No row count in Physical Layer after import

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Q: After importing schema metadata and doing an update of all rows the tutorial shows the row counts displayed in the Physical Layer, but I just see the table names?

If you run your mouse over the table names you’ll see the row count appear briefly.  What the tutorial forgot to tell you is that row counts are not displayed by default.  Navigate to “Tools => Options”, select the “General” tab, and check the “Show row count in physical view” check-box.  Press “OK” to exit.  Now the row counts will appear and match the screen values displayed in the tutorial.

“Connection Pool” window doesn’t appear during import

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Q: I’m doing the “create repository” tutorial and when I press the “Import” button the “Connection Pool” window doesn’t appear.  Have I done something wrong?

No you haven’t.  There are two different methods of importing schema metadata.  What the tutorial describes is a “hot-potch” of both, so it’s no wonder you’re confused.

Method 1.  Let’s assume you’ve followed the tutorial instructions to create an “ODBC Data Source” called “SH” that contains connect information for the “SH” schema using a “tnsnames.ora” entry of “ORCL”.  Continuing to follow the tutorial, when you select “Import => from Database” you see “ODBC 3.5” as the default “Connection Type”.  You then select “SH” as the DSN.  What you are doing here is identifying the “ODBC Data Source” that you defined earlier.  When you press “OK” to bring up the “Import” window and select your tables you already have all the information needed to perform the import.  So when you press the “Import” button the import starts and completes without any “Connection Pool” window appearing.  You’ll see the name you gave to the “ODBC Data Source”, “SH”, appear as a node in the “Physical Layer”.  If you expand this node you’ll see that the tables have already been imported (the tutorial is incorrect in saying you have to do something else for the import to proceed).  Just press the “Close” button in the “Import” window and you’re done.  Now right-click on the “Connection Pool” under the “SH” node and select “Properties”.  The “Call Interface” will be set to “ODBC 3.5” (the tutorial is wrong here) and the “Data Source Name” will be set to “SH” or whatever name you used when defining the “ODBC Data Source”.  You don’t actually need to change these values: they worked successfully in allowing you to import the metadata, and they therefore provide an indirect means of connecting to the Oracle database – via the “ODBC Data Source”.  However, changing the “Call Interface” to “OCI 10g/11g” and the “Data Source Name” to the appropriate “tnsnames.ora” entry for your database, say “ORCL”, makes sense as it will effectively bypass the “ODBC Data Source” when you connect to the Oracle database in the future.

Method 2.  But, defining an “ODBC Data Source” is redundant.  The statement in the tutorial “An ODBC data source is needed to import schema information into an Oracle BI repository” is incorrect.  All you have to do to import data is to navigate to “Import => from Database” as before.  Then instead of accepting the default “Connection Type” of “ODBC 3.5”, select a “Connection Type” of “OCI 10g/11g” from the LOV.  Then enter a “TNS Name” of “ORCL”, a “User Name” of “SH”, and the appropriate password.  Select your tables from the “Import” pop-up that appears and press “Import”.  In this case the “Connection Pool” window will appear (this is where the tutorial is getting confused).  Press “OK” and the import will start.  Press “Close”.  The only difference is that the node in the “Physical Layer” will be named “ORCL” instead of “SH”. 

http://localhost/analytics "this page cannot be displayed"

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Q: I’m following the OBIEE tutorial on creating interactive dashboards.  When I enter the address http://localhost/analytics to login I get a “cannot display web page” error?

The web address given in the tutorial is incorrect – it’s missing the port number.  If you try entering

  http://localhost:9704/analytics

instead, then the address should change to

  http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard

and the logon screen should appear (the “saw” in “saw.dll” stands for “Siebel Analytics Web”, and you’ll find frequent references to this TLA throughout OBIEE, as in the “SAW protocol” used by the “J2EE Server” and the “Oracle BI Scheduler” to connect to the “Oracle BI Presentation Services”). 

