Best Implementation Practices

for Discoverer
Topics of Discussion

 Why use Discoverer?

 Implementation
 Management
 Security
 Usability
 Performance
Why Discoverer?

 Common functionality, centralized

management and deployment.
 Very secure- end user can only query with this
tool.
 Only administrator can make joins
 Easy to install and deploy.
 Access data/saved reports remotely.
Implementation
Desktop, Network, Web
 Oracle Discoverer Administration Edition for Windows
(including Discoverer Plus, SQL*Plus and SQL*Net)
 Oracle Discoverer Plus for Windows (including Discoverer
Plus and SQL*Net to connect the client software to a
database)
 Oracle Discoverer 4i /9i Plus (a version of Discoverer Plus
written in Java for building and running reports on the web)
 Oracle Discoverer 4i/9i Viewer (an HTML tool for viewing
reports created using Discoverer Plus and Discoverer 4i/9i
Plus)
Web Deployment- Separate
Server
 Oracle 9iAS v 1.0.2.2.0 or 9iAS R2 9.0.2/9.0.3
Discoverer 9i certified with 8.1.7+ DB Versions
 Currently deploying Discoverer Plus using a
Sun E250 on Solaris 8 using 6-18GB drives
with 2GB of Memory on 9iAS 1.0.2.2.2
 Approximately 100-200 active users.
 3 tier delivery (database, client, services)
Oracle 9iAS R2

 Migrating to Oracle Portal utilizing SSO along

with Oracle Forms/Reports.
 Requires a OID Infrastructure install
(recommended on a separate server)
 Use OEM for Connection Management using
private and/ or public connections.
http://servername:1810
 Discoverer Workbooks/Worksheets can be
deployed as “portlets”
Web Deployment-cont’d

 Still requires Discoverer Admin license to

create the workbooks.
 Performance, Use and Stability of Discoverer
Plus has been outstanding.
 If using firewall, you must implement the use
of a gatekeeper to do Network Address
Translation.
Web Deployment- cont’d
Management
 Business Areas can be exported and imported
between databases and/or EUL’s.
 Can be deployed using a centralized model with
control of the administrator application strictly in the
IT department vs the decentralized model where
certain departmental designees are given access to
the administrator application to develop
“workbooks” for their department.
Security

 Oracle Discoverer can only do select statements.

Other reporting tools such as MSAccess, ODBC and
SQLPLUS have the inherent ability for an enduser to
have direct access to tables for update, deletes, etc.
 Easily managed via the use of Oracle Roles.
 Security is regulated at the database level and the
application level.
 Different modules/campuses or organizations can be
functionally separated using the EUL (End User
Layers) and/or flexibility in granting access to the
different “Business Areas”.
http://technet.oracle.com/products/discoverer/content.html

See this website for some on-line views of the

application and functionality. When it says that there
is no setup required for Discoverer….NOT really
true…they are telling you that the application itself
doesn’t have to be modified (it works straight out of
the box) but access and security still has to be
configured.
EUL schema install, Oracle role definition and
assignment, Granting application, workbook access to
administrators and endusers.
Usability

 4 to 8 hours of training will prepare most

people to be able to modify, save their own
queries.
 The level of expertise with MS Excel typically
predicts the level of success with Discoverer.
 Our end users love it because it gives them
power- they can manipulate parameters, drill
down, modify the look of the report without
knowing SQL.
Discoverer Administrators

Can be functional end-users who are somewhat

technical or IT staff who understand the
functional areas….in other words a
FUNKYTECH!!!
Someone with no prior programming experience
will take from 3 to 6 months (with some
training) to become completely comfortable.
Start with a person who is already an expert at
MSExcel.
Discoverer Admin Security

Recommendations:
Maintain EUL (schema username/password) in
the IT department under DBA control.
Discoverer allows you to limit who has access
as an Administrator vs an enduser.
 Pro’s and Cons in the following realms:
• Implementation
• Management
• Security
• Useability
• Performance
 Pro’s and Cons in the following realms:
• Implementation
• Management
• Security
• Useability
• Performance
Performance
 It takes longer for the same query to run in
Discoverer via Oracle Reports because it is
collecting statistics about all queries run.
 Changing the database to Cost-based optimizing
would help performance.
 Possibility of producing Cartesian products that
fill up temp Tablespace. The discoverer
administrator creates the joins…not the enduser.
How do I improve performance?

Use a STANDBY database as the reporting

database instead of your OLTP.
Database Version 8.1.7- Physical standby only.
Applied archive redo at night, brought database
up in read-only mode during the day. (see
notes for how to set this up.)
Limited to yesterday’s data.
See notes ….
Logical Standby

Database Version 9.2.0.2 (required level)

Logical standby (can create a combination data
warehouse and OLTP available for failover)
The data is transported using SQL apply with SQL
statements only.
Can use DataGuard, OMS or manually install.
Reporting database has REAL-TIME data.
Metalink Docs:
234631.1 , 215020.1 , 186150.1 , 233261.1
Upgrades

 Required to install 2nd EUL before removing first.

(Possible space issue)
 Each EUL needs to be upgraded separately.
 Earlier version is still accessible during transition
until you run script to delete.
 The same queries work between versions and
between EUL’s if the Business Area has not
been modified or the underlying tables/views.
 Table modified, then do a refresh…queries still
WORK!
Questions and Answers

 If you would like more information please visit:

http://technet.oracle.com/products/discoverer/content
.html
http://metalink.oracle.com