How do you set the ASO Pending Cache Size Limit

 Hi,

You can set the ASO cache by doing the following from the Essbase Administration Services console:
To view or change the size of the aggregate storage cache:
1 Right-click on the ASO Application in the EAS Console and select Edit properties.
2. In the Application Properties window, select the General tab.
3. Next to the Pending cache size limit node, enter a value, in megabytes, for the size of the cache.
4. Click Apply.
The cache setting takes effect after the application is restarted.


NOTE: The Aggregate storage cache facilitates memory usage during data loads, aggregations, and retrievals.

The default cache size is 32 MB. You can use the size of input-level data to determine when to increase the maximum size for the cache.

A 32 MB cache setting supports a database with approximately 2 GB of input-level data. If the input-level data size is greater than 2 GB by some factor, the aggregate storage cache can be increased by the square root of that factor. For example, if the input-level data size is 3 GB (which is 2 GB * 1.5), multiply the aggregate storage cache size of 32 MB by 1.22 (which is approximately the square root of 1.5), and set the aggregate cache size to the result: 39.04 MB.

Do not increase the maximum size of the aggregate storage cache beyond what is needed.

Smart View gives an error "Decompression Failed"

While working with Smartview you may get the error "Decompression Failed".
This error may also occur if the Smart View connection has timed out with the additional Message  "Grid Operation Failed".

The above error may occurs because of  Microsoft Windows is timing out the connection. Windows network time outs can be too short for large data sets to retrieve.

The solution for the error is:
If users have IE7 Installed, the default timeout is 30 seconds. Below links will assist in increase the time out.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813827
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181050

And also set the below settings for the smartview netretrycount errors. below is the link.
http://suneelkanthala.blogspot.in/2012/06/smart-view-timout-issue.html


After making the changes, the client machine must be rebooted.

Thanks,
Suneel Kanthala.
suneel.kanthala@gmail.com

Automation of Dimension Extraction of Essbase

We are going to see the Automation of Essbase Dimension Extraction using Outline Extractor.

We can download Outline Extractor software from http://www.appliedolap.com

Step - 1:

You should install the Outline extractor software you have downloaded.





Step - 2:

Create a batch file providing the details of the application, Server, DB and Dimension which you want to extract. below is the code you can use

cd C:\Program Files\olapunderground\Essbase Outline Extractor

win C:\Program Files\olapunderground\Essbase Outline Extractor\exportdim.exe ServerName/AdminName/Password/ApplicationName/DatabaseName/DimensionName/Path where extracted file to be stored/!/ Doc/11111111111111111111/Text

You can schedule the below batch file to run at fixed time using various schedulers like Window scheduler etc



Hyperion Planning Data Form Design Considerations

Recommended Design:

• Keep Dense dimensions in rows and columns.
• Place Sparse dimensions in Page and Point of View (POV).
• Place Static dimensions in POV and hide these dimensions where not relevant to the form.
• Plance Scenario, Version and Year Dimensions in the Page wherever possible.
• Use dynamic user vairables and substitution variable as much as possible.
• Use Run on Save and Run on Load for business rules on data forms only where business rules can completed execution within short timeframe (say less than 30 sec.). All other business rules should be set to launch manually.
• For Planning relase 9.3.0 and later, set long - running business rules to run in the background.
• Limit composite data forms to two data forms where possibble.
• Use the Suppress Missing Data option to skip #MISSING values from resultant data forms.
• Split single larger data forms into multiple smaller data forms with fewer rows and columns.
• Minimize using account annotation on data forms.
• Enable the Mass Allocate feature on data forms only where absolutely necessary. this feature runs calcualtion scripts that can impact data values at intersection to which the end user may not have access.

Optimal Design Ex:

Account - Rows

Time Period - Columns

Entity and other dimensions - Page / POV

Sub-optimal Design Ex:

Entity - Rows

Year - Columns

Account, Time Period, and other Dimensions - Page/POV

Performance Considerations:

