Thursday 21 November 2013

Your browser is not supported by Oracle BI Presentation Services.

If you want to use the OBIEE 11.1.1.5.0 with Firefox 10+ there is one work around. Please perform following steps:

According to the Latest Oracle Certification Matrix, 11gR1 (11.1.1.3+) supports "Internet Explorer 7.x, Internet Explorer 8.x and .Firefox 3.5+"

But there are exceptions too..

Exceptions and Additional Information:

  1. Oracle Business Intelligence Publisher is certified in IE8.x with standards mode.
  2. Bi-Directional support for IE7.x is not available.
  3. Browser support is no longer based on Operating Systems but strictly tied to the browser themselves, no matter which Operating Systems they are installed on.
  4. RTD is only supported on IE"

Solution:

  1. Type “about:config” into an address bar.
  2. Click "I'll Be careful, I Promise." to the warning displayed.
  3. Right click anywhere and choose New -> String.
  4. Name it “general.useragent.override”.
  5. Put the value “Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; Windows NT 6.1; rv:10.0) Gecko/20100101 Firefox/9.0?
  6. Refresh OBIEE login screen.
Problem solved......!!!! :-)

Tuesday 19 November 2013

OBIEE 11g (11.1.1.7.0) Step By Step Installation on Windows x86_64

In the previous post I have posted the steps RCU installation. We can take this as a continuation of that post. Please follow all the prerequisites before going to Install BI 11g system.

Note that the examples in this article assume that you have given this environment the host name Sagar-PC, so if you can change the host-name to this, it will make the examples easier for you to follow.

Note: Make you IP Address static:
Configure the Windows environment to use the Microsoft Loopback / Network adapter to set your IP static, and edit the "hosts" file to resolve the machine name to the loop-back adapter's IP address by following these steps.

If you don't know how to install and configure Microsoft Loopback adapter, refer this link.
Installing Microsoft Loopback Adapter on Windows 7 machine

After this step, simply restart your system to reflect your changes. (Mandatory)

Download the OBIEE 11g (11.1.1.7.0) from Oracle eDelivery or from the below link:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/downloads/bi-downloads-1923016.html

If you have not done already, please download BI 11g installation files. Please make sure all the zipped files have downloaded correctly and unzipped into a single folder. Make sure that, no spaces are there in the folder path where setup files are located. For this practice, the path is "E:\OBIEE-11.1.1.7.0\OBIEE\bishiphome".

From unzipped folder for OBIEE installer, go to Disk1 and start the installation by double clicking on setup.exe to launch Oracle Universal Installer. OBIEE 11g is also just like other Oracle products, uses standardized Universal Installer.

Oracle Universal Installer will be launched and It will come to the first step screen.

Step 1. Oracle Universal Installer will start the OBIEE 11g setup screen. Click 'Next' with the below screen.

Step 2. In this step we have to select Software Updates option. If We are having oracle support id then we can select second option or if you are having update files in any directory we can go with third option. I have selected 'Skip Software Updates' and clicked 'Next'.

Step 3. We will use Enterprise Installation type so that we can take the full advantage of  OBIEE 11g components and the Installer will install and configure all the required components with default settings. Make sure to select 'Enterprise Install' and click 'Next' to continue.

Step 4. 'Next' to continue the installation once the prerequisite is checked wit this screen.

Step 5. In this step, we are creating 'New BI System'. Select second option if you want the scale out the existing BI System.
User Name: weblogic
User Password: Password123
Conf Password: Password123
Give the above credentials in the boxes of below screen and click 'Next' to continue the installation.

Step 6. Create an empty folder in any of the driver where you want to install the BI System and select that folder with the below screen to create BI System folder in it. Here, just provide location for 'Oracle Middleware Home Location', it will automatically create various folders within the provided location.

Just click 'Yes' to the following warning.

