Uncategorized

Purging corrupted OBIEE web catalog users

Sometimes it can happen that user profiles within a web catalog become corrupted for any number of reasons. In order for these user profiles to be correctly re-initialized, there’s more to be done than just drop /users/JohnDoe from the web catalog.

All in all there are three distinct places which need to be cleaned:

  • /users/JohnDoe
  • /system/security/users/123456
  • /system/security/acocuntids/987654

This is really important since especially the third place contains the translation between the userid and the effective GUID of the user. I’ve written a little script which takes the absolute path to the web catalog in question as well as the user to be purged and kills everything that’s necessary.

NOTE: This is a quick&dirty solution and I haven’t fool-proofed it with any check like “does the folder exist” etc. so use it cautiously and on your own risk.

I may get around to rendering it safer later-on, but since I was asked for it once more just today I thought I’d put it out there.

 

#!/bin/bash

#

# Purpose: Completely purge a named
user from the web catalog with all his content.

#

# Requires absolute path to webcat as param 1 and user name as param 2

#

#
# Author: Christian Berg

# Initial creation: 28/01/2014

# Absolutely no warranty, use at your
own risk

# Please include this header in any
copy or reuse of the script you make

#

# Current version: 1.0

#

# Change log:

#        CBERG
28/01/2014 Intial creation

#

########################################################################################

# Step 1: Kill the users personal folder
plus content with its accompagning .atr       #

########################################################################################

cd $1/root/users

find -type d -name $2 | xargs rm -rf

find -name $2.atr | xargs rm -f

########################################################################################

# Step 2: Kill the users entries in
/system/security/users
#

# Two files will be affected “username”
and “username.atr”
#

# Removal happens one-by-one

#

########################################################################################

cd $1/root/system/security/users

find -name $2 | xargs rm -f

find -name $2.atr | xargs rm -f

########################################################################################

# Step 3: Kill the users entries in
/system/security/accountids
#

# Two files will be affected. Accountids
contains the translation from GUID to         #

# username, so the actual username
resides within the files content rather than its    #

# name. Bulk removal.

#

########################################################################################

cd $1/root/system/security/accountids

grep -r -l $2 . | xargs rm -f

echo User $2 has been purged from the
web catalog.

exit 0

Uncategorized

I was just testing multiple web catalogs when I realized that it’s a bad idea to put version numbers into the web catalog name.

As an example, I have my web catalog “samplesales_paint_v1.3” sitting ready in OracleBIDatawebcatalog and my instanceconfig.xml looking like this:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
< WebConfig>
< ServerInstance>
< DSN>AnalyticsWeb
< CatalogPath>F:OracleBIDatawebcatalogsamplesales_paint_v1.3

Starting up the server will not load the refrenced catalog, but rather create a new one from scratch: “samplesales_paint_v1”

And the Oracle BI Presentation Services Administration duly notes:

Physical Presentation Catalog Path \?F:OracleBIDatawebcatalogsamplesales_paint_v1root

The sawlog0.log reads as follows:

Type: Error
Severity: 40
Time: Wed Jul 21 23:46:36 2009
File: project/webcatalog/localwebcatalog.cpp Line: 1507
Properties: ThreadID-4328
Location:
saw.catalog.local.loadCatalog
saw.webextensionbase.init
saw.sawserver
saw.sawserver.initializesawserver
saw.threads

Could not load catalog F:OracleBIDatawebcatalogsamplesales_paint_v1.3. Either it does not exist or insufficient permissions.
—————————————
Type: Warning
Severity: 40
Time: Wed Jul 21 23:46:36 2009
File: project/websubsystems/httpserverinit.cpp Line: 49
Properties: ThreadID-4328
Location:
saw.catalog.local.loadCatalog
saw.webextensionbase.init
saw.sawserver
saw.sawserver.initializesawserver
saw.threads

Creating Catalog F:OracleBIDatawebcatalogsamplesales_paint_v1.3.
—————————————

The log is incorrect on both accounts. “F:OracleBIDatawebcatalogsamplesales_paint_v1.3” does exist and the folder creation in the warning message may use the correct naming but actually creates folder “F:OracleBIDatawebcatalogsamplesales_paint_v1”.

XML normally accepts “.” inside the element content so I guess this is a legacy fragment from Siebel Analytics versions where the web catalog was a .webcat file. Why? Well, using this element:

< CatalogPath>F:OracleBIDatawebcatalogpaint.webcat

starts my “paint” folder 😉

Any comments on this are welcome.

Cheers,
Christi@n

Uncategorized

Recently I was off to change the print options on all of my dashboard pages. Naturally, as with all setting, this is encoded in the XML and can be mass-manipulated by the catalog manager.

Here’s the section in the XML, changed for landscape format, A4 paper size (yes, no weird US sizes ;-)) and explicit exclusion of headers and footers:

< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
< sawd:dashboardpage sawd="com.siebel.analytics.web/dashboard/v1" saw="com.siebel.analytics.web/report/v1" xmlversion="200705140" isempty="false" duid="hsdfj3478387bs82" personalselections="true">
.
.
.
< span style="font-weight:bold;">
< saw:pageheader show="false">
< saw:pagefooter show="false">
< /saw:pagefooter>
< /saw:pageheader>

Cheers,
Christi@n

Uncategorized

When going on OTN this morning, I saw something that I hadn’t seen before in the download section of the OBIEE site. CAF?! Hmmm…

Of course I downloaded it (what a question!)…and I couldn’t have had a nicer start for my day! The thing’s called Content Accelerator Framework or in short: “CAF”. Please update your geek brains, section acronyms, accordingly. It basically is a tool for facilitating migration of rpd and webcat objects between environments. Ace!

Direct links to the zip and the pdf documentation here:
http://download.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/files/OracleBIEE_CAFV1_Setup.zip
http://www.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/pdf/oraclebiee-cafv1-usage-instructions.pdf

Here’s two quick screenshots from the pdf to give you an overview:

Off to trying it out!

Update:
Venkat beat me to it…hehe.

Update 2:
10.1.3.4.1? Really? Guys, we’re not like you and have access to patches before they’re released. 😉

Cheers,
Christi@n