ODX Server Configuration & Considerations

Note: If you are already using Business Units to ingest data into your TimeXtender project, you make skip this section and review this mini course on Business Units instead. Once you finish with Business Units, please continue with the Project Repositories & Global Databases in this course.

Configuration

This training course uses the ODX Server as the method for ingesting data. However, to ensure production data integrity and reduce duplicate production data storage, the ODX Server allows two (2) repositories per organization license.

  • One (1) production repository
  • One (1) training (or sandbox) repository

The first repository, or ODX Server instance, is created automatically, but the second repository must be manually added by a User Portal administrator.

Viewing, Adding, and Naming ODX Repositories

To access your ODX repository secrets please login to portal.TimeXtender.com

In the User Portal, the repositories and client secrets for a customer, can be found on the details page for the customer. To go there, click My Customers on the menu, find the customer and click on the customer name. The repositories are displayed in the ODX Repositories list:

You can click the client secret to copy it to clipboard and click Show to unmask the client secret.

To add a repository, click Add on the ODX Repositories list. The button is disabled if the customer has all the repositories they are allowed.

A repository is created when an ODX service connects to it for the first time. Once that has happened, you can rename the repository by clicking Edit. The repository name is currently only displayed in the User Portal.

For more detailed information about viewing, adding, and renaming ODX Repositories in the User Portal, please see ODX Repositories and Client Secrets.


Production ODX Server Configuration

  • If your organization already has a Production ODX Server configured, you will need to coordinate with your system administrator to get connected to the existing ODX Server and continue to one of the consideration options below.
  • If your organization does NOT have a Production ODX Server installed, we recommend that you coordinate your efforts with your TimeXtender Partner or project manager to configure the ODX according to desired best practice for the organization. Additionally, if you have more than one user that is interested in seeing this process, we recommend that you coordinate with all users and schedule a screen-share so all can participate & learn the process.

Please click here for full instructions on how to Configure the ODX Server. The high level steps are as follows:

  1. Install & Configure the ODX Service
    1. Download and Install the ODX Service
    2. Complete the ODX Configuration Wizard
  2. Connect TimeXtender to the ODX Service (This is also covered in the next exercise)
  3. Add an ODX Storage, either
    1. SQL Database Storage
    2. Azure Data Lake Storage

Training Environment Setup

When designing a training environment you should make the following considerations.

As is indicated in the diagram to the right, the ODX Server (and it's associated service account) is responsible for authenticating and executing data from the ODX into the MDW. So, when you execute a table in the MDW that is sourced directly from the ODX, it's the ODX server handling the authentication into the MDW. So, If your ODX Server and the MDW database are on different machines and networks, advanced networking configurations are required (dealing with VPN and subnet) for connectivity before the ODX Server can connect and transfer data.

While TimeXtender and the ODX do support the above scenarios, it may require extra networking setup before you can explore the Online Training exercises.

To simplify, you may choose one of the following simplified Architectures for Online Training exercises:

  1. Keep your ODX Server & TimeXtender, SQL Server and all other databases (Repository, MDW etc.) on the same machine or network (on-Prem or an Azure VM).
  2. Keep your ODX Server & TimeXtender on the same machine or network & use Azure SQL Db to store your data and repository.

For more info, please read: Executing a Data Warehouse table from ODX gives error: "Login failed for user"

Considerations

If there is only one person in your organization that will be completing the ODX section exercises, then you can skip this section.

If multiple people from the same organization will be completing the training, you will need to consider the following options for completing this section.

Option 1: Duplicate Data Sources

Multiple people can complete the following exercises by adding duplicate data sources for each student in the same organization. You can do this by simply adding your initials to the data source name (e.g. AW_JT). While this will create duplicate data, it will ensure multiple people can complete all the exercises simultaneously.

Option 2: Delete & Recreate Data Sources

If you know that only ONE person will be taking this training at a time, and no one else is using the AdventureWorks data source, you can delete the AdventureWorks Data source (Right-Click > Delete). If taking this option, be sure to click yes to the following prompt:

Option 3: Use Existing AdventureWorks Data Source

If...

Someone in your organization has already completed the ODX training exercises and added the AdventureWorks data source into your ODX... AND you are concerned about potentially making undesired changes in the ODX, you can skip completing the exercises in this portion of the training and pick up in the Projects section. If you are taking this option, we still highly encourage you to watch all the exercise videos to become familiar with the content.



Have Questions?

  1. Search for key words in the Support Portal to find topics that may already have answers.
  2. Can find the answer to your question? Post your question in the TimeXtender community forum!
    1. Write your question in the box and select the appropriate topic.

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