Concepts

1.WhatisaDatawarehouse? A Data warehouse is a denormalized database, which stores historical data in summary level format. It is specifically meantforheavydutyqueryingandanalysis. 2.WhatisaDatamart? ADatamartisasubsetofaDatawarehouseandisgenerallyspecifictoacertaindepartmentorprocess,e.g.afinance datamartoraproductiondatamart. 3.WhatarethevariousapproachesofbuildingaDatawarehouse? This is a generic question: From a business perspective, it is very important to first get clarity on the end user requirementsandasystemstudybeforecommencinganyDatawarehousingproject.Fromatechnicalperspective,itis important tofirstunderstandthedimensionsandmeasures,determinequalityandstructureofsourcedatafromthe OLTP systems and then decide which dimensional model to apply, i.e. whether we do a star or snowflake or a combinationofboth.Fromaconceptualperspective,wecaneithergotheRalphKimballmethod(builddatamartsand then consolidate at the end to form an enterprise Data warehouse) or the Bill Inmon method (build a large Data warehouse and derive data marts from the same. In order to decide on the method, a strong understanding of the businessrequirementanddatastructureisneededasalsoconsensuswiththecustomer. 4.WhatisOLAP?

5.WhatisETL?

6.WhatistheDifferencebetweenOLTPandOLAP?

OLTP refers to transactional data or data captured at the point of transaction, whereas, OLAP is a multidimensional representationofdatawhichthrowsoutsummarylevelinformation. 7.WhatarethevariousReportingtoolsintheMarket? TonameafewCognos8BI,BusinessObjectsEnterpriseEdition,SQLServerReportingServices,OracleDiscoverer,IBM DB2Alphablox,Hyperion,Microstrategy,SAS,SAPBIW. 8.WhatisMetadata?

Insimplewordswecansaythatitisdataaboutdata.Itstoresallinformationaboutdatalikewhereitisstored,howit isstored,howitisformatted,addressofthestoredlocation,sizeofthedata,ownershipofdata,createdandmodified timeofdataetc. 9.WhatisStagingArea? StagingAreaisadataholdingplacewherethedatawhichisextractedfromthedatasourcesisstored.Dataiscleansed andtemporarilystoredherebeforeitisloadedintotheDatawarehouse.

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ETLisaprocessofextractingdata(OLTPdata)fromsourcesystemsandtransformingthemintodimensionalmodelsand storingthesameinaDatawarehouse.ETLalsoinvolvesdatacleansinganddatamanipulation,basedonthenatureof the business requirement. It is often a long process, which takes around 7080% time in a typical Data warehouse project.

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OLAPisamultidimensionaldatastructurefromwherewecanviewsummarylevelinformationabouta business,e.g. totalsalesinayearortotalsalesinacertaingeography.

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10.WhatisFactlessFactTable? Factlessfacttableisnothingbutafacttablewhichdoesnthaveanymeasures. 11.Whatisslowlychangingdimension? Itisnothingbutadimensionwhichstoreshistoricaldataaswellasdatawhichchangeswithtime.Forexample,inan organization, there are two departments (Dep1 and Dep2) and employee1 is in Dep1. After completing the 1st year, employee1gotpromotiontoDep2.Herethedataitemdepartmentnameoftheemployeedimensionischangedwith respecttotime. 12.WhatisaSurrogatekey? Surrogate key is a unique identifier. It is used to identify each row of a table uniquely. It also helps to track slowly changingdimensions.Itreplacesallnaturalkeys.Surrogatekeysaresystemgeneratedkeys,theyarenotderivedfrom anydatasources. 13.WhatisaDatasource?

14.WhatisVirtualDataWarehousing?

15.Whatisthedifferencebetweenstarschemaandsnowflakeschema? Themaindifferencebetweenstarschemaandsnowflakeschemaisthatthestarschemaishighlydenormalizedandthe snowflakeschemaisnormalized.Sothedataaccesslatencyislessinstarschemaincomparisontosnowflakeschema.As the star schema is denormalized, the size of the data warehouse will be larger than that of snowflake schema. The schemasareselectedaspertheclientrequirements.Performancewise,starschemaisgood.Butifmemoryutilizationis amajorconcern,thensnowflakeschemaisbetterthanstarschema. 16.WhatisDataProfiling?

17.WhatisaJunkDimension?

Ajunkdimensionisacollectionofrandomtransactionalcodes,flagsand/ortextattributesthatareunrelatedtoany particulardimension.JunkDimensionisjustadimensionthatstoresunwantedattributes. 18.WhatisaFacttable? Itisatablewhichcontainsfactualinformationofabusinessprocess.Facttablecontainsmeasures,foreignkeysofall relateddimensiontablesandattributesetc. 19.WhatisaDimensiontable? Itisatablewhichcontainscategorizeddata.Eg:Timedimension,Productsdimensionetc.

