Rob Reynolds' BI & EPM Blog

In case you were not aware, the recently shipped 10.1.3.4 release of OBIEE includes a sample set of data, metadata, reports & dashboards that represent best practice for OBIEE metadata, report & dashboard development. There are some really good example reports and dashboards as well as solutions to common metadata modeling problems. It's well worth installing.

The sample files are also available stand alone on OTN for those not wishing to download the entire 10.1.3.4 distribution, and yes, they do work with previous 10g releases. Apparently the real trick is actually finding the file on OTN, so to save you the trouble here is a direct link: *LINKS UPDATED*

http://download.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/files/oracle_bi_sample_analysis_setup_files.zip

The documentation of best practices is contained in the following file:

http://download.oracle.com/technology/products/bi/files/oracle_bi_sample_app_content_guide.zip

One of the questions that we are often asked when meeting with customers is the effort involved in migrating Discoverer reports to OBIEE. Since OBIEE is a metadata driven tool, the real complexities lie with the migration of your current Discoverer EUL to the BI Servers metadata format, the RPD file. Once the metadata is properly configured, recreation of the reports is fairly straight-forward process.

Up until recently this metadata migration was done by hand, an often tedious exercise with large, complex EUL's. Fortunately, the 10.1.3.4 release of OBIEE now ships with a migration assistant that handles much of this conversation process for you.

Mike Durran, one of our BI Product Managers has an excellent post on his blog on using the new Discoverer Metadata Migration Assistant and its limitations.

For those customers looking for assistance with converting their existing Discoverer environments, we also have our Discoverer Migration Rapid Start offerings. Using the migration assistant, along with best practices and our blended delivery model, Oracle Consulting is able to quickly migrate your current Discoverer environment & reports to OBIEE in a cost effective manner.