Data Not Getting Refreshed in Answers when Changed in Base Database. Cache problem.

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July 8, 2009
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July 9, 2009

Found something interesting about cache today.

Symptoms

Have a report in Answers.
For one of the values (Jan09 / Budget) the value is 10,000.
Value in database is updated to 600,000
Looking at the report in Answers, it still displays the amount for this value as 10,000.  This happens even after selecting ‘Refresh’ for the report.

If the user drills into Jan09, & so views each week of Jan09, then the value can be seen as 600,000. Drill back out to Jan09 & again it is displaying as 10,000 (the original value).

Turning off caching (in NQSConfig.INI with [ CACHE ] ENABLE =NO ) DOES fix the issue. However, this causes performance issues.
Cause
In fact, this is working as designed.

As per Answers guide, this is expected behavior:

“When executing an Oracle BI Interactive Dashboard or a request, Oracle BI uses temporary storage areas, called caches, to save frequently accessed or recently accessed results. Storing certain results in cache helps to improve Oracle BI performance. You can use the Refresh feature to make sure that your request bypasses saved information in the Oracle BI Presentation Services cache and is issued to the Oracle Business Intelligence Server for processing. NOTE: The Oracle BI Server maintains its own cache. This cache is separate from the Oracle BI Presentation Services cache.”

So, the ‘Refresh’ link only bypasses the OBI Presentation Services cache and the request is issued to the Oracle Business Intelligence Server for processing. It does not bypass OBI Server cache. If the BI Server cache is enabled the request hits the BI Server cache and you then see the old data.

It will not bypass the BI Server cache and will only satisfy your request (and fire the SQL to database) if there is no BI Server cached results.
Solution

The BI Server cache should be cleared to fix the issue.

2 Comments

  1. Chad says:

    I have different subject areas that have different caching requirements. One of the subject areas contain data that is near real-time, so I have turned off caching in the RPD for every table in this subject area.

    It works most of the time, but we periodically see an issue where a user is in the report while the data is updated. They do not see the updated data even if they refresh the report. I have them log out of OBIEE and back in, and they still don’t see the updated data. But, if I log in, I see the updated data. I’ve even had them clear browser cach, but that doesn’t seem to make a difference.

    Any ideas on what would cause this?

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