5 Manage Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse

As the cloud account administrator, manage the service instance for Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse .

Topics:

• About Application Updates
• Update Your Application
• View Release Update Activity
• Bundle Your Application Artifacts
• Configure a Virus Scanner

About Application Updates

Application updates are available for major releases (quarterly basis), patches (monthly basis), and emergency fixes (as needed).

Except the emergency patches, you can decide when to apply the application updates. You can schedule the update for current and major releases to occur by a deadline. After the deadline, Oracle automatically updates your application. These updates have zero downtime. The auto-update process updates the data model and immediately after the data model update, this process updates the content. This process runs the incremental data pipelines as part of the data model upgrade process when upgrade is scheduled to run for the day. You can check the last refresh date either from the Console or the subject area to ensure that the data has been refreshed as part of the data model upgrade process.

You can view the application updates and plan accordingly using the Release updates tile under Service Administration on the Console. You also see a notification on the Data Configuration page when an application update is available. You can then plan to uptake using the Release Updates tile.

During the application upgrade, all records in the tables gets updated with the date of the upgrade. The upgrade process then performs a full data refresh during which the data pipelines pull data from the tables based on the date of the upgrade. This process also performs an incremental data refresh. This upgrade adds new pillars, modules, data models (facts and dimension tables), key metrics, workbooks, and visualizations. The data pipelines for functional areas that have been activated are preserved during the upgrade. The data pipelines in Saved or Scheduled status are reset to Saved status. To activate these data pipelines, you must set them to Activated status. You can skip an upgrade for one release. However, you must upgrade when the next patch is available. The application upgrade adds new and replaces existing modified content with the latest version. If you've merged an external application, then as part of the upgrade some objects within the external semantic model gets upgraded too. Hence after every upgrade, you're recommended to download the latest semantic madel uploaded through the user interface and make any changes on top of it.

Update Your Application

As the service administrator, you can view available application updates and schedule a date to accept the update.

Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse provides automatic updates of the application to ensure you're using the most current software. You can schedule the update earlier than the predefined date and time. If you do nothing, the application upgrade automatically runs on the date shown on the Release Updates page. However, prior to updating your application, you must ensure that a data pipeline for at least one functional area has been activated.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Release Updates under Service Administration.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_release_updates_tile.png

   
   
3. On the Release Updates page, select an application update under Update, and then in Schedule, select the date on which you want to apply it.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_release_updates.png

   
   
4. Click Save.

View Release Update Activity

You can view the actual date when a release was deployed for the instance and any service administrator actions such as date selections for release or patch uptake.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Release Updates under Service Administration.
3. On the Release Updates page, click Activity.
4. In the Activity section, view the release update details.

Bundle Your Application Artifacts

As a service administrator, you can manage snapshots of your application artifacts as bundles.

Topics:

• About Bundles
• Create a Bundle
• Edit a Bundle
• Publish a Bundle
• Export a Bundle
• Import a Bundle
• Deploy a Bundle
• Delete a Bundle
• View the Activity History of Bundles

About Bundles

Bundles are snapshots of your application artifacts such as configurations and customizations at a certain point in time.

Bundles work on environments where the source and target are at the same level or the source is at a lower version and the target is at a higher version. For example, a bundle generated from a previous content version works on the latest content version. Ensure that your bundle size is less than 1 GB. If the bundle size exceeds 1 GB, then enter a service request in My Oracle Support. Prior to deployment, the system validates the bundles to confirm whether the bundles contain all prerequisites. If there is a validation error, then you see the applicable bundle with "Validation Failed" status and you can't deploy it. You must fix the issue and try to deploy again.

Bundles enable you to:

• Package custom development by defining a bundle that represents a subset of application artifacts in an environment such as development, test, or production.
• Migrate custom development and deploy the bundle on a target environment.
• Synchronize instances by promoting changes from one environment to another such as production to test.
• Restore the system when something goes wrong with an environment and you need to do a complete system restore.
• Create a backup of the environment or subset of application to save current state of the artifacts.
• Restore artifacts by importing from a bundle to restore state of the relevant artifacts to what was in the bundle.

