PerformanceIncreasing In OBIEE

While working on OBIEE every oneneed some tips to increase performance, I searched the net but not foundhelpful tips. Hence I thought putting some of the points together that will behelpful for you.


Following are the few points which improve the performance of OBIEE.

1. Alias Tables
2. Using Aggregate Navigation
3. Using Cache
4. Connection Pool
5. Turning Off Log Level
6. Using Database Hints
7. Using Where Clause

1.) Alias Tables
An Alias table (Alias) is a physical table with the type of Alias. It is areference to a Physical table, and inherits all its column definitions and someproperties from the Physical table. Alias Tables can be an important part ofdesigning a physical layer

OBIEE doesn’t support the self-join,so we can use alias table to implement self-join in OBIEE.

Thefollowing is a list of the main reasons to create an alias table:

• To reuse an existing table more than once in your physical layer (without having to import it several times)
• To set up multiple alias tables, each with different keys, names, or joins
• To help you design sophisticated star or snowflake structures in the business model layer.

To create Alias table in PhysicalLayer, right click on Table -> New Object -> Alias, select sourcetable if required.

NOTE: In previous version we need to synchronize the alias table with thesource tables but in OBIEE Alias will be automatically synchronized with sourcetable, any change to Source Table will be immediately reflected in Alias Table.

2.) Using Aggregate Tables
All knows that when we create Summary Report then data from the fact table gotroll up to the appropriate level & then showed to the customer. Oracle BIserver lets you register aggregate (summary) tables that contain thepre-computed sums, averages and so on for a fact table, which it then uses inpreference to rolling up the detail-level fact table if this would speed up aquery.

We will be using aggregate tables inphysical layer if you required to create the aggregate tables then you can useAggregate Persistent Wizard.

We will import aggregate Fact &Dimension Table into physical layer..

We have the aggregate tables inphysical layer; will use physical Diagram to create foreign key relationshipsbetween the aggregate fact tables, the aggregate dimension tables

We’re now at the point where we canmap these aggregate tables to the existing logical tables in the business modellayer

We need to identify the existinglogical tables in the business model that have columns that correspond to theincoming data, and then drag the columns you want to match on over from thenew, physical table.
We will create new Logical Table Source to map Logical Column to PhysicalColumns (from Aggregate table).

The final step is to tell the BIServer that this new data source for the units measure, is only valid Month,Sales Rep and Type Level.

Now, when a query comes in againstthe Dollars measure at the product Type or Customer Sales rep Level, the BIServer will use the D1_ORDER_AGG1 table instead of D1_ORDER2.

3.) Using Cache:

Cache in OBIEE:-
Cache is component hat improves performance by transparently storing data suchthat future requests for that data can be served faster. Like other applicationcache is not virtual memory in OBIEE. In OBIEE cache will be stored as file onHard Disk in the form of files.
To use the cache we need to enable it, to enable cache we need to edit theNQSConfig.ini as well as need to make the tables cacheable.

Followingare the parameters from NQSConfig.ini that will be used in enabling the cache:-

ENABLE
To enable the cache set the ENABLE parameter to YES.

DATA_STORAGE_PATHS
This parameter specifies one or more directory paths for where the cached queryresults data is stored and are accessed when a cache hit occurs. The maximumcapacity in bytes, kilobytes, megabytes or gigabytes. The maximum capacity foreach path is 4 GB. For optimal performance, the directories specified should beon high performance storage systems.
Each directory listed needs to be an existing, fully-qualified, writabledirectory pathname, with double quotes ( ” ) surrounding the pathname. Specifymapped directories only.
UNC path names (“\server.name.edusomefolder“) and network mapped drives areallowed only if the service runs under a qualified user account. To change theaccount under which the service is running, see the corresponding topic in theOracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide.
Specify multiple directories with a comma separated list.

MAX_ROWS_PER_CACHE_ENTRY
Specifies the maximum number of rows in a query result set to qualify forstorage in the query cache. Limiting the number of rows is a useful way toavoid using up the cache space with runaway queries that return large numbersof rows. If the number of rows a query returns is greater than the valuespecified in the MAX_ROWS_PER_CACHE_ENTRY parameter, the query is not cached.When set to 0, there is no limit to the number of rows per cache entry.

MAX_CACHE_ENTRY_SIZE
Specifies the maximum size for a cache entry. Potential entries that exceedthis size are not cached. The default size is 1 MB.
Specify GB for gigabytes, KB for kilobytes, MB for megabytes, and no units forbytes.

MAX_CACHE_ENTRIES
Specifies the maximum number of cache entries allowed in the query cache.Limiting the total number of cache entries provides another parameter withwhich to manage your cache storage. The actual limit of cache entries mightvary slightly depending on the number of concurrent queries.

OPULATE_AGGREGATE_ROLLUP_HITS
Specifies whether to aggregate data from an earlier cached query result set andcreate a new entry in the query cache for rollup cache hits.

