12

Managing Backups, Development Changes,

and Security

Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Objectives

After completing this lesson, you should be able to:

• Describe the MDL import and export utilities
• Use snapshots to manage metadata changes
• Explain the different levels at which you can perform
version management
• Perform security and user management tasks through the
OWB Design Center graphical user interface

12 - 2 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Lesson Agenda

• MDL Export and Import

• Manage metadata change using Snapshots
• Version management
– Generation comments
– MDL annotations
– Collection snapshots
• Warehouse Builder users and roles
– Security parameters

12 - 3 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Metadata Loader Utilities (MDL)

• Copy and move metadata for backup, history

management, or version management
• Accessible for any type of object in the Projects Navigator,
Locations Navigator, and Globals Navigator panels
• Export utility
– Extracts metadata objects from a workspace and writes the
information into a ZIP format file
• Import utility
– Reads the metadata information from an exported MDL file
– Creates, replaces, or merges metadata objects into a
workspace

12 - 4 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Uses of Metadata Loader Utilities

Use the Metadata Loader utilities to accomplish any of the

following:
• Back up a workspace
• Populate a new workspace
• Copy metadata in multiple-user development environments
• Upgrade a workspace

Repository Backup

Upgrade

Populate a new
repository

12 - 5 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Exporting Objects

• Before exporting, ensure that you have:

– Required access privileges
– Sufficient storage space
• Ensure that all the objects you select for export in a single
export task belong to the same navigator panel.
• Keep in mind:
– Exporting a subset of objects also exports their parent
objects.
– Export the objects referenced by a set of objects by selecting
the “export all object dependencies” option.

12 - 6 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Importing Objects

• You must have read/write access to use the metadata

loader import utility.
• In a multi-user development environment, lock metadata
objects before importing, because import alters the
repository.
• Back up your repository either using the Export utility or
metadata snapshots before importing a large set of
objects.
• Ensure that the base language of the import MDL file is the
same as the base language of the target repository.

12 - 8 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Accessing the MDL Utilities

To export, from File menu, select Export > Warehouse Builder

Metadata
To import, from File menu, select Import > Warehouse Builder
Metadata

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 Metadata Loader Log File

When exporting or importing

metadata, you can specify the
log file name and the path
where you want to save the
log file.

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 Importing Metadata from Previous Versions

While importing metadata, the MDL Import utility automatically

upgrades metadata created with previous versions of
Warehouse Builder to the current version.

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 Upgrading the Repository

You can upgrade repositories from earlier versions of

Warehouse Builder (10g R2 and 11g R1) to OWB 11.2.

12 - 12 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Lesson Agenda

• MDL Export and Import

• Manage metadata change using Snapshots
• Version management
– Generation comments
– MDL annotations
– Collection snapshots
• Warehouse Builder users and roles
– Security parameters

12 - 13 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Manage Life-Cycle Changes

4. Reimport
1. Change 2. Take snapshot 3. Change Channels
Channels. before change. source Channels. metadata.

6. Synchronize
5. Invoke Impact 7. Take snapshot
mapping tables.
Analysis Diagram. after change.

Sorry…

9. Cancel
8. Deploy changes: change!! 10. Redeploy the original:
• Replace mapping. No problem. • Replace mapping again.
Simply restore
original snapshot!

12 - 14 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Manage Life-Cycle Changes

4. Reimport
1. Change 2. Take snapshot 3. Change Channels
Channels. before change. source Channels. metadata.

6. Synchronize
5. Invoke Impact 7. Take snapshot
mapping tables.
Analysis Diagram. after change.

Sorry…

9. Cancel
8. Deploy changes: change!! 10. Redeploy the original:
• Replace mapping. No problem. • Replace mapping again.
Simply restore
original snapshot!

12 - 15 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Managing Metadata Changes by Using Snapshots

• Metadata snapshots enable you to:

– Back up and restore your metadata
– Maintain a history of metadata changes
– Compare different versions of the metadata
• There are two types of snapshots:
– Full snapshot
– Signature snapshot
• You can perform the following tasks with snapshots:
– Create, delete, or add components to a snapshot
– Compare one snapshot with another object or snapshot
– Restore snapshots
– Export and import snapshots

12 - 16 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Creating Metadata Snapshot

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 Creating Metadata Snapshot

12 - 18 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Using Change Manager

Use toolbar icons for common tasks: restore,

delete, and compare

Change Manager maintains the details of the time a snapshot was created, the
owner, and the type of the snapshot. It also shows the components of the snapshot.

Menu options

Right-click the snapshot and select

Security to set access privileges to the
snapshot.

12 - 19 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Exporting and Importing Snapshots

– Snapshots are stored in the database, in

contrast to Metadata Loader exports,
which are stored as separate disk files.
– You can export snapshots to disk files.

