How to bypass Presentation Server Cache in OBIEE 11G

During our development if we wanted to check the report level UI changes, sometimes we will not see the changes immidiately. This is due to Presentation Server Cache. Eventhough we disable the BI Server cache, It doesnt make any effect on presentation Server objects.

So in that situations we need to disable Presentation server cache permanently across OBI Application, To do this add the following parameters in instaceconfig.xml. (Make sure that you have taken a backup copy of instanceconfig.xml)

<ServerInstance>
———

<Cursors>
<ForceRefresh>true</ForceRefresh>
</Cursors>

——–

</ServerInstance>

Now restart the OBI Presentation server service and test the results.

Note: Keep in mind that this parameters cause Presentation Server to always bypass its cache. To be used only for testing – may have serious performance implications.

Keep smiling 🙂

Thanks,
Shiva

 

OBIEE 11G – Important Security Considerations (SSL) if using external LoadBalancer

In OBIEE enterprise topology, make sure the external load balancer used should be able to terminate SSL requests at the load balancer and forward traffic to the back-end real servers using the equivalent non-SSL protocol (for example, HTTPS to HTTP).

For security purposes, and because the load balancer terminates SSL requests (Oracle HTTP Server routes the requests as non-SSL to WebLogic Server), after SSL is configured for the load balancer, turn on the WebLogic Plugin Enabled flag for the domain. To do this, follow these steps:

1. Log in to the Administration Console.
2. Click the domain name in the navigation tree on the left.
3. Click the Web Applications tab.
4. In the Change Center, click Lock & Edit.
5. Select WebLogic Plugin Enabled.
6. Click Save, then click Activate Changes.
7. Restart the Administration Server and Managed Server.

Tip: WebLogic Plugin Enabled: Specifies whether or not the proprietary WL-Proxy-Client-IP header should be honored. (This is needed only when WebLogic plugins are configured.)

In additon to above, make sure Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) to add the following SSL directives in each <location> section to the ORACLE_BASE/admin/instance_name/config/OHS/component_name/mod_wl_ohs.conf file:

WLProxySSL ON

WLProxySSLPassThrough ON

Tips: Set WLProxySSL parameter to ON to maintain SSL communication between the plug-in and WebLogic Server when the following conditions exist:

An HTTP client request specifies the HTTPS protocol
The request is passed through one or more proxy servers (including the WebLogic Server proxy plug-ins)
The connection between the plug-in and WebLogic Server uses the HTTP protocol
When WLProxySSL is set to ON, the location header returned to the client from WebLogic Server specifies the HTTPS protocol.

Reference: https://blogs.oracle.com/pa/entry/obiee_11_1_1_important1

Thanks,
Shiva

 

Things to remember for OBIEE 11G on Microsoft SQL Server

The basic things to remember when configuring OBIEE 11G on Microsoft SQL Server:

1. While running RCU:

• Use case-sensitive collation in order that the database can reflect any case-sensitivity in your repository naming conventions.
  Run this sql command: ALTER DATABASE OBI COLLATE Latin1_General_CS_AS 
  (This command is for UK English installation, for US locale installation use Latin1_General_CP1_CS_AS)
• Activate the mechanism of row versioning, so it`s require to enable Read Commit Snapshot.
  Run this command: ALTER DATABASE OBI SET READ_COMMITTED_SNAPSHOT ON

2. When configuring OBIEE 11G Scheduler with MS SQL server:

When installed with a Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008 database, the Oracle Business Intelligence installer configures Oracle BI Scheduler with a SQL Server 2005/2008 driver. If multibyte data is used, scheduled jobs might fail. To avoid this issue, use Oracle Enterprise Manager to configure the Oracle Business Intelligence system to use a SQL Server 7.0/2000 driver instead.

To configure Oracle BI Scheduler to use the SQL Server 7.0/2000 driver with Microsoft SQL Server 2005/2008:

1. After you install Oracle Business Intelligence, log into the system through Oracle Enterprise Manager.
2. Navigate to the Scheduler tab for the Oracle Business Intelligence server.
3. Click Lock and Edit Configuration.
4. Click the Database drop-down list and select SQL Server 7.0/2000.
5. Click Apply.

3. When configuring OBI Publisher 11G Scheduler with MS SQL server:

Prerequisite: Ensure that the Microsoft SQL Server is set up with mixed mode authentication. Also ensure that the user that you enter to configure the scheduler has the “db_owner” role.

The below table describes the fields for the DataDirect driver to connect to a Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or 2005 database.

DataDirect Driver Fields for SQL Server Databases

Field	Entry
Database Type:	Select Microsoft SQL Server 2000 or Microsoft SQL Server 2005 from the list.
Connection String:	Enter the following connection string parameters: jdbc:hyperion:sqlserver://<hostname>:<port>;DatabaseName=<DATABASENAME> For example: jdbc:hyperion:sqlserver:// mydatabaseserver.com:1433;DatabaseName=bipscheduler
Database Driver Class:	hyperion.jdbc.sqlserver.SQLServerDriver

4. in RPD Development:

• When you are creating DSN for SQL Server, use sql server native client 10.0 instead of any other drivers. From Sql server 2008 onward, it is strongly recommended even some documents says dont use ODBC native drivers.
• In RPD, the Query DBMS for SQL server in 11.1.1.6 only work when you specify the DSN name directly (by default it comes with OLAP_DSN session variable).
• If you have a column with UNIQUEIDENTIFIER as its data type in MS SQL server, then change that column datatype to BINARY(16) or VARCHAR(40) in OBI RPD Physical layer.

5. Performance Tuning:

The following guidelines pertain to performance tuning parameters for Microsoft SQL Server databases. For more information about these parameters, see your Microsoft SQL Server documentation.

• Store tempdb on a fast I/O device.
• Increase the recovery interval if perfmon shows an increase in I/O.
• Use an I/O block size larger than 2 KB.

Thanks,
Shiva

 

OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0 is available now

The Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) 11.1.1.6.0 has been made generally available.

The software is available for download from OTN.

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

The related documentation is published and available from Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Documentation library.
With this release of OBIEE 11.1.1.6.0, the entire Business Intelligence Foundation Suite has been made generally available, opening the door for “Oracle Exalytics Super-fast, Super-ready”.

For more information on exalytics: http://www.oracle.com/exalytics

Oracle Exalytics installation,configuration and deployment info: http://docs.oracle.com/cd/E23943_01/bi.1111/e24706/toc.htm

Happy Reporting….

 

Thanks,

Shiva