ShowCase Essbase 7.1 README

Contents

• Release Overview
• Documentation
• Release Notes

Release Overview

For a complete list of enhancements and release notes, see the ShowCase Essbase Installation Guide, Chapter 2. The information in this Readme was unavailable when the printed or online documentation was produced.

PTF Levels

ShowCase Essbase 7.1 requires the following minimum PTF levels. Apply PTFs after JDK is installed.

• V5R1 requires database group PTF SF99501 or later and Java group PTF SF99069 or later.

• V5R2 requires database group PTF SF99502 Level 21 or later and Java group PTF SF99169 Level 22 or later.

• V5R3 requires database group PTF SF99503 Level 7 or later and Java group PTF SF99269 Level 7 or later.

• V5R4 requires database group PTF SF99504 Level 11 or later and Java group PTF SF99291 Level 8 or later. (ShowCase Essbase 7.10.030 or higher)

ShowCase Essbase 7.1 also requires the following PTFs.

• V5R1 requires PTF 5722SS1 SI18592.

• V5R2 requires PTF 5722SS1 SI18588.

• V5R3 requires PTF 5722SS1 SI18516 and PTF 5722SS1 SI19092.

Note: It is strongly recommended that you verify all PTF requirements before installing any ShowCase product.

Documentation

Documentation is available at the following locations:

• ShowCase Essbase documentation is available at http://support.spss.com/. Find the Documentation link, and then click ShowCase. You are required to log on.
  

• Hyperion Essbase documentation is installed with the product.

ShowCase Essbase 7.1 documentation includes:

• ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Upgrade Guide: Explains how to upgrade to ShowCase Essbase 7.1. It is available without logging on at http://support.spss.com/upgradeinfo/
  

• ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Installation Guide: Explains requirements, and server and client installation instructions. It is available on the CD and in printed copy.
  

• ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Administrator's Guide: Explains how to start and stop the servers, configure and connect to server components, manage performance, and maintain the servers. It is available on the CD and in printed copy.
  

• ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Installation Quick Start: This short document provides a brief overview of requirements, enhancements, and installation instructions. It is available on the CD and in printed copy.
  

• ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Readme: Provides last-minute release notes. It is available on the CD as essreadme.htm.
  

• Hyperion documentation is available on the CD.

Release Notes

• To use Query/Report Writer 6.5 with ShowCase Essbase 7.1, you must apply the current ShowCase Suite patch.

• If you install the Essbase 7.1 client on a PC that currently has ShowCase Suite 6.51 or earlier, you should apply the latest patches to the ShowCase Suite client. Also, do NOT install Essbase client into the same directory as ShowCase Suite.

• During upgrade from Essbase 6.51 to Essbase 7.1, the EIS Catalog password is not properly migrated for a Hybrid Analysis-enabled cube or for an EIS-generated cube with SQL drill-through reports. This will result in connection failure to the EIS Catalog. You may receive an "Unable to Initialize Hybrid Analysis for [database]" message during database startup for a Hybrid Analysis-enabled cube. Running EIS drill-through reports will return a password error. Perform the following steps to avoid this problem. (20942)
  
  -- Open the metaoutline using the EIS console window and, from the Outline menu, select Update Hybrid Analysis Data. This will reset the Hybrid Analysis password.
  
  OR
  
  -- Open the metaoutline using the EIS console window and, from the Outline menu, select Update Drill-Through Data. This will reset the SQL drill-through password.

• EIS .cbs scripts are not migrated when upgrading from Essbase 6.5 to Essbase 7.1.x. A work around for this issue is to either recreate the .cbs scripts from EIS console (after the migration), or perform a find/replace to update existing .cbs scripts. The locale settings will also need to be added (as they are in the Essbase 7.1 script). (28725)

• Aggregate storage (ASO) is not supported in the STRATEGY 6.5 client applications.

• A Virtual Optical Catalog is an iSeries feature that makes it possible to copy a CD-ROM and perform an installation from the copy instead of from the CD-ROM itself. Using Virtual Optical Catalog to install Essbase Servers has not been tested extensively. If you encounter a problem with Virtual Optical Catalog installation, it is recommended that you use the installation procedures documented in the ShowCase Essbase Installation Guide.
  
  A Virtual Optical Catalog example is provided below. After installation, remove the Virtual Optical Catalog. Otherwise, it may unnecessarily be included as part of a future backup/save/restore procedure. (24292)
  
  - CRTDEVOPT DEVD(OPTVRT01) RSRCNAME(*VRT) TEXT('Your Virtual Optical Device')
  - VRYCFG CFGOBJ(OPTVRT01) CFGTYPE(*DEV) STATUS(*ON)
  - CRTIMGCLG IMGCLG(PRHCAT) DIR('/PRHCAT') CRTDIR(*YES)
  - ADDIMGCLGE IMGCLG(PRHCAT) FROMDEV(OPT01)
  - LODIMGCLG IMGCLG(PRHCAT) DEV(OPTVRT01)
  - LODRUN DEV(OPTVRT01)

• 7.10.000 Issues

  • The ShowCase Essbase 7.10.000 (GA) patch is a US-English-only release. If you plan to use Essbase in a non-US-English environment, you must install patch 7.10.010 or later.

