1. 1 Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. Repository Basics

2. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 2 Objectives After completing this lesson, you should be able to: Identify and describe the major components of the Oracle BI architecture Identify and describe the three layers of an Oracle BI repository and how they relate to each other Use the Oracle BI Administration Tool to explore repository objects

3. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 3 Oracle BI Architecture Components This lesson describes the following architecture components and their relationships: Clients Oracle BI Presentation Services Oracle BI Server Oracle BI repository Data sources Clients Oracle BI Presentation Services Oracle BI Server Data sources

4. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 4 Clients Provide access to business intelligence information Oracle BI Answers –Is a set of graphical tools used to build, view, and modify Oracle BI requests Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards –Display the results of Answers requests and other items Oracle BI Administration Tool –Is used to build an Oracle BI repository Clients Oracle BI Presentation Services Oracle BI Server Data sources

5. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 5 Oracle BI Presentation Services Provides the processing to visualize the information for client consumption Is implemented as an extension to a Web server Uses a catalog to store saved content Receives data from Oracle BI Server and provides it to the client that requested it Clients Oracle BI Presentation Services Data sources Oracle BI Server

6. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 6 Oracle BI Server Is the core server behind Oracle Business Intelligence Provides efficient processing to access physical data sources and structure information intelligently –Uses metadata to direct processing –Generates dynamic SQL to query data in the physical data sources –Connects natively or through ODBC to the RDBMS –Structures results to satisfy requests –Provides BI data to Oracle BI Presentation Services Clients Oracle BI Presentation Services Data sources Oracle BI Server

7. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 7 Oracle BI Repository Stores the metadata used by Oracle BI Server Is accessed and configured using the Oracle BI Administration Tool, which you use to: –Import metadata from databases and other data sources –Simplify and reorganize the metadata into business models –Structure the business model for presentation to users who request information Repository Clients Oracle BI Presentation Services Oracle BI Server Data sources

8. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 8 Data Sources Contain the business data that users want to analyze Are accessed by Oracle BI Server Can be in any format, such as: –Relational databases –Online analytical processing (OLAP) databases –Flat files –Spreadsheets –XML for Analysis (XMLA) Clients Oracle BI Presentation Services Oracle BI Server Data sources

9. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 9 Sample Request Processing 1.User views a dashboard or submits a request. 2.Oracle BI Presentation Services makes a request to Oracle BI Server to retrieve the requested data. 3.Using the repository file, Oracle BI Server optimizes functions to request the data from the data sources. 4.Oracle BI Server receives the data from the data sources and processes as necessary. 5.Oracle BI Server passes the data to Oracle BI Presentation Services. 6.Oracle BI Presentation Services formats the data and sends it to the client. Clients Oracle BI Pres Services Oracle BI Server Data sources 123 456

10. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 10 Oracle BI Administration Tool Exposes the Oracle BI repository as three separate panes, called layers: Physical Business Model and Mapping (BMM) Presentation

11. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 11 Physical Layer Contains objects representing the physical data sources to which Oracle BI Server submits queries May contain multiple data sources Is typically the first layer built in the repository Data sources

12. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 12 Physical Layer Objects Are objects in the Physical layer, such as connection pools, folders, tables, columns, and keys Expand a database object to display the objects it contains. Database Connection pool Schema folder Tables Columns Key

13. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 13 Business Model and Mapping Layer Is where physical schemas are simplified and reorganized to form the basis of the users’ view of the data.

14. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 14 Business Model and Mapping Layer Objects The Business Model and Mapping layer contains business model objects. Business model Logical dimension tables Logical table source Logical columns Logical fact table Measures Dimension hierarchies

15. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 15 Business Model Mappings Business Model and Mapping layer objects map to source data objects in the Physical layer. Mappings are typically not one-to-one: –Business models may map to multiple data sources. –Logical tables may map to multiple physical tables. –Logical columns may map to multiple physical columns. Mappings

16. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 16 Measures Are the facts that a business uses to evaluate its performance Can be calculations that define measurable quantities Are created on logical columns in the fact table Have a defined aggregation rule Icon denotes an aggregation rule.

17. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 17 Presentation Layer Contains presentation objects that provide a customized view of a business model to users Simplifies and organizes the business model to make it easy for users to understand and query Exposes only the data meaningful to the users

18. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 18 Presentation Layer Mappings Presentation layer objects map to objects in the Business Model and Mapping layer. Presentation catalogs map to the business model. Presentation tables may map to logical tables. Presentation columns map to logical columns.

19. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 19 Presentation Layer Defines User Interface Presentation layer objects define the interface that users see to query the data from the data sources. Presentation folder Presentation column Presentation catalog Subject area Folder Column

20. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 20 Repository Directory Repository files reside in the …\Oracle BI\server\Repository directory, where the Oracle BI software is installed. Default location of repository files Oracle BI Repository file

21. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 21 Repository Modes Repository files can be opened for editing in offline or online mode. Offline –Repository is not loaded into Oracle BI Server memory. Online: –Repository is loaded into Oracle BI Server memory. –Administrators can perform tasks not available in offline mode: — Manage scheduled jobs — Manage user sessions — Manage the query cache — Manage clustered servers — Stop Oracle BI Server

22. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 22 Adding an Entry in NQSConfig.ini NQSConfig.ini is a configuration file read by Oracle BI Server to determine which repository to load into memory. Repository to load Commented out Default location of NQSConfig.ini file

23. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 23 Reloading Server Metadata Click the Reload Server Metadata link in Answers to refresh the view of Oracle BI metadata. Reload Server Metadata link

24. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 24 Summary In this lesson, you should have learned how to: Identify and describe the major components of the Oracle BI architecture Identify and describe the three layers of an Oracle BI Repository and how they relate to each other Use the Oracle BI Administration Tool to explore repository objects

25. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 25 Practice 1-1 Overview: Exploring an Oracle BI Repository This practice covers the following topics: Exploring the Physical layer of a repository Exploring the Business Model and Mapping layer of a repository Exploring the Presentation layer of a repository Loading a repository into memory Submitting a request using Oracle BI Answers

26. Copyright © 2008, Oracle. All rights reserved. 1 - 26