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DataProfilingisaprocesstofindouttheprocessinformationpresentinthesource.Theprocessortoolusedfordata profilingiscalledDataDiscoveryPhase.

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It is the process of accessing the operational database directly by the end users for decision making purposes. But in traditional data warehousing systems, we load the data from the source to the target first and then we analyze it. In virtualdatawarehousingconcept,datawarehouseisavirtualentity.

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Itisaplacefromwherethedataisextractedforthedatawarehouse.DataisExtracted,TransformedandLoadedtothe datawarehousefromthedatasource.Thedatasourcemaybeoperationaldatabase,flatfiles,CSV(CommaSeparated Values)files,VSAM(VirtualStorageAccessmethod)filesetc.

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20.Whatisfactconstellation? Factconstellationisalsoknownasgalaxyschema.Itisnothingbutaschemawhichcontainsmultiplefacttablesshares dimensions.Itisacollectionofstarschemaswhichsharestheirdimension.Soitiscalledasagalaxyschema. 21.Whatiscube? Cubeisamultidimensionalrepresentationofdata.Itisusedforanalysispurpose.Acubegivesmultipleviewsofdata. 22.Whatisdrilldownanddrillup? Bothdrilldownand drillupareused toexplore differentlevelsofdimensionallymodeleddata.Drilldownallowsthe users view lower level (i.e. more detailed level) of data and drillup allows the users to view higher level (i.e. more summarizedlevel)ofdata.

Theneedofbuildingadatawarehouseisthat,itactsasastoragefillforalargeamountofdata.Italsoprovidesenduser accesstoawidevarityofdata,helpsinanalyzingdatamoreeffectivelyandalsoingeneratingreports.Itactsasahuge repositoryforintegratedinformation. 24.WhatisDataModeling?WhatarethedifferenttypesofDataModeling?

Data modeling is a process of creating data models. In other words, it is structuring and organizing data in a uniform manner where constraints are placed within the structure. The Data structure formed are maintained in a database managementsystem.TheDifferenttypesofDataModelingare:1.DimensionModeling2.ERModeling. 25.WhatarethedifferenttypesofDatamodels?

ConceptualDataModel,LogicalDataModelandPhysicalDataModel 26.WhatarethedifferenttypesofOLAPTECHNOLOGY?

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Online Analytical process is of three types, they are MOLAP, HOLAP and ROLAP. MOLAP Mulidimensional online analyticalprocess.Itisusedforfastretrivalofdataandalsoforslicinganddicingoperations.Itplaysavitalroleineasing complex calculations. ROLAP Relational online analytical process. It has the ability to handle large amount of data. HOLAPHybridonlineanalyticalprocess.ItisacombinationofbothROLAPandMOLAP. 27.WhatisthedifferencebetweenaDatabaseandaDatawarehouse?

28.Whatisaconformeddimension? A dimension which is shared across two or more fact tables is known as conformed dimension. It is one of the key methodstojoinsetofdatamartsintooneconsolidateddatawarehouse.Itfacilitatesdrillacrossprocessi.e.analysisof dataacrossdimensions. 29.Whatisdrillthrough? Itisatechniqueinwhichausercanseetheunderlyingdetailrelatedtoanaggregate.Inthistechniquetheanalysisof thedatatracesitspathfromtheOLAPcubeintotherelationaldatabase.

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Databaseisaplacewheredataistakenasbasetodataaccesstoretrieveandloaddata,whereas,adatawarehouseisa placewhereapplicationdataismanagedforanalysisandreportingservices.Databasestoresdataintheformoftables andcolumns.Onthecontrary,inadatawarehouse,dataissubjectorientedandstoredintheformofdimensionsand packages which are used for analysis purpose. In short, we must understand that a database is used for running an enterprisebutadatawarehousehelpsinhowtorunanenterprise.

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23.Whatistheneedofbuildingadatawarehouse?

30.Whatisaggregation? Aggregationisthesummarizationofinformationinthedatawarehouse.Theadvantageofaggregationis,itreducesthe storagespaceandimprovestheperformanceofthequeries. 31.Whatarenonadditivefacts? Nonadditivefactsarethefactswhichcannotbesummedupforanyofthedimensionspresentinthefacttable. 32.WhatisDatacleaning? Data cleaning is the process of removing the errors, redundancies and the inconsistencies present in the source data before loading it into the data warehouse. It involves removing the null values, checking for consistency in the data format, standardizing date format, finding the missing values, eliminating or adding the title for a set of records and standardizingthenumericalvalues. 33.Whatisdatamigration?

