Oracle Business Intelligence (OBIEE) is a very powerful Oracle-based tool that analyzes data across multiple dimensions. If you have Oracle data, what good is it if you can’t make any meaning from it? With OBIEE, you can take existing Oracle data and create dimensions, which are “slices” of data.
A database dimension is a collection of attributes which can be used to provide information about fact data in one or more cubes. For example, suppose you want to see sales for specific product categories by year. Your dimensions would be product category and year. You can also have a hierarchical dimension. A year can be subdivided into quarters, then months, then days. At a glance, you can interactively see this data and even have fine-grained control over the output. For example, you could highlight data that is over or under a specific value. Cubes contain the dimensions on which users base their analyses of fact data.
The OBIEE 11 interface is web-based and very intuitive. It runs on a WebLogic server, so when you install OBIEE, one of the tasks is to install the WebLogic server.
Our focus here is to step through the OBIEE 11g installation process. There are three main steps:
- Install the Oracle database
- Create the repository that contains the necessary Oracle database schemas that OBIEE uses. The tool is call the “rcu” (Repository Creation Utility)
- Install Oracle OBIEE 11.
Installing the Oracle Database
Let’s first of all talk about installing the Oracle database. You want to be sure your database uses Unicode character set. This is something that needs to be set upon database creation. You cannot take a non-unicode database and convert it Unicode! You will also need to set the following system parameters (as SYSDBA): processes=500, open_cursors=800, sessions = 250. You change the parameters with the following SQL statement: ALTER SYSTEM SET PROCESSES=500 SCOPE=SPFILE. After changing the parameters, stop and restart the database. There are many tutorials on installing an Oracle 11g database, so we’ll leave that part up to you!
Installing the Oracle OBIEE RCU
Next, you’ll need to run the rcu (Repository Creation Utility). This is a file you download from Oracle’s website. You simply extract the file somewhere on your local harddrive, such as d:rcuhome. Once it is extracted, navigate to the rcuhome directory, then drill down to the bin directory. Double-click on the rcu.bat file, and a graphical wizard will ask you all of the necessary questions. Choose to create the schema components into the database. You’ll need to know the hostname or IP address, as well as the listener port number of your Oracle database. If you are running OBIEE and the Oracle database on the same machine, then the hostname is “localhost” or “127.0.0.1”. The port number is typically 1521. You will also need to know the username and password of a user by SYSDBA privileges. If you don’t have SYSDBA privileges on the Oracle database, have your Oracle DBA run the rcu program and provide those values. On the next screen you choose which schema components to install. Only choose Business Intelligence. Create (and remember!) passwords for the schemas that will be created. The final step is choosing to create the schemas. This step may take a few minutes, so be patient.
Installing OBIEE 11
You’ll need to download 4 or 5 rather large zip files for OBIEE. Once you have downloaded them, unzip them to the same directory. Once they are unzipped, drill down to “disk1” and you’ll see a setup file, which launches the graphical wizard. Choose the “Simple Install” option, then decide on a “home” for bipublisher. For example, you can choose c:bipub. This is the directory where the BI software goes. You’ll then provide the weblogic username/password, which you’ll need to write down. These will be the credentials to manage the Weblogic server. For example, you can choose “weblogic” and “password1“. On the next screen, choose to install all components. Then provide the connection string: localhost:1521:orcl – this is the hostname of the database, the database listener’s port number, and the database service name. The biplatform username should be dev_biplatform. The password should be the password you set when you ran the rcu.
There you have it! You now have Oracle OBIEE 11 installed! Happy data crunching! Check out our in-depth OBIEE training courses here to become a master!
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