• The Run on Save and Run on Load calcualtion options place an additional demand on resources within the Essbase server for each save or load operation performed by end users. If it is necessary to use Run on Save or Run on Load, runtime prompts should be used to restrict the scope of the calcualtion and minimize the impact on users of the Essbase server.
• Review the Hyperion Planning Adminstrator's Guide for steps that detail the execution of large calculations in batch mode. For example, you can set Planning properties to have business rules switch to background processing after a threshold that you configure. In addition , you can run business rules in batch mode using the options under Tools > Business Rules.
• When users access data form members that are dynamically calculated or have member formulas, an additional load is placed on the Essbase server. The impact is more acute during heavier user load.
• The biggest impact on data form performance is the grid size. Grid size consists of the number of rows, multiployby the number of columns. The grid size doubles if an application uses multiple currencies.
• Adjeust the number of cells retrieved to the memory on end user's client machines. To determine the number of cells, multiply the number of rowas by the number of columns.
• The Suppress Missing Blocks option for rows allows placing large sparse dimensions in rows, while providing good response time if the density of the query is low. Only blocks with data are retrieved. For example, when using this option, you can place an employee dimension consisting of thousands of members in the rows, and place the entity in the page or POV. Then, only employees of the selected entity are retrieved.
• Using Suppress Missing Data can improve performance. Before using this feature however it is recommended that you test the impact on performance.
• Using Account annotation impacts performance. Use this option only if account annotations are required.
• If the Supporting Detail Detection Cache reaches 75% or higher, the cache size shoub be increased.
• Enabling shared member security impacts performance. Use this option only if you want the base member's security to be based on its own security and that of all of its shared members. If this option is not enabled, users with access to the base member still have access to all of its shared members.
• The administrator should define data forms using dynamic user variables, to narrow the data form display to the dimensionality required by users. End users can set the value for the user variable in preferences.
• For areas with low bandwidth, it is recommended that users access planning data forms using Smart View for Office for faster response time.
• When Planning is first loaded, the first few requests to Planning can take longer because caches might not be loaded. It is recommended that an administrator or power user preload the most commonly used data forms before the general community uses the Planning server after each reboot to the Planning server.
• It is highly recommended that adminstrators conduct performance test on data forms to ensure that they meet user expectations. Data forms should be tested in both single and multi-user environments before they are deployed to production.
• Data form definitions are cached when users log on to a Planning application. Because one cache is created for data form definitions, memory usage is not affected by the number of users viewing data forms. Howerver, memory usage goes up if multiple users enter data in the data forms at the same time.

Data Form Size Estimation:

To get a rough estimate of data form size, open the data form and select File > Save As from the browser. The size of the .HTML file si the portion of the data form that changes based on grid size. the .JS files reamin the same size and can be cached, depending on browser settings. Information such as data form definitions, pages, and .gif files are not compressed when data froms are opend and sent to the Web browser.

About Suppression:

Planning foolows this basic sequesnce to suppress information in data forms, depending on suppresssion setting for Suppress Missing Blocks and Suppresss Missing Data.

1. First, Planning evaluates the data form definition and creates a grid to send to Essbase.
2. If Suppress Missing Blocks is selectecd for form rows:
1. Planning queries Essbase to determine which members in the data form definition have data blocks. This query tipically takes only a few milliseconds. (This setting is most effective for sparse dimensions, and should no be used for dense dimensions.)
2. Planning then determines which members have data blocks available in Essbase, and filters out members for which the user does not have access permissions.
3. Next, Planning constructs a grid, and sends information to Essbase to fill in the data. (The constructed grid is generally very small, so the result is returned quickly from Essbase.)
4. If Suppress Missing Data is selected, Planning suppresses data for any #MISSING data element. (This operation generally occurs quickly. However, if a large volume of data is set to #MISSING, or blocks are created but have no data, this can take some time.)
5. Planning then queries the relational database, and marks every cell to show whether it has supporting details and cell text.
6. The web data form is then presented to the user.

Thanks,

Suneel

Essbase Tuning For Planning Applications

Tuning Essbase for use with Planning in order to improve performance and avoid errors araising from a lack of resources when running Business Rules and Calculation Scripts.

The Folling are basic guidelines for Essbase tuning that are intended to cover the use of Essabse with Planning applications.

To Improve performance go through each of the suggested optimizations below and then test to see where the most progress is made. Always remember to back up your Essabse data before making any changes.

1. Block Size: The recommended block size is between 8Kb and 100Kb. the only wat to alter block size is to change sparse dimensions to dense or vice versa. Changing a dense dimention to sparse will reduce block size and increate the overall number of blocks. See the Planning documentation for more information on setting dimensions to be dense or sparse.

2. Vertual Memory: Recommended virual memory setting for Window sytems: 2 to 3 times the RAM Available. 1.5 times the RAM on older systems.

