OBIEE Blog

The goal is to set session variables using url variables, but can you also do this for the user and password ?
url variable (&Upwd) is not passed to session variable USER_PWD.
The variable USER is correctly passed, the variable USER_PWD is not!

Solution

The steps to set an OBIS session variable via a URL call utilizing the
instanceconfig.xml tag should be as follows

1. Create a session init block that will act as a ‘placeholder’ for the
session variable to be set via the url call – the variable can be set to
anything.

2. Set the ‘Enable any user to set the value’ option for the variable.

3. Add the following tag block to the instanceconfig.xml file anywhere
between the <ServerInstance></ServerInstance> tags:

<Auth>
<UserIdPassword enabled=”true”>
<ParamList>
<Param name=”NQ_SESSION.TEST_VAR”
source=”url”
nameInSource=”SETVAR”/>
</ParamList>
</UserIdPassword>
</Auth>
“TEST_VAR” should match the session variable name (case sensitive).

4. The following option will need to be appended to the OBI url passed -
&SETVAR=’variable value to pass. So a full example would be:

http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard&nqUser=USER001&nqPassword=US

ER001&SETVAR=SomeValue

However, note that you cannot set the value of any System Security Session variable (specifically USER, PROXY, GROUP and WEBGROUPS) using any source method (e.g.: url, cookie, httpHeader) by design. Having this ability would open possible security breaches.

If you attempt to set the USER variable with the following instanceconfig.xml setting:

<Param name=”NQ_SESSION.USER” source=”url” nameInSource=”nquser” />

You will get the following error when using the url: http://localhost:9704/analytics/saw.dll?Dashboard&nquser=user1&nqpassword=public :

nQSError: 10018: Access for the requested connection is refused
nQSError: 1315 You do not have the permission to set the value of the variable :USER

After changing password for OBI repository Administrator user, impersonator and OBIEEConnect HR database user, it is no longer possible to log into OBIEE. The following error is displayed:

‘The page cannot be displayed’

OBIEE 10.1.3.3.0 is installed on Linux and deployed on Oracle 10gAS with SSO implemented

So, when you go to http://servername/analytics, it should bring you to the SSO login page e.g ‘Not logged in’ should be displayed. Instead the above error is displayed.
Cause

The issue is caused by the following setup/step:

a). The Oracle Application Server is unable to render OBIEE as an application

b). Credentialstore.xml has not been updated with the change in impersonator password
Solution

The following resolved the problems

1). Redeploy ‘analytics’ application in the OC4J Admin Console, restart all the OBI processes and attempt to log in again.

Now, OBIEE page displayed ‘Not Logged In..’ which is the expected page as SSO is enabled.

This step is described in

–> Oracle Business Intelligence Infrastructure Installation and Configuration Guide> Configuring Oracle BI Presentation Services > Creating a WAR File for Oracle BI Presentation Services

a.In 0c4j admin console
b. Click on ‘analytics’ application
c. Choose default settings or use existing application files
d. Redeploy application
e. Restart all services

2). Add the change in the impersonator user credentials to the Oracle BI Presentation Services Credential Store. To obtain the impersonator user credentials, Oracle BI Presentation Services will search the credential store for a username-password credential with an alias of impersonation

These steps are documented in

–> Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide > Implementing Single Sign-On Products With Oracle Business Intelligence > Enabling SSO Authentication for Oracle Business Intelligence > Creating the Oracle BI Server Impersonator User

–> Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Deployment Guide > Implementing Single Sign-On Products With Oracle Business Intelligence > Enabling SSO Authentication for Oracle Business Intelligence > Adding Impersonator User Credentials to Oracle BI Presentation Services Credential Store

he question is – if you can mix LDAP and other type of authentication. In one word – yes and no.

Here’s what Oracle suggests:

1. You can have internal authentication and LDAP authentication. eg users in the rpd, and users in the LDAP.

For users not defined in the repository, the presence of a defined session system variable USER determines that external authentication is performed.
So using this method, you can have groups with internal users using the internal security, and groups with users that use the LDAP authentication.

But you cannot mix external table and LDAP authentication for example, as you cannot have different connection pools on same init block.

2. The best option would be to create your own authentication Dll (Custom authentication) so  you will have full control on what systems you will lookup for the user account.
You can write your own DLL in C++ , and have OBI Server invoke it. BI just pass the username/pwd received, and wait for an authenticated/no authenticated message from the dll.

This exists since 10.1.3.2.

We provide an example of such dll.
Location for the sample one: D:\OracleBI\server\SDK\CustomAuthenticatorSamples

I wonder if anyone tried it – I think that at this time, it’d be easier to work around the requirement by using standard methods. Let’s see what John Minkjan might say about it.

While running a report, we receive the following error message: State: HY000. Code: 10058. [NQODBC] [SQL_STATE: HY000] [nQSError: 10058] A general error has occurred. [nQSError: 46073] Operation ’stat()’ on file ‘/u02/OracleBIData/tmp/nQS_28056_15671_77250638.TMP’ failed with error: (75) (HY000)

Watching the server as the report runs, a large file is created in the /OracleBIData/tmp directory. Once the file hits 2GB in size, the report generates the error. It appears that we are hitting a 2GB file size limitation.

Build:10.1.3.4.0 [1900]
LINUX Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS release 4 (Nahant Update 6) 2.6.9 67.0.7.ELsmp (64-bit)

Please let me know how to resolve this issue. thank you.
Cause
We’ve researched on this error and this issue has been logged as a BUG “BUG 6998143 – ANALYTICS TEMP FILES CANNOT BE LARGER THAN 2GB “.
According to BUG 6998143, in UNIX/LINUX env tmp files over 2 GB in size lead to an error. This bug was fixed for Window env in OBIEE 10.1.3.2, and has been fixed for UNIX/LINUX env in OBIEE 10.1.3.4.

Solution

Please note that a patch for BUG 5543386 – ANALYTICS TEMP FILES CANNOT BE LARGER THAN 2GB, for Linux is now available.

John Minkjan posted some interested and useful articles as usual. First is How to edit OBIEE system-wide defaults, the second one is about making a distinct date prompt in OBIEE, and finally OBIEE reporting on data ranges.

Adrian Ward has several wonderful OBIEE tips submitted by his readers.

Mark Rittman hosts a free seminar in London in a few weeks. So if you happen to be around, I strongly recommend you attend.

Venkatarishan J has posted an extensive article on Hyperion. Data Archive and Replay in BSO Cubes.