Oracle Essbase Oracle OLAP: The Guide to Oracle’s Multidimensional Solution

®

Oracle Essbase
& Oracle OLAP:
The Guide to Oracle’s
Multidimensional
Solution


About the Authors

Michael Schrader, Director, Business Intelligence and Performance Management
Architecture at Oracle Corporation, is an internationally recognized expert in the fields
of data warehousing; extract, transform, and load (ETL); business intelligence (BI);
online analytical processing (OLAP); enterprise performance management (EPM); and
database administration. He has more than 30 years of IT experience, specializing in
Oracle since 1987. Michael graduated with an MBA from Ohio University and a
Master’s degree in Data Processing from the University of Denver. He is a certified
Oracle Professional DBA (OCP) (Oracle 7, 8, 8i, 9i, 10g, and 11g).
Michael is a frequent speaker at major Oracle and BI conferences, such as
Oracle OpenWorld, Independent Oracle Users Group (IOUG) Collaborate, Oracle
Development Tools User Group (ODTUG), and the BI & PM Conference; as well as
regional conferences, such as the Rocky Mountain Oracle Users Group (RMOUG).
He has written articles for the Journal of Management Excellence, produced the
white paper Understanding an OLAP Solution from Oracle for Oracle Corporation,
and coauthored Oracle Data Warehousing Unleashed (Sams, 1997).
Dan Vlamis has been developing OLAP applications since 1986, when he graduated
from Brown University with a Bachelor’s degree in Computer Science. He worked
with Express at Information Resources, Inc. (IRI), where he led the back-end team
that wrote Oracle Sales Analyzer in Express. In 1992, he left IRI and moved to the

Kansas City area, where he founded Vlamis Software Solutions, Inc., which has led
more than 200 OLAP implementations. Dan has been a frequent speaker at major
Oracle conferences such as Oracle OpenWorld, IOUG Collaborate, and ODTUG for
over a decade. As an Oracle Business Intelligence, Warehousing, and Analytics
(BIWA) board member, he chaired BIWA Summit 2008. Dan was a contributing
author to Oracle8i Data Warehousing (Oracle Press, 2001). Recognized by Oracle as
an Oracle ACE, he is often featured in Oracle Magazine. Dan is a customer advisory
board member for Oracle BI and OLAP-related products, and he consults with
Oracle Product Management regularly. Dan enjoys covering BI and OLAP through
his blog at www.vlamis.com/blog and can be reached at
Mike Nader has been working in the BI and EPM space for more than a decade,
starting in logistics and distribution in the client sector, and moving to Hyperion
(in Connecticut) in 2000. He has worked with Essbase for the past nine years in a
variety of roles, which span both Hyperion Solutions and Oracle. These include
curriculum development, technical instruction, product management (as part of
Hyperion’s engineering organization), and technical field strategy. Mike has also
worked on a number of field services engagements with Essbase and surrounding
technologies. He has been certified in Essbase since version 6 and has been on the
committees to write the certification exams since version 7.x. Mike is also a recognized


expert on Oracle’s Smart View Office integration. Currently, Mike is the Global
Domain Expert for Essbase and Analytics with Oracle’s Enterprise Performance
Management and Business Intelligence team.
Chris Claterbos has been an Oracle DBA since 1984. Over the past 24 years, he has
also been a data architect, developer, and project manager for numerous companies.
He has managed numerous data warehouse and BI implementations. His most recent
work includes several Oracle Express and Oracle OLAP-based analysis systems.
Chris speaks and teaches at several national conferences every year, including IOUG
Collaborate and Oracle OpenWorld. He has participated in several software beta