34.Whatisalegacysystem?

Itisthecomputersystemwhichisinusefromalongtime.Thedatawarehousesourcesthedatafromdifferentlegacy systemswhichhavedifferentformatsandareattimesinaccurate 35.WhatisDataQualityAssurance?

Itisacrucialprocessbeforeloadingthedataintothedatawarehouse.Itchecksforthequalityofthedatawhichisbeing imported into the data warehouse. If data having errors is loaded into the data warehouse it will reflect in the final outputbygivingreportswitherrordata. 36.WhatisDatatransformation?

Acomputerbaseddecisionmakingsystemusedbytheorganizationsinthe1980sand1990s.TheDSSistheancestorof BusinessIntelligence. 38.WhatisNormalization?

Normalizationisaprocesshavingasequenceofstepsforcreatingrelationaldatabasemodel.Itincreasesgranularityby removingduplication. 39.WhatisHierarchy? Hierarchyisthestructuringofdataintermsofalogicaltree.Thislogicaltreewillhavedifferentlevelsdependingonthe detailofdata.Alocationwillhavecity,stateandregionaslevelsinitslogicaltree.Thecityformsthelowestlevelof detailwithrespecttothelocation.

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37.WhatisDecisionsupportsystem(DSS)?

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Itistheprocesswhichappliesaseriesofrulestomanipulatetheextracteddatatosuittheenduserrequirements.The dataqualityhastobeimprovedbeforeitbecomesuseableinthedatawarehouse.Someofthebasictasksperformedin the transformation process are selection, splitting, joining, conversion, calculation, derivation and summarization of data.

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Itisthetransferofdatafromoneplatformtoanother.Thismayincludeconversionfromonelanguage/filestructure/ operatingenvironmenttoanother.Themigrationofdatahappenswhenthedatainthelegacysystemsismovedinto thedatawarehouse.

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40.WhatisaHyperCube? HyperCubeisamultidimensionalcubewith more thanthree dimensions.It isasinglecubewhichstoresallthedata havingapplicationdimensionsappliedtoit. 41.WhatisLogicalextraction? Logicalextractionistheprocessinwhichdataisextractedtablebytable.ThedatafromtheOLTPdatabaseisextracted withoutchangingtheexistingtablestructure. 42.WhatisPartitioning? Partitioningisaprocessofsplittingphysicaldatasetsintosmallerphysicalparts.Eachphysicalpartcanbeoperatedon individually or parallel processing on multiple partitions can take place. The smaller subsets of data & the parallel processingmakesitcomparativelyfasterthanserialprocessingofverylargedata. 43.WhatisGranularity?

Granularitydescribes,uptowhatlevelofdetailthemeasuresarestoredinthedatawarehouse.Thedatawiththelowest levelofgranularitycanbereshapedtomeetdifferentneeds.Granulardatacanbeeasilysummarized. 44.WhatareNormalForms?

ThesequenceofstepsinvolvedintheNormalizationprocessisknownasNormalForms.Commonly,first,second&third normalformsareapplied.FollowedbyBoyceCodd,fourth,fifth&DomainKeynormalformsinsequence,buttheseare rarelyapplied. 45.WhatisDenormalization?

Denormalizationisaprocesswhichremovesthegranularitybyintroducingduplication&reducingthenumberofjoins betweenentities.

Dimension tablewhichis usedbyasinglefact tableisknownas coredimension.Dimensiontablesharedbytwofact tablesiscalledconformeddimension 48.Whataredimensionalattributes? The attributes of the dimension are known as dimensional attributes. For example company dimension contains attributeslikecompanyid,companyname. 50.Whatislogicalmodel? ALogicaldatamodelisadatamodelthatrepresentsthebusinessrequirements(entireorpart)ofanorganizationandis developedbeforethephysicaldatamodel.Logicaldatamodelincludesallrequiredentities,attributes,keygroups,and relationshipsthatrepresentbusinessinformationanddefinesbusinessrules.

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47.Whatisthedifferencebetweencoredimensionandconformeddimension?

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There are two methods of loading data in dimension tables, namely: Conventional Method Direct Method Conventional Method: In this method before the data is loaded all the constraints and the corresponding keys are validatedagainstthedatatomaintaintheintegrity.Thisisatimeconsumingmethod..DirectMethod:Inthismethod beforethedataisloadedalltheconstraintsandthecorrespondingkeysaredisabled.Thedataisvalidatedagainstthe constraintsandkeysaftertheloadingtakesplace.

