Use Online and Offline Repository Modes

You can open a repository for editing in either online or offline mode. The tasks you can perform depend on the mode in which you opened the repository.

This section contains the following topics:

Edit Repositories in Offline Mode

Use offline mode to view and modify a repository while it isn't loaded into the Oracle BI Server.

If you attempt to open a repository in offline mode while it's loaded into the Oracle BI Server, the repository opens in read-only mode. Only one Model Administration Tool session at a time can edit a repository in offline mode. See About Read-Only Mode.

You don't need to enter a user name and password to open a repository in offline mode. You only need to enter the repository password.

This section contains the following topics:

Open Repositories in Offline Mode

Use these steps to open an Oracle BI repository in offline mode.

If the server is running and the repository you're trying to open is loaded, the repository opens in read-only mode. If you want to edit the repository while it's loaded, you must open it in online mode. Also, if you open a repository in offline mode and then start the server, the repository becomes available to users. Any changes you make become available only when the server is restarted.

When you open an Oracle BI repository in the Model Administration Tool in offline mode, the title bar displays the name of the open repository.

In the Model Administration Tool, select File, select Open, and then select Offline.
Navigate to the repository to open, and then select Open.
In the Open Offline dialog, enter the repository password, and then click OK.

Publish Offline Changes

Use these steps to publish changes made to your repository in offline mode.

See Upload Repository Command.

Publish the repository using the upload repository command.

You can't upload MDS XML format repositories. To publish changes made to MDS XML repositories, you must first convert the repository to Oracle BI repository format.
Restart all Oracle BI Server instances. You don't need to restart other BI system components.
In Presentation Services, click the Reload Files and Metadata link from the Administration page.

Edit Repositories in Online Mode

Use online mode to view and modify a repository while it's loaded into the Oracle BI Server.

The Oracle BI Server must be running to open a repository in online mode. There are certain things you can do in online mode that you can't do in offline mode. In online mode, you can perform the following tasks:

Manage user sessions
Manage the query cache
Manage clustered servers
Use the Oracle BI Summary Advisor (Oracle Exalytics Machine deployments only)

This section contains the following topics:

Open Repositories in Online Mode

Use these steps to open a repository in online mode.

The Oracle BI Server data source names (DSNs) that have been configured on your computer are displayed in the Open Online Repository dialog. If no additional DSNs have been configured for this version of the Oracle BI Server, you might see only the default DSN that's configured for you during installation.

See Integrating Other Clients with Oracle Business Intelligence in Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for information about how to create an ODBC DSN for the Oracle BI Server.

The user name that you provide must have the Manage Repositories permission. See Managing Security for Oracle Analytics Server.

For multitenancy, provide the details in the form tenantguid:servicename, for example 1234101:service1. Contact the tenant administrator to obtain the GUID and service name. See Administering Oracle Analytics Server for information on GUIDs for tenants in the Identity Store. The Oracle BI Server uses the details that you specify to open the repository that's appropriate for your tenant.

If you expect to work extensively with the repository and check out many objects, use the Load all objects on startup option to loads all objects immediately, rather than as selected. The initial connect time might increase slightly, but opening items in the tree and checking out items is faster.

Leave the Tenant info field blank if multitenancy isn't configured.

In the Model Administration Tool, select File, select Open, and then select Online.
In the Open Online Repository dialog, provide a valid user name and password.
In a multitenant environment, specify the details for your tenant in the Tenant info field.
Optional: Select the Load all objects on startup option.
Select the appropriate DSN and click OK.

When you open a repository in the Model Administration Tool in online mode, the title bar displays the DSN for the Oracle BI Server to which you're connected rather than the name of the current repository.

Publish Online Changes

When performing a single-node deployment, changes made using the Model Administration Tool, in online mode are available after reloading the metadata in Presentation Services.

In a clustered deployment, Oracle BI Server consumes these changes automatically, but you must restart all destination Oracle BI Servers for them to get the latest changes, and then reload metadata in Presentation Services by clicking the Reload Files and Metadata link from the Administration page.

See Using nqcmd to Test and Refine the Repository.

You must run the RollingRestart procedure directly against the source Oracle BI Server. The DSN created upon install for each Oracle BI Server is clustered by default, so you must manually create a non-clustered DSN for the source Oracle BI Server to run the procedure against.

See Integrating Other Clients with Oracle Business Intelligence in Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition for how to create an ODBC DSN for the Oracle BI Server.

You can restart the Oracle BI Servers the following ways:

Use the start and stop scripts. See Start and Stop Your System in Administering Oracle Analytics Server.
Use the RollingRestart ODBC procedure, and enter the following in nqcmd:

call RollingRestart(timeout);

where timeout is the number of seconds to wait for each destination Oracle BI Server to restart before moving on to the next one.

For example:

call RollingRestart(300);

In this example, the system waits five minutes for each Oracle BI Server to restart. If the given Oracle BI Server restarts sooner, the system moves on to the next one immediately.
To restart the destination servers using Fusion Middleware Control, first use the Cluster Manager in the Model Administration Tool, in online mode, to determine which Oracle BI Server is the source, and which are the destination servers. Use the Process tab of the Availability page Fusion Middleware Control to restart the destination Oracle BI Servers. See Using Fusion Middleware Control to Start and Stop Oracle Business Intelligence System Component Processes in Administering Oracle Analytics Server.

