R12: Master Troubleshooting Guide for vendor Payment for Oracle Payables

1. What is a Payment Process Request (PPR), and How Are PPRs Created and Managed?

What is a PPR?

Ans) In R12, a Payment Process Request, or "PPR", is a payment batch. ThePayment Batch entry form used in R11i has been replaced in R12 by a new module called the Payments Manager module (IBY), which offers a number of new features related to payment batch processing.

How is a new PPR submitted?

Ans) Using the Submit a Single Request link on the Payments ManagerDashboard (or the button on theSearch PPRs window), users are taken to a PPR entry form made up of a header and several tabbed regions. Users can enter search criteria for the invoices they want to pay, and parameters surrounding the payment process itself using the fields on the tabbed regions.

Modifying Payment Process Requests

You can modify the batch of invoices that the system selected for you, and the proposed payments generated by the system, using "review" windows along the course of the PPR process. These review "stops" are optional. When creating a new PPR, you can set parameters on the Processing tab that will cause the PPR process to stop after: 1) the system initially selects the invoices to be paid by the batch, and/or 2) after the PPR process has compiled the "proposed payments". This gives you an opportunity to review (and if necessary, modify) the invoices and "proposed" payments before they are turned into formatted Payment Instructions.

Terminating Payment Instructions

You can terminate a set of Payment Instructions at any time prior to marking the payments "Complete" - even if they have been printed - by using the Terminateicon on the Payment Instructions tab on the Payments Manager Dashboard. When this action is taken, Oracle Payments sets the status of the payment instruction to "Terminated", and informs the source product of the terminated documents payable. Then for each payment in the payment instruction, Oracle Payments sets the status to "Canceled". The source product unlocks the documents and resets their status so they are ready for future selection.

Stopping & Voiding Completed Payments

You can record a "Stop Payment" action or a "Void" action on one or more completed payments using thePayments tab on the Payments ManagerDashboard.

PPR Templates

To make entry of a new single PPR faster and easier, you can create a PPR"Template" with the search criteria and parameters that you typically use on your PPRs. Then when creating a new PPR, simply enter the name of the template in the header, and the pre-defined settings on the template are automatically copied to the fields on the header of your new PPR for you! You can accept the defaulted values, or edit them for the new PPR.

Scheduling PPRs using PPR Templates

You can use the name of a PPR Template as the Request Name on theSchedule Payment Process Requestform in the Payments Manager module, allowing users to schedule PPRs to run automatically on a periodic basis, such as once/multiple times a day, once/multiple times a week, once/multiple times a month, etc. The scheduling parameters are generally the same as for scheduling Oracle Reports or other processes.

Required Setups

To maximize all the features available in creating Payment Process Requests (and to minimize the possibility of issues), you will want to become familiar with both the required and recommended setups that are necessary before running your first PPR. Some setups in the Payments module (IBY) are common to both theFunds Capture (receipts) and the Funds Disbursement (payments) roles that the module provides. They include:

aAccess control

APIs

servlets

transmission

security

Configurable setups include:

Payment Methods

Bank Instruction Codes

Delivery Channel Codes

Payment Reason Codes

Payment Process Profiles ("PPPs")

Disbursement System Options

Payment Formats

XML Publisher Payment Templates

Internal Banks, Branches, and Bank Accounts

Suppliers

External Bank Account

• "Skipped" and "Spoiled" Check Numbers
• Skipped Check Numbers: If you use pre-numbered paper check stock when running a Payment Process Request ("PPR") in R12, you may have experienced a common issue faced by most Payment Administrators -- skipped checks during the printing process (most often when the batch was printed using a laser printer). That is, one or more unused checks get "stuck" to the check above it in the feeder bin, and slip through the printing process unprinted. When that happens, the check numbers that were actually printed and the check numbers that appear on the related payment reports are no longer in-sync with one another. It's important that the system is informed of these "skipped" check numbers as soon as possible so your reports will reflect appropriate check numbers, and the Last Issued Document Numberfield on the Define/Update Payment Documents window for the associated Bank Account is properly updated as well. Use the Skipped Payment Documents region on the Record Print Status window to manually enter the skipped check numbers before you confirm the PPR.Spoiled Check Numbers: Another common issue that Payment Administrators often face is the dreaded "spoiled" check during a printing process. A "spoiled" check is when your printer "eats up" (physically destroys) a payment document as it goes through the printing process -- usually causing the printer to stop until you remove the mangled document, and re-start the printer. "Spoiled" checks can actually be defined as ANY unuseable paper payment documents (checks) that have become unuseable for ANY reason (for instance, perhaps one of your boxes of unused checks was destroyed due to a flood or fire). So printer jams aren't the only cause for "spoiled" checks -- but they are the most common. It's important that the system is informed of these "spoiled" check numbers as soon as possible, so your reports will reflect appropriate check numbers, and the Last Issued Document Number field on theDefine/Update Payment Documents is properly updated as well. Spoiled checks can be marked as "spoiled" in Oracle by either: 1) reprinting a replacement check for the supplier/creditor in the same PPR before confirming the PPR, or 2) manually marking the check number as "spoiled" on the Spoiled Payment Documents region of the Record Print Statuswindow, and then paying the supplier/creditor on a later PPR or Quick Payment.
• 2. How does the PPR Process work? Once the user has entered their desired parameters on the header of the PPR, and clicks on theSubmit button, the PPR process follows the following four (4) program steps:
  DOCUMENT SELECTION ("AUTOSELECT")
  (Code: AP_AUTOSELECT_PKG): The Selection process is handled by Payables (AP), the calling product.
  When a PPR is submitted, a record is created in AP_INV_SELECTION_CRITERIA_ALL with a checkrun_name, which is the same as the PPR Name.

