Configuring an Oracle Business Intelligence

Enterprise Edition Resource in Metadata

Manager 8.6.1

© 2009 Informatica Corporation

Abstract
This article shows how to create and configure an Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) resource in
Metadata Manager 8.6.1 to extract metadata from OBIEE 10.1.

Supported Versions
y Metadata Manager 8.6.1

Table of Contents
Overview ........................................................................................................................................................................... 2
Before You Begin.............................................................................................................................................................. 2
Install the Metadata Manager Agent............................................................................................................................. 3
Configure Permissions ................................................................................................................................................. 3
Convert the Repository RPD File to a UDML File......................................................................................................... 3
Enable OBIEE Web Services ....................................................................................................................................... 3
Create the Resource......................................................................................................................................................... 4
Troubleshooting ................................................................................................................................................................ 5
Reference ......................................................................................................................................................................... 6
Objects Extracted ......................................................................................................................................................... 7
Alias Physical Table ..................................................................................................................................................... 8
Data Lineage ................................................................................................................................................................ 8
Number of Child Nodes in Load Monitor ...................................................................................................................... 8

Overview
Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE) is a business intelligence tool that includes analysis and
reporting capabilities. Metadata Manager extracts schema and reporting metadata from OBIEE. The schema metadata
includes the presentation, business, and physical models.
This article shows how to create and configure an OBIEE resource in Metadata Manager 8.6.1 to extract metadata
from OBIEE 10.1.

Before You Begin

Before you configure an OBIEE resource, complete the following tasks:
y Install the Metadata Manager Agent.
y Configure permissions.
y Convert the repository RPD file to a UDML file.
y Enable OBIEE web services.

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Install the Metadata Manager Agent
The Metadata Manager Agent is a lightweight program that Metadata Manager uses to access metadata sources and
extract source metadata.
If the Metadata Manager Service runs on Windows, the Metadata Manager Agent runs on the nodes where the
Metadata Manager Service runs in a PowerCenter domain. The agent uses a port number one higher than the
Metadata Manager Service. You can configure the port number in the PowerCenter Administration Console. A
separate instance of the Metadata Manager Agent runs for each Metadata Manager Service on a machine. The agent
runs in the following directory:
<PowerCenter Installation Directory>\server\tomcat\mmagentapps\mmagent\

If the Metadata Manager Service runs on UNIX, you must install the Metadata Manager Agent separately on a
Windows machine. The Metadata Manager Agent does not run on UNIX.
For more information about installing the Metadata Manager Agent, see the Metadata Manager Administrator Guide.

Configure Permissions
The OBIEE user account for which you provide the user name and password must have read permission on the
metadata that Metadata Manager extracts from OBIEE. The metadata includes subject areas, report folders, and
reports.

Convert the Repository RPD File to a UDML File

When you load an OBIEE resource, Metadata Manager connects to the Presentation Server to extract the metadata for
the reports. However, Metadata Manager cannot extract the schema metadata directly from the repository. The OBIEE
schema metadata is stored in an RPD file. Because Metadata Manager cannot read RPD files, you must convert the
RPD file to a UDML file.
Metadata Manager extracts the schema metadata from the UDML file, extracts the reports from the Presentation
Server, and links the reporting metadata to the presentation model when you load the resource.
OBIEE has a utility program to convert an RPD file to a UDML file. This utility is part of the OBIEE server installation.

To convert the RPD file to a UDML file:

1. Open the following file:
<OBIEE home directory>\server\Config\NQSConfig.INI

2. To determine the RPD file being used by the Presentation Server, locate the following entry:
[ REPOSITORY ]
Star = <RPD file>.rpd, DEFAULT;

< RPD file>.rpd is the name of the RPD file.

3. Use the following command to convert the repository RPD file to a UDML file:
<OBIEE home directory>\server\Bin\nQUDMLGen.exe -U <user name> -P <password>
-R <RPD file>.rpd -O <UDML file>.udml -N -Q -8

Enable OBIEE Web Services

Metadata Manager uses OBIEE web services to extract metadata from OBIEE. As a result, you must enable OBIEE
web services. OBIEE web services is available to licensed users of OBIEE. The OBIEE installer generates the
appropriate licensing entries in the analyticsweblicense.xml file based on the installation key.
To verify that OBIEE web services are enabled, check that the kmsgLicenseSOAPAccess entry exists in the following
file:
<OBIEE home directory>\web\config\analyticsweblicense.xml

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Create the Resource
When you create an OBIEE resource, you configure the name and description, configure connection information, and
add schedules.