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46.WhatarethemethodsofloadingdatainDimensiontables?

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51.Whatisphysicalmodel? Physical data model includes all required tables, columns, relationships, database properties for the physical implementationofdatabases. 53.Whatismodeling? Modeling is the way to represent the organizations need in effective way, it gives information to the users to understandthebusinessrulesandtheprocessesinvolved. 54.Whatisbusinessdata? Businessdatareferstotheinformationinrelationtooperateabusinesslikepeople,places,things,businessrules,and events. It is very important to gather business data for analysis and to take precise decisions on how to bring the companyforward. 57.WhatisDatatracking?

58.WhatisDATABASE?

Database is a collection of data (any useful information) which can be accessed, modified, updated as and when required. 59.WhatisAtomicData?

Dataelementsthatrepresentthelowestlevelofdetailarecalledatomicdata.Forexample,inadailysalesreport,the individualitemssoldwouldbeatomicdata.

Structureforadatabaseisknownasschema.Inarelationaldatabase,theschemadefinesthetables,thefieldsineach table,andtherelationshipsbetweenthem.

62.Whatisadatatype?

Datatypeisanattributethatspecifieswhattypeofdataistobestoredintothecolumnoravariable.Itallowsacolumn oravariabletoholdonlyaspecifiedtypeofdata.Ithelpstostorevalidformatofadata. 63.WhatisNULL? Null is an entry that has not been assigned a value. NULL is not equivalent to zero or blank. A value of NULL is not greaterthan,lessthan,orequivalenttoanyothervalue,includinganothervalueofNULL. 64.WhatisconstraintinrelationalDatabases? Constraintisapropertyassignedtoacolumnthatpreventstheentryofcertaintypeofinvaliddatatothatcolumn.For example,PRIMARYKEYCONSTRAINTinacolumnpreventsgettingduplicateorNULLvaluesintothatcolumn.

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It is a two dimensional object in a relational database, storing data in rows and columns. In a sales database, the databasemaycontainProductsTable,OrdersTable,CustomerTableandsoon.TheProductsTablemaycontaincolumns ProductID,ProductName,ProductPrice.

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61.Whatisatable?

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60.WhatisSchema?

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Data tracking involves tracing data from the point of its origin to its final state. Data tracking is very useful in a data warehouse implementation, since data warehouse is a complex system that involves data extracted from various operationaldatasourcesanddatamarts.

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65.Whataretriggers? TriggersarethespecialkindofprocedurescreatedandsavedinDatabasesthatwillbeinvokedautomaticallywhenthe databaseeventsarefired.Databaseeventscouldbetheinsertion,deletionorupdationofrecordsorcreation,altering ordroppingofotherdatabaseobjects.ThereareDataManipulationLanguageandDataDefinitionLanguageTriggers. 66.WhichmodelingdoweuseinDataWarehouse? DimensionalModelingisusedindatawarehouse.Itcontainsdimensionsandfacttables. 67.WhatisDBMS? DBMSstandsforDatabaseManagementSystem;itisasetofsoftwareusedtomanagedatabases.Itisusedtostore, manage,andretrievethedatafromdatabases.

69.WhatisConnectionstring?

Connectionstringisusedbyanapplicationtomakeconnectionthroughnetwork.Thisstringincludestheinformation likewhichobjecttobeconnected,andwhereexactlyitislocatedandtheauthenticationdetailstomakeconnection. 70.WhatisCandidatekey?

Candidate Key is a column or a set of columns available in a table which allows distinct values and not null values. A tablecanhaveanynumberofcandidatekeys.Fromtheavailablekeys,onekeywillbeselectedandsetasprimarykey.

Therearetwodifferenttypesofmodeling:1.Businessmodeling.2.Datamodeling. 72.Whatarethedifferenttypesofbusinessmodeling?

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71.Whatisthedifferenttypesofmodeling?

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73.WhatismeantbyBusinessProcessManagement? BusinessProcessManagementhelpstomonitortheactivitiesofabusinesswhichinturnhelpstheorganizationtogrow. 74.WhatistheneedforBusinessProcessManagement? BusinessProcessManagementhelpstodocumentthebusinessprocessesinalanguagewhichcanbeunderstoodbyall teammembers.Italsohelpstoplanforanewbusinessorforanychangeintheexistingbusiness. 75.Whatismetadatatextrepository? MetadatatextrepositoryisusedbyETLclients,anditisafasterandbetterenvironmentthatprovidesbettersupport formultiusersharingthemodel.

