Top 24 Obiee Interview Questions & Answers

1) Mention what is Obiee?

Obiee stands for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition (OBIEE). It is a business intelligence system for the enterprise that delivers abilities for reporting, online analytical processing (OLAP), ad hoc query and analysis dashboards, and scorecards.

2) Mention what are the main features of OBIEE?

Key features of OBIEE includes,

1. Hierarchy Drilling
2. Scheduled Report Generation
3. Graphical Reporting (Charts, Pivots, Gauges, )
4. Ad Hoc Analysis
5. Global support and development capability

3) Mention what is the end to end lifecycle of OBIEE?

The end to end life cycle of OBIEE is,

1. Collecting Business Requirements
2. Identify source systems
3. Design ETL to load data to the Data Warehouse
4. Creating repository
5. Create dashboards and reports
6. Setting up security (LDAP or External table)
7. Decide on aggregations or caching mechanism based on performance
8. Testing and QA.

4) Explain how OBIEE architecture works?

OBIEE architecture works in following way,

1. A request is made by the Users and sent to the Presentation Server.
2. The Presentation Server transforms the request into logical SQL and sent to the BI server.
3. The BI server transforms logical SQL into physical SQL and sent it to the database
4. The result gets back to the user through the same path

5) Mention what are the main components of OBIEE?

OBIEE components are divided mainly into tow types, Server Components and Client Components. The client component is further divided into web-based obiee client and non-web based client.

Server Components	Client Components
	Web Based OBIEE Client	Non- Web based Client
Oracle BI (OBIEE) Server	Interactive Dashboards	OBIEE Administration
Oracle Presentation Server	Oracle Delivers	ODBC Client
Application Server	BI Publisher
Scheduler	BI Presentation Service Administrator
Cluster Controller	Answers
Oracle BI (OBIEE) Server	Disconnected Analytics
Oracle Presentation Server	MS Office Plugin

6) Mention what is ODBC Client is used for?

ODBC Client is used to connect to the database and execute SQL commands.

7) Mention what kind of sources can be connected to OBIEE?

Sources like Relational Databases, Cubes or Flat files can be connected to Obiee with following constraints,

• The sources must be modeled as snowflakes or star schemas for efficient result
• In the case of multiple sources connecting directly in OBIee, it has to be used

8) Mention what all information does OBIEE repository contains?

OBIEE repository contains information about the application environment like,

• Data Modeling
• SQL Information
• Caching
• Connectivity Information
• Aggregate Navigation
• Security

9) Mention what are the three layers of OBIEE repository?

The three layers of OBIEE repository are,

• Physical Layer (Schema Design): It contains information about the data sources
• Business Model Layer: It outlines the business or logical model of objects and their mapping between business model and Schema in the physical layer
• Presentation Layer: Presentation layer is used to provide customized views of Business Model in Business Model layer to users.

10) Mention what does physical layer is used for?

Physical layer is used for,

• Importing data
• Creating Aliases
• Building physical joins
• Setting up connection pool and its properties
• Enabling/ Disabling cache for individual table

11) Mention what is LTS in OBIEE?

LTS or Logical Table Source is created when you drag and drop a column from a table that is not presently being used in your logical table. A physical table containing such column is referred as LTS.

12) Mention what is session variable in OBIEE?

A session variable can be a system variable and non-system variable. It is initialized at login time for each user. System variable uses NQ_SESSION.(system reserved variable). Examples of non-system variables are user defined filters etc.

13) Mention what are the different log files in OBIEE?

Different log files in OBIEE includes,

• NQServer.log
• NQQuery.log
• NQSAdminTool.log, etc.

14) Mention what are the Key Configuration Files in OBIEE?

Key Configuration Files in OBIEE are,

• NQSConfig.ini
• NQSCluster.ini
• odbc.ini
• instanceconfig.xml

15) Mention what are the security providers used by OBIEE?

Security providers used by OBIEE are,

• Authentication provider to authenticate users
• Policy store provider is used to access privileges on all applications except for BI Presentation Services
• Credential store provider is used to store credentials used internally by the BI application

16) Mention what is the difference between logical table source and logical table?

The difference between logical table source and the logical table is that a logical table consists of one or more logical table source. The mapping between  logical column and physical columns are done in this element.

17) Mention how many server instances can coexist in an OBIEE cluster?

Maximum 16 server instances coexist in an OBIEE cluster.

18) Mention whether it is possible to create an Outer join in an OBIEE physical layer?

In an OBIEE physical layer, it is not possible to create the Outer join.  You will create the join type in the Business Layer.

19) Mention how to bypass the server authentication?

To bypass the server authentication in NQSConfig.ini and instance config.xml, BYPASS SERVER AUTHENTICATION = YES.

20) Mention what is ibot?

Ibot is a scheduling agent, used to schedule reports to be sent across various devices such as email, pager, mobile, other devices, etc.

21) Mention how to get real physical SQL sent by OBIee to the database?

To get real physical SQL sent by OBIee to the database, check following details

1. Verify the value of your session variable LOGLEVEL (5 is fine)
2. Go into Administration -> Manage sessions
3. Find your query (at the bottom of the list), and click on “View log.”
4. Below the logical SQL, you will see the physical SQL.

22) Mention what does a Fact table consist of?

A Fact table consists of two types of columns

• Facts and
• Foreign key to dimension tables

23) Mention how to hide certain columns from a user?

To hide certain columns from a user,

• Do not add the column in the report
• Do not add the column in the presentation layer

24) Mention how you will change the port of Obiee?

You can change port of Obiee by changing its port in instanceconfig.xml