, please Contact Us. 14) What if my Subject Areas contain Lat/Long co-ordinates? OBIEE 11g does support the use of "Custom Point Layers", which means that if you

r Subject Areas contain lat/long co-ordinates then you can render them on top of a base map using your own custom images. For example: You can show your customer locations using "x" icons on top of a ba se map sourced from Google. However, for release 11.1.1.5 of OBIEE 11g please note that you still need to ha ve some "layer" data stored in an Oracle database to be able to use your own cus tom point layers. 15) Should I choose NAVTEQ or Google Maps? Both map providers can deliver excellent results within OBIEE 11g. The key diffe rence is that NAVTEQ maps are imported and stored within your Oracle Database wh ereas Google Maps are delivered over the internet (a secure connection is possib le). The advantages of NAVTEQ maps are: - You have greater control on how the background maps are displayed (e.g. config ure layers, colours, font sizes, images etc) - You have full control of security (e.g. no data is transferred over the intern et) - You have full control of performance/scalability/availability (everything runs on your own hardware) - You do not need a network connection to the internet Note however that you will need to purchase detailed maps from NAVTEQ if the sam ple map data does not contain the level of detail you need. There are advantages of Google maps: - You don't need to store digital map data in your Oracle database NOTE: you still need an Oracle Database to display "layers" on top of your base map - Users tend to be familiar with the look and style of Google Maps - People tend to think Google Maps are "slicker" - Licenses to use Google Maps for internal/private use could work out better val ue 1 What is OBIee ? OBIee is a business intelligence tool allowing to procuce reportings, mainly thr ough a web interface. It is a tool owned by Oracle that have been purchased in 2005 to Siebel (Siebel previously bought the tool to NQuire, which explains NQ prefixes for configuration files) becoming Oracle Business Intelligence 10g. 11g version has been released in 2010. 2 Architecture : what are the main components of Oracle Business Intelligence ? OBIee (from the 11g version) runs on a J2EE application server named Weblogic, c ontrollable by 2 interfaces : Enterprise Manager and Weblogic Console. There are 2 main services : Presentation services (corresponding to Answers and Dashboards modules to create and consult reports and dashboards) Oracle BI Server (corresponding to the repository rpd containing sources mapping s and business rules)

The BI Publisher module, independent in previous versions, is now fully integrat ed in OBIee. It corresponds to the features "Published reporting", under New -> Analysis menu . 3 What kind of sources can be connected to OBIee ? OBIee can be plugged on Relational Databases, Cubes or Flat files, with the foll owing constraints : The sources must be modeled as star schemas or snowflakes schemas in order to ha ve an efficient and safe behavior. In case of multiple sources directly in OBIee used together, be aware that OBIee will conduct the needed joins itself, and OBIee is not a database. 4 - Is it possible to create a report based on two subject areas (example : Sal es and Supply chain) ? Theoretically, yes. In practice, the two subject area must come from the same bu siness model in the repository, which is quite useless. Then, we can consider th e two following alternatives : Create an analysis with combine request : one subrequest by subject area. Note that it s tricky to implement for standard users. Set up a transverse subject area, that will gather tables from both business top ics. 5 How to get real physical SQL sent by OBIee to the database First of all, check the value of your session variable LOGLEVEL. 5 is fine. Then, go into Administration -> Manage sessions. Find your query (at the bottom of the list), and click on View log . If you hit the cache, you will see cache hit on query . Otherwise, you will see the physical SQL below the logical SQL. 6 How to configure an OBIee environment ? In OBIee 11g, main configuration items are managed in Enterprise Manager (web in terface). However, some configurations are still located in configuration files, like NQSC onfig.ini, NQSCluster.ini, odbc.ini, and instanceconfig.xml. 7 In a troubleshooting perspective, how can I see log files ? Old method in 10g version consisted in opening log files on the server. Now, in 11g, log information is consultable in Enterprise Manager 1) Q: Is it possible to change the EBSAnalyticMaster.rpd repository? Is it supporte d? A: Yes, is it. This is the main purpose behind Fusion DBI. 2) Q: If a customer upgrades e-Business Suite, what impact will there be on Fusion Intelligence, even if they don't change the repository? And if they change it? A: Customers who upgrade e-Business Suite might face issues if the DBI materiali zed view tables have changed. As regards the rpd, this tells the supported eBS version. Right now it is supported for 11.5.10.2 only. 3 Q: How would an e-Business Suite upgrade, DBI upgrade or Fusion Intelligence upg rade impact a customized catalog (.rpd) in Fusion Intelligence? Especially if th e new Fusion Intelligence patch includes a new .rpd and/or Intelligence areas? A: There is a process called as 3 way merge in the OBI EE tool which allows merg

e between the existing base rpd, cusomized rpd and new version of rpd. Customers will have to perform this 3 way merge to upgrade the rpd. 4) Q: Is it possible to import external tables from e-Business Suite, and change th e physical and logical layer in the Oracle BI Administration tool? A: Yes it is possible. 5) Q: I often see error messages starting with the letters "NQ" in upper ase. What does this mean? A: "NQ" refers to nQuire, the original authors of the product. Siebel company and renamed the product to Siebel Analytics. In 2006, Oracle bel and renamed the product to OBIEE. Some OBIEE error messages still original letters "NQ". Every time you see an error message referring upper or lower case, it is an OBIEE issue. or lower c bought the bought Sie retain the to "NQ" in

6) Q: When I try to export to pdf format from OBI EE, the following error occurs: " No connection could be made because the target machine actively refused it. Erro r code: ETI2U8FA." What should I do? A: Restart the OBI EE server. OBIEE stands for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition. It is a comple te suite of enterprise products of BI. This is mainly used for Analysis and repo rting solutions. Oracle BI EE Plus bundles Oracles Hyperion s reporting products a nd this is mainly for integrating oracles Hyperion financial applications. OBIEE Advantages: There are many benefits / advantages of using OBIEE tool over other. 1)Excellent Business Intelligence (BI) functionality built on a unique infrastr ucture that includes Interactive dashboards, Complex queries, Analysis, quite in telligent deliver and alerting system, financial reporting, Online Analytical pr ocessing (OLAP), Presentation, Huge volume reporting in production environment, and integrated with Microsoft. 2) It provides good in depth insight to every one in the organization depending on their role. 3) Unified Business model as it is built on enterprise infrastructure. 4) Integrates very easily with any data sou rce, extraction, transformation, ETL tool, major business application, applicati on server, security, portal, and many other front end tools and also from databa se side, can integrate with IBM s DB2, Teradata, sql server, SAP business informat ion warehouse BW, flat files, xml etc.., . 5) Customer have flexible change mana gement system, such as leverage the compliance of SOX acts (Sorbanes oxley). 6) Good performance. What is Repository in OBIEE Repository is one important term in OBIEE. It basically stores the meta data inf ormation. Each meta data repository will store many business models. OBIEE LIFECYCLE Requirements gathering.Identification of source systems.We need to design The ET L for loading into Data warehousing if the source system is not available.Buildi ng a repository.Building the dashboard.Defining the security.For performance, de cide on aggregations / catching mechanism.And finally quality( testing / QA)If w e have more than 1 fact table and dimensions, then how would you connect them?In this case we creat a Logical table (fact table) in BMM layer and then we connec t the other fact tables as logical source. And then to the logical table we cone nct the dimensions.What is connection pool? Connection pool is a must for all ph ysical databases. Connection pool contains information regarding the connection to the database.We can have multiple connection pools to avoide waiting and for better performance.

What is meant by a connection pool? When do we create multiple connetion pools a nd why? Each database connection that is established from the application and the corres ponding information regarding the connection and link is stored in the connectio n pool. Physical tables and databases are many in an application and we will be dealing with quick fetches for every instance of every database. In such a case we create multiple database connection pools. This will increase the interactivi ty as there are different connection pools for different database accesses. Alias Tables Alias tables is also a physical table but with the type of Alias. It is basicall y a reference to the logical table source and it will inherit all the column def initions of the logical table source. An Alias can a be a reference to any of th e logical source systems such as stored procedures, physical tables, sql stateme nts etc..Alias tables are very important in designing a physical layer.We use Al ias table when we need to use an existing table more than once.If you know sql i nner joins, you will understand easily, how we use there same table like sales a , sales b.Also we use alias tables when we need to use different column names, k eys, joins etc..To help star or snowflakes structures in the Business model laye r. 1.Explain the Architecture of OBIEE And How what each components do? Answer :- OBIEE Consists of Presentation Services(Web),Oracle BI (Analytics Engi ne) Server The client (Answers) constructs sql and passes it to the Analytic Engine and the n the Oracle BI (Analytic Engine) parses the physical sql to the Datasources and retrieve the data back to the Engine and presents to the presentation Services . 2.how to get sql from obiee for reports? Answer :- There are many ways to get the sql a. Modify the request and click Advanced in that you get xml code and also the a ctual sql. b.In the catalog Manager click Tools >Create Report .In the Create Report Window > Click Request SQL and save the sql to the physical path in your PC. c.Enable Loglevel to 2 in the OBIEE Admin Tool from Mange-> Security and enable the log level to 2 by clicking properties for the user, then go to the NQQuery.l og in BI_HOME/OracleBI/Server/Logs.You will find the SQL for that User. d. by clcking Administration->Manage sessions-> view sql 3.How will you tune the SQL in Oracle if you find nested loops in the explain pl an! 4. How will you do sort in Reports in OBIEE Answers. Answer :- click modify and then click sort (order by icon) on the relevant colum n in the criteria pane. 5. How will you do different types of narrative Reports in OBIEE? Answer:- By clicking modify request and Narrative View and by giving @1 for the first column result and @2 for the 2nd column and son on and we can also give a heading for No Results by clicking the Narrative view. 6.How will you create Interactive Dashboards ? Answer:- By clicking Administration and Manage dashboards and by adding column s elector also by using view selector etc.and also by using prompts. 7.what is write-back in obiee ? Answer:-In Reports of Answer you can give a column as updatebale and then view t he reports,this option is called write back. 8.How will you execute Direct SQL in OBIEE? Answer:-By clicking Direct Database Request below the subject area in Answers. 9.how will you create report from two subject areas Answer:- From the Criteria Pane of the Report Created from First Subject Area come to the bottom of the page and click combine request. but the options are li

mited for combining like union etc.. 10. What is the most tough issue you have faced while developing reports? 11.How will you Port changes for dashboards,reports,rpd from development to prod uction? Answer:- for the rpd use the Merge option in Admin Tool and for dashboards and r eports use Content Accelerator Framework. 12.What are the different types of variables in OBIEE? explain Answer:-There are two types of variables in obiee. a.Repository variable. This variable is for the whole repository. b.session variable . session variable can be system variable and non system vari able. system variable uses NQ_SESSION. - (system reserved variable). examples of non system variables are user defined filters etc. 13.How will you enable or disable caching in the system level and table level. Answer:-In the NQSConfig.ini file use ENABLE under CACHE Section for System Leve l for tables .If you want to enable the cache at table level , open the repository in offline mode(not the current working repository). this should be different f rom the current repository and click enable or disable the cache . right click t he table and properties and click the cache or deselect the cache. then merge th e repository with the current working one. 14.How will you go about adding additional column to the repository in the prese ntation layer. Answer :- check whether the table is already existing if so add in physical laye r ,then BMM and then Presentation layer, then reload server metadata ,then it wi ll be visible to all users. 15.How will effect the changes for a report , if for certain users only the colu mn heading in the report should be changed? Answer:-using session variables for that user. 16.what is a table alias in obiee? and where and how will you create it. Answer:- Table alias can be created by right clicking the table in the physical layer then click alias, Table alias is mostly used for creating self joins. 17.Have you created Hierarchy in obiee. if so where and how? Answer:-Yes we can create hierarchy in BMM Layer of obiee in dimensions for the dimension tables. this can be done by right clicking the dimension table and cli ck create dimension and then we should manually define the hierarchy and its lev els. 18.What is Level Based Metrics.How will you create it? Answer:-Leval-base matrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of the dimension. Monthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales are the examples. To create a level based measure, create a new logical column based on the origin al measure (like Sales in the example above). Drag and drop the new logical colu mn to the appropriate level in the Dimension hierarchy (in the above example you will drag and drop it to Month in Time Dimension. 19.what are the different layers of OBIEE Repository? Answer:-a.Physical Layer,b.Business Model and Mapping Layer,c.Presentation Layer 20.What is Authentication? How many types of authentication. Answer:-Authentication is the process by which a system verifies, through the us e of a user a. Operaing system autentication b. External table authentication c. Database authentication d. LDAP authentication 21. What are the different types of security you have worked in obiee? Answer :- Object Level and data level 22.what is a bridge table ? Answer:- If you want to connect two tables where there is no relation ship you c an use a thrid bridge table for connecting them which will have common columns i n both tables, this is used in BMM Layer.

