Identifying BO Usage

system · October 16, 2003, 4:59am

Hi all,

I am not sure of the section where I could put the question… so puttin it here…

I have got a request from my management to identify BO usage in our company…

Most of our users use,


- ZABO (85%)
- Webi (15%)

They want to track,


- the number of reports refreshed by each person
- the duration taken for each refresh

We have Audit Universe setup… Will it be tracking ZABO activities too?

Thanks & Regards,
Mohan

cpmohanraj (BOB member since 2002-09-23)

system · October 16, 2003, 5:40am

Yes, Audit features track WebI and ZABO usage only.

Steve Krandel (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

system · October 16, 2003, 6:17am

Thanks Steve!!

Is it possible to track the activities I have mentioned,


- the number of reports refreshed by each person 
- the duration taken for each refresh

Thanks again for the help!!

Regards,
Mohan

cpmohanraj (BOB member since 2002-09-23)

system · October 16, 2003, 6:21am

I’m pretty sure those are activities you can get from auditing. Take a look at the audit universe that comes on CD1 and you’ll get an idea what you can do.

Steve Krandel (BOB member since 2002-06-25)

system · October 16, 2003, 10:30am

Mohan,

We don’t use ZABO, but we do use Infoview to view and refresh reports. As Steve has already mentioned you can use the Audit Universe to track the activities you mentioned. I use the following query to give me the reports refreshed in Infoview:-

SELECT
  decode(instr(OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,'.'),0,OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,substr(OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,1,instr(OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,'.')-1)),
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_C_USER,
  COUNT(OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_TYPEID),
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_D_STARTIME
FROM
  OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL,
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG
WHERE
  ( OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_ID=OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_N_ID(+)  )
  AND  (
  ( OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_TYPEID IN ('19','25') 
AND OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_N_OBJTYPID = '8'  )
  )
GROUP BY
  decode(instr(OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,'.'),0,OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,substr(OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,1,instr(OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,'.')-1)), 
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_C_USER, 
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_D_STARTIME

I also capture the refresh times by using this query:-

SELECT
  OBJ_A_APPLICATION.A_APPLI_C_NAME,
  OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME,
  AVG(OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_DURATION/60000),
  COUNT(OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_TYPEID),
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_D_STARTIME
FROM
  OBJ_A_APPLICATION,
  OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL,
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG
WHERE
  ( OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_ID=OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_N_ID(+)  )
  AND  ( OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_APPID=OBJ_A_APPLICATION.A_APPLI_N_ID  )
  AND  (
  ( OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_N_TYPEID IN ('19','25') 
AND OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_N_OBJTYPID = '8'  )
  )
GROUP BY
  OBJ_A_APPLICATION.A_APPLI_C_NAME, 
  OBJ_A_EVENT_DETL.A_EVDET_C_OBJNAME, 
  OBJ_A_EVENT_LOG.A_EVLOG_D_STARTIME

You can then use the rank function in your report to show you the worst/top performing reports etc.

Hope this is of use.

Michael D 8)

MichDudl (BOB member since 2002-08-19)

system · October 16, 2003, 11:55am

Go grab this download from Bob’s Download area. It has a report that will show you reports by person. As for the duration, there is also a report for that but I have yet to see any Zabo durations coming out of the audit data. Webi durations are fine. If you see Zabo durations let us know.

Cindy Clayton (BOB member since 2002-06-11)

system · October 16, 2003, 11:57am

… moved to General Discussion as this is not a Reporter issue. 8)

Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

system · October 16, 2003, 12:11pm

Another thing to remember is that depending on your particular setup, it may be more than refreshes you need to capture. One of my applications has reports that all refresh overnight. In that case, counting refreshes would tell me that none of the reports are used. I have to count hits instead. The link I gave earlier is to the universe I use. I have a filter for refreshes and another for hits (views). I know I know. I shoulda made measures with case statements that I could use simultaneously Maybe I will at some point and re-upload to BOB 8) .

Cindy Clayton (BOB member since 2002-06-11)

system · March 29, 2004, 3:44pm

Mohan,

Just curious, how did you determine your % of ZABO to WebI?? Did you use Auditor data?

Thanks,
Chris

cjweis (BOB member since 2003-10-02)

system · December 17, 2007, 4:56pm

Hi There

I am working at a site which has Infoview and Bus Obj 6.5.1 and I can’t seem to find these OBJ_A% audit tables anywhere. There are various OBJ_M% tables against a Business Objects andmin user, so thats whre I’d expect to find the OBJ_A’s. Could it have been possible to install Bus Obj without installing audit tables for Infoview?

withnail (BOB member since 2006-12-08)

system · December 17, 2007, 6:35pm

I’m no expert on server installation, but I believe the answer is yes. Auditing is not automatic.

Dwayne Hoffpauir (BOB member since 2002-09-19)

system · December 17, 2007, 8:06pm

It is most certainly possible to install BOBJ without creating the OBJ_A% tables. In prior versions those tables were not created until you activated auditing on the webi server(s).

Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

system · December 18, 2007, 8:56am

Yes the tables are created the first time you activate auditing.

whairnud (BOB member since 2006-04-28)

system · December 19, 2007, 1:52am

It’s possible to activate auditing that goes to log files, and I think that may be the default. I seem to recall that the OBJ_A tables don’t get created until/unless you specify that the auditing should be capture to the database rather than just to the log files – and then specify the connection for the database. This may or may not be in the same place as the rest of your repository, although I would think you’d want it to be in the same place, for sanity’s sake.

Anita Craig (BOB member since 2002-06-17)

system · December 19, 2007, 8:38am

Thanks Anita, Don’t suppose you have any idea what the lg file might be called and where it might be stored by default?
I am working at a site where Infoview is installed on a server farm managaed by a central IT team who have no knowledge f/ interest in supporting Business Objects; yet who will not allow us direct access to the box. So if we want anything doing we pretty much have to give precise instructions , rather than the usual method - play around until you work out what you need to do!

withnail (BOB member since 2006-12-08)

system · December 19, 2007, 7:00pm

Hi

Is any option to find the usage when its used/refreshed in DeskI

Regards

Siva.M

looksmee (BOB member since 2006-02-08)

system · December 19, 2007, 7:53pm

Not as a standard feature, no. Several vendors have made auditing scripts that include VBA add-ons that are installed with each client, thus allowing them to audit full-client activity.

Dave Rathbun (BOB member since 2002-06-06)

system · December 19, 2007, 7:55pm

Hi Dave

Thanks a lot…

Regards

Siva.M

looksmee (BOB member since 2006-02-08)

system · December 20, 2007, 2:10am

I don’t have access to the servers, so I can’t check – but it’s going to vary by version. As I recall, there may be two log files created, but don’t quote me on it. If you’re on version 6, check out this post which tells you the path for v. 6. I found it by doing a Search with keywords audit* log path

Of course, some installations (like ours) doesn’t install on the C:\ drive – so it might be on a different drive letter – and you’d have to subsitute in your servername, etc, into the path.

Anita Craig (BOB member since 2002-06-17)

system · January 9, 2008, 12:09pm

We are using BO XI release. Are there any thoughts on how I can track usage of specific reports (not just 15 more popular etc) ?

Can I define some reports and identify their usage?

Thanks

nikyriak (BOB member since 2007-11-13)