You’ll find that “http://localhost:9704” or, more generally, “http://<machine name>:9704” is used as the web prefix to access the various components of OBIEE from your web browser.  If you enter the address “http://localhost:9704” into your browser you’ll find it brings up the “Oracle Containers for J2EE” (OC4J) home page.  This J2EE application server acts as a bridge between the “HTTP Web Server” and the “Oracle BI Presentation Services” process:

  You can check that the OC4J installation is working by running the tests under “Quick Check”.

  The “Application Server Control” link in the top right-hand side brings up the same page as “Systems Management” from the “Oracle Business Intelligence” menu.

  You’ll find a link to the OC4J documentation at the bottom right.

“Could not connect” during update of row count for Products

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Q: I’m trying to update the row count for Products in the OBIEE installation tutorial.  I get a “Could not connect message”, even though I can connect using SQL*Plus and the ODBC data source?

When you enter the Connection Pool window you’ll find that the values imported from the “sh” repository don’t match the values in the tutorial.  You’ll get values of

  Call Interface: “OCI 8i/9i”

  Data Source Name: “ORCL”

instead of

  Call Interface: “OCI 10g”

  Data Source Name: “orclSH”

The value for the call interface won’t cause the connection to fail, but it’s worth selecting a value appropriate to your database from the list of values.  If you have an entry with a Net Service Name of “orcl” in your “tnsnames.ora” file then you don’t have to change the value of the Data Source Name.  If you do use “orclSH” then make sure there is a corresponding entry with this Net Service Name in the “tnsnames.ora” file.

Now to your question.  Given that you can connect from SQL*Plus and an ODBC client the problem is likely to be the password.  The default password for schema “sh” is “sh”, and this is the password that is imported from the repository.  When your DBA installed the database it’s quite likely he changed the passwords when he unlocked the schemas.  If schema “sh” has a different password you’ll be able to connect from SQL*Plus using the changed password.  You’ll also be able to connect from an ODBC client since the ODBC data source definition doesn’t store the password – unlike the Administration Tool – but asks you for it each time you test a connection.  If you’re assuming that the Administration Tool has picked up the changed password from somewhere else then that could be the problem.  Just change the password in the Connection Pool to the one that worked from SQL*Plus and you should be able to connect and update the row count.

“TNS: could not resolve” error during ODBC configuration and admininstration

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Q: I’m trying to get the installation tutorial to work.  I’ve configured the ODBC data source using the tnsnames.ora example given in the tutorial, substituting my own host name, but I’m getting a “TNS: could not resolve” error when I test the connection from the ODBC driver configuration.  And in the Admin Tool when I try to update the row count for Products I also get the same message?

For a start you don’t need to create an ODBC Data Source to carry out this tutorial.  The only reason for doing so might be to test that the Net Service Name in file “tnsnames.ora” has been set up correctly, but you can do this with less effort, if required, from SQL*Plus.

So let’s start with what you will need for this tutorial.  You will need an entry in file “tnsnames.ora”.  You’ll find the file in directory “\network\admin”.  If the file doesn’t exist in this directory you’ll need to create one using, for example, Notepad.  You’ll also need an entry in the file similar to the following (substituting for your “host” and “service_name” as appropriate – the “service_name” will probably be “orcl”):

bitest =
   (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS_LIST =
         (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = tcp)(HOST = hp)(PORT = 1521))
      )
      (CONNECT_DATA =
         (SERVICE_NAME = orcl)
      )
   )

This entry maps a Net Service Name of “bitest” onto a Database Service Name of “orcl” at the specified address.  You can verify that this connection is working by logging into SQL*Plus and entering

connect sh/<password>@bitest

The example for the Net Service Name given in the tutorial, “orcl SH”, won’t work because it contains an embedded space.  If you enter this value for the Data Source Name in the Connection Pool window of the Administration Tool then you’ll get a

  ORA-12154: TNS: could not resolve the connect identifier specified

error message.  If you look at the value entered in the tutorial for the Connection Pool Data Source Name it’s “orclSH”, rather than “orcl SH” – so this looks like a case of the “Oracle fat-finger” syndrome.  So if you change the Net Service Name in the “tnsnames.ora” file from “orcl SH” to “orclSH”, then the main part of the tutorial should work (but the Net Service Name doesn’t have to be “orclSH”; any valid name will work as long as it’s the same name in both places).