To create an OBIEE resource:

1. On the Load page, click the New Resource icon.
The Resource Selection window appears.
2. Click Business Intelligence > Oracle Business Intelligence.
3. Click Next.
The Properties page appears.
4. Enter the following information:
Property Description
Name Name for the resource. The resource appears in the Resource List section with this name.
The name must be unique and be between 1 and 256 characters. It cannot include the
following characters:
/\:*'?"<>|[]
Description Description for the resource. Description cannot exceed 4,000 characters.

5. Click Next.
The Configuration page appears.

6. Configure the following resource properties:

Property Description
Agent URL Host name and port number of the Metadata Manager Agent. You can use the
Metadata Manager Agent installed on any machine.
Check for unassigned Checks for unassigned connections between the metadata source repository and the
connections underlying database schemas. Use this option to view data lineage between this
repository and other repositories.
Source system version Name and version of the metadata source. You cannot edit this field.

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 Property Description
Always use latest source Uses the metadata source file in the location you provide each time you load the
files resource. If you enable this option, the path to the file must include an absolute path
that is accessible from the Metadata Manager Agent machine. If you disable this
option, Metadata Manager copies the metadata source file to the Metadata Manager
application directory when you finish configuring the resource. Each time you load
the resource, Metadata Manager uses the copied metadata source file in the
Metadata Manager application directory.
Server URL URL of the Presentation Server. Use the following format:
http://<server name>:<port>/analytics/saw.dll
Login User User name for the Presentation Server.
Login Password Password for the Presentation Server user name.
Repository Subset Folder path in the Presentation Server that contains the reports that you want to
extract. For example, use “/” to indicate the root repository path, use “/shared” to
indicate the shared repository path, or use “/users/<user_name>/<folder_name>” to
indicate a personal folder path.
Default is “/”.
File OBIEE repository file in UDML format.
You export the repository from the Oracle BI Administration tool to an RPD file, then
convert the RPD file to a UDML file. For more information, see Convert the
Repository RPD File to a UDML File.

7. To add a metadata source file, click Select.

If you configured Metadata Manager to use the latest source files, include an absolute path to the file that is
accessible from the Metadata Manager Agent machine.
If you did not configure Metadata Manager to use the latest source files, select a file and click OK.
8. Click Next.
The Schedules window appears.
9. To add a schedule, select Attach a Schedule, and select a schedule in the Schedule list.
If you have not created a schedule, you can assign a schedule to the resource after you create the resource.
10. Click Finish.
The Resource appears in the Resource List section on the Load page.

Troubleshooting
When I load an OBIEE resource, the Metadata Manager Agent reports the following error:
Not enough storage is available to process this command.

To load a large amount of metadata for an OBIEE resource, you can increase the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) heap
size for the Metadata Manager Agent to increase performance. For example, increase the JVM heap size to 1 GB.

To increase the JVM heap size:

1. Open MIRSetup.xml from the following location in a text editor:
<Metadata Manager Agent Installation Directory>\conf

2. Add the following option to the <RunTime> section:

<Options>-Xmx1024m</Options>

3. Save MIRSetup.xml.

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4. Restart the Metadata Manager Agent service.

When I load an OBIEE resource, I get the following error:

MITI.MIRException: [MBI_OBIEE_E0002] Failed to login as '<user_name>' on server
'http://<server name>:<port>/analytics/'

This error can occur due to the following reasons:

y The user name and password provided to log in to the Presentation Server is incorrect. Verify that the user name
and password are correctly entered in the OBIEE resource properties.
y The Presentation Server URL is incorrect. Verify that the following format is used in the OBIEE resource
properties:
http://<server name>:<port>/analytics/saw.dll

The default port for Apache Tomcat Server is 9704. The default port for Microsoft Internet Information Services
(IIS) is 90. To verify that the URL is correct, access the following URL and log in with the user account provided in
the OBIEE resource properties:
http://<server name>:<port>/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard

When I load an OBIEE resource, I get the following error:

Subject Area 'WB_GEN Marketing Program Contacts' available on the Presentation
Server is not defined in the UDML file.
MITI.MIRException: [MBI_OBIEE_F0019] The UDML file does not correspond to the RPD
used by the Presentation Server.

