Insight of OBIEE Architecture: The below diagram shows the basic architecture of OBIEE and its components:

Now, first of all lets understand the flow in which a request flows from Client to Data Source. If a client runs a report, the request first goes to the Presentation Server and then it gets routed to the BI Server and then it gets further routed to the underlying Database or the data source. Client -> Presentation Server -> BI Server -> Data source Now, the request is routed back through the similar route to the client. Which means, the data is fetched from the Data source and it gets routed to Presentation server through BI server and then to the client. Client <- Presentation Server <- BI Server <- Data Source The above flows provide a very basic idea of how the data is fetched and showed in a report in OBIEE. Now, lets understand it more properly by dividing the above diag. into 4 segments to better understand it as: 1) Client and User Interface 2) Presentation Server & Presentation Catalog 3) BI Server & Admin Tool 4) Data source

1) Client & User Interface: This level has the UI of OBIEE which is accessible to the clients and users. The OBIEE UI has several components like OBIEE Answers, Interactive Dashboards etc. Oracle BI Answers is a powerful, ad hoc query and analysis tool that works against a logical view of information from multiple data sources in a pure Web environment. Oracle BI Interactive Dashboards are interactive Web pages that display personalized, rolebased information to guide users to precise and effective decisions. BI Delivers is an alerting engine which gives users flexibility to schedule their reports and get them delivered to their handheld devices or interactive dashboards or any other delivery profile and helps in making quick business decisions. In simpler terms we can say that, this is a web application which is accessible to the users for preparing their reports/dashboards and do Ad-Hoc reporting to cater the business needs.

Now lets understand the second segment:

2) Presentation Server & Presentation Catalog: The BI Presentation server is basically a web server on which the OBIEE web application runs. It processes the client requests and routes it to the BI Server and vice versa. It can be deployed on any of the following IIS or Oc4j. It makes use of the Presentation catalog which contains the aspects of the application.

The Presentation catalog stores the application dashboards, reports, folders and filters. It also contains information regarding the permissions of dashboards & reports created by users. It is created when the Presentation server starts and can be administered using the tool called Catalog Manager. In other words we can say that the Presentation server and the Presentation Catalog are together responsible for providing the clients with a web server on which the web application runs and also administers the look and feel of the User Interface. This post covers basics of the Presentation server & catalog. lets continue with the third segment where we will see what is the role of the BI Server in the OBIEE Architecture.

3) BI SERVER AND ADMIN TOOL BI Server is a highly scalable query and analysis server. It is the heart of the entire architecture. It efficiently integrates data from multiple relational, unstructured, OLAP application sources, both Oracle and non-Oracle. It interacts with the Presentation server over TCP/IP and takes the reporting request from the presentation server. Then the BI server processes the request and form logical and physical queries(in case of database as data source) and this physical query is sent to the underlying data source from which the data is processed. The BI Server interacts with the underlying database using ODBC. Hence, the entire processing of request is done by the BI server. In the above paragraph I have mentioned that the BI server creates a logical and physical query. But how will the BI server generate this query?? How will the BI Server know what all joins need to be used?? I guess all these questions must be coming to your mind. So, lets understand the underlying process.. The BI server makes use of the BI Repository for converting the user request into logical and physical queries. The BI Repository is the metadata using which the server gets the information of the joins and the filters to be used in the query. It is the backbone of the architecture.

Now, this is the place where all the modelling is done and the role of OBIEE developers come into picture. The BI Repository is created using the Administration Tool. The repository contains three layers: Physical, BMM and Presentation Layer.

Physical Layer: Contains the tables imported from the underlying DB with appropriate joins between them. BMM Layer: This is the Business Model layer and hence all the Business logics are implemented on this layer eg: Calculation of %age Sales, Revenue etc. Presentation Layer: As the names specifies this layer is used for Presentation of required tables and columns to the users. The columns pulled in this layer are directly visible to the users. Where BI Server and Admin Tool come in picture??? Now, when the users log into the BI Answers i.e the user interface, they see all the columns that are pulled on the Presentation Layer in the Repository. They choose the desired columns from there and click results button to view the report. After that the request is sent to the BI Server through the Presentation server, the BI server makes use of the BI Repository to formulate a query out of the requested report based on the joins and tables specified in the repository. This query is sent to the underlying DB and hence results are fetched.

