How-to: Mapviewer Integration with OBIEE 11g (11.1.1.6 and higher)

I've seen quite a few articles on OTN and Google which outline how to configure Mapviewer for your 11g solution.  The problem is that many of these articles are:

1) overly complex
2) out of date

With the release of OBIEE 11.1.1.6, mapviewer comes pre-configured with weblogic and the only installation steps required are:

• installation of navteq mapdata to your oracle database
• establish a column based relationship between the map and a subject area

You do not have to modify any weblogic XML files, install any mapviewer jar files, or do any configuration within weblogic. Below is a step by step guide on how to configure and use mapviewer on your 11.1.1.6.x box:

Step 1: Download the mapviewer 'mvdemo' data into your Oracle database

Oracle provides pre-configured maps, coordinates, and navteq data that use can use in your reports. You need to download the MVDemo Sample Data Set .

Step 2: Create the mvdemo schema in your Oracle database

We're going to import the navteq map data into an mvdemo schema in step 3. Let's go ahead and create the mvdemo schema by typing the following command into your SQLPlus prompt:

grant connect, resource, create view to mvdemo identified by mvdemo

Note that you will need the appropriate privileges to create this account. If denied, try logging in as sysdba by typing the following command into sqplus:

CONNECT / AS sysdba

Step 3: Import navteq data dump to your Oracle database

Unzip the MV Demo Sample Data Set you just downloaded, and note the location of the 'mvdemp.dmp' file. This is the file we will import to the database.


Step 3.1)
Find the imp utility on your machine. It is usually located in your $ORACLE_HOME\product\11.x.x\dbhome_1\BIN folder

Step 3.2) Navigate to that folder via command line and run the following command:

imp mvdemo/mvdemo@ORCL file=mvdemo.dmp full=y ignore=y
where ORCL is your database SID
and file=mvdemo.dmp is the path (including mvdemo.dmp) to the dump file

You should get the following result:

Step 4) Import the map meta data

The Map Viewer Sample Data Set comes with city, county, state, highway, and other geographical map based data that you can impose onto the map. We're going to import this data set by running the following command in sqlplus:
:
@mvdemo.sql

Note that you must include the path of the mvdemo.sql file e.g. @C:\folder\folder1\mvdemo\mvdemo.sql

Step 5) Add your Oracle Database as a MapViewer Data Source

No, we're not doing this in weblogic - Mapviewer data source configuration is still done in your http://localhost:9704/mapviewer location


You'll arrive at a landing page like below, where you must click the 'Admin' button to log in:

5.1) login user your weblogic username/password

5.2) You should arrive at a home page with a link to view Datasources. Click it and you'll appear at:

Name = name/description of your data source

Host = hostname/ip address of your database

Port = database port number

SID = service ID of your oracle database (by default it is orcl)

user/password: If you followed my above steps, it will be mvdemo/mvdemo

# Mappers and Max Connections specify how many simultaneous users can connect to the MapViewer db. For diagnostic purposes I would make this relatively high, and once development is complete you can adjust as needed.

Step 6) Modify the mapViewerConfig.xml file to include the new data source

I'm a little surprised as to why this must be done manually, if anyone has any insight - please feel free to leave feedback. After you add the data source as outlined in step 5, you must then modify the mapViewerConfig.XML file to include said datasource, otherwise when the BI Server is rebooted, your datasource connection will be removed!

Luckily, this step is not too difficult

6.1) In :7001/mapviewer , log into your Admin screen and navigate to Management -> Configuration

Then add the following XML to the bottom of the config file, right above the </MappperConfig> line.

  <map_data_source name="mvdemo"

                   jdbc_host="db1.my_corp.com"

                   jdbc_sid="orcl"

                   jdbc_port="1521"

                   jdbc_user="scott"

                   jdbc_password="!tiger" 

                   jdbc_mode="thin"

                   number_of_mappers="3"

                   allow_jdbc_theme_based_foi="false"

   />

Modify each line using the inputs you provided in step 5, but in the jdbc_password input should have a ! infront of it as that is Oracle's indicator to encrypt the password upon restart.