23.You come Morning to the office. and all the users are complaining about the o biee reporting system is very slow(dasboards). what is your approach to resolve the issue? Answer:- Mainly check NQServer.log and in Admin Tool -> click Session Manager. c heck if there is any bottleneck and accordingly resolve. 24.What are the different Log files in OBIEE? Answer:-NQServer.log , NQQuery.log,NQSAdminTool.log mainly.25.Name few Configura tion files in obiee. 25.What are the Key Configuration Files in OBIEE? Answer:- NQSConfig.ini,NQSCluster.ini,odbc.ini,instanceconfig.xml 26.How will change port of obiee answers? by changing its port in instanceconfig.xml 27.What is ClusterServices in obiee ? why its used? Answer:-To Scale up the Performance by clustering and distributing the services across multiple Servers ClusterServices are used. 28.Can you Change the location of the OBIEE Repository? Answer:- Not in Standalone OBIEE Install. you can give shared location in NQSClu ster.ini if the OBIEE is clustered. 29.How many BI Services Node can be clustered together? Answer :- 16 30.Can you run multiple rpd s in a Single OBIEE Instance? Answer :- No . you should create another instance in the same server , then its possible. 31.How will you implement security in obiee,so that subjects areas accessed by o ne group are not accessed by another group. Answer:- Using Security Manger in OBIEE Admin Tool, by creating two user groups and allowing only part of the subject area for one group and other part to the o ther user group. 32.What is SCD type 1 and 2. Answer:- SCD is slow changing dimensions. in type 1 we replace the changed dimen sion with old dimension. in type 2 we use surrogate keys and keep both the recor ds(rows). Advantage of SCD2 is we keep history of the old dimensiont. 33. What is Star Schema and What is SnowFlake Schema Answer:- Star is one fact and many dimensions where as Snowflake design is one f act and many dim s and dim s can have additonal dim relations. 34.How to startup obiee in Linux? Answer:./run-sa.sh start #starts obi server ./run-saw.sh start #start saw server ./run-sch.sh start #start scheduler 35.What are key differences between obiee 10g and 11g. OBIEE11g vs OBIEE 10g RPD and webcatalog Deployment: In obiee11g is different from obiee10g deployment procedure In Obiee11g deployme nt is via Weblogic Enterprise Manager option. but in obiee10g just change it in stanceconfi.xml and NQSCOnfig.ini file then restart(this all steps are now takin g care by weblogic EM) 36.What are iBots in OBIEE 10g? iBots are intelligence agents or Bots. These agents are triggered by a schedule or condition that in turn generates a request to perform analytics on data based upon defined criteria. 37.)Where do iBots originate from? How do iBots work? Oracle BI Delivers is the application to create, modify and manage iBots. In order to understand how an iBot works, we should start by first creating a ne w iBot from scratch.

Navigate to

Delivers

..and click the link to create a new iBot. From here, we will tackle each individual tab to get an understanding of what th e process is to create an iBot. 1) Overview tab This view is a summary of the current settings for the selected iBot. One can navigate to specific settings by clicking on the links in the summary or clicking on the tabs located at the top. 2) General tab This is where the priority of the iBot and how to send the delivery content are set. The priority options are low, normal, or high. The priority works with the deliv ery profile for a user to determine the destination for alerts of different prio rities. The following Data Visibility options affect the customization of the delivery c ontent: Personalized (individual data visibility): - uses the data visibility of each recipient to customize iBot delivery content for each recipient. Note that The Run As field if not available. Not personalized (use the Run As user s data visibility): - sends the iBot s delivery content to the specified recipients. All users receive the same content as if they were the user specified in the Run As field. Not personalized (use iBot owner s data visibility): - sends the iBot s delivery content to the specified recipients using the data vis ibility of the specified user (Run As box field) who created the iBot. In other words, all recipients will receive the content that s viewable to the Run As user. 3) Conditional Request tab This page is used to select a request to trigger the iBot. The results of the co nditional request determine whether the iBot sends its delivery content and init iates any subsequent actions: - If the request does not return any rows, the iBot is not triggered. - If the request returns at least one row, the iBot sends its delivery content a nd initiates any subsequent actions. Requests can be chained together to create complex conditional logic. 4) Schedule tab iBots can be executed based on a specified schedule. You can define a starting d

ate and time for the iBot, a recurrence schedule, and an ending date. 5) Recipients tab Use this tab to select the users and groups to receive the delivery content of t he iBot. One has the ability to select specific individual users and groups to receive th e contents of the iBot. **You can select multiple users by holding down the SHIFT or CTRL keys and selec ting adjacent or nonadjacent users.** Also, one can select which users or groups can subscribe to the iBot. This allow s users the flexibility to receive and view the contents of the iBot AND customi ze prompted filter values for columns. Keep in mind that in order to publish iBots, the content must be shared. 6) Delivery Content tab Use the Delivery Content tab to specify the type of content to deliver with the iBot, such as a dashboard page or a saved request. The delivery format for the content can also be selected, such as HTML, PDF, XLS, CSV, or text. The contents of the Headline field will appear as the subject of the request. The two field text boxes below allows one to attach a message when the iBot is d elivered depending on if the iBot is delivered as an attachment or if there are no records returned by the conditional request. 7) Destinations tab The User Destinations and Specific Devices portions of this tab are pretty self explanatory. As for System Services Oracle BI Server Cache is used for seeding cache. (** To have the cache created for individual users, the Personalized option for data visibility in the General tab must be selected.) Disconnected Application Cache is only available to companies that have licensed Disconnected Analytics. (** To have the disconnected application cache created for individual users, the Personalized(individual data visibility) option for Data Visibility in the Gene ral tab must be selected.) (**Nonpersonalized data is not used for Disconnected Analytics users.) 8) Advanced tab Use the Advanced tab to specify one or more actions to execute after the iBot is finished running. Actions include the execution of other iBots, custom scripts, custom Java progra

ms or Workflows. For further reading on iBots, I would suggest downloading the Oracle Business In telligence Answers, Delivers, and Interactive Dashboards User Guide to read furt her about creating iBots. What I provided is just a brief glimpse of iBots. 20 GOLDEN RULES FOR REPOSITORY DESIGN Physical Layer 1. Always use Foreign Key joins, not Complex Joins on the Physical Layer

2. When modelling a star-schema data-model, create aliases for all your physical tables (prefixed with either Dim_ , Fact_ or Fact_Agg_ 3. When possible, configure your connection pools to use a native driver to connec t to your physical databases. For example, use OCI for connecting to an Oracle d atabase rather than ODBC Business Model Layer 4. All Logical Tables should be prefixed with either Dim , Fact or Fact Compound

5. No physical column names should ever be seen on the Business Model layer. All n aming conventions should be business oriented . For example use $ Revenue rather than DOLLARS 6. Physical Primary Keys or Surrogate Keys should not be present on the Business Model layer (unless, for example, you have a Primary Key such as Order Id which will be disp layed on reports) 7. Dimension Logical Tables must always have a Logical Key assigned. The Logical Key should be something business oriented such as Employee Login rather than EMPLOYEE_PK 8. Dimension Logical Tables must only contain dimension attributes, they should never contain any measure columns (which have an Aggregate Rule) 9. Fact Logical Tables should not have a Logical Key assigned 10. Every Logical Column within a Fact Logical Table must be a measure column, a nd therefore have an Aggregation Rule assigned 11. When defining Logical Joins between Logical Tables, only use Complex Joins (an d use the default settings you only ever specify a Driving Table when dealing with cross-dat abase joins) 12. The Buiness Model should only consist of logical star-schemas, there should not be any snow-flaking 13. Every Dimension Logical Table should have a corresponding Dimension Hierarch y (with Total as a Grand Total level, and Detail at the lowest level)

14. Each level of a Dimension Hierarchy should have its iately set (there is a utility that can do this automatically)

Number of Elements appropr

15. Every Logical Table Source within every dimension and fact Logical Table sho uld have its Content Levels appropriately set. The only time the Content Level is not set for a particular dimension is when there is no logical relationship existing 16. Do not merge all your measures into a single Fact Logical Table. For example , you should split Forecast Sales and Actual Sales measures into two Logical Tables e.g. Fact s and Fact Forecast Presentation Layer 17. When you have multiple Subject Areas, list the common dimensions in the same order across all the Subject Areas 18. Presentation Table names within each Subject Area must not begin with Dim or F act or Fact Compound . So remove these prefixes if they are present after creating the Subject Area by dragging Logical Tables directly from the Business Model 19. The Time presentation table should be listed as the first Presentation Table i n each subject area. The Presentation Table containing your facts should be listed right at the bottom, and the Presentation Table should be called Measures 20. There should be absolutely no possibility whatsoever of a user selecting obj ects from a Subject Area that have no logical relationship. So, if there are any objects wit hin the same Subject Area that cannot co-exist in the same report, then your Subject Area des ign is incorrect! New Features with OBIEE 11.1.1.7 New Presentation Features 1) Recommended Visualizations Feature for Creating Views 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 Subtyp e". Or you can instead choose the "Recommended Visualization" option, for which you specify your intent for the new view. 2) Breadcrumbs Breadcrumbs have been added to help users understand their current location with in Oracle BI content and the path that they have used to navigate Oracle BI cont ent. 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 br eadcrumb trail.

