Release Notes

OLAP Starter Kit

24.1 Completing the DB2 OLAP Starter Kit Setup on AIX and Solaris

The DB2 OLAP Starter Kit install follows the basic procedures of the DB2 UDB install for UNIX. The product files are laid down by the installer to a system directory owned by root user: (for AIX: /usr/lpp/db2_07_01; for Solaris: /opt/IBMdb2/V7.1).

Then during the instance creation phase, two DB2 OLAP directories will be created (essbase and is) within the instance user's home directory under sqllib. Only one instance of OLAP server can run on a machine at a time. To complete the set up, user must manually set the is/bin directory so that it is not a link to the is/bin directory in the system. It should link to a writable directory within the instance's home directory.

To complete the setup for AIX, logon using the instance ID, change to the sqllib/is directory, then enter the following:

rm bin
mkdir bin 
cd bin 
ln -s /usr/lpp/db2_07_01/is/bin/ismesg.mdb ismesg.mdb 
ln -s /usr/lpp/db2_07_01/is/bin/olapicmd olapicmd 
ln -s /usr/lpp/db2_07_01/is/bin/olapisvr olapisvr 
ln -s /usr/lpp/db2_07_01/is/bin/essbase.mdb essbase.mdb 
ln -s /usr/lpp/db2_07_01/is/bin/libolapams.a libolapams.a

To complete the setup for Solaris, logon using the instance ID, change to the sqllib/is directory, then enter the following:

rm bin 
mkdir bin 
cd bin 
ln -s /opt/IBMdb2/V7.1/is/bin/ismesg.mdb ismesg.mdb 
ln -s /opt/IBMdb2/V7.1/is/bin/olapicmd olapicmd 
ln -s /opt/IBMdb2/V7.1/is/bin/olapisvr olapisvr 
ln -s /opt/IBMdb2/V7.1/is/bin/essbase.mdb essbase.mdb 
ln -s /opt/IBMdb2/V7.1/is/bin/libolapams.so libolapams.so

24.2 Logging in from OLAP Integration Server Desktop

To use DB2 OLAP Integration Server Desktop to create OLAP models and metaoutlines, you must connect the client software to two servers: DB2 OLAP Integration Server and DB2 OLAP Server. The login dialog prompts you for the necessary information for the Desktop to connect to these two servers. On the left side of the dialog, enter information about DB2 OLAP Integration Server. On the right side, enter information about DB2 OLAP Server.

To connect to DB2 OLAP Integration Server:

• Server: Enter the host name or IP address of your Integration Server. If you have installed the Integration Server on the same workstation as your desktop, then typical values are "localhost" or "127.0.0.1".
• OLAP Metadata Catalog: When you connect to OLAP Integration Server you must also specify a Metadata Catalog. OLAP Integration Server stores information about the OLAP models and metaoutlines you create in a relational database known as the Metadata Catalog. This relational database must be registered for ODBC. The catalog database contains a special set of relational tables that OLAP Integration Server recognizes. On the login dialog, you can specify an Integration Server and then expand the pull-down menu for the OLAP Metadata Catalog field to see a list of the ODBC data source names known to the OLAP Integration Server. Choose an ODBC database that contains the metadata catalog tables.
• User Name and Password: OLAP Integration Server will connect to the Metadata Catalog using the User name and password that you specify on this panel. This is a login account that exists on the server (not the client, unless the server and client are running on the same machine). The user name must be the user who created the OLAP Metadata Catalog. Otherwise, OLAP Integration Server will not find the relational tables in the catalog database because the table schema names are different.

The DB2 OLAP Server information is optional, so the input fields on the right side of the Login dialog may be left blank. However, some operations in the Desktop and the Administration Manager require that you connect to a DB2 OLAP Server. If you leave these fields blank, then the Desktop will display the Login dialog again if the Integration Server needs to connect to DB2 OLAP Server in order to complete an operation that you requested. It is recommended that you always fill in the DB2 OLAP Server fields on the Login dialog.

