Sensational Sequoia

The exquisite Sierra Nevada, in the magnificent slopes of California, is the home to some of the oldest living things on earth – the dazzling Giant Sequoia trees, some as old as 3500 years. The stunning facts of these exquisite trees were as overwhelming to me as a 10-year old, as it is today – and the long dream of experiencing these breathtaking wildernesses came true few days back.

Driving via Three Rivers Visalia through the wild fascinating roads uphill to the Giant Forest is an experience in itself that takes some time to sink in. The gradual change in the landscape around us as we approach is magnificent, the appearance of the trees, the heights, the feeling of suddenly shrinking is so electrifying – one just gets dazed.

The role of forest fires on the lifecycle of the Sequoia trees is interesting. Due to reduction in the number of natural forest fires today, the Park Service executes controlled fires to remove competing vegetation to allow Sequoia seedlings to germinate - which has difficulty otherwise. The Giant Forest Museum is a storehouse of some gripping figures and facts – the Sentinel tree greets all the visitors as we enter the museum, a statuesque of over 250 feet high.

As we went down from the parking lot via the Sherman Tree Trail, we could feel the energy and excitement around us – the weather felt perfect for visitors, not a surprise given that the Sequoias thrive best in humid climates. When we reached, standing in front of the General Sherman Tree – the magnificence and awe was too much to absorb, and took an hour of lingering around; to really believe it's happening for me. A part of me felt complete. For me, it was always more than a tree. That day I realized it for real. The largest living tree – the all so familiar impressive artistry that we all have craved to see for so long after reading about it in books – right before us.

The enchanting walks around Sequoia forest, the rousing emotions, the captivating views, the grace and elegance of surviving thousands of years withstanding fires and storms, converted it into a spellbinding magical forest – resulting in an indelible weekend.

The wildlife comprises of hundreds of black bears, rattlesnakes, mountain lions, and some friendly rodents. The visitor guide below is really well versed with all the different situations that our curious minds wandered on, and it was interesting to read.

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wss_username_token_service_policy use case for Oracle EBS and DRM Integration

The year of 2017 was an incredible year with tremendous ups and equal downs both at a professional and personal level. However it has again helped in garnering some very fruitful insights regarding everything around me and to plan few things better ahead. This is not to undermine any of the other years like say 2016 or 2015, but it is just that the impact of some of the incidents and the decisions that I have done and taken in 2017 will be changing my life forever. Let's see what 2018 has in hold! Wishing you a very happy new year ahead!

The web services play an important role in the authentication process for the EBS and DRM metadata integration. Few months back during the DRM repository movement we came across a few challenges with the MDS schema database host info which enlightened a few areas and paved way for some more personal study. After the initial setup, once the oracle-epm-drm-webservices WSDL is up and running fine, we need to attach a security policy to this application. This will ensure that clients like the program "Load Segment Values and Hierarchies" makes the request to the WebLogic Server to get the system generated token for the user (say EbsIntegrationUser) which can be passed to DRM. Then DRM can validate that token with OID to verify authentication instead of requiring a username/password.

Oracle Web Services Manager (OWSM) will need to be deployed first in the same EPM Server and domain where DRM Web Service is deployed. The database repository schema name for OWSM is set to a different value and usually ends with *_MDS which corresponds to Metadata Schema.

Once done, the new policy needs to be created in Weblogic under Farm_EPMSystem → Weblogic Domain → EPM System → Web Services → Policy Sets. Then in Step 3 for "Add Policy References" we need to select and assign wss_username_token_service_policy.

The details of the steps to be followed can be referred here. There are other policies also that can be used as per the scenario faced, however for this specific integration an authentication token suffices. Here are some more details related to authentication and uses of web services.

The ultimate test will be to make sure the token name is visible in the WSDL url. If the attachment of the policy is done fine, it will reflect in the URL. Else there's another approach to manually attach the policy which is kind of a workaround and done only in exception scenarios, which we faced few months back.

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Essbase Shared Member vs Duplicate Member vs New Dimension ODI Roller Coaster

The beginning of winter brought with it some exciting rides into the world of Oracle Data Integrator and Essbase. Feels lovely when things start to unravel their beauty and prowess. After several sessions (more to come!) of brainstorming on Shared and Duplicate members, we came to a few interesting findings that can help us plan better.