You can bundle your application artifacts as:

• Data Config bundle: This includes pipeline parameters, activation metadata, data augmentations, and custom attribute mappings. You can install this bundle in an existing environment after a hard data reset. This is useful to leave content as-is and reset data pipeline. When you bundle data configurations, only the deployed data augmentations or configurations are included. Augmentations or configurations that aren't in deployed state in the source instance won't be included in a data configuration bundle.
• Semantic Model bundle: This includes main branch, tags, custom branch, and all the security customizations. Use this bundle to import the semantic model extensions because it allows you to select which tag and version to publish and what to publish.
• Security bundle: This includes custom application roles and custom data security.
• Content bundle: This includes snapshots of Oracle Analytics Cloud folders, projects, dataset definitions,workbooks, duty roles for content, and report parameters. The content bundle always merges the catalog content from source to target. While merging, if any conflicts are found, it replaces the content. It doesn't track the deleted content.
• Composite bundle: This includes one or more of the other bundles.
• Environment bundle: Environment bundle publishes the original semantic model without the customizations. This includes all artifacts of a specific environment to revert to a known state of system. For example, at the end of every week, the service administrator can create a bundle called DevEnv_YYMMDD to maintain a backup of the environment. You must first deploy the data configuration bundle or manually activate your data pipelines before deploying the environment bundle.

Note:

Ensure that you've activated the functional areas and data is available prior to working with the semantic models or content. Either manually configure and activate your data pipelines in the target environment, or deploy a Data Config bundle to ensure that configurations and activations are at the same level as the source environment. Only then, it makes sense to deploy an Environment bundle, Semantic bundle, or Composite bundle because they depend on data.

Follow these recommended practices to ensure a smooth experience:

• Include the applicable security-related information in the Semantic Model and Content bundles.
• Reassign the groups to the users because the Security bundle doesn’t overwrite the user-group mappings.
• Include the security configuration when you’re exporting a Semantic Model bundle from a test to a production environment.
• Use unique names for the semantic model extension steps. This enables the tags to work correctly while using the Content bundle to migrate your content to the target instance.

Create a Bundle

Create a snapshot of your application artifacts to save their current state. You can view the bundles that you created on the Bundles page.

While creating a bundle in your source instance, ensure that you select only the data sources that are also available in the target instance to avoid deployment failures in the target instance.

Prior to creating and generating a content bundle, ensure that none of the datasets have names with special characters. Also, if some of the datasets don't have key metrics to back up, manually select the key metrics from the respective subject areas and datasets and regenerate the content bundle. If there aren't any key metrics to back up in the bundle, then you can only select the OAC Content option from the user interface.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, click Create.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_bundles_create.png

   
   
4. In Create Bundles, select the type of bundle that you want to create. For example, Content Bundle.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_create_bundle.png

   
   
5. Enter a name and description for your bundle.
6. Depending on the type of bundle, select the applicable option and then click Save:
   • For a content bundle, select the Include All Content check box, or select the applicable Oracle Analytics Cloud content, workbooks, and key metrics using the corresponding toggles and buttons. You can select the Include Users Security and Include Reporting Parameters check boxes.
     
     
     Description of the illustration fawag_content_bundle.png
     
     
   • For a key metrics content bundle, select the key metrics you want to bundle using the corresponding toggles and buttons. Key metrics are also included with Environment Bundles. To improve performance, select the specific key metrics you want to bundle.
     
     

     

     
     

     Note:

     To import key metrics, you must deploy a key metric bundle into a new instance with key metrics enabled. You can import key metrics in datasets however the entire dataset won't be imported due to security limitations. Datasets without key metrics aren't included in key metrics.
   • For a data configuration bundle, select the Include all data configuration settings check box, or select the applicable modules, augmentations, and custom attribute mappings using the corresponding toggles and buttons.
   • For a semantic extensions bundle, select the Include all semantic extensions check box, or select the applicable branch or tag in the Publish a branch or tag in the target environment field, or select applicable tags and branches using the corresponding toggles and buttons. You can select the Include External RPD or Publish External RPD check boxes to include or publish the external semantic model.
     