programs, including the betas for Oracle Database 10g and Oracle Database 11g,
and also serves on advisor boards, such as the IOUG Conference Committee. He
was a contributing author to Oracle8i Data Warehousing (Oracle Press, 2001). Chris
is currently Consulting Manager for Vlamis Software Solutions, Inc., specializing
in data warehousing and BI implementations, using Oracle Business Intelligence
editions, Oracle OLAP, Java JDeveloper BI Beans and ADF, Oracle Warehouse
Builder, and related products. Chris regularly contributes to the Vlamis Software blog
at www.vlamis.com/blog and can be reached at
Dave Collins began his career some 25 years ago at Arthur Andersen & Company,
as a Program Manager for the company’s worldwide budgeting application. The
application was hosted via Comshare, a time-sharing and software provider. Dave
joined Comshare, working as a consultant, instructor, and sales engineer. The
move to Comshare also provided an introduction to Essbase. Dave also worked at
several partners specializing in Essbase implementations and education, and then
joined Hyperion. Today, as a Director, Analytics at Oracle, Dave is responsible for
assisting in strategic opportunities and sales readiness globally.
Floyd Conrad has been working in the finance and accounting field for more
than 20 years, and with Oracle’s Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management
System as a customer, consultant, and sales consultant for more than 15 years. He
is a certified Oracle Hyperion Planning Professional. In his current role as Senior
Director of Performance Management, Floyd is responsible for leading the team of
Integrated Business Planning Experts, and assisting in strategic opportunities and
global product sales support. Additionally, Floyd acts as a conduit between the
global field sales organization and Development and Marketing.
Mitch Campbell is a Global Domain Expert for Business Intelligence at Oracle.
He has more than ten years of experience with decision support systems, Essbase,
and many BI reporting tools. As part of the Technical Strategy team for the Oracle
Global Business Unit for Enterprise Performance Management, Mitch works with
strategic accounts and global pre-sales product readiness, and acts as a liaison
with the Product Management and Engineering organizations at Oracle.

About the Contributors
John Baker is Director of Analytics for Oracle’s Enterprise Performance Management
and BI Global Business Unit, specializing in Essbase. With a background in both IT
and accounting, John worked with Essbase for more than ten years in various roles in
the UK, before joining the global team. He has helped numerous prospects realize
the value of Essbase and supported some of the largest Essbase implementations for
several high-profile clients.
Andy Lathrop is a Solution Specialist for Oracle’s Crystal Ball Global Sales Unit.
Andy enjoys using, communicating, and teaching Crystal Ball’s unique decisionsupport capabilities, which are useful across many industries and applications. Andy
also has experience in discrete event simulation and marketing return on investment
analysis, as well as mathematics and computer science, teaching at the college
level. Prior to joining Oracle, Andy worked in the Army Corps of Engineers,
Accenture, and the nonprofit sector. He holds Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees in
Operations Research from the U.S. Military Academy and the Colorado School of
Mines, respectively.
Tim Tow, Applied OLAP, Inc. Founder and President, is highly respected in the
Oracle Essbase community for his prolific contributions to public forums as well
as his Essbase blog. He was designated as an Oracle ACE Director based on his
contributions to the community and his extensive knowledge of the Oracle Essbase
APIs. Tim also serves as the Treasurer of the Oracle Development Tools User Group
and a member of its Board of Directors.

About the Technical Editors
Denis Desroches, Consulting Solution Specialist, is a Principal, Enterprise Planning,
with Oracle Corporation. Since 1993, Denis has supported organizations with the
selection, implementation, and knowledge acquisition of scorecard, performance
management, and activity-based management solutions. He has spoken about these
topics throughout the world on numerous occasions, and is a coauthor of Scorecard

Best Practices: Design, Implementation, and Evaluation (Wiley, 2007). Previously,
Denis was a Professor of Mathematics and Business Systems at Seneca College of
Applied Arts and Technology in Toronto, Ontario. He has a Bachelor’s degree in
Mathematics from the University of Waterloo and a Bachelor’s degree in Education
from the University of Western Ontario.
John Paredes is the president of OLAP World, Inc, incorporated in 1998, and
dedicated to helping companies benefit from BI systems. He has more than 15 years
of experience developing analytical systems based on Express/Oracle OLAP. John is
the author of The Multidimensional Data Modeling Toolkit: Making Your Business


Intelligence Applications Smart with Oracle OLAP (OLAP World Press, 2009).
He holds a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Rice University and
a Master’s degree in Statistics from Yale University.
Fred Richards is a Senior Director for Oracle BI. Fred has 15 years experience
working with advanced analytic technologies, including EPM, analytics, OLAP,
and BI. He has built analytical applications to help run multibillion dollar
operations, and has marketed and managed BI software at Oracle, Hyperion
Solutions, Jinfonet Software, and MicroStrategy. Prior to his career in software,
Fred worked at ORBCOMM, the U.S. Department of Energy, Thermo Electron
Corporation, and Westinghouse Electric Corporation. Fred holds a Bachelor’s
degree in Mechanical Engineering from Vanderbilt University, and a Master’s
degree in Engineering and Policy and a J.D. from Washington University in
St. Louis. He is also a coinventor on nine patents related to the integration of
OLAP and telephone networks.
Michael Valianti, Principal Applied Engineer, OLAP Server, Oracle Corporation,
has served as an Applied Research and Performance Engineer for more than
12 years in Oracle OLAP option development. He works on strategic accounts
and major partner initiatives. Michael has contributed to benchmarks, case
studies, and white papers highlighting the speed, quality, and massive scalability

of the Oracle OLAP option.
Jameson White, Principal Applied Engineer, OLAP Server, Oracle Corporation,
has worked as both an Applied Engineer and Product Manager for more than
nine years in Oracle OLAP option development. He works directly with strategic
customers, partners, and other development groups, giving special attention to
the DBA aspects of the Oracle OLAP option. He also maintains a public blog
and wiki.


