Many of our agents are making changes, but when we open our reports, those changes don't appear to be made for several minutes.
Environment:
Custom Report Options, Data source
Analytics
Oracle B2C Service, All versions
Resolution:
There are two databases your report can use: the operational database and the replication server. The replication server is a copy which is constantly being updated from the operational database. If the replication server falls behind in syncing to the production server, then updates to reports will not show immediately. In most cases, your replication connection will be up to date. However, there may be times when the replication server falls behind and replication may be up to 72 hours old. This is normal & expected behavior.
Most of the replication servers have multiple database servers replicating to them, so heavy input and output on any one of the production servers can cause replication to fall behind on the replication server. Other factors that may cause a server to fall behind include:
- Backups being performed
- Multiple reports running on the replication server
- Poorly formed database queries being run against the replication server
- Table alters running against large database tables. These originate from custom field and custom object deployments along with alters initiated on the production site when the upgrade site is created.
These actions lock database tables and prevent the replication process from writing to the replication server.
Our Cloud Operations department constantly monitors these replication servers. When a server does fall behind, our staff must wait for the process to finish that has caused the delay. Once the process finishes, the replication server must catch up to bring the production server and replication server in sync, which can take some time on a high volume site.
For reports where real-time information is needed, you should use the operational database. This would include reports such as "My Inbox" that run on small amounts of data but need to have the very latest data.
For large reports that run on historic data, such as a report that analyzes incident creation rates over the last 6 months, you should use the replication server. This allows you to run larger queries, but may not have the last few updates made today. Reports using the replication server will not allow you to use the "Fill Inbox" button, since the data that they are using is potentially old data.
To determine which database your report is using, follow the steps below:
- Open the report for edit
- On the Home tab select the "Options" button and then "More Options"
- The Edit Settings dialog will open. Near the bottom there is a label "Data Source" and you can choose either "Report Database" or "Operational Database".
*Please note, when editing reports and previewing the data output using the 'Report View', this action will always use the replication database regardless of what the report options specifiy. Once the report is saved and run from the Reports Explorer (as opposed to the report editor) the configured data source will be used.
For Queuing and Data Source Options for Standard Reports, refer to Answer ID 5094: Standard report is queuing.
For data source information in dashboards, see Answer ID 9093: All reports within a dashboard must run against a single database.
Other selections under Data Source:
Allow server to change the data source as necessary: Select this check box to allow Oracle B2C Service to automatically change the data source if necessary to allow the report to run. For example, if a report is configured to run on the operational database but is unable to do so due to data constraints, selecting this check box allows the report to run on the report database. Clearing this check box forces reports to run on the data source that is selected. This feature appears in November 2009 and later releases.
NOTE: This check box is selected by default when you create a report and is also automatically selected any time the data source is changed on the Edit Settings window.
Set report to deferred execution: Select this check box to automatically queue your report when it runs.
NOTE: If this option is not selected but the report is automatically queued the next time it is run due to meeting queuing criteria, the 'Set report to deferred execution' check box is automatically selected. To prevent the report from being queued when it is next run, edit the report and clear this check box.
Tracking functionality is available in reports in regards to the particular databases. They now keep track of whether or not a person has set the database used in the report. If a user has not specified which database the report will use and a user subsequently tries to run the report on more data than is allowed by the operating database, then the report will automatically switch to using the replication server. If the report is edited, it will revert back to using the operational database. To stop this automatic switching from occurring, edit the report and then specify a database. This will mark the database as "user set" and the report will no longer switch.
For more information on changing report options, see the 'Selecting report options' section in online documentation for your version. To access Oracle B2C Service manuals and documentation online, refer to the Documentation for Oracle B2C Service Products.