  • Essbase 7.1 uses the ESSLANG variable to connect the server locale with the corresponding Essbase ASCII environment. Western European users should enter the correct ESSLANG value for their environment during installation. For the correct ESSLANG value, see the ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Installation Guide. If you are unsure about which ESSLANG value to use, contact Technical Support.

• 7.10.030 Features, Requirements, and Restrictions

  Note: The latest Hyperion documentation is available on the Hyperion web site at http://dev.hyperion.com/ Click Resource Library and then Technical Documentation. Under Hyperion Essbase, click the Release 7.1.2 link.

  New Features

  • The ShowCase Essbase 7.10.030 patch provides support for OS/400 V5R4.

  • The ShowCase Essbase 7.10.030 patch provides support for non-DB2 iSeries data sources. A new configuration file setting allows you to enable JDBC data source support:

    Setting: SCEnableJDBCSources
    Description: Use this setting to enable or disable JDBC data sources.
    Usage: When TRUE, JDBC sources are listed and processed when a user selects a JDBC data source. When FALSE, JDBC data source support is disabled. FALSE is the default setting.

    For more information, see the ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Administrator's Guide.

  The ShowCase Essbase 7.10.030 patch includes the following new Essbase Analytic Services features:

  • Aggregate storage database enhancements, including:

    --Shared member support allows you to create alternate hierarchies within an aggregate storage database. Alternate hierarchies allow the same data to be seen from different points of view. For more information, see the Hyperion Essbase Analytic Services Database Administrator’s Guide.

    --Dynamic and stored hierarchies (including formulas on non-accounts dimensions). In both aggregate storage outlines and block storage outlines, dimensions are structured to contain one or more hierarchies of related levels and members within the levels. 7.10.030 introduces two hierarchy types for aggregate storage databases: stored hierarchies and dynamic hierarchies.
    
    The two types of hierarchies have different advantages and restrictions. A dimension may contain both types.
    
    Formulas are no longer restricted to the dimension tagged as accounts and you can specify a solve order property to define calculation order.
    
    For more information, see Volume IV of the Hyperion Essbase Analytic Services Database Administrator’s Guide.

    --Increase in maximum outline size from 2³² to 2⁵² stored dimension level combinations. For information on how to calculate the number of stored dimension level combinations in an outline, see the Hyperion Essbase Analytic Services Database Administrator’s Guide.

    --Usage-based view selection. To determine the default aggregate view selection, Analytic Services considers storage requirements and retrieval performance based on the outline structure and data load. In 7.10.030, Analytic Services can further optimize view selection by tracking query data to determine which data is retrieved most often. For example, during view selection, you can give more weight to views that are required to run monthly or daily batch reports. Through Essbase Administration Services and MaxL, you can determine which data is most used by turning on query tracking. For more information, see the Essbase Administration Services Online Help and Hyperion Essbase Analytic Services Database Administrator’s Guide.

    --MAXL support for aggregation scripts. You can now use MaxL to save a selection of aggregate views in an aggregation script. For more information on aggregation scripts, see the Hyperion Essbase Analytic Services Database Administrator’s Guide. For more information on the MaxL statements used with aggregation scripts, see the Hyperion Technical Reference.

    --Outline file compaction. As changes are made to an aggregate storage outline file (.otl file), the file can increase in size as it gets fragmented. With this release, you can reduce the outline file size by compacting the file to remove the records of members that have been deleted. You can compact the outline file using Essbase Administration Services or the API, or by using one of the following commands and statements:
    
    Alter database (MaxL)
    COMPACTOUTLINE (ESSCMD)
    
    For more information, see the Hyperion Essbase Analytic Services Database Administrator’s Guide. For specific details about the settings and commands, see the Hyperion Technical Reference.

  The ShowCase Essbase 7.10.030 patch includes the following new Essbase Administration Services features:

  • Support for new aggregate storage functionality provided by Analytic Services.

  • Support for new usage-based view selection provided by Analytic Services.

  • Outline-file compaction. As changes are made to an aggregate storage outline file (.otl file), the file can increase in size as it is fragmented. Using Administration Services Console, you can compact the outline file to remove the records of members that have been deleted. For more information, see the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

  • Clearing aggregations. There may be circumstances when you want to manually clear aggregations from the disk; for example, to make the disk space available for disk-intensive operations. Clearing aggregations from aggregate storage databases clears all data except level 0 values. After aggregations are cleared, queries calculate retrieved values dynamically from level 0 values. Using Administration Services Console, you can clear only aggregations from an aggregate storage database, or you can clear all data. For more information, see Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

  • User-interface improvements designed to increase administrator productivity:

    --You can now manage user/group access from the context of an individual application or database.