To connect to DB2 OLAP Server:

• Server: Enter the host name or IP address of your DB2 OLAP Server. If you are running the OLAP Starter Kit, then your OLAP Server and Integration Server are the same. If the Integration Server and OLAP Server are installed on different hosts, then enter the host name or an IP address that is defined on OLAP Integration Server.
• User Name and Password: OLAP Integration Server will connect to DB2 OLAP Server using the user name and password that you specify on this panel. This user name and password must already be defined to the DB2 OLAP Server. OLAP Server manages its own user names and passwords separately from the host operating system.

24.2.1 Starter Kit Login Example

The following example assumes that you created the OLAP Sample, and you selected db2admin as your administrator user ID, and password as your administrator password during DB2 UDB 7.1 installation.

• For OLAP Integration Server: Server is localhost, OLAP Metadata Catalog is TBC_MD, User Name is db2admin, Password is password
• For DB2 OLAP Server: Server is localhost, User Name is db2admin

24.3 Manually creating and configuring the sample databases for OLAP Integration Server

The sample databases are created automatically when you install OLAP Integration Server. The following instructions explain how to setup the Catalog and Sample databases manually, if necessary.

1. In Windows, open the Command Center window by clicking Start -->Programs-->DB2 for Windows NT--> Command Window.
2. Create the production catalog database:
   1. Type db2 create db OLAP_CAT
   2. Type db2 connect to OLAP_CAT
3. Create tables in the database:
   1. Navigate to \SQLLIB\IS\ocscript\ocdb2.sql
   2. Type db2 -tf ocdb2.sql
4. Create the sample source database:
   1. Type db2 connect reset
   2. Type db2 create db TBC
   3. Type db2 connect to TBC
5. Create tables in the database:
   1. Navigate to \SQLLIB\IS\samples\
   2. Copy tbcdb2.sql to \SQLLIB\samples\db2sampl\tbc
   3. Copy lddb2.sql to \SQLLIB\samples\db2sampl\tbc
   4. Navigate to \SQLLIB\samples\db2sampl\tbc
   5. Type db2 -tf tbcdb2.sql
   6. Type db2 - vf lddb2.sqlto load sample source data into the tables.
6. Create the sample catalog database:
   1. Type db2 connect reset
   2. Type db2 create db TBC_MD
   3. Type db2 connect to TBC_MD
7. Create tables in the database:
   1. Navigate to \SQLLIB\IS\samples\tbc_md
   2. Copy ocdb2.sql to \SQLLIB\samples\db2sampl\tbcmd
   3. Copy lcdb2.sql to \SQLLIB\samples\db2sampl\tbcmd
   4. Navigate to \SQLLIB\samples\db2sampl\tbcmd
   5. Type db2 -tf ocdb2.sql
   6. Type db2 -vf lcdb2.sql to load sample metadata into the tables.
8. Configure ODBC for TBC_MD, TBC, AND OLAP_CAT:
   1. Open the NT control panel by clicking Start-->Settings-->Control Panel
   2. Select ODBC (or ODBC data sources) from the list.
   3. Select the System DSM tab.
   4. Click Add. The Create New Data Source window opens.
   5. Select IBM DB2 ODBC DRIVER from the list.
   6. Click Finish. The ODBC IBM D2 Driver - Add window opens.
   7. Type the name of the data source (OLAP_CAT) in the Data source name field.
   8. Type the alias name in the Database alias field, or click the down arrow and select OLAP_CAT from the list.
   9. Click OK.
   10. Repeat these steps for the TBC_MD and the TBC databases.