Selection: Invoices are then selected based on Due Date, Discount Date, Pay Group, and other criteria provided by the user while completing the PPR header.

The table AP_SELECTED_INVOICES_ALL is populated with selected invoices.

The table AP_UNSELECTED_INVOICES_ALL is populated with the invoices that were not selected.

Locking:After selecting the documents, the invoices are locked to prevent other check runs from selecting the same invoices.

AP_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_ALL.checkrun_id is populated on the selected documents (invoices).

Review:If the PPR has been setup to Stop Process for Review After Schedule Payment Selection (option available on the header of the PPR), the process stops for user review after the initial selection of payables documents has been completed. The status of the PPR is set to "Invoices Pending Review". After the user reviews and/or modifies the selected documents, and clicks on the Submitbutton, AP calls the IBYBUILD program.

If the Stop Process for Review After Schedule Payment Selectionparameter was not enabled, then at the end of invoice selection, the Build program is submitted automatically.

If no invoices met the selection criteria, the PPR is canceled automatically and the status of the PPR is set to "Canceled - No Invoices Selected".

BUILD PAYMENTS

(Code: IBY_DISBURSE_SUBMIT_PUB_PKG): The Build Payments process is handled by Oracle Payments (IBY).

The Build Payments program first creates a record in IBY_PAY_SERVICE_REQUESTS with call_app_pay_service_req_code = checkrun_name.

The Build Payments program goes on to populate the IBY_DOCS_PAYABLE_ALL table with the proposed payments.

The link to the payment service request table is through the PAYMENT_SERVICE_REQUEST_ID.

Internal Bank Account / Payment Process Profile Assignment(Code: IBY_ASSIGN_PUB): If the PPR has a default internal bank account and Payment Process Profile (PPP) assigned to it on the header of the PPR, the values are assigned to all of the selected documents in the PPR.

If a default internal bank account and PPP were not provided by the user on the header of the PPR, Oracle Payments attempts to default the values. If it cannot find a default value for all of the selected documents, the PPR status is set to "INFORMATION REQUIRED". The user display shows it as "Information Required - Pending Action". The user will need to use the Information Required window to provide the missing internal bank account(s) and PPP(s) for each selected document.

Document Validation (Code: IBY_VALIDATIONSETS_PUB): During this step, Oracle Payments validates all the documents (selected invoices & memos) using Pre-Defined and User-Defined Validations assigned to Payment Methods assigned to the selected documents. Afterward, the program validates all the documents again, using the Pre-Defined and User-Defined Validations assigned to Payment Formats associated with the PPPs specified on the PPR.

If all the documents pass validation, all the documents are set to a status of VALIDATED in the tables and the request status is displayed as "Documents Validated".

If there any document validation failures, Oracle Payments uses the parameter setting for "Documents" on the Validation Failure Results tab on the PPR header (the DOCUMENT_REJECTION_LEVEL_CODE) to determine the next action.

• REQUEST: Reject all documents in this PPR
• DOCUMENT: Reject only the document in error
• PAYEE: Reject all the documents related to the supplier
• NONE: Stop the PPR for review

Create Payments
(Code: IBY_PAYGROUP_PUB): The validated documents are then grouped into "proposed" payments based on the grouping rules - both User-Defined and hard-coded. It then numbers the proposed payments with an internal identifier (not "the" check number) and validates the payments.

Records are inserted into IBY_PAYMENTS_ALL that holds the payment information for the selected documents (invoices). The Build Payments program then updates the IBY_DOCS_PAYABLE_ALL table with the payment_id and formatting_payment_id values of the payment associated with each document.

If there any payment validation failures, Oracle Payments uses the parameter setting for "Payments" on the Validation Failure Results tab on the PPR header (the PAYMENT_REJECTION_LEVEL_CODE) to determine the next action.

• REQUEST: Reject all documents in this PPR
• DOCUMENT: Reject only the document in error
• PAYEE: Reject all the documents related to the supplier
• NONE: Stop the PPR for review

If the PPR setup Stop Process for Review After Creation of Proposed Payments is enabled on the Process tab of the PPR header, the displayed PPR status is set to "Pending Proposed Payment Review". This status prevents further processing until user takes action.

If this option to stop for a review is not enabled, the displayed status of the PPR is set to "Payments Created". In this status, payment instructions can be created for the PPR.

FORMAT PAYMENTS

(Codes: IBY_PAYINTSR_PUB, IBY_CHECKNUMBER_PUB): The Format Payments process is handled by Oracle Payments (IBY).
When a PPR is submitted, the program checks the setting for the Create Payment Instructions parameter on the Process tab of the PPR header to determine if the associated payment instruction(s) (PI) should be created automatically after the payments are created (the CREATE_PMT_INSTRUCTIONS_FLAG = Y), or if the program is to wait for a manual kick-off of the Format Payment Instructions program through the Standard Request Submission form (SRS) (the CREATE_PMT_INSTRUCTIONS_FLAG = N).

