So, after announcing that the release of a major new release of the Oracle EPM suite was imminent on April 7th 2010 (http://www.oracle.com/us/corporate/press/066183) , we have been waiting with bated breath to get our hands on the software.

Daily since then I have checked the Oracle eDelivery site to see if it was available for download and each day, much to my disappointment, nothing… until today when a gleaming new media pack for “Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (11.1.2.0.0)” appeared in my search results.

So, I have now started the process of hammering our network connection to get all the software downloaded and ready to be set up an initial development environment.

To whet your whistle, here’s a few of the new features that are available in this release:

• New user-interface for Workspace
• Intelligent approval workflows in Hyperion Planning
• Web-form development for Hyperion Planning that enables better business user productivity
• SmartView integration with Microsoft Outlook
• Improvements to Hyperion Profitability & Cost Management (HPCM) including expanded cost and revenue driver function
• Tighter integration between Hyperion Financial Data-Quality Management (FDM) and Oracle Essbase, EBS and PeopleSoft

Keep an eye on this blog as I will be posting about my experiences with installing, configuring and using EPM 11.1.2.

I recently received a new laptop for work with Windows 7 (which is excellent I must add!) and, as part of all the things you do when you get a new machine, I was going through the process of re-installing all my development and demonstration software.

Working down my list I came to Oracle Data Integrator, found my installation media and ran the setup.bat file only to be greeted with the following:

So, ODI is a supported install up to Windows 6.0 (Vista) but the installation does not yet include Windows 7 (which is actually Windows 6.1?).

This is not an insurmountable problem and to get ODI to install on Windows 7, you need to make a change to the oraparam.ini file located in “setup\Windows\Disk1\install\”

Open the file and look for the section headed [Certified Versions].  In here you will see a line which contains the “certified” versions of Windows that ODI can be installed on.  When initially installing ODI, the line reads as follows:

Windows=4.0,5.0,5.1,5.2,6.0

Change the line to now read:

Windows=4.0,5.0,5.1,5.2,6.0,6.1

Save the oraparams.ini file and re-run setup.bat.  When the Oracle Universal Installer checks the version of the operating system, this should now pass (see below) and you can install ODI as normal.

Incidentally, when the actual Oracle Installer starts, you may get the following message – this is nothing to worry about but your screens theme may change while this is running.

With ODI installed on Windows 7, I’ve had no issues running Topology Manager, Designer or Operator so everything else appears to be working fine.

OK – I’ll admit that I’m a little late in posting about this but you know what it’s like around this time of year.  Anyway, ran my query on Oracle support for ODI patches and it appears that a new patch has been available since 10th December 2009 that takes ODI to version 10.1.3.5.5.

Of particular interest to myself was the fact that this update appears to fix a few bugs relating to Oracle Essbase knowledge modules.

The details below are some of the changes being provided in the release:

Modified knowledge modules (KMs):

• LKM Hyperion Essbase METADATA to SQL

• IKM SQL to Hyperion Essbase (DATA)

• RKM SAP ERP

• LKM SAP ERP to Oracle (SQLLDR)

• RKM Salesforce.com

Bugs fixed in this release:

• 7274910 - Killing a Session generates the following error on DB2 UDB repositories: "DB2 SQL error: SQLCODE: -408, SQLSTATE: 42821, SQLERRMC: I_TXT_STEP_MESS".

• 8446089 - Master Repository upgrade resets the data servers' URLs.

• 8529169 - "Class not registered" error while loading metadata into Hyperion Financial Management classic application using an 64-Bit HFM Client.
  A new 64-bit driver (HFMDriver64.dll) has been added to the /oracledi/drivers directory. To use this driver on a 64-Bit platform with a 64-Bit HFM Client installed, rename HFMDriver.dll as HFMDriver32.dll and rename HFMDriver64.dll as HFMDriver.dll.

• 8636504 - Customized reverse-engineering using RKM Salesforce.com fails with the error "UNKNOWN_EXCEPTION: Destination URL not reset. The URL returned from login must be set in the SforceService" .

• 8640312 - SNP_EXP_TXT still contains records for session variables after a log purge.

• 8713986 - Consolidation attribute "^" (Never Consolidate - Added in Essbase 9.3.1) is not handled in the Essbase KM. The Extract Metadata step fails with error "No_matching_Enum_found".

• 8844655 - Metadata Navigator Data Lineage feature fails to work in headless mode.

• 8912703 - When an Essbase member is rejected due to error "3303: Member not found in database" the log does not indicate which member caused the record to be rejected.

• 8988790 - ODI internal IDs reset to 0 once its limit is reached causing repository corruption. In this version internal IDs are no longer automatically reset to zero.