Sale

3) Enhancement to Dashboards The ability to create custom print layouts for high-fidelity printing of dashboa rd pages (i.e. automatic creation BI Publisher reports) A new default style called FusionFX (instead of "blaf") The addition of the Freeze Column option to the Column Properties menu. This opt ion allows you to freeze a column at an edge (top or left) of a dashboard layout The addition of "Size" and "Page Size" options that allow you to control the pos ition and size of columns and sections The ability to export an entire dashboard or a single dashboard page to Microsof t Excel 2007+ A new "Replace Analysis in <Dashboard>" option added to Answers to replace an an alysis on a dashboard A new "Return to <Dashboard>" option within Answers to return to a dashboard fro m the Analysis editor 4) Enhancements to Graphs 3 new graph types: Waterfall graph, Stacked graph and 100% Stacked graph (the l atter two are subtypes of Bar and Area graphs) 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 i s useful when graphing a set of large values that are all within a small percent age of each other Hide sliders in graph views that listen to master-detail events. For graphs in m aster-detail relationships, if you want to simplify the appearance of an analysi s or dashboard, you can hide the slider that is created to accommodate detail co lumns 5) Enhancements to Views A new view type named performance tile. This view type displays a single aggrega te measure value in a manner that is both visually simple and prominent 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 si ngle unit (such as an aggregate number), including the context of the outer edge s For map views, you can now vary the width of a line by measure to accentuate a f eature You can link a map view as a detail in a master-detail relationship Auto Correct option for Map views (as errors in Map views 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 Legend and formatting highlighting Null suppression at view and analysis levels. You can set null suppression optio ns at the view level (which overrides the analysis level) for data views includi ng: table, pivot table, trellis (both simple and advanced), graph, gauge, and fu nnel views when the entire row or column contains nulls 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: Inclu de Custom Member and Exclude Custom Member For tables, pivot tables, and advanced trellises: The ability to ?specify the method to be used to browse data either scrolling or paging controls Resize rows and columns 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, i f you had the Rows per Page count set to 10 for example, the table or pivot tabl

e would display more than 10 records if display totals were shown in the view re sults For right-click interactions, the ability to specify whether the Hide Columns in teraction is available at runtime 6) Enhancements to Prompts This release includes an enhancement to the SQL Results prompt option. If you ar e working with double columns, you can now write the SQL statement so that filte ring is done on code values rather than display values An enhancement to the prompt constraint option. The prompts designer can now lim it a column prompt value list by more than one column This release includes enhancements to the parameters for prompted links 7) New Menu Options for Exporting Views and Results This release adds the Excel 2007+ and PowerPoint 2007+ options for exporting vie ws and results 8) Total Member Placement for Hierarchical Columns This release includes an enhancement that allows placement of total members on a hierarchy 9) Browse Catalog Search Results by Object Attributes The capability to use full-text search to find catalog objects and then filter t he search results by attributes. This search is available when the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Endeca Server. After the fu ll-text search results are returned, the Catalog area displays a list of matchin g items, and the Search pane displays the search results grouped by attribute (t hat is, Type, Name, Path, and Created By) 10) 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 h ierarchical column contains an action link or a conditional action link, the act ion link (or conditional action link) is applied to both the column and the tota l or grand total 11) New BI Desktop Tools 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) 12) Enhancement to Favorites This release provides the capability to organize your favorites from the Categor y Tree area and the Selected Category area in the Manage Favorites dialog. In pr evious releases, you could organize favorites from the Category Tree area, only 13) Integration of Oracle BI EE with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Sy stem With this release, OBIEE is integrated with Enterprise Performance Management Wo rkspace (as part of the installation process) 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 New BI Mobile Features

14) Maximize views with double-tap gesture With this new feature, you can access on your iPad more data even within dense das hboards without the restrictions of the smaller form factor. You expand an individ ual view by double-tapping on it. The individual view then displays within the f ull screen of the iPad. This maximizing of views can be done on views accessed w ithin a dashboard, and also when viewing an analysis independent of a dashboard. See "Working with Analyses and Dashboards." 15) New view and graph types The following new graph types are supported with BI Mobile: Performance tiles, W aterfall graphs, 100% stacked graph, Stacked graph 16) Fixed headers In analyses with fixed headers, you can use a single-finger drag gesture to scro ll through data in all directions 17) Changing Orientation It is now possible to change between landscape and portrait orientation while vi ewing Oracle BI content 18) Breadcrumbs You can see the navigation path you have taken while moving through the catalog as a trail of breadcrumbs (near the top of the screen by the Back arrow). In thi s way, you can see your current location and how you got there, then decide whet her to use the Back arrow to navigate in reverse, or to use the Home icon to qui ckly return to the Home screen 19) Security toolkit The Oracle Business Intelligence Mobile Security Toolkit provides the ability to generate a signed version of the Oracle BI Mobile HD application. The toolkit i ncludes the instructions and necessary content to build this application making use of Apple's Xcode and the IOS SDKs. The Oracle BI Mobile Security Toolkit wil l be updated on a regular basis in order to synchronize with the Oracle BI Mobil e HD application available on the Apple App store. See "Using the Security Toolk it for Mobile Device Management." 20) Viewing of Oracle BI Publisher reports in dashboards 21) Integrated Full-Text Catalog Search As in the desktop version of Oracle BI EE, you can use full-text search to find catalog objects in Oracle BI Mobile based on attributes such as author and colum n name. This search is available after the administrator integrates Oracle BI En terprise Edition with Oracle Endeca Server New BI Server Features 22) Changing the Repository Password From the Command Line You can now change the repository password from the command line using the obiee rpdpwdchg utility 23) New Options to Enforce Consistent Versions in Multiuser Development Environm ents You can now add options to the multiuser development option file to enforce Admi nistration Tool, MUD protocol, and RPD version consistency among MUD developers 24) New Utilities Available to Generate and Compare Logical Column Type Informat ion You can use the Administration Tool utilities Generate Logical Column Type Docum ent and Compare Logical Column Types to generate a list of logical column types, and then compare it with logical column types in a subsequent version of the re pository. You can also use the command-line utility biservergentypexml to genera te the list of logical column types 25) Additional Database Support for Cardinality Estimates in Oracle BI Summary A dvisor The Prefer Optimizer Estimates feature, which improves performance by using card inality estimates during the Summary Advisor process, is now available for Micro soft SQL Server and IBM DB2 26) Oracle BI Summary Advisor Measure Subset Recommendations Oracle BI Summary Advisor now recommends only aggregates that contain specific m easures that are both present in the analyzed query workload, and that can optim

ize the query workload if aggregates are created 27) Model Check Manager Enhancements Model Check Manager now runs parallel queries against the database for better pe rformance. In addition, you can now check models from the command line using the validaterpd utility with the -L option 28) Access to Apache Hadoop Data Sources Oracle BI EE now supports Apache Hadoop as a data source 29) Support for Multi-Source Session Variables Oracle BI EE now supports session variables that can be populated from multiple data sources and retain values from all source systems 30) NUMERIC Data Type Support for Oracle Database and TimesTen You can now change a configuration setting to enable NUMERIC data type support f or Oracle Database and TimesTen 31) Ability to Map Flex Object Changes Using the biserverextender Utility You can now use the biserverextender utility to import flex object changes from ADF data sources and map them to the Business Model and Mapping layer and Presen tation layer 32) Support for Servlet Communication Between the Oracle BI Server and Oracle OL AP The Oracle BI Server now uses a servlet for communication with Oracle OLAP data sources, rather than relying on the JavaHost service New Features for Administrators 33) Support for Oracle Endeca Server You can configure Oracle Endeca Server as a search engine for full-text searchin g 34) Support for Multitenancy You can configure Oracle BI EE so that it supports the use of multiple tenants (Dont confuse with multi-instance installs!) New BI Publisher Features Connect Directly to Oracle BIEE Subject Areas to Create Reports Excel Template Builder Enhancements (supports automatic insertion of fields and repeating groups) Layout Editor Enhancements (Time series axis formatting, Hide axis option, Indep endent axis formatting) Enhanced Create Report Guide PDF to PCL Conversion for Embedding PCL Commands in RTF Templates Support for PDF 1.7 Specification MDX Query Builder Support for Local XML File Data Source Support for CSV File as a Data Source Support for Endeca as a Data Source Support for Private Data Sources Enhancements for Sample Data Usability OBIEE 10g and MapViewer Integration - (FAQ) 1) How do I install/configure Oracle MapViewer with OBIEE 11g? The good news is that MapViewer is installed and configured as part of the OBIEE 11g installation process. The only post-installation configuration required is to configure MapViewer to point to the source(s) that contain your spatial data (Oracle Database) and provide you with background maps (Oracle Database, Oracle eLocation, Web Map Service provider, Google Maps or Bing Maps). 2) What is Oracle MapViewer? Oracle MapViewer is a J2EE web application that is used for rendering maps withi n a web page. It can be deployed to most J2EE application servers (such as OC4J, Apache Tomcat, Weblogic etc).

Web-based applications such as OBIEE 11g can embed maps within their web pages s imply by making calls to Oracle MapViewer, there are many different functions (A PIs) available. With OBIEE 11g, the MapViewer engine is deployed to the WebLogic server. 3) What is Oracle MapBuilder? Oracle MapBuilder is development tool (written in Java) that enables you to buil d/configure your maps. Note that is does not enable you to draw maps from scratch, it relies on the fact that you have spatial information (such as country bounda ries) stored in a database somewhere. Using MapBuilder you can decide what spatial information is displayed on each ma p and how that information should be formatted. A map (or a Base Map to be more precise) consists of one or more Themes . Each fers to one type of information you might want to appear on a map. For example: Country Boundaries, Oceans, Highways, State Boundaries, Cities etc. Once you have prepared your Base Maps, you can upload the configuration to Oracl e MapViewer where they can then be integrated into your own applications. When it comes to Business Intelligence, you will normally define further Themes to represent the data you wish to overlay on each Base Map. For example, you cou ld have a Theme that will show all the World Countries but where each Country is colour coded depending on how much Revenue has been generated there in the prev ious year (high values in green, low values in red etc). 4) How does spatial or map information get stored? Theme re

You can store your spatial data in the Oracle database. The Standard/Enterprise editions of the Oracle Database have a special data type called SDO_GEOMETRY which can store anything from single points to complex 3D sha pes. As an example for a World Map, there will be a table on the database consisting of all the boundaries for each Country. The table will consist of a geometry colum n (SDO_GEOMETRY datatype) and there will be one record per Country. The geometry column will actually store all the many Longitude/Latitude boundary c o-ordinates for a county in a single array-type structure (there could be 100s o r 1000s of these co-ordinates): COUNTRY_NAME =========== GEOMETRY ======== France (123, 83), (123, 84) ......... (189, 98) Germany (120, 10), (120, 11) ......... (115, 78) NOTE: this is a simplified representation! So for a World Map, all the Country geometries used to build up a map image will b e obtained from a single table. The COUNTRY_NAME column will be used to determine the label for each Country that appears on the map. If you want to display Highways, for example, then typically there will be anoth

er database table that stores all the geometry co-ordinates for every Highway (c ontaining one record per Highway). 5) Are Google/Bing Maps Supported? Release 11.1.1.5 of OBIEE 11g supports the following sources for background maps : Internal e.g. Oracle Database) External e.g. Web Map Service (WMS) providers Oracle eLocation Google Maps Bing Maps

If you choose to use "Internal" background maps then typically you ll need to purc hase some form of digital map data which can then be imported into your Oracle D atabase. To get you started however, there is a sample set of World Map data suppl ied by NAVTEQ, Oracle Database customers are free to use this sample data. The sample data set does not of course contain everything, it contains all Countr y boundaries and then has further detail data going down to postcode or "zipcode" l evel in 3 locations only (London, Sydney and San Francisco). The sample map data can be downloaded on Oracle Technology Network (OTN). If you wish to purchase more detailed maps from NAVTEQ, then please Contact Us a t Peak Indicators where we will be happy to put you in touch with the right NAVT EQ representative. 6) What is Oracle Locator? Oracle Locator is perhaps a little-known (but very important!) component of the Oracle Database. Locator is actually a cut-down version of Oracle Spatial and is provided free with all Standard and Enterprise database editions. Locator gives you all the necessary functions to index, query, join and filter s patial data. If you already have all the required spatial data and you just need to render it on a map, then Oracle Locator should be sufficient and you won t have to purchase licenses for Oracle Spatial. 7) What is Oracle Spatial? Oracle Spatial is a licensed database option and is only available with Enterpri se Editions of the Oracle database. It provides all the Oracle Locator functions plus much more. For example: Additional geometry functions Spatial aggregate functions Spatial analysis and mining functions Linear referencing system support Geo-coding support (e.g. finding out the Lat/Long co-ordinates for a Post Code) Geo-raster support Support for topology & network models If you need to modify or transform any spatial data, then the likelihood is that you'll need to purchase Oracle Spatial licesnes.