Now moving to 4th segment Data Sources. This is a rather simple one as we all know till now that OBIEE is a reporting tool and works on data from underlying Databases, so here Data Sources are the underlying Databases with which the OBIEE server interacts. OBIEE is a very smart tool and it has got the capability of reporting on multiple Databases and also multiple types of Databases like XML, Oracle, SQL Server etc.

Now, when we design the OBIEE Metadata or repository for reporting, we import the tables on which we need to perform reporting into the physical layer from the respective DBs And

then we apply appropriate joins between the tables and further pull them to BMM and then to Presentation Layer for reporting. The question that comes out here is How the BI Server does interact with the underlying DBs for showing the reports??? The answer to this question lies in the Connection Pools. If we open the Connection Pool we can see that we need to select the Call Interface, give the name of the DSN, and give a Username and password. These things help up to connect to the Database. Call Interface There is a drop down from where we can select the appropriate Call Interface. Some examples are ODBC, OCI etc. Both ODBC and OCI can be used for Oracle. The main difference between using them is, In ODBC we need to create a DSN in the system where the server is installed but OCI is a native DSN and we can use it directly without creating the DSN in the system. DSN- This is the name of the DSN which OBIEE uses to connect to the underlying DB. Username- The user with which OBIEE connects the DB. Generally the user used for reporting should only have the read privileges on the DB. Password- Password of the user with which OBIEE connects to the DB. Now, when a user runs the report in Answers the OBIEE server accesses the DB using the connection pool with the specified Call Interface and username and returns the data. The next question is How the BI server does takes care of a report formed using columns and tables from multiple DBs??? As I have told you earlier also that BI server is very intellegent and is built in such a way that it can process request formed from multiple DBs. When the user generates a report involving multiple DBs, the request navigates to the Navigator section in the BI Server which checks the underlying DBs with which OBIEE needs to interact to. Then the BI server generates separate queries for the DBs and fire them on the respective DBs. Then it fetches the data from the underlying DBs and combines the result set in its own memory and displays the result in the report. With this post we have covered the 4 segments of the OBIEE Architecture. I hope this will help you alot in understanding the BI Architecture and also in understanding the OBIEE behaviour. In the upcoming posts I will also try to go into the details and throw some more light on the BI Server components.

Differences Between Siebel Analytics & OBIEE

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 attribs 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 multi-select 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 multiselect prompts like copy paste of values and selection of multiple value susing 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 Addin 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. Components: Oracle BI Presentation Services: Oracle BI Answers BI Dashboards BI Delivers Oracle BI Answers: Oracle BI Answers is used for building or submitting requests. This provides answers to business questions. Users will permissions can build and modify reports or requests. Users can also interact with the information and present and visualize the information in the form of charts, pivot tables and reports. The results from BI Answers can be formatted, saved, organized and also be shared with others. BI Dashboards:

Interactive Dashboards provide points of access for analytics information. When an end user accesses Oracle BI, the users default dashboard is typically the first page that appears. Dashboards are typically used to display reports(requested by BI Answers) that contain content specific to the needs of individual users or groups.Users with the appropriate permissions can place results from Oracle BI Answers into dashboards for use by end users. BI Delivers: Oracle BI Delivers is the interface used to create Oracle Business Intelligence Alerts based on analytics results. Specific results can be detected within reports and the appropriate people notified immediately through Web, wireless, and mobile communications channels. Basic Flow of Processing the Request: 1.The user views a dashboard or submits a request via Oracle Answers. 2. Oracle BI Presentation Services makes a request to Oracle BI Server to retrieve the requested data by the user. 3. Using the repository file, Oracle BI Server optimizes functions to request the data from the data sources. 4. Oracle BI Server receives the data from the data sources and processes. 5. Oracle BI Server passes the data to Oracle BI Presentation Services. 6. Oracle BI Presentation Services formats the data and sends it to the client or user