Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Oracle Business Intelligence

Specialized. Recognized. Preferred. The right partner makes all the difference. Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Oracle Business Intelligence By: Patrick Callahan Practice Director AST Corporation April 11, 2014 Applications Software Technology Corporation 1755 Park Street, Suite 100 Naperville, Illinois 60563 1.888.278.0002 www.astcorporation.com

Contents INTRODUCTION... 1 TIP #1 DIG INTO WHAT S NEW IN 11G... 1 TIP #2 LEARN THE ARCHITECTURE AND TERMINOLOGY... 2 TIP #3 DON T IGNORE YOUR DATA WAREHOUSE DESIGN... 4 TIP #4 ALLOCATE ENOUGH TIME FOR ORACLE BI REPOSITORY DESIGN... 5 TIP #5 TAKE FULL ADVANTAGE OF USER EXPERIENCE ENHANCEMENTS... 7 TIP #6 MAKE BI INTERACTIVE... 7 TIP #7 IMPROVE THE PRESENTATION... 8 TIP #8 CONSIDER ALL OF YOUR USERS... 9 TIP #9 UTILIZE METRICS FOR SYSTEM PERFORMANCE... 10 TIP #10 BE ITERATIVE!... 11 CONCLUSION... 12 Page ii

Introduction Sometimes you just want to cut to the chase, side-step all of the new product jargon and find out what works best. It helps to pick up tips and tricks from the experts and that is exactly what this paper delivers for Oracle s Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE). It enlightens users to our Top 10 Tips for implementing OBIEE 11g. Each tip provides context, highlights the value around the related product features and capabilities then quickly dives into examples. Tip #1 Dig into What s New in 11g Whenever we re asked what s new in OBIEE 11g, we respond What isn t new? that s truly the case. OBIEE 11g was a substantial release and each dot release even further tweaks the capabilities and quietly offers new features. The new look and feel is great, but the enhanced interactions and animations on top of the new features really provide a slick package. We recommend jumping in and using the basic Sample App offered as part of the installation or grabbing the expanded one. You ll quickly realize the high-fidelity charting across the powerful user interfaces with interactive analytics that include animated transitions and master-detail linking, more to come on those topics. Additionally, BI Publisher has a brand new online layout builder which finally brings development into the OBIEE environment. BI Publisher is a strategic solution for Oracle and will continue to be enhanced. The new editor is page-oriented, interactive Page 1

with instant preview capabilities all well-received features of the editor. Another new component is Oracle Scorecard and Strategy Management (OSSM), Oracle s strategic solution for performance score-carding (replacing Hyperion Performance Scorecard). Its integration into OBIEE is a big plus, with all of your BI metadata (metrics, etc.) available to feed into and enrich your scorecards. The standard methodologies are supported (e.g. Balanced, Six Sigma and Baldridge). Overall, the solution offers strategy visualization with strategy maps and trees, cause and effects, watch-lists and annotations. Also exciting, is that writeback and mobile support are coming soon for OSSM. Tip #2 Learn the Architecture and Terminology Much of the OBIEE 11g architecture has changed and with it, comes new terminology that must be understood. A key differentiation is that OBIEE now resides or is deployed within WebLogic Server (WLS) as a WLS domain. The following terms are key to understanding how the 11g BI system functions are managed. In general, they apply to Oracle s architecture schematic that follows. Oracle BI Domain The overall Oracle BI EE system. WebLogic Domain The set of WebLogic instances servicing one or more Java 2 Platform, Enterprise Edition (J2EE) applications. Admin Server (WebLogic) Provides management of both the WebLogic and BI Domain. Only one (1) per WebLogic Domain. Managed Server (WebLogic) Contains deployed J2EE BI application. Node Manager (WebLogic) Daemon process that provides remote server start, stop and restart capabilities in addition to monitoring. Oracle BI System Components This includes the BI Server, BI Scheduler, BI Presentation Server, BI Java Host and Cluster Controller. Oracle BI J2EE Components This includes BI Publisher, BI Office, Action Framework Service, BI SAW Bridge Plug-in, Security and Web Services for SOA. Page 2