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ThedifferenttypesofBusinessModelingare:1.ProcessFlowModeling:isusedtodescribetheprocessesthathappenin an organization. It is also called Work Flow Modeling. 2. Business Process modeling: is used to analyze the business processes 3. Data Flow Modeling: it defines the flow of data between different business processes, it explains all the activityinvolvedinthebusinessprocesses.

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Thisclassificationisbasedonthedatasourceusedtocreateadatamart.Thereare3typesofdatamartIndependent datamartDependentdatamartHybriddatamartDependentdatamartsdrawdatafromacentraldatawarehousethat hasalreadybeencreated.Independentdatamarts,drawsdatadirectlyfromoperationaldatasourceHybriddatamarts candrawdatafromoperationalsystemsorfromdatawarehouses.

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68.Whataredifferenttypesofdatamart?

76.Whatisatransaction? Transaction is a single or group of operations performed in a database. For example, withdrawal of cash transaction includesonlyoneoperationofupdatingthepresentbalanceofasingleaccount;whereastheFundTransfertransaction includesmultipleoperationssincemultipleaccountsneedtobeupdated. 77.WhatisAtomicPropertyintransactionmanagement? AccordingtotheAtomicPropertyeitherthetransactionisexecutedcompletelyoritisnotexecutedatall.Supposea transaction is half the way in its process, there are chances of some external failures like system crash or software/network failure. Here, atomic property ensures that; if these kinds of failures occur, the database system shouldhavetheabilitytorollbackthetransactiontoitspreviousstage. 78.WhatisConcatenation?

79.Whatisacomputedcolumn?

Itisavirtualcolumninatablewhosevalueiscalculatedatruntime.Forthis,itisrequiredtodefineanexpressionfor thecomputedcolumn.Forexample,forsalescomputedcolumn,theexpressioncouldbeproductprice*quantity. 80.Whatistheuseofcursor?

Cognos8BI

2.WhatarethecomponentsofCognosReportnet?

FrameworkManager(formetadatamodeling),QueryStudio,ReportStudio,EventStudioandMetricStudio. 3.WhatisCognosConnection?

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1.WhatistheBItoolfromCognos?

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Cognos

Cursorisusedtodofetchtherecordsonebyoneorasabatchfromaresultset.Oncecursorispositionedononerowof aresultset,wecanperformoperationsonit.Itismainlyusedtoretrievetherow.

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Concatenation is the operation of combining more than one character strings or binarystrings into a single character string or binary string. For example EmployeeFirstName (Asish) and EmployeeLastname (Mehra) are combined to get EmployeeFullName(AsishMehra).

ItisaportalwhichhasalltheCognoscomponentsvisibleThecomponentsincludeQueryStudio,ReportStudio,Event Studio,AnalysisStudioandMetricStudio.Userscanselectoneormanyamongtheseoptions. 4.WhatistheReportnetequivalentinlatestversionofCognos8? ItiscalledCognos8BI 5.WhatisCognosDatamanager? ItistheETLcomponentfromtheCognosstack. 6.WhathappenedtoPowerplay? PowerplayhasnowbeenintegratedaspartofCognos8BIandisnowcalledasAnalysisStudio. 7.WhatisthedifferencebetweenConsumerandRecipient? Consumercanrun,viewandperformdrilldown/up,sliceanddicefunctions,whereas,recipientcanonlyviewreports.

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8.WhatisthedifferencebetweenQueryStudioandReportStudio? Query Studio is used to create ad hoc and simple reports, whereas, Report Studio is meant to run advanced and customizedreports. 9.HowdoweutiliseJavaScriptwithinCognos? ThereisanoptionwithinCognoswherewecanembedJavascriptstocustomizethelookandfeelofthereportscreated inCognos. 10.WhatisaPrompt? APromptisakindoffilterwhichallowstheusertoselecttherequiredvaluewhichhastobefiltered. 11.HowmanypromptsareavailableinCognosReportStudio? ThereareninepromptsinReportStudio.Theyare:TextboxpromptValuepromptSelectandSearchpromptDate promptTimepromptDate&TimepromptIntervalpromptTreepromptGeneratedprompt 12.WhatisGeneratedprompt?

Generatedpromptisakindofpromptwhichautomaticallychoosesanddisplaysanyoftheotherpromptsatruntime according to the data type of the data item added for filtering. For example, if you add date and time value as the filteringiteminageneratedprompt,thepromptwillautomaticallychoosethedateandtimepromptatruntime. 13.WhatisacataloginDataManager?

14.WhichisthescorecardingtoolofCognos8BI? ItiscalledMetricStudio.