If the PPR is set up to automatically submit instruction(s), the payment_service_request_id will be populated in IBY_PAYMENT_INSTRUCTIONS_ALL because the instruction will be specific to the PPR. In this case, the instruction(s) can be linked to the PPR using PAYMENT_SERVICE_REQUEST_ID.

If the PPR is set up for the user to submit the instruction program manually on the SRS form, then when the instruction(s) is submitted, the instruction(s) is linked to the PPR through the payments selected by the instruction(s). The link in this case will be through the payment_instruction_id in IBY_PAYMENTS_ALL.

In addition, the following processing occurs during the Format Payments step (see The Extract and Format Operation Flow section in Note 1348102.1 "R12: Master Troubleshooting Guide for Oracle Payables Payment Formats & associated XML Publisher Templates"):

Number the payments (paper checks and possibly, electronic payments)

Create XML extracted message

Pass the extract to Oracle XML Publisher (also known as "BI Publisher")

XML Publisher applies the formatted template to the payments

XML Publisher formats and stores the output

Oracle Payments then updates the status of the Payment Instruction(s) and the PPR. If successful, the displayed status of the PPR is "Formatted", and the status of the Payment Instruction(s) will be "Formatted" for electronic payments and "Formatted - Ready for Printing" for check payments

Print checks:

Users can load stationery into the printer and print checks at this stage by clicking on the Take Action icon for the related Payment Instruction on the Search PPRs window.

Determine if the checks printed OK, and if so, click on the Take Action icon again to be taken to the "Record Print Status" window, and click on the Record Print Status button. If there were problems with the printing process (paper jams, skipped checks, etc.) -- especially if you are using pre-numbered check stock -- use the Reprint button to reprint the batch and record any spoiled (ruined) and/or skipped check numbers.

Transmit electronic payments:

Electronic payments can be transmitted at this point.

CONFIRM PAYMENTS

(Code: AP_PMT_CALLOUT_PKG): The Selection process is handled by Payables (AP).

In order to confirm the printing of paper checks, the user needs to use the Record Print Status window to confirm which pre-numbered paper stock printed OK, and which (if any) were skipped or were damaged beyond repair ("spoiled").

Oracle Payments calls ap_pmt_callout_pkg.payment_completed to confirm the payments. During this step, the program does the following:

Assigns sequence values for Document Sequencing (Vouchering).

Creates data in the AP_CHECKS_ALL table with the appropriate data from the IBY tables.

Inserts data into the AP_INVOICE_PAYMENTS_ALL table for the corresponding checks.

The documents (invoices) are updated in the AP_PAYMENT_SCHEDULES_ALL table to indicate in the Invoices Workbench the payment details and status.

The documents not paid in this PPR are released by setting the checkrun_id on the Payment Schedules to NULL.

The AP_INVOICES_ALL table is updated to show the payment status in the Invoices Workbench for those documents that were paid by the PPR.

Data for this PPR is deleted from the AP_SELECTED_INVOICES_ALL table.

Data for this PPR is deleted from the AP_UNSELECTED_INVOICES_ALL table.

"Completing" Electronic Payments: Electronic payments are not "confirmed" in the same way that paper documents are handled. The system will automatically mark electronic payments as "completed" based on the setting you chose for the "Completion Point" field on the header of the associated Payment Process Profile (PPP):

"Built" = the payments will be marked as "complete" when the Build process completes

"Payment Instruction is Created" = the payments will be marked as "complete" when the PI is created

Payment Instruction is Formatted" = the payments will be marked as "complete" when the PI has successfully completed the Formatting process

"Payment Instruction is Transmitted" = the payments will be marked as "complete" when they are transmitted"

3. PPR Reports: There are several reports related to PPR processing

Payment Process Request Status Report: The Payment Process Request Status Report is a report that you can run that displays proposed payment information. You can request the report to run automatically after proposed payments have been created and validated or run the report by standard report submission. The report provides parameters, such as the Payment Process Request name/identifier and runs if the Payment Process Request status is "Payments Created".

Payment Instruction Register: Once a payment instruction has been formatted, payments within that payment instruction can be reviewed in report format. The Payment Instruction Register can be run at any time after payment instruction creation. The report lists the various statuses of payments within the payment instructions, such as Formatted or Transmitted.

Separate Remittance Advice:The Separate Remittance Advice is a report sent to a payee that lists the documents payable paid as part of each payment. You can specify the format for the remittance advice document and the delivery method.

Positive Pay: A positive pay file is a security measure in the form of a document that the deploying company sends to its payment system or bank to inform it of payments made by check. When you print checks, then you can electronically transmit a list of payments to the bank or payment system that indicates the checks you printed, so the bank or payment system knows what checks to pay. This list prevents the payment system or bank from paying fraudulent checks, since such checks are not listed on the positive pay file.

R12 Oracle Payments offers two versions of the Positive Pay report:

the Positive Pay File program, and

the Positive Pay File with Additional Parameters program.These programs replace the R11i report called the Positive Pay Report.

