This page supplies some information about special subjects related to administration of Data Mart sources.
For more general administration information please refer to Manage Data Mart Sources.
After the installation Data Mart Sources feature will in most cases show available Data Mart sources.
If the feature is empty but there the installation contains Data Mart sources, is necessary to first perform the RMB Refresh BI MV Cache in Data Mart Sources feature header section to refresh the cache containing information about Data Mart sources.
Once the RMB is done, refresh the feature.
Figure 1: Refresh BI MV Cache
During installation all Materialized Views are created with the BUILD
DEFERRED
clause. Therefore, Materialized Views are not populated with data
during the installation. The same goes for incrementally loaded tables, that
will be empty until activated.
The state of installed Data Mart sources will be UNUSABLE, displayed with a red indicator.
The standard approach to get started with Materialized Views is:
The activation will only consider Data Mart sources with state UNUSABLE.
It is also possible to manually refresh a Data Mart source. The refresh mechanism will not consider UNUSABLE Data Mart sources.
A Data Mart source can however be marked as being Active. This option is
available for a Data Mart source in any state. An Active
Data Mart source is considered to be refreshed regardless of state
(however a source in state
FRESH is never refreshed).
Consequences of the Active option:
This case applies to Materialized Views only.
This case applies to Materialized Views only
Marking Data Mart sources as Active is performed using the RMB option Mark Selected DM Sources as Active in Data Mart Sources feature.
Figure 2: Mark Selected Data Mart Souces as Active
Note: This operation will not refresh the Data Mart sources (populate it with data), it will only specify that the Data Mart sources should be regarded as Active
If the state of the Data Mart source is UNUSABLE it will be displayed with a red indicator. This means that the Data Mart source needs to be activated before it can be used. Activating a Data Mart source leads to that the first snapshot is created, i.e. the Data Mart source will be populated with data representing the first snapshot.
Data Mart sources can be activated using the RMB option Activate Selected in Data Mart Sources feature. It is also possible to activate all (non-activated) Data Mart sources with the RMB option Activate All available in the header of the Data Mart Sources feature.
Note: When a Data Mart source is activated it will be marked as Active.
Figure 3: Activate Selected BI Data Mart sources
Figure 4: Activate All BI Data Mart sources
Note: Activating all Data Mart sources in a single step is not recommended since it might take a lot of time and require a lot of system resources
Manual refresh of Data Mart sources is typically performed if the dimensions and facts in use do not display up-to-date information and when manual management is preferred to scheduled management.
Manual Refresh of Data Mart sources is performed using the RMB option Refresh Selected DM Sources in Data Mart Sources feature.
Note: This option can only be performed on Data Mart sources marked as Active
Figure 5: Refresh Selected Data Mart Sources
The scheduling of Data Mart sources referenced by an Information Source is handled using pre-defined tasks.
It is important to define a schedule that fits the needs of the customer, for e.g.:
Note: This option can only be performed on Data Mart source which are marked as Active
Note: This option is only available for the Data Mart source Materialized Views
In some situations it is not possible to activate or refresh a particular Materialized View, due to e.g. related source changes.
It is however possible to manually recreate a Materialized View using the RMB option Recreate Selected in the Data Mart Sources feature. The option leads to that the Materialized View is dropped in the database and then an attempt will be made to recreate it using the metadata of the original object in the database.
After recreating the Materialized View it will also be automatically activated, since it was Active before performing the recreate operation.
Figure 6: Recreate BI Materialized Views
Note: This option can only be performed on Active Materialized Views having state/staleness STALE or UNKNOWN
Use this option to mark one or more Data Mart source as inactive, i.e. as non-Active.
Consequences of this option:
Marking Data Mart source as inactive (non-Active) is performed using the RMB option Mark Selected DM Sources as Inactive in Data Mart Sources feature.
Figure 7: Mark Selected Data Mart sources as Inactive
Note: This operation will only specify that the Data Mart source should be regarded as non-Active, i.e. Inactive
It is possible to add Data Mart sources into different refresh categories. Using refresh categories simplifies the Data Mart source refresh administration by enabling refresh of a group of Data Mart sources at a given time.
The feature Data Mart Refresh Categories in Solution Manager can be used to manage these categories
Figure 8: Data Mart Refresh Categories
The following RMB options are provided:
Supplies the possibility to view the Data Mart sources connected to a refresh category. This feature could be used to view the last refresh date and refresh information related to the refresh category as well as the last refresh date and refresh state for each of the connected Data Mart sources.
