1. What is Repository Migration?

It is the process of migrating repositories between databases at various levels of project such as Development, testing, or production environment. 2. What is call interface? It is the interface through which you want the application to communicate with the underlying database. 3. Types of security in OBIEE and how can we achieve the same? OBIEE security Provides ability to authenticate users through login Controls user access to data Secures access control on object and data levels Authentication and Authorization are the two terms related to security Authentication: Process by which an application verifies that a user has the right to log in and access data. Verification through user name and password Supports many methods of authenticating users, including: Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (LDAP) Siebel Analytics Repository authentication Default method used for authentication Microsoft Active Directory (ADSI) External Database authentication Authorization: Process by which an application verifies what a user or group is authorized to: View, referred to as permissions Defined for server and Web objects Perform, referred to as privileges Defined for Web objects only Authentication and authorization is enforced on two levels: Object-level security Data-level security 4. What is Normalization?

Normalization is the process of efficiently organizing data in a database. There are two goals of the normalization process: eliminating redundant data (for example, storing the same data in more than one table) and ensuring data dependencies make sense (only storing related data in a table). Both of these are worthy goals as they reduce the amount of space a database consumes and ensure that data is logically stored.

The Normal Forms The database community has developed a series of guidelines for ensuring that databases are normalized. These are referred to as normal forms and are numbered from one (the lowest form of normalization, referred to as first normal form or 1NF) through five (fifth normal form or 5NF). In practical applications, you'll often see 1NF, 2NF, and 3NF along with the occasional 4NF. Fifth normal form is very rarely seen and won't be discussed in this article. First Normal Form (1NF) First normal form (1NF) sets the very basic rules for an organized database:

Eliminate duplicative columns from the same table. Create separate tables for each group of related data and identify each row with a unique column or set of columns (the primary key).

Second Normal Form (2NF) Second normal form (2NF) further addresses the concept of removing duplicative data:

Meet all the requirements of the first normal form. Remove subsets of data that apply to multiple rows of a table and place them in separate tables. Create relationships between these new tables and their predecessors through the use of foreign keys.

Third Normal Form (3NF) Third normal form (3NF) goes one large step further:

Meet all the requirements of the second normal form. Remove columns that are not dependent upon the primary key.

Fourth Normal Form (4NF) Finally, fourth normal form (4NF) has one additional requirement:

Meet all the requirements of the third normal form.

A relation is in 4NF if it has no multi-valued dependencies.

Remember, these normalization guidelines are cumulative. For a database to be in 2NF, it must first fulfill all the criteria of a 1NF database. 5. What format should the Business Logical Model be in? Business Model should implement the customer's conceptual data model. 6. How can we convert a 3NF physical design to a Star Schema Logical Model? Using ETL tool (Informatica), transformations are done by etl tool. Source Qualifier -> Expression transformations -> Aggregator transformations -> Target 7. Explain the relationship between a Logical Table and a Dimension. Logical Tables are used to create drill down paths or dimensions like Dim_Organizaition. 8. What is fragmentation? 9. Which version of OBIEE 10.1.3.4 10. Which Default sever is installed along with OBIEE. 11. What is Aggregate Navigation? Aggregate tables store precomputed results from measures that have been aggregated over a set of dimensional attributes. Each aggregate table column contains data at a given set of levels. For example, a monthly sales table might contain a precomputed sum of the revenue for each product in each store during each month. You configure this metadata in the Logical Table Source dialog box. Using aggregate tables is a very popular technique for speeding up query response times in decision support systems. If you are writing SQL queries or using a tool that only understands what physical tables exist (and not their meaning), taking advantage of aggregate tables and putting them to good use becomes more difficult as the number of aggregate tables increases. The aggregate navigation capability of the Siebel Analytics Server, however, allows queries to use the information stored in aggregate tables automatically, without query authors or query tools having to specify aggregate tables in their queries. The Siebel Analytics Server allows you to concentrate on asking the right business question; the server decides which tables provide the fastest answers.

Summary tables store data that is aggregated and/or summarized for performance reasons (i.e., to improve the performance of business queries). Most business queries (i.e., approximately 80%) will run against summary tables. Data is aggregated by combining multiple concepts together and/or combining large amounts of detailed data together. Most business queries analyze a summarization or aggregation of data (i.e., facts) across one or more dimensions. Therefore, a summary table may use multiple dimensions. For example, a table that analyzes accounts by region by customer by service by month uses four dimensions.

