Installing Oracle BI Applications (Siebel Analytics)

May 23, 2010 By 2 Comments

We’ve seen Siebel Analytics in use at a number of client sites, but I’ve rarely had an opportunity to get to grips with it. I performed some base installations a long while back, from a set of instructions, but that’s pretty much it. I’ve recently had a lot of interest in what’s happing in this space and have decided to revisit what is now Oracle Business Intelligence Applications. In this post, I’ll share with you my experience of downloading, installing and configuring this set of tools.

Downloading is very straight forward. Visit Oracle eDelivery, select the ‘Oracle Business Intelligence’ Product Pack and your requirement platform. Select Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 7.9.5.2 for Oracle Data Integrator Media Pack for Microsoft Windows (32-bit) then download and unpack the following ZIP files:

  • Oracle Business Intelligence Suite Enterprise Edition 10.1.3.4.0
  • Oracle Business Intelligence Applications 7.9.5.1
  • Informatica PowerCenter and PowerConnect Adapters 8.6.1

Installation has a number of steps:

  1. Set yourself up a Windows 2003 / 2008 virtual server. I’m still using Windows Virtual PC.
  2. Install Oracle 11g database using the Enterprise option
  3. Create a new database (I always create SIEBDATA and SIEBINDX tablespaces) and create INF, OLTP and DAC users
  4. Install the OBI Suite
  5. Install the OBI Applications
  6. Install Informatica PowerCenter Server, Client, Siebel Server / Repository, Siebel Client and hot fixes

This should all be pretty straight forward. The fun comes in actually configuring the applications and getting it all up and running together. The subject of a future post, I’m afraid!

VN:F [1.9.13_1145]
Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Filed Under: OBIEE, Reporting, Siebel Tagged With: , ,

Siebel 8.1 on Windows 7

May 21, 2010 By 9 Comments

UPDATE: I’ve created a new post with some new discoveries around installing Siebel on Windows 7!

I’ve noticed a lot of interest around using Siebel Tools and the Siebel Web Client with Windows 7:

Having been a Windows 7 user since the early betas, I have to say it’s the best Windows operating system yet. Where Vista piled in with clunky processes, UAC, compatibility problems and a host of other issues, Windows 7 feels light and user friendly. I use it on all my desktops and laptops and I have to say, I love it.

However, since version 7, the Siebel Client and Tools Client seem to have veered away from being happy, Win32 applications. I remember the good old days of Siebel 99 and Siebel 2000 (6.x) with their nice, friendly InstallShield installers and I don’t remember having any problems running them, from NT through XP to Vista. However, things have changed!

Your first hurdle is the download. Long gone are install CD / DVD images: now we have colossal ZIP file downloads and ImageCreator. Don’t let this put you off visiting Oracle eDelivery and downloading yourself a copy though. Download the 3 or 4 ZIP files associated with the media pack of the version you’re interested in, unzip into a single directory and run ImageCreator. From here, you can create familar installation folders for your target platform and products. This is your first hurdle – ImageCreator HATES Windows 7! The only way I’ve been able to extract an installation is by running the installer in XP mode in Windows 7 Ultimate. Here’s a better alternative for you:

  1. Burn the extracted files to a dual layer DVD
  2. Find an XP machine and run ImageCreator
  3. Create DVDs of the Client and Server installation folders

I know this sounds silly, but it’s by far the best way to get working installers, with language packs, and you only have to do it once.

Your next hurdle in the dreaded OUI – Oracle Universal Installer. Now, in my opinion, OUI is one of the nastiest pieces of software I’ve ever come across. It’s a nightmare and quirky as hell! Don’t let this put you off: there are a few key things to note when running OUI under Windows 7:

  1. Always run the install from a physical drive or mapped drive. It will not run correctly if run from a UNC path
  2. Run the install from a path without spaces. It’s medieval, but it will save you hassle!
  3. Right click the installer and select ‘Run As Administrator’ and run in the ‘Windows XP SP3′ compatibility mode

If you follow those steps, you should be able to install both the Web Client and Siebel Tools without any problems.