Step 7. Select the appropriate components from the available options. (If you are planning to install 'Oracle Business Intelligence Applications' (OBIA) also, then you must select the following four options.)

Step 8.  In this step we have to give the details of RCU schemas. Select appropriate database type and give all other details to go to next screen. I have installed RCU in Oracle Database.
So the detail is like below:

          Database Type: Oracle Database
          Connection string: localhost:1521:orcl
          BIPLATFORM Schema: DEV_BIPLATFORM
          BIPLATFORM Password: password
               
               (* This is the password you have set while installing RCU.
                    Make sure, your database is open and started.)
                 
Give the above mentioned details with the below screen and Click 'Next'.

Step 9.  This step is same like above step but we have to give MDS Schema details.

           Database Type: Oracle Database
           Connection string: localhost:1521:orcl
           BIPLATFORM Schema: DEV_MDS
           BIPLATFORM Password: password

Give the above mentioned details with the below screen and Click 'Next'.

Note: If you had selected the options for 'Use same Passwords for all schemas' while creating RCU, then it will automatically import all this information for the DEV_MDS schema.

Step 10. If you are installing BI in your machine first time and do not have any BI system before this, then Select first option 'Auto Port configuration' and Click 'Next'

But if you are having any other OBIEE versions running on same machine, then, to avoid the port number conflict select second option 'Specify Ports using Configuration file'.

Here, I have installed with the default port numbers.

Step 11. In this step It will ask for an email address for security updates.

Deselected check box from My oracle support, so It will give small screen which will ask for confirmation.
Click Yes.

Step 12. This step will give the overview of BI system which is going to create. If you want, Click 'Save' Button and save the details in a text file and store it for future purpose. After that click 'Install'.

Step 13. This step will copy and Install all the necessary files from source folder into BI folder.

After the successful 100% installation progress with the above step, It will come to this step automatically for configuration of all those components.

Step 14. Click 'Next' with this step after the configuration is 100% complete.

Step 15. After the successful completion of above step we are coming to final step of OBIEE 11g installation. Click 'Finish'.

With the above step the installation of  OBIEE 11g is  completed.
Go to Start -> All Programs -> Oracle BI Intelligence -> Start BI Services.

Open any browser and type: 'http://machine_name:9704/analytics' to play with Oracle Answers and Dashboard.

Enter the credentials as what we installed at the time of installations.

In this practice, Username: weblogic
                        Password: Password123

Now we are ready to play with BI 11g system.

Saturday 9 November 2013

OBIEE 11.1.1.7.0 RCU Installation

If you have installed database already on your system, you can simply skip this section.

Before we starting the installation of RCU, we need to choose that which database we are going to use in our application. Here I am giving how to run RCU in Oracle database on our local machine. It is good to install Oracle Database Enterprise Edition to take full advantage of database for data types like spatial data or features like OLAP.

Installation Prerequisites:

Here I am giving the installation steps that how I have installed RCU in windows 64-bit Operating system.
  • Minimum of 4 GB RAM required, 3 GB RAM would work but, system would be slow.
  • Minimum of 50 GB hard disk memory required.
Do not use any directory name with space while installing/working with Oracle DB and OBIEE.

Installing Oracle Database with the following settings:

  • System Class : Server Class
  • Grid Installation Options : Single instance database installation
  • Select Install Type : Advanced Install
  • Select Database Edition : Enterprise Edition
  • Select Configuration Type : Data Warehousing
  • Specify Configuration Options : Character Sets > Use Unicode (AL32UTF8)
  • Specify Configuration Options : Security > Un-check Assert all new security settings
  • Specify Schema Passwords : Use the same password for all accounts ("Welcome1")

Installing RCU:

OBIEE 11g is now standardized with Oracle fusion middleware and hence leverage database for metadata storage just like any other middleware product. So here we are going to install BI11g metadata schema on oracle database you just installed and configured. Same process can be leveraged to install metadata schema on other supported databases as well.
If you have not done already, please download RCU installation files from below URL:

http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/bi-enterprise-edition/downloads/bi-downloads-1923016.html

Locate Required Additional Software's: 

Please make sure all the zipped files have downloaded correctly and unzipped into a single folder.