    --Using Migration Wizard, you can now migrate applications in the background so you can work on other tasks in Administration Services Console as the migration processes.

    --Security filters for each database are now displayed in tabular format.

    --To enable you to get status at-a-glance for an application or database, icons next to application and database nodes in Enterprise View indicate the type and status of the applications or database. For example, different icons are used to represent whether an application or database is started or stopped, block storage versus aggregate storage, or Unicode versus non-Unicode.

    --All script editors now include an option to set tab stops in the script editing panel, options to enable line and word wrapping in the script editing panel, and an option to enable/disable auto-completion in Formula Editor.

    --Additional information is displayed in the Administration Server properties window (for example, current ARBORPATH and ESSLANG values).

    For more information, see the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

  • Reduced security-file fragmentation. Fragmentation of the Essbase security file (essbase.sec) can gradually develop when Analytic Services entities such as users, groups, applications, or databases are removed or changed. Too much fragmentation can slow down security-related performance. To reduce fragmentation, use the Administration Services Console to compact the security file at any time. For more information, see the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

  • MDX script editor enhancements. To enhance user-friendliness and provide commonality with other script editors, MDX script editor now provides an outline tree and an MDX functions tree within the editor. These enhancements enable you to insert outline members and MDX functions into a script without having to type them manually. For more information, see Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

  • Manual database restructuring. For block storage databases only, you can use Administration Services Console to manually kick off a full restructure of the database to reduce or eliminate fragmentation. For more information, see Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

  • “Hyperion Home” migration utilities. Two new utilities enable you to move the location of Hyperion Home, the location where common Hyperion components are now installed. One utility physically moves the common components to the new location, and the second utility fixes all internal references to the Hyperion Home location. For more information, see the Hyperion Essbase Administration Services Installation Guide.

  Requirements

  • Important: To log on to the Administration Console, users must enter the IP and the port number at the log-on dialog box in the following format:
    
    172.20.1.55:9001 (where 172.20.1.55 is the IP address and 9001 is the port number).
    
    For more information, see the ShowCase Essbase 7.1 Administrator's Guide.

  • For ShowCase Essbase Server patch 7.10.030, the following client patch levels are required:
    
    Analytic Services 7.1.3
    Essbase Administration Services (EAS) 7.1.3
    Essbase Integration Services (EIS) 7.1.2

  • For Essbase Administration Server (EAS) patch 7.10.030, 5722AC3 Crypto Access Provider 128-bit for AS/400 is recommended. This LPP is shipped with V5R3, but you must order it if you have a pre-V5R3 release.

  Restrictions

  • In a non-US English environment, creating an ASO database with a non-Latin-1 character set is not supported.

  • When building dimensions via SQL and Essbase Integration Services (EIS), some DBCS characters may appear corrupted.

  • DBCS characters used in dimension names for EIS models may appear corrupted.

  • Using DBCS characters in EIS model names and metaoutline names is not supported.

• 7.10.051 Release Notes

  • ShowCase Essbase patch 7.10.051 supports V5R4.

  • When used with V5R4, the Essbase Administration Server (EAS) patch 7.10.051 does not require 5722AC3 Crypto Access Provider 128-bit for AS/400. However, 5722AC3 is recommended when EAS patch 7.10.051 is used with V5R3.

• 7.10.120 Release Note

  • In the ShowCase Essbase Administrator's Guide, page 53 describes editing the bin/ExternalDataSource.cfg file to create a "definition" for each non-iSeries (external) data source. The following guidelines should be noted:
    
    Lines in ExternalDataSource.cfg can contain external data source definitions, comments, or be blank. No other content is supported. If entering a comment, the first two non-white space characters on the line must be two forward slashes (//). The entire line is treated as a comment, so do not insert a comment on the same line as a data source definition. Three elements of a data source definition can be placed on a single line or on separate lines, but there cannot be blank lines between them. The definition’s element, however, cannot split between lines.
    
    The entire ExternalDataSource.cfg content must be valid for external data sources to be displayed. If the there is an error in the .cfg file, only iSeries data sources (no external data sources) are displayed. If external data sources are not being displayed, look for error number 1181009 in the application log.

• 7.10.140 Release Note

  • Essbase Integration Server (EIS) support for Unicode data sources in patch 7.10.140 is disabled by default. To enable it, add the following line to the CFG.EIS file in the Essbase installation library, and then restart EIS. You do not need to restart Essbase OLAP:
    
    ENABLEUNICODESUPPORT   TRUE
    
    To enable EIS Unicode support if your data source is on a remote iSeries, verify that the CCSID value of the user profile you are using to log on to the remote system is set to a value other than 65535. This is an iSeries limitation.