Administration

Oracle OLAP is installed as an option in Oracle Enterprise Edition, and it is now integrated with the Oracle database. While Express Server runs in a service environment, Oracle OLAP runs within the database kernel.

In Oracle9i, the term database refers only to the relational database. Express databases are now called analytic workspaces. In Oracle OLAP, an analytic workspace can be used either as a transient data cache or as a persistent data repository. A persistent analytic workspace is stored as a LOB in a relational table. There are no ".db" files.

The administrative tasks for Oracle OLAP are merged with the database tool set.

Authentication of Users

Oracle OLAP does not use operating system identities, except for the installation user under whose identity the RDBMS is installed. You can delete other operating system identities created for use by Express Server (such as the DBA user, the Initialize user, the Default user, and individual user names) if they have no other purpose.

All authentication is performed by the Oracle RDBMS. Applications must always present credentials before opening a session, and those credentials must match a user name and password stored in the relational database. Before users can access Oracle OLAP, you must define user names and passwords in the database.

For users to access operating system files, they must have access rights to a directory alias that is mapped to the physical directory path. This access is granted either to an individual user ID or to a database role.

Management Tools

Oracle Enterprise Manager encompasses the tools for administering Oracle OLAP, providing a common user interface across all platforms. Various PL/SQL packages extend the functionality currently available through Oracle Enterprise Manager and provide an alternative to its use.

Performance data can be collected in system tables the same as other Oracle database performance statistics.

OLAP Instance Manager, oesmgr, and oescmd are not available.