1. December 4, 2008 1 Repository/Web Catalog Migration Tips and Caching Melinda Rojo Dan Malone

2. December 4, 2008 2 Session Overview Under the covers the OBIEE dashboards are comprised of a multitude of objects in both the Metadata Repository and the Web Catalog. Version control and migrating these objects between environments are non trivial tasks. This session will share what we have learned. We will also discuss how we used OBIEE caching to improve performance and the methods we used to automate clearing the OBI server cache when the data warehouse refresh is complete.

3. December 4, 2008 3 Session Topics ■ Architecture Overview ■ Migration Overview – Metadata Repository – Web Catalog ■ Cache Management

4. December 4, 2008 4 Architecture Overview ■ 2 Servers per Environment – 2 Metadata Repositories – Shared Web Catalog » No replication ■ 4 Environments – Pre-Development – Development – Test – Production ■ Windows Terminal Services – Administration Tools

5. December 4, 2008 5 Migration Overview ■ Pre-Migration Tasks ■ Metadata Repository Migration ■ Web Catalog Migration

6. December 4, 2008 6 Pre-Migration Tasks ■ Change Ownership of Web Catalog Objects to Administrator ■ Set Permissions on Objects ■ Setup Security in Target Environment – Create New Groups » Repository Groups » Web Catalog Groups

7. December 4, 2008 7 Metadata Repository Migration ■ Development – Migrate Metadata Repository (.rpd file) between servers in same environment ■ Development -> Test Test -> Production – Promote Metadata Repository between environments – Migrate Metadata Repository (.rpd file) between servers in same environment

8. December 4, 2008 8 Migration in the Same Environment ■ Copy physical Metadata Repository file (.rpd) from one server to the other ■ Tips & Tricks – Stop BI services to ensure no changes are occurring – Requires outage since BI services are stopped during copy

9. December 4, 2008 9 Migration Between Environments ■ Option #1: Copy/Paste changes manually – Only selected changes will migrate to target environment – Physical layer changes will overwrite – Business Model and Presentation layer changes require delete then paste – Initialization blocks and variables are duplicated – To avoid down time in production, copy-paste to both servers ■ Option #2: Copy Metadata Repository file (.rpd) – All changes will migrate to target environment – Not all changes are ready to migrate – Passwords for privileged users can be different – Passwords for connection pools can be different

10. December 4, 2008 10 Web Catalog Migration ■ Do not copy physical files – All or nothing ■ Why? – See Security Presentation ■ Exceptions – Saved data formats » /system/metadata » Cannot use Catalog Manager because objects are owned by system account

11. December 4, 2008 11 Migrating with Catalog Manger ■ Catalog Manager is a Windows only tool – On-line changes only with Linux environment ■ Tool allows connection to multiple catalogs Tool allows copy – paste method – Copy is an additive process ONLY – Remember to delete objects in target environment ■ Copies permissions between environments – Set Paste ACL preference – Groups need to be created first » In both presentation and metadata ■ Allows selection of multiple objects ■ Allows for Smart Rename (fix refs)

12. December 4, 2008 12 Screen Shot of Web Catalog

13. December 4, 2008 13 Migration Tips ■ Only migrate Shared folder and sub- folders ■ Delete-copy-paste is best but requires outage ■ Is there a new Subject Area? – Must log into Answers and view the subject area » Subject Area privileges are not available until someone accesses it

14. December 4, 2008 14 Questions?

15. December 4, 2008 15 What Caches? ■ Browser ■ Presentation Services ■ BI Server

16. December 4, 2008 16 Cache Management Requirements ■ We want to use cache to improve performance ■ Warehouse refreshes daily ■ Different business areas refresh at different intervals

17. December 4, 2008 17 What options did we not use? ■ Physical Layer Tables – Set to expire at a given interval

18. December 4, 2008 18 Clearing the Cache Manually ■ Presentation Services – Refresh icon on Dashboard – Clear My Selections – Manage Sessions » Session Management » Close all Cursors – Clear BI Server cache ■ BI Server – Repository -> Manage ->Cache » Purge – Changes to the Business Model – Restart BI Server

19. December 4, 2008 19 Clearing the Cache Automatically ■ Physical Layer – Set to never expire ■ Tables in the warehouse – PolyData Stats table with last load date – Business Model to Stats table name mapping – View joining these tables ■ Initialization block sets dynamic repository variables – 10 minute refresh – Multiple variables in single init block ■ Business Model logical column associated with the value of the repository variable

20. December 4, 2008 20 Automated Cache Clearing

21. December 4, 2008 21 The Magic Behind Automated Cache Clearing ■ Data Warehouse job completes and updates PolyData Stats table ■ The initialization block changes the repository variable value ■ The Logical Column value is changed ■ Changing the value is considered a change to the business model ■ Therefore the cache clears!

22. December 4, 2008 22 Questions?

23. December 4, 2008 23 Contact ■ OBIEE Technical Conference: http://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/obiee_conf/index.html http://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/obiee_conf/index.html ■ Email: polydata@calpoly.edu