DAC email does not work as expected (Notification levels are ignored)

I have set up DAC to send emails to users (As per my previous entry- http://obieetips.blogspot.com/2010/02/dac-email-notification.html ), whenever the data load completes.
However, I have two problems.

1.
The email notifications do not work as expected.
Level 1 sends only failure emails but not success emails.
This is an open bug with oracle and the solution is to use Level 5 for the moment.
Level 5 works as expected- which is to send 'Running' as well as 'Failure'/'Success' emails, everytime an ETL load is started and completed.
This can be quite overwhelming for the users.
A bug already exists for this issue so we are eagerly awaiting a patch.
BUG:9133839 - DAC IGNORES NOTIFICATION LEVELS DEFINED FOR EMAIL RECIPIENTS

2.
The above email notifications are a bit too verbose for users who have limited time to check on the ETL status. Due to this I asked Oracle support if there was a way to change the email content so as to limit the amount of information to be sent over email to 'non-developers'. Unfortunately there is no way to modify the emails in version 10.1.3.4. It is part of the upcomign enhancements. I am looking forward to 11g.
ER is 7425308 / 8989562

Please let me know if you have any workarounds that we may be able to try or have any more updates on the latest from Oracle.

Thanks for reading,
Anisha

OBIEE Migration between Environments

We recently had to turn the production server over to the Admin team, which meant that we would lose most of our control over the server including the quick tricks we could use to migrate the RPD and reset all the passwords.

Ofcourse having 12 subject areas, connected to the same source through different connection pools added some complexity to this task.

Automating 'setting of passwords' the other properties of the connection pool can be done via a command line utility -

admintool.ext /command filename


On conducting some searches, I came across Kumar's blog which has a very detailed step by step process documented.

Here is the link:

http://obieeblog.wordpress.com/2009/08/04/simplifying-migration-process-%e2%80%93-changing-environment-specific-variables-in-rpd/


Anisha

DAC Email notification

DAC can be set up to send email in just a few steps.
This is also useful when you want to send only one success email from a number of infomatica workflows which are scheduled to run through DAC.
The DAC server has a built-in login-authentication based email (SMTP) client, which connects to any SMTP login-authenticating server to send emails.

Unlike informatica which needs the outlook client installed on the server, DAC does not.
1. Set up email recipients
2. configure email sender information



1. To set up email recepients:
Launch the DAC client.

Click Setup on the DAC toolbar, and then click the Email Recipients tab.
Click New.
In the Edit tab below, enter the relevant information for the recipient

Referenced Link:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12104_01/books/AnyInstAdm/AnyInstAdmWinInstall24.html
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E10783_01/doc/bi.79/e10742/anyinstadmwininstall.htm#i1089967


2. To set up DAC to connect to the email server:
Select Tools --> DAC server setup
Select the tab: Email configuration
Enter the relevant information as the user  who the email should be sent from.
Click Send Test  Email

The email should be sent to the recipient.


Anisha

ORA-12154, ORA-12560 - Cannot Connect to the Oracle Database

These are some common errors for new installations. The solution pretty simple.
Errors like:
ORA-12154, ora-12560

Listed below are a few of the problems we faced...with a few things to check.

1. SQL+ does not connect to the DB - Check to see that the fire wall on the DB server is not blocking the port (usually 1521) - You can either turn off the firewall or get the system admins to open up the database port.
Also make sure that the listener is up and running.

2. When creating the ODBC connection, we could not test the database connection. - Again make sure the DB listener is turned on and the TNSfiles are copied over from the DB server to the server you are trying to connect from. Copy the files to the location similar to : \Network\Admin\

3. Sometimes you can simply re-install the DB client (Its easier than debugging)

Google is extremely helpful with the ORA-XXXX errors that the DB Connection might throw.

Hope this helps.

Anisha

DAC custom execution plan steps

1. Create custom logical and physical folders :
Tools > seed data > task folders

2.Register the new folders : eg - Custom_mappings
Design > source system folders

3. Modify existing DAC tasks to use the custom mappings and workflows

4. Synchronize Task(s )Right click on DAC task and select synchronize. This will add the source and target tables to the task. make sure the DAC task name and informatica task name are the same.

5. Assemble the Subject Area

6. Generate execution plan(EP) parameters . EP parameters include the Infa repository folders related to the container that the EP belongs to . This could be the missing step.Execution > select EP> select Parameters sub-tab > verify/update the folder names > Generate

7. Build the EP

8. Run the EP

-A

OBIEE Write Back

We were trying to implement an update of multiple columns in a single update.