Figure 9: Data Mart Refresh Category Details
Use the feature to:
- Manually refresh a set of Data Mart sources
- Schedule refresh of a set of Data Mart sources
- Gather Statistics during refresh
This option enables Oracle to gather statistics for the related database objects during the refresh process. It is recommended to use this option to make sure that statistics are up-to-date after the refresh, avoiding unexpected decrease of performance.
Note: This option only applies to Materialized Views
- In the Connected MVs section
- Add Data Mart sources to the refresh category via RMB Add New
- Refresh a specific Data Mart source via RMB Refresh
- View the refresh categories a specific Data Mart source is connected to via RMB View Connected Categories
- Remove a Data Mart source from a refresh category via ordinary Delete
- Mark one or more Data Mart sources as Active via RMB Mark Selected DM Sources as Active
Supplies the possibility to manually refresh all the Data Mart sources connected to a specific refresh category
Supplies the possibility to schedule refreshing Data Mart sources connected to a specific refresh category
Note: It is possible to add a Data Mart source to a refresh category even if it is referenced by other categories. The user will however be notified if a Data Mart source is added to more than one refresh category. Please find more information in the Information Source feature documentation.
Note: The main purpose of this feature is to support
scheduled refresh of a number of Data Mart sources. All
Active Data Mart sources will be refreshed regardless of state/staleness.
It is also possible to use this feature to activate a number of Data Mart
sources. First make sure that all in the category included Data Mart sources are
marked as Active. Then a one-time job can be scheduled that will take care of
the activation.
It is recommended to add Materialized Views belonging to a component to pre-defined refresh categories.
Please refer to Storage Layer Development and to the Data Mart Source Refresh Recommendations page.
Data Mart sources can be explored using a Data Mart entity, e.g. a dimension or fact, as the starting point.
Use the feature Explore Data Mart Sources in Solution Manager.
It is possible to see all Data Mart sources referenced by dimensions or Information Sources. In the following example all Data Mart sources referenced by one specific Information Source are displayed
Figure 10: Explore BI Data Mart sources
Note: The below listed RMB options are dynamically added depending on marked Data Mart sources.
The following (complete list of) RMB options are provided in the grid:
Marks selected Data Mart sources as being Active
Gives you the possibility to activate selected Data Mart sources
Gives you the possibility to refresh the data in the selected Data Mart sources
Marks selected Data Mart sources as being inactive, e.g. non-Active
These options are only available in Oracle Enterprise Edition with In-memory option.
Please refer to In-Memory Options for more information.
The feature header also provides some RMB options.
Figure 11:Explore BI Data Mart sources Header Options
The following RMB options are provided:
Marks all non-Active Data Mart sources as Active
Gives the possibility to activate all Data Mart sources. Only UNUSABLE Data Mart sources are considered.
Performs refresh of all directly referenced Data Mart sources, i.e. referenced in the entity specific Data Mart view. For a Fact, this means Data Mart sources explicitly specific in the Data Mart view but none of the Data Mart sources related to referenced dimensions.
Performs refresh of all Data Mart sources directly and indirectly referenced via the entity specific Data Mart view.
Marks all Data Mart sources as being inactive, i.e. non-Active.
These options are only available in Oracle Enterprise Edition with In-memory option.
Please refer to In-Memory Options for more information.
Read more about general recommendations related to refresh of Data Mart sources here.
If Oracle Enterprise Edition is used and the In-Memory option is enabled, there will be some extra options available for In-Memory handling of Data Mart sources.
The feature header will have the following extra In-Memory options:
Figure 12: In-Memory Options in Header
Enable all available Data Mart sources for In-Memory access
Disable all available Data Mart sources for In-Memory access
Remove non-unique indexes for all available Data Mart sources.
Note: The idea is to remove analytical indexes to improve In-Memory access. This options should be used with care. The action is not reversible, i.e. once the indexes are removed they can not be added from IEE. All removed indexes will however be logged and can thus be added manually by a DB administrator (please refer to general documentation about In-Memory in IFS Applications).
For selected rows in the feature the following extra In-Memory options will be available:
Figure 13: In-Memory Options for selected rows
The option will enable all selected Data Mart sources for In-Memory access.
Figure 14: In-Memory Options for selected rows
The option will disable all selected Data Mart sources for In-Memory access.
Remove non-unique indexes for all selected Data Mart sources.
Note: The idea is to remove analytical indexes to improve In-Memory access. This options should be used with care. The action is not reversible, i.e. once the indexes are removed they can not be added from IEE. All removed indexes will however be logged and can thus be added manually by a DB administrator (please refer to general documentation about In-Memory in IFS Applications).