Aggregate persistence wizard It will cause much trouble if we have to create these summarized tables manually, fortunately OBIEE provide a wizard-guided tool for us to create this summary tables automatically and It is called the aggregate persistence wizard! For a project that use Oracle database as the only data source, you could use either OBIEE aggregation tables or database materialized view for speeding the summary data query, But for a project with multiple physical data source or any single data source with no 'materialized view' feature, We could use OBIEE aggregation tables for the speedup purpose!

12. Components of OBIEE BI sever Presentation services Scheduler Delivers Bi publisher Catalog manager

13. Setting aggregation in rpd is better or in Pivot table? Rpd is better 14. Explain the Data Modeling Fundamentals and Concepts Different Types of Data modeling (Physical & dimensional) Data modeling is a method used to define and analyze data requirements needed to support the business processes of an organization.

15. What are the different utilities in Siebel Analytics? Explain about the Admin tool, odbc client & catalog. Administration Tool: provides a number of wizards and utilities to aid you in performing various tasks like Replace Column, Oracle BI Event Tables, to translate a string, Rename Wizard etc. ODBC Client: One of the features you get when doing an OBIEE install on windows is the ODBC Client application. It appears to by a demo/check tool to test your sql when developing an application which uses an ODBC connection to the BI-server. However the tool is - as you state - capable of connecting to any ODBC data source. Presentation catalog (subject areas) allow you to show different views of a business model to different sets of users. Presentation catalogs have to be populated with contents from a single business model. They cannot span business models. 16. Explain about the Visibility Model in Siebel Analytics Visibility concept is comparable to what is commonly referred to as application security. It is a first layer of access restrictions, which defines the organization slice of data as well as functions made available to system users.

2 components View access visibility drives access rights to Seibel views Record access visibility uses views in combination with user ids, positions and organization and determines the number of records that are accessible.

17. What is a Physical SQL, NQQuery.log, NQSConfig.ini, Cluster.Config? Physical SQL: Oracle BI Server Translates incoming logical SQL in to optimized physical SQL. Logical sql is sent from presentation services to Bi server and physical sql is sent from bi server to database. NQSConfig.ini : It is a configuration file used by the Siebel Analytics Server at startup Specifies values that control processing, such as: o Defining the repository (.rpd) to load o Enabling or disabling caching of results o Setting server performance parameters

NQServer.log: This log file primarly contains messages about the BI Server startup and shutdown, whether usage tracking has started correctly, which subject areas are loaded and so on. It can be useful in diagnosing whether the BI Server is up or not, whether usage tracking is working and so on, but its not particularly useful from an optimization perspective. NQQuery.log : records information about query requests DBFeatures.ini: It is a configuration file used by the Siebel Analytics Server. Specifies values that control SQL generation Defines the features supported by each database

Cluster.Config Cluster Server Feature o Allows up to 16 Siebel Analytics Servers in a network domain to act as a single server o Servers in cluster share requests from multiple Siebel Analytics clients, including Siebel Analytics Answers and Siebel Analytics Delivers Cluster Controller is primary component of the Cluster Server feature o Monitors status of resources in a cluster and performs session assignment as resources change o Supports detection of server failures and failover for ODBC clients of failed servers

18. Explain the difference between Integrated and Stand Alone Analytics 19. How is the Event polling and purging done in Siebel Analytics? Event Polling is a method of purging the cache. Event tables are tables which the OBIEE server polls regularly, when it finds a row in the table is processes (Update data or updated row) it and purges any cache entries for the table referenced in the row. Purging cache is the process of deleting the entries from the query cache. In Siebel Analytics you can purge the cache entries in the following ways: a) Manually, using the Administration tool cache manager facility (in online mode) b) Automatically, by setting the Cache persistence time field in the physical table dialog box for a particular table. c) Automatically, by setting the Siebel Analytics server event polling table. d) Automatically, as the cache storage space fills up. 20. What is Star and Snow Flake schema? Where snow flaks can be used and which uses what schema (OLAP and OLTP)

Star and snowflake schemas Star and snowflake schema designs are mechanisms to separate facts and dimensions into separate tables. Snowflake schemas further separate the different levels of a hierarchy into separate tables. In either schema design, each table is related to another table with a primary key/foreign key relationship. Primary key/foreign key relationships are used in relational databases to define many-to-one relationships between tables.