Step 7)  Import a map layer into Answers 

We've completed all of the back end work required to create a map. Now we'll go into Answers -> Administration -> Manage Map Data and import a layer (theme) that we'll use for our map.

A theme is a visual representation representation of the data, and arguably the most important component in creating a map. In this example let's use the "THEME_DEMO_COUNTIES" layer, which will give us the ability to impose a dataset over various Counties in the USA.

Step 8) Specify the BI Column used to associate the THEME_DEMO_COUNTIES layer to a dataset

The theme we're using, "THEME_DEMO_COUNTIES" stores attributes of Counties (county name, county lines, etc) which we can visualize on a map. We need to identify a way to 'join' the data set in OBIEE to the dataset of THEME_DEMO_COUNTIES.

After saving the layer you just created, click the 'Edit' button (pencil) to bring up the screen below.

Notice there is 'Layer Key' with the following column values; County, Fips, Population, State.  We are going to use 'County' as the map column to join to the subject area.

Next we need to specify a column from our subject area which contains 'County'.  

Step 9) Specify the Background Map

In steps 7 and 8 we specified a theme (visual representation of the data) and identified how to join the map data to our subject area (via County column). Now we need to specify which map we're the theme will use.

In the 'Background' tab, create a new background map and specify 'DEMO_MAP' as the background map.

After saving, edit the map ensure the THEME_DEMO_COUNTIES has successfully been applied:

It will default to the middle of the USA but I decided to zoom into California :)

Step 10) Create a Report using the County Column 

Now we're ready to create the report! Create a new analysis, select the County column you specified in step 7, and a fact column which joins to the county dimension. Click the results tab, then New View -> Maps.  

The result below outlines only California because the dataset I created uses only California Counties. 

Note that I did not go into the MapBuilder tool, which you can use if you want to create custom themes and maps (e.g. map of a building, school, casino, etc). But this works great for a proof of concept!

keywords: obiee mapviewer, rendering maps, obiee configuration, obiee 11g maps, obiee navteq maps, obiee mapviewer integration

How-to: OID Authentication with Groups Stored in an External Database Table - OBIEE 11g

As more firms seek to consolidate their technology stack while expanding their analytics capabilities, it makes more and more sense to transition your OBIEE 10g analytics solution to Oracle's new 11g framework. Oracle's 11g framework provides, among other things:

• An integrated solution for managing & deploying 11g applications from a single environment (Weblogic and Fusion Middleware)
• A centralized system for configuring security across all your environments
• Integration with Oracle's 11g exadata & exalytics solutions
• A framework for utilizing external web services within your reporting solution
• e.g. Your company seeks to expand its business and enter a new market so you create a report using 11g's mapviewer utilizing Yelp.com's API to aggregate user reviews to determine what services consumers are the unsatisfied with, thus allowing you to quantify new business opportunities and entry points. You definitely cannot do that in 10g :)

But before you can save the world and generate new business ideas for your company - step 1 is to deploy the OBIEE 11g application within your company. You've done an analysis of your company's security policy and determined that user authentication is stored in Oracle Internet Directory but corresponding reporting groups are stored in an external database table.

In 11g you can accommodate this security model by deploying two authentication providers: one for OID, and another for the external database table. I've outline the steps below needed to accomplish this task:


Step 1: Configure OID Authentication

To successfully implement an 'OID authentication w/ groups in an external database' security model, you are really completing two separate tasks:

1) Configure OID Authentication
2) Configure external groups authentication

I've posted a complete series on how to configure your 11g environment to utilize OID as an authentication source . The OID authentication configuration process is approximately 15 steps, so take your time, document your process and before proceeding to step 2  -  make sure you can log into your 11g Answers environment with users in your OID.

Do not proceed to step 2 until your OID users can successfully log into the 11g Answers environment.

Step 2:  Deploy your Sample Schema for Groups & Group Members

In your 10g deployment, you probably created an init block that stored a user's groups to the GROUPS session variable. 11g handles user group authentication via Weblogic & Fusion Middleware using an authentication provider similar to the one you created for your OID authentication. The only difference between the OID authentication & the group authentication is instead of hitting OID as the authenticator, we're going to create a BI SQL Group authentication provider that will hit an external database.

