Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition bridge reference

Prerequisites, troubleshooting, and parameter information for the Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition import bridge.

About this bridge

The Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition bridge imports BI models, BI reports, and related implemented data resources such as database tables from Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) versions 10.1 to 12.c.

The bridge uses a combination of direct import and file import. Analysis and KPI reports are imported directly from Oracle Business Intelligence Answers by connecting to the presentation server. OBIEE repository models are imported from XML files or UDML files that are generated by Oracle Business Intelligence Server.

Prerequisites
Troubleshooting
Import parameters

Prerequisites

Meet the following prerequisites before you use the bridge to import metadata.

To use the latest version of the bridge, you must install the prerequisite software.
Ensure that the user name that you specify to connect to the presentation server has the necessary permissions to access the objects that you want to import.
The Oracle BI Administration tool stores metadata in a Repository RPD file that you must convert to XML format for version 11 or 12 and to UDML format for version 10.
- For version 11 or 12, take these steps to prepare the XML file.
  1. Run bi-init.cmd on Microsoft Windows or bi-init.sh on UNIX or Linux to open a command prompt or shell window that is initialized to your Oracle instance. The files are in the following directory: ORACLE_INSTANCE\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\coreapplication\setup\bi-init.
  2. Use the biserverxmlgen command-line utility to generate XML: biserverxmlgen -R file_path_and_name.rpd -P password -O file_path_and_name.xml -8. The option -8 is required.
  3. The bridge uses the generated XML file as input.
- For version 10, prepare the UDML file by running the following command with the nQUDMLGen command-line utility: $OracleBIHome$\server\Bin\nQUDMLGen.exe -U Administrator -P Administrator -R file_path_and_name.rpd -O file_path_and_name.udml -N -Q -8. The options -N, -Q, and -8 are required.
The bridge uses the generated XML file or UDML file as input. You must upload the file to either the metadata interchange server or the local client computer before you run the import.
To import OBIEE metadata from a large Oracle Business Intelligence Answers application, you must adjust the bridge for memory optimization:
- Set an appropriate -Xmx parameter for a 64-bit Java virtual machine. Update the file IIS_home\Clients\MetaBrokersAndBridges\Bridges\conf\conf.properties, where IIS_home is the folder where InfoSphere Information Server is installed, by default, C:\IBM\InformationServer\Clients\MetaBrokersAndBridges\Bridges\conf\conf.properties. For example:
```
M_JAVA_HOME=..\jre
M_JAVA_OPTIONS=-Xmx4G
```
- Ensure that the bridge parameter Optimize for large models is selected when you run the import.
To connect to OBIEE presentation server over SSL link, the bridge must trust the server certificate. Extract the root certificate that is used by the Oracle WebLogic managed servers into the local keystore of the computer where the bridge is installed.

Troubleshooting

To provide information to help the support team reproduce an issue, provide the following information:

Repository RPD file and the user ID and password that are necessary to open it. By default this file is in the \OracleBI\server\Repository directory. Alternately, you can connect to a live online repository by using the Oracle BI Administration tool and copy the local RPD file.
Report metadata that is contained inside the OBIEE catalog. Reports are called requests in version 10 and analyses in version 11 or 12. To collect the report metadata, take the following steps:
1. In OBIEE Catalog Manager, click File > Open Catalog.
2. Take one of the following actions to specify the path to the catalog, selecting Read Only in each case:
  - In offline mode in version 10, specify OracleBIData/web/catalog/MyCatalog as the path, where MyCatalog is the name of the catalog.
  - In offline mode in version 11 or 12, point to Offline mode, v11.x or v12.x: specify instance/bifoundation/OracleBIPresentationServicesComponent/coreapplication_obips1/catalog/MyCatalog as the path, where instance is the name of the instance and MyCatalog is the name of the catalog.
  - In online mode, type in the OBI server URL, for example http://OBIServer:9704/analytics/saw.dll, where OBIServer is the name of your OBI computer.
3. Click OK.
4. Select the root folder in the tree and click File > Archive to create the archive file.
Send the RPD file, the XML file that you converted from the RPD file, and the report archive file to the support team.

Import parameters

The Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition bridge uses the following import configuration parameters.

Version

Select the version of OBIEE presentation server that you want to import repository models from. If you are unsure of the version, choose Auto-detect and the bridge will attempt to detect the version by using the following URL:

For version 10: http://hostname:port/analytics/res/version.xml
For version 11 or 12: http://hostname:port/analytics/saw.dll?aboutPage

Server URL

Required. Specify the URL for the presentation server that you are importing metadata from.