5. Alternatives to using Payment Process Requests

Creating PPRs is the only method of creating payments in the Oracle Payments module (IBY), but you can still create single payments using thePayments Workbench form in Oracle Payables (AP). There are three types of single payments that you can create using the AP Payments Workbench form:

Quick Payment = a single computer-generated payment to be generated and printed or transmitted using Oracle

Manual Payment = a single payment already generated outside of Oracle (such as bank wires, hand-written checks, etc.)

Refund = a single payment to a supplier, usually to repay one or more overpayments received in Oracle Receivables, or to refund a credit account balance in Oracle Payables.

Remember that the Payments Workbench is limited to creating only single payments, and requires that the user manually select the desired invoices and/or memos to pay.
Payment Process Requests (PPRs), on the other hand, are by far the most popular and heavily used payment programs for Oracle users because the Oracle Payments disbursement engine enables you to greatly simplify your procedures for managing complex payment processes that span multiple payment methods, formats, check stocks, transmission protocols, currencies, organizations, and bank accounts.

Batch Payment STATUSES In R12

PPR Process STATUSES and What They Mean

As a Payment Process Request transitions through the different stages of processing, the PPR will display a "Status" to let you know where in the process the PPR has progressed to, and what's going on with it.

The list below is not a comprehensive list of EVERY possible Status that may appear on a PPR (or on its associated Payment Instruction file(s)), but it does include the statuses most commonly encountered:

NEW:
This status indicates that the PPR has been successfully submitted for processing, and the AutoSelect program is digesting the criteria provided by the user on the header of the PPR in preparation of the automatic selection the invoices and memos related to that criteria.

SELECTING INVOICES:
This status indicates that the AutoSelect program is selecting the eligible invoices/memos for the payment batch based on Due Date, Discount Date, Pay Group, and other criteria provided by the user on the header of the PPR.

CANCELLED - NO INVOICES SELECTED:
If no invoices or memos met the selection criteria provided by the user on the header of the PPR, the PPR is automatically terminated and the status changes to this status.

"MISSING..." STATUSES: 
Other statuses may appear at this point in the process if the user failed to included required information on the PPR header, such as "Missing Exchange Rates", etc.

INVOICES SELECTED:
After selecting the documents (invoices/memos), they are locked to prevent other checkruns from selecting the same documents.

INVOICES PENDING REVIEW:
This status will only appear if you selected the Stop Process for Review After Scheduled Payment Selection option on the Processing tab of the PPR header. This status means that the PPR process has stopped, and is waiting for you to review the invoices and memos that were selected for payment (and make any changes to the batch, as needed). Click on the Take Actionicon to be taken to the Review Selected Scheduled Payments window.

CALCULATING SPECIAL AMOUNTS:
This status will only appear if you selected the Calculate Payment Withholding and Interest During the Scheduled Payment Selection option on the Processing tab of the PPR header. This status means that interest and withholding tax are being calculated and applied, as necessary, to the invoices and memos selected for this payment batch.

ASSEMBLING/ASSEMBLED PAYMENTS:
An "interim" status, it appears after the calculation for interest and withholding has been completed, and the Build Payments program is starting. It may appear again later after the user provides any required bank account and PPP information for the invoices/memos ("documents") selected.

INFORMATION REQUIRED - PENDING ACTION:
This status appears if you did not provide a default Internal (Disbursement) Bank Account and/or PPP on the header of the PPR. In that case, you need to click on the Take Action icon to be taken to a form where you can decide which internal bank account and PPP should be used for each invoice and memo selected for payment.

PENDING PROPOSED PAYMENT REVIEW:
This status will only appear if you selected the Stop Process for Review After Creation of Proposed Paymentsoption on the Processing tab of the PPR header. In this case, the system is waiting for you to review (and modify, if needed) the proposed payments for this batch. Click on the Take Action icon to be taken to the Review Proposed Payments window.

FORMATTING:
This status indicates that the proposed payments have been turned into payment instruction files. At this point, you will want to click on the Show link to view the new associated payment instruction file(s). Each payment instruction file with have their own PI Reference Number. If you have both electronic and paper ("check") payments involved in this payment batch, you will see a payment instruction file for each type of payment method.

PAYMENT INSTRUCTION STATUSES:
An "electronic" type of payment instruction file will usually be marked asFORMATTED at this stage, which means the PI has been created, (and based on your setups) may also have been transmitted, and even marked as "Complete".

A "check" type of payment instruction file will (based on your setups) usually be marked as FORMATTED - READY FOR PRINTING, which means the payment instruction file was created, and is waiting to be sent to your printer. Click on the Take Action icon to send the file to the printer.

Afterward, the Status will change to SUBMITTED FOR PRINTING. Click on the Take Action icon again to "confirm" the payments (Record Print Status). This is also where the user will have an opportunity to "Reprint" the payment instruction file, if there were problems during the first printing process. Once the payment instruction file has been printed, an internal Payment Reference Number is assigned to the payment, along with a Paper Document(Check)Number.

Once the user clicks on the Record Print Status button (and confirms it), the payment instruction file's Status changes again, this time to PRINTED.

CONFIRMED PAYMENT:
Once the payment instructions have been transmitted/printed and confirmed, the Status of the PPR changes to this status to indicate a successfully completed payment batch (PPR).

