OAC―Working with Oracle BI Administration Tool

Video 1.  Create Simple Repository in OBIEE 12C

  

Video 2.  Working with Oracle BI Administration Tool

Administrators can upload data models built with Oracle BI Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) to Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC). After uploading a data model file (.rpd) to the cloud, content authors can then build data visualizations, dashboards and analyses in the usual way.^[1]

In this article, we will cover below three topics:

1. Use the Administration Tool to view and modify the BI Repository
2. Describe the different layers of the BI Repository
3. Upload Data Models from a File (.rpd) Using OAC Console

To cover these topics, we will begin with Oracle BI Administration Tool in OBIEE (watch video 1&2); then we will switch to OAC to discuss how to upload a data model file (.rpd or BI repository) from OBIEE to the cloud.^[1]

Figure 1.  Physical / Business Model and Mapping / Presentation (3 layers in BI Repository)

Figure 2.  How Administration Tool interacts with Repository and Oracle BI Server

Oracle BI Repository (OBIEE)

To view and edit the different layers of repository (see Figure 1), you use the Oracle BI Administration Tool.  The Administration Tool client is a Windows application that you can use to create and edit your Oracle BI repository.^[10,11] The Administration Tool can connect directly to the repository in offline mode, or it can connect to the repository through the Oracle BI Server. Some options are only available in online mode. See Using Online and Offline Repository Modes.

In Figure 2, it shows how the Oracle BI Administration Tool interacts with Oracle BI Server, data sources, and the Oracle Business Intelligence (BI) repository.   The Oracle BI repository contains the metadata that defines which columns you can include in analyses, and the source of that data. The repository is organized into subject areas, which contain folders with the columns.

Figure 3.  Import Metadata for the Physical Layer ― Select Data Source

Figure 4.  Mapping between the business model (or logical schemas) and the physical schemas

Tiers

Layers in the Oracle BI Repository define the objects and their relationships.  An Oracle BI Repository has the following layers  (see Figure 1):

1. Physical
• Defines the objects and relationships that the Oracle BI Server needs to write native queries against each physical data source.
• Include metadata representation of the physical data sources (Note that no data are included)
• You create this layer by importing tables, cubes, and flat files from your data sources.
• You can use Import Metadata from the File menu and setup data sources with appropriate connection information (see Figure 3).
• Separating the logical behavior of the application from the physical model:
• Provides the ability to federate multiple physical sources to the same logical object, enabling aggregate navigation and partitioning, as well as, dimension conformance and isolation from changes in the physical sources. 
• Enables the creation of portable Oracle BI Applications.
2. Business Model and Mapping
• Specifies the mapping between the business model and the physical schemas.
• Determines the analytic behavior seen by users, and defines the superset of objects and relationships available to users. 
• Hides the complexity of the source data models.
• At run time, the Oracle BI Server 
• Evaluates Logical SQL requests against the business model
• Uses the mappings to determine the best set of physical tables, files, and cubes for generating the necessary physical queries. 
• The mappings often contain calculations and transformations, and might combine multiple physical tables.
• In each logical schema
• There is an extra folder named "Sources" which point to the physical schemas that the logical schema is coming from.
• You can have multiple physical schemas (i.e. CUSTOMERS & COUNTRIES) in the Sources folder (see Figure 4).
• Each column in business model maps to one or more columns in the Physical layer.
3. Presentation 
• The users view of the business model 
• Adds a level of abstraction over the Business Model and Mapping layer
• Provides a way to present customized, secure, role based views of a business model to users. 
• The repository in presentation layer is organized into subject areas.  After you upload BI repository to the cloud (see the section below for more details), new subject areas will be shown in Analyses of OAC (see Figure 5&6).

Figure 5.  Creating a new Analysis

Figure 6.  Select Subject Area

Business Intelligence (BI) Repository

You use Oracle BI Administration Tool to view and modify the repository.  After finish, you can save the metadata into a data model file (the RPD file). Administrators can then upload data models built with OBIEE to Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) instead of using Data Modeler to build them from scratch.

