Oracle^® Business Intelligence Server Administration Guide > Creating and Administering the Physical Layer in an Oracle BI Repository >

Process of Creating the Physical Layer from Multidimensional Data Sources

This section describes how you use the Administration Tool to add a multidimensional data source to the physical layer of a repository. The ability to use multidimensional data sources allows the Oracle BI Server to connect to sources such as Microsoft Analysis Services and SAP/BW (SAP/Business Warehouse) to extract data. Data from these sources can be displayed on an Oracle BI Interactive Dashboard.

The Oracle BI Server connects to the multidimensional source using XML for Analysis (XMLA) standards protocol. This requires that the target data source have a fully functional Web services interface available. The standard dictates the various protocols that the Oracle BI Server can use to connect to the target and query data.

Importing data from a multidimensional source creates the metadata of the data source in the Oracle BI repository. The primary differences between setting up multidimensional data sources and relational data sources are in the physical layer. The setup in the business model and presentation layers for multidimensional data sources and relational data sources is almost identical.

To create a physical layer for a multidimensional data source, complete the following tasks in the sequence shown:

• Importing a Physical Schema from Multidimensional Data Sources
• Setting Up Database Objects
• Setting Up Connection Pools
• About Physical Tables
• Creating and Setting Up Physical Tables