Regenerate Magnitude NoetixViews (NoetixViews) or Noetix Analytics for Oracle E-Business Suite
This chapter provides information about regeneration of Magnitude NoetixViews (NoetixViews) or Noetix Analytics for Oracle E-Business Suite (Noetix Analytics) metadata into the Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) repository and regeneration of NoetixAnswers into the Presentation Catalog. The chapter also provides information about the prerequisites and procedures to regenerate.
When to Regenerate NoetixViews, NoetixAnswers, Noetix Analytics Metadata
You may need to regenerate NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata into the repository and NoetixAnswers into the Presentation Catalog periodically to update their definitions. The following are the conditions in which you would typically perform a regeneration:
NoetixViews schema definition changes
NoetixViews are regenerated
Want to add a NoetixViews role to the Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) repository
Want to generate NoetixAnswers for a NoetixViews role that did not have NoetixAnswers previously generated
NoetixViews upgrade
Noetix Analytics upgrade
Changes are made to Noetix Analytics objects, including the addition of new field names, aliases or relationship sets
Previously Generated Subject Areas and Roles
The Choose Roles and Choose Subject Areas dialogs provide visual cues to indicate which subject areas, roles and relationship sets were previously generated. These cues utilize circles with the following colors:
Gray: Gray circles denote subject areas or roles that do not exist in the repository.
Blue: Blue circles denote subject areas or roles that exist in the repository.
Green: Green circles denote subject areas or roles that exist in the repository and are synchronized with NoetixViews.
Red: Red circles denote subject areas or roles that exist in the repository and require regeneration to synchronize them with NoetixViews.
NOTE: Red and green cues are only available for NoetixViews 6.5 and higher. Noetix Generator is unable to read the state of objects in Noetix Analytics and earlier versions of NoetixViews and cannot show items in red or green as a result.
In addition, the Choose dialog provides a Select based on Oracle BI repository checkbox to make it easier for administrators to regenerate all of the content that was previously generated into the repository. Checking this box will overwrite the current subject area and role selection with the specific subject areas and roles that exist in the repository shown at the bottom left corner of the dialog. This box is checked automatically when the view-level regeneration option is selected for NoetixViews 6.5 and above.
NOTE: Content generated into an Oracle BI repository by a previous version of Noetix Generator must undergo a full regeneration before this capability can be used.
Actions Performed during Regeneration
The “Choose” dialog gives specific information on how subject areas and roles will be modified during regeneration, which is displayed in the Action column of the dialog:
Create: Subject areas or roles marked with Create are ones that do not yet exist in the repository. They have been selected for generation and will be added to the existing repository.
Do not create: Subject areas or roles marked with Do not create are ones that don’t currently exist in the repository. They have not been selected and will be ignored by Noetix Generator.
Regenerate: Subject areas or roles marked with Regenerate are ones that already exist in the repository. They have been selected and will be synchronized to reflect their definitions in NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics.
Regenerate changed objects: Subject areas or roles marked with Regenerate changed objects are ones that exist in the repository and contain one or more views that have changed in NoetixViews since the last Oracle BI regeneration. These and related views will be synchronized to reflect their new definitions in NoetixViews.
Do not modify: Subject areas or roles marked with Do not modify are ones that exist in the repository but are not selected for regeneration. The generator will not attempt to regenerate them, but will preserve them in the repository.
Delete: Roles marked with Delete are ones that exist in the repository, but have been unselected in the Choose dialog. They will be removed from the repository during regeneration as a result.
Mixed Actions: Subject areas marked with Mixed Actions have child roles that have multiple actions that the generator will execute. Expand the subject area to see the actions that will be taken on each individual role.
Incremental vs. Full Regeneration
The generator supports two different regeneration strategies: Incremental and Full. The regeneration strategy is controlled by radio buttons in the Choose Roles and Choose Subject Areas dialogs for NoetixViews and Noetix Analytics, respectively.