The "Duplicate" members are providing the below benefits:

• Allows same member to be used multiple times across altogether different dimensions. This is different from a "Shared" member where members need to be part of the same dimension.
• Besides the dimensions where we need Duplicate members, we can explicitly mark other dimensions as Unique which need not contain Duplicate members, thus ensuring integrity.

One drawback being once the outline is marked as enabled for Duplicate member we will be unable to rollback this setting!

However, unlike a "Shared" member, some of the inconveniences that are caused by "Duplicate" members are:

• To get clarity on the dimension used, Smart View users will now have to select either the fully qualified or ancestor-driven qualified name to ensure the correct member is selected. This defeats the aesthetics to an extent. Like [Parent].[Member].
• Existing calculations if used referring these members will need to be revisited to ensure they refer the correct required member from the corresponding dimension.
• The KM "SQL to Hyperion Essbase (METADATA)" doesn't seem to like allow loading the duplicate alias for the duplicate member. The second dimension loaded latter suffers, the first dimension gets loaded fine. The first gets all the alias fine, the next run doesn't get any alias for the members in the second dimension.

Considering all the above, the most effective solution now becomes a "new dimension":

• We are going to compromise on space and performance as a drawback for this
• But now, we can have our distinct prefixing and naming convention for each member to make them identifiable at-a-glance
• Reference of any members in any calculations can stay intact without any ambiguity 
• The KM "SQL to Hyperion Essbase (METADATA)" is at it's best again

Given the current world, this post will soon be updated over next few weeks.

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Call of the South West

      A trip to the southwest USA creates excitement even when we just imagine it, even though it is not my first time. It was during late winter that we started to plan a trip, but due to various changes in our lives things were regularly getting re-prioritized, until the month of August. It was extremely difficult to finalize a list of destinations, there were just too many to cover. My preference always lies towards places untouched by man, not that am not pro-progress, but the simple fact that we can unwind to unseen beauties and see the same things which has witnessed such notable historical events, listen to the amazing stories of the local people, the fact that so many lifeless mammoth rocks can be worshipped, and a cave that

failed to serve as a hideout during invasion from the east leading to hundreds being dead, or a view from one of the toughest hiking destinations in the world, driving via an amazing scenic road that can only be felt by our senses, each such fact, moment and place gives so much intensity and meaning to the time and place we are in, it helps makes my decisions a lot less difficult.
      Nearly 20 places made it to my initial list, but after much deliberation it came down to 16, then finally to 9 places. As always, per our new rule, we do not want to stress out so much that the thoughts of reaching the next destination late, becomes a constraint for cherishing the times at the last destination. Needless to say, the best part of a trip is the planning part, the quest for the unknown, the curiosity of how the new places will be like, the excitement of the memories that are going to be in the making, really makes the weeks before the trip so much memorable. This applies to not only special long-awaited trips, but even for mere neighborhoods trips for me. And as always, the planning part involves lot of research for the food explorer in me even

before the trip begins, which never completes and continues till the last day of the trip.
      After the bookings of the flights, the next best part was to decide between cottages or inns or motels or hotels. I have curated a mammoth collection in my Feedly (am so addicted to Feedly, besides Audible ofcourse) for specially travel blogs, and it has greatly influenced me on this aspect last few years. The closeness to the place and some local touch can only be felt easily if we can for once decide to reserve a cottage or resort close to our venue, which might be in a forest or at the foot of a mountain. With the landscape as it is in Arizona, it was not easy to find such a place in the
Navajo Reservation, but we managed to find one awesome place just 20 mins north-east to the Reservation, near Mexican Hat in Utah. We also reserved a cottage near Bryce Point in Utah, the slowness and calmness of these places really becomes a priority sometimes, due to which we often change our plans to spend more time at such places as I will divulge in the next post in this series. The sounds of nature seems music to our ears, days spend without earpods doesn't make us miss it anymore, it is then that we realize we are able to connect to what really matters in our lives.

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The Fascinating World of Ford

      The stories of how the automobile industry revolution started had been in the air for sometime around me after watching a few documentaries in YouTube. It is then that I started learning more about the smallest of the small details of Henry Ford's life, and gradually it became an obsession. When I learnt that he has created a world where a snapshot of history is preserved so well, it was irresistible to drive up to Dearborn, Michigan.