TERMINATED:
If the user terminates a PPR anytime prior to confirmation of the payments (using the Terminate icon), the status will change to "Terminated", and the PPR is permanently closed.

Data mart and dwh

Datawarehouse and DataMart:Definition & Difference

Data warehousing and Data mart are tools used in data storage.With passage of time, small companies become big & this is when they realize that they have amassed huge amounts of data in various departments of the organization. Every department has its own database that works well for that department. But when organizations intend to sort data from various departments for sales, marketing or making plans for future, the process is referred to as Data Mining. Data Warehousing and Data Marts are two tools that help companies in this regard. Just what the difference between data warehousing and data marts is and how they compare with each other is what this article intends to explain.

Data Warehousing

A data warehouse is a collection of data marts representing historical data from different operations in the company. This data is stored in a structure optimized for querying and data analysis as a data warehouse. Table design, dimensions and organization should be consistent throughout a data warehouse so that reports or queries across the data warehouse are consistent. A data warehouse can also be viewed as a database for historical data from different functions within a company.This is the place where all the data of a company is stored. It is actually a very fast computer system having a large storage capacity. It contains data from all the departments of the company where it is constantly updated to delete redundant data. This tool can answer all complex queries pertaining data.

Data Mart

A data mart is a segment of a data warehouse that can provide data for reporting and analysis on a section, unit, department or operation in the company, e.g. sales, payroll, production. Data marts are sometimes complete individual data warehouses which are usually smaller than the corporate data warehouse.It is an indexing and extraction system. Instead of putting the data from all the departments of a company into a warehouse, data mart contains database of separate departments and can come up with information using multiple databases when asked.

IT managers of any growing company are always confused as to whether they should make use of data marts or instead switch over to the more complex and more expensive data warehousing. These tools are easily available in the market, but pose a dilemma to IT managers.

Difference between Data Warehousing and Data Mart

It is important to note that there are huge differences between these two tools though they may serve same purpose. Firstly, data mart contains programs, data, software and hardware of a specific department of a company. There can be separate data marts for finance, sales, production or marketing. All these data marts are different but they can be coordinated. Data mart of one department is different from data mart of another department, and though indexed, this system is not suitable for a huge data base as it is designed to meet the requirements of a particular department.

Data Warehousing is not limited to a particular department and it represents the database of a complete organization. The data stored in data warehouse is more detailed though indexing is light as it has to store huge amounts of information. It is also difficult to manage and takes a long time to process. It implies then that data marts are quick and easy to use, as they make use of small amounts of data. Data warehousing is also more expensive because of the same reason.

Summary • Data mart and data warehousing are tools to assist management to come up with relevant information about the organization at any point of time • While data marts are limited for use of a department only, data warehousing applies to an entire organization • Data marts are easy to design and use while data warehousing is complex and difficult to manage

DWH Questions

What is an ODS?
An Operational Data store is a construct, which has been designed to overcome the need for Information (EIS) in the Operational area. It is similar to a data warehouse but differs in many respects. Sitting in between the operational, transaction processing environment and the enterprise data warehouse is this structure called the ODS. The ODS provides foundation to achieve tangible integrated operational results in a short time frame. While the data warehouse offers no relief to the organization struggling with nonintegrated operational systems, the ODS offers immediate relief.

What is a Federated Data Warehouse?
Most techniques used by organizations to build a data warehousing system employ either a top-down or bottom-up development approach. In the top-down approach, an

Most techniques used by organizations to build a data warehousing system employ either a top-down or bottom-up development approach. In the top-down approach, an enterprise data warehouse (EDW) is built in an iterative manner and underlying dependent data marts are created as required. In the bottom-up approach,  independent data marts are created with the view to integrating them into an enterprise data warehouse at some time in the future. There are many pros and cons of the two approaches but there is a steady trend toward the use of independent data marts, especially with the move toward the use of turnkey analytic application packages.

A solution must offer low cost and rapid ROI advantages of the independent data mart approach without problems of data integration in the future. Such a solution is called the federated data warehouse. Two components of a federated data warehouse are the common business model and shared information staging areas. What is a Virtual Data Warehouse? When end-users access the “system of record” (the OLTP system) directly and generate “summarized data” reports and thereby given the feel of a “data warehouse”, such a data warehouse is known as a “virtual data warehouse”. What is Top-Down architecture of Warehouse development? The interaction associated with the architecture begins with an Extraction, Transformation, Migration, and Loading (ETML) process working from legacy and/or external data sources. Extraction transformation, and migration, process data from these sources and output it to a centralized Data Staging Area. Following this, data and metadata are loaded into the Enterprise Data Warehouse and the centralized metadata repository. Once these are constituted, Data Marts are created from summarized data warehouse data and metadata. What is Bottom-up architecture of Warehouse development? The second data warehousing systems architecture, the "Bottom-up" architecture became popular because  the Top-down architecture took too long to implement, was often politically unacceptable,  and was too expensive. What is Normalization, First Normal Form, Second Normal Form , Third Normal Form? 1.Normalization is process for assigning attributes to entities–Reduces data redundancies– Helps eliminate data anomalies–Produces controlled redundancies to link tables  2.Normalization is the analysis of functional dependency between attributes /  data items of user views,It reduces a complex user view to a set of small and stable subgroups of fields / relations 1NF: Repeating groups must be eliminated, Dependencies can be identified,  All key attributes defined,No repeating groups in table 2NF: The Table is already in1NF, includes no partial dependencies– No attribute dependent on a portion of primary key, Still possible to exhibit transitive dependency,  Attributes may be functionally dependent on non-key attributes. 3NF: The Table is already in 2NF, Contains no transitive dependencies Why do we need a different schema for Data warehousing/Business Intelligence?  A data warehouse stores historical data that is collected from various sources and the data is time variant.  The data warehouse is updated in a scheduled and controlled manner. An online system usually does not  store historical data, however if history data is stored it would pose severe performance issues,  further being an Online environment 2 users accessing the same set of information are  likely to derive different results. An online system would provide data only from a single source,  whereas a data warehouse usually has data being put in from various sources. What are the various features of Enterprise Data Warehouse?  The various features of an EDW are:  An EDW may or may not interact with Data Mart. The most important aspect of any  Data Warehouse is the consistency of information. An EDW may have same level of granularity as a Data Mart.  This means that the data from the Data Mart will be dumped into an EDW. An EDW may have more detailed level of data than a Data Mart.  This means that the data requirement  is at a more granular level that may not be catered by the Data Mart.