The above architecture applies to the installation. No longer just an option, repositories must be created before installation using the Repository Creation Utility (RCU); minimally, the MDS and BIPLATFORM schemas are needed. From there, you have a few installation options: Simple For development machines/laptops only. This installation option combines Admin and Managed Servers so it cannot be scaled out. Enterprise Includes configuration steps; generally used when doing primary server installs. Software Only Configuration is separate; generally used when scaling out or adding component If you are simply trying out OBIEE 11g, go with the Simple install. For recommendations on sizing and capacity planning, refer to Doc ID 1323646.1 available online from Oracle. Another key element of the architecture and installation is the resulting Oracle BI directory structure we will quickly share how it will look and explain the major components. The screenshot to the right shows the resulting structure. Some highlights are: Middleware Home (FMW_Home) Top level location for the installation. Page 3

BI Oracle Home (FMW_Home\Oracle_BI1) Contains core Oracle BI components and template files used by the configuration phase of the install process Common Oracle Home (FMW_Home\oracle_common) Contains general Oracle files. WebLogic Server (FMW_Home\wlserver_10.3) Contains the Oracle WebLogic Server binaries. Related to installation, there are a couple of additional configuration tidbits. First, a separate web server (Oracle HTTP Server, etc.) is recommended for HTTP compression and caching. WebLogic s embedded web server is not optimal; installing and configuring OHS 11.1.1.X is an option and you can enable compression / caching by editing the httpd.conf file. Oracle did provide an Upgrade Assistant (UA) in 11g to help users migrate from 10g. This upgrades the repository (RPD) and presentation catalog and actually deploys everything, so you need a working BI 11g environment for this to work. This is necessary because the UA ports users from the RPD into WebLogic, as users are no longer in the RPD. As a result, whenever migrating environments, one must migrate the Identity Store, Credential Store and Policy Store. Tip #3 Don t Ignore Your Data Warehouse Design Yes, OBIEE 11g is a great BI solution offering robust features, even including federated data sources. We consider federated configurations as early stage solutions since sophisticated analytics solutions often require data quality applications and well-architected models at the physical layer to produce the desired results. We generally architect a data mart (warehouse) underlying OBIEE to support analytics requirements. Going into this activity, it is best to follow some core data warehousing and BI modeling principles gleaned from experts Kimball and Inmon: 1. Target a business process or subject area. 2. Solidify the level of detail or grain. By default, capture lowest level of detail which promotes drill-down capabilities and makes BI operational. Summarized for special cases only instead, utilize aggregates. 3. Identify the dimensions by which data needs to be analyzed. Primarily; How to slice and dice the data? 4. Identify the metrics to be included for analysis. Basically; What numbers and calculations are desired? Page 4

For the basis of modeling, target snowflake (dimensions in multiple tables) and star (dimensions in single table) schemas, since such models are well-supported by every BI solution (not just Oracle) and eventually translate well into multi-dimensional implementations within Essbase or otherwise. When you are modeling, also adhere to data modeling standards. If you don t currently have defined data modeling standards, the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse Data Model Reference (Version 7.9.6) is a good start. Finally, the physical implementation of a data warehouse model is important as every RDBMS has many options to choose from. First and foremost, all dimension tables need primary keys and, with few exceptions, these should be surrogate keys. Natural keys must still exist as attributes and be used by ETL and a dummy (blank/zero/placeholder) record is recommended for each dimension. All fact tables must have foreign keys to dimensions and these should have indexes. In Oracle, choose from standard, bitmap or bitmap-join indexes (stores rowid for primary key as well uses more storage). If bitmap or bitmapjoin indexes are implemented and STAR_TRANSFORMATION _ENABLED=TRUE, the Oracle database will force sub-queries against the dimensions before the fact. Partitioning will almost always help in a BI environment and materialized views are often a good choice for generating aggregates. For larger implementations, consider Oracle Exalytics for its optimized BI connectivity, advanced data visualization capabilities and its plug-and-play architecture. Tip #4 Allocate Enough Time for Oracle BI Repository Design With very little change from 10g, the OBIEE repository is the nuts and bolts of an Oracle BI implementation. The connections to data sources, analytics modeling, definition of presentation subject areas, and all related metadata are managed here. These areas are summarized in the schematic below: Page 5