3. Chaches:

Index Cache:
Minimum: 1Mb
Default: 10 Mb
Recommended: combined size of all ESS*.IND files if possible;
otherwise as large as possible given the availbal RAM

DataFile Cache:
Minium: 8 Mb
Default: 32 Mb
Recommended: combined size of all ESS*.PAG files if possible;
Otherwise as large as possible given the available RAM, up to a maximum of 2GB.

Importent: The Data File Cache is not used if the database is buffered rather than direct I/O (Check the "Storage" tab). Since all Planning databases are buffered, and most customers use buffered for native Essbase apllications too, this cache setting is usually not relevant. the Data Cache is the setting that matters in most cases.

Data Cache:
Miniumum: 3 Mb
Default: 3 Mb
Recommended: 0.125 * combined size of all ESS*.PAG files, if possible, otherwise as large as possible given the available RAM.

Note: A useful indication of the health of the caches can be gained by looking at the "Hit Ratio" for the cache on the Statistics tab in EAS. 1.0 is the best possible ratio, lower means lower performance.

4. Disk Space: The recommended disk space is a minimum of double the combined total of all .IND and .PAG files. You need double the space because you have to have room for a restructure, whcih will require twice the usal storage space whilst it is ongoing.


Thanks,
Suneel

Enabling Query Tracking in ASO Database

The following steps provide the retrieval statistics for alternate views from ASO.

1. Load data.
2. Aggregate the data using (right mouse click on the database, select Aggregation design Wizard). 
3. 1st time, select radio button "Use recommended views to materialize aggregation".
4. Next, right mouse click on the database and select "Query Tracking" -> "Enable Query Tracking".
5. Next, drill down to the intersection you want to aggregate from the Excel add-in. Be sure to drill from parent to children so that you have from 5 to 9 retrievals.
6. In EAS right mouse click on the database to select Aggregation Design Wizard again.
7. This time select Design, materialize, and Save aggregation.
8. Next select "Add to existing aggregate view selection".
9. Next select "Select all recommended aggregate views".
10. Next select "Use query tracking data during view selection".
11. Start 
12. Next select Materialize aggregation. 
13. Finish

This will track usage patterns and allow for aggregations which will hopefully be more efficient to the client's query patterns.  You have to make sure you have data in the database and you should do a few retrievals (10 to be exact) to setup a pattern to ensure that query tracking will work.

For more information please refer to “Selecting Views Based on Usage” in the Hyperion Essbase - Database Administrator's Guide  and  "Tracking Query Data for Aggregation View Selection" in the Essbase Essbase Administration Services Online Help at the following link:
http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/performance-management/documentation/index.html

Find the Size of ASO Database in ESSBASE

To Find the size of ASO Database in essbase below is the Maxl Script.

Query database "Dbs_Name" get cube_size_info;

This will display information about the input data size, aggregated data size, and number of queries tracked (when query tracking is enabled).

input_data_size_cells - Number of input-level cells in the cube
input_data_size_bytes - Number of bytes used by the input-level data (approximate)
aggregate_data_size_cells - Total number of cells in all aggregate views in the cube
aggregate_data_size_bytes - Number of bytes used by the aggregate cells (approximate)
kernel_queries_tracked - Number of kernel queries executed since the last time query tracking was enabled or query tracking information was reset
total_query_cost - Total cost of all queries executed since the last time query tracking information was reset
query_tracking_enabled - Values: True or False. Tells whether user retrieval statistics are being collected for the aggregate storage database

For further information please refer to the Essbase Technical Reference Guide.


Thanks.

Unable To Obtain Connection To Hyperion Essbase

Unable To Obtain Connection To Hyperion Essbase

This issue come from the Planning Webform and Smart View as shown below.

1. When accessing a Planning Web Form, the following error appears:  "The data form 'data form name' is invalid, Unable to obtain a connection to Hyperion Essbase."
2. When using Smart View and connecting to Planning, the following error appears: "Cannot open cube view. Essbase Error (1019038): DB file is missing."

Possible Causes for this issue are

1. Deletion of the dbname.db from the application's three databases.
2. Extra Essbase server processes that are still running and should be stopped.
3. An unresponsive application that needs a restart.
4. An unresponsive Essbase server.
5. Essbase network configuration is not set correctly for your environment.