What are the primary differences between the OBIEE 10g and 11g security models

What are the primary differences between the OBIEE 10g and 11g security models and what happens during upgrade?

Security Task/Object	OBIEE 10g	OBIEE 11g	What happens during upgrade from 10g to 11g?
Define Users and Groups in RPD file using OBIEE Admin Tool	Default	N/A. By default, users are defined in embedded WLS LDAP via FMW EM Console, or alternatively, in external LDAP.	By default, existing users and groups migrated to embedded WLS LDAP. Existing groups are automatically mapped to an Application role.
Defining security policies	Policies in the catalog and repository can be defined to reference groups within a directory.	Policies are defined in terms of application roles, which map to users and groups in a directory.	10g catalog groups are automatically migrated in the upgraded catalog and assigned the same privileges, access and membership.
“Administrator” user	Unique user with full administrative privileges.	No single user named tor full administrative privileges. Administration can be performed by any user who is member of BIAdministrators group.	“Administrator” user automatically added as member of “BIAdministrators” group in embedded WLS LDAP and granted Administrator role. The user specified during OBIEE 11g installation (i.e. “weblogic”, “biadmin”) is also a member of the BIAdministrators group.
Repository Encryption	Available on sensitive elements only - i.e. user passwords, connection pool passwords, etc.	Entire RPD encrypted via a password.	Prompted to set a repository password while running the upgrade assistant. Do not lose this password as there is no feature to recover a lost password.
External Authentication and OBIEE Initialization (Init) Blocks	Init blocks are requiredfor external PDAP or external table authentication.	Init blocks not required for WLS embedded LDAP. Init blocks are required for external LDAP or external table authentication.	Upgraded RPD will continue to point to 10g LDAP or external tables. Initblocks may need to be modified to ensure that depreciated, or reserved word, variable names are renamed. NOTE: If you intend to use another LDAP server, such at Oracle Identity Management (OID), then you must upgrade to the embedded LDAP server. Please see Upgrade Guide for further details.
Catalog Groups	Defined in Presentation Server Administration link	Available for backward compatibility. Use of Application Roles in FMW EM Console recommended.	Existing groups will be migrated. Recommendation is to use application roles instead. Privileges on catalog objects may be granted to an application role via BI Presentation server Administration link.
SA System Subject Area	Optional	Available for backward compatibility and requires init blocks and external tables. Use of Embedded LDAP is recommended.	Upgraded 10g RPD will point to external tables, Initblocks may need to be modified to ensure that depreciated, or reserved word, variable names are renamed.
“Everyone” Presentation Server Group	Default	Replaced with AuthenticatedUser role.	“Everyone” group migrated to AuthenticatedUser role.

DAC FAQ...

Oracle DAC is an essential part of BI Apps, which is seldom being introduced in a systematic training course, although we use them all the time. There can be quite a lot of things to ask about when it comes to working with DAC, especially during interviews for BI Apps related projects. So I am going to gather some of the common interview questions with regard to DAC.

1. Name some of the DAC source system parameters:
TYPE2_FLAG, GLOBOL1_CURR_CODE, Initial_extract_date etc.. (The goal is just to name a few and of course, nobody remembers exactly the spelling)

2. To configure for initial full load, what are the things that needs to be done:
A, in DAC, set the value for initial_extract_date to avoid loading way too many data into target
B, to load base table W_DAY_D, nullify all of the refresh date to enable to full load. Do the same for all other aggregated time table like W_Week_D etc. At each task level where day dimension is being part of (SIL_daydimension), set the $$start date and $$end date parameter values at the task level to determine how long period your day dimension should store.
C. If your company does have multiple currency, then you need to configure currency in DAC by assigning currency code and exchange rate to DAC parameters like globol1 (2,3)_curr_code and globol1 (2,3)_curr_rate_type. BI Apps support up to 3 types of currency.
D. Configure GL Hierarchy so the info stores in W_Hierarchy_D. No DAC configuration needed
E. DATASOURCE_NUM_ID is a DAC parameters that determine which datasource system the extraction is taking place. In physical data source tab under 'setup' view, this field can be edited with integer number from 1 to 10 to represent different DB source.