      The exquisite quality with which various aspects of historical importance, some original, some amazing replicas, has been created, leaves one awestruck and longing for more when returning. The Henry Ford Museum and Greenfield Village together form a masterpiece of portraying almost all aspects of the history of the growth of this country over the centuries. Horses, cattle and poultry are wandering in fenced areas created similar to centuries before. The Ford model cars from the earliest generations giving rides to tourists, it was hard to resist the goosies.

      Several artifacts like Edison's laboratory, the Wright brother's home and shop, and detailed housing complexes consisting of schools, courts, etc are arranged to give the feel of an actual city around us. Most of the objects are original or are close replicas of the originals, and arranged exactly how they were present in the actual laboratories. Each step felt like we needed to pause and absorb the intensity of the surroundings, the enormosity of the thoughts made even a lifeless historic backyard or fireplace grandeur.


      A visit to the world of Ford is not complete without getting a feel of the first Ford Model cars. Getting to know the stories of the struggle to create the car, and how much pain had to be endured to overcome each hurdle step by step to come where we are today, is astonishing. The respect for the legacy left behind continues to grow as we get to know more. We get to sit on the cars and assemble parts of the cars with the help of friendly guides, who walk us through the step to tighten screws for a few minutes to give us a feel of how things used to be done. Models of the Ford are kept showing each of the parts and how they can be assembled to create a car.

      The widespread usage of the car and the way it changed lives by allowing x-large distances to be covered in such small times was a new thing for all, and was so beautifully captured. Earlier people used to be able to cover only small distances in the limited times, and travelling to cities was elusive for the majority. But after the spread of the car population, things changed in multiple ways, leading to better industrial growth, better agriculture, medical care, and all other aspects of life. It brought all of us close to each other, marking a significant step in the human evolution story.
      As we walk through the amazing time castle, we find ourselves walking through the growth of the civilization in this land, how each president contributed, and then the tumultuous 1860s during the Civil Wars. The details are explained in crisp and lucid style and is one of the most comprehensive collection that can be completed in a limited time. Several artifacts and memoirs are preserved, like Abraham Lincoln's chair from Ford's Theater, the bus where Rosa Parks sat before the Civil Rights Movement, and several signboards and newspapers from memorable times. Taking a seat in this bus triggered thoughts of all the events that followed decades back, it is just a grim recollection of the events that our past generations encountered.
      Discriminations of decades have been vividly described with references, reports, documents, printings pertaining to that time. It is hard to imagine a time where this was all true, but yet it was right there with evidences before our eyes. The first hand witness details and stories and reports of a time so near to our past gives chills and cannot stop us from continuously appreciating the grit and spirit of these brave people. The time is beautifully represented by lighting and color effects on fonts and texts simulating an atmosphere that gives a feel of the actual days decades back.
      As we continued our dream tour of this amazing place, we learned details of various cars, how they were made, and their standout features. It showed how the efforts were continuous on moving towards where we are today, and bit by bit how we gradually came here. It was nice to learn how different routes and roads started getting prioritized as cars evolved, how hotels, motels, inns, lodges came into existence. Replicas of the earliest lodges and inns gave glimpses of the life decades back and how we might have spent our nights had we lived during that time. The basic facilities we have today, regardless of the technological advances, are far more luxurious than anything we could have imagined that time for the same lifestyle.
The use of trains for large distances and the ever increasing power and speed of the engines that led to the Industrial Revolution was described in amazing details with several replicas and actual models of the engines kept, some of which were over 20 feet high. The impact these trains had on the lives of millions of people across the geography by carrying almost any amount of anything in short times led to growth in man's lifestyle that we have seldom seen in the recent history of man. The lives of everyone started changing due to the effect of this period and it is an incredible feeling to actually get to learn the stories by watching movie clips, reading features and news of these actual trains from that time.
      A section of the Presidential cars awaited us where the names of each of the Presidents were engraved with details. All the cars were there including that of John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The amount of protection and the techniques used to guarantee safety for the most important men in the country was amazing to see, read and learn so closely. It was sad however for some cases no amount of protection could protect us from ourselves leading to sad early ending of promising lives.
      One can only thank Ford after visiting this place, for helping preserve a fraction of our lives from the most important times to learn about ourselves and help create a better, brighter, future.

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