Your groups database schema needs to resemble the following data model*:

* Data model taken from Oracle Fusion Middleware Security Guide

Groups table: represents all of the possible groups in your system.

Groupmembers table: stores all of the users and their corresponding group.

Below are 2 rudimentary queries you can use to generate the tables but note they don't utilize any type of indexes, PK/FK relationships, or best practices. I'd use these for a POC (proof of concept) and once the system is ready to scale, create model using best practices:

GROUPS create statement:

CREATE

TABLE USER.GROUPS(

GROUPMEMBERS

VARCHAR2(100 BYTE),

G_NAME

VARCHAR2(100 BYTE),

G_MEMBER

VARCHAR2(100 BYTE)

)

Groupmembers create statement:

CREATE

TABLE USER.GROUPMEMBERS(

GROUPS VARCHAR2(100 BYTE),

G_NAME

VARCHAR2(100 BYTE),

G_DESCRIPTION

VARCHAR2(100 BYTE)

)

Remember that the BISystemUsers, BIAdministrators, BIConsumers and BIAuthors group must appear in your external database table!

Step 3:  Install the BISQLGroupProvider authenticator

Using an external data source for groups within 11g is a new feature that was not initially available in 11.1.1. Oracle later implemented this feature as an add-on but since it wasn't part of the core release (11.1.1.4 and earlier), you're going to have to install the BISQLGroupProvider authenticator before it will appear as an available provider within your provider tab.

Step 3.1)

Copy the BISecurityProviders.jar file located in MW_HOME/ORACLE_HOME/bifoundation/security/providers
to the following folder path:  MW_HOME/wlserver_10.3/server/lib/mbeantypes

Step 3.2)

After copying the file into the specified location you must restart the Administration Server to enable the new provider to appear in the list of available authenticators.

Step 4:  Create the Groups data source in Weblogic

In weblogic (:7001/console/) navigate to : bifoundation_domain -> Services -> Data sources -> Configuration -> New -> Generic Data source

Step 4.1) Create a new JDBC source name

Name:  The value of the 'name' field wwill be used in the config.xml file and in weblogic whenever referring to this data source. For this example, let's use the name : BIDatabaseGroupDS

JDNI Name: This value will be used when creating the database adapter for the virtualized identity store. For this example, let's use: jdbc/BIDatabaseGroupDS

Step 4.2) Specify the database driver

You will need to identify your database driver before proceeding. If you're using an Oracle stack w/ an 11g database, then the default specification will suffice.

Step 4.3) Specify Connection Information

Database Name: For example, enter: ora11. The name of the database that you want to connect to.

Host Name: For example, enter: mymachine.mycompany.com The DNS name or IP address of the server that hosts the database.

Port: For example, enter: 1521. The port on which the database server listens for connections requests.

Database User Name: Typically the schema owner of the tables defined in  Step 2.

Step 4.4) Test database connection

At this point you'll be transferred to a screen that ask you to test the connection using a

SQL SELECT 1 FROM DUAL

You need to pass this step before moving on, so an error like:

is an indication that you've incorrectly configured your data source.

Hopefully, will you see a 'Connection test succeeded' message like below.

Step 4.5) Deploy the JDBC Data Source to the Admin and Managed Server

After clicking 'Finish' you will need to navigate to : bifoundation_domain - > Services -> Data Sources -> BIDatabaseGroupsDS -> Targets. Check the 'AdminServer' and 'bi_cluster' checkbox to deploy the JDBC Data Source.

Step 5: Create the BISQLGroupProvider Authentication Provider

5.1) Navigate to Security Realms -> myrealm -> Providers -> Authentication (as seen below)

5.2) Create a New Authentication Provider called 'MySQLGroupProvider' using type 'BISQLGroupProvider'

5.3) Re-order the Authentication Provider list so that MySQLGroupProvider is the first authentication provider on the list

5.4) Create the custom SQL statements needed to generate the user & corresponding group memberships

Navigate to the 'Provider Specific' tab within your MySQLGroupProvider and populate the SQL Statements as follows (note that you will have to modify these statements if you did not follow the data model in Step 2. Do not remove the '?' from the SQL statement as it is a wild card indicator weblogic populates with a specific value at runtime.