8) When do I need to purchase Oracle Spatial? As a general rule of thumb, if you need to manipulate any spatial data then you will have to purchase Oracle Spatial licenses on the database that performs the operation. At first, a lot of OBIEE 11g implementations may be able to survive with just th e functions provided with Oracle Locator. However, it is likely that at some point you will need to manipulate your spatia l data in some way. For example, you may wish to combine all your Country boundari es together to form Regions . This process is called Spatial Aggregation and licenses for Oracle Spatial are required in order to do this. The following link within the Oracle Database Documentation explains the differe nces between Oracle Locator and Spatial in more detail: http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E11882_01/appdev.112/e11830/sdo_locator.htm#i 632018 Or please Contact Us should you require any advice. 9) Are Google Maps free to use? * THIS IS ONLY FOR GUIDANCE, ALWAYS CONSULT GOOGLE TO BE SURE OF THE EXACT LICEN SING TERMS * Google Maps are free for anyone to integrate with whenever the maps are used for a web-site which is freely and publicly available on the internet. If your web-site or OBIEE 11g application is for an internal/private system then you may be subject to license fees to be able to integrate with Google Maps. Please consult Google to get the most up-to-date details on licensing. 10) Do we need extra licenses to use MapViewer with OBIEE 11g? No. As long as you are licensed for OBIEE 11g then you are able to use the MapVi ewer engine that is installed as part of the OBIEE 11g product suite. Please note that you will need an Oracle Database for storing the "layers" (e.g. country boundaries) that are to be rendered on top of your background maps. Lic enses for the Oracle Database are not included with the OBIEE 11g suite, so you will have to purchase the database licenses separately. 11) Can OBIEE 11g Maps be displayed in BI Publisher 11g Reports? Currently, it is not possible to display OBIEE 11g maps within the integrated BI Publisher 11g reports. 12) How does OBIEE 11g and MapViewer Integration perform? There are several characteristics of the OBIEE 11g / MapViewer / Spatial integra tion architecture that provide excellent performance and scalability: The Oracle Database comes equipped with spatial indexing, caching and many other capabilities to optimise spatial operations on the database The Oracle MapViewer engine has its own caching abilities that keep previously g enerated Base Map and Theme images stored so that they can be re-used again. Thi

s cache works effectively even if a sub-set of a map is required OBIEE 11g also has two levels of caching to optimise not only the querying of re port data but also the presentation of report objects (charts, tables etc) The Oracle Database, MapViewer and BI EE are all horizontally scalable , so you get the full benefits of a scalable and high-availability architecture throughout t he technology stack OBIEE 11g only passes over the summarised data to Oracle MapViewer. So if you are displaying data for 5 World Regions on a map, then OBIEE 11g will first aggregate the data and then pass over only 5 pieces of information to Oracle MapViewer (ev en if your data set consists of millions of records on the database) Note that OBIEE 11g does not need to pass over any geometry information to MapView er. For example, to display a data for 5 World Regions on a map it will only nee ds to pass: Europe 100,000 North America 150,000 South America 111,000 Asia 90,000 Australia 74,000 Oracle MapViewer will then take this small amount of information and then render the Regions listed on the map by getting the geometries from its own underlying Oracle database (unless cache entries exist, in which case the relevant images will be obtained direct from cache). 13) Is there any training available on OBIEE 11g and MapViewer Integration? Yes. Peak Indicators have developed a special 2-day training focussed on SOA and Spatial integration with OBIEE 11g. Peak Indicators can deliver this training p ublicly (through Oracle University) or privately upon request. Please click here to see more details: OBIEE 11g Advanced SOA Spatial Or for further information, please Contact Us. 14) What if my Subject Areas contain Lat/Long co-ordinates? OBIEE 11g does support the use of "Custom Point Layers", which means that if you r Subject Areas contain lat/long co-ordinates then you can render them on top of a base map using your own custom images. For example: You can show your customer locations using "x" icons on top of a ba se map sourced from Google. However, for release 11.1.1.5 of OBIEE 11g please note that you still need to ha ve some "layer" data stored in an Oracle database to be able to use your own cus tom point layers. 15) Should I choose NAVTEQ or Google Maps? Both map providers can deliver excellent results within OBIEE 11g. The key diffe rence is that NAVTEQ maps are imported and stored within your Oracle Database wh ereas Google Maps are delivered over the internet (a secure connection is possib le). The advantages of NAVTEQ maps are:

- You have greater control on how the background maps are displayed (e.g. config ure layers, colours, font sizes, images etc) - You have full control of security (e.g. no data is transferred over the intern et) - You have full control of performance/scalability/availability (everything runs on your own hardware) - You do not need a network connection to the internet Note however that you will need to purchase detailed maps from NAVTEQ if the sam ple map data does not contain the level of detail you need. There are advantages of Google maps: - You don't need to store digital map data in your Oracle database NOTE: you still need an Oracle Database to display "layers" on top of your base map - Users tend to be familiar with the look and style of Google Maps - People tend to think Google Maps are "slicker" - Licenses to use Google Maps for internal/private use could work out better val ue Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) - (FAQ) 1) What is Oracle Data Integrator (ODI)? Oracle acquired Sunopsis in 2006 and with it "Sunopsis Data Integrator". Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) is an E-LT (Extract, Load and Transform) tool used for high-speed data movement between disparate systems. The latest version, Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition (ODI-EE) brings to gether "Oracle Data Integrator" and "Oracle Warehouse Builder" as separate compo nents of a single product with a single licence. 2) What is E-LT? E-LT is an innovative approach to extracting, loading and Transforming data. Typ ically ETL application vendors have relied on costly heavyweight , mid-tier serv er to perform the transformations required when moving large volumes of data aro und the enterprise. ODI delivers unique next-generation, Extract Load and Transform (E-LT) technolog y that improves performance and reduces data integration costs, even across hete rogeneous systems by pushing the processing required down to the typically large and powerful database servers already in place within the enterprise. 3) What components make up Oracle Data Integrator? "Oracle Data Integrator" comprises of: - Oracle Data Integrator + Topology Manager + Designer + Operator + Agent - Oracle Data Quality for Data Integrator - Oracle Data Profiling

4) What is Oracle Data Integration Suite? Oracle data integration suite is a set of data management applications for build ing, deploying, and managing enterprise data integration solutions: Oracle Data Integrator Enterprise Edition Oracle Data Relationship Management Oracle Service Bus (limited use) Oracle BPEL (limited use) Oracle WebLogic Server (limited use) Additional product options are: Oracle Goldengate Oracle Data Quality for Oracle Data Integrator (Trillium-based DQ) Oracle Data Profiling (Trillium based Data Profiling) ODSI (the former Aqualogic Data Services Platform) 5) What systems can ODI extract and load data into? ODI brings true heterogeneous connectivity out-of-the-box, it can connect native ly to Oracle, Sybase, MS SQL Server, MySQL, LDAP, DB2, PostgreSQL, Netezza. It can also connect to any data source supporting JDBC, its possible even to use the Oracle BI Server as a data source using the jdbc driver that ships with BI Publisher 6) What are Knowledge Modules? Knowledge Modules form the basis of 'plug-ins' that allow ODI to generate the re levant execution code , across technologies , to perform tasks in one of six are as, the six types of knowledge module consist of: Reverse-engineering knowledge modules are used for reading the table and other o bject metadata from source databases Journalizing knowledge modules record the new and changed data within either a s ingle table or view or a consistent set of tables or views Loading knowledge modules are used for efficient extraction of data from source databases for loading into a staging area (database-specific bulk unload utiliti es can be used where available) Check knowledge modules are used for detecting errors in source data Integration knowledge modules are used for efficiently transforming data from st aging area to the target tables, generating the optimized native SQL for the giv en database Service knowledge modules provide the ability to expose data as Web services ODI ships with many knowledge modules out of the box, these are also extendable, they can modified within the ODI Designer module. 7) How do 'Contexts' work in ODI? ODI offers a unique design approach through use of Contexts and Logical schemas. Imagine a development team, within the ODI Topology manager a senior developer can define the system architecture, connections, databases, data servers (tables etc) and so forth. These objects are linked through contexts to 'logical' architecture objects that are then used by other developers to simply create interfaces using these logic al objects, at run-time, on specification of a context within which to execute t he interfaces, ODI will use the correct physical connections, databases + tables (source + target) linked the logical objects being used in those interfaces as defined within the environment Topology.

8) Does my ODI infrastructure require an Oracle database? No, the ODI modular repositories (Master + and one of multiple Work repositories ) can be installed on any database engine that supports ANSI ISO 89 syntax such as Oracle, Microsoft SQL Server, Sybase AS Enterprise, IBM DB2 UDB, IBM DB2/40. 9) Where can I get more information on ODI? The OTN Data integration home page : http://www.oracle.com/us/products/middlewar e/data-integration/index.html 10) Does ODI support web services? Yes, ODI is 'SOA' enabled and its web services can be used in 3 ways: The Oracle Data Integrator Public Web Service, that lets you execute a scenario (a published package) from a web service call Data Services, which provide a web service over an ODI data store (i.e. a table, view or other data source registered in ODI) The ODIInvokeWebService tool that you can add to a package to request a response from a web service 11) Where does ODI sit with my existing OWB implementation(s)? As mentioned previously, the ODI-EE licence includes both ODI and OWB as separat e products, both tools will converge in time into "Oracle s Unified Data Integrati on Product". Oracle have released a statement of direction for both products, published Janua ry 2010: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/oracle-data-integrator/sod.pdf OWB 11G R2 is the first step from Oracle to bring these two applications togethe r, its now possible to use ODI Knowledge modules within your OWB 11G R2 environm ent as 'Code Templates', an Oracle white paper published February 2010 describes this in more detail: http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/warehouse/pdf/owb-11gr2-code-templatemappings.pdf 12) Is ODI Used by Oracle in their products? Yes there are many Oracle products that utilise ODI, but here are just a few: Oracle Application Integration Architecture (AIA) Oracle Agile products Oracle Hyperion Financial Management Oracle Hyperion Planning Oracle Fusion Governance, Risk & Compliance Oracle Business Activity Monitoring Oracle BI Applications also uses ODI as its core ETL tool in place of Informatic a , but only for one release of OBIA and when using a certain source system. Oracle BI Applications (FAQ) 1) What are the Oracle Business Intelligence Applications (BI Apps)? It is a complete, end-to-end BI environment covering the BI platform and pre-pac

kaged analytic applications. The platform includes a server and end user tools such as dashboards, query and analysis, enterprise reporting, disconnected access to the data -- all supported by a unified, model-centric server architecture. On top of this platform, we have a set of analytic applications consuming the op erational data sources and delivering greater insight to larger user communities across the organization via dashboards, query and analysis, and alerts. 2) What technology components do I need to buy to run the BI Apps? A database to host the Datawarehouse Oracle BI Suite EE Plus or Oracle BI Suite SE1 (OBIEE) ETL component options to OBIEE, either Oracle Data Integrator* or Informatica Application content per application

*Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) is currently only available for certain release ag ainst a specific release of a source system. Future plans are to have ODI fully available. 3) What Application content is available for the BI Apps? ERP Analytics Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Financial Analytics Procurement and Spend Analytics Human Resources Analytics Supply Chain and Order Management Analytics Spend Classification Analytics Project Analytics

CRM Analytics Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Oracle Sales Analytics Service Analytics Marketing Analytics Contact Center Analytics Loyalty Analytics Price Analytics

Industry Applications - Oracle US Federal Financial Analytics 4) Which systems can BI Apps source its data from? Oracle provides pre-built adapters for Oracle eBusiness Suite, Peoplesoft, JD Ed wards, SAP and Siebel. In additional to these pre-built adapters Oracle provides the Universal adapters that enable any other source system to be a source for t he Datawarehouse. 5) I have customised my source system; can I extend the BI Apps for these custom isations? Oracle has designed the BI Apps to be extendable, from the source system mapping

s, the warehouse model, the BI Modelling layer to the Presentation objects. Orac le provides a methodology for extensions in the supplied guides. One of the most common extensions is the inclusion of descriptive flexfields for eBusiness suite sources. 6) How do I deploy the BI Apps? The BI Apps can be deployed as follows Standalone mode Integrated with Portal via JSR-168/WSRP Embedded with the transaction system within a dashboard view Embedded with the transaction system contextually within a transactional view

7) Can I have the same security as my transactional system? The BI Apps can be integrated with the source system to enable a smooth transiti on for users maintaining the user s security context as they move from the transac tional system to BI Apps and back into the transactional system. 8) Does a BI Apps implementation take as long as a traditional Datawarehouse imp lementation? A traditional Datawarehouse implementation will typically take in the region of 18 months + to deliver, because much of the time consuming effort has already be en developed. A BI Apps project will usually have release cycles every 100 days or so. A minimal configuration implementation can have a development system up a nd running in a few weeks. 9) What is the DAC? DAC stands for Data Warehouse Application Console. It is an essential component of Oracle BI application architecture. DAC serves the following purposes: - DAC is a metadata driven administration and deployment tool for ETL and data w arehouse objects - It is used by warehouse developers and the ETL Administrator - Manages Application Configuration - Manages the execution of warehouse loads - Provides a monitoring facility 10) Where can I get some more information about the content of the BI Applicatio ns? The following links on the Oracle support site are a good starting point: Content Guide: https://support.oracle.com/oip/faces/secure/km/DocumentDisplay.jspx?id=832690.1 Oracle Business Intelligence Applications Metrics Reference Guide Release 7.9.6 https://metalink3.oracle.com/od/faces/secure/km/DocumentDisplay.jspx?id=846917.1 Oracle Business Intelligence Applications ETL Data Lineage Guide Release 7.9.6,7.

9.6.1 (Doc ID 829385.1) https://support.oracle.com/oip/faces/secure/km/DocumentDisplay.jspx?id=829385.1 11) How is BI Apps made aware of my source system configurations? During the configuration of the BI Apps configurations are entered as parameters in the DAC and by completing CSV files that define your source system configs. These CSVs are then picked up during the ETL run and used to populate the wareho use. 12) Does my warehouse have to be an Oracle database? No, the BI Apps are certified against many databases including DB2 and Terradata . 13) Can I view my data indifferent currencies? The BI Apps hold both the transactional and local currency amounts. In addition there is the possibility to have up to 3 reporting currencies with basic configu ration. The data model stores five currency versions in each fact as follows: - Group Amount (x3) : Corporate Currency Amount - Local Amount : Local Country / Region Currency Amount - Document Amount : Actual Transaction Currency Amount Support for different exchange rate types through ETL configuration - Corporate - User OBIEE 11g and Maps - (FAQ) 1) How do I install/configure Oracle MapViewer with OBIEE 11g? The good news is that MapViewer is installed and configured as part of the OBIEE 11g installation process. The only post-installation configuration required is to configure MapViewer to point to the source(s) that contain your spatial data (Oracle Database) and provide you with background maps (Oracle Database, Oracle eLocation, Web Map Service provider, Google Maps or Bing Maps). 2) What is Oracle MapViewer? Oracle MapViewer is a J2EE web application that is used for rendering maps withi n a web page. It can be deployed to most J2EE application servers (such as OC4J, Apache Tomcat, Weblogic etc). Web-based applications such as OBIEE 11g can embed maps within their web pages s imply by making calls to Oracle MapViewer, there are many different functions (A PIs) available. With OBIEE 11g, the MapViewer engine is deployed to the WebLogic server. 3) What is Oracle MapBuilder? Oracle MapBuilder is development tool (written in Java) that enables you to buil d/configure your maps. Note that is does not enable you to draw maps from scratch,

it relies on the fact that you have spatial information (such as country bounda ries) stored in a database somewhere. Using MapBuilder you can decide what spatial information is displayed on each ma p and how that information should be formatted. A map (or a Base Map to be more precise) consists of one or more Themes . Each fers to one type of information you might want to appear on a map. For example: Country Boundaries, Oceans, Highways, State Boundaries, Cities etc. Once you have prepared your Base Maps, you can upload the configuration to Oracl e MapViewer where they can then be integrated into your own applications. When it comes to Business Intelligence, you will normally define further Themes to represent the data you wish to overlay on each Base Map. For example, you cou ld have a Theme that will show all the World Countries but where each Country is colour coded depending on how much Revenue has been generated there in the prev ious year (high values in green, low values in red etc). 4) How does spatial or map information get stored? Theme re

You can store your spatial data in the Oracle database. The Standard/Enterprise editions of the Oracle Database have a special data type called SDO_GEOMETRY which can store anything from single points to complex 3D sha pes. As an example for a World Map, there will be a table on the database consisting of all the boundaries for each Country. The table will consist of a geometry colum n (SDO_GEOMETRY datatype) and there will be one record per Country. The geometry column will actually store all the many Longitude/Latitude boundary c o-ordinates for a county in a single array-type structure (there could be 100s o r 1000s of these co-ordinates): COUNTRY_NAME =========== GEOMETRY ======== France (123, 83), (123, 84) ......... (189, 98) Germany (120, 10), (120, 11) ......... (115, 78) NOTE: this is a simplified representation! So for a World Map, all the Country geometries used to build up a map image will b e obtained from a single table. The COUNTRY_NAME column will be used to determine the label for each Country that appears on the map. If you want to display Highways, for example, then typically there will be anoth er database table that stores all the geometry co-ordinates for every Highway (c ontaining one record per Highway). 5) Are Google/Bing Maps Supported? Release 11.1.1.5 of OBIEE 11g supports the following sources for background maps : - Internal e.g. Oracle Database) - External e.g. Web Map Service (WMS) providers

- Oracle eLocation - Google Maps - Bing Maps If you choose to use "Internal" background maps then typically you ll need to purc hase some form of digital map data which can then be imported into your Oracle D atabase. To get you started however, there is a sample set of World Map data suppl ied by NAVTEQ, Oracle Database customers are free to use this sample data. The sample data set does not of course contain everything, it contains all Countr y boundaries and then has further detail data going down to postcode or "zipcode" l evel in 3 locations only (London, Sydney and San Francisco). The sample map data can be downloaded on Oracle Technology Network (OTN). If you wish to purchase more detailed maps from NAVTEQ, then please Contact Us a t Peak Indicators where we will be happy to put you in touch with the right NAVT EQ representative. 6) What is Oracle Locator? Oracle Locator is perhaps a little-known (but very important!) component of the Oracle Database. Locator is actually a cut-down version of Oracle Spatial and is provided free with all Standard and Enterprise database editions. Locator gives you all the necessary functions to index, query, join and filter s patial data. If you already have all the required spatial data and you just need to render it on a map, then Oracle Locator should be sufficient and you won t have to purchase licenses for Oracle Spatial. 7) What is Oracle Spatial? Oracle Spatial is a licensed database option and is only available with Enterpri se Editions of the Oracle database. It provides all the Oracle Locator functions plus much more. For example: Additional geometry functions Spatial aggregate functions Spatial analysis and mining functions Linear referencing system support Geo-coding support (e.g. finding out the Lat/Long co-ordinates for a Post Code) Geo-raster support Support for topology & network models If you need to modify or transform any spatial data, then the likelihood is that you'll need to purchase Oracle Spatial licesnes. 8) When do I need to purchase Oracle Spatial? As a general rule of thumb, if you need to manipulate any spatial data then you will have to purchase Oracle Spatial licenses on the database that performs the operation. At first, a lot of OBIEE 11g implementations may be able to survive with just th e functions provided with Oracle Locator.

However, it is likely that at some point you will need to manipulate your spatia l data in some way. For example, you may wish to combine all your Country boundari es together to form Regions . This process is called Spatial Aggregation and licenses for Oracle Spatial are required in order to do this. The following link within the Oracle Database Documentation explains the differe nces between Oracle Locator and Spatial in more detail: 9) Are Google Maps free to use? * THIS IS ONLY FOR GUIDANCE, ALWAYS CONSULT GOOGLE TO BE SURE OF THE EXACT LICEN SING TERMS * Google Maps are free for anyone to integrate with whenever the maps are used for a web-site which is freely and publicly available on the internet. If your web-site or OBIEE 11g application is for an internal/private system then you may be subject to license fees to be able to integrate with Google Maps. Please consult Google to get the most up-to-date details on licensing. 10) Do we need extra licenses to use MapViewer with OBIEE 11g? No. As long as you are licensed for OBIEE 11g then you are able to use the MapVi ewer engine that is installed as part of the OBIEE 11g product suite. Please note that you will need an Oracle Database for storing the "layers" (e.g. country boundaries) that are to be rendered on top of your background maps. Lic enses for the Oracle Database are not included with the OBIEE 11g suite, so you will have to purchase the database licenses separately. 11) Can OBIEE 11g Maps be displayed in BI Publisher 11g Reports? Currently, it is not possible to display OBIEE 11g maps within the integrated BI Publisher 11g reports. 12) How does OBIEE 11g and MapViewer Integration perform? There are several characteristics of the OBIEE 11g / MapViewer / Spatial integra tion architecture that provide excellent performance and scalability: The Oracle Database comes equipped with spatial indexing, caching and many other capabilities to optimise spatial operations on the database The Oracle MapViewer engine has its own caching abilities that keep previously g enerated Base Map and Theme images stored so that they can be re-used again. Thi s cache works effectively even if a sub-set of a map is required OBIEE 11g also has two levels of caching to optimise not only the querying of re port data but also the presentation of report objects (charts, tables etc) The Oracle Database, MapViewer and BI EE are all horizontally scalable , so you get the full benefits of a scalable and high-availability architecture throughout t he technology stack OBIEE 11g only passes over the summarised data to Oracle MapViewer. So if you are displaying data for 5 World Regions on a map, then OBIEE 11g will first aggregate the data and then pass over only 5 pieces of information to Oracle MapViewer (ev en if your data set consists of millions of records on the database) Note that OBIEE 11g does not need to pass over any geometry information to MapView er. For example, to display a data for 5 World Regions on a map it will only nee ds to pass: Europe 100,000 North America 150,000

