Book Image

Oracle Essbase 9 Implementation Guide

Book Image

Oracle Essbase 9 Implementation Guide

Overview of this book

The hot new data analysis trends involve business intelligence and analytics. The technology that supports business intelligence and analytics better than anything else is today's multidimensional OLAP technology ñ and there is none better than Oracle Essbase! Although storing data in a cube and developing analytical applications leaves many people grasping for understanding, especially if their experience is with relational databases, embracing OLAP technology will pay big dividends in the long run. It's easy to develop multidimensional analytic OLAP solutions when you have got this Oracle Essbase book to hand. It is a step-by-step guide to timeless Essbase fundamentals, which takes you from a basic software installation through to launching a fully functioning Essbase database cube. This book will guide you through every stage of installing Oracle's Essbase software on your analytic server, the Essbase Administration Services client, and the client software itself. You will learn, in easy-to-understand language, the concepts of multidimensional database technology as you are taken step by step through building an actual Essbase application complete with database, database calculation scripts, and database report scripts. Once you have your system built and functional, the next course of instruction covers the available automation features included in your Essbase software package and how to use them. These chapters alone are worth the price of admission! As an IT professional you quite rightly have a desire to understand multidimensional OLAP ñ this book gives you that understanding. Should you wish to embark on an exciting career as an Essbase developer/administrator, this book provides a fantastic foundation from which to grow. Best of all, this book is filled with the tips and tricks that you can only get from many years and countless hours spent playing with Essbase. You get them all in just the time it takes you to complete this book.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Oracle Essbase 9 Implementation Guide
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewer
Acknowledgements
Preface

Installing Essbase Administration Services


Now that you have installed the Essbase analytic server, you need a tool which will enable you to play with your Essbase databases (commonly referred to as cubes) as you create, configure, and maintain them. The tool used for this purpose is called Essbase Administration Services. In earlier versions of Essbase, this tool is known as the Application manager or just App manager.

Note

Essbase databases are commonly called cubes after the Rubik's Cube style structure of how the data is conceptually stored.

The EAS user interface runs on any client and that is where you will install the software. The EAS talks to the Essbase service using TCP/IP and a web-based server. The servers recommended by Oracle are Tomcat, WebLogic, WebSphere, and Oracle Application Server. To simplify matters, Oracle includes a small Tomcat server with the installation package of the EAS service. In our example, we will be installing Tomcat as our administration server on the client with the EAS installation:

  1. 1. To get started, double-click the EAS executable file setup which is supplied by Oracle. Wouldn't you know that the very first screen to pleasure your eyes is the familiar old language selection screen. As always, this is where you select the language to be used with the installation wizard. Again, as always, select English as it is the only language option available. Click OK when you are ready.

  2. 2. As in the server software installation, you are now treated to the setup program welcome screen. Read this as you usually would and then click Next.

  3. 3. You may be noticing several similarities by now. This screen prompts you to select a country where, ideally, the software will be used.

    Note

    It is extremely important that the installation of all components of a system be installed using the same country selection. The primary benefits being the assurance of accuracy of the calculations and the ease of possible future root cause analysis.

    For our example, we are using the United States. Select the country of your choice and click Next.

  4. 4. This step asks you to read and agree to the End User License Agreement (EULA). Read it carefully, and if you agree and wish to continue, click Next.

  5. 5. This step will ask you to accept or select the location for the Hyperion home directory (folder). Even though this software is being installed on a different physical machine than the Essbase analytics, ideally, it is a good idea to always install to consistent locations across the individual machines involved in the construction of the system.

    Note

    Whenever possible, accept and install in the default recommended paths and directories across all hardware components involved in the system. This will greatly simplify maintenance and support.

    Make your selection and click Next.

  6. 6. Here, you are asked to select your path for EAS. As suggested in previous steps, make your selection and then click Next.

  7. 7. Here again, it will be best to accept the Typical installation to get you started. If you realize there is some feature missing that you must have, you can always reinstall the software at a later date and select the Custom option.

    For the most part, the difference between the Typical and the Custom installation is the ability to select sample scripts. The actual Essbase administrative functionality is the same.

  8. 8. Just like Step 9 of the Essbase analytics installation, this requires you to select ESSLANG. The ESSLANG variable defines the locale of the computer. For example, for US English it is ENGLISH (LATIN1). This is to ensure proper communication with other applications and is the Unicode setting.

  9. 9. This step summarizes the current installation. Check the information carefully to confirm you have the locations correct as well as the selected Hyperion components. If there are any corrections to be made, use the Back button to go back and fix what is needed. This is your last chance before the wizard begins the actual installation.

  10. 10. This step basically tells you that the EAS installation is in progress. Take a break, read the installations notes as they flash on the screen. Seems like Déjà vu.

  11. 11. Now, here's another one we've seen before. In this case, there is no need for the configuration tool, since you are only installing the EAS tool. Do not check the box on the screen labeled Launch Configuration Tool. Simply click Finish.

Your EAS is now installed and ready for use. The next few steps briefly describe how to start the EAS and login for the first time.