Query	SQL	Notes
SQL List Groups	SELECT G_NAME FROM GROUPS WHERE G_NAME LIKE ?	The SQL statement used to retrieve group names that match a wildcard. The SQL statement requires a single parameter for the group name and must return a resultSet containing matching groups.
SQL Group Exists	SELECT G_NAME FROM GROUPS WHERE G_NAME = ?	The SQL statement used to look up a group. The SQL statement requires a single parameter for the group name and must return a resultSet containing at most a single record containing the group.
SQL Is Member	SELECT G_MEMBER FROM GROUPMEMBERS WHERE G_NAME = ? AND G_MEMBER = ?	The SQL statement used to look up members of a group. The SQL statement requires two parameters: a group name and a member or group name. It must return a resultSet containing the group names that matched.
SQL List Member Groups	SELECT G_NAME FROM GROUPMEMBERS WHERE G_MEMBER = ?	The SQL statement used to look up the groups a user or group is a member of. The SQL statement requires a single parameter for the username or group name and returns a resultSet containing the names of the groups that matched.
SQL Get Group Description (if description supported enabled)	SELECT G_DESCRIPTION FROM GROUPS WHERE G_NAME = ?	The SQL statement used to retrieve the description of a group. Only valid if Descriptions Supported is enabled. The SQL statement requires a single parameter for the group name and must return a resultSet containing at most a single record containing the group description.

Make the Data Source Name: jdbc/BIDatabaseGroupDS

5.4) Navigate to the 'Common' tab and set the Control Flag to 'Optional'

The JAAS Control flag needs to be set to optional to let weblogic know that even if authentication fails (a user isn't found in the group/groupmembers data model) to continue down the authentication provider list.

Step 6) Create a database adapter for the Virtualized Identity Store

Now we're going to create an XML file which will act as a database adapter to facilitate access to the group/groupmembers data model.

Create an XML file called 'bi_sql_groups_adapter_template.xml' and populate it with the following content:


<?xml version = '1.0' encoding = 'UTF-8'?>
<adapters schvers="303" version="1" xmlns="http://www.octetstring.com/schemas/Adapters" xmlns:adapters="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
   <dataBase id="directoryType" version="0">
      <root>%ROOT%</root>
      <active>true</active>
      <serverType>directoryType</serverType>
      <routing>
         <critical>true</critical>
         <priority>50</priority>
         <inclusionFilter/>
         <exclusionFilter/>
         <plugin/>
         <retrieve/>
         <store/>
         <visible>Yes</visible>
         <levels>-1</levels>
         <bind>true</bind>
         <bind-adapters/>
         <views/>
         <dnpattern/>
      </routing>
      <pluginChains xmlns="http://xmlns.oracle.com/iam/management/ovd/config/plugins">
         <plugins>
            <plugin>
               <name>VirtualAttribute</name>
               <class>oracle.ods.virtualization.engine.chain.plugins.virtualattr.VirtualAttributePlugin</class>
               <initParams>
                  <param name="ReplaceAttribute" value="uniquemember={cn=%uniquemember%,cn=Users,dc=trusted,dc=oracle,dc=dev}"/>
               </initParams>
            </plugin>
         </plugins>
         <default>
            <plugin name="VirtualAttribute"/>
         </default>
         <add/>
         <bind/>
         <delete/>
         <get/>
         <modify/>
         <rename/>
      </pluginChains>
      <driver>oracle.jdbc.driver.OracleDriver</driver>
      <url>%URL%</url>
      <user>%USER%</user>
      <password>%PASSWORD%</password>
      <ignoreObjectClassOnModify>false</ignoreObjectClassOnModify>
      <includeInheritedObjectClasses>true</includeInheritedObjectClasses>
      <maxConnections>10</maxConnections>
      <mapping>
         <joins/>
         <objectClass name="groupofuniquenames" rdn="cn">
            <attribute ldap="cn" table="GROUPMEMBERS" field="G_NAME" type=""/>
            <attribute ldap="description" table="GROUPMEMBERS" field="G_NAME" type=""/>
            <attribute ldap="uniquemember" table="GROUPMEMBERS" field="G_MEMBER" type=""/>
         </objectClass>
      </mapping>
      <useCaseInsensitiveSearch>true</useCaseInsensitiveSearch>
      <connectionWaitTimeout>10</connectionWaitTimeout>
      <oracleNetConnectTimeout>0</oracleNetConnectTimeout>
      <validateConnection>false</validateConnection>
   </dataBase>
</adapters>

The bold text indicates fields that you will need to customize based on your requirements. Let's take this 1 step at a time.