South America 111,000 Asia 90,000 Australia 74,000 Oracle MapViewer will then take this small amount of information and then render the Regions listed on the map by getting the geometries from its own underlying Oracle database (unless cache entries exist, in which case the relevant images will be obtained direct from cache). 13) Is there any training available on OBIEE 11g and MapViewer Integration? Yes. Peak Indicators have developed a special 2-day training focussed on SOA and Spatial integration with OBIEE 11g. Peak Indicators can deliver this training p ublicly (through Oracle University) or privately upon request. 14) What if my Subject Areas contain Lat/Long co-ordinates? OBIEE 11g does support the use of "Custom Point Layers", which means that if you r Subject Areas contain lat/long co-ordinates then you can render them on top of a base map using your own custom images. For example: You can show your customer locations using "x" icons on top of a ba se map sourced from Google. However, for release 11.1.1.5 of OBIEE 11g please note that you still need to ha ve some "layer" data stored in an Oracle database to be able to use your own cus tom point layers. 15) Should I choose NAVTEQ or Google Maps? Both map providers can deliver excellent results within OBIEE 11g. The key diffe rence is that NAVTEQ maps are imported and stored within your Oracle Database wh ereas Google Maps are delivered over the internet (a secure connection is possib le). The advantages of NAVTEQ maps are: - You have greater control on how the background maps are displayed (e.g. config ure layers, colours, font sizes, images etc) - You have full control of security (e.g. no data is transferred over the intern et) - You have full control of performance/scalability/availability (everything runs on your own hardware) - You do not need a network connection to the internet Note however that you will need to purchase detailed maps from NAVTEQ if the sam ple map data does not contain the level of detail you need. There are advantages of Google maps: - You don't need to store digital map data in your Oracle database NOTE: you still need an Oracle Database to display "layers" on top of your base map - Users tend to be familiar with the look and style of Google Maps - People tend to think Google Maps are "slicker" - Licenses to use Google Maps for internal/private use could work out better val

ue The 11g Features There has been a lot of deserved hype about the major enhancements in OBIEE 11g such as Action Framework and Embedded Maps, but we thought it would be a good id ea to start compiling a list of the more subtle enhancements you may not have he ard about! 1) Multiple Subject Areas Did you know that Answers reports (Analyses) can now be sourced from multiple Su bject Areas? This is significant as it means you no longer have to cram lots of content into a single Subject Area! 2) Conditional Data Formatting When you apply Conditional Formatting via "Column Properties" in Answers, there is an additional tab to allow you to conditionally change the "Data Format" as w ell as the "Style". 3) Case-Insensitive Searching When using the "search" facility to choose your filter values within Answers, th ere is now a "Match Case" option that enables you to perform a case-insensitive search. NOTE: There is also a "Match Case" option when performing member selection 4) Conditional Formatting Conditional formatting is now possible on Pivot Tables (even on Hierarchical Col umns). 5) Dashboard Prompts There is a new style of dashboard prompt called a "Variable Prompt" which allows you to specify your own custom list of values for the dashboard prompt (instead of always having to source the values from a Subject Area) 6) Importing RPD Metadata Within the Physical layer of the RPD, when you right-mouse click on a Connection Pool there is a new "Import Metadata" option. When adding further tables, this new option is much better than the "File > Import" menu option because all the n ew metadata will get imported directly into the existing Physical Database (so y ou won'tyou get another Physical Database created). To make it even better, this new "Import Metadata" option will perform an increm ental update of your existing tables and their columns. So if you create new col umns on your database, the tables in the RPD will be incrementally updated. 7) Time Series Calculations There are now 3 types of Time Series calculation available (AGO, TODATE and PERI ODROLLING). Another great enhancement is that it is now possible for report deve lopers to build their own Time Series calculations in Answers, so you no longer have to rely on them being created in the RPD.

8) Building Subject Areas In the BI Administration tool, you can right-mouse click on a Business Model and choose the option "Build Subject Areas for Logical Stars and Snowflakes". This option will automatically create a Subject Area dedicated to each logical fact i n your Business Model. Each Subject Area will one logical fact together with all its related logical dimensions. 9) Archiving/Unarchiving You can now archive/unarchive BI Presentation Catalog content directly within th e dashboard front-end, you no longer need to use the BI Catalog Manager utility. 10) Presentation Variables It is now possible to assign multiple values to a Presentation Variable. 11) Rename Wizard In the BI Administration Tool, you can now right-mouse click on an object and ch oose the "Rename Wizard" option. This is a short-cut which will invoke the Renam e Wizard directly for all the objects you selected. In OBIEE 10g, you could only invoke the Rename Wizard via the "Tool" menu and it meant you would always have a few extra steps to do the renaming you wanted to. There is also new new formatting option with the Rename Wizard: Change all occur ences of "_" into a space 12) LDAP Authorization With the new OBIEE 11g security model, it is now possible for OBIEE to find out the "groups" belonging to a user directly from an LDAP store. In OBIEE 10g, you could only do this indirectly via a PL/SQL package. 13) BI Publisher - Local Excel Files It is now possible with BI Publisher 11g to upload your own local MS Excel files and use them as a data source for your BI Publisher reports. 14) RPD File Compression To reduce storage needs, repositories are now stored in a compressed format. Bec ause of this, you may notice that the size of an RPD file opened and saved in th is release is significantly smaller than the size of RPD files from previous rel eases. 15) Oracle OLAP Integration OBIEE 11g can now supports Oracle OLAP as a data source. This means Oracle OLAP is now a definite option for OBIEE if you need to optimize the underlying Data W arehouse.

16) Master-Detail Linking In addition to "drill-down" and "navigation", there is a new "Master-Detail Link ing" capability which allows users to click on one table/graph/map to automatica lly apply filters to other views within the same Analysis (it can even apply fil ters to other Analyses on the same Dashboard Page). 17) View Selectors It is now possible to include Compound Layouts in view selectors. New Features with OBIEE 11.1.1.6 Here is a quick list of the many new features available with Oracle Business Int elligence 11.1.1.6! Note: mosts of this list is simply a collection of the relevant bits from the va rious "New Features" sections that exist across the entire Oracle BI 11g documen tation library, some items though have been obtained directly from Oracle. Installation The installer for the Oracle BI client tools now also installs Catalog Manager. Ability to Limit and Offset Rows Returned You can use the FETCH and OFFSET clauses to constrain the number of rows returne d by the SELECT statement and to offset the returned rows by a given number. Bot h clauses are optional and can be used together, or independently. Identify Query Candidates with Oracle BI Summary Advisor If you are running Oracle Business Intelligence on the Oracle Exalytics Machine, you can use the Oracle BI Summary Advisor feature to identify which aggregates will increase query performance. Summary Advisor intelligently recommends an opt imal list of aggregate tables based on query patterns that will achieve maximum query performance gain while meeting specific resource constraints. Integrate the Administration Tool with a Third-Party Source Control Management S ystem As an alternative to using a MUD environment, you can choose to save your reposi tory in MDS XML format and integrate the Administration Tool with a third-party source control management system. Presentation Layer/Subject Area Foldering It is now possible to have more than one level of sub-foldering within a Subject Area! You can achieve this using the BI Admin Tool by designating "child pre sentation tables" to presentation tables, and you can have multiple levels of ch ild tables. Streamlined MUD Merge Process Repository developers using a multiuser development (MUD) environment can now me rge and publish changes in a single step, rather than merging local changes and then publishing changes as two separate steps. They can also perform subset refr eshes to perform incremental local merges with the master repository. Automated Repository Patching Process You can now use an option in the patchrpd command-line utility to enable automat ed patching without prompting for user input. In addition, new patching-specific rules are applied during patch merges.

Support for Aggregate Persistence in a Cluster You can now use the aggregate persistence feature in a clustered environment. FIRST_PERIOD and LAST_PERIOD Time Series Functions You can now use the FIRST_PERIOD and LAST_PERIOD functions to compute the first and last value of an expression using the chronological key rather than the prim ary level key. Ability to Print the Physical and Business Model Diagrams You can now use Print Preview and Print to view and print the Physical and Busin ess Model Diagrams in the Administration Tool. New Configuration Elements for Prompts and Custom Links You can use new configuration elements to affect the following: - How users work with prompts on dashboard pages - How you add custom links for users Changes in the Interface for Fusion Middleware Control Various changes were made in the user interface for Fusion Middleware Control: - View System Component Availability - Identify Single Points of Failure - Configure Primary and Secondary Instances - View Log Information, Error Messages, and Alerts - Log File Rotation Policy and Specifying Log Levels Enhancements to Full-Text Search The way that you configure for users to perform a full-text search has been enha nced. Configuration Settings for Analyses and Dashboards New configuration settings are available for working with analyses and dashboard s. Configuration Settings in NQSConfig.INI The NQSConfig.INI file for the Oracle BI Server now includes the settings that a re described in the following sections. Some of these sections have enhanced doc umentation from the previous release: - "MAX_EXPANDED_SUBQUERY_PREDICATES" - "FMW_UPDATE_ROLE_AND_USER_REF_GUIDS" - "SUMMARY_STATISTICS_LOGGING" - "SUMMARY_ADVISOR_TABLE_NAME" New Catalog and Home and Header Privileges These privileges determine which users can search the catalog, what functionalit y displays in the Oracle BI EE global header, who can access the Home Page and C atalog page, and who can see custom links in the global header and Getting Start ed area of the Home Page. Auto-Complete Functionality for Prompts This release contains auto-complete functionality for prompts. When enabled by t he administrator, auto-complete suggests and highlights matching prompt values a s the user types in the prompt selection field. Auto-complete can be excluded or included on dashboards, and users can turn auto-complete off for their accounts . Optional Apply and Reset Buttons for Prompts You can show or hide a prompt s apply and reset buttons. If the designer chooses t o hide the apply button, then the specified prompt value is immediately applied to the dashboard or analysis.

Miscellaneous Prompts Enhancements The following prompts enhancements were added: - The prompt Reset button now provides three reset options: Reset to last applie d values, Reset to default values, andClear All. - In the "Dashboard builder", the dashboard designer can add the Edit and Copy l inks to the dashboard s prompts. These links will display at run time, and users with the proper privileges can click them to edit the prompt or copy the prompt s link. - The row-based layout prompt option was added to the prompt editor s "Definition pane". As a result, you can now specify a row-based or column-based layout for y our prompts. Favorites This release introduces Favorites, which allows you to bookmark as favorites the catalog objects that you view regularly or want to view again at another time. You can use the "Manage Favorites dialog" to organize your favorites into catego ries, and you can view your favorites list and open your favorite objects from t he global header s Favorites menu. Customizable Global Header and Get Started .... Section of the Home Page The order of the links on the global header can now be customized, and links to external locations can be added to the global header. The Get Started... section of the home page can also be customized to meet the informational needs of the users. The Administrator implements these customizations and when users log into Oracle BI EE, they will see these customizations. Oracle BI Client Installer Option Added to the Home Page A link to the Oracle BI Client Installer has been added to the Download BI Deskt op Tools option, which is located in the Getting Started... section of the Home Page. User s with the proper privilege can click this option to download and insta ll the Business Intelligence Administration Tool and the Oracle Business Intelli gence JobManager. Integrated Full-Text Search Capabilities This release provides a fully integrated full-text search. This search is availa ble after the administrator integrates Oracle BI Enterprise Edition with Oracle Secure Enterprise Search. This method of searching allows the user to find objec ts by searching on their attributes such as author and column name. Ability to Set Accessibility Mode in the Sign In Page In this release, the "Sign In page" has been enhanced to include the Accessibili ty Mode box, which allows you to specify whether you want content for Oracle BI EE to be rendered in a browser in a way that facilitates the use of a screen rea der. Enhancement to Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management This release includes the addition of a contribution wheel diagram to a strategy tree, which allows you to view an objective and its supporting child objectives and KPIs hierarchically in a circular diagram. Enhancements to Map Views In this release, map views have been enhanced in various ways: - You can include non-BI layers on a map view - You can use the marquee zoom feature to zoom into a specific area of the map V iew Enhancements to Selections The release includes the following enhancement to selections: - The ability to include selected members in hierarchy selections steps that are

