Oracle 1z0-591 Oracle Business Intelligence Foundation Suite 11g Essentials Exam Practice Test

Screenshot below.

A:

* Combining Relational and OLAP Data Sources: Oracle’s Common Enterprise Information Model allows users to combine data from a relational system and an OLAP source in a single calculation. For example, a user can compare sales forecasts from an Oracle CRM System with budget data from an Oracle Essbase planning application. To clients of the Common Enterprise Information Model, the forecast and budget data appear to be from the same logical source.

* The Essbase server provides advanced multi-user read and write capabilities, including data update and multi-user recalculation. Business users with front-end tools can write data back to a server and recalculate the data on a server using calculation scripts—key functionality to support sophisticated modeling and planning applications.

* Using aggregate storage, Essbase serves a wide range of analytic needs—financial analysis, planning, budgeting, sales analysis, marketing analysis, supply-chain analysis, and profitability analytics—all from a single analytic infrastructure.

Note 2: Data model for business intelligence

The most important component of business intelligence is the concept of 'data model'. data model determinde what kind of analysis that end user could do with the data. It is also an independant concept that could span across different vendor 's product.

Unlike data model of the transaction system, the typical analytic data model is often denormalized and store extra data for analytic query and better query performance while transaction data model use is often normalized and optimized for a few data read and write, which is implemented by jointing many tables.

The most common used analytic data model in business intelligence is call the 'Star schema' data model.

With the Oracle business intelligence system, We could define star schema and dimension data model in the 'logical layer' in the admin tools. The data model in OBIEE could span different data source in physical layer, which means OBIEE have the capability of building one logical data model which is actually connect to different database in the backend

In online mode, you connect to a catalog on a running web server. In this mode your permissions are applied, you can select a locale, and you can see the effects of any localization on the catalog. You can see only those objects for which you have the appropriate permissions. Both Presentation Services and the web server must be running for you to open catalogs in online mode.

Use online mode when you want to make minor incremental changes or additions to the catalog, such as changes to permissions, updates to a single object, or migration of new objects to a production environment.

Note:

* You can open a catalog in one of two modes — online or offline. Both modes can operate against an actual production catalog, with no need for any downtime.

* Repository changes can be done in either online

or offline mode. Online mode is when BI Server

is actively reading the repository file (when a

user is logged in). Offline is when BI Server is

idle. Best practice is to develop in Offline mode.

Minor changes can be made when in online

mode.

Dynamic Repository Variables:

You initialize dynamic repository variables in the same way as static variables, but the values are refreshed by data returned from queries. When defining a dynamic repository variable, you will create an initialization block or use a pre-existing one that contains a SQL query. You will also set up a schedule that the Oracle BI Server will follow to execute the query and periodically refresh the value of the variable.

Note: The value of a static repository value is initialized in the Variable dialog box. This value persists, and does not change until an Oracle BI Administrator decides to change it.

If you want to create a dynamic time-series reference such as the value of a measure as at this time last year, or over the past three months, or year-to-date, you can use one of the OBIEE time-series functions (AGO, PERIODROLLING, TODATE) to provide an offset value for a measure.

Figure:

Note: OBIEE 11g offered a bunch of improvements that were particularly aimed at Essbase, and other OLAP server, customers; the new hierarchical columns feature brought proper OLAP analysis to OBIEE, and coupled with OLAP-oriented features such as hierarchical prompts and selection steps, made OBIEE 11g a much more conducive environment for Essbase users.

There’s much better support for Essbase-native features such as value-based hierarchies, alternate hierarchies, multiple alias tables, UDAs and other Essbase artifacts, and the value-based hierarchy feature in particular is very welcome as it can avoid the need to completely re-import your Essbase database if your outline gains additional hierarchy levels.

So coupled with the new and improved visualization capabilities in OBIEE 11g, including maps, scorecards, improved dashboard controls, the whole new UI, improved BI Publisher and so on, there’s a lot to recommend OBIEE 11g to users of the “legacy” Hyperion tools looking for a bit of a refresh of their BI environment.

Modeling Time Series Function in OBIEE

Modeling Time Series Data

Time series functions provide the ability to compare business performance with previous time periods, allowing you to analyze data that spans multiple time periods. For example, time series functions enable comparisons between current sales and sales a year ago, a month ago, and so on.

Because SQL does not provide a direct way to make time comparisons, you must model time series data in the Oracle BI repository. First, set up time dimensions based on the period table in your data warehouse. Then, you can define measures that take advantage of this time dimension to use the AGO, TODATE, and PERIODROLLING functions.

This warning indicates that the given column is only mapped to logical table sources that are disabled. The warning brings this issue to the repository developer's attention in case the default behavior is not desired.

There are static and dynamic repository variables.

Note:

Variables in the Oracle BI Server can be either repository or session variables, and are defined using the Variable Manager within the Oracle BI Administrator (Manage > Variables).