When it comes  to running the applications, follow the same steps as above: for each of the executables (siebel.exe and siebdev.exe), set the ‘Run As Administrator’ and ‘Windows XP SP 3′ compatibility options in the same way as before.

Configure your CFG file as normal, double click, login in and enjoy! :)

VN:F [1.9.13_1145]
Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)
Filed Under: Installation, Siebel, Windows 7 Tagged With: , ,

Siebel 8 Case Insensitivity

May 14, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Siebel 8 does away with the concept of turning query case sensitivity on and off with a simple switch. In order to allow for fine tuning and improved performance, case sensitivity is implied unless explicitly configured on a per Column object basis:

If you have case insensitive searching currently, you can configure this in Siebel 8 as follows:

  1. In your Tools folder, look in the OBJECTS folder where you’ll find some CSV files. These represent the recommended base column objects for which special Case Insensitive (CI) indexes should be created. You can add custom indexed table columns to this list.
  2. In Tools, connect to the server repository
  3. To make this easy, go to Projects and query for Name = *Table*. Use Edit > Change Records to lock these projects
  4. Select Tools > Utilities > Case Insensitivity…
  5. Click browse and locate the CSV file for either SEA or SIA applications. Click next.
  6. Tools will work out what it needs to do and will tell you if any projects or objects are not locked. You’ll need to cancel, lock the projects and re-run in this scenario
  7. Siebel will apply the changes required to your repository, creating new indexes for these columns and setting the Default Insensitivity property

To enable insensitivety for other, non-indexed columns:

  1. Select Tools > Utilities > Case Insensitivity…
  2. Click the ‘Enable for all unindexed columns…’ radio button. Click next.
  3. Tools will work out what it needs to do and will tell you if any projects or objects are not locked. You’ll need to cancel, lock the projects and re-run in this scenario
  4. Siebel will apply the changes required to your repository, setting the Default Insensitivity property
  5. Unlock all the projects, compile the SRF and run DDL sync

Easy as that! :)

VN:F [1.9.13_1145]
Rating: 10.0/10 (2 votes cast)
Filed Under: Configuration, Siebel Tagged With: ,

Build your own Siebel

May 12, 2010 By 15 Comments

I like to keep up to date on Siebel and other technology. To help me keep my skills in check, I have a full Siebel installation running on virtual machines on my home desktop:

I found this to be a very useful mini project that has taught me a lot about installation and configuration of Siebel applications, as well as it’s supporting technologies. Here’s a brief guide for anyone looking to do the same:

  1. If you’re a Microsoft shop, subscribe to Microsoft Technet. I’ve found this service invaluable. With a Technet subscription, you have access to a host of technologies that you can use free of charge, for evaluation and testing purposes. Windows 7, HyperV, Windows Server 2003/2008, Office 2010 are all available through a Technet subscription and will give you a great basis to start building your own infrastructure
  2. Download Siebel software from Oracle eDelivery. Again, this is free for evaluation purposes. SIA and SEA are now delivered together, so a single set of installation media for your platform choice will cover all options
  3. Download database software such as Oracle XE (free for personal use), Oracle 11gR2 (for evaluation purposes) or whichever database software you want to use, such as SQL Server or MySQL
  4. Download a virtualization solution. I use Windows Virtual PC with Windows 7 but you can use Virtual Server 2005, VMWare Server or any number of free products
  5. Create virtual machines for your database server, Siebel / Web Server, BIP Server and XP / Windows 7 clients
  6. Install your server OS on each of your VMs, taking care to apply Service Packs and patches up to the required level
  7. Initialise your database instance
  8. Install and patch the Siebel base software and set up the Gateway and Enterprise Servers (this will create an ODBC data source for the Database installation)
  9. Install the Database
  10. Configure the Siebel Gateway, Enterprise Server, Siebel Server and SWE components
  11. Install BIP and configure
  12. Install and patch Client and Tools on your client VMs – I like to keep an XP client available for testing as not everything works according to plan on Windows 7

You’ll find it a useful and satisfying learning experience to set up an entire enterprise. Feel free to post your experiences!