1) Now we will start the installation of metadata schema using Repository Creation Utility (RCU).

2) From unzipped folder for RCU, run rcu.bat file to start the Repository Creation Utility: 
For this practice, rcu.bat file is located under E:\Softwares\OBIEE-11.1.1.7.0\rcuHome\BIN directory.

Please make sure that, there are no any spaces in the folder path where setup files are located.

3)  RCU utility will launch the GUI based wizard to guide you through the steps. Click Next to continue.

4) Select Create from the below screen and click Next.

5) In the below step Make sure database type is Oracle Database and enter following information to continue.

6) Since we are using oracle database, RCU will show a warning message that you can just ignore and can continue the installation.

7)  Click OK to continue once RCU validates and initializes database configuration.

8) In the next step it will ask for the prefix to create the metadata schema. By default it is showing 'DEV'. If we want to change the prefix we can  change it. From the below window select appropriate schema which we need to install. I have selected only two which is showing in the screenshot.

9) Click 'Next' from the above screen to create schema and the click 'OK' once RCU shows schema creation prerequisites check completed.

10) In the next step, Enter password for both the schema as you like with the password conditions (such as alphabet, numeric and with special character) and click 'Next' to continue.

11) Click 'Next' with the above step to have RCU create the selected schema.

12) Click 'OK' to continue creation of tablespace.

13) Once tablespace created, click 'OK' to continue.

14) Now RCU will create required schema objects within the tablespace just created. So Click 'Create' with next step and continue.

15) Click 'Close' to finish RCU wizard once schema are created successfully.

With the above step the installation of RCU is completed.

Note:
Remember the password which we have given for all the  users/schema so far and we will continue to use the same password. We will need this password for BI installation as well to let BI installer knows where the metadata schema located and what is the password to connect to the schema. Now we can log-in to the oracle database and can whether that two schema (DEV_BIPLATFORM, DEV_MDS) is available.

After completing this session, you can refer the following link to go ahead with the installation of OBIEE 11.1.1.1.x version.

http://obieenow.blogspot.in/2014/01/OBIEE-11.1.1.7.0-Step-By-Step-Installation-on-Windows-x86-64.html

Happy blogging..!! :-)


Monday 4 November 2013

Technical Differences Between OBIEE 10g & 11g

Some important points/enhancements in OBIEE 11g when compared to OBIEE 10g are listed below,

  1. OBIEE 11g uses WebLogic Server as the application server as compared to Oracle AS or OC4J in OBIEE 10g.
  2. The clustering process in much easier and automated in OBIEE 11g.
  3. We can now model lookup tables in the repository.
  4. The new UI called Unified Framework now combines Answers, Dashboards, and Delivers.
  5. A new column called the hierarchical column in introduced.
  6. BI Publishers is fully and seamlessly integrated with OBIEE 11g.
  7. New time series functions PERIOD ROLLING and AGGREGATE AT are introduced.
  8. In OBIEE 11g we can create KPIs to represent business metrics.
  9. The aggregate persistence wizard creates indexes automatically.
  10. The session variables get initialized when they are actually used in OBIEE 11g unlike OBIEE 10g where they were initialized as soon as a user logs in.
  11. OBIEE 11g now supports Ragged (Unbalanced) and Skipped Hierarchy.
  12. You can also define Parent-Child hierarchy in OBIEE 11g as well.
  13. SELECT_PHYSICAL command is supported in OBIEE 11g.

In OBIEE 11g there are some changes in the terminology as well.
  • iBots are renamed as Agents.
  • Requests are renamed as Analyses.
  • Charts are renamed as Graphs.
  • Presentation Columns are renamed as Attribute Columns.