This brings up the Variable Manager, that divides variables out into repository and session variables, with a further subdivision into static and dynamic repository ones and system and non-system session ones. You can also define variables at the Presentation Server level, these are scoped to individual dashboards and are used amongst other things for setting dashboard prompt values and integrating the dashboard with BI Publisher parameters. Here’s a screenshot of a typical Variable Manager screen.

An action link is a link to an action that you have embedded in an analysis, dashboard page, scorecard objective, scorecard initiative, or KPI that, when clicked, runs an associated action.

Decrease query response time which will improve performance for Dashboards and Analysis.

Oracle Essbase developers creating planning and budgeting applications have been keenly aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the two different storage types available to them:

* Block storage option (BSO) databases support a wide range of calculations, including forecasts, allocations, and aggregations through procedural calculation scripts. The results of these calculations can be written back to the database, but applications that use BSO storage are limited to about 10 dimensions and member counts in the low hundreds of thousands.

* Aggregate storage option (ASO) databases can support about 20 dimensions and member counts in the millions. ASO databases use multidimensional functions rather than procedural scripts to perform calculations, but the results of queries cannot be stored back in the database, making ASO unsuitable for most financial management applications.

B: The problem with caching of any kind is how to deal with stale data. How you decide to deal with this depends on how time critical your business intelligence queries happen to be. OBIEE provides a wide variety of mechanisms for dealing with stale data. The cache can be purged automatically at intervals. Caching can be enabled selectively for individual physical tables, so that data in a frequently updated table is never cached. OBIEE provides a set of ODBC procedures that can be called when ETL processes complete to programmatically purge designated tables. But, by far the best way to selectively purge the cache is to use an event polling table. This table is populated by the client database whenever changes are made to any table (by an ETL process for a data warehouse or by a table-based trigger for an OLTP database). At specified intervals the BI Server polls this event polling table and deletes from its cache any query results that are dependent on the changed data.

B: Click Refresh All from the Oracle BI menu in PowerPoint to refresh all the refreshable objects in the presentation.

C: Right-click Table and select Insert as List from the shortcut menu. The Edit Prompts and Levels dialog box appears. Accept the default options and click Insert.

You can specify a Driving table parameter in a complex join.

Driving tables are for use in optimizing the manner in which the Oracle BI Server processes cross-database joins when one table is very small and the other table is very large.

The BI Server will query the driving table (the small one) and will get a list of values. The BI Server will then generate a second SQL using a parameterized IN list with the values from the first query.

Specifying driving tables leads to query optimization only when the number of rows being selected from the driving table is much smaller than the number of rows in the table to which it is being joined.

Note:

At the highest level, an OBIEE Metadata Repository includes three layers of information:

1.

First, a Physical layer is defined. The metadata layer identifies the source data.

2.Second, a Business Model and Mapping layer is defined. This metadata layer organizes the physical layer into logical categories and records the appropriate metadata for access to the source data.

3.Finally, the Presentation layer is defined. This metadata layer exposes the business model entities for end-user access.

Oracle Business Intelligence Office Plug-In is a Windows application that is an optional feature under the Oracle Business Intelligence Presentation Services. The Plug-In provides a way to browse the Analytics catalog, select a report, and then drop that report into Microsoft Word or Excel.

Consistency check is one of the process to check whether a repository is yielding proper results in Answer reports. It checks whether;* All logical columns are mapped correctly to physical columns (B).* All logical dimension tables have a logical key.* There are at least two logical tables in the business model; one is a logical fact table, the other is logical dimension table with join condition.* There are no circular logical join relationships.* A presentation catalog exists for the business model.

In OBIEE cache will be stored as files on the Hard Disk of the OBIEE Server in the form of files.

Steps for Creating Aggregate Tables in OBIEE

1. Create all Dimension Tables, Fact Tables & Hierarchies, which are required to be aggregated.

2. Go to ToolsàUtilities (from Administration tool menu bar), a dialog box will pop up with all available utilities.

3. Select Aggregate Persistence Wizard, and then click Execute Button.

4. Now Select appropriate path where you need to generate Aggregate Table SQL.

Note : Click Generate DDL file for first time generation of Aggregate Table

Click Next, to move to next page (Select Business Model & Measure Page)

In Select Business Model & Measure Page, Select Appropriate Business Model & then select associated Fact / Measure.

Etc.

When you need to model many-to-many relationships between dimension tables and fact tables, you can create a bridge table that resides between the fact and the dimension tables. A bridge table stores multiple records corresponding to that dimension. In the Administration Tool, General tab in the Logical Table dialog box contains a check box that you can select to specify that a table is a bridge table.

A bridge table allows you to resolve many-to-many data relationships.

Reference; OBI Server Administration Server Guide, Version 10.1, Identifying Bridge Tables

Query Limits. You can limit queries by the number of rows received, by maximum run time, and by restricting to particular time periods. You can also allow or disallow direct database requests or the Populate privilege.

See figure below.

You do not use ODBC DSN to compare repositories.

Note: When an ODBC based application connects to a database, it connects to a logical name, the Data Source Name (DSN), which identifies the datasource to which it wants to connect.

