OBIEE - Connection Error While Importing Metadata

Import Metadata Error:

After BI Installation When developer in Offline mode, using Admin Client Tool try to create the new RPD , in the metadata extraction phase it throws an error ' Connection Failure ', though RPD is created but unable extract the metadata for report designing.  Below is the method of troubleshooting the same..

1.	Select Start > Programs > Oracle Business Intelligence > BI Administration to open the Administration Tool.
2.	Select File > New Repository.
3.	Enter a name for the repository. In this tutorial the repository name is BISAMPLE.
4.	Leave the default location as is. It points to the default repository directory.
5.	Leave Import Metadata set to Yes.
6.	Enter and retype a password for the repository. In this tutorial BISAMPLE is the repository password.
7 .	Click Next.

Import Metadata

1 .	Change the Connection Type to OCI 10g/11g. The screen displays connection fields based on the connection type you selected.
2 .	Enter a data source name. In this example the data source name is orcl. This name is the same as the tnsnames.ora entry for this Oracle database instance.
3 .	Enter a user name and password for the data source. In this example the username and password are both BISAMPLE. Recall that BISAMPLE is the name of the user/schema you created in the prerequisite section.
4 .	Click Next.

To Trouble Shoot the above, below is the two quick methods..

I.             Adding tnsnames.ora file to the BI Home Directory.

Ø  Make sure you add all the details to TNS entry.

Ø  Copy the tnsnames.ora file from Oracle Home (Root directory: \App\User\Product\Network\Admin) and paste the file to the below location in OBIEE11g directories

Root directory: \OBIEE11g\Oracle_BI1\network\admin and copy to

Root directory: \OBIEE11g\oracle_common\admin

Ø  Also Add the tnsnames file location path in User.cmd file
Add the tnsnames file location path from one of the above location in the user.cmd file. The user.cmd file is found in the below location
Root directory: \OBIEE11g\instances\instance1\bifoundation\OracleBIApplication\coreapplication\setup

Ø  Now Close the RPD and Restart the services if you are using ON-LINE Mode.

II Method:

Installing the Oracle Call Interface from Oracle Client 11g r2.

Ø  Run the installer and Select Custom Installation, Their select “Oracle Call Interface (OCI) “

Once you’ve installed the Full Client, restart the AdminTool and the Import Metadata function will now work.

Note: 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)

If anyone has Oracle 10g Client and facing this issue then you can follow the below steps to resolve.

Ø  Go to %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN

Ø  Copy ORACORE10.dll in the same location

Ø  Rename it to ORACORE10.dll

Ø  Make sure %ORACLE_HOME%\BIN is added to your PATH variable.

Ø  Restart Admin Tool.

This has resolved the problem in many of our machines.