This section is part of the roadmap for planning and setting up a repository. For more information, refer to Planning and Creating an Oracle BI Repository.

Before you create the physical layer of a repository, you need to plan, design, and then create a repository file. For more information, refer to Process of Oracle BI Repository Planning and Design

The Physical layer of the Administration Tool defines the data sources to which the Oracle BI Server submits queries and the relationships between physical databases and other data sources that are used to process multiple data source queries. (Your licensing options determine whether you can add databases and connection pools to the physical layer.)

The first step in creating the physical layer is to create the schema. You can import the physical schema for supported data source types. You can import schemas or portions of schemas from existing data sources. Additionally, you can create the physical layer manually but it is a labor-intensive and error-prone activity.

CAUTION:  It is strongly recommended that you import physical schemas.

This section provides the following topics to help you use the Administration Tool to create the physical layer of a repository:

• Process of Creating the Physical Layer from Relational Data Sources
• Process of Creating the Physical Layer from Multidimensional Data Sources
• Setting Up Database Objects
• Setting Up Connection Pools
• About Physical Tables
• Creating and Setting Up Physical Tables
• Creating Physical Layer Folders
• About Physical Joins
• Defining Physical Foreign Keys and Joins
• Deploying Opaque Views
• Using Database Hints