12 - 20 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Quiz

When you export a snapshot, an MDL file containing the

snapshot is created.
a. True
b. False

12 - 21 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Lesson Agenda

• MDL Export and Import

• Manage metadata change using Snapshots
• Version management
– Generation comments
– MDL annotations
– Collection snapshots
• Warehouse Builder users and roles
– Security parameters

12 - 22 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Version Management of Design Objects

• Version Management is an important part of a multi-

configuration management strategy.
• For the smooth transition of objects from one system to
another, you can version your objects at the following
levels:
– Code level, using the Generation Comments feature
– Metadata (MDL) file level, using the
annotations in the Import/Export feature
– Repository-level versioning:
—
Collections
—
Snapshots

Dev QA Prod

12 - 23 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Version Management:
Using Generation Code Comments

12 - 25 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Version Management:
Using Annotations in Export/Import
Using the annotations while exporting or importing metadata,
you can version-control the MDL files (the metadata used to
move between environments).

Specify annotations when

exporting objects to an MDL file. While importing, the File
Summary dialog box
displays the annotation.

12 - 26 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Version Management: Using Collections and
Snapshots to Version-Control

• Repository-based versioning relies on two features:

– Collections
– Metadata snapshots
• Key steps:
1. Group a set of objects in a collection.
2. Create a snapshot to version the collection.
3. Compare objects in a snapshot with current workspace
objects or with different versions of the same objects in
another snapshot.
• To revert to the old version, restore the snapshot.
– When you restore a collection from a snapshot, you restore
both the collection and the actual objects.

12 - 27 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Version Management: Using Collections and
Snapshots to Version-Control

2
1

12 - 28 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Quiz

If you are exporting your whole OWB project to a production

environment and you want to make sure it is versioned, from
the following options, select the method that you will use:
a. Generation comments for selected objects labelled as
production
b. MDL file annotation marked with date and production build
information
c. Create a collection of all the objects and snapshot it

12 - 29 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Practice 12-1 Overview: Managing Metadata
Changes, Code, and MDL File Versions
This practice covers the following topics:
• Using snapshots for managing metadata changes
• Performing version management
– Using generation code comments and annotations in an
MDL file

12 - 30 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Lesson Agenda

• MDL Export and Import

• Manage metadata change using Snapshots
• Version management
– Generation comments
– MDL annotations
– Collection snapshots
• Warehouse Builder users and roles
– Security parameters

12 - 31 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Warehouse Builder Users

• Warehouse Builder users are regular database users.

• Users can be created in the OWB client in one of the
following ways:
– On top of existing DB users
– As a completely new user (OWB creates a new DB user)
• If you are an OWB user, you have access to the OWB
workspace.
• If you are an OWB user, you can be:
– An administrator of the workspace
– An owner of a target
– A regular repository user without owning a target
• Control is given to users via roles or privileges.

12 - 32 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Warehouse Builder User Considerations

• If you need a target user, register it in the OWB Security

node in Globals Navigator panel.
– The user is associated with a control center.
– The user gets access to synonyms for the audit APIs.
– You can deploy mappings only into a target user.
• You can deploy DDL objects, such as tables, into a
nontarget user.

12 - 33 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Graphical UI for Security Management

Only the workspace owner and other

users granted the ADMINISTRATOR role
see the Security node.

12 - 34 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Workspace Users Roles and Privileges

Important: By default, when you create a new user, that user has
the EVERYONE role, which has full control on all objects. To
enable metadata security, be sure to edit all user profiles and
restrict the access that the EVERYONE role has to objects each
user creates. Note that the workspace owner has both the
EVERYONE and ADMINISTRATOR roles granted to it.

12 - 35 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Workspace Users Roles and Privileges

12 - 36 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 EVERYONE Role

The Administrator can use the System Privilege link to deselect

the privileges assigned to this role.

12 - 37 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 ADMINISTRATOR Role

Registered OWB users can be granted the ADMINISTRATOR

role by moving them to the grantees list here.

The privileges for an

ADMINISTRATOR
roles cannot be
edited. Right?

12 - 38 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Object-Level Security

Select the object in the navigator panel. From the View menu,
select Security to set object-level security.

12 - 39 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Access Privilege Policies

• Maximum access privilege policy

– The default security policy
– “No security”
– All users get the object privilege of
FULL_CONTROL through the EVERYONE role.
• Minimum access privilege policy
– “Least privileges”
– All users get the object privilege of
NONE through the PUBLIC role.
– You can right-click any object in the
Projects Navigator panel and set its security separately.

12 - 40 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Setting Security Parameters

Minimum security is the default,

giving all users full access to all objects

12 - 41 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Setting Security Parameters

Persist location password in metadata property

eliminates the need to reenter a password.

12 - 42 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Quiz

The EVERYONE role cannot be revoked from any user.

a. True
b. False

12 - 43 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Summary

In this lesson, you should have learned how to:

• Use the MDL utilities to export and import metadata
• Use snapshots to manage metadata changes
• Version objects at various levels (code, MDL files, and at
repository level using collections and snapshots)
• Perform security and user-management tasks through the
OWB Design Center graphical user interface

12 - 44 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.

 Practice 12-2 Overview: Managing Security

This practice covers the following topics:

• Assigning security by using the Design Center graphical
interface

12 - 45 Copyright © 2009, Oracle. All rights reserved.