How Essbase and OBIEE Integrated?

How Essbase and OBIEE integrated?
What is the process for database creation?
What is the difference between SmartView and the Essbase add-ins?
What is the difference between Oracle OLAP and Essbase OLAP?
What is the difference between Essbase Studio, Essbase Integration Services and Essbase Administration services?
What are the new features of the Essbase 11?
What is OLAP and what is the difference between its kinds?
What is the difference between aggregate storage ASO and block storage BSO?

How Essbase and OBIEE integrated?

OBIEE stands for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition and it is a solution for reporting and analysis. OBIEE can connect to dimensional as well as relational sources. OBIEE process converts Essbase cube, dimension, and hierarchies into logical relational star schema. Essbase data can be combined with data from other sources.Essbase cube can be imported into the physical layer of the OBIEE.OBIEE recreate a measure hierarchy similar to Essbase and it talks to Essbase via MDX queries. EPM Workspace and OBIEE Shared security provisioning and organization between Essbase and OBIEE, through application roles and policies

Essbase is for what if analysis and business cubes; Hyperion is for financial and operational and strategic planning.We can install Essbase and the other EPM tools into the same WebLogic domain as OBIEE, using a single installer. Essbase SmartView supports OBIEE as a data source,and the ability to spin-off aggregates from the RPD into Essbase ASO cubes. The (Excel, Word, PowerPoint, Outlook) add-ins for OBIEE is able to author reports as well as run existing Answers-authored ones

What are the steps for planning, creating and deploying Essbase databases?

You can create the database outline in Essbase to define the database dimensions and hierarchy.Load the data using rules files to map db dimensions. Calculate data using calculation scripts; using the rules files you can ignore certain fields in the data source, manage header information, change the members order, format member names, scale data values and create/accept and reject criteria for records. You can then analyze data in smart view. Below are the implementation phases and steps:

Implementation phase / Implementation steps
Analysis and planning /

Identify business results
Examine data sources
Analyze sample reports
Select a database type and design the database outline.

Database creation /

Create the database outline
Create the rules files
Create calculation scripts or deign aggregations.

Deployment and support /

Maintain outlines
Manage data flow.
Analyze data.
Provide management and user support.

What is the difference between smart View and the Essbase add-ins

SmartView is the Oracle future tool. It is a tool for all application Essbase, HFM, Planning, Hyperion, OBIEE etc. It can be connected to multiple databases in the same workbook. One database connection per sheet, It can be connected to Oracle OLAP database. It can be integrated with MS Word, MS Excel, outlook and PowerPoint. The Essbase Excel Add-in is designed to support only Essbase; The Below table lists the difference:

Difference / Essbase Excel Add-in / Smart View
Drill Capabilities / Yes / Yes
Keep only, Remove Only / Yes / Yes
Member Selection / Yes / Yes
Query Designer / Yes / Yes (different)
Retain Formulas / Yes (must select formula preservation) / Yes (by default)
Formatted Reports / Yes / Yes
Cell Text / LROs / Yes / No
Adjust function / No / Yes
DTS / Yes / Yes
Substitution Variables / Yes / No; Coming Soon
Member name referenced in a linked formula / Yes / No; Coming Soon
Cascade / Yes / No; Coming Soon
Ancestor Position / Yes / Yes
Use Excel Formatting & Cell Styles / Yes / Yes
Flashback / Undo / Yes – One Undo / Yes – Multiple Undo’s
POV Manager – Copy and Paste POVs / No / Yes
Share POVs / No / Yes
Define Default Starting POV / No / No; Coming soon with Smart Slices
Multi-Source Grids / Reports / Yes / Yes (using data points)
Alias Table defaults to Default / Yes / No
Submit Data to Essbase / Yes / Yes
MDX vs. Rpt Script / Rpt Script / MDX
Copy / Paste Data Points / No / Yes
Refreshable Essbase Data in Word and PowerPoint / No / Yes
Visualize in Excel / No / Yes
Launch business rules / No / No

What is the difference between Oracle OLAP and Essbase OLAP?

Essbase and Oracle OLAP are two of the leading OLAP solutions.Below are the similarities between the two:

Similarities between Essbase OLAP and Oracle OLAP

Excellent performance for query that needs summary level data.

Fast, incremental update of data sets, which is required to facilitate frequentdata updates.