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®

Oracle Essbase
& Oracle OLAP:
The Guide to Oracle’s
Multidimensional
Solution
Michael Schrader
Mike Nader

Dan Vlamis
Chris Claterbos

Dave Collins
Mitch Campbell

Floyd Conrad

New York  Chicago  San Francisco 
Lisbon  London  Madrid  Mexico City  Milan 
New Delhi  San Juan  Seoul  Singapore  Sydney  Toronto


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I dedicate this book to my father, Thomas Schrader. You are
missed and always in our thoughts. I wish to thank my mother,
Donna. And I wish to thank my wife, Donna, my two sons,
Michael and Adam, and my daughter, Rachael, for all of
their love and support. Thanks for all the insights on living.
—Michael Schrader
For my wife, Sally, and my two kids, Chris and Katherine.
This is the book that kept me up late all those nights.
—Dan Vlamis
To my wife, Dawn, and my dear friend, Kathy Horton.
I cannot thank you both enough for your help and
support through this process.
“Innocence dwells with Wisdom, but
never with Ignorance.” (William Blake)
—Mike Nader

I dedicate this book to my loving and understanding wife, Joyce.
—Chris Claterbos
To my wife, Laurie; daughter, Grace; and son, Evan for
their support and understanding through this effort.
To Kathy Horton, my manager, my mentor, my friend.
Thank you for motivating me to excel and for guiding
me through this process. We could not have done it
without you! Last, I would like to thank Jennifer Smith
for showing me how to use my voice.
“Is someone getting the best, the best,
the best, the best of you?” (Foo Fighters)
—Dave Collins


I would like to thank Kathy Horton for inspiring me to participate
in writing this book. I would also like to thank Phil Vaughan for his
patience during this process. I was told that I could thank my dog,
but since I don’t have one, I will thank my cat. So here it goes.
Socks, thanks for keeping me company during those late nights,
sitting between me and my laptop, and motivating me to
finish on time.
—Floyd Conrad
Dedicated to my wife, Elizabeth; my son,
Ethan; and my daughter, Grace
—Mitch Campbell
For Aaron and Zoë, thank you for your love and support.
—Jen Smith


Contents at a Glance

1 Introduction to OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     1



2 OLAP Concepts and History  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     21



3 Design and Overall Methodology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     59



4 Building an Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspace  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .     131



5 Building Your Essbase Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    219



6 Reporting from an OLAP Application  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    291



7 Leveraging OLAP in Your Organization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    355

8 Keeping It Running  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    411



9 Real-World Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    457

Glossary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    473
Index  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .    483

xi


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Contents
foreword  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xix
acknowledgments  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxi
Introduction  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiii


1 Introduction to OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
OLAP as a Component of Business Intelligence  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Enterprise Performance Management  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Data Warehousing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Business Reporting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Predictive Analytics and Data Mining  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Why OLAP?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
Business-Focused Multidimensional Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Business-Focused Calculations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 6
Trustworthy Data and Calculations  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Speed-of-Thought Analysis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Flexible, Self-Service Reporting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
OLAP Primer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
OLAP System Components  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
OLAP Types  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
OLAP Products  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
OLAP with a Data Warehouse  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
Typical OLAP Applications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Why Two OLAP Products from Oracle?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Similarities Between Essbase and Oracle OLAP   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Differences Between Essbase and Oracle OLAP   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
OLAP Business Case Studies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Essbase Case Studies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
Oracle OLAP Case Studies   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

xiii


xiv  

Oracle Essbase & Oracle OLAP: The Guide to Oracle’s Multidimensional Solution

Architecting the Appropriate OLAP Solution   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Choosing the Solution That Meets Your Needs  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Better Together  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20