This error occurs when the UDML file specified in the OBIEE resource properties does not contain the same metadata
as the RPD file used by the Presentation Server. Convert the RPD file currently being used by the Presentation Server
to a UDML file.

When I load an OBIEE resource, I get the following error:

Consistency: pnc.Power of PNC" UPGRADE ID 2164832738 ICON INDEX 6: a Database
Catalog must not contain any Model Objects.
The Model is not consistent.

This error occurs when objects in the UDML file have UPGRADE ID information which Metadata Manager cannot
extract. When you convert the RPD file to a UDML file, make sure to use the –N parameter. This parameter removes
the UPGRADE ID information from the UDML file. Use the following command:
<OBIEE home directory>\server\Bin\nQUDMLGen.exe -U <user name> -P <password>
-R <RPD file>.rpd -O <UDML file>.udml -N -Q -8

When I load an OBIEE resource, I get the following error:

An error occurred while importing model <UDML_File>.
MITI.MIRException: org.xml.sax.SAXParseException: Invalid byte 1 of 1-byte UTF-8
sequence.
MITI.MIRException: [MBI_OBIEE_F0016] No Oracle BI Server model could be imported.

This error occurs when the UDML file contains characters that are not in the UTF-8 character set. When you convert
the RPD file to a UDML file, make sure to use the –8 parameter. This parameter ensures that the UDML file uses the
UTF-8 character set. Use the following command:
<OBIEE home directory>\server\Bin\nQUDMLGen.exe -U <user name> -P <password>
-R <RPD file>.rpd -O <UDML file>.udml -N -Q -8

Reference
This section provides reference information about the metadata extracted by Metadata Manager from OBIEE. It
includes information about the following items:
y Objects extracted
y Alias physical table

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y Data lineage
y Number of child nodes in Load Monitor

Objects Extracted
The following table lists the objects that Metadata Manager extracts or does not extract from OBIEE:
Extracted Not Extracted
AliasPhysicalTable Axis
AnswersReport Chart
BusinessModel Database
Catalog Hierarchy
Column HierarchyLevelAssociation
Criteria Operation
Dimension Shortcuts created under display
folders
Display Folders
Text
DynamicVariable
View
Folder
Workspace
InitializationBlocks
Key
KeyColumn
KeyLogicalColumn
Layout
Level
LevelAssociation
LevelAttribute
LevelKey
LogicalColumn
LogicalForeignKey
LogicalJoin
LogicalTable
Measure
Model
Note
PhysicalColumn
PhysicalForeignKey
PhysicalJoin
PhysicalSelectTable
PhysicalTable
PivotTable
PresentationCatalog

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 Extracted Not Extracted
PresentationColumn
PresentationTable
Report
RepositoryInitializationBlock
RepositoryVariables
Results
Schema
SessionInitBlock
SessionVariable
SessionVariables
StaticVariable
StaticVariables
StoredProcedureTable
Table
Variables

Alias Physical Table

An alias physical table is a synonym object of a physical table. When Metadata Manager loads an OBIEE resource, it
extracts physical table columns and copies them to the corresponding alias physical table. Metadata Manager sets the
class type for a copied column as a physical column, even if the original column is a key column or a normal column.

Data Lineage
Metadata Manager displays data lineage between columns and tables in the OBIEE physical model and other
resources. In addition, Metadata Manager displays data lineage for the following OBIEE objects:
y Tables and table columns
y Logical tables, logical columns, and measures
y Dimensions and levels
y Presentation tables, presentation columns, and measures

Number of Child Nodes in Load Monitor

When you load an OBIEE resource, Metadata Manager displays the nodes from which it extracts metadata in the Load
Monitor. Metadata Manager displays 300 child nodes for any parent node in the Load Monitor. To see a complete list of
all nodes extracted, view the Load Monitor events as a PDF.

Author
Alison Taylor
Technical Writer

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Acknowledgements
Erwin Dral
Principal Product Manager

Umer Farooque
Development Manager

Ramesh Kumar
Principal Technical Support Engineer

Vasu Nagarajan
Manager QA Engineering

Vivek Singla
Senior Software Engineer