Robin Moffatt

property graph

Property Graph in Oracle 12.2

The latest release of Oracle (12.2) includes support for Property Graph, previously available only as part of the Big Data Spatial and Graph tool. Unlike the latter, in which data is held in a NoSQL store (Oracle NoSQL, or Apache HBase), it is now possible to use the Oracle

Conferences

Rittman Mead at BIWA Summit 2017

I'm excited to be attending my first ever BIWA Summit next week (which will take me to Oracle HQ at Redwood Shores for the first time too!). This three day conference is one of the major dates in the conference calendar for all Oracle Analytics folk, and I'm proud to

Spark Streaming

Data Processing and Enrichment in Spark Streaming with Python and Kafka

In my previous blog post I introduced Spark Streaming and how it can be used to process 'unbounded' datasets. The example I did was a very basic one - simple counts of inbound tweets and grouping by user. All very good for understanding the framework and not getting bogged down

spark

Getting Started with Spark Streaming, Python, and Kafka

Last month I wrote a series of articles in which I looked at the use of Spark for performing data transformation and manipulation. This was in the context of replatforming an existing Oracle-based ETL and datawarehouse solution onto cheaper and more elastic alternatives. The processing that I wrote was very

odi

ETL Offload with Spark and Amazon EMR - Part 5 - Summary

This is the final article in a series documenting an exercise that we undertook for a client recently. Currently running an Oracle-based datawarehouse platform, the client asked for our help in understanding what a future ETL and reporting platform could look like, given the current landscape of tools available. You

ETL Offload with Spark and Amazon EMR - Part 4 - Analysing the Data

We recently did a project we did for a client, exploring the benefits of Spark-based ETL processing running on Amazon's Elastic Map Reduce (EMR) Hadoop platform. The proof of concept we ran was on a very simple requirement, taking inbound files from a third party, joining to them to some

emr

ETL Offload with Spark and Amazon EMR - Part 3 - Running pySpark on EMR

In the previous articles (here, and here) I gave the background to a project we did for a client, exploring the benefits of Spark-based ETL processing running on Amazon's Elastic Map Reduce (EMR) Hadoop platform. The proof of concept we ran was on a very simple requirement, taking inbound files

spark

ETL Offload with Spark and Amazon EMR - Part 2 - Code development with Notebooks and Docker

In the previous article I gave the background to a project we did for a client, exploring the benefits of Spark-based ETL processing running on Amazon's Elastic Map Reduce (EMR) Hadoop platform. The proof of concept we ran was on a very simple requirement, taking inbound files from a third

obiee

ETL Offload with Spark and Amazon EMR - Part 1 - Introduction

We recently undertook a two-week Proof of Concept exercise for a client, evaluating whether their existing ETL processing could be done faster and more cheaply using Spark. They were also interested in whether something like Redshift would provide a suitable data warehouse platform for them. In this series of blog

sdlc

Source Control and Automated Code Deployment Options for OBIEE

It's Monday morning. I've arrived at a customer site to help them - ironically enough - with automating their OBIEE code management. But, on arrival, I'm told that the OBIEE team can't meet with me because someone did a release on the previous Friday, had now gone on holiday -

enhanced usage tracking

Enhanced Usage Tracking for OBIEE - Now Available as Open Source!

Introduction OBIEE provides Usage Tracking as part of the core product functionality. It writes directly to a database table every Logical Query that hits the BI Server, including details of who ran it, when, and information about how it executed including for how long, how many rows, and so on.