• 8989114 - Users having only View privilege cannot see procedure and KM lines and receive the error: "You are not authorized to Edit the Object"

• 9076431 - Historized variables do not return the latest variable value if an internal ID (SNP_VAR_DATA.I_VAL) reset was performed for variable values (bug 8988790). This version solves this problem by taking the latest value based on value creation date and not the internal ID.

• 9080483 - Essbase Interface fails with "ImportError: No module named hyperion" on the "Prepare for loading step" when loading ASO/BSO data into Essbase.

• 9126706 -  Metadata Navigator does not start after deploying the oracledimn.war from the ODI patch 10.1.3.5.3

I was recently using SmartView to connect to a development and test server for Essbase queries and found myself using the feature in the options for “Override Default” on the Provider Services URL.  This option basically allows you to flip between two different installations of Provider Services.

Similarly, I also found that if the default URL is not correct or not connecting when you click the “Connect to Provider Services” link in the SmartView Data Source Manager, you get the “Change APS URL” button.  Click this and it will also take you to the SmartView options.  However, this still does not mean that you can change the “Default URL” – rather you will again have to provide an override URL.

All of this got me thinking - what if you wanted the http://oraepm:13080/aps/SmartView URL to be the default provider and to have a different URL as an override?  Additionally, what if the default you have been given is incorrect and needs to be changed.  If you use the options in SmartView, it is not possible to change the “Default URL” value but it is possible to go and change the default value in the properties.xml file.

This file can be found at the following location:

D:\Hyperion\products\Foundation\SmartView\cfg\properties.xml (where D:\Hyperion\ is the folder that Oracle EPM is installed)

Open the file and you will find the following:

In the XML file, change the value in the <url></url> tags to be the Provider Services connection that you want to use as a default and then save the properties.xml file.

Once the change has been made, go to the SmartView options (or if they are already open, close and re-open). 

In the “Hyperion Provider Service URL” area, the changed – default – URL will now reflect the value from the properties.xml file

As before, if you want to have an additional Provider Services connection, this is managed by selecting the “Override Default” option and entering the appropriate URL.

Now, this could be viewed as a slightly convoluted way to change the default but at least it is possible– it’s just via the backdoor!

I’ve recently been installing Oracle Essbase on my laptop in order to do some local development activities with Essbase Studio and – due to certain problems on my machine – I needed to perform this installation a couple of times (the database that I’m using as a repository is SQL Server 2008 which, so far, has not caused any problems being used with EPM).

Once I had eventually installed the software and configured the Shared Services and Essbase components, I went to start-up the Essbase Studio Server service and it kept bombing out.

So, I thought I would stick a pause statement into startServer.bat file located in the D:\Hyperion\products\Essbase\EssbaseStudio\Server folder (replace D:\Hyperion with your own local installation folder) to see what was going on.

“Pause” duly inserted, I re-ran startServer.bat and discovered the “SEVERE Cannot initialize catalog storage” error:

Incidentally, the error can also be found in the server.log file which can be found at D:\Hyperion\logs\esbstudio

So, consider me confused – the configuration process completed OK when it was performing the database configuration tasks but Essbase Studio Server cannot connect to the SQL Server repository.

First place I had a look was in the server.properties file (D:\Hyperion\products\Essbase\EssbaseStudio\Server) which looks like:

catalog.autoinit=true
catalog.username=oraepmsys
catalog.url=sqlserver\://SERVERNAME\:1433
catalog.password=ihhjCZwhjdcjY37d1efg62A\=\=
catalog.db=OracleEPM.dbo
server.hss.bpmApplication=BPM\:79100

In this I checked:

catalog.username - Fine.

catalog.db - OK (I have had problems with that in the initial release of Essbase Studio where the dbo was placed before the server name)

catalog.url - Was the server name and I tried switching it to localhost or the IP address and re-running startServer.bat; still no luck.

With these options exhausted, I thought I should check whether the user being used to connect to the database had the default dbo schema.

Turns out it did but while I was checking this I spotted something, the user had no “Default database” value defined. 

This was because I had:

• Created a database (oraepm) and user (oraepmsys)
• Assigned the oraepmsys user to the oraepm database and set the users “Default database” to be oraepm
• Installed and configured Essbase
• Uninstalled Essbase
• Deleted the original repository database
• Created a new database (oracleepm) and mapped the oraepmsys user to the new database
• Re-installed Essbase

When I deleted the oraepm database, the oraepmsys users default database value was also removed.

I then set the oraepmsys user to have a default database and then tried again to start the Essbase Studio Server which subsequently started successfully.

Obviously, this gives rise to a question as to how the Essbase Studio server handles connections given that Shared Services had no qualms in obtaining a connection to the database.