Rich calculation models that may be used to enrich analytic content

A dimensional model that presents data in a form that is easy for business
users to query and define analytic content

Essbase OLAP / Oracle OLAP

Storage Method
Query language
Process Type
Product dependency
Primary use

Users

Functions and features

MultidimensionalArrays
MDX and XML/A
Stand-alone server
Any relationaldatabase

Supporting OLAPanalytical applications
Essbase is owned and managed by line-of-business users in partnership with the IT group.
Essbase centers on custom analytics and BI applications with a focus on EPM. This strategy addresses the what-if, modeling, and future-orientedquestions that companies need answered today in order to see into the future.
Essbase uses a multidimensional database stored ondisk and in RAM.The line of business typically has a large degree of uncertainty and needs a dynamic and changing environment.
Essbase is the OLAP server that provides an environment for rapidly developingcustom analytic and EPM applications. The data management strategy allows. Essbase to easily combine data from a wide variety of data sources, including theOracle Database.

Multidimensional Arrays
SQL, via query rewrite or SQL views
In-database, embedded process
Oracle Database Enterprise Edition

Enhancing SQL-based Data Warehouses

IT manages the Oracle database and with Oracle OLAP, all of thedata resides in an Oracle database, governed by centralized data security and calculation rules.
As an embedded component of the Oracle Database, Oracle OLAP benefitsfrom the scalability, high availability, job scheduling, parallel processing, and security features inherent in the Oracle Database.

An SQL interface to OLAP cubes allows SQL-based applications to query cubeswithin an Oracle database, and benefit from the performance and analytic content of the OLAP option. The primary data-access language for Oracle OLAP is SQL,making Oracle OLAP a natural choice for enhancing the performance andcalculation capabilities of an existing Oracle data warehouse.

What is the difference between Essbase Studio, Essbase Integration Services and Essbase Administration services?

The functionality of Oracle Essbase Integration Services has been incorporated into Essbase Studio, and users familiar with Integration Services will transit quickly to Essbase Studio. There are some slight differences in terminology and some difference in the sequence of tasks, but the two applications have much in common.

In Integration Services, you create a data source name (ODBC DSN) to point to your source data, and Integration Services uses ODBC to connect to the database.

In Essbase Studio, you can use either ODBC or JDBC to connect to your data source during cube deployment. Cube deployment sets your load options for building an outline and loading data into an application and database. The two methods of connecting to your data source are known as “non-streaming” and “streaming.”

As opposed to EIS, Essbase Studio gives developers the option of deploying all dimensions, one or a set of dimensions, or performing a data load via MaxL. It provides an intuitive user interface with wizards that simplify data model design,cube design, and application building and deployment. It provides one environment for the designing of all data models and it provides the ability to create drill-through reporting as opposed to EAS. It provides the ability to build a dimension library that can be used to buildother applications. It provides for the creation of calendar hierarchies with built-in wizards

Disadvantage of Essbase Studio

The EAS and EIS development tools are both more mature than Essbase Studio. Essbase Studio will need to be used in conjunction with EAS for the followingdevelopment tasks in version. Configurations of certain Essbase Application settings need to be done in EAS.

Creation of substitution variables is available only with EAS. Creation of security filters is available only with EAS. Dragging and dropping of members which are not in Measures dimension is onlysupported in EAS. Calculation, rules, report scripts, MaxL, and MDX editors are not available inEssbase Studio. Creation of partitions is not available in Essbase Studio

What are the new features of the Essbase 11.1.1.0.0?

Varying attributes;

A varying attribute enables you to track changes in attribute values across one or more independent dimensions. The below example shows Varying attribute: Associated with Product dimension, varies with an independent dimension (Time). Measures associated with changed attribute values can be compared and analyzed.Changes in attributes themselves can be tracked and analyzed in reports.Data can be analyzed based on perspectives.Historical perspectives allow you to extend historical data patterns for one attribute during a given time frame into other time frames.Point-in-time perspectives allow you to view data associated with past and current attribute values.

Month / April / May / June / July / August
Sales / 6000 / 2000 / 1000 / 1000 / 7000
Representative / Jones / Jones / Smith / Smith / Smith

Text and date measures

Text measures extend the analytical capabilities of Essbase beyond numerical data to text-based content.Storage and analysis of text content can be useful when a cell needs one of a finite list of text values.Date measures enable members to have date-type values.Certain types of analysis that are difficult to represent by using the Time dimension are aided by the ability to process dates as measures.

Backup, transaction logging, and replay.

This feature is supported only for block storage databases.Data cannot be written to an Essbase database while the database is undergoing a backup operation.

New ASO features;

ASO Partial Data Clear is a new option that enables you to clear a well-defined region of the ASO cubewithout affecting other data areas.Data can be cleared by setting the values to 0 can be removed with a logical clear, but which generally is fast.Data that must be permanently erased can be fully removed with a physical clear, but it is slower.Two types of clear region options are available:

Physical clear of cells in a region; The Physical Clear option completely removes cells in the specified region
Logical clear of cells in a region; The Logical Clear option, the default option, removes cells by creating compensating cells

New calculation script and MDX functions
New XOLAP feature

What is OLAP and what is the difference between its kinds.