based on family relationships. - The addition of Siblings of and Leaves of options in family relationships. - If the content designer adds a selection step that includes a condition with a qualified data reference (QDR), the QDR now displays in the Selection Steps pan e. - The "All X values where Y = values" condition type was added. This condition t ype is available for attribute columns and hierarchical columns. The Column fiel d was added to the New Condition Step dialog for this condition type. Enhancements to Views This release includes the following enhancements to views: - The ability to rename views and compound layouts. - The Selection Steps view was added. This view when added to an analysis, displ ays the selection steps in effect for the analysis. Enhancements to Tables and Pivot Tables In this release, tables and pivot tables have been enhanced to allow you to: - Select the measure on which to sort a column in a pivot table. - Specify how columns that are added to an analysis from the "Analysis editor: C riteria tab" after displaying the analysis results are handled. - Additional interactions on the right-click menu, for example, Include column, Show Running Sum, interactions for selection steps, and so on. - The ability to specify which interactions (for example, Drill) are available w hen you right-click in an analysis or a dashboard at run time. BI Mobile - Balanced Scorecards now truly render on the mobile device (using HTML5 visuali sations). - Mobile support for iOS5 BI Publisher - "Schedule Triggers" to conditionally execute scheduled jobs. - Enhanced parameters and list of values (check boxes, radio buttons, "Search" f or long list of values, option to hide the "Apply" button) - Display HTML formatted data in your report - Configure different servers for authentication/authorization Security - New "SQL Group Lookup Authenticator" to enable authentication against LDAP com bined with authorization from a database - Simplified SSL/SSO setup Platform/Database Support - New support for Informix 11.5, Sybase ASE 15, and Netezza 6 data sources - Support for both WebLogic 10.3.5 and 10.3.6 - Support for new browsers: IE9, Chrome 12, and Firefox 6 - Support for Solaris 11 Exalytics (FAQ) 1) What is Oracle Exalytics? Oracle Exalytics is a new "BI machine" designed specifically for Business Intell igence and Enterprise Performance Management. With a massive 1TB RAM and 40 CPU cores, this machine can and will take performance to a level never seen before. The reason why performance is to extreme is that the Exalytics architecture is d esigned to store your business intelligence data in main memory, this means resp onse time is dramatically faster with no network latency or disk I/O.

The term "speed of thought" has already been used a lot with Exalytics - this is referring to the fact that your reports run so quickly that they refresh with n ew data even whilst you are typing in the filter criteria. 2) What components come with Exalytics? Exalytics is a pre-installed / pre-configured machine running on Linux 64-bit. I t comes with 3 main software components: - Oracle BI Foundation 11g (OBIEE release 11.1.1.6) - Oracle TimesTen (in-memory database) - Oracle Essbase 11g (memory optimized) 3) Is there a demonstration of Exalytics anywhere? Yes, see this recorded demonstration on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v= oLLic4ytFsw 4) What is the difference between Exalytics, Exadata and Exalogic? Fundamentally, the three "Exa" machines built by Oracle are designed to overcome bottlenecks in either one of 3 areas: Memory, Disk, CPU Memory: Exalytics is designed to massively boost performance of Business Intelli gence queries by processing vast amounts of data in memory Disk: Exadata is designed to optimise the performance of large databases where most of the query overhead is experienced whilst reading or writing from disk CPU: Exalogic is designed for large application servers (e.g. server farms, d ata centres, virtualization) with massively parallel and scalable CPU performanc e 5) I already have Oracle BI 11g, does Exalytics replace my existing hardware? Yes. Your existing Oracle BI 11g application would be migrated in its entirety t o the new Exalytics machine. 6) What is TimesTen? TimesTen is Oracle's "in-memory" database - this means it stores all its data in memory so there is no disk overhead. Historically TimesTen has been used for ap plications which require lightning fast real-time data management. For example: Banks would use TimesTen to do fraud checks in a fraction of a second. With the introduction of Exalytics, TimesTen has been enhanced to support analyt ical processing for business intelligence queries. For Exalytics, your Oracle BI 11g queries will be directed against the TimesTen in-memory database cache rath er than your underlying data sources. TimesTen also comes with "columnar compression" which means that columns of data (e.g. Customer Name) are compressed at ratios of upto 5x to help expand the amo unt of data that can be stored in memory. 7) How does the TimesTen in-memory database get populated?

The TimesTen in-memory database actually gets populated dynamically by the Oracl e BI 11g server - so you don't have to manually write any scripts. The mechanism is actually an enhanced form of the "Aggregate Persistence Wizard" which has be en a feature of Oracle BI since version 10g. With Exalytics, a "storage advisor" can be used to automatically analyse the usa ge of your BI deployment (i.e. the queries initiated by your end users) and make recommendations as to what data should be cached in TimesTen. You can then acce pt these recommendations (if you wish to do so) or you can make your own decisio ns. The cache structures within the TimesTen database will reflect the structure of the "Business Model" within your BI Repository (RPD). So if you have a logical dimension table "Dim - Account" with three columns "Acc ount ID", "Account Name", "Account Type" then a table will exist on the TimesTen in-memory database with a similar structure. Note that if you choose to cache y our data at the higher "Account Type" level then obviously the in-memory databas e will not contain any data for "Account Id" or "Account Name". For your fact logical tables, the TimesTen in-memory database will also contain tables to cache your logical facts. So there will be columns to store "$ Revenue " and then surrogate keys to join to the related dimension structures on the inmemory database (e.g. for Dim - Account). The actual physical tables created automatically on TimesTen will have system ge nerated names. 8) Can we cache further data into the in-memory database whilst the system is ru nning? The answer from Oracle Product Development is "yes". So if a new BI Dashboard is published during the week then you can dynamically start caching the underlying data into the TimesTen in-memory database without any downtime. 9) The in-memory database seems to be similar to BI Server "caching", is this tr ue? No, not really! BI Server caching is for caching the end results of "Logical SQL " queries. With Exalytics, the TimesTen in-memory database caches data in struct ures that resemble the Business Model in your RPD. BI Server caching is optimized for lots of small results sets whereas TimesTen i n-memory database can handle upto 5TB of cached data (making use of compression) . BI Server caching is also a file-based cache, whereas TimesTen data will resid e totally in RAM. There is no reason however why you should not also use BI Server caching Exalyti cs - as it will cache the results of any ad hoc or other queries which were prev iously not sourced directly from the TimesTen in-memory database. The BI Server cache on an Exalytics machine can be tuned to reside on a "RAM disk" so it also benefits from in-memory capability. 10) My data is not stored in an Oracle database, can I still use Exalytics? Yes, definitely. Because the TimesTen in-memory database is populated through th e Oracle BI 11g Server, the underlying data can be stored in just about any type

of database. 11) It sounds fantastic, but does Exalytics have any limitations? So far the signs are extremely positive and Oracle have conducted several succes sful pilots with "beta" customers. However, there are a few limitations which ar e worth highlighting, the first of which is common to all "aggregate layers" wit hin a BI architecture: 1) To make use of the TimesTen in-memory database, your calculations must be "ad ditive" i.e. you must be able to accurately derive the calculation results from the data stored in the TimesTen cache. So you will need to take care when perfor ming averages, for example. COUNT DISTINCT operations are also non-additive. 2) In order to make use of the TimesTen in-memory database, you need to bulk loa d data into it. So this means there will be an extra task at the end of your ETL cycles to repopulate the entire TimesTen cache. Exalytics comes with extremely fast network cards so data transfer can be rapid, and there is even an Infiniban d (40GB/s) connection to connect to an Exadata machine. There is a "double buffe ring" technique with high-availability architectures which could potentially sim ulate incremental and trickle-feed loading. UPDATED: Incremental loading for Exalytics is now possible using Peak ETA! Ple ase visit the Peak ETA Product Overview page for details on how Peak ETA can sig nificantly enhance the capabilities provided by the Exalytics "Summary Advisor" by incrementally loading TimesTen in-memory aggregates and in parallel. 3) We have seen that Ragged, Skipped-Level and Parent-Child hierarchies are not supported. So this means only level-based hierarchies are supported, for the tim e being at least. 12) I don't currently use Essbase, so how would I use the Essbase component on E xalytics? The memory-optimised Essbase that ships with Exalytics is designed to replace yo ur existing Essbase cubes and boost the performance of your EPM applications. If you don't currently use Essbase then your initial focus should be on the Oracle BI 11g Foundation and TimesTen components of Exalytics. However there is nothin g to stop you from using the Essbase functionality whenver it suits you! 13) I have more than 1TB of data, can I still use Exalytics? First of all, it is worth pointing out that although the Exalytics machine comes with 1TB of RAM, the reality is that around 400GB will be available for your "i n-memory" data. The reason is that the TimesTen has two main memory configuratio n parameters: - PermSize: The permanent memory region - this is where your data is stored - TempSize: The temporary memory region (used for sorts etc) The recommended setting for both of these memory regions will be 400GB, consumin g a total of 800GB RAM. This will leave approximately 200GB for OBIEE and any ot her overheads. However, despite the 400GB recommended limit, TimesTen also has a compression fe ature so that you could potentially fit 5x more in to your in-memory cache. You should also remember that Exalytics is designed to be an "aggregate" layer, so you shouldn't really be thinking about loading ALL you data into the TimesTen

in-memory cache. Instead, you should aim to load in as much summarised data as possible. So if you have >1TB of data then you can still use Exalytics! NOTE: The memory-optimised Essbase component does not have a compression feature . 14) Does Exalytics support real-time Business Intelligence? Yes and no. Your Exalytics queries do not all have to come from the TimesTen inmemory database, so you could report directly off your live transactional databa se and perform real-time BI. However, as things currently stand, the Exalytics TimesTen in-memory database is not configured for "trickle-feed" incremental loading to support near-real-time BI. So if you need to boost the performance of your real-time database queries then Exalytics may not be the answer for you. As stated above, there is a "double buffering" technique with high-availability architectures which could potentially simulate incremental and trickle-feed load ing. 15) Does this mean I no longer need a Data Warehouse? Absolutely not! Data Warehouses are fundamental when it comes to data consolodat ion, cleansing and scalability (for storing enormous quantites of data in a form at suitable for reporting purposes). You should view Exalytics as an "aggregate" or "performance" layer in your archi tecture - sitting on top of your Data Warehouse (such as Exadata). 16) With Exalytics can I still use Maps, Mobile Analytics (iPad), and Balance Sc orecards? Yes, the entire range of features available with the Oracle BI 11g Foundation su ite is supported. 17) How is Exalytics licensed? As always, you should contact your Oracle Sales Rep to gain full clairity on the license situation. But just as a guidance, licensing will typically be done on a per user basis: - Minimum 100 named users for both Times Ten & BI Foundation Suite - Existing customers of OBIEE or BI Foundation Suite can migrate licenses to Exa lytics Exalytics supports clustered solutions for disaster recovery and high availabili ty: - Requires a minimum of 2 hardware machines - You need to also have a Weblogic Server Enterprise Edition full license The accurate pricing is available on Oracle's price list. To avoid reporting inc orrect pricing figures, we will not hard code any pricing or links in this FAQ! However, you can search on Google for things such as "exalytics license cost" to get the latest information. 18) I am already licensed for Oracle BI 11g, can I migrate my existing licenses? Yes, see question 17. 19) How has Essbase changed for Exalytics?

