DVCS Trial Connection to On Premise Oracle DB

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Hi

I am currently trialling DVCS.  I notice that connection to Oracle databases is now available.

I have attempted to connect to an on-premise Database, but the connection times out.

We have opened up the firewall to the database server but no activity/attempt to connect is logging on our side.

I have successfully connected to the same database, using the same host, username, password, service when using DVD.

Is my attempted failure related to my DVCS instance being a trial?

Bisst · Answer

I too have connectivity problem to an external oracle Instance.  I created a public AWS RDS Oracle instance.  I am able to connect to that instance from anywhere on the internet.  But when I try to setup a data source from DVCS.  I get the following error:

Failed to save the connection.

Your operation has timed out. Please try again later.

Was wodering if anyone was able to make that happen?

Cheers,

Steeve

Philip Ratcliffe · Answer

Thanks Julian and Gianni.

Separately I made some enquiries with contacts at Oracle and got the following advice:

"Oracle DV can run either :-
 a) in the Oracle Cloud as part of DVCS, BICS or Oracle Analytics Cloud
 b) on-premises as Oracle BI EE 12c
 c) on the desktop as DVD

In all cases DV has 3 ways of accessing data:-
 1) data which is loaded into the DV cache
 2) dynamic queries against databases
 3) from the BI Server (does not apply to DVCS so we will ignore this for now)

Option 1 just requires data to be uploaded either as a flat file, or using something like Data Synch and all data is copied into the DV cache.
 Option 2 requires the database to be accessible from DV

So if DV is running on the desktop using DV Desktop then:-
 Option 1 is the same - you just load data into DV
 Option 2 also works fine as the database will be accessible from your desktop either over an internal connection or when using VPN.

However if running DV using DVCS, then the DV component is inside the Oracle Cloud.
 Option 1 is the same - you just load data into DV
 Option 2, however, requires a network connection between your database and the Oracle Cloud (as this is where DV is running).

Currently there is no network connection between the Oracle Cloud and your database so the connection times out.

To make option 2 work we would need to either:-
 a) use a database, which is already in the Oracle Cloud, such as Oracle DBaaS
 b) make your database accessible over the internet (not typically recommended) 
 c) set up a VPN between your data centre and the Oracle Cloud

Option (c) is the best option but this requires running VPN software in the Cloud and in your data centre. 
 This then allows DV to behave as if it was running inside your data centre, so it can then directly access any data.
 Unfortunately the VPN option is only available with the new Oracle Analytics Cloud, but not with DVCS.

A final option, is called the Remote Data Connector (or RDC), which opens a secure connection from Oracle Cloud to on-premises databases.
 This uses certificates/SSL etc so is secure, but it requires you to configure WebLogic or Tomcat in your data centre to manage the connection.
 Also it only works with full BICS or full OAC, rather than just DVCS.

So in summary, for a live customer, we would recommend they use Oracle Analytics Cloud, and configure VPN to connect to on premise. 
 For testing or evaluation, we would probably suggest DV Desktop, as the functionality is the same, but it avoids any network set up."

It looks like the options realistically are upgrade to OAC or BICS to make use of VPN or RDC, or connect to an Oracle Cloud database.

This hasn't directly answered my question of why I haven't been able to connect to an on-premise database (albeit no the recommended option), however, subsequently, I have been able to connect using the trial DVCS to a Oracle Cloud database.

Gianni Ceresa · Answer

Hi,

As far as I know the trials of the Oracle cloud are full versions but time limited (or $$$ limited), so this shouldn't be an issue.

Being able to connect from DVD to your DB was done from inside the company or from outside? Because sometimes corporate networks are more closed than "just" opening a firewall here or there  (and DVCS is real cloud, so a connection coming from outside your company, would maybe be worth to look at setting up a VPN between your network and DVCS as exposing the database to internet is risky, really risky.

I guess you maybe also need to open ports or services on the DVCS side to maybe allow the connection to be established (I must admit I didn't look at that when I was playing with the trial of few Oracle cloud services as I do not have any DB which I wanted to expose to everybody).

​ : this sounds more like your own personal opinion more than a real "mistake", and if you read the post of ​ totally you will see he is already using DVD. They just aren't the same thing (mainly because DVD = personal desktop while DVCS = server side app which is meant to be shared?).