Purpose
In Strategy Management, Cube Builder application (aka ‘Model Designer’) can be used to create a PAS model and define its dimensions and measures. During the initial configuration of the Strategy Management environment, some settings might require additional attention to ensure a successful building of the PAS model. Here the main aspects to consider when using an Oracle database for the Strategy Management system are listed.
Overview
This is meant to be a practical guide to raise awareness regarding some configuration steps.
Detailed information for the general requirement and configuration to use Strategy Management and an Oracle system database is available in the Strategy Management product documentation, specially in the "Strategy Management Application Server Help" in the "Administrator's Guide - Interactive Publisher and Application Components" and in the ‘Strategy Management Configuration Help’.
Have the procedures for Oracle database been copied to the ‘\procs’ directory?
If you are using Oracle for the system database, you need to copy the procedure files from the
\<Strategy_Management_installation>\InternetPub\procs\oracle_procs
directory up one level to the \procs directory, and overwrite the MaxDB versions installed by default.
The task of copying files up one level is typically performed during the initial configuration, but it must be done again during an upgrade because the contents of the ‘procs’ directory and subdirectories are overwritten.
Is the 32-bit Oracle middleware client installed for Strategy Management Application Server (PAS) to use?
Sometimes, in the PAS Administrator, for a LinkID definition PAS cannot find the 32-bit version of the OCI.DLL either because 32-bit Oracle client is not installed or because for some reason it cannot be located by the application. In the SSM_CB_EA LinkID Properties ‘Library’ field, the complete path to the directory where Oracle 32-bit client is actually installed would need to be written. For example:
c:\oracle_client_32bit\OCI.DLL
Do the ORACLE_HOME and ORACLE_SID environment variables exist, and are these defined as System variables? Is the PATH environment variable correct?
Sometimes such Oracle errors like 'ORA-12541 TNS: no listener' might be found in the traces generated by the Strategy Management Cube Builder application, even if the Oracle Listener is correctly up and running. Possible causes of this could be, an incorrect definition of environment variables, for example: ORACLE_HOME and PATH environment variables are incorrectly set, or ORACLE_SID environment variable is missing.
In PAS Administrator, does the SSM_CB_EA LinkID Properties contain the correct references to Oracle?
In PAS Administrator, for the ‘Properties’ of the SSM_CB_EA LinkID the ‘Server’ field should contain the 'service' (SID) and not the oracle database 'host'; and the definition should match exactly the value of the service (SID) defined in the tnsnames.ora file, located in the
$ORACLE_HOME/network/admin
directory.
This screenshot shows an example:
The contents of the 'lsdal.ini' file which contains the definition of the LinkID might be incorrect.
For Windows OS, the standard ‘lsdal.ini’ file is located in the directory
C:\windows
Specially with Windows 2003 and 2008 OS, more than one copy of the 'lsdal.ini' file might exist on the machine: sometimes there are additional copies of the lsdal.ini file which are stored under the windows users' directories, and these different copies might contain different definitions for the SSM_CB_EA LinkID.
Therefore it is important to check that the definition of SSM_CB_EA is correct and consistent in all the different copies of the 'lsdal.ini' file.