2 OLAP Concepts and History  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Common OLAP Themes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Multidimensional View of Information  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
From Data Source to Multidimensional Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
New Results from Existing Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Ad Hoc Analysis: Having a Conversation with Your Data  . . . . . . . . . 40
Summary of Common OLAP Themes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
The History of Oracle OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Why a Multidimensional Database?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
1960s to 1985—Glory Days of Mainframe Express  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
1985 to 1990—A New C-Based Engine  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 46
1990 to 1996—Express Goes GUI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1995 to 1997—Oracle Buys and Markets Express  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
1998 to 2001—Integrating Express into the Oracle Database  . . . . . . 48
2002 to 2003—Oracle9i OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 48
2004 to 2006—Oracle OLAP 10g  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
2007 to 2009—Oracle OLAP 11g  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
2009 and Beyond  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The History of Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
Why Essbase?  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51
1992 to 1994—Essbase Is Born  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
1994 to 1998—APIs and the Essbase Web Gateway  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
1998 to 2003—New Reporting Options for Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
2003 to 2007—Aggregate Storage and Hybrid Architecture  . . . . . . . 56
2007 to Present—Essbase Powers Oracle EPM and BI  . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58

3 Design and Overall Methodology  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
General Design Principles  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
Design Is an Iterative Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
User Requirements Drive Design  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
What’s Left Out Is as Important as What Goes In  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
Dimension Types Offer Convenience  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Data Types Improve Data Quality  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
Different Uses Require Different Views of the Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
User Access and Security Needs Planning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Allow Areas for Training and Testing  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67


Contents 

Designing an Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspace  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Determining Dimensions from User Requirements  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Relating Oracle OLAP Data to a Star Dimensional Model  . . . . . . . . . 68
Mapping Relational Data to Multidimensional Objects  . . . . . . . . . . . 68
Determining Dimensions of Cubes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Designing Oracle OLAP Cubes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 73
Summary of the Oracle OLAP Design Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Designing an Essbase Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
Identifying Data Sources  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Defining the Outline  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Validating the Outline with Business Users  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Enhancing the Outline  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87
Choosing a Data Storage Model  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 98
Considering Partition Strategies  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
Summary of the Essbase Design Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108

OLAP Architectures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Oracle OLAP Architecture and Components  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Essbase Architecture and Components  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
End-User Tools  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129


4 Building an Oracle OLAP Analytic Workspace  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131
Oracle OLAP Demonstration Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
From Source to Cubes with Analytic Workspace Manager  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Getting Started with Analytic Workspace Manager  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
Preparing the Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Creating an Analytic Workspace  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Creating and Populating Dimensions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
Creating and Populating Cubes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 164
Summary of the Cube-Building Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Adding Business-Savvy Calculations to Cubes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Creating a Share Calculation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Creating a Percent Different Prior or Parallel Period Calculation  . . . . 189
Creating a Moving Average Calculation  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
Creating Custom Calculated Measures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194
Managing Calculated Measures  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 196
Advanced Topics  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Managing Workspaces with OLAP Worksheet   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
Working with Cube-Organized Materialized Views  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
04
Managing Security of Cubes and Dimensions  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 208
Creating Advanced Cubes for Typical Business Purposes  . . . . . . . . . 211
Using SQL with OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214

Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 217

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5 Building Your Essbase Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 219
Demonstration Overview  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
From Source to Database with Essbase Studio  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Overview of Essbase Studio  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 222
Mapping Data Sources  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 224
Modeling the Data Source  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 227
Building Dimensions (Hierarchies)  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 231
Modeling the Essbase Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 239
Deploying the Essbase Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 245
Summary of the Database Building Process  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 250
Calculating the Essbase Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 252
Validating the Essbase Database  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Using Essbase Features   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Creating Drill-Through Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 254
Leveraging Lineage Tracking  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 258
Creating Custom Load Rules  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Creating Member Formulas and Calculation Scripts  . . . . . . . . . . . . . 272
Using Essbase Query Languages for Reports   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 279
Automating Processes  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285

Using ESSCMD  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Using MaxL  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 285
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 290



6 Reporting from an OLAP Application  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 291
User Discovery  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 292
Identifying the Consumers of OLAP Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Gathering Information About Your Users  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 293
Discussing the Reporting Needs of Your Users  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 294
Types of Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Basic Report  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 296
Compound Report  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Dashboard Report  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 297
Production Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 298
Interactive Management Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Ad Hoc Spreadsheet Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 300
Custom Microsoft Office Reports  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 301
Desirable Functionality in Web-Based OLAP Reporting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 302
Creating the Skeleton of a Report  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 304
Adding Functionality to a Report  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 308
Desirable Functionality in Desktop-Based Reporting  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Integrated Database Connection  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 314
Powerful Ad Hoc Analysis Features  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Easy Report-Creation Tools  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 319
Visualization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 323