User name

Required. Type the user name to connect to the presentation server. This user must have the necessary permissions to access the objects that you want to import.

Login password

Type the password to connect to the presentation server.

File location

Select whether the file that you specify in the File field is on the metadata interchange server or on the local computer.

File

Required. Browse the computer that you specified in the File location parameter to specify the name and path of the file to import:

For imports from version 11 or 12, specify an XML file.
For imports from version 10, specify a UDML file.

The Oracle BI Administration tool natively stores BI model metadata in a Repository RPD file. You import the BI model from the file, and you import the BI reports by using the Assets to import parameter, which accesses the presentation server repository. The BI model in the file that you specify must match the contents of the BI model in the repository. To enable data lineage, the file must contain the models that are related to the reports that you select by using the Assets to import parameter.

Follow the directions in the bridge prerequisites to generate the correct import format from the RPD file. Upload it to the computer that you specify in the File location parameter.

Variable values file

Do not specify a value. Uploading a variable values file is not supported.

Assets to import

Required. Browse the presentation server repository to select folders and BI reports.

Alternately, you can specify list of folders and reports to import by path, with each path separated by a semicolon (;).

The path to the root folder is /.
The path to a shared folder is /shared.
The path to the administrator user folder is /users/administrator.

To enable data lineage, the file that you specify in the File parameter must contain the models that are related to the reports that you select by using the Assets to import parameter.

Optimize for large models

By default, the option is selected to optimize the import for large Oracle Business Intelligence repository models. When the option is selected, the import ignores foreign keys, joins, relationships, and logical foreign keys. Ignoring such objects results in a smaller model, and require less memory at runtime. The default setting is recommended for large UDML or XML input files.

To import the entire repository model, remove the check mark. Importing the entire repository, which requires more memory at runtime, is recommended for small to medium UDML or XML input files.

Miscellaneous

Optional. Enter one or more of the following options with values.

-v: Set one or more environment variables. Surround the value with double quotation marks (") if the value contains spaces. For example, -v var1=value -v var2="a value with spaces".
-m: Specify the maximum Java memory size. Use a whole number. For example, -m 4G or -m 2500M.
-j: Specify the last option that is followed by Java command line options. For example, -j -Dname=value -Xms1G.

Incremental import

Keep this parameter selected. When you reimport from the same source, the bridge uses cached information to determine which objects did not change since the previous import. Only changed objects are reimported. Using the cached information can increase performance for large imports.

For new imports, or when the cache is deleted or corrupted, the bridge imports all objects from the source regardless of the selection that is specified.

Worker threads

Specify the number of worker threads to retrieve metadata asynchronously from the source. For the most reliable performance, leave the parameter blank to have the bridge compute the default value, which is based on JVM architecture and the number of available CPU cores.

If you must experiment with increasing retrieval speed, specify a number from 1 - 6 to provide the actual number of threads. If the value specified is invalid, a warning is generated and the number 1 is used instead. If you experience out-of-memory conditions when you are importing metadata asynchronously, experiment with smaller numbers. If your computer has a large amount of available memory, for example, 10 GB or more, you can try larger numbers when you are retrieving many documents. However, setting the number too high can decrease performance due to resource contention.

Import joins

You can import joins that are defined in the BI model. By default, joins are not imported.

Import levels

You can import levels and hierarchies. When the option is selected, levels and hierarchies that are defined in the BI model are imported. By default, they are not imported.

Metadata consistency check

Perform a consistency check on the selected metadata before it is imported into the metadata repository. It is possible to save metadata in source tools in ways that cause problems when the assets are imported into the metadata repository or used in other tools. For example, a foreign key might have no connection to a primary key or to an alternate key. In some cases, the metadata might be so semantically inconsistent that the bridge cannot import it.

The metadata consistency check returns warnings and errors in the log file.

Basic check: The default. Performs the minimum consistency checks necessary to validate the metadata, including checking for missing relationships and foreign keys that are not connected to primary or alternate keys.; In some cases, the basic check might be more rigorous than necessary and you can ignore certain errors or warnings.
Detailed check: Performs the basic check plus more advanced semantic checks specific to the type of metadata that is imported. This level can be used when the source tool cannot validate the metadata.
No check: Use with extreme caution. Selecting this option might result in the import of duplicates or invalid identities and might cause serious problems with your use of suite tools and the metadata repository.

If an asset description already exists

Specify what action to take if an imported asset matches an existing asset in the metadata repository. You can keep the existing description, or overwrite the existing description with the description of the imported asset.

If either description is null, the non-null description is used, regardless of which option you specify. The default behavior is to replace the existing description.