What’s new in Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise

How to Use OBIEE 12C Repository Deployment

Oracle introduced Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition 12c (OBIEE 12c) as the successor to the 11g edition. It has improved data visualization and features to empower end-users, and it includes new administration features to simplify and speed up processes for administrators and developers. This article describes some of the new features and procedures.

 

Repository Deployment

The repository is no longer deployed through the deployment tab in Enterprise Manager (EM) as it was in OBIEE 11g. In fact, there is no deployment tab in 12c EM because Oracle moved the repository deployment process to the command line scripting tool. Developers can now use command-line utilities in OBIEE 12c to create scripts for repository deployments and thereby invoke or schedule the scripts as required, which not only makes the processes more flexible but reduces the manual work involved. And unlike OBIEE 11g, OBIEE 12c does not require a restart of any services as part of repository deployment; hence it takes less time to complete the entire deployment process.

 

Security Password

In OBIEE 12c, whenever a repository is uploaded to the BI server, the password for the uploaded repository changes internally. That means the BI server will not retain the password that was specified at the time of uploading. Instead, it changes the password to a value that is known only to the BI server and manages the password internally. This offers a security advantage: if the repository file is transferred through FTP / SFTP protocol to an unintended client machine, the repository file will not open because the password is not the same one used for uploading.

 

The default repository that comes with installation in 12c is named liverpd.rpd. Until OBIEE 11g, the name of the repository that is deployed in the server retains the name that was supplied during uploading—followed by the sequence number signifying the version. In OBIEE 12c, the name of the repository that is deployed in the server will always be liverpd.rpd irrespective of the name supplied during the upload process, so the name given to the repository while deploying it does not count. In the server, the repository will always be named liverpd.rpd with the version number appended.

 

Command Line Utilities

Command-line utilities in OBIEE are a set of commands for managing BI server instances. Launcher script for executing the command line utilities can be found here:

Oracle_Home/user_projects/domains/bi/bitools/bin

 

Launcher script data-model-cmd.sh corresponds to Unix environment execution and data-model-cmd.cmd corresponds to Windows environment execution.

 

New Commands Introduced in OBIEE 12c

  • Listconnectionpool
  • Updateconnectionpool
  • listrpdvariables
  • updaterpdvariables
  • downloadrpd
  • uploadrpd
  • renameapproles
  • deleteapproles
  • renameusers
  • deleteusers

 

Syntax of the uploadrpd Command

uploadrpd -I<RPDname> [-W <RPDpwd>] -SI <service_instance> -U <cred_username> [-P <cred_password>] [-S <hostname>] [-N <port_number>] [-SSL] [-H]

For Unix – data-model-cmd.sh uploadrpd -I repository.rpd -W Admin -SI ssi -U weblogic –P admin123 -S server1.smdi.com -N 7777 –SSL

For Windows – data-model-cmd.cmd uploadrpd -I repository.rpd -W Admin -SI ssi -U weblogic –P admin123 -S server1.smdi.com -N 7777 -SSL I – Name of the repository to be uploaded.

W = Repository password, if password protected. This password can be entered in the command directly. If not entered, the system will prompt for it while executing the command.

SI = Bi server instance name. The default is ssi unless changed during installation.

U = Weblogic/user with admin rights.

P = Password of weblogic user with admin rights. This password can be entered in the command directly. If not entered, the system will prompt for it while executing the command.

S = Server Hostname. Required when deploying a repository from a client.

N = Port number. Required when deploying a repository from a client.

SSL = Use of SSL. Required when deploying a repository from a client.

H = To display information or status messages of the command execution.

 

Syntax of the downloadrpd Command

This command is used to get the current repository hosted in BI server to the client or local machine.

downloadrpd -O RPDname [-W RPDpwd] -SI service_instance -U cred_username [-P cred_password] [-S hostname] [-N port_number] [-SSL] [-H]

For Unix – data-model-cmd.sh downloadrpd -O repository.rpd -W Admin -SI ssi -U weblogic –P admin123 -S server1.smdi.com -N 7777 –SSL

For Windows – data-model-cmd.cmd downloadrpd -O repository.rpd -W Admin -SI ssi -U weblogic –P admin123 -S server1.smdi.com -N 7777 -SSL

O = Name of the repository to be downloaded.

W = Repository password. This password can be entered in the command directly. If not entered, the system will prompt for it while executing the command.

SI = Bi server instance name. The default is ssi unless changed during installation.

U = Weblogic/user with admin rights.

P = Password of weblogic user with admin rights. This password can be entered in the command directly. If not entered, the system will prompt for it while executing the command.

S = Server Hostname. Required when deploying a repository from a client.

N = Port number. Required when deploying a repository from a client.

SSL = Use of SSL. Required when deploying a repository from a client.

H = To display information or status messages of the command execution.