VN:F [1.9.13_1145]
Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Filed Under: Installation, Siebel, Technology Tagged With:

Siebel Reporting – Part 3 – Actuate to BIP Report Migration

May 12, 2010 By Leave a Comment

With a running BIP Publisher server and tested integration, we can start looking at migrating Actuate reports to the BIP Publisher format.

Some key facts to recall from previous posts:

  1. Actuate uses COM to talk to Siebel. This means Report objects in Tools, .ROL files and ssiebel.bas
  2. BIP uses Web Services. This mean Integration Objects, SOAP messages and XML
  3. Actuate uses it’s own .ROD file format to store report definitions, designed in the Actuate eReport Designer application
  4. BIP uses a simple .RTF file format to represent reports designed in Microsoft Word, using the BI Publisher Desktop plug in

You are probably thinking at this point – Report Migration Tool. It’s true that Oracle have made available a migration tool through My Oracle Support (Patch ID 8968224). The tool will attempt to create IOs from your Report objects and .RTF files from your .ROD / .BAS files. In practice, I’ve found it to be buggy and the results less than satisfactory. The remainder of this post assumes you’ll want to re-do your reports manually but please feel free to give the tool a try and see if it works for you.

The steps for report migration involve migrating the data structure from Report objects to Integration Objects then migrating the report design from Actuate (ROD) to BIP (RTF). Let’s start with the data feed. Roughly, this translates to the following steps:

  1. Locate the Report object and note the underlying BC and fields
  2. In the corresponding View Report object, note the underlying BO. I realise that there can be more than one view associated with one report, and we’ll cover that scenario below.
  3. Create an Integration Object, using the Tools wizard, mapping from the BO, BC and fields of the Report object.
  4. If you want to use a Primary MVF, select the top level object in the wizard. If you want a repeating group across an MVL, select the child object in the wizard
  5. Check in and deploy to the server via Tools (Deploy to Runtime Database)
  6. Navigate to Site Map > Administration – BIP Reports > Sample Data File Generation and generate sample XML for your IOs

It’s essentially that simple: BIP will use this IO to pull data out of the object layer using EAI via a Web Service call.

Migrating the report design itself is a less straight forward process but still not overly complex. Here are the steps that I would suggest:

  1. Open your Actuate report design in eReport Designer. Not only can you view the report layout, you can drill down into the Data Stream to pick out any modifications in the fetch or layout code
  2. Open Word, go to Add Ins and check that the Oracle BI Publisher toolbar is visible
  3. Select the Data > Load XML Data menu to load the sample XML file that you generated previously
  4. Replicate your layout and design in the Word document
  5. Use the Insert > Field menu to add your field label placeholders into the report document
  6. Use the Repeating Group and Table Wizard menu items to create repeating groups for parent, child and grandchild relationships
  7. Use the BIP Publisher User Guide, installed in the Start Menu, to translate your Actuate code to BIP code
  8. Use Preview to see how the report looks and tweak appropriately
  9. When you are happy, use the Tools > Translate Template > Extract Text menu item to generate the .XLF file that Siebel requires
  10. Upload to Siebel via Report Template Registration, assign to a view via View Association and you’re done!

Clearly, I’ve vastly over simplified the steps to migrate any custom code and layout in your Actuate Reports. However, BIP has a powerful language construct that can be embedded in your documents to provide any custom functionality that you might have. Check the BIP user guide for more information.

Please feel free to post if there are specific steps that are troubling you or any particular functionality that you are trying to migrate across that is causing you grief.

VN:F [1.9.13_1145]
Rating: 10.0/10 (1 vote cast)
Filed Under: BI Publisher, Reporting, Siebel Tagged With: , ,