SE_ADVANCED_HIT_DETECTION
When caching is enabled, each query is evaluated to determine whether itqualifies for a cache hit. A cache hit means that the server was able to usecache to answer the query and did not go to the database at all. The Oracle BIServer can use query cache to answer queries at the same or later level ofaggregation.

Followingare the parameters used to make Table Cacheable:-

To make table cacheable we need toedit the table properties.

Cacheable
To include the table in the Oracle BI Server query cache, select this checkbox. When you select this check box, the Cache persistence time settings becomeactive.

Cache never expires
When you select this option, cache entries do not expire. This could be usefulwhen a table will be important to a large number of queries users might run.For example, if most of your queries have a reference to an account object,keeping it cached indefinitely could actually improve performance rather thancompromise it

Cachepersistence time
How long table entries should persist in the query cache. The default value isInfinite, meaning that cache entries do not automatically expire. However, thisdoes not mean that an entry will always remain in the cache. Other invalidationtechniques, such as manual purging, LRU (Least Recently Used) replacement,metadata changes, and use of the cache polling table, result in entries beingremoved from the cache.

If a query references multiplephysical tables with different persistence times, the cache entry for the querywill exist for the shortest persistence time set for any of the tablesreferenced in the query. This makes sure that no subsequent query gets a cachehit from an expired cache entry.

4.) Connection Pool:-

Most of the times not much thoughtare given to defining connection pools while developing RPD. Improperly definedconnection pool would affect the OBIEE performance and user experience. Hereare some of the things to consider while defining connection pool.

• Change the default maximum connections. The default is 10. Based on your system usage change the value that is more realistic to your system usage
• Create a separate connection pool for execution of session variables
• Create a separate connection pool for the execution of aggregate persistence wizard. Remember that you need to give the schema user owner credentials for this connection pool as the wizard creates and drops tables
• If need be create a separate connection pool for VVIPs. You can control who gets to use the connection pool based on the connection pool permissions.

5.) Turning Off Log Level:-
Though query logging has immeasurable development value, do not use this forregular production users as the runtime logging cost is extremely high. Everylog item is flushed to the disk, which in turn hurts query response. Also, notethat the query log files are not created on per user or query basis, there isonly one query log per OBIEE server and it would have exclusive lock on the logfile, which kills concurrent performance. The log file is NQQuery.log whichresides in OracleBI Directory.

Logging Level	Information That Is Logged
Level 0	No logging.
Level 1	Logs the SQL statement issued from the client application. Logs elapsed times for query compilation, query execution, query cache processing, and back-end database processing. Logs the query status (success, failure, termination, or timeout). Logs the user ID, session ID, and request ID for each query.
Level 2	Logs everything logged in Level 1. Additionally, for each query, logs the repository name, business model name, presentation catalog (called Subject Area in Answers) name, SQL for the queries issued against physical databases, queries issued against the cache, number of rows returned from each query against a physical database and from queries issued against the cache, and the number of rows returned to the client application.
Level 3	Logs everything logged in Level 2. Additionally, adds a log entry for the logical query plan, when a query that was supposed to seed the cache was not inserted into the cache, when existing cache entries are purged to make room for the current query, and when the attempt to update the exact match hit detector fails. Do not select this level without the assistance of Technical Support.
Level 4	Logs everything logged in Level 3. Additionally, logs the query execution plan. Do not select this level without the assistance of Technical Support.
Level 5	Logs everything logged in Level 4. Additionally, logs intermediate row counts at various points in the execution plan. Do not select this level without the assistance of Technical Support.
Level 6 and 7	Reserved for future use.

6.)  Using Database Hints

Database hints are instructionsplaced within a SQL statement that tell the database query optimizer the mostefficient way to execute the statement. Hints override the optimizer’sexecution plan, so you can use hints to improve performance by forcing theoptimizer to use a more efficient plan.
Hints are database specific. The Oracle BI Server supports hints only forOracle 8i, 9i, and 10g servers.

These are the following objects where you can apply the hint

1. Physical Complex Join
2. Physical foreign key
3. Physical Table – Object type Alias
4. Physical Table – Object type None

Hints that are well researched andplanned can result in significantly better query performance. However, hintscan also negatively affect performance if they result in a suboptimal executionplan.

You should only add hints to arepository after you have tried to improve performance in the following ways:

• Added physical indexes (or other physical changes) to the Oracle database.
• Made modeling changes within the server.
• Avoid creating hints for physical table and join objects that are queried often.

To createa hint
1.    Navigate to one of the following dialog boxes:

• Physical Table—General tab
• Physical Foreign Key
• Physical Join—Complex Join

2.    Type the textof the hint in the Hint field and click OK.

7.) Using Where Clause Filter
The WHERE clause filter is used to constrain the physical tables referenced inthe logical table source, If there are no constraints on the aggregate source,leave the WHERE clause filter blank.

Filter applied in WHERE Clause willapplied on physical table that will be result in restricted or required data,other data which is not necessary, will not be fetched each time when there isquery on that table.

– Rupesh Harke