15.Whatisconditionalblock?

16.Whatiscascadingprompt?

17.WhatistheuseofconnectioninDataManager? InDataManager,aconnectionisusedtoestablishalinktoadatabase.Thedatabasemaybesourceortargetdatabase. 18.WhatisthepurposeofcreatingdimensionbuildsinDataManager? Dimension builds are used to deliver dimensions to the target database. In Data Manager we can create dimension buildsmanuallyaswellasthroughwizard. 19.WhatisquerycalculationinReportStudio? ItisacomponentinsidetheInsertableObjectpaneofReportStudio.Itisusedtoinsertacalculateditemintoareport. Forexample,wecanusequerycalculationtocalculatetherevenuebymultiplyingquantityintoprice. 20.WhatisthepurposeofSQLTerminDataManager? SQLTermisusedtoconstructSQLstatementsandalsototesttheresultsetobtainedfromthesourcedatabase.

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Itisapromptwhichmakesuseofthevaluesfromthepreviousprompttofilterthevaluesinthecurrentprompt.

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Aconditionalblockisablockwhichgetsexecutedbasedontheinputgivenbytheuseratruntime.

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CatalogisaworkspacewhichholdsthecomponentsthatdefinehowDataManagerExtracts,TransformsandDelivers datatothetarget.Itcontainsinformationregardingthedataflowfromdatasourcetodatawarehouse.Catalogisstored inaseparatedatabase.

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21.WhatdoyoumeanbyDataStreaminDataManager? DataStreammapsgatheralldatasources(fromwhichthebuildacquiresdata)totheTransformationmodel/facttable. 22.Whatisabuild? BuildisaDataManagerprocessthatdeliversrequiredsourcedatatothetargetwarehouse/mart. 23.WhatisanamespaceinFrameworkManager? NamespaceuniquelyidentifiesFrameworkManagerObjectslikequerysubjects,queryitems,dimensions,etc. 24.WhyshouldwepublishapackageinFrameworkManager? It is necessary to publish a package for report authors to create reports in Report Studio and for business authors to createadhocreportsinQueryStudio. 25.WhatisaQueryItem? QueryItemrepresentsacolumnofatableinthesourcedatabase. 26.WhatisaQuerySubject?

QuerySubjectisanSQLexpressionthatrepresentstheselectedqueryitemstoberetrievedfromthedatabase. 27.WhatisMDX?

Content Manager is a Cognos service that manages the storage of configuration data, reports and scheduling information. 30.WhatisReportLayout?

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29.WhatdoestheContentManagerdo?

ReportLayoutdefinesthestructureandthelookandfeelofreports.

Usingobjectbasedsecurity,wecanmakeanobjectvisibletoselectedusers,groupsandroles.Itislocatedinthemenu Actions>SpecifyObjectSecurity. 32.HowisObjectSecuritydifferentfromDataSecurity? Object security allows or denies user access to objects, whereas, Data Security controls what data the end user sees whenareportisrun. 33.HowtoimporttablesinrelationaldatabaseintoFrameworkManagerproject? ClickonthefolderyouwanttoimportthetablesintoandintheActionsmenu,clickRunMetadataWizard.Followthe instructionsintheMetadataWizard. 34.Whatisagovernorandhowdoyousetit? Agovernorisasetofrulesthatcontrolsuseractivitieslikedataretrieval,queryexecutionlimit,usageoflocalcacheetc. GovernorscanbesetinProjectmenu>EditGovernors.

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31.WhydoweneedobjectbasedsecurityinFrameworkManager?Whereisthefeaturelocated?

MultidimensionalExpression(MDX)languageisthemultidimensionalequivalentofSQL.

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35.WhatisExplorertab? Theexplorertabshowsthecontentofaprojectsimilartoanyfilesystem.Objectscanbearrangedbyname,classor description. 36.Whatisthediagramtab? Thediagramtabusesadiagramtoshowtherelationshipbetweenobjectsinaproject. 37.Whatisdimensionmaptab? Dimensionmaptabisusedtoview,createandmodifyhierarchiesandlevelsforthedimensionthatisselectedinthe projectviewer. 38.Whatisthepropertiespane? Thepropertiespaneshowsthepropertiesoftheobjectthatisselectedintheprojectviewer,explorertab,diagramtab, dimensionmaptab,Searchpaneorsummarypane. 39.Whatisthesummarypane?

Thesummarypaneshowsthelanguage,statisticsandtasksavailableforanobjectthatweselectintheprojectviewer. 40.Whataremacros?

Macrosarefragmentsofcodethatwecaninsertanywhereintheselectstatementthatdefinesaquerysubject.