Moving from right-to-left, the Physical Models define components for physical queries, aligning with data source structures, and encapsulating source dependencies for portability and federation purposes. The most important aspect of the BI repository is the Business Model in the center. Here, analytic behavior is defined, abstraction of sources occurs, mappings for each logical column (e.g. decision rules, etc.) are implemented, and dimensions along with their related hierarchies are confirmed. Finally, the Presentation Catalog offers a structured view of the dimensional business model and general organization of objects, with desired names and descriptive overrides. Within Oracle s BI Administration tool, the facility where the RPD is created and modified, there are some very helpful utilities, as seen in the window above. For the bulk of the work associated with building and maintaining models and subject areas, the Replace Columns or Table in Logical Table Sources, Rename Wizard, Update Physical Layer and Remove Unused Physical Objects options are great. In particular, the Rename Wizard is great for initial model cleanup of names such as making them more discernible for business users and less like physical database names. For metadata documentation, the Repository Documentation (delimited output) and Generate Metadata Dictionary (requires configuration of online access) options are great. For deploying change, the Generate Deployment File option works well. Not necessarily an RPD utility, but a new option in 11g is the Creating Subject Areas for Logical Stars, Snowflakes facility that s available when you select a business model and right mouse-click for a pop-up menu. The facility simply creates a subject area for every fact in the selected business model, including all necessary metrics and dimensions. This is a creative way to quickly kick off design and POC development efforts. Finally, you may want to further look into the externalizing metadata objects for localization requirements and the use of new lookup tables in 11g for translations of dimension. Page 6

Tip #5 Take Full Advantage of User Experience Enhancements We ve seen users fully embrace the use of sliders in lieu of standard prompts. Slider-type dashboard and page prompts are less attractive here, we mean sliders used within analysis objects (charts). Within the layout editor of the Results tab for an analysis definition, go ahead and move a report element into the section area, below the graph prompts also ensure the Display as slider checkbox is checked. It s that easy to do and sure to be well-received by your users. Another neat, new feature of 11g is Chart Zooming. This is a simple enhancement to the UI. First, on the graph properties page (on the Canvas tab), one can selectively enable Zoom and Scroll for the vertical and horizontal axes. With that set, the zip option (seen as a magnifying glass icon), is available along the lower left side of the chart. When selected, the zooming occurs in-line and the scrolling window can be adjusted by sizing the bar within the scrolling widget itself. Occasionally, we encounter flaky behavior with this feature, but all in all it s a nice facility. Tip #6 Make BI Interactive We re big proponents of the interactive features of OBIEE 11g, the wow factor they often has on users, and the overall role they have in making BI actionable are great. In OBIEE, the key component of this is the Action Framework which include agents and actions. In many respects, agents are the new generation of ibots from 10g and earlier; they enable business processes and provide event-driven alerting, scheduled content publishing, and conditional event-driven actions. Agents have various subscription and recipient options, plus complex layered triggering requirements can be implemented. Moreover, alerts (via agents) can be delivered to: (1) the Alerts section of Home page, (2) the first page of My Dashboard, (3) any dashboard page, (4) within the dialog displayed from the Alerts! button in the global header, and (5) specified delivery devices (phones, etc.). Finally, actions allow for enabling navigation or invoking Page 7

of services or other requests. Another interactive feature of OBIEE 11g is Master-Detail Linking which is the interaction between separate analyses (e.g. charts, reports). This capability is helpful in making a dashboard page come alive and effectively react to the actions of the user. For example, selecting a year or department or product in one chart flows down to linked charts or tables across the dashboard the effect is great. At a high-level, this interaction is done by an event being initiated by a driving analysis with other analyses listening for the specified event. First, pick a driving column (e.g. report element) on the Master to initiate the event, also specifying a channel name. Second, have the Detail analyses listening; it s possible to list multiple channels. In the end, it is quite easy to setup and implement for key dashboards in your OBIEE 11g deployment. This same linking capability can be applied to maps. Tip #7 Improve the Presentation One of the first things users and customers ask is How do we make this look like ours? Essentially, the branding of the BI solution is important to many organizations and user communities. Colors, images and wording can all be adjusted; even replacing the Oracle logo, the Business Intelligence title and the base message text can be accomplished. To do this, you have to adjust and deploy new skins, styles and message content the default locations are: Skins FMW_Home\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\app\res \sk_blafp Styles FMW_Home\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web\app\res \s_blafp Messages FMW_Home\Oracle_BI1\bifoundation\web \msgdb First, copy these directories and the WEB-INF directory (FMW_Home\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIPresent ationserver\coreapplication_obi ps1\analyticsres) to a new location to modify and deploy a new application from the WLS console. Additional configurations are needed before deploying; do not modify in default locations since they will be overwritten with upgrades. A great Oracle white paper on this is Customizing Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 11g. Another good way to improve upon the manageability of your BI presentation layer is to take advantage of the new inheritance options within 11g across pages and dashboards. When adding a Page 8