Contents 

Understanding Deployment Options  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Fitting in with Enterprise Standards  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 333
Web-Based Deployment Options  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Desktop-Based Deployment Options  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 334
Third-Party Reporting Applications  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Third-Party Reporting Tools for Oracle OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Third-Party Reporting Tools for Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 347
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353
References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 353


7 Leveraging OLAP in Your Organization  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 355
Performance Management Applications Leveraging Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . 356
Oracle Hyperion Planning  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Oracle Hyperion Profitability and Cost Management  . . . . . . . . . . . . 373
Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management Architect  . . . 379
Architecture of Performance Management Applications  . . . . . . . . . . 380
Oracle Crystal Ball with Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 382
Crystal Ball and Monte Carlo Simulation Methods  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 383
Crystal Ball Analysis  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 384
Crystal Ball with Planning Models  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Crystal Ball Decision Optimizer  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 390
Oracle Smart Space with Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Smart Space Desktops  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 391
Smart Space Gadgets  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392
Software Development Kit  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 397
Oracle Application Express for Oracle OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 399
Java Development  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402
Using Oracle BI Beans with Oracle OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 402

Connecting Java Applications to Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 408
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410
References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 410



8 Keeping It Running  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 411
Oracle OLAP Care and Maintenance  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Configuring and Tuning Oracle OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 412
Backing Up Oracle OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 420
Troubleshooting Oracle OLAP  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 422
Essbase Care and Maintenance  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Optimizing Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 430
Backing Up Essbase  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 446
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455
References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 455

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9 Real-World Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 457
Oracle OLAP Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Accelerating a Data Warehouse  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 458
Analyzing Projections  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 460
Analyzing Financial Data  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 462

Essbase Examples  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 464
Replacing the Excel Workbook  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 465
Enhancing an ERP System  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 467
Replacing Custom SQL Reports   . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 468
Conclusion  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
OLAP as a Cornerstone of BI  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 470
References  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 472

Glossary  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 473
Index  . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 483


Foreword

W

e have seen tremendous consolidation in the high-technology industry
in recent years. Mergers and acquisitions strengthen the product
offerings of a company, but they also sometimes bring together products
that, on the face of it, seem either to duplicate a solution or to present
no possibility of working together.

In 2007, Oracle already owned a well-respected, multidimensional solution—
Oracle OLAP—when Oracle’s acquisition of Hyperion Solutions brought another
leading multidimensional product—Essbase—into the Oracle fold. Oracle OLAP and
Oracle Essbase address the same business need: to provide business analysts with the
tools they need to analyze and report on shared data in a way that is meaningful to
people in the line of business. Both products ensure that all stakeholders are working
from the same set of data by pulling the shared data from data sources managed by
the IT department. Yet even with this seeming duplication of purpose, Oracle is firmly

committed to both products. Why?
For someone with a background in both Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase, the
answer to this question is apparent. However, it soon became clear that the answer is
not as obvious to those without knowledge of both products, both inside and outside
Oracle. An explanation was in order, and we needed people with expert product
experience to relay the message. That is the purpose of this book.
We are very pleased to have an expert team leading the writing effort. Michael
Schrader has 30 years BI experience, specializing in Oracle BI solutions since 1987.
He has an Oracle Essbase and Oracle OLAP background. He is the coauthor of
Oracle Data Warehousing with Bonnie O’Neil, and has presented at numerous major
conferences, including Collaborate, Oracle OpenWorld, and the Gartner Business
Intelligence Summit.

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Oracle Essbase & Oracle OLAP: The Guide to Oracle’s Multidimensional Solution

The Oracle OLAP experts include Dan Vlamis and Chris Claterbos. Dan is the founder
of Vlamis Software Solutions, which specializes in Oracle BI solutions such as Oracle OLAP
and the Oracle Business Intelligence Suite. Both Dan and Chris are regular speakers at
Collaborate and Oracle OpenWorld. They are also very active in the Oracle BI user groups.
The Oracle Essbase experts include Mike Nader, Dave Collins, Mitch Campbell, and
Floyd Conrad. They are all Global Domain Experts for Essbase at Oracle. They are well
known for their presentations at Collaborate, Oracle OpenWorld, and Oracle X-Week.
All of the contributors are the best of the best, and we are very fortunate to have them
provide their expert insight.
This book will help you to understand the multidimensional solutions offered by Oracle.