24.4 Known problems and limitations

This section lists known limitations for DB2 OLAP Starter Kit, DB2 OLAP Desktop client, Spreadsheet clients, and DB2 OLAP Integration Server

24.4.1 DB2 OLAP Starter Kit

• The currently supported platforms for the DB2 OLAP Starter Kit are Windows, AIX, and Sun Solaris Operating Environment.
• The OLAP Starter Kit includes four sample DB2 OLAP Server applications named Demo, Sampeast, Sample, and Samppart. Each application includes one or more databases. No data is loaded into any of these databases. You must upgrade to the DB2 OLAP Server full product to be able to load data into these databases.
• The incorrect help panels are displayed for:
  • The Query Designer Row-->Measures-->Profit window.
  • The Cascade Options window.
  • The Subset Dialog window.
  • F1 help does not bring up the correct help screen.
• Some words or characters are not translated or are translated incorrectly for the following windows:
  • The Output Options window uses the English words "Default" and "Long Names".
  • Some Application Manager windows and error messages are localized instead of in English.
  • In combined.mtx messages, the variable %s is resolved in English.
  • In the Query Designer, the NLV translated words for Ascending and Descending do not appear when you expand Data Sorting in the left pane.
  • In Database Object Names, some NLV characters are incorrect.
  • The log files contain some incorrect NLV characters.
  • In Application Manager Outline, Japanese characters are incorrect.
• The Application Manager closes when you select Database-->Setting-->Storage-->OK. You receive the following error message: Essadmin.exe Application error "0x004fffce", refer to memory "0x4ca7b075". Memory cannot be "read ". Press OK to finish this application. Press Cancel to debug application.
• You must install Adobe Acrobat in order to use the tutorial and online help.
• There is no migration path from DB2 OLAP server to OLAP Starter Kit. OLAP Starter Kit is targeted for first time OLAP users.

24.4.2 DB2 OLAP Desktop Client

• OLAP Integration Server requires that an accounts dimension with at least one measure be defined in the OLAP Model. If the OLAP model that you use to create a metaoutline does not contain an accounts dimension with one or more measures, and you use the Database Measures tab to create a single measure in the OLAP metaoutline, you can save the metaoutline without receiving an error, but a subsequent member load will fail.
• DB2 OLAP Integration Server occasionally displays Essbase error numbers without the corresponding error message. WORKAROUND: View the message.txt file located in the ISHOME/esslib directory or check the OLAP Integration Server log file.
• DB2 OLAP Integration Server Desktop does not support large fonts. If client-user computer resolution is set to 1024 x 768 pixels or less with large fonts only, buttons in the OLAP Integration Server Desktop Login and Welcome windows are truncated, and usage is restricted. WORKAROUND: On the Windows desktop, select Start--> Settings--> Control Panel -->Display--> Settings. Select Small Fonts from the Font Size drop-down list.
• Process buttons in the OLAP Integration Server Desktop OLAP Model Assistant and OLAP Metaoutline Assistant tabs do not display properly without a color palette of 65536 colors. WORKAROUND: To set the optimum color palette, on the Windows Desktop, select Start--> Settings--> Control Panel -->Display--> Settings. Select 65536 from the Color Palette drop-down list.
• Windows. If there is a date/time transformation and filter on the same member, then DB2 server crashes on Windows NT. This problem does not occur on DB2 servers running on UNIX.
• OLAP Integration Server Desktop only supports table names from 1 to 30 characters in length.
• The Dimension renaming function reacts differently depending on the procedure used. You can use names that contain spaces in the Rename window on a dimension table. You cannot use names that contain spaces in the Rename window of Dimension Properties. WORKAROUND: Do not imbed spaces in dimension names.
• In some environments, the Metaoutline Properties window does not open unless you save the metaoutline before trying to open the window.
• If your operating system file system does not allow names that are longer than eight characters, the member load and view sample functions could fail with error number 2001007.

  The workaround is to start DB2 OLAP Integration Server in a directory that is in a file system that supports longer names.

