Setting Up Connection Pools

The connection pool is an object in the Physical layer that describes access to the data source. It contains information about the connection between the Oracle BI Server and that data source.

The Physical layer in the Administration Tool contains at least one connection pool for each database. When you create the physical layer by importing a schema for a data source, the connection pool is created automatically. You can configure multiple connection pools for a database. Connection pools allow multiple concurrent data source requests (queries) to share a single database connection, reducing the overhead of connecting to a database.

NOTE:  It is recommended that you create a dedicated connection pool for initialization blocks. For additional information, refer to Creating or Changing Connection Pools.

For each connection pool, you must specify the maximum number of concurrent connections allowed. After this limit is reached, the Oracle BI Server routes all other connection requests to another connection pool or, if no other connection pools exist, the connection request waits until a connection becomes available.

Increasing the allowed number of concurrent connections can potentially increase the load on the underlying database accessed by the connection pool. Test and consult with your DBA to make sure the data source can handle the number of connections specified in the connection pool. Also, if the data sources have a charge back system based on the number of connections, you might want to limit the number of concurrent connections to keep the charge-back costs down.

In addition to the potential load and costs associated with the database resources, the Oracle BI Server allocates shared memory for each connection upon server startup. This raises the number of connections and increases Oracle BI Server memory usage.

Table 7 contains a brief description of preconfigured connection pools.

Table 7. Preconfigured Connection Pools

Connection Name	Description
BBB Data Warehouse	Enterprise visibility to the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse. Oracle's Siebel operational applications (Oracle BI customers only).
BBB OLTP	Enterprise visibility to Oracle's Siebel transactional database. Oracle's Siebel operational applications (Oracle BI customers only).
BBB XLS Data	DSN is the same as the connection pool name. Data is stored in C:\Data\Applications\BBB\BBB. Oracle's Siebel operational applications (Oracle BI customers only).
ERM OLTP	Oracle's Siebel Workforce Analytics connection to Oracle's Siebel transactional database. (Workforce Oracle BI customers only.)
Externalized Metadata Strings	Connection to Oracle's Siebel operational application database to load the translations of Metadata Strings. Financial Services customers and all customers deploying Oracle BI in a language other than English. NOTE:  This connection pool is configured to be the same as the Oracle's Siebel transactional database.
Forecasting Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse	Connection to the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse. (Forecasting Oracle BI customers only.)
Forecasting Siebel OLTP	Connection to Oracle's Siebel transactional database. (Real-time Forecasting Oracle BI customers only.)
Incentive Compensation Siebel OLTP	Database connection to Oracle's Siebel transactional database. (Incentive Compensation Oracle BI customers only.)
Pharma Data Warehouse	Connection to the Pharmaceutical data warehouse. (Pharmaceutical industry-specific customers only.)
Real-time OLTP	Connection to Oracle's Siebel transactional database. Real-time Oracle BI (all customers).
SIA Data Warehouse	Connection for Oracle's Siebel Industry Applications data warehouse. (For Oracle's Siebel Industry Applications customers only.)
Oracle BI Usage	Usage Tracking Writer Connection Pool connects to the database where you store the usage statistics of the Oracle BI Server. (Optional for all customers.) NOTE:  Using this requires that the Oracle BI Scheduler Server be set up to load the usage statistics into the database.
Oracle Business Intelligence Warehouse	Database connection to the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse. (Oracle BI applications customers only.)
Siebel OLTP	NOTE:  There are two connection pools to Oracle's Siebel transactional database. Both should be configured properly. OLTP DbAuth connects to Oracle's Siebel transactional database for Authentication and Authorization. The user name and password is preconfigured to USER and PASSWORD and should be left as such if you want to use database logons to authenticate users. (All customers.)
UQ Siebel OLTP	Connection to Oracle's Siebel transactional database. Oracle's Siebel Universal (Queuing customers only.)
Usage Accelerator Datawarehouse	Database connection to the Oracle Business Analytics Warehouse. (Oracle BI applications customers only.)