First)   <param name="ReplaceAttribute" value="uniquemember={cn=%uniquemember%,cn=Users,dc=trusted,dc=oracle,dc=dev}"/>  needs to be the User Base DN you specified in Step 2 of Part 1 in my OBIEE 11g OID installation guide 

If, for example, your User Base DN is dc=trusted,dc=oracle,dc=com , then you would need to modify the XML above to be:
 <param name="ReplaceAttribute" value="uniquemember={cn=%uniquemember%,dc=trusted,dc=oracle,dc=com}"/>

The  %uniquemember% field is a placeholder which gets populated via the SQL statements in your Group Authentication provider.


Second)
    <attribute ldap="cn" table="GROUPMEMBERS" field="G_NAME" type=""/>
            <attribute ldap="description" table="GROUPMEMBERS" field="G_NAME" type=""/>
            <attribute ldap="uniquemember" table="GROUPMEMBERS" field="G_MEMBER" type=""/>

GROUPMEMBERS needs to be replaced with the table you created which stores your group members via the group/groupmembers data model in Step 2.



Step 7) Bind the adapter to Weblogic using the Weblogic Scripting Tool (WLST)

7.1) Copy the bi_sql_groups_adapter_template.xml to: ../../oracle_common/modules/oracle.ovd_11.1.1/templates/

7.2) Confirm key environmental variables are set

• ORACLE_HOME=<MW_HOME>/Oracle_BI1
• WL_HOME=<MW_HOME>/wlserver_10.3/
• JAVA_HOME=<MW_HOME>/jdk160_24/
   

7.3) Bind the adapter:

Navigate to /oracle_common/bin and run the following command:

libovdadapterconfig -adapterName MySQLGroupProvider -adapterTemplate bi_sql_groups_adapter_template.xml -host hostname -port 7001 -userName weblogic -domainPath C:\app\11g\mw_home\user_projects\domains\bifoundation_domain\ -dataStore DB -root cn=Staff,cn=Users,dc=trusted,dc=oracle,dc=dev -contextName default -dataSourceJNDIName jdbc/BIDatabaseGroupDS

Parameter	Value
host	Represents the hostname (ip address) of your weblogic server
port	Represents the port of your weblogic server , usually 7001
username	Represents your weblogic administrator account
adapterName	Represnets the name of the group authentication provider
domainPath	Represents the path to your bifoundation_domain folder
root	Represents the User Base DN you specified in your in your bi_sql_groups_adapter_template.xml , excluding the %uniquemember% component
dataSourceJNDIName	represents the JDNI name of your Groups Datasource

The command should execute without any error.

7.4) Restart admin server & managed services (bi_server) 

Step 8) Validate Changes by Creating a Custom Application Role

We're going to create a custom application role based on one of our custom groups to confirm that the Group Authenticator works.

8.1) Create an Application Role
From FMW Enterprise Manager (:7001/em/) -> farm_bifoundation_domain -> Business Intelligence -> coreapplication -> Right Click -> Security -> Application Roles -> Create

Click the Add button and select a Group from your Group Authenticator. In this example, I will add a group called 'ES Worker':

8.2) Login to Answers as a user of the group application role you just created

Navigate to My Account -> Roles and Catalog Groups

That concludes the tutorial on how to integrate weblogic 11g using OID as the user authenticator and storing groups in an external table. Next we will focus on SSO.

keywords: obiee ldap authentication, obiee 11g oid, obiee authentication, weblogic authentication provider, authentication with ldap, external groups authentication, wc_groups_d, wc_groupmembers_d