Essbase on Exalytics has a number of optimizations for in-memory operation inclu ding improvements to overall storage layer performance, enhancements to parallel operations, enhanced MDX syntax and a high performance MDX query engine. Essbas e on Exalytics provides up to 16X faster query execution as well as up to 6X red uction in write-back and calculation operations, including batch processes. Thes e enhancements are particularly important for advanced use cases such as plannin g and forecasting. 20) Once the box arrives, do I have to install Exalytics or is it all pre-instal led? Once you have the box plugged in you will then need to download and install the Exalytics software components: OBIEE, TimesTen and Essbase (Optional). There are two main reasons for this: 1) You are always downloading and installing the latest software version 2) You are not tied down to a specific hostname or network configuration A utility is provided to fully install and configure OBIEE and TimesTen together . 21) What happens if I load in more data than TimesTen's The short answer to this is that you can't! TimesTen is l data in memory. So if TimesTen has 400GB allocated to not be able to load in more than this. If you try then memory capacity? designed to work with al your data, then you will you'll get an error!

22) What happens if I reboot the machine, do I lose my in-memory cache? Although TimesTen is an in-memory database, the data is actually also stored on disk. So if you reboot the Exalytics machine then you won't lose your data! When you start up the TimesTen services after the reboot it will load all the data f rom disk into main memory. NOTE: to avoid data loss/inconsistency you should always shut down TimesTen serv ices gracefully before you reboot the machine. OBIEE Interview Questions and Answers FAQ These questions are related to what previously known as Siebel Analytics is nowk nown as OBIEE i.e OracleBusiness IntelligenceEnterprise Edition. Define repository in terms of Siebel Analytics o Repository stores the Meta data information. Siebel repository is a file syste m,extension of the repository file. rpd.o META DATA REPOSITORYo With Siebel Anal ytics Server, all the rules needed for security, data modeling,aggregate navigat ion, caching, and connectivity is stored in metadata repositories.o Each metadat a repository can store multiple business models. Siebel AnalyticsServer can acce ss multiple repositories What is the end to end life cycle of Siebel Analytics? o Siebel Analytics life cycle1. Gather Business Requirements2. Identify source s ystems3. Design ETL to load to a DW if source data doesn t exist.4. Build a reposi tory5. Builddashboardor use answers for reporting.6. Define security (LDAP or Ex ternal table )7. Based on performance, decide on aggregations and/or caching mecha nism.8. Testing and QA. What were you schemas? How does Siebel Architecture works? Explain thethree laye rs. How do you import sources? o There are five parts of Siebel Architecture.1. Clients2. Siebel analytics Web Server 3. Siebel analytics server 4. Siebel analytics scheduler 5. data sorceso Metadata that represents the analytical Model Is created using the siebel Analyt icsAdministration tool.o Repository divided into three layer 1. Physical Represe nts the data Sources2. Business models the Data sources into Facts And Dimension

3. Presentation Specifies the users view of the model;rendered in Siebel answer If you have 3 facts and 4 dimension and you need to join would yourecommend join ing fact with fact? If no than what is the option? Why youwon t join fact to fact? o In the BMM layer, create one logical table (fact) and add the 3 fact table as logicaltable source What is connection pool and how many connection pools did you have inyour last p roject? o connection pool is needed for every physical database.o It contains informatio n about the connection to the database, not the databaseitself.o Can use either shared user accounts or can use pass-through accounts -Use:USER and PASSWORD for pass through .o We can have multiple connection pools for each group to avoid w aitin Purpose of Alias Tables o An Alias table (Alias) is a physical table with the type of Alias. It is a ref erence to alogical table source, and inherits all its column definitions and som e properties fromthe logical table source. A logical table source shows how the logical objects aremapped to the physical layer and can be mapped to physical ta bles, storedprocedures, and select statements. An alias table can be a reference to any of theselogical table source types.o Alias Tables can be an important pa rt of designing a physical layer. The followingis a list of the main reasons to create an alias table: To reuse an existing table more than once in your physical layer (without having toimport it several times) To set up multiple alias tables , each with different keys, names, or joinso To help you design sophisticated st ar or snowflake structures in the businessmodel layer. Alias tables are critical in the process of converting ER Schemas toDimensional Schemas. How do you define the relationship between facts and dimensions in BMMlayer? o Using complex join ,we can define relationship between facts and dimentions in BMM layer. What is time series wizard? When and how do you use it? o We can do comparison for certain measures ( revenue.,sales etc.. ) for current year vs previous year, we can do for month or week and day alsoo Identify the ti me periods need to be compared and then period table keys to theprevious time pe riod.o The period table needs to contain a column that will contain Year Ago inform ation.o The fact tables needs to have year ago totals.o To use the Time series wi zard . After creating your business model right click thebusiness model and click on Time Series Wizard .o The Time Series Wizard prompts you to create names for the comparisonmeasures that it adds to the business model.o The Time Series Wizard prompts you to select the period table used for thecomparison measureso Select t he column in the period table that provides the key to the comparisonperiod. Thi s column would be the column containing Year Ago information in theperiod table.o Select the measures you want to compare and then Select the calculations youwant to generate. For ex: Measure: Total Dollars and calculations are Change andPerc ent change. o Once the Time series wizard is run the output will be:a) Aliases for the fact tables (in the physical layer)b) Joins between period table and alias fact table sc) Comparison measuresd) Logical table sourceso In the General tab of the Logic al table source etc you can find Generated by TimeSeries Wizard in the description sectiono Then you can add these comparision measures to the presentation layer for your reports.o Ex: Total sales of current qtr vs previous qtr vs same qtr ye ar ago Did you create any new logical column in BMM layer, how? o Yes. We can create new logical column in BMM layer.o Example: Right click on f act table -new lgical column-give name for new logicalcolumn like Total cost.o N ow in fact table source,we have one option column mapping, in that we can do all calculation for that new column. Can you use physical join in BMM layer? o yes we can use physical join in BMM layer. when there is SCD type 2 we need co

mplex join in BMM layer. Can you use outer join in BMM layer? o yes we can.When we are doing complex join in BMM layer ,there is one option ty pe, outer join is there. What are other ways of improving summary query reports other than Aggregate Navi gation and Cache Management Indexes Join algorithm Mat/view query rewrite Web proper report design its optimal by making sure that it is not getting any addition column or rows What is level-base matrics? o Leval-base matrics means, having a measure pinned at a certain level of thedim ension. For Example, if you have a measure called Dollars , you can create a Level Ba sed Measure called Yearly Dollars which (you guessed it) is Dollars for aYear. This measure will always return the value for the year even if you drill down toa lo wer level like quarter, month etc. To create a level based measure, create anew l ogical column based on the original measure (like Dollars in the exampleabove). Drag and drop the new logical column to the appropriate level in theDimension hi erarchy (in the above example you will drag and drop it to Year in TimeDimo A LB M is a metric that is defined for a specific level or intersection of levels.o M onthly Total Sales or Quarterly Sales are the examples.o You can compare monthly sales with quarterly sales. You can compare customer orders this quarter to ord ers this year What is logging level?Where can you set logging levels? o You can enable logging level for individual users; you cannot configure a logg inglevel for a group.o Set the logging level based on the amount of logging you want to do. In normaloperations, logging is generally disabled (the logging leve l is set to 0). If you decideto enable logging, choose a loggingo level of 1 or 2. These two levels are designed for use by Siebel Analytics Server administrato rs.o Set Logging Level1. In the Administration Tool, select Manage > Security.2. The Security Manager dialog box appears.3. Double-click the user.s user ID.4. T he User dialog box appears.5. Set the logging level by clicking the Up or Down a rrows next to the Logging Levelfield What is variable in sieble? o You can use variables in a repository to streamline administrative tasks and m odifymetadata content dynamically to adjust to a chainging data environment.TheA dministration Tool includes a Variable Manager for defining variables What is system variable and non system variable? o System variableso System variables are session variables that the Siebel Analy tics Server and SiebelAnalytics Web use for specific purposes. System variables have reserved names,which cannot be used for other kinds of variables (such as s tatic or dynamicrepository variables, or for nonsystem session variables).o When using these variables in the Web,preface their names with NQ_SESSION.For exampl e, to filter a column on the value of the variable LOGLEVEL set the filter to th e Variable NQ_SESSION.LOGLEVEL.o Nonsystem variables.o A common use for nonsyste m session variables is setting user filters. For example,you could define a nons ystem variable called SalesRegion that would be initialized tothe name of the us er.s sales region. You could then set a security filter for allmembers of a grou p that would allow them to see only data pertinent to their region.o When using these variables in the Web, preface their names with NQ_SESSION.For example, to filter a column on the value of the variable SalesRegion set the filter to the V ariable NQ_SESSION.SalesRegion. What are different types of variables? Explain each. o There are two classes of variables:1. Repository variables2. Session variables .Repository variables.A repository variable has a single value at any point in t ime. There are two types of repository variables:static : This value persists, a nd does not change until a Siebel Analytics Server administrator decides to chan ge it dynamic:The values are refreshed by data returned from queries. When defining ad ynamic repository variable, you will create an initialization block or use a pre

existingone that contains a SQL query. You will also set up a schedule that the SiebelAnalytics Server will follow to execute the query and periodically refresh the value of the variable.Session VariablesSession variables are created and as signed a value when each user logs on. Thereare two types of session variables:1 .system2.nonsystem. What are the cache management? Name all of them and their uses. For Eventpolling table do u need the table in your physical layer? o Monitoring and managing the cashe is cache management.There are three waysto d o that.o Disable caching for the system.(INI NQ config file), Cashe persistence time for specified physical tables and Setting event polling table.o Disable cac hing for the system.(INI NQ config file :You can disable caching for the whole s ystem by setting the ENABLE parameter toNO in the NQSConfig.INI file and restart ing the Siebel Analytics Server. Disablingcaching stops all new cache entries an d stops any new queries from using theexisting cache. Disabling caching allows y ou to enable it at a later time without losingany entries already stored in the cache.o Cashe persistence time for specified physical tables :You can specify a cachable attribute for each physical table; that is, if queriesinvolving the spe cified table can be added to the cache to answer future queries. Toenable cachin g for a particular physical table, select the table in the Physical layer of the Administration Tool and select the option Make table cachable in the General ta bof the Physical Table properties dialog box. You can also use the Cache Persist enceTime settings to specify how long the entries for this table should persist in the querycache. This is useful for OLTP data sources and other data sources t hat are updatedfrequently, potentially down to every few seconds.o Setting event polling table :Siebel Analytics Server event polling tables store information a bout updates in theunderlying databases. An application (such as an application that loads data into adata mart) could be configured to add rows to an event pol ling table each time adatabase table is updated. The Analytics server polls this table at set intervals andinvalidates any cache entries corresponding to the up dated tables.o For event polling table ,It is a standalone table and doesn t requi re to be joined withother tables in the physical layer What is Authentication? How many types of authentication. o Authentication is the process by which a system verifies, through the use of a user ID and password, that a user has the necessary permissions and authorizati ons tolog in and access data. The Siebel Analytics Server authenticates each con nectionrequest it receives. Operaing system autentication External table authentic ation