OBIA 11.1.1.7.1 with ODI

Dt: 27 /12/2013

Hi Folks,

Quite some time since I have written to you.Well it has been an interesting phase of my career where I have now got an opportunity to drive an OBIA implementaion with the latest version 11.1.1.7.1 for one of our client here in the United States.

Some of the newer things that we will be working on is Fusion Middleware.Oracle has moved the whole suite of OBIA applications to weblogic server with an aim to have a single point for design execution and manufacturing of OBI analytics.

An interesting thing would also be the use of   Oracle Data Integrator as the ETL tool instead of Informatica.Oracle has managed to do a good job of converting all Informatica mappings to ODI interfaces.The first look seems quite promising.We completed a full load for few analytics and the results look great.

Of course there are  some beginner hiccups with ODI and we have raised quite a few SRS to tackle them but the overall feel looks good.For someone who has worked with Informatica as the ETL tool for OBIA ,for quite some years now ..ODI doesnt make me uncomfortable or uneasy.

Over the years it might well be a great investment for Oracle.

Will keep you posted on the challenges and issues faced.

Till then Good Bye.

OBIA upgrade 7.9.6.2 to 7.9.6.4

Dt: 4 Nov 2013

Sorry for being away from the publishng desk for quitet some time now.Will be back to blogging soon.

Currently working on an assignment to upgrade OBIA for a client from 7.9.6.2 to 7.9.6.4.
In the process we are upgrading OBIEE from 10 g to 11g.
Informatica from 8.6.1 to 9.5.1.
BIP from 10 g to 11 g.

We have been facing quiet a few issues where we have realized that all bases aren't covered and the upgrade wont be fool proof if you blindly follow the documentation provided .

During the upgrade process you need to have a sane head on your shoulders and make sure that you do not make wrong choices and compromise the datawarehouse.

We are making reasonable progress on this and will keep you posted on developments.Meanwhile any help from people doing a similar upgrade will be appreciated.

Real Time OBIEE reporting.

Dt: 10 Mar 2013.

 Have you ever tried real time reporting using OBIEE.When I say realtime reporting I mean using the OLTP rather than OLAP databases for reporting.

We are designing a solution where in we are trying to replicate a OBIEE report from OLAP to a realtime report in OBIEE ,effectively trying out to remove ETL from the equation.

This is very much possible and we were able to replicate most of the functionalities.But even as we were creating the report we came to know about why OLAP is preferred for reporting and what advantages it provides.

For starters the zero wid dimensional record  helps in accomodating those records in the fact which do not have reference to a particular dimension.This is difficult to replicate in realtime reports withou adding a view to the source table adding a zero reference record.

Also we faced considerable challenges in drilling from a realtime report to a transactional report in OLAP.This is all the more difficult as  OBIEE drill down works in a very rigid manner requesting the prompted columns on which the drills are developed to have the same column names in both subject areas.

We are putting in a effort to resolve this .In the meantime if anyone of you out there has attempted it then please share your findings.Real time reports can be a boon to clients ,especially in business where the transactional database is not too busy and can accept reporting queries without affecting transaction speeds.