OLTP: adopts an entity relationship(ER) model and an application-oriented database design. OLAP: adopts star, snowflake or fact constellation model and a subject-oriented database design. http://blog.jelecos.com/post/2009/9/3/Differences-between-OLAP-and-OLTP.aspx 21. Explain about the Performance Tuning techniques applied in OBIEE tool? Improve the performance of OBIEE: 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Alias Tables Using Aggregate Navigation Using Cache Connection Pool Turning Off Log Level Using Database Hints Using Where Clause

Other: There are a number of steps to improve the performance. Some of them include: 1. Implement caching mechanism 2. Use aggregate navigation 3. Limit the number of initialization blocks - (Disable or remove the unused initialization blocks and also reduce the number of init blocks in the Repository) 4. Carry out calculations in database 5. Use materialized views if possible 6. Alter the NQSONFIG.ini parameters Description of each:

1.) Alias Tables An Alias table (Alias) is a physical table with the type of Alias. It is a reference to a Physical table, and inherits all its column definitions and some properties from the Physical table. Alias Tables can be an important part of designing a physical layer OBIEE doesnt support the self-join, so we can use alias table to implement selfjoin in OBIEE.

The following is a list of the main reasons to create an alias table: To reuse an existing table more than once in your physical layer (without having to import it several times) To set up multiple alias tables, each with different keys, names, or joins To help you design sophisticated star or snowflake structures in the business model layer.

To create Alias table in Physical Layer, right click on Table -> New Object -> Alias, select source table if required. NOTE: In previous version we need to synchronize the alias table with the source tables but in OBIEE Alias will be automatically synchronized with source table, any change to Source Table will be immediately reflected in Alias Table. 2.) Using Aggregate Tables Aggregate tables store precomputed results from measures that have been aggregated over a set of dimensional attributes. Each aggregate table column contains data at a given set of levels. You should use aggregate tables to improve query performance. Aggregate tables contain Pre-calculated summarizations of data. It is much faster to retrieve an answer from an aggregate table than to recomputed the answer from thousands of rows of detail. The Oracle BI Server uses aggregate tables automatically, if they have been properly specified in the repository.

We will be using aggregate tables in physical layer if you required to create the aggregate tables then you can use Aggregate Persistent Wizard. Aggregate tables are also known as:

snapshots summary table materialized views (Oracle) materialized query tables (DB2) indexed views (SQL Server)

3) Connection Pool:Improperly defined connection pool would affect the OBIEE performance and user experience. Here are some of the things to consider while defining connection pool. Change the default maximum connections. The default is 10. Based on your system sage change the value that is more realistic to your system usage Create a separate connection pool for execution of session variables. Create a separate connection pool for the execution of aggregate persistence wizard. Remember that you need to give the schema user owner credentials for this connection pool as the wizard creates and drops tables. If needed create a separate connection pool for VVIPs. You can control who gets to use the connection pool based on the connection pool permissions.

4.) Turning off Log Level: Though query logging has immeasurable development value, do not use this for regular production users as the runtime logging cost is extremely high. Every log item is flushed to the disk, which in turn hurts query response. Also, note that the query log files are not created on per user or query basis, there is only one query log per OBIEE server and it would have exclusive lock on the log file, which kills concurrent performance. On the other hand, usage tracking has a very low runtime cost and is preferred to monitor the queries being used. The log file is NQQuery.log which resides in OracleBI Directory.

5) Using Database Hints: Database hints are instructions placed within a SQL statement that tell the database query optimizer the most efficient way to execute the statement. Hints override the optimizer's execution plan, so you can use hints to improve performance by forcing the optimizer to use a more efficient plan. Hints are database specific. The Oracle BI Server supports hints only for Oracle 8i, 9i, and 10g servers.

These are the following objects where you can apply the hint 1. 2. 3. 4. Physical Complex Join Physical foreign key Physical Table Object type Alias Physical Table Object type None

Hints that are well researched and planned can result in significantly better query performance. However, hints can also negatively affect performance if they result in a suboptimal execution plan. You should only add hints to a repository after you have tried to improve performance in the following ways:
o o o

Added physical indexes (or other physical changes) to the Oracle database. Made modeling changes within the server. Avoid creating hints for physical table and join objects that are queried often.

6.) Using Where Clause Filter The WHERE clause filter is used to constrain the physical tables referenced in the logical table source, If there are no constraints on the aggregate source, leave the WHERE clause filter blank. Filter applied in WHERE Clause will applied on physical table that will be result in restricted or required data, other data which is not necessary, will not be fetched each time when there is query on that table. 7.) Using Cache: Cache is component that improves performance by transparently storing data such that future requests for that data can be served faster. Like other application cache is not virtual memory in OBIEE. In OBIEE cache will be stored as file on Hard Disk in the form of files. To use the cache we need to enable it, to enable cache we need to edit the NQSConfig.ini as well as need to make the tables cacheable.