• An accounts dimension should not be deleted from a metaoutline after the metaoutline has been created. If you need to change the measures in an accounts dimension, delete all existing measures in the metaoutline and then create new measures.
• The View Table Data option in the OLAP Model standard user interface, which enables viewing of relational source table data in the left frame of the OLAP Model main window, has a limit of 1000 rows. Data source rows are displayed in 100-row increments per window by clicking the Next button. The total number of rows retrieved for display cannot exceed the first 1000 rows.

24.4.3 Spreadsheet Clients

• If you use NLV characters in a Lotus 123 spreadsheet name, or use NLV characters in the spreadsheet, you will be unable to connect, retrieve data, or execute any other function from the spreadsheet.
• Rapid double clicking in a cell in Lotus 123 spreadsheet add-in can cause the following error message: Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime error Program c:\lotus\123\123w.exe abnormal program termination. WORKAROUND: Click slowly to expand the cells one at a time.
• In Lotus 123, selecting two rows at same time and then selecting Essbase - Keep only or Remove only, causes only one column to be kept or removed.
• In Lotus 123, an error occurs in the Essbase calculation when several rows are selected.
• AIX. The sample applications do not contain data. You are able to use spreadsheet programs to retrieve the database information, there will be no values displayed other than the dimension and member names. Some values are indicated as missing.
• If a down arrow is pressed in the Linked Objects browser, spreadsheets crash with a DR Watson trap error. The correct error message cannot be displayed.
• In Lotus 123, if no workbook is open, an error message should be displayed when you click on an OLAP Server menu item. Instead no message is displayed, and you receive two warning beeps.
• In Excel, double clicking formulas in the spreadsheet causes formulas to be deleted from the spreadsheet. Specifying Retain on Zooms does not prevent this error.

24.4.4 DB2 OLAP Integration Server

• Currently, only English is supported for scheduling functions. In some non-English environments, using the Tool-->Scheduler function in the OLAP Metaoutline standard user interface on NT client computers causes the OLAP Integration Server to crash. The crash occurs because the NT Scheduler stores scheduling information in language- specific format, and the OLAP Integration Server is unable to parse the information.
• DB2 OLAP Integration Server does not support the GRAPHIC, VARGRAPHIC and LONG VARGRAPHIC data type during View Table operations in the OLAP Model standard user interface. Relational tables containing data with the GRAPHIC, VARGRAPHIC or LONG VARGRAPHIC data type appear blank when View Table is selected in the OLAP model. WORKAROUND: Make the following addition to the DB2CLI.INI file: [SAMPLE] PATCH1=65536 < PATCH2=7 < DBALIAS=SAMPLE
• If OLAP Integration Server encounters a NULL value during a data load, it automatically loads the data into the parent member of the NULL. However, if the NULL is at Generation 2, OLAP Integration Server cannot load the data to the parent member because the parent member is the dimension level member. In this case, OLAP Integration Server records an error in the log file. WORKAROUND: Do not include NULLs at Generation 2.
• OLAP Integration Server does not support Relational Database Management System (RDBMS) column names that have imbedded blanks. If OLAP Integration Server encounters blanks, it generates invalid SQL statements.
• OLAP Integration Server does not read some double-byte character set (DBCS) characters, such as minus (-) signs, when retrieving relational data source values during a preview operation. If OLAP Integration Server encounters such characters during a preview operation, an "Unexpected Error at Condition" error message is displayed.
• Using the DBCS minus sign (-) character in a column concatenation in an OLAP model generates a syntax error during member loads. WORKAROUND: When performing transformations on columns in an OLAP model, do not use a minus sign, a hyphen, or a dash (-) character in the column name. Do not use relational tables or relational table columns that include a minus sign, a hyphen or a dash (-) character.
• AIX. When you start the sample application, you will see a message indicating that the server does not have the currency conversion option.
• Windows: Two sample catalog databases are created during installation for use with the DB2 OLAP Integration Server. However, if you try to login into one of these databases from the DB2 OLAP Integration Server Desktop, you receive a CLI error message 'Invalid connection string attribute'. WORKAROUND: Update the db2cli.ini file located in the sqllib directory, following these steps