     
     Description of the illustration fawag_semantic_extensions_bundle.png
     
     

     If you've migrated to the latest wizards for extending the semantic model, then select the applicable external application and select the Semantic Extensions check box to include all the extensions.
     
     

   • For a security bundle, select the Include all security settings check box or select the application roles using the toggle and button.

     Note:

     If you've uptaken the enhanced security capability of Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse, then you no longer can specifically select groups as part of the Security bundle. See About Managing Users, Groups, and Application Roles.
     
     
     
     Description of the illustration fawag_security_bundle.png
     
     
   • For an environment bundle, provide a name.
     
     
     Description of the illustration fawag_environment_bundle.png
     
     
   • For a composite bundle, select any of the other bundles.
     
     
     Description of the illustration fawag_composite_bundle.png
     
     

Edit a Bundle

Edit a bundle if you need to change the application artifacts captured in the bundle.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, hover over the bundle that you created and click under Actions.
4. From Actions, select Edit.
   
   

   
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5. On the applicable bundles page, make your changes and then click Update.

Publish a Bundle

Publish a bundle from the source environment. This action generates a snapshot of the application artifacts and saves the snapshot to a repository. You can download this bundled artifact and import it into different instances.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, hover over the bundle that you created and click under Actions.
4. From Actions, select Generate to create and publish the bundle.
   
   

   
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You see the bundle with Generated status on the Bundles page.

Deploy a Bundle

You can deploy a generated bundle in the target environment to revert to the state of artifacts represented by the bundle. The system validates the bundle before attempting any deployment to ensure software and model versions and any other dependencies are met.

For example, if you have a bundle A (created in instance A) and then later made some changes but want to revert those changes, then use the Deploy option. This option restores the artifacts to an older version by deploying the previous bundle in the system.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, hover over the bundle that you created and click under Actions.
4. From Actions, select Deploy.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_bundles_actions_deploy.png

   
   
5. In the Deploy Bundle dialog, ensure that you see the bundle that you have selected.
6. Click Deploy.

Export a Bundle

Export the bundle .aab file from your source system to a repository or your local machine.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, hover over the bundle that you created and click under Actions.
4. From Actions, select Export.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_bundles_actions_export.png

   
   

Import a Bundle

Import the bundle .aab file into the target environment from your computer to restore the state of the application to the checkpoint represented by the bundle.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, click Import.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_bundles_import_option.png

   
   
4. In the Import Bundle dialog, click in Drag and Drop, and then select the applicable .aab file from your local machine.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_import_bundle.png

   
   
5. Click Import.

Delete a Bundle

Delete a bundle if you no longer require the snapshot of your application artifacts captured in the bundle.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, hover over the bundle that you created and click under Actions.
4. From Actions, select Delete.
   
   

   
   Description of the illustration fawag_bundles_actions_delete.png

   
   

View the Activity History of Bundles

View all the bundles-related activities to understand the changes made to your instance, which bundles to use, and whether the existing bundles are still current. This information enables you to make informed decisions about creating updated bundles or deploying an existing bundle.

You see all the activities by bundle-related action, bundle names, bundle type, status, user who performed the activity, and date. You can organize the display by sorting columns, searching for activities, and filtering by action, bundle type, or status.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Bundles under Application Administration.
3. On the Bundles page, click the Activity tab.
   
   

   

   
   

Configure a Virus Scanner

To keep Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse virus-free, Oracle highly recommends that you set up the virus scanning servers used by your organization running on either 443 or 1708 ports only, to scan any files that are uploaded to Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse.

When you configure virus scanning, the scanner checks all uploaded files including data files from the data pipeline and snapshots that you upload to restore content or to migrate content from another environment.

1. Sign in to your service.
2. In Oracle NetSuite Analytics Warehouse Console, click Virus Scanner under Service Administration.
3. On the Virus Scanner page, enter the host and port of the virus scanning server. For example, my.virus.scanning.serverexample.com.
4. Click Save.
5. To remove the current virus scanner configuration, click Delete.