OLAP (online analytical processing) is computer processing that enables a user to easily and selectively extract and view data from different points of view. OLAP data is stored in a multidimensional database. Whereas a relational database can be thought of as two-dimensional, a multidimensional database considers each data attribute (such as product, geographic sales region, and time period) as a separate "dimension."

OLAP can be used for data mining or the discovery of relationships between data items. An OLAP database does not need to be as large as a data warehouse, since not all transactional data is needed for trend analysis. Using Open Database Connectivity (ODBC), data can be imported from existing relational databases to create a multidimensional database for OLAP.

OLAP is a technology that supports activities ranging from self-service reporting andanalysis to purpose-built management applications such as planning and budgetingsystems.

An effective OLAP solution solves problems for both business users and IT departments.For business users, it enables fast and intuitive access to centralized data and relatedcalculations for the purposes of analysis and reporting. For IT, an OLAP solutionenhances a data warehouse or other relational database with aggregate data andbusiness calculations. In addition, by enabling business users to do their own analysesand reporting, OLAP systems reduce demands on IT resources.

OLAP offers five key benefits:

Business-focused multidimensional data
Business-focused calculations
Trustworthy data and calculations
Speed-of-thought analysis
Flexible, self-service reporting

OLAP Types

Three maintypes of OLAP are available: multidimensional OLAP, relational OLAP, and hybrid:

Multidimensional OLAP (MOLAP),

The data is stored in a multidimensional. Both Essbase and Oracle OLAP use MOLAP technology. Essbase storesdata in a multidimensional database. Oracle OLAP cubes are multidimensionalobjects stored in the Oracle Database.MOLAP cubes are automatically indexed based on the dimensions. Data can belocated using offset addressing. To find a given value in a multidimensional array,a MOLAP product needs to use only multiplication and addition, and computers dothose operations very fast. MOLAP technology is the best option for dense arrays,where most of the data cells in a cube contain a value. That said, both Essbase andOracle OLAP have capabilities to manage sparse MOLAP cubes effectively.

Relational OLAP

Relational OLAP (ROLAP) uses a traditional star/snowflake schema and relationaldata sources only. With ROLAP, data is neither aggregated nor manipulated. Thedata is stored in relational tables that can be queried by SQL.ROLAP is ideal for lower density (sparse) cubes. ROLAP automatically provides allof the advantages of a relational database, such as high availability, replication, readconsistent view of data, backup and recovery, parallel processing, and job scheduling.

Hybrid OLAP

With hybrid OLAP (HOLAP), the data is stored both in an OLAP data store and arelational database. For example, you may have summary-level data stored in theOLAP data store and detailed data stored in the relational database. You could thendrill down from the OLAP data store to the detail stored in the relational database.

Today, most OLAP products support the hybrid architecture. Both Essbase andOracle OLAP can be implemented in this fashion.

What is the differencebetweenaggregate storage ASO and block storage BSO?

Block Storage

Block storage is the historical storage methodology in Essbase. Databases using thisstorage method hold data in small linear arrays, called blocks. The exact architectureof the blocks is determined by dense and sparse dimensions. For every intersection where a piece of data exists, Essbase creates a block. Essbase also creates a block for everyintersection of Product, Market, and the scenario (Actual, Budget, and so forth)

Aggregate Storage

Aggregate storage databases store and manage data very differently from blockstorage databases. Instead of storing data in arrays (blocks), aggregate storagedatabases work with cells. In a block storage database, if you query a single valuefrom a block, the entire structure comes into memory on the server. Because data structures are not pre-allocated, aggregate storage database canhandle very expanded dimensionality and a lot more data. For instance, we haveworked with models containing more than 10 million customers in a singledimension, as well as those with multiple millions of members per dimension inmany dimensions.With aggregate storage databases, data is loaded at level 0, and all upper-levelmembers (for example, East) and member formulas are derived dynamically. Tooptimize retrieval performance, you can run an aggregation process on the databaseto build stored values at some upper-level intersections. After loading data, Essbaseanalyzes the source data and builds aggregates to optimize those queries that willtake the longest to resolve based on the structure of the database. You can also haveEssbase monitor the query patterns of your user base, and then build aggregations toserve your specific queries better. Essentially, the model is self-learning.

In general, aggregate storage models are ideal for aggregating large data sets(also called rack and stack applications). While you can do complex mathematics inaggregate storage models, all formulas are derived dynamically. A formula that isoverly complex can affect performance. Although there are usually numerous waysto optimize processing in aggregate storage databases so that complex formulas do not have a large impact on performance, the dynamic nature of such formulasshould be taken into consideration.