Was just doing some searches on the Oracle support site and it appears that a new patch is available for ODI taking it to version 10.1.3.5.4 (well, it appeared 5 days ago but this was the first time I’ve checked for updates and patches since last Wednesday).  The details below are some of the changes being provided in the release:

New knowledge modules (KMs):

• Load Knowledge Module(LKM) File to Netezza (NZLOAD)

• LKM MSSQL to Oracle (BCP/SQLLDR)

• Reverse-engineering Knowledge Module (RKM) for  MSSQL

Modified KMs:

• RKM Oracle

• LKM File to Oracle

• LKM File to Teradata (TTU)

• LKM SQL to Teradata (TTU)

• Check Knowledge Module (CKM) for Teradata

• Integration Knowledge Modul (IKM) File to Teradata (TTU)

• IKM SQL to Teradata (TTU)

• IKM Teradata Control Append

Additionally, there is an update for SAP ABAP Technology that is used in Topology Manager.

Bugs fixed in this release:

• 6447278 - RKM Oracle doesn't import the check constraints of tables.

• 8550987 - LKM File to Oracle (SQLLDR) fails with error: "Field in data file exceeds maximum length" when loading a file that contains a string longer than 255 characters.

• 8605840 - Model or Model folder creation fails with java.lang.stackoverflowerror if the user is not a supervisor user having metadata admin profile.

• 8854189 - ODI Master Repository import incorrectly deletes existing data server connections if the insert_update mode is selected.

• 8871204 - Master Repository import aborts when user expands a node in Topology Manager.

• 8899683 - JKM DB2 400 Simple (Journal) does not handle uncommitted transaction with CDCRTVJRN.

• 8904234 - Sessions continue to execute even if the Master Repository connection is terminated.

• 8917148 - Timestamp datatypes loose time precision after the millisecond when data is loaded via the agent.

On Monday I attended a session that covered off the future of Oracle EPM and I felt it would be worth providing some information regarding some of the potential features coming up.

Now, before I start providing some of the highlights, I just need to add that I say “potential features” due to the fact that these presentations are always prefaced by a disclaimer telling us that what we are being told about may – or may not – appear in the products (and that no purchasing decision should  be made based on these possible items), so consider this line my own disclaimer.  Additionally, there is no deeper coverage of the features as the session was very much a set of highlights of what’s coming up without any physical product demonstrations.

Before the speakers delved into the detail, the key portfolio objectives were outlined as  being:

• Provide a system that can deliver a complete and integrated financial close process
• Extend the planning platform
• Improving the usability features
• Integration
• Portfolio-wide enhancements

So, high-level strategy covered? Check.

Now, let’s get down to the new stuff (and please note, this is a highlights list):

Essbase

• Improved deployment of Essbase applications from EPMA
• Functional enhancements to Essbase, Administration Services (EAS) and Provider Services (APS)
• Enhance the Essbase Studio usability and functionality

 Hyperion Planning

• Improved process control including enabling additional reviewers for submissions, providing “out-of-office” for approvals, and conditional promotion paths
• New web-form designer providing drag-and-drop and WYSIWYG features
• Enhancements to the web-forms including the ability to freeze/sort/filter a form, ad-hoc data entry, member selection, conditional formatting and “traffic-lighting”

Hyperion Profitability & Cost Management (HPCM)

• Expanded cost driver functions for standard costing drivers and sequence dependant drivers
• Gains in application performance in areas such as direct allocations, genealogy allocations and assignment import
• Expanded assignment functionality

SmartView

• Integration with Microsoft Outlook to allow for items like Planning tasks appearing as Outlook tasks and calendar items
• Deliver functional parity with the Planning web-forms
• Office ribbon changing depending on the EPM component being connected to

Enterprise Performance Management Architect (EPMA)

• Enhanced support for Essbase (both BSO and ASO cubes)
• Smart-mapping of Hyperion Planning applications to ASO cubes for reporting
• Hyperion Financial Management copy application functionality

Calculation Manager

• Procedural calculations against an Essbase ASO cube
• Parameter passing

Data-Relationship Management (DRM)

• Full-featured web user-interface
• Multiple DRM applications on one server
• Internationalisation and Unicode support
• Improved navigation for large, flat hierarchies

In conclusion, Oracle EPM is of significant interest to me as many of the products form a key part of the Altius Consulting Oracle strategy and seeing some of the features that are on the horizon are going to significantly extend the capabilities of an already feature-rich system.  Additionally, the high-level key objectives are very much aligned to the key messaging that is so far coming out of OpenWorld 2009 – messages of “Integration” and “Innovation”.

When are these going to appear?  Who knows - release dates are very rarely (if ever) mentioned in these type of presentations so all we can do is wait - but when I find out myself, i’ll be sure to let you know.