Some external repository of configuration information holds the various DSN values that are available, together with the necessary configuration and control information needed by the ODBC driver to establish a connection and manage usage of the data source.

The DSN (data source name) is a data structure that contains the information about a specific data source (database, …), typically used by an ODBC driver to be able to connect to it.

The DSN contains information about the data source such as:

the name,

the directory,

and the driver.

On Windows, the DSN also specifies the ODBC driver to be used to access the database.

B: Example:

1. Configure the new source table to have the 'logical level' under the content set to 'Countries' (the summarized level)

b

2. Do the similiar setting for dimension table

Now when user query the data at 'Counties' level, the query will be redirected to these summary table instead of the more detail fact table

Note: Aggregate tables are Physical tables that store Aggregates of measures across multiple levels of a Hierarchy.

Note 1: OBIEE offers two calculation types for measure in the repository:

logical

physical

You can define calculations in either of the following ways:

* Before the aggregation, in the logical table source.

* After the aggregation, in a logical column derived from two other logical columns. For example: sum(col A) * sum(col B)

Note 2: A measure column is a column unlike the baseline column that has a default aggregation rule defined in the Aggregation tab of the Logical Column dialog in the repository.

Measure columns always calculate the aggregation with which they are defined.

Measures need to be defined in a logical fact. Any column with an aggregation rule is a measure.

BIEE 11g Install High level Steps :

Software Required

1. Database (Oracle, IBM DB2 or MS-SQL)

2. Repository Creation Utility (RCU)

3. OBIEE 11g (11.1.1.3 is latest OBIEE as of 30 April 2011)

4. WebLogic 10.3.3 (Optional – Only required for 64 bit machine or IBM AIX)

5. JDK 1.6 64 bit (Optional – Only required for 64 bit machine)

Metadata Repository Builder's Guide

Setting an Implicit Fact Column in the Subject Area

For each subject area in the Presentation layer, you can set an implicit fact column. The

implicit fact column is added to a query when it contains columns from two or more

dimension tables and no measures. The column is not visible in the results. It is used

to specify a default join path between dimension tables when there are several possible

alternatives or contexts.

Open up the Administration tool, go to Manage then variables.

See screenshot below.

Then follow this picture to create a new Initialization Block.

Name your Initialization block init_block_test.

Oracle BI Cluster Server Components

* Oracle Business Intelligence Cluster Controller: The Cluster Controller determines which BI Server works in the cluster. It monitors the operation of servers in the cluster. The Cluster Controller is deployed in active-passive mode.

* Clustered BI Servers: The BI Cluster Server feature supports up to 16 BI Servers in a network domain to act as a single server. BI Servers in the cluster share requests from multiple Oracle BI clients.

* Master BI Server: A clustered Oracle Business Intelligence Server is designated as the Master BI Server. The Oracle Business Intelligence Administration Tool connects to the master BI Server for online repository changes.

* Cluster Manager: The Cluster Manager is available in the Administration Tool when a repository is opened in online mode. The Cluster Manager enables Oracle BI Server clustered instances.

Initialization blocks are used to initialize dynamic repository variables, system session variables, and nonsystem session variables.

Horizonal Scaleout of System Components

* Used for adding additional managed servers (Java components) and

system components to an existing cluster

* Used for scalability and failover

* Set up via the Universal Installer > Scale Out BI System option

A data warehouse is a database used for reporting and data analysis. It is a central repository of data which is created by integrating data from multiple disparate sources. Data warehouses store current as well as historical data and are commonly used for creating trending reports for senior management reporting such as annual and quarterly comparisons.

Note: A level-based measure is a column whose values are always calculated to a specific level of aggregation.

The calculation of this measure is independent of the query grain and used always the aggregation grain of the logical column.

Level-based measures allow :

* to return data at multiple levels of aggregation (the query grain and the level-based column grain) with one single query

* to create share measures (percentage), that are calculated by taking some measure and dividing it by a level-based measure. For example, you can divide salesperson revenue by regional revenue to calculate the share of the regional revenue each salesperson generates.

See BI Home Page screenshot below:

Note: The BI Home page contains the BI content catalog. Fusion Apps will use OBIEE web catalog to store all shipped reporting and analytics content.

From the BI home page users can browse and view the entire BI content. The BI catalog folder structure will match the Fusion Apps main menu structure. Folder structure would be content driven not technology driven which would enable ease of navigation for fusion Apps users.

Following content will be available under the BI catalog structure:

BI Publisher Reports (regardless of data source)

OTBI reports & dashboards

OBIA dashboards & scorecards

Financial Reporting

Also, users can do some additional actions from the BI Home page like: Access personal and shared reports, View/ edit BI publisher report schedules, Launch BI tools for advanced actions and create new reports with report wizard.

New reports created can be saved in BI catalog and added as embedded content within Fusion applications screens or links added to reporting pane. This enables users to extend the prebuilt embedded analytics within Fusion Applications.