Incremental Regeneration
For the Incremental regeneration strategy, Noetix Generator will regenerate a subset of the NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics content that exists in the Oracle BI repository. This is useful when minimizing the time it takes to perform a regeneration is desired. However, if you have upgraded your NoetixViews instance, a full generation within the Noetix Generator is required. Subsequently, you can perform incremental regenerations. Noetix Generator supports two forms of incremental regeneration: Subject-area-level and view-level regeneration.
Subject-area-level Regeneration
For NoetixViews versions prior to 6.5 or Noetix Analytics, the Noetix Generator provides subject-area-level regeneration, enabling the administrator to choose the specific subject areas to regenerate. During an incremental regeneration, the generator will only resynchronize the presentation subject areas and business models for which one or more NoetixViews roles or Noetix Analytics subject areas have been checked. It will not delete physical tables or joins, although it may create new physical tables or joins as needed to support new objects in the business and presentation layers.
Based on the image above, the selection of subject areas and roles would:
Have no effect on the Application Object Library subject area or INVG0_INVENTORY role.
Regenerate the previously generated APG0_PAYABLES, ARG0_RECEIVABLES, and GLG0_LEDGER roles.
Delete the previously generated FAG0_FIXED_ASSETS role.
Create the POG0_PURCHASING role.
View-level Regeneration
For NoetixViews 6.5 and later, you can perform view-level regeneration of the views that have been modified through the NoetixViews incremental regeneration process. The Noetix Generator will resynchronize only the physical, business, and presentation layer objects pertaining to the views for which changes are detected. The related views will also be regenerated to update or preserve related joins, logical table sources, and repository objects that contain references to the other views.
NOTE: Existing subject areas and roles cannot be removed from an Oracle BI repository during view-level incremental regeneration. The Full regeneration strategy should be chosen when it becomes necessary to remove subject areas and roles from the repository.
The “Choose” dialog gives specific information on how subject areas and roles will be modified during regeneration, which is displayed in the Action column of the dialog:
Based on the image above, the selection of subject areas and roles would:
Have no effect on the Application Object Library, NoetixViews for Oracle Discrete Manufacturing, and other subject areas marked with a Do not create action.
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Perform mixed actions on the NoetixViews for Oracle Federal Financials subject area:
Regenerate the views and related views where a change was detected in APG0_PAYABLES and CEG0_CASH_MANAGEMENT.
Skip regeneration and preserve the ARG0_RECEIVABLES, FAG0_FIXED_ASSETS and other roles marked with a Do not modify action.
Skip and preserve the NoetixViews for Oracle Service subject area.
NOTE: After the view-level regeneration, the tables pertaining to the incrementally regenerated views will be listed after the tables pertaining to the unchanged views in the presentation layer in Oracle BI. You can perform a full regeneration to sort the tables in the alphabetical order.
Full Regeneration
For the Full regeneration strategy, Noetix Generator will regenerate all NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics content selected in the Choose Roles dialog for the top-level-name specified in the Target Parameters tab of the generator. Selecting the check boxes corresponding to any NoetixViews roles or Noetix Analytics subject areas from the dialog will cause the corresponding presentation folder and logical display folder and their contents to be removed if they are present. In addition, any physical tables or joins that do not correspond to selected items will be removed from the physical layer. For very large repositories, full regenerations may take several hours to complete.
For full regenerations, all objects that must appear in the repository under the chosen top level name must be explicitly checked:
Based on the image above, the selection of subject areas and roles would:
Delete the existing FAG0_FIXED_ASSETS and POG0_PURCHASING roles from the repository.
Regenerate the existing APG0_PAYABLES, ARG0_RECEIVABLES and GLG0_LEDGER roles.
Create the previously ungenerated INVG0_INVENTORY role.
How to Choose a Regeneration Strategy
The Full and Incremental regeneration strategies are useful at different times during the maintenance lifecycle of NoetixViews and Noetix Analytics content. In general, it is best to use the subject-area-level incremental regeneration strategy when you:
have a very large repository to regenerate
are adding a new NoetixViews module or Noetix Analytics subject area
do not need to modify or delete existing items in your repository
Similarly, it is best to use the view-level incremental regeneration strategy when you:
have NoetixViews 6.5 or above as your data source
have a very large repository to regenerate
need to minimize the duration of a regeneration to meet business deadlines
need to rapidly validate customizations made to Noetix views using Magnitude NoetixViews Workbench (NoetixViews Workbench).