Following are the parameters from NQSConfig.ini that will be used in enabling the cache:ENABLE To enable the cache set the ENABLE parameter to YES.

(Refer cache management) 22. What is Siebel analytics clustering? How failover recognises the other server

Clustering capability allows for the deployment of a multi-server environment to better manage large volumes of users and to provide high availability. Cluster Server Feature Allows up to 16 Siebel Analytics Servers in a network domain to act as a single server Servers in cluster share requests from multiple Siebel Analytics clients, including Siebel Analytics Answers and Siebel Analytics Delivers Cluster Controller is primary component of the Cluster Server feature Monitors status of resources in a cluster and performs session assignment as resources change Supports detection of server failures and failover for ODBC clients of failed servers Load-Balancing Load-Balancing clusters are used to increase performance by distributing the load among different computing nodes in the cluster deployment. A load balancer, which is installed in front of all computing nodes, is responsible for distributing the load. In case of a node failure the remaining node(s) will take over to service future requests. Load-Balancing clusters also act as a HA clusters. This configuration is referred to as active-active deployment. Cluster Controller Failure The Cluster Controller supports detection of BI Server or BI Scheduler failures and failover for clients of failed servers.

The Cluster Controllers work on an active-passive model. All clients first attempt to connect to the Primary Cluster Controller. In the case where the Primary Cluster Controller is unavailable, clients will then connect to the Secondary Cluster Controller. The Secondary Cluster Controller then directs requests to BI Servers based on load and availability and to the active BI Scheduler instance. If the Primary later becomes available, all requests will then go to the Primary again. The Secondary Cluster Controller monitors the session count on each BI Server just like the Primary, but does not dictate the active Scheduler unless the Primary Cluster Controller is down. The Primary and Secondary Cluster Controllers monitor each other's life cycle. This is susceptible to a "Split-Brain" failure if the communication is down between the Cluster Controller instances, but each is up and can communicate with the other clients. In these cases, BI Servers are not affected, but the Scheduler may have two active instances at once. In rare cases, this may lead to double execution of jobs. When the line of communication comes back up, the Primary Cluster Controller will dictate to the cluster that only one Scheduler should be active. The possibility of a Split-Brain failure to occur is minimized by the fact that the Cluster components must exist on the same Local Area Network (LAN) and Multi-NIC is not supported for clustered deployments. If both Cluster Controllers are unavailable, BI Presentation Services will return an error to any new user attempting to login. Existing sessions will not be affected. 23. How to Bypass the Repository Authentication? Bypass Siebel Analytics Server security by setting the authentication type in the NQSConfig.INI file: AUTHENTICATION_TYPE = BYPASS_NQS; Open the NQSConfig file remove the # before AUTHENTICATION_TYPE = BYPASS_NQS; and save the config file. Original: #AUTHENTICATION_TYPE = BYPASS_NQS; New after change : AUTHENTICATION_TYPE = BYPASS_NQS; Try to open your RPD with blank password it will never ask you for the password. 24. What are the primary key, foreign key, alternate key, composite key and candidate key? The primary key is defined as a column (or set of columns) where each value is unique and identifies a single row of the table. A foreign key is a column or a set of columns in one table that references the primary key columns in another table.

(FK is the primary key from one table inserted into another table to link them) Composite Keys: Sometimes it requires more than one attribute/ column to uniquely identify an entity. A primary key that made up of more than one attribute is known as a composite key. Below shows an example of a composite key. Each instance of the entity Work can be uniquely identified only by a composite key composed of Employee ID and Project ID. Example of Composite Keys Employee_ID 01 01 02 02 03 03 Project_ID 01 02 01 03 03 04 Hours Worked 100 120 75 115 140 80

Artificial Keys: An artificial key is one that has no meaning to the business or organization. Artificial keys are permitted when: 1. no attribute has all the primary key properties, or 2. the primary key is large and complex

Candidate Key: is a column in a table which has the ability to become a primary key. Alternate Key: Any of the candidate key that is not part of the primary key is called an alternate key. A candidate key is one that can identify each row of a table uniquely. Generally a candidate key becomes the primary key of the table. If the table has more than one candidate key, one of them will become the primary key, and the rest are called alternate keys. A key formed by combining at least two or more columns is called composite key.