42.ExpandBLOBS? BLOBSstandsforBinaryLargeObjects.

43.Whendoambiguousrelationshipsoccur?

Themostcommonambiguousrelationshipsarea)Multiplevalidrelationshipsb)Reflexiveandrecursiverelationships. 45.WhatistheuseofobjectsecurityinFrameworkManager? It is used to protect the specific objects like folders, namespaces, query subjects, query items and filters from the unwantedusers.Usingobjectsecurity,wecanrestrictusersandgroupsfromaccessingparticularobjects. 46.Whatisburstingreport? It is the process of creating a single report which will send different reports to different end users at the time of execution.Forexample,ifwecreateareportwhichshowssalesdetailsmadebydifferentsalesexecutives,itwillsend differentreportstodifferentregionalmanagersatthetimeofexecution.Eachregionalmanagerwillgetonlythedetails ofsalesexecutivesthatcomeunderhisregion.

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Ambiguous relationships occur when the data represented by a query subject or a dimension can be viewed in more thanonecontextorrole.

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Thedataretrievallimitsisagovernoronsettingwhichhelpstocontrolthenumberofrowsthatarereturnedinaquery orreport.

41.Whataredataretrievallimits?

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47.Whatisapackage? A package is container which holds the items like reports, models created in framework manager etc. It is used to publishthemodelscreatedinframeworkmanagertotheReportnetServer. 49.Whatisreportspecification? ItistheXMLrepresentationofareport. 50.Whatisaregulardimension? Aregulardimensionprovidesdescriptiveandbusinesskeyinformation.Italsoorganizestheinformationinahierarchy fromthehighesttothelowestlevelofgranularity. 51.Whatistheuseof_businesskeyrole? The_businesskeyrolerepresentsthekeyofthelevel.Italsohelpstodrillfromonedatasourcetoanother.Thisrole canbeassignedtoonlyoneattributeinalevel. 52.Whatistheuseofscoperelationship?

Themeasuredimensionsandregulardimensionscanberelatedforreportingpurposesbysettingscoperelationship. 53.Whataredeterminants?

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Thedeterminantsareasetofqueryitemsthatuniquelyidentifyasetofdata.

55.Howdoweimprovethespeedofretrievalofdatawhenrunningareport?

56.HowdowereusetheCacheddata?

Governorsreducesystemresourcerequirementsandimprovetheperformance. 58.Whatarethebenefitsofnestedpackages? Thepackagecanbereusedbycreatingnestedpackages.Nestedpackagesavestimeanditiseasytomaintain.Onlythe masterpackageneedstobepublishedinnestedpackages. 59.Whatarethemethodsavailabletoexternalizequerysubjectsinframeworkmanager? a)csvb)tabb)iqdc)embedded 60.Whatisamaterializedview? Amaterializedviewmaterializesthedatai.e.,itstoresthedataphysicallyseparatefromthetables.Itprovidesindirect accesstotabledatabystoringtheresultsofaqueryinaseparateschemaobject.

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57.Whatistheuseofgovernors?

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When a report runs, the request is sent to data base. The data is then retrieved and stored in a cache. To reuse the cacheddata,wehavetoenabletheAllowUsageofLocalCachegovernoronmodelinframeworkmanagerandthen publishthepackage.

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Thespeedcanbeimprovedbyreusingthecacheddata.

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Nativesqlisthesqlwhichisusedbythedatasource.

54.Whatisnativesql?

61.Whatisatemplate? Atemplatedefinestheattributesandtheirbehaviorsforadimensiontable.Werequireatemplatetoproperlymaintain andusethecorrespondingreferencedimensiontable. 62.Howjobstreamsareuseful? Jobstreamsautomatetheexecution.Itisusedtogroupothercomponentsintologicalprocessessothattheexecution canbeautomated. 63.Whatisafactbuild? Afactbuildspecifieshowtoacquire,transformanddeliverfactandreferencedata. 64.WhatareIQDfiles? IQD stands for Impromptu Query Definition. IQD method externalizes a query subject to use in transformer or other applications. 65.Whatisthedifferencebetweenregulardimensionandmeasuredimension?

Aregulardimensioncontainsdescriptiveandbusinesskeyinformation.Italsoorganizestheinformationinahierarchy, from the highest level of granularity to the lowest. A measure dimension is a collection of facts. We can create a measuredimensionforoneormorequerysubjectsthathaveavalidrelationshipbetweenthem. 66.Whatisthebenefitofusingportaltabs?

Theportaltabsincognos8connectionhelpsaccessthepagesthatareimportant.