Solution #1
This solution is based upon the additional error message "Cannot open cube view. Essbase Error (1019038): DB file is missing."  Please check for the application file, dbname.db, and make sure it exists under the application directory.  To check, do the following:

1. Go to the server where the Essbase server is installed. Locate the dbname.db in the ARBORPATH/app/appname/dbname/ directory.
2. Once you are at the dbname folder, if the dbname.db is missing, restore a copy of dbname.db from backup or rename your dbname.dbb to dbname.db.  The dbname.dbb is located in the same directory, ARBORPATH/app/appname/dbname/.  Do this for the rest of the databases under your appname folder if they are missing the dbname.db.
3. Restart all services.
4. Refresh Planning to Essbase.

Solution #2
Sometimes there are Essbase server processes that are running that should not be.  Confirm this by stopping all Essbase related activities.  If you still see an Essbase process running in Task Manager, follow these steps:

1. From Task Manager, select End Task on the Essbase process, ESSSVR.exe.  
2. When there are multiple Essbase processes in Task Manager and you don't know which one to End Task,  end all Essbase processes.  If you know that no one is running any Essbase related processes, then you are safe to end the processes.

Note:  Once the Essbase process has ended, you do not have to restart services.

Solution #3
In the case of an unresponsive application, you simply stop and start your Planning application from the Essbase Administration Services console.

1. From the EAS console, go to the application.
2. Right-click on the application and select Stop.
3. Right-click on the application again, and select Start.
4. If login still fails with the same error then:

Solution #4
An unresponsive Essbase server can cause this problem.  This communication problem with Planning and Essbase can be resolved by simply restarting the Essbase and Planning servers.

Solution #5
You can set your network settings for Essbase in the Essbase.cfg file to resolve your Essbase connection problem. . 
To set NETDELAY and NETRETRYCOUNT:
If you do not have an $ARBORPATH/bin/essbase.cfg file on your server computer and client computer in the $ARBORPATH\bin directory, create one using a text editor.

1. In the $ARBORPATH/bin/essbase.cfg file on both the server and client computer, set NETDELAY to a default value of 200.
2. In the $ARBORPATH/bin/essbase.cfg file on both the server and client computer, set NETRETRYCOUNT to a default value of 300.
3. Stop and restart Essbase Server.

Note:  You want to increase it until your issue is resolved, or until you have reached a maximum combined total of around 10 minutes for both values

Thanks.

Failed to Intialize Maxl or Esscmd

Failed to intialize Maxl or Esscmd in Window - 64bit Platforms:

If you get any error when running the maxl script from the cmd prompt : Failed to Initialize MaxL

Problem Cause: Essbase Runtime Client(RTC) installation installs both 32 bit and 64 bit (\common\EssbaseRTC and \common\EssbaseRTC-64).  On a 64 bit box, you need to run the 64 bit programs. Thus the environment variables  (ARBORPATH, ESSBASEPATH and PATH) should point to 64 bit, rather than 32 bit.

Manually set the below environment variables to 64 bit.

ARBORPATH -> D:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R!\common\EssbaseRTC-64\11.1.2.0
ESSBASEPATH -> D:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R!\common\EssbaseRTC-64\11.1.2.0
PATH -> D:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R!\common\EssbaseRTC-64\11.1.2.0\bin

Run the programs esscmd for Esscmd and essmsh for MaxL from D:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R!\common\EssbaseRTC-64\11.1.2.0\bin

Note: Since the startup scripts startEsscmd.cmd and startMaxL.cmd are not installed in the above directory, esscmd and essmsh must be used to run the programs.

Thanks.

Increase Timeout settings for Smartview in IIS

Increase Timeout settings for Smartview in IIS

In Normal scenarios, Increasing the session timeout might result in performance issue; as more "dead" sessions are kept open much longer, more processing power is wasted on them. To have long session timeouts is also considered bad practice from a security poit of view. not that these timeouts are anly enforced on idel sessions, i.e. when the user will not "click anything" for that amount of time.  For this reason, rarely need to be set to anything higher than 120 minutes.

The following instruction change the idle timeout from default 20 minutes to 30 mintures in Microsoft Internet Information Services (IIS).

1. Go to Start > All Programs > Adminstrative Tools > Internet Information Services (IIS) Manager.
2. Expand the server node <Server name> (Local computer).
3. Right click on the application pool node.
4. Select Properties
5. Select the performance tab.
6. Change the Idle timeout value from 20 to 30 minutes.
7. Click Appliy.
8. Click OK.
9. Expand the node Seb Sites.
10. Right click on the HFM sebsite
11. Got to Properites > Home Directory tab > Configuration button > Options tab
12. Change the Enable session state > Session timeout value from 20 to 30 minutes.
13. Click OK
14. Click OK
15. Test that timout is not the new value.