It's a best practice to avoid making other configuration changes in Fusion Middleware Control or the configuration files when using the RollingRestart ODBC procedure or when restarting the destination Oracle BI Servers in Fusion Middleware Control. Because only the destination servers are restarted, a situation might result where the source Oracle BI Server has a different set of configuration settings loaded than the destination Oracle BI Servers. If this occurs, restart the source Oracle BI Server.

Guidelines for Using Online Mode

Use online mode only for small changes that don't require running consistency checks.

Running consistency checks against the full online repository can take a long time. Instead, make more complex changes that require consistency checks in offline mode against a project extract of the repository.

The table provides guidelines for when to perform online and offline edits.

Mode	Use This Mode For...	Example Use Cases
Online	Small changes that are required to fix things in a running system Changes that need to be deployed quickly	Renaming Presentation layer metadata Reorganizing Presentation layer metadata Setting the logging level for an application role
Offline	Full-scale development or customization activities that require running consistency checks multiple times and iterating	Customizing existing fact or dimension tables Adding new fact or dimension tables

You should limit the number of concurrent online users. The best practice is to have only one user working in online mode at a time. Even when users have different objects checked out, dependencies between the objects could cause conflicts when the changes are checked in. Only one user should make online changes in a single business model at a time.

If you must have multiple concurrent users in online mode, don't have more than five users. For situations where you need more than five users, use the multiuser development environment. See Set Up and Use the Multiuser Development Environment.

Even with a single user making changes, be aware that online mode is riskier than offline mode because you're working against a running server. If you check in changes that aren't consistent, it might cause the Oracle BI Server to shut down. When you work in online mode, make sure to have a backup of the latest repository so that you can revert to it if needed. You can also use Undo All Changes available on the File menu to roll back all changes made since the last check-in.

Check Out Objects

When you're working in a repository open in online mode, you're prompted to check out objects when you attempt to perform various operations.

To check out objects, do one of the following:
- Select the objects you want to check out and click Yes to check out the objects.
- If you're performing a task in a wizard, Checkout displays a summary of the objects that you need to check out to complete the operation. Click Next to check out the objects and complete the task.

Check In Changes

When you're working in a repository that was opened in online mode, you're prompted to perform a consistency check before checking in the changes you make to a repository.

If you've made changes to a repository and then attempt to close the repository without first checking in your changes, a dialog opens automatically asking you to select an action to take. If you move an object from beneath its parent and then attempt to delete the parent, you're prompted to check in changes before the delete is allowed to proceed.

Use the Check in Changes dialog to make changes available immediately for use by other applications. Applications that query the Oracle BI Server after you've checked in the changes recognize the changes immediately. Applications that are currently querying the server recognize the changes the next time they access any items that have changed.

If the Model Administration Tool detects an invalid change, a message is displayed to alert you to the nature of the problem. Correct the problem and perform the check-in again.

In some cases, you might see the error, 97005 (Transaction Failed). This error occurs when the Oracle BI Server doesn't accept the changes. You can check the server log files to determine the cause of the problem.

You must save changes to persist the changes to disk. You must check in changes before you can save, but you don't need to save to check in changes.

In the Model Administration Tool, select File, then select Check In Changes.

About Read-Only Mode

Only one component, the Oracle BI Server or a single Model Administration Tool client in offline mode can have a repository open in read/write mode at a time.

If a second component opens a repository that's already in use, the repository is opened in read-only mode.

For example, assume the Oracle BI Server loads a repository in read/write mode. Any Model Administration Tool clients connecting to that repository in online mode also get read/write mode because they're accessing the repository through the Oracle BI Server. However, Model Administration Tool clients opening that repository in offline mode get read-only mode because the repository is already open for read/write through the Oracle BI Server.

If the Model Administration Tool client opens a repository offline in read/write mode, when the Oracle BI Server starts, the server and any Model Administration Tool client are also opened in read-only mode.

To enable the server to load the repository in read/write mode, you must first close the Model Administration Tool client that has the repository locked, and then restart the Oracle BI Server.

The Model Administration Tool opens a repository in read-only mode when Oracle Analytics Server has been clustered, and the Model Administration Tool is connected in online mode to a dependent server. The cluster’s controlling BI Server holds a lock on the repository. To avoid this lockout situation when running in a clustered environment, ensure that the Oracle BI Server ODBC data source name (DSN) used by the Model Administration Tool is configured to point to the cluster controllers rather than to a specific Oracle BI Server.

Open a MDX XML Repository

Use these steps to open a MDS XML file.

When you open a MDS XML format repository in the Model Administration Tool, the title bar displays the format and root folder location, for example, MDS XML C:\Root_Folder.

In the Model Administration Tool, select File, select Open, and then select MDS XML.
Select the root folder location for the MDS XML files and click OK.
If this is the first time you've opened this MDS XML repository, specify whether this repository is a standalone MDS XML repository, or whether it's under source control.
Click OK.