It is a valuable resource for anyone participating in the design and implementation of an
OLAP solution from Oracle.
—John Kopcke
Senior Vice President, Business Intelligence and
Performance Management Oracle Corporation


Acknowledgments

T

his book is result of many thousands of hours of work by many
talented people. I wish to express my gratitude to a few of them.
First, I would like to acknowledge and thank Kathy Horton. Kathy
managed a global team of domain experts that represent the BI and
EPM product offering, including the Essbase authors. She was an
inspiration and encouraged participation in this book project. Without Kathy’s
efforts, this book project would not have gotten off the ground. Secondly, I would
like to acknowledge and thank our professional writer Jen Smith. She has been
fantastic to work with, and her suggestions were great. Thirdly, I would like to
acknowledge and thank our technical reviewers Denis Desroches, Fred Richards,
Jameson White, and Michael Valianti. The book was significantly improved with
their input. Fourthly, I would like to acknowledge and thank several material
contributors including John Baker, Andy Lathrop, and Tim Tow. Thanks for the
expert insights! Fifthly, I wish to acknowledge and thank the Oracle Press team,
particularly Meghan Riley and Lisa McClain. Thanks for the patience. Finally,
I would like to acknowledge and thank our author team members. They are an
incredible group of highly skilled people. Thanks you to all who have helped us
bring this book to a reality.
—Michael Schrader

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Introduction

I

f you are interested in multidimensional analysis and in introducing
online analytical processing (OLAP) technology into your organization,
this book is for you. As suggested by the title, the primary purpose
of this book is to differentiate Oracle OLAP and Oracle Essbase, and
help you choose the right product for your organization. However,
while the focus is on Oracle products, you will also find general information
about OLAP.
We explain what OLAP is and why it is important. Real-world case studies
highlight Oracle products, but can also help you envision how OLAP in general
enhances business intelligence in an organization. We introduce general OLAP
concepts and design principles before showing how they map to Oracle products.
Product-specific information includes architecture, application design, application
building, and maintenance considerations. We also cover end-user analysis tools,
reporting tools, and other front-end applications that can leverage OLAP data.
You do not need to have a technical background to understand the concepts we
cover in this book. OLAP benefits everyone in the organization, and we try to make the
information in this book accessible to all. Whether you work in the IT department or in
the line of business, such as finance, sales, research, or marketing, you stand to gain a
better understanding of OLAP concepts in general and Oracle’s OLAP solutions in

particular.
Because this book is intended for people in a wide variety of roles, including
DBAs, architects, planners, business analysts, and potential consumers of OLAP
results—from salespeople to CEOs to marketing managers—the level of detail in the
book varies from high-level overview down to technical details. Most chapters
begin with introductory material suitable for anyone, and then delve into technical
product details.

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For nontechnical people, we encourage you to focus on the introductory content
in the chapters and skim or skip the more detailed sections. You should gain enough
knowledge about OLAP to help you understand and contribute to the design and
implementation of an OLAP system. For example, you will develop the vocabulary
necessary to be able to communicate effectively with the project team handling the
design and implementation details. You can also be an effective contributor on the
user committee that determines OLAP reporting needs.
If you have a technical background, you will likely be most interested in the
architecture, design, and implementation sections of the book. While you should not
expect to be able to build a production-level OLAP system using this book alone, we
do give you an overall picture of what you can do with Oracle’s OLAP products, how
to go about designing an OLAP system, and the steps you will go through to build
your solution. We also provide some tips and recommendations for optimizing your
implementation. When you are ready to begin your implementation, we encourage
you to use the many resources available to you.

How to Use This Book
How you use this book depends on what you want to get out of it. The following list
summarizes the learning goals for this book:
■■ Learn about OLAP technology.
■■ Discover which Oracle solution is right for your organization.
■■ Understand the overall process for designing and building an OLAP system.
■■ Learn about ways to analyze and report on OLAP data.
■■ Understand how you can leverage your OLAP investment.
■■ Expand your technical knowledge and expertise.
After you identify your goals, read the matching sections that follow. Each
section tells you which chapters contain the information you need.

Learn About OLAP Technology
If your goal is to learn about OLAP technology and how you can use OLAP data,
read Chapters 1 and 2. The first few sections of Chapter 1 explain how OLAP fits in
with business intelligence implementations and describe OLAP technology. The
case studies provide concrete examples of the value that Oracle’s OLAP solutions