Do not need to delete existing views or roles in your repository
You should use the full regeneration strategy when you:
have a moderately sized repository for which regeneration times are not a major concern
want all selections in the “Choose” dialog to be explicit
want to clean up orphaned objects in the Physical layer
NOTE: The regeneration strategy has no effect on new generations. Noetix Generator will effectively always perform a full generation.
Prerequisites for Regenerating NoetixViews, Noetix Analytics, and NoetixAnswers Metadata
The prerequisites for regenerating are the same as they are for generation, which are listed as follows:
Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) administrative tools are installed
Noetix Generator for Oracle BI is installed
NoetixViews and AnswerBuilder are generated
Noetix Analytics has been implemented and the Active Metadata Repository (AMDR) has been populated
The user credentials to access NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics are available
Connectivity information about the database where NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics are hosted is available
The Oracle BI utilities, nqUDMLGen.exe and nQUDMLExec.exe are available
WebLogic Scripting Tool is available as part of Oracle WebLogic Server
If you plan to use an existing repository for regeneration, make sure that it is offline and not in use
Free disk space on the Oracle BI Presentation Server is available for NoetixAnswers. The amount necessary will depend on the number and type of NoetixViews roles selected for regeneration.
Backing-up Repositories
Before you start the regeneration process, you must take a backup of the repository if you want to regenerate into the same repository or if you want to retain the current NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata. You can either perform a manual backup by physically copying the repository file, or by specifying in the Generator.config configuration file, the number of backups to be taken before regeneration. For information about modifying the Generator.config file, see Generator Configuration.
Independent of the backup setting in the Generator.config file, Noetix Generator will back up an existing Oracle BI repository prior to importing new UDML files. If the import process fails for any reason, Noetix Generator will restore the backup it took to preserve the integrity of the repository file.
NOTE: By default, Noetix Generator maintains three backup copies and takes a backup of the existing repository before modifying it.
Regenerating Repository and NoetixAnswers Using Noetix Generator
The procedure for regenerating NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata and NoetixAnswers using Noetix Generator is similar to the initial generation. With the exception of passwords, the fields on all the pages of Noetix Generator display the information that you provide the last time you used Noetix Generator. Type the passwords and edit the fields as needed for regeneration. For more information, see “Generating UDML Files and Repository Using Noetix Generator ” and “Generating NoetixAnswers” in Generate Oracle BI Repository and NoetixAnswers.
If you manage multiple instances of NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics content with different top level names, you can load the values specified for a specific instance into the Noetix Generator.
To do this:
Open the Noetix Generator tool. Navigate to the Script tab.
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Click Open Existing at the bottom left. Alternatively, Open Existing Script can be selected from the File menu. A warning message will appear, explaining that your existing entries in the interface will be overwritten. Choose OK to proceed.
NOTE: If you do not want to lose the existing values specified in the interface, save them as a new generation arguments file before continuing.
The Load Arguments File dialog will be displayed. Select the generation arguments file associated with the NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics instance that you want to regenerate and then click Open.
The values from the generation arguments file will be loaded into the Noetix Generator interface, with the exception of the Oracle connection, warehouse connection and repository passwords.
By default, Noetix Generator will only import UDML files into the Oracle BI repository that were changed since the last regeneration to minimize the time needed for the import process. Check the Import Unchanged UDML Files box on the Execution Plan tab if you prefer the generator to import all of the UDML files it creates, including ones that didn’t change since the last regeneration.
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Validate that the values are correct and then enter the correct Oracle connection, warehouse connection, and repository passwords in the appropriate boxes. You may now proceed with regeneration.
During the regeneration process, Noetix Generator may refresh its metadata layer by executing a series of Oracle PL/SQL scripts. Noetix Generator determines if changes were made to NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata and updates its metadata layer automatically if a change is detected. In addition, Noetix Generator will refresh its metadata layer if a customization was made through a generator hookscript.