3. Explain how to set up metadata in DAC to load data into the target

For basic intro on how DAC work in terms of executing the tasks, find out here

4. How to configure incremental loading in DAC
A. The refresh date under physical data source stores the last ETL run time, by nullifying this, the DAC will run full load or it will run incremental load based on the refresh date value.
B. Under task, there is 'incremental load' commend, by checking this, it will do either full load or incremental load regardless of refresh date.


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Below are the list of questions about DAC found through googling, since these questions have NOT been provided with answers, I have provided my answers, feel free to read it for your reference:

1. Over all architecture of DAC ?
DAC server and DAC Client. They must co-locate with Informatica Integration service, repository service and Informatica repository


2. Why we should use DAC and not control all execution through informatica ?
For better performance management, such as creating index, dropping index, truncating before load. Without DAC a custom ETL process will be needed, which has to survive the upgrate

3. Can we run multiple execution plan at the same time in DAC ?
Yes. only if the execution plan are not loading into the same table or using the same phyiscal table source

4. Explain DAC export/import
A way to import or export DAC repository metadata for upgrade or backup. Logica, System, runtime objects can be import/export

5. Have you change any of the DAC parameters ? If so which one and why ?
You have to understand what are the DAC parameters and the purpose of each. For example, Initial_extract_date can be modified when configure for initial full load, so the value for initial extract date will be used to filter out records from the source that are older than this date.

6. How do you Determine the Informatica Server Maximum Sessions Parameter Setting in DAC?
One you register informatica server in Dac client

7. Can dac send an email just in case of any failures ?
In DAC Client, toolbar, click email recipient, then in Tools--> DAC Server setup, Email configuration

8. Can you execute the sql scrip through DAC ? If yes how ?

Yes, at task level, in execution type, select SQL file. As a bonus to this answer, this article explains how to run store procedures in DAC.

9. in DAC How you can disable table indexes before loading and enable the index once load is complete ?
Just drop and recreate index

10.Let say you are running the normal incremental load. But just for today you want to extract data from AP_INVOCIES_ALL from 12/12/2011? How you can achieve this ?

Modify the refresh date to be 12/12/2011


11.How DAC Determines the Order of Task Execution within an Execution Plan ?
Based on tasks source/target table, Task phase (extract dim, load fact etc) and 'truncate always' properties, to run them in particular order, create task group


12.What are Micro ETL Execution Plans ? How can you Build and run them ?

According to Oracle document:
Micro ETL execution plans are ETL processes that you schedule at very frequent intervals, such as hourly or half-hourly. They usually handle small subject areas or subsets of larger subject areas. The DAC tracks refresh dates for tables in micro ETL execution plans separately from other execution plans and uses these refresh dates in the change capture process.

in design -- subject areas, create copy of subject area, inactive the unwanted tasks and create new execution plan for this subject area

13.From you past experience – explain scenario where Micro ETL Execution Plans produced wrong results on reports?

According to Oracle Document:
CAUTION:  Micro ETL processes can cause issues with data inconsistencies, data availability, and additional load on the transactional database. Therefore, you should consider the following factors before implementing a micro ETL process:

For related star schemas, if one schema is omitted from a micro ETL execution plan, the cross-star reports may be inaccurate. For example, if the Person fact table is refreshed more frequently than the Revenue fact table, a report that spans the Person and Revenue dimensional schemas may produce inconsistent results.
If you omit dimension tables from a micro ETL execution plan, the foreign keys for the fact tables will point to Unspecified rows for the new dimension records. The foreign key references will be resolved when the Complete ETL execution plan is run, but users of the reports should be aware of such inconsistencies.
If you do not include aggregate tables in micro ETL execution plans, the reports that use data from these tables will be inconsistent with the reports that use data from the detailed fact tables. However, if aggregate tables are included in the micro ETL execution plan, the aggregate calculations are performed for each ETL process, which will take a constant amount of time and may be inefficient to perform at such frequent intervals.
Hierarchy tables are rebuilt during every ETL execution plan by querying the base dimension tables. This operation takes a constant amount of time. If the base tables are big, this operation may take a long time and may be inefficient if the micro ETL execution plan runs several times a day. However, if you avoid populating the hierarchy tables during micro ETL processes, data inconsistencies will occur.
With micro ETL execution plans, caching will occur more frequently, which may have performance implications.
Micro ETL execution plans will put more load on the transactional database because of the frequent extracts.


14. Let say you can not use DAC scheduler to schedule you execution plan. What other options do you have ? How you can achieve this ?

Use Informatica scheduler.

15.Does DAC keeps track of refresh dates for all the source/target tables ?

According to Oracle Document:
Refresh dates are tracked only for tables that are either a primary source or a primary target on tasks in a completed run of an execution plan. The DAC runs the full load command for tasks on which a table is a primary source or target if the refresh date against the table is null. When there are multiple primary sources, the earliest of the refresh dates will trigger a full load or an incremental load. If any one of the primary source tables has no refresh date, then the DAC will run the full load command.


16.Consider the scenario as below for task T1
Primary Source has not null last refresh date
Primary Target has null last refresh date
Will task T1 executes in full or incremental ?