A few things to remember:
1. The XML is case sensitive. (If you use a 'C' instead of a 'c' your XML will not work correctly.
2. Each column that has write back enabled, should have a corresponding SQL entry in the XML template.
3. If there is a text entry being written back dont forget to put quotes around the dynamic column name.
4. Everytime you change columns in the report, the columns numbers change so make sure the XML template and the column names match.
5. The XML template should be saved in : D:\OracleBI\web\msgdb\customMessages
Its name can be anything.xml
6. the template name is: , this will be the same name used when specifying write back features.
7. A great source for creating the write back functionality in OBIEE is Venkat's post at: http://oraclebizint.wordpress.com/2007/09/20/oracle-bi-ee-101332-write-back-option-budgetingplanning/
8. For an example of the XML used for update please see the next post.

Anisha

Updating Oracle BI Apps 7.9.5.1 to 7.6

This is a compilation of information based on our current installation and based on the update and installation guide leading to a successful upgrade to 7.9.6. from 7.9.5.1.

Our source and target databases are Oracle.

This is just a synopsis of the steps we followed.

For a more detailed explanation you can visit OTN and download the relevant documentation.



1. You want to backup all existing information.

- DAC repository (thru DAC export option)

- DAC install folder

- BI Apps RPD

- BI Apps Catalogue

- Informatica repository



Remember all installation directories should be in locations which do not have a space in the location. eg: DO NOT install informatica or java in C:\Program Files. This will cause problems for DAC (which is needed to run the informatica mappings).



2. Uninstall the existing BI Applications and then restart your machine

3. Unset all informatica variables

4. Install BI apps 7.9.6

5. Install Informatica 8.6 + HotFix 4 - create integration and repository services if they do not exist. update Informatica repository

6. Install DAC - update DAC repository

7. Set parameters in DAC and Informatica to connect to databases

8. Check the pmrep and pmcmd connections

9. Build an execution plan with a single subject area (uncheck all options) to test that all connections are in place and then proceed to build with additional subject areas.

Creating a navigation/drill thru report

In my last post I talked about using the navigation capability in the reporting layer to create the illusion of Drilling down.

This is easily achieved by creating a report with all the elements you wish to see. (Kind of like a detailed view)
We were using "Loan ID" to click thru to this report.
To allow a user to prompt on "Loan ID", so that only the data relevant to that "Loan ID" is displayed, the "Loan ID" needs to be prompted.
This can be easily done in the filters section by setting the option to 'is prompted'
Now whenever a user click on a "Loan ID", the report will navigate to this detailed report and present the user with more detailed information about that "Loan ID"

So far we have gone through many iterations in our report development.
One of the changes made was that "Loan id" was renamed to "Loan ID". The fact that the case of the attribute name was different did not cause any of the pre-existing reports to fail. But it did not work when navigating using prompts. "Loan id", was not able to prompt "Loan ID".
If you are going through many changes and could miss something, my suggestion would be to always check the names & spelling of the attributes or they will not work as you imagine they should.

OBIEE Drill through/Drill down

Our users asked to be able to drill down from an element to other elements.

In this case -
They wanted to click on "Loan ID" and see some additional elements for that "Loan ID".

Our two options were to either create a hierarcy in the 'Administrator' tool or to create a navigation path between two reports.


We chose the second option - to enable Drill thru as a navigation option between the reports.
This was useful as the information available after the Drill was easier to customize. An advanced user could be trained to add or remove elements at this level.


To achieve this, go to the Criteria tab of the report and click on the Column properties























Select the tab for column Format and under value integration, set it to Navigate.
You will then see the options to add navigation target (You can add more than one target but make sure you enter a unique caption for each target).
For the first target, enter the path to the report you wish to navigate to ( I have assumed you have already created your detailed report and that "Loan ID" is set to prompted(next post).Enter a meaningful caption.

If you wish to add more targets, click on 'Add Navigation Target' and you follow the same instructions above.
Click OK once you are done and want these changes to be applied only to the current report.
If you want the changes to be applied to all the reports which would use this element, click on Save in the bottom left corner, and select "as system wide default for "Loan Attributes"."Loan ID".
You can always go to other reports and turn this option off by setting the value interaction to - 'No Interaction'

Once done save this report and preview it.
You will see that when you hover over a Loan ID, the mouse pointer will turn into a hand and be clickable like a hyperlink.
If you have more than one navigation target, you will be given all the options as a sort of drop down menu when you click the Loan ID.

OBIEE Tips

This blog contains some of the different issues I have run into during my implementations of OBIEE and OBIApps.
Feel free to leave your comments and/or tips.

Thanks,
Anisha