Rittman Mead Life

The Rittman Mead Open Source Project

We have a strong innovation spirit at Rittman Mead, with all staff encouraged to use technology to its best advantage in order to do things with the software that haven't been done before. Some of these projects may may be 'scratching the itch' of a repeated manual task that should

jq

Using SQL to Query JSON Files with Apache Drill

I wrote recently about what Apache Drill is, and how to use it with OBIEE. In this post I wanted to demonstrate its great power in action for a requirement that came up recently. We wanted to analyse our blog traffic, broken down by blog author. Whilst we have Google

DVD

Connecting Oracle Data Visualization Desktop to Google Analytics and Google Drive

To use Data Visualisation Desktop (DVD) with data from Google Analytics or Google Drive, you need to set up the necessary credentials on Google so that DVD can connect to it. You can see a YouTube of this process on this blog here. Before starting, you need a piece of

odi

OBIEE, Big Data Discovery, and ODI security updates - October 2016

Oracle release their "Critical Patch Update" (CPU) notices every quarter, bundling together details of vulnerabilities and associated patches across their entire product line. October's was released yesterday, with a few entries of note in the analytics & DI space. Each vulnerability is given a unique identifier (CVE-xxxx-xxxx) and

elasticsearch

Streaming data from Oracle using Oracle GoldenGate and Kafka Connect

This article was also posted on the Confluent blog, head over there for more great Kafka-related content! Kafka Connect is part of the Confluent Platform, providing a set of connectors and a standard interface with which to ingest data to Kafka, and store or process it the other end. Initially

obiee

OTN Appreciation Day : OBIEE's BI Server

Oracle Technology Network (OTN) is one you'll be familiar with if you do anything with Oracle software, from downloading the installers, reading the documentation, using the online forums, 2 Minute Tech Tip videos, whitepapers, and much more!. Tim Hall (a.k.a. Oracle Base) blogged recently about a fun idea

Conferences

POUG

I've just attended my first user group in Poland, the very-excellent POUG. This was the first international version of the conference, having been run previously just within Poland. Based on these two days, I would say it was a resounding success! There was a great atmosphere there, really engaged and

obiee

All You Ever Wanted to Know About OBIEE Performance…but were too afraid to ask

At the Polish Oracle Users Group (POUG) conference this week I'm presenting one of my favourite talks, [Still] No Silver Bullets - OBIEE Performance in the Real World. This presentation is based on the shared experiences of myself and my Rittman Mead colleagues helping our clients diagnose and - most

Oracle GoldenGate

Using logdump to Troubleshoot the Oracle GoldenGate for Big Data Kafka Handler

Oracle GoldenGate for Big Data (OGG BD) supports sending transactions as messages to Kafka topics, both through the native Oracle handler as well as a connector into Confluent's Kafka Connect. In some research that I was doing with it I found an interesting problem that I am going to demonstrate

odbc

How To Poke Around OBIEE on Linux with strace (Working with Unsupported ODBC Sources in OBIEE 12c)

OBIEE 12c (and 11g and 10g before it) supports three primary ways of connecting to data sources: Native Gateway, such as OCI for Oracle. This is always the preferred option as it gives the greatest support and performance. Data Direct ODBC Drivers, a set of which are bundled with OBIEE

apache drill

Using Apache Drill with OBIEE 12c

Apache Drill enables querying with SQL against a multitude of datasources including things like JSON files, Parquet and Avro, Hive tables, RDBMS and more. MapR have released an ODBC driver for it, and I thought it'd be neat to get it to work with OBIEE. It evidently does work for

hdfs

An Introduction to Apache Drill

Apache Drill is an engine that can connect to many different data sources, and provide a SQL interface to them. It's not just a wanna-be SQL interface that trips over at anything complex - it's a hugely functional one including support for many built in functions as well as windowing

Technical

Stream Analytics and Processing with Kafka and Oracle Stream Analytics

In my previous post I looked the latest release of Oracle Stream Analytics (OSA), and saw how it provided a graphical interface to "Fast Data". Users can analyse streaming data as it arrives based on conditions and rules. They can also transform the stream data, publishing it back

Technical

An Introduction to Oracle Stream Analytics

Oracle Stream Analytics (OSA) is a graphical tool that provides “Business Insight into Fast Data”. In layman terms, that translates into an intuitive web-based interface for exploring, analysing, and manipulating streaming data sources in realtime. These sources can include REST, JMS queues, as well as Kafka. The inclusion of Kafka