10 Configuring Connections to External Systems

This chapter describes how to configure connections to systems that are external to Oracle Business Intelligence.

This chapter includes the following sections:

As part of the process of configuring connections to external systems, you can configure a database for the Oracle BI Scheduler. See Using Fusion Middleware Control to Configure a Database for the Oracle BI Scheduler in Scheduling Jobs Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

Configuring Email and Agents

You can use Fusion Middleware Control to configure common email settings that are used by agents.

Advanced configuration settings are described in Configuring and Managing Agents.

Using Fusion Middleware Control to Configure Oracle BI Scheduler Email Settings that Affect Agents

Configuring email settings that affect agents ensures users and other notification recipients receive messages appropriately.

Before you begin this procedure, ensure that you are familiar with the information in .

Go to the Business Intelligence Overview page.
Display the Mail tab of the Configuration page as appropriate.
Click Lock and Edit to enable changes to be made.
Complete the following options:
- SMTP Server
- Port
- Display name of sender
  
  This option is used in the SMTP From field as a meaningful substitution for the sender's address. The default is Oracle Business Intelligence.
- Email address of sender
  
  This option specifies the email address on the SMTP Server that is used as the sender's reply-to address for all mail sent from Oracle BI Scheduler. The initial value is defaultuser@defaultmailserver.com, which you must change to reflect a valid email address. Note that if you want to indicate that email recipients need not reply, add no_reply@mycompany.com or do_not_reply@mycompany.com to this field.
- Username
- Password
- Confirm password
- Number of retries upon failure
- Maximum recipients
- Addressing method To, Blind Copy Recipient (Bcc)
- Connection Security
- Specify CA certificate source
- CA certificate directory
- CA certificate file
- SSL certificate verification depth
- SSL cipher list
Click Apply, then click Activate Changes.
Return to the Business Intelligence Overview page and click Restart.

For information about advanced configuring settings for agents, see Configuring and Managing Agents.

For information about corresponding configuration file elements, see Mapping User Interface Labels with Configuration File Elements.

Configuring for Actions with the Action Framework

Users can create actions in the Oracle BI Presentation Services user interface.

An action is an operation or process that can be invoked explicitly by a user clicking an action link. Actions can also be invoked automatically, as the final step of an agent.

You can configure for the use of actions in your organization. For a comprehensive discussion of how to use the Action Framework to enable actions for external systems, including a complete description of each configuration setting and detailed examples, see Integrator's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

Configuring Connections to the Marketing Content Server

Oracle Marketing Segmentation handles segmentation, which involves dividing a target audience into different segments given different criteria based on the subject areas.

When a segment is ready, users create lists of the contacts and accounts that satisfy the criteria for the segment. Users then specify whether to store the generated lists on the file system, in a database, or on a specified Content Server.

For users to store the lists on a Content Server, you as the administrator must configure the connection to the Content Server by specifying the appropriate URL and other values in the instanceconfig.xml file.

Use various elements in the instanceconfig.xml file to configure settings for the connection to the Marketing Content Server.

Open the instanceconfig.xml file for editing, at:

BI_DOMAIN/config/fmwconfig/biconfig/OBIPS
Locate the section in which you must add the elements that are described in the following list:
- URL: Specifies the address of the content server machine.
- SocketTimeoutSec: Specifies the number of seconds that the socket waits for the Content Server to respond while transferring records. The default value is 60. There is no minimum or maximum value.
- FileSizeMB: Specifies the size in megabytes of files that are generated during ListGeneration and inserted into the Content Server. The default is 10. The minimum size is 1MB and the maximum size is 50MB.
Include the elements and their ancestor elements as appropriate, as shown in the following example:
```
<ServerInstance>
 <Marketing>
  <ContentServer>
    <URL>myhost.com:6666/st1b2rep/idcplg</URL>
    <SocketTimeoutSec>120</SocketTimeoutSec>
    <FileSizeMB>5</FileSizeMB>
  </ContentServer>
 </Marketing>
</ServerInstance>
```
You cannot specify values for user name and password in the instanceconfig.xml file. Instead you specify values stored securely within the central credentials wallet, along with all other user names and passwords.
Save your changes and close the file.
Restart Oracle Business Intelligence.

Configuring Connections to Data Sources

Connections to data sources are defined in the Oracle BI repository. Repository developers use the Administration Tool to configure data source connections by importing metadata and configuring connection pools.

See Importing Metadata and Working with Data Sources in Metadata Repository Builder's Guide for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.

You might need to update connection pool information in the repository during migrations to production and other environments. You can use the Oracle BI Server XML API to automate these connection pool changes. See Moving from Test to Production Environments in XML Schema Reference for Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition.