The Oracle Analytics Repository stores server metadata. The metadata defines logical schemas, physical schemas, physical-to-logical mappings, aggregate table navigation, and other constructs. You can edit Oracle Analytics repositories using the Oracle Analytics Administration Tool.
In this blog we will go through accessing the Oracle Analytics Cloud and Oracle Analytics Server repositories (noted with the .rpd file format, or just RPD) This can be data found in a live mode directly on the active server—whether it is hosted in the Cloud or in your on-premise network. Accessing RPD online gives database administrators the ability to directly make changes to live Oracle Analytics instance deployments with zero downtime.
It’s important to note that accessing RPD files online is a task that can modify live metadata in the Oracle Analytics semantic layer. Therefore, it must be done with extreme caution and an exact understanding of what’s going on. Keeping an offline back-up version of the RPD files before modifying online is highly recommended, to allow safe returning to the initial state.
Accessing Your Oracle Analytics Cloud Instance Live
Once installed locally, open the Oracle Analytics Cloud Administration Tool and begin accessing your online RPD from an Oracle Analytics Cloud instance
a. Click on the “open in cloud” as shown in the icon below b. Enter in the username/password used to access Oracle Analytics Cloud
c. In the “cloud” field enter bootstrap
d. For the hostname, enter your fully qualified domain name, or FQDN. This is the URL used to access Oracle Analytics Cloud
for example: oac123456-oacppacm12345.uscom-central-1.oraclecloud.com.
e. Enter 80 for the port number
f. Click “open”
You now have access to your online Oracle Analytics Cloud RPD to update and make changes
Accessing Your Oracle Analytics Server Instance Live
For Oracle Analytics Server, download version 5.5 and install it in your workstation.
Unlike with Oracle Analytics Cloud where we use the “open in cloud” option, for Oracle Analytics Server we will use the “open online” option. To start, we need to identify the server port of your Oracle Analytics Server deployment by logging into the WebLogic Server (WLS) EM, for example http://YOURIP:7001/em
a. In our case, as shown below, our port is 7015
Next, let’s create a 64-bit ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) connection to our Oracle Analytics Server deployment, as shown in the photo below.
a. Click on System DSN (data source name) and then select your data source. Note this data source is created when you install the Oracle Analytics Cloud/Oracle Analytics Server administration tool.
b. Click, “finish“
c. Enter the details below as shown below.
Provide a name and description
For the server name, enter the IP address of your Oracle Analytics Server instance
Click, “next”
d. Enter in the Oracle Analytics Server administration username/password as well as the port number we noted in Step 2 then click, “next,”then click,“finish.”Close the ODBC connection user interface
Now we can launch your Oracle Analytics Cloud Oracle/Oracle Analytics Server administration tool and logon to your RDP.
a. Click, “open online” as shown with the red arrow below
b. Select the connection you created and Click, “open”
c. Note that larger .rpd files will take longer to fully open.
And there you have it. Feel free to ask questions in the comments section below.
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