Ajobidentifiesacollectionofreports,reportviewsandotherjobsthatarescheduledtogether.Theysharethesame schedulesettings. 68.Whatisadeploymentarchive?

Adeploymentarchiveisacompressedfilethatcontainstheactualentriesthataredeployed. 69.Whatisamodel?

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67.Whatisajob?

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Amodelisadatastructurecontainingimporteddatafromoneormoredatasources. 70.Whatisaportlet?

Aportletisamechanismfordisplayingwebcontentaspartofaportalpage. 71.Whatareisolationlevels?

Theisolationlevelspecifieshowtohandlethetransactionsthatmodifythedatabase. 72.Mentiontheisolationlevels.

Thefollowingaretheisolationlevels.a)Readuncommittedb)Readcommittedc)CursorStabilityd)ReproducibleRead e)Phantomprotectionf)Serializable 73.Howarerolesdifferentfromgroups? InCognos8,groupsandrolesrepresentcollectionofusersthatperformsimilartasksortheuserswithsimilarstatus.A groupmembershipisapartoftheusersbasicidentity.Membersofthegroupscanbeusersandothergroups.Onthe otherhand,arolemembershipisnottheusersbasicidentity.Thememberofrolescanbeauser,grouporotherroles.

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74.Whataretheusesoftrustedcredential? Thetrustedcredentialsareusedforuserswhoperformataskorprocess,butdonothavesufficientaccesspermissions foraccessingsensitivedatasuchasdatabasesignonsandgroupmembership.Thetrustedcredentialsarealsousedto runscheduledrequestswhenusersarenotloggedontocognos8. 75.WhatisthefullformofXSS? ThefullformofXSSiscrosssitescripting.

76.Howdoweimprovethespeedofretrievalofdatawhenrunningareport? Thespeedofretrievalofdatacanbeimprovedbyreusingthecacheddata. 77.HowdowereusetheCacheddata? When a report runs, the request is sent to data base. The data is then retrieved and stored in a cache. To reuse the cacheddata,userhastoenabletheAllowUsageofLocalCachegovernoronmodelinframeworkmanagerandthen publishthepackage.

Governorsreducesystemresourcerequirementsandimprovetheperformance. 79.Whatarethebenefitsofnestedpackages?

a)CSVb)TABb)IQDc)Embedded

In framework manager there are different types of security they are a) Data security b) Object security c) Package security. 82.WhatarethefilesthatarecreatedwhenaFrameworkManagerprojectiscreated? .cpf, Model.xml, preferences.xml, customdata.xml and repository.xml are the files that are created when a project is createdinFrameworkManager,andtheyresideintheprojectfolder. 84.Whatissynchronizationinframeworkmanager? Synchronizationinframeworkmanageristhereplayingfromthelogfile,alltheactionsthataremadeintheoriginal project. 85.Whenthesynchronizationisusefulinframeworkmanager? Synchronizationisusedtogetupdatedmetadataintotheproject1)Whenthemetadataisupdatedfromathirdparty tool.2)Whenthereischangeinmetadatausingamultidimensionalmodelingtool. 86.WhatismeantbyDualDisplay? InPowerplayuser can createreports that canbesimultaneouslyviewedin the crosstaband thechart forminsingle report.ItisknownasDualDisplay.

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81.Whatarethedifferenttypesofsecurityinframeworkmanager?

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80.Whatarethemethodsavailabletoexternalizequerysubjectsinframeworkmanager?

Thepackagecanbereusedbycreatingnestedpackages.Nestedpackagesavestimeanditiseasytomaintain.Onlythe masterpackageneedstobepublishedinnestedpackages.

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78.Whatistheuseofgovernors?

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87.WhatismeantbyLevels? Dimensionsaremadeupoflevels,whichrepresentshierarchywithinthedimensions. 88.WhenareReporterReportusedinPowerPlayTransformer? ReporterReportsareusedwhenthereisexactinformationtoaddtoareportandcalculationsaretobeperformedin thePowerPlayTransformer. 89.ExplaintheuseofExplorerReports. ExplorerReportsareusedtoexploretheinformationinthecube.Here,theinformationcanbedisplayedaspercentage oftheroworgrandtotal. 90.WhatistheuseofGraphReports? GraphReportsdisplaycomparisons,relationshipsandtrends.Theyaregenerallyusedwhenthereisalargeamountof dataincrosstab.

SQLServer
1.WhatistheETLcomponentofSQLServer2005? ItiscalledSSISorSQLServerIntegrationServices.

2.WhatistheReportingcomponentofSQLServer2005? ItiscalledSQLServerReportingServices.

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