OBIEE Administration Tool – Import Metadata shows no schemas
May 24th, 2012 by Robin Moffatt
Importing Metadata with the Administration Tool
The client-only install of the OBIEE 11g Administration Tool is installed with a set of OCI libraries. This means that it can support basic Oracle Database interaction, without the need for a full Oracle Client installation on the machine. For example, you can update row counts in the Physical layer of the RPD of tables that are on Oracle.
Unfortunately, the supplied OCI libraries are not complete, which leads to a rather tricky problem to diagnose. When you use the Import Metadata operation (either from the File menu, or context menu on an existing Connection Pool), the step (“Select Metadata objects”) which ought to show the schemas just shows a stub, and no schemas.
No error is shown by the Administration Tool, giving the erroneous impression that there just aren’t any schemas in the database.
Missing OCI library
The Administration Tool writes a log, which by default is in the following rather long path: C:\Program Files\Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client\oraclebi\orainst\diagnostics\logs\OracleBIServerComponent\coreapplication\Administrator_NQSAdminTool.log
If you examine the log, you’ll see this error:
[2011-12-16T15:10:12.000+00:00] [OracleBIServerComponent] [ERROR:1] [] [] [ecid: ] [tid: 8b4] [nQSError: 93001] Can not load library, oracore11.dll, due to, The specified module could not be found. [[ . The specified module could not be found. ]]
Installing the Oracle Client
Once you’ve installed the Full Client, restart the AdminTool and the Import Metadata function will now work.
Footnote – tnsnames.ora
Don’t forget that if you don’t install the full Oracle Client and use the OCI functionality provided by the OBIEE installation alone, you will need to configure your tnsnames.ora file in C:\Program Files\Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition Plus Client\oraclebi\orahome\network\admin\tnsnames.ora. The exception is if you are using Easy Connect DSNs (dbserver:port/sid) in your RPD rather than TNS entries (orcl etc)
Footnote – troubleshooting library issues
Microsoft’s SysInternals suite includes the program ProcMon. You can point this at a running process and see what it’s up to in terms of file access, DLLs, and networking. It is great for detecting things like:
- Which files a process writes to (eg where is a user preference stored)
- Check which PATHs are being searched for an executable / library
- Which tnsnames.ora is being picked up
- What network connections are being made, or failing
- Registry key access
When you run ProcMon you’ll realise how much is going on in the background of your Windows machine – there’ll be screenful upon screenful of output. To focus on the target of your analysis, use the Include Process option to just show AdminTool.exe:
You can then see things like it searching for the oracore11.dll which it is missing:
The next entry shows the log file being updated, giving you the path if you didn’t know it already:
May 25th, 2012 at 5:13 pm
Thanks for this info. I am facing a different issue. In Offline mode, my OCI connection pool connects just fine i.e. Import metadata shows the database objects. As soon as I deploy the RPD, in online mode, Import Metadata immediately gives an error “The connection has failed”.
Any idea why this is the case? I am using the Oracle VM for SampleApp for OBIEE 11.1.1.5.
Thanks,
Manish
May 25th, 2012 at 5:48 pm
@Manish, Check the AdminServer.log that I mention in the post, to see what the error detail is.
February 1st, 2013 at 8:29 am
If anyone has Oracle 10g Client and facing this issue then you can follow the below steps to resolve.
Go to %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN
Copy ORACORE10.dll in the same location
Remane it to ORACORE10.dll
Make sure %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN is added to your PATH variable.
Restart Admin Tool.
This has resolved the problem in many of our machines.
Regards,
Somnath
February 1st, 2013 at 8:30 am
There is a small typo in my last comment. Line number 3. It should be “Remane it to ORACORE11.dll” and not “Remane it to ORACORE10.dll”
February 1st, 2013 at 8:27 pm
Nice it solved my issue with tool
April 17th, 2013 at 7:40 am
Thanks a lot somntath. Its worked.
Ashok
April 30th, 2013 at 11:35 pm
After following the steps in the article, I still cannot resolve this issue. From Process Monitor it appears that oracore11.dll is not even searched for. No matter where I place the file or how many times I install the Oracle Client I still get the error in the NQSAdminTool log that the library cannot be found. But I don’t see it being searched for in Process Monitor. I do see a bunch of dll’s getting loaded, such as oraociei11.dll and oci.dll. I see my tnsnames file getting loaded as well. Anyone have any suggestions? Are there certain versions of the OBIEE Admin tool that are buggy?
May 16th, 2013 at 10:14 pm
I know this is an old thread but we were having this issue in 11.1.1.6.8 on a Windows Server 2008 R2 box. Problem ended up being the compatibility of the 32-bit drivers – we are using the 32-bit 11gR2 client driver and therefore needed to use the 32-bit Admin Tool install, not the 64-bit one.
Hope that helps someone…