Call interface

The application program interface (API) with which to access the data source. Some databases may be accessed using native APIs, some use ODBC, and some work both ways. If the call interface is XML, the XML tab is available but options that do not apply to XML data sources are not available.

Data source name

The drop-down list shows the User and System DSNs configured on your system. A data source name that is configured to access the database to which you want to connect. The data source name needs to contain valid logon information for a data source. If the information is invalid, the database logon specified in the DSN will fail.

Enable connection pooling

Allows a single database connection to remain open for the specified time for use by future query requests. Connection pooling saves the overhead of opening and closing a new connection for every query. If you do not select this option, each query sent to the database opens a new connection.

Execute on Connect

Allows the Siebel Analytics Server administrator to specify a command to be executed each time a connection is made to the database. The command may be any command accepted by the database. For example, it could be used to turn on quoted identifiers. In a mainframe environment, it could be used to set the secondary authorization ID when connecting to DB2 to force a security exit to a mainframe security package such as RACF. This allows mainframe environments to maintain security in one central location.

Execute queries asynchronously

Indicates whether the data source supports asynchronous queries. Asynchronous queries allow query cancellations to be sent to the database through the same connection while the query is executing. If this option is not selected, query cancellations might not propagate down to the underlying database.

Isolation level

For ODBC and DB2 gateways, sets the transaction isolation level on each connection handle to the back-end database.

Maximum connections

The maximum number of connections allowed for this connection pool. The default is 10.

Name

The name for the connection pool. If you do not type a name, the Administration Tool generates a name. For multidimensional and XML data sources, this is prefilled.

Parameters supported

If the database features table supports parameters and the connection pool check box property for parameter support is unchecked, then special code executes that allows the Analytics Server to push filters (or calculations) with parameters to the database. The Analytics Server does this by simulating parameter support within the gateway/adapter layer by sending extra SQLPrepare calls to the database.

Permissions

Assigns permissions for individual users or groups to access the connection pool. You can also set up a privileged group of users to have its own connection pool.

Require fully qualified table names

Select this check box, if the database requires it.

When this option is selected, all requests sent from the connection pool use fully qualified names to query the underlying database. The fully qualified names are based on the physical object names in the repository. If you are querying the same tables from which the physical layer metadata was imported, you can safely check the option. If you have migrated your repository from one physical database to another physical database that has different database and schema names, the fully qualified names would be invalid in the newly migrated database. In this case, if you do not select this option, the queries will succeed against the new database objects.

For some data sources, fully qualified names might be safer because they guarantee that the queries are directed to the desired tables in the desired database. For example, if the RDBMS supports a master database concept, a query against a table named foo first looks for that table in the master database, and then looks for it in the specified database. If the table named foo exists in the master database, that table is queried, not the table named foo in the specified database.

Shared logon

Select the Shared logon check box if you want all users whose queries use the connection pool to access the underlying database using the same user name and password.

If this option is selected, then all connections to the database that use the connection pool will use the user name and password specified in the connection pool, even if the Siebel Analytics user has specified a database user name and password in the DSN (or in the Siebel user configuration).

If this option is not selected, connections through the connection pool use the database user ID and password specified in the DSN or in the Siebel user profile.

Timeout (Minutes)

Specifies the amount of time, in minutes, that a connection to the data source will remain open after a request completes. During this time, new requests use this connection rather than open a new one (up to the number specified for the maximum connections). The time is reset after each completed connection request.

If you set the timeout to 0, connection pooling is disabled; that is, each connection to the data source terminates immediately when the request completes. Any new connections either use another connection pool or open a new connection.

Owner

Table owner name used to qualify a temporary table name in a SQL statement, for example to create the table owner.tablename. If left blank, the user name specified in the writeable connection pool is used to qualify the table name and the Shared Logon field on the General tab should also be set.

Prefix

When the Analytics Server creates a temporary table, these are the first two characters in the temporary table name.

Database Name

Name of the database where the temporary table will be created. This property applies only to IBM OS/390 because IBM OS/390 requires database name qualifier to be part of the CREATE TABLE statement.

Tablespace Name

Name of the tablespace where the temporary table will be created. This property applies to OS/390 only as OS/390 requires tablespace name qualifier to be part of the CREATE TABLE statement.

Bulk Insert

Buffer Size (KB)

Buffer capacity used for inserting rows into a database table.

Bulk Insert

Transaction Boundary

Controls how often to commit row inserts to a database table.

Unicode Database Type

Select this check box when working with columns of an explicit unicode data type, such as NCHAR, in an unicode database. Different database vendors provide different character data types and different levels of unicode support. Use the following general guidelines to determine when to set this check box:

• On a database where CHAR data type supports unicode and there is no separate NCHAR data type, do not select this check box.
• On a database where NCHAR data type is available, it is recommended to select this check box.
• On a database where CHAR and NCHAR data type are configured to support unicode, selecting this check box is optional.

NOTE:  Mixed mode (mixing the CHAR and NCHAR data types) in a single non-unicode database environment is not supported.

Data Source Information:

Catalog

The list of catalogs available, if you imported data from your data source. The cube tables correspond to the catalog you use in the connection pool.

Data Source Information:

Data Source

The vendor-specific information used to connect to the multidimensional data source. Consult your multidimensional data source administrator for setup instructions because specifications may change. For example, if you use v1.0 of the XML for Analysis SDK then the value should be Provider-MSOLAP;Data Source-local. If using v1.1, then it should be Local Analysis Server.

Shared logon

Select the Shared logon check box if you want all users whose queries use the connection pool to access the underlying database using the same user name and password.

If this option is selected, then all connections to the database that use the connection pool will use the user name and password specified in the connection pool, even if the Siebel Analytics user has specified a database user name and password in the DSN (or in the Siebel user configuration).

If this option is not selected, connections through the connection pool use the database user ID and password specified in the DSN or in the Siebel user profile.

URL

The URL to connect to the XMLA provider. It points to the XMLA virtual directory of the machine hosting the cube. This virtual directory needs to be associated with msxisapi.dll which comes with the Microsoft XML for Analysis SDK installation. For example, the URL might look like the following:

http://SDCDL360i101/xmla/msxisap.dll

URL loading time-out

Time-out interval for queries. The time to return results from the query or request from the multidimensional data source. The default timeout is 30 seconds. Set values as follows:

• Select a value from the drop-down list (Infinite, Days, Hours, Minutes or Seconds).
• Specify a whole number as the numeric portion of the of the interval.

Use session

Controls whether queries go through a common session. Consult your multidimensional data source administrator to determine whether this option should be enabled. Default is Off (not checked).