25. What is Meta data? Do we actually have database or is data stored in Meta data

26. What is meant by cache? Cache contains results of queries It is used to eliminate redundant queries to database and Speeds up results processing Query caching is optional and can be disabled 27. Can we run more than one rpd at a time. No, you can run only one Rpd at a time

28. Relation b/w Dimension table and fact table 29. Diff b/w logical and physical query 30. What is prompt by rpd 31. What is session log? 32. What type queries we can see in Session Log file. (There are two queries what are they) 33. Logical query and physical queries. 34. What is the architecture of OBIEE

35. What are the differences between OBIEE and Siebel Analytics Oracle BI Answers-Based Metadata Dictionary Feature This feature enables administrators to analyze metadata repository statistics in Oracle BI Answers. The OBIEE server can generate metadata dictionary which describes the metrics contained in a rep and the attributes of rep objects. Its an XML doc. In OBIEE this can be accessed directly from BI Answers selection pane where specific metadata information will be shown to guide report construction. Once this BI Answers based functionality is been enabled an icon will appear next to each Subject Area, Table name, and Column shown in the selection pane for that Subject Area. Clicking on the icon will open up a specific Metadata Dictionary page to show information for that element and links to related repository information Multi-Select Dashboard Prompts Feature This feature enables users to analyze data more easily with an easier to use method. Prior to this, a multi-select dashboard prompt with a large number of values could become difficult to work with. A new search feature adds the ability to better navigate and select values from a multiselect prompt when there are many values. Modifications to the existing multi-select dashboard prompt now allow the user to search through the available values using four matching schemes: begins with, ends with, contains, and is Like (Pattern Match). Wildcards like % can also be used in the query. A more sophisticated paging mechanism is also now present which allows the user to page ahead according to a configured search set size as needed. Some other features are also added in multi select prompts like copy paste of values and selection of multiple values using shift key. Integration with BI Dashboard Feature 2 new Interactive Dashboard features have been added to provide additional interactivity with Microsoft Office. 1) Download to PowerPoint This new link is found within the Report Links Download menu and will download a static version of that report to PowerPoint. The Oracle BI Office Add-in does not need to be installed to use this functionality. 2) Paste reports directly into MS Office applications. This functionality is also made available along with the other Dashboard Report Links configured using the Dashboard Editor. A new Copy link can be added to a report that will copy the XML definition of the current report to the Windows clipboard. Pasting this link using the Paste function found in the Oracle BI menu will convert the copied XML into an Office version of that report. This functionality will only work where the Oracle BI Office Add-in has been installed. Once pasted, this Dashboard report will then be

translated into native Office objects that can be subsequently refreshed with live data at any point. Import Oracle Catalog Feature Enables Admins to import Database objects through a native Oracle OCI connection. The OBI Admin Tool supports importing of physical Database objects through a native Oracle OCI connection and reuses the same OCI connection for queries. This feature mitigates the need to setup an ODBC connection to an Oracle Database purely for importing metadata objects into the Admin Tool. Embedded Database Functions Feature Enables users & Admins to create more powerful reports by directly calling Database functions from either Oracle BI Answers or by using a Logical column (in the Logical Table source) within the Metadata (repository). Eg: Evaluate function etc. Presentation Variable A new variable has been introduced which help accepting the dynamic values from the user in Oracle BI Answers. Presentation variable must be declared in a dashboard prompt (using the Set Variable field), and its name and value are determined by the user. Format: @{variables.variable_name} Time series Functions The Time series wizard has been removed from OBIEE and some new functions called Time Series functions have been introduced. 36. What is fact and Dimension? Fact: Contains business measures or metrics Data is often numerical Is the central table in the star Dimension: Contains attributes or characteristics about the business Data is often descriptive (alphanumeric) Qualifies the fact data

37. What is factless fact? A factless fact table is a table that contains nothing but dimensional keys. There are two types of factless tables. One is for capturing the event. An event establishes the relationship among the dimension members from various dimension but there is no measured value. The existence of the relationship itself is the fact. This type of fact table itself can be used to generate the useful reports. You can count the number of occurrences with various criteria. For example, you can have a factless fact table to capture the student attendance (the example used by Ralph). The following questions can be answered:

Which class has the least attendance? Which teachers taught the most students? What is the average number of attendance of a given course?

All the queries are based on the COUNT () with the GROUP BY queries. I think that the interesting metrics are the nested GROUP BY so you can first count and then apply other aggregate functions such as AVERAGE, MAX, and MIX. The other type of factless table is called Coverage table by Ralph. It is used to support negative analysis report. For example a Store that did not sell a product for a given period. To produce such report, you need to have a fact table to capture all the possible combinations. You can then figure out what is missing. 38. What is conformed dimension? A simple answer is that a conformed dimension is a dimension that is shared across fact tables. A conformed dimension is important because it allows queries to be executed across star schemas. This activity is also called Drill Across. When you drill across, you are adding more data from another fact table to the existing rows.