report (analysis) to a dashboard page, ensure the Inherit Page Settings radio button is selected; then do the same thing for the page properties. These settings then point to those specified within the overall dashboard properties, available in the Dashboard Report Links option. These selections are shown below: Tip #8 Consider All of Your Users Most people that implement technical solutions realize that you have to be prepared for and offer solutions to users of all types and skill levels. That is no different with analytics solutions, even though they are supposed to be inherently straight-forward. With its core report building and ad hoc capabilities, OBIEE 11g in fact is quite easy for most users. For those users that could benefit from a wizard-driven approach, you could enable BI Composer, a little known component of OBIEE 11g. There is some configuration required (it doesn t work out-of-the-box) and the steps are easily accessible online. To turn BI Composer on, one needs to go to their account settings while logged into OBIEE and turn Accessibility Mode on. The origination of this naming convention is not known to the author, but Wizard Mode would be a more applicable label. Regardless, once this mode is enabled, you ll notice that your options change in OBIEE and Analysis now means something different. Creating a new analysis now takes you to the BI Composer Wizard as shown here: Page 9

This whole approach does not seem well thought out and it s uncertain whether or not this functionality will survive in future releases. It would have been nice to have the option to use the wizard or not without enabling a mode that changes the process. Go ahead and give it a try it may be just what some of your users are looking for. Tip #9 Utilize Metrics for System Performance The move to WebLogic has had additional benefits, as Enterprise Manager (EM) offers a ton of information for you to assess the performance of your OBIEE 11g environments and applications. By logging into EM, navigating to the AdminServer area and selecting Performance Summary from the drop down menu at the top, you ll quickly gain access to all of the available performance metrics. These include variations around resource usage and performance areas. Additionally, the timeframe to be analyzed can easily be targeted with the on-screen options. The metric palette on the right-hand panel organizes the available metrics as shown here: Page 10

Tip #10 Be Iterative! BI is a truly a process and an evolution for any organization. Depending on where you are starting, goals can be conservative or aggressive, but it s important to be iterative and make progress each time, offering new, actionable content with every release. The following online documentation areas and examples have been quite helpful in starting with 11g go ahead and have a look yourself: OBIEE Documentation http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/e21764_01/bi.htm 11g Examples http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bifoundation/obiee-samples-167534.html 11g SampleApp107 http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bifoundation/obiee-samples-167534.html VirtualBox image also available here Page 11

Conclusion In summary, OBIEE 11g has a lot to offer - digging in and getting your hands dirty is the way to go. We ve highlighted some the key areas of focus and hope that they will benefit your BI endeavors. Our Top 10 Tips for OBIEE 11g are: Tip #1 Dig into What s New in 11g Tip #2 Learn the Architecture and Terminology Tip #3 Don t Ignore Your Data Warehouse Design Tip #4 Allocate Enough Time for Oracle BI Repository Design Tip #5 - Take Full Advantage of User Experience Enhancements Tip #6 Make BI Interactive Tip #7 Improve the Presentation Tip #8 Consider All of Your Users Tip #9 Utilize Metrics for System Performance Tip #10 Be Iterative! Best wishes and good luck with your OBIEE 11g implementations! Page 12

April 11, 2014 AST Corporation 1755 Park Street, Suite 100 Naperville, Illinois 60563 Phone: 888-278-0002 Fax: 630-778-1179 www.astcorporation.com Copyright 2014 AST Corporation AST Corporation is a privately held company founded in 1995 to serve commercial and public sector organizations in utilizing the full potential of their investment in Oracle Applications and Technologies. We have built our practice by providing top quality full life cycle and turn-key consulting services for Oracle Applications implementation and upgrade projects, among other specific services. Our mission is to insure that you, as a valued client, receive the highest level of expertise and personalized service for your Enterprise Applications. We endeavor to help you realize the full benefit from your investment in software applications and integrate them seamlessly to your business processes.