Now to creating the ODBC Data Source.  The tutorial states that the Data Source Name must be the same as the instance name.  It doesn’t have to be; you can choose any name you like (note the Data Source Name specified in the ODBC Driver Configuration window has nothing to do with the Data Source Name entered in the Connection Pool window in the Administration Tool – the former is just an arbitrary name for the data source; the latter is the value of a Net Service Name from the “tnsnames.ora” file).

The TNS Service Name entered in the ODBC Driver Configuration window must be the same as the Net Service Name you want to test, for example “orclSH”.  Now the value of the TNS Service Name specified in the tutorial, “orcl”, is a Database Service Name.  Using a Database Service Name won’t work, which is probably why you also got an error when testing the connection from the ODBC Driver Configuration window (the tutorial states that the TNS Service Name can be equal to the Service Name, but this is not correct, in general).  However, it’s very common for a “tsnnames.ora” file to contain an entry that maps a Net Service Name of “orcl” onto a Database Service Name of “orcl”:

orcl =
   (DESCRIPTION =
      (ADDRESS_LIST =
         (ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = tcp)(HOST = hp)(PORT = 1521))
      )
      (CONNECT_DATA =
         (SERVICE_NAME = orcl)
      )
   )

If this is the case then using “orcl” for the TNS Service Name would work, but then you wouldn’t be testing the “orclSH” connection.  You probably don’t have this entry in your “tnsnames.ora” file or else you have a non-default Database Service Name (first verify that you can connect to the database from within SQL*Plus).  If you enter a value for the TNS Service Name equal to that of the Net Service Name from the “tnsnames.ora” file then the connection test should be successful.

OBIEE 11g Installation FAQ

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Intro:

Oracle has many decades of experience in delivering “difficult to install” applications, and in the case of OBI 11g it doesn’t disappoint.  While the RCU Configuration and Installation procedures are straightforward, the “devil is in the prerequisites”.  If your machine has a static IP, then the installation should be problem free, but if your machine uses DHCP – as is quite likely if you’re evaluating the product – then you may well find yourself tossing a few expletives in Oracle’s direction.

Q: Will OBIEE 11g work on Windows XP?

You’ll see warnings about a workstation class machine.  For example in the “Enterprise Manager”, under “Business Intelligence”, “coreapplication” you’ll see:

  WARNING: The Oracle BI Presentation Services server is running on a workstation class machine (Windows 2000 Workstation, Windows XP Professional, etc.).  Number of concurrent users may be severely limited by the operating system.

but it will work. 

Q: I’ve got a 2 GB laptop.  Can I install OBI 11g?

Well, you can, but the experience will not be a happy one.  Whereas OBI 10g was satisfied with (1.5-2) GB of memory, OBI 11g is a much more demanding mistress when it comes to hardware resources and will not perform with anything that could be called enthusiasm short of (3-4) GB – and even then you’ll do well to synchronize boot times with coffee breaks.

By way of comparison, with a 3 GB machine you can install and configure OBI 11g in an hour and 10 minutes, whereas with an otherwise identical 1.75 GB machine it takes almost four and a half hours.

Q: Can I run OBI 11g with IE 6?

No.  If you try to bring up Answers & Dashboards using IE 6, you’ll get a message saying it’s not supported and access will be denied.

Q: The “Quick Installation Guide” says to follow the instructions for DHCP hosts in the “Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Planning Guide”, but that contains nothing on DHCP?

As you may well have noticed, the OBI 11g documentation has more than its fair share of broken links and incorrect references.  In the OBI 11g documentation references to DHCP occur in both the “Quick Installation Guide” and the “Installation Guide”.  In each guide section “4.1 Before You Install Oracle Business Intelligence” states:

  If you plan to install Oracle Business Intelligence on a computer that uses Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol (DHCP), you must perform additional configuration tasks before you install Oracle Business Intelligence.  See "Installing on DHCP Hosts" in Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Planning Guide.

