OBIEE 10g to 11g Upgrade Questions

What is the difference between OBIEE 10g and OBIEE 11g?

• A Database Repository must be created before installing OBIEE by using Repository Creation Utility(RCU) tool
• OBIEE 11g uses a WEBLOGIC server as Application server whereas OBIEE 10g uses OC4J
• Many configuration settings (such as uploading a repository into BI server) can be done using EM
• OBIEE 11g displays table names and COLUMN NAMES while mapping whereas OBIEE 10g displays only table names
• OBIEE 11g join is done from fact to dimension where as in 10g join is done from dimension to fact
• In 10g Users and Groups (or Roles) are created in repository whereas in 11g Users and Groups are created in EM
• Groups no longer exist and are replaced by Application roles. Data level security is implemented by using Application roles to which users belong to.
• In Presentation Catalog, AuthenticatedUser role is used instead of Everyone group
• LTS priority ordering is introduced
• We can model LOOK UP TABLE is repository
• Presentation layer Hierarchies are introduced
• New time series functions PERIOD ROLLING and AGGREGATE AT is introduced
• TIME SERIES functions can be created in the front end also
• AGGREGATE PERSISTENCE WIZARD creates indexes automatically
• SESSION VARIABLES are initialized only when they are used
• In addition to the existing views, Map View is introduced in 11g
• RAGGED and SKIPPED HIERARCHY are supported in 11g
• PARENT CHILD Hierarchy is introduced
• Presentation Variable can hold multiple values
• KPI’s and SCORECARD’s are introduced in 11g
• ACTION LINKS, MASTER-DETAIL reports, SELECTION STEPS are introduced
• SELECT_PHYSICAL is supported
• REQUESTS are renamed as ANLAYSIS
• IBOTS are renamed as AGENTS
• CHARTS are renamed as GRAPHS

What happens during 10g upgrade to 11g?

By default, existing users and groups migrated to embedded WLS LDAP. Existing groups are automatically mapped to an Application role.

10g catalog groups are automatically migrated in the upgraded catalog and assigned the same privileges, access, and membership.

“Administrator” user automatically added as member of “BIAdministrators” group in embedded WLS LDAP and granted Administrator role. The user specified during OBIEE 11g   installation (i.e. “weblogic”, “biadmin”) is also a member of the BIAdministrators group.

Prompted to set a repository password while running the upgrade assistant. Do not lose this password as there is no feature to recover a lost password.

Upgraded RPD will continue to point to 10g LDAP or external tables. Initblocks may need to be modified to ensure that deprecated, or reserved word, variable names are renamed. NOTE: If you intend to use another LDAP server, such as Oracle Identity Management (OID), then you must upgrade to the embedded LDAP server first, then migrate to the production LDAP server.

Existing groups will be migrated. Recommendation is to use application roles instead. Privileges on catalog objects may be granted to an application role via BI Presentation server Administration link.

Upgraded 10g RPD will point to external tables. Initblocks may need to be modified to ensure that deprecated, or reserved word, variable names are renamed.

“Everyone” group migrated to AuthenticatedUser role.

What are the new features added/changes made in OBIEE 11g compared to OBIEE 10g?

There are a lot of enhancements in the OBIEE 11g as compared to OBIEE 10g. Here are few points to talk during an interview:

·         OBIEE 11g uses WebLogic Server as the application server as compared to Oracle AS or OC4J in OBIEE 10g.

·         The clustering process in much easier and automated in OBIEE 11g.

·         We can now model lookup tables in the repository.

·         The new UI called Unified Framework now combines Answers, Dashboards, and Delivers.

·         A new column called the hierarchical column in introduced.

·         BI Publishers is fully and seamlessly integrated with OBIEE 11g.

·         New time series functions PERIOD ROLLING and AGGREGATE AT are introduced.

·         In OBIEE 11g we can create KPIs to represent business metrics.

·         The aggregate persistence wizard creates indexes automatically.

·         The session variables get initialized when they are actually used in OBIEE 11g unlike OBIEE 10g where they were initialized as soon as a user logs in.

·         OBIEE 11g now supports Ragged (Unbalanced) and Skipped Hierarchy.

·         You can also define Parent-Child hierarchy in OBIEE 11g as well.

·         SELECT_PHYSICAL command is supported in OBIEE 11g.

·         In OBIEE 11g there are some changes in the terminology as well.

·         iBots are renamed as Agents.

·         Requests are renamed as Analyses.

·         Charts are renamed as Graphs.

·         Presentation Columns are renamed as Attribute Columns