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Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure. December 4, 2008. Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure - Agenda. Choices You Have to Make Cal Poly Choices Key Facts Architecture Diagram Issues We Ran Into Recommendations Q & A. Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Choices.
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Cal Poly OBIEETechnical Infrastructure December 4, 2008
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure - Agenda • Choices You Have to Make • Cal Poly Choices • Key Facts • Architecture Diagram • Issues We Ran Into • Recommendations • Q & A
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Choices • VM vs Dedicated Server(s) • Single vs Multiple Servers • If Multiple Servers Load Balancing Choice • Dedicate to Application (Finance vs Student) • Use OBIEE Clustering • Use Network Controlled • Operating System Choices – Windows vs Unix (Linux, Sun etc)
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Cal Poly Choices 1 • VM • Our goal at Cal Poly is to get everything possible to run under VM to make effective use of server resources and simplify disaster recovery. • We have much of our Devl/Test infrastructure under VM. OBIEE is one of our first Production servers under VM. • Two servers under VM using Network load balancing (simple alternate server approach) • Needed Load Balancing but wanted to keep it simple and understandable • OBIEE Clustering was an unknown
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Cal Poly Choices 2 • Combination of Operating Systems • Linux for Devl/Test/Prod • Expected better performance and more secure environment with Linux • Strong Linux support group at Cal Poly • Windows for Metadata Repository Development Environments • OBIEE architecture best supports the iterative building and initial testing of the metadata repository using Windows
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Key Facts • OBIEE is a set of Windows Services or Unix Daemons that interact with a collection of proprietary file structures and “objects” as well as databases. • The Metadata Repository is a file that CANNOT be shared across servers. Multiple Production Metadata Repositories must be kept in sync MANUALLY. • The Web Catalog is a directory/file structure containing many different “objects” that CAN and SHOULD be shared across servers. • Several key OBIEE utilities ONLY run under Windows. They are: • Administration tool – Maintenance of Metadata Repository • Web Catalog Migration tool – Migrating Web Catalog “objects” between environments
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Diagram See Diagram http://polydata.calpoly.edu/dashboards/obiee_conf/presentations/CalPolyOBIEE_ArchitectureDiagram_v2.pdf
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Issues We Ran Into • Inconsistent Documentation (particularly on Linux) • Lack of Experience (Consultant or Oracle) • Some examples • We were told that Web Catalog could not be shared via a file share by consultants. This led us to spend DAYS trying to getting Server Replication to work and HOURS recovering data that was lost when Server Replication didn’t work properly • Still haven’t got BI Publisher implemented because of inconsistent documentation that is contradictory!
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Recommendations • Evaluate what OS is best for you. • Windows might be a valid choice dependent on your support staff’s experience • Windows is a good choice to immediately create a “sand box” environment for your developers to become familiar with OBIEE • The Windows default install is pretty straightforward; just don’t go into Production with it! • Plan on Windows, regardless of your OS choice, to support some of the tools and Metadata development • Use a File Share for the Web Catalog • Keep the overall architecture consistent between Devl, Test and Prod as it eases ongoing installations and troubleshooting. The environments don’t have to be sized the same just “architected” the same. • DOCUMENT everything you do or you will forget!
Cal Poly OBIEE Technical Infrastructure – Questions/Answers Q & A