Unfortunately the “Oracle Fusion Middleware Installation Planning Guide” does not contain any references to DHCP.  Instead try:

  Oracle Fusion Middleware Quick Installation Guide for Oracle Portal, Forms, Reports and Discoverer 11g Release 1 (11.1.1)

section “3.6 Installing on DHCP Host” at:

  http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E12839_01/install.1111/e12003.pdf

or

  Oracle Database Installation Guide 10g Release 2 (10.2) for Microsoft Windows (32-Bit)

section “2.4.1 Installing Oracle Database on DHCP Computers” at:

  http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/B19306_01/install.102/b14316/ reqs.htm#BABGCEAI 

Q: The installation goes okay until near the end when cc and ps fail to configure correctly?

You will probably be able to bring up the Admin Console and the Enterprise Manager, but not Answers & Dashboards or the Admin tool (note, just because all the components are marked as “up” in the Enterprise Manager doesn’t mean that OBI 11g will function correctly).

You’re probably using DHCP and have not got the correct setting in the hosts file (see the following entry for a workaround).

Q: I am trying to install OBI 11g and I can’t get beyond the Admin screen?

If the installer stops at the “Administrator User Details Screen” try installing a loopback adapter or adjusting the settings in your hosts file (see the previous entry for a workaround).

Q: When I run “Start BI Services” from the “Oracle Business Intelligence” menu, I get “Error 500--Internal Server Error” when the web browser opens?

Let’s call it a feature.  If you get the message “Error 500--Internal Server Error – From RFC 2068 Hypertext Transfer Protocol -- HTTP/1.1: – 10.5.1 500 Internal Server Error – The server encountered an unexpected condition which prevented it from fulfilling the request”, then just refresh the browser (F5), and the logon screen should appear.

Q: Answers keeps saying Unable to Sign In, but I’ve checked the logon and password?

Probably failed installation. try re-installing.

Where to copy sh.rpd in OBIEE installation folder??

Many OBIEE enthusiasts found this problem.

Where to paste the downloaded SH.zip contents.
If you are following Oracle by Example, then you must download the sh.zip folder and copy the contents in the OBIEE installation folder as told below.

Q: The installing OBIEE tutorial says to copy file sh.rpd from <InstallDrive>\SetupFiles, but there’s no SetupFiles directory?

The instructions here can be a little confusing.  Oracle first states that

  The installation creates a sample repository file (paint.rpd) in <InstallDrive>\OracleBI\server\Repository.

and then it goes on to say

  Copy sh.rpd from \SetupFiles to \OracleBI\server\Repository.

In the prerequisites for the tutorial Oracle states that you must have access to schema SH (which you will have by default in the later database versions).  The small print associated with this section describes how to download file “SH.zip”, and in doing so gives the impression that the download is only required if you don’t have the SH schema installed.  However, “SH.zip” is required irrespective of whether you have access to the SH schema.  You’ll find the file you’re looking for, “sh.prd”, in directory “SH/sh” after you unzip the file. 

Q: I’ve downloaded “SH.zip” to the SetupFiles folder, but I can’t find “sh.rpd” / “SH_PartTwo.rpd”?

A number of the tutorials require, as a prerequisite, that you carry out the following task:

  Create a directory named SetupFiles under <InstallDrive>. Download and extract the SH.zip file from here to this directory named SetupFiles.

Having done the download for one tutorial, then – like any reasonably minded person – when you see the same words in the next tutorial you are apt to assume that you have already completed the task, and conclude that you don’t have to do it again.  Not so!  Different tutorials use different versions of “SH.zip”.  For example, tutorials one and three use the same version, one that contains a repository called “sh.rpd”; tutorial two uses a version that contains a repository called “SH_PartTwo.rpd”; tutorial eight also uses a repository called “sh.rpd”, but it's a different repository from the one used by tutorials one and three:

  Tutorials 1&3:

 http://www.oracle.com/technology/ ...... obe/obe_bi/bi_ee_1013/saw/files/SH.zip 10

  Tutorial 2:

 http://www.oracle.com/technology/ ...... obe/obe_bi/bi_ee_1013/bi_admin/files/SH.zip

  Tutorial 8:

 http://www.oracle.com/technology/ ...... obe/obe_bi/bi_ee_1013/mude/files/SH.zip