The business intelligence (BI) repository contains the metadata that defines which columns you can include in analyses, and the source of that data. The repository is organized into subject areas:

• Which contain folders with the columns (see Figure 7)
• For example, Region column is in the Geography folder which, in turn, is in SampleApp subject area
• Have one fact folder and a number of dimension folders. 
• Folders can have subfolders.

When you create an analysis (see Figure 5), you do:

• Select a subject area (see Figure 6) which contains columns related to a specific business object or business area. 
• For example, SampleApp (see Figure 7).
• Then open folders within the subject area to find the columns to include in your analysis.
• For example, you can open the Geography folder and select the columns within it.
• You can watch video 3 for more details.

Figure 7.  Selecting  Region column within the Geography folder

Video 3.  Get Started with Analyses and Dashboards in OAC

Get Your Data Model File Ready

Before you upload data model file to Oracle Analytics Cloud, take some time to ready your data model for the cloud:^[2]

1. Verify that you’re using Oracle BI Enterprise Edition 11.1.1.7 or later.
2. Validate the data model file (the RPD file).
• Run consistency checks using Consistency Check Manager in Oracle BI Administration Tool.
3. Verify that the data model file includes connection details to Oracle Database Cloud Service.
• Review the connection pool settings from Oracle BI Administration Tool:
• Data source name must contain the full connect string for the Oracle Database Cloud Service where data is stored.
• You can’t specify a net service name here.
• Call interface must be Oracle Call Interface (OCI).
• If your data model file connects to multiple Oracle Database Cloud Service instances, ensure that the settings for each connection pool are correct.
4. Disable subject areas that you don't want to expose or that don't have a working connection.
• If connection information is missing, users see the message Fetch subject areas failed error when they view subject areas in Oracle Analytics Cloud.
5. Back up your Oracle Analytics Cloud service, including the current data model, in case you need to restore this version.

When the data model is ready, you can upload it to Oracle Analytics Cloud.

Figure 8.  Replace Data Model 

Upload Data Models from a File (.rpd) Using Console

When you upload data models from OBIEE, you delete existing data model information in Oracle Analytics Cloud and replace it with content in the data model file (.rpd). The data models you upload become available to content authors as subject areas.

You can also upload data model files from a file (.rpd) using Console in OAC:^[3]

1. Verify the data model file (.rpd) and associated database connections.
2. In Oracle Analytics Cloud, click Console.
3. Select Service Administration - Manage Snapshots.
4. Take a snapshot of the current data model in case you need to restore this version (watch this video).
5. Click Replace Data Model (see Figure 8).
6. Click Browse and select the data model file (.rpd) that you want to upload.
7. Enter the password for the file.
8. Click OK.
9. Go to the Home page, click Data, and then Data Sets to see the data models that you uploaded, available as subject areas.
10. Optional: If the data model file includes permissions and data filters, create matching application roles in Oracle Analytics Cloud for the data security to work in the cloud.
• Create application roles with exactly the same names as those defined in Oracle BI Administration Tool.
• Assign users (and user roles) to the application roles as required.

References

1. Upload Data Models from Oracle BI Enterprise Edition
2. Get Your Data Model File Ready
3. Upload Data Models from a File (.rpd) Using Console
4. Fusion Middleware Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition
5. OBIEE 12C: BI Repository (RPD) (YouTube)
6. Create Simple Repository in OBIEE 12C (YouTube)
7. Top FAQs for Data Modeler (Enterprise Data Models)
8. Create Analyses (Oracle Analytics Cloud)
9. Cache Management in Oracle Analytics Cloud 5.4 Onwards
10. Oracle Analytics Client Tools (downloads)
11. Working with the Developer Client Tool for Oracle Analytics Cloud (OAC) with ADW in a Proxy-enabled Network
• Download Developer Client Tool for OAC from here. It is recommended that the Client Tool version match or be higher than the OAC version.
12. Click here for more A-Team Oracle Analytics (OAC) Blogs.
13. Oracle Analytics Managing Security for Oracle Analytics Server, 5.9.0