Perform steps 2 – 5 again with a generation arguments file created for regenerating NoetixAnswers, if NoetixAnswers should be regenerated as well. The regenerated repository file must be brought online prior to regenerating NoetixAnswers.
NOTE: Use a separate directory for each repository that NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics is being generated into. This makes it easier to keep the different UDML and repository instances organized. In addition, saving the generation arguments file to this directory makes it easier to remember which schema or NoetixViews roles, or relationship sets were specified.
WARNING: If NoetixViews organizational units, roles, Noetix Analytics business areas, or relationship sets are unselected in the Choose Roles dialog, the associated objects in the physical, business, and presentation layers may be deleted from the
. If custom objects were added to the Noetix-generated physical schemas, business models, or presentation catalogs, they will be deleted as well, unless they were added as defined in the “Manually Adding Custom Objects to Generated Repositories in Customizing Generated Content.
WARNING: The Remove underscores from generated presentation column names setting on the Target Parameters tab should not be modified from its original value. Doing so will break existing reports and dashboards in Oracle BI Presentation Services.
Workflow of the Regeneration Process
The following illustration demonstrates the workflow of the regeneration process:
Intelligent UDML Import
Noetix Generator utilizes Oracle BI’s nQUDMLExec.exe utility to import NoetixViews and Noetix Analytics content into the Oracle BI repository file. This process can take a significant amount of time, depending on the amount of content to import and the version of Oracle BI.
Noetix Generator provides an Intelligent UDML Import feature to minimize the amount of time spent importing UDML files during regeneration. This feature automatically detects changes in each individual UDML file since the previous generation and will only import the files where one or more changes were detected, significantly decreasing the amount of time required for regeneration.
The nature of the underlying changes to NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics that precipitate regeneration of the Oracle BI repository will impact which UDML files Noetix Generator imports into the repository. For example, Noetix Generator skip the import of the physical layer UDML files and will only import the associated business layer file when join type (i.e. INNER, OUTER) of a relationship between two Noetix views is modified. In practice, most changes to NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics will cause the physical layer UDML files to be imported, along with the business and presentation layer files associated with the views or relationship sets that were modified. The other, unrelated business and presentation layer files will be skipped during the import process.
NOTE: Noetix Generator does not assign upgrade IDs to the UDML statements it creates. Oracle BI applies upgrade IDs to these objects as they are imported for the first time. Noetix Generator then preserves these upgrade IDs in the UDML it creates during subsequent regenerations. Due to this behavior, Intelligent UDML Import will only start skipping unchanged UDML files after they have gone through one successful regeneration.
Regenerating Repository and NoetixAnswers at Command Prompt
You can also regenerate the Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) repository and NoetixAnswers at a Command Prompt. This is an unattended generation that reduces downtime during peak hours. To regenerate at a Command Prompt, you first need to generate the script file by running Noetix Generator tool and saving the script as an XML file. For more information, see Generate Oracle BI Repository and NoetixAnswers.
Scheduling Unattended Regeneration
Using the Windows Scheduled Tasks tool, you can schedule a silent regeneration, which is an unattended regeneration of NoetixViews or Noetix Analytics metadata into the Oracle Business Intelligence (Oracle BI) repository.
To schedule a silent regeneration:
Verify that you have saved the xml-based generation arguments file.
Open the Windows Scheduled Tasks tool (Start > Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Scheduled Tasks). The Scheduled Tasks window appears.
Click Add Scheduled Task. The Schedule Task Wizard appears.
Click Next. A list of programs appears.
Click Browse, navigate to the Noetix Generator directory (<hard disk drive>\Program Files\Noetix\Noetix Generator for Oracle BI), and select ngo.exe.
Type a name for the task, and set up the schedule as needed and click Finish.
After you save the details, in the Scheduled Tasks window, right-click the scheduled task you have created and select Properties.
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In the Run box, add the necessary parameters. The syntax for the command is:
“<hard disk drive>\<location path of ngo.exe> ngo” <generationargumentsfile>
For example, in the Run box, type as follows:
“D:\Program Files\Noetix\Noetix Generator for Oracle BI \ngo.exe” generationarguments.xml
Click Apply. The regeneration runs at the scheduled time.