Monday 27 May 2013

EPM Workspace integration with OBIEE update

In a recent blog I went through the process of integrating EPM 11.1.2.2 Workspace with OBIEE 11.1.1.7, as EPM 11.1.2.3 is available I thought I would test out the process covered in the blog to see if there are any issues.

In theory the process should be exactly the same and there is nothing yet to state otherwise but unfortunately I did hit a few problems.

Now I am not going to duplicate the last blog so if you are going to integrate then please read through the process first.

At the point of running the HSS registration utility the following error message was generated after entering the Shared Services credentials:


This error through me for a while but after hunting around I found out that the utility is calling upon Java classes in registry-api.jar which is located in <ORACLE_BI1>\common\jlib\11.1.2.0


If you compare the file size to the version in the EPM 11.1.2.3 instance you will see a difference.


The EPM version of the file in <MIDDLEWARE_HOME>\EPMSystem11R1\common\jlib\11.1.2.0 is larger in size so as I test I copied the file from the EPM instance to the OBIEE one.

The HSS Registration utility has the option to clean which removes OBIEE registration information from Shared Services registry and configuration so I thought it best to run this first as it is unclear exactly where the registration process had failed.


The registration clean was successfully so time to run the utility again with the register option.


This time the process gets further but unfortunately fails again with another Java related error.

After more digging around I found that the utility is accessing classes in css.jar which is located at <ORACLE_BI1>\common\css\11.1.2.0\lib


Once again there is a difference in file size between the OBIEE and EPM instance.


I copied the css.jar file from the EPM machine across to the OBIEE one and ran the HSS registration utility but using clean option first and then register option.


Good news the registration was successful and the process from the last blog was continued.


Once all the steps had been carried out the integration between Workspace and OBIEE was tested and the functionality was working as expected.

I am sure that Oracle will either update the jar files in a future OBIEE patch or amend the documentation to include the steps.

So basically if you are going to integrate with EPM 11.1.2.3 make sure the two jar files are copied before carrying out the process in the last blog.

7 comments:

  1. Great article John. We (well my counterpart on the systems side) just ran through your steps and we've got OBI in Workspace however when we click on a dashboard or analysis in the catalog we an error stating:

    "Error loading XML Document from saw.dll./answers/saw.selections.xml?fmapId=RRxCfQ. The response given was:"

    You hit OK and get the same message 5-10 times and then it loads the analysis/dashboard fully.

    Any ideas? I originally was just trying it on the SampleApp Lite but also had the same thing happen when I imported an Essbase app.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi Daniel,

    I just double checked opening the Sample Lite dashboards and did not hit the issue, this is just on a test environment though with OBIEE 11.1.1.7, EPM 11.1.2.3 and MSAD.

    Are you going through any kind of proxy or there any group policies in place restricting the browser settings

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hi John. It doesn't seem to be related to the sample app.

    We're also using OBIEE 11.1.1.7, EPM 11.1.2.3 and MSAD.

    It seems like an error being returned from OBI rather than something client side. Will keep investigating although we've got bigger problems at the moment. Struggling with MOS so I'll try escalating it to the Essbase Users Forum :)

    ReplyDelete

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    ReplyDelete
  5. Hello John,

    Great article John. I just need a clarification on something. After integration is done and I access OBIEE from EPM Workspace how do I go along setting up access permissions for the catalog items and the Planning artifacts. Is it in the original way of setting access for a dimension member from Workspace and setting access for a dashboard from the BI catalog?

    Thank you so much for helping humanity.
    Cheers,

    ReplyDelete
  6. Hello John,

    Please I need to ask you this:

    After this integration, would it be possible for a user to login to OBIEE directly from OBIEE analytics URL or will it all be from EPM Workspace?

    Thank you

    ReplyDelete
  7. Hi,

    Yes you will still be able to log into OBIEE directly.

    ReplyDelete

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