Based on answers provided from question 15, what do you think?


17.Explain the upgrade/merge options for DAC 7.8.4 & below and new versions ?

Use upgrade/merge wizzard.
1. Repository Upgrade (DAC 784) --- upgrade Dac
2. Refresh Base --- For upgrading BI Apps
3. Simplified Refresh From Base -- This option is similar to the Refresh Base option. It allows you to upgrade the DAC Repository from an older release of Oracle BI Applications to a new release without comparing repositories and creating a Difference Report.
4. Replace Base --- Upgrade when phasing out older transaction system to newer one
5. Peer to Peer Merge  --- Mergre different DAC instance of repository

18. Using DAC command line – write a script to check weather informatica services are up or not ?

use dacCmdLine InformaticaStatus. Below is the list of all commend lines according to Oracle:

19.Can we have two DAC server on the same machine ?
You can run two DAC servers on the same machine as long as they are listening on different ports and pointing to two different repositories

20.Explain briefly What kind of DAC Repository Objects Held in Source System Containers ?

Subject Areas -- A logical grouping of tables related to a particular subject or application context. It also includes the tasks that are associated with the tables, as well as the tasks required to load the tables. Subject areas are assigned to execution plans, which can be scheduled for full or incremental loads

tables -- Phsyical tables in DB

Indexes -- Just like your physical DB indexes

Tasks -- Unit of work for loading tables

Task groups  ---- Grouping of tasks that can be bundled to run as a group

Execution plans -- A data transformation plans defined on subject areas that needs to be transformed at certain frequencies of time

Schedules -- Determine how often execution plan runs.


21.What is Authentication file ? If you have dac client installed can you access DAC repository without Authentication file ?

According to Oracle Document:
When you configure a connection to the DAC Repository, the configuration process includes creating a new authentication file or selecting an existing authentication file. The authentication file authenticates the database in which the repository resides. If you create a new authentication file, you will specify the table owner and password for the database.

22.Explain Index, Table and Task Actions in DAC ?

According to Oracle Document:
Index action: Override the default behavior for dropping and creating indexes

Table action: Override the default behavior for truncating and analyzing tables

Task action: Can add new functionality of task behavior, such as precedinf action, success action, failure action, upon failure restart



23.How DAC Handles Parameters at Runtime ?

According to Oracle Document:
During an ETL execution, DAC reads and evaluates all parameters associated with that ETL run, including static and runtime parameters defined in DAC, parameters held in flat files, and parameters defined externally to DAC. DAC consolidates all the parameters for the ETL run, deduplicates any redundant parameters, and then creates an individual parameter file for each Informatica session. This file contains the evaluated name-value pairs for all parameters, both static and runtime, for each workflow that DAC executes. The parameter file contains a section for each session under a workflow. DAC determines the sessions under a workflow during runtime by using the Informatica pmrep function ListObjectDependencies.

The naming convention for the parameter file is

....txt

DAC writes this file to a location specified in the DAC system property InformaticaParameterFileLocation. The location specified by the property InformaticaParameterFileLocation must be the same as the location specified by the Informatica parameter property $PMSourcefileDir.

24. How DAC Determines Tasks Required for any given subject area ?

According to Oracle Document:
You define a subject area by specifying a fact table or set of fact tables to be the central table or tables in the subject area. When a subject area is defined, DAC performs the following process to determine the relevant tasks:

DAC identifies the dimension tables associated with the facts and adds these tables to the subject area.

DAC identifies the related tables, such as aggregates, associated with the fact or dimension tables and adds them to the subject area definition.

DAC identifies the tasks for which the dimension and fact tables listed in the two processes above are targets tables and adds these tasks into the subject area.

Tasks that DAC automatically assigns to a subject area are indicated with the Autogenerated flag (in the Tasks subtab of the Subject Areas tab).

You can inactivate a task from participating in a subject area by selecting the Inactive check box (in the Tasks subtab of the Subject Areas tab). When the Inactive check box is selected, the task remains inactive even if you reassemble the subject area.

You can also remove a task from a subject area using the Add/Remove command in the Tasks subtab of the subject Areas tab, but when you remove a task it is only removed from the subject area until you reassemble the subject area.

DAC identifies the source tables for the tasks identified in the previous process and adds these tables to the subject area.

DAC performs this process recursively until all necessary tasks have been added to the subject area. A task is added to the subject area only once, even if it is associated with several tables in the subject area. DAC then expands or trims the total number of tasks based on the configuration rules, which are defined as configuration tags. This process can be resource intensive because DAC loads all of the objects in the source system container into memory before parsing.


25.Difference between Homogeneous and Heterogeneous execution plans.

According to Oracle Document:

Homogeneous

This type of execution plan extracts data from multiple instances of the same source system. For example, a business might have an instance of Oracle EBS 11i in one location and time zone and another instance of Oracle EBS 11i in another location and time zone. In such cases, the timing of data extraction from the different instances can be staggered to meet your business requirements.

Heterogeneous

This type of execution plan extracts data from one or more instances of dissimilar source systems. For example, a business might have an instance of Siebel 7.8 in one location, an instance of Oracle EBS 11i in another location, and a second instance of Oracle EBS 11i in yet a third location. You can also stagger the timing of data extraction when you use this type of execution plan.