Use Model Check Manager to Check for Modeling Problems
Learn how to use Model Check Manager to check for modeling problems that might affect Oracle BI Summary Advisor and the aggregate persistence engine.
This section contains the following topics:
About Model Check Manager
You can use the Model Check Manager to check your repository metadata for issues that might affect the success of the Oracle BI Summary Advisor or the aggregate persistence engine.
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The Model Check Manager requires access to the summary statistics table, when using Filtered by Statistics, and back-end data sources for some checks. Some of the back-end queries can impact performance, you should run the Model Check Manager during off-peak periods.
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You can only run the Model Check Manager in online mode.
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The Model Check Manager doesn't make any changes to repository metadata. The Model Check Manager only flags possible problems.
The Model Check Manager returns both error and warning messages. You must fix errors identified by Model Check Manager. If you don't fix the errors, the Oracle BI Summary Advisor could provide incorrect recommendations, and the aggregate persistence engine could fail to create aggregates. You should fix warnings. Issues identified by warnings result in suboptimal recommendations from Oracle BI Summary Advisor, or suboptimal performance from the aggregate persistence engine.
Model Check Manager runs parallel queries against the database for better performance. By default, 24 threads are enabled. To change the default number of threads for model check manager, create and set an operating system environment variable called MODEL_CHECKER_MAX_THREADS. The maximum number of threads you can specify is 100.
Run Model Check Manager
For Oracle BI Summary Advisor, run Model Check Manager after you've gathered Summary Advisor statistics, but before you run the Oracle BI Summary Advisor Wizard.
To run Model Check Manager globally using the Administration Tool, select the File menu, then select Check Models. You can use the following options:
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Complete: Checks all objects in the Business Model and Mapping layer of the Oracle BI repository.
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Filtered by Statistics: Checks only fact table objects and associated dimensions in the Business Model and Mapping layer that have been actively queried according to the statistics table. Select this option to speed up the process for large repositories.
This option is only available on the Oracle Exalytics Machine. If you attempt to filter by statistics on a non-Exalytics system, or if you attempt to filter when the statistics table isn't available, a warning appears explaining that Model Check Manager can't filter by statistics.
See the following sections for information about setting up the Summary Advisor statistics table:
To run Model Check Manager for selected objects using the Model Administration Tool, right-click one or more business models, dimension objects, or logical fact tables and select Check Model. Then, choose Complete or Filtered by Statistics from the submenu, as described in the preceding list. The Filtered by Statistics menu option is only available for fact table objects and business model objects.
When using Model Check Manager with large repositories, it's recommended that you use Filtered by Statistics, or run it only for selected objects, to improve performance.
- In the Model Administration Tool, from the File menu, select Check Models.
Resolve Model Errors
After running the Model Check Manager for one or more objects, the Model Check Manager opens so that you can correct errors in the repository.
- In the Model Check Manager results, double-click a row to open the Properties dialog, or select a row and click Go To.
- Correct the problems using the information in the Error Description.
- Rerun the Model Check to verify that all of the issues are resolved.
Check Models Using the validaterpd Utility
You can check models from the command line using the Oracle BI Server validaterpd utility with the -L option.
Running this utility with -L performs the same model checks as Model Check Manager in the Model Administration Tool. The validaterpd utility is available on both Windows and Linux systems.
To run validaterpd in Model Check mode, you must specify the DSN of a running Model Administration Tool.
The location of the validaterpd utility is:
BI_DOMAIN/bi/bitools/bin
See Use the validaterpd Utility to Check Repository Consistency.
Syntax
The validaterpd utility takes the following parameters in Model Check mode:
validaterpd -L -D DSN_name -U DSN_user_name [-P DSN_password]
{-O output_txt_file_name |-C output_csv_file_name | -X output_xml_file_name} [-W]
[-S] [-8]
Where:
-L: Specifies Model Check mode.
-D: The DSN of a running Oracle BI Server.
-U: The user name for the Oracle BI Server DSN.
-P: The password for the Oracle BI Server DSN.
The password argument is optional. If you don't provide the password argument, you're prompted to enter the password when you run the command. To minimize the risk of security breaches, Oracle recommends that you don't provide password arguments either on the command line or in scripts.
The password argument is supported for backward compatibility only. For scripting purposes, you can pass the password through standard input.
-O Use this option to output the results in a text file.
-C Use this option to output the results in a CSV file.
-X Use this option to output the results in an XML file.
-8 Use this option to specify UTF-8 output (optional).
-W You can include an allowed list objects file. This text file specifies a limited number of logical objects that you want to check. Enter the fully-qualified name of each logical object on a single line. If -W isn't specified, all logical objects are checked.
-S Use this option to check only objects that have been actively queried according to the statistics table. If -S isn't specified, all objects are checked. If -W is also specified, the allowed list file can only contain business models and logical fact tables, other objects aren't checked. This option is only available on the Oracle Exalytics machine.
Examples
validaterpd -L -D DSNName -U Username -O results.txt Give password: my_dsn_password
The preceding example connects to an Oracle BI repository using the DSNName connection, checks all models in the Oracle BI repository, and writes output to results.txt.
validaterpd -L -D DSNName -U Username -O results.txt -W whitelist.txt -S Give password: my_dsn_password
The preceding example connects to an Oracle BI repository using the DSNName connection, performs a model check, and writes output to results.txt. Only objects listed in whitelist.txt are checked. Furthermore, because -S is specified, only objects that have been actively queried according to the statistics table are checked.
When -W and -S are both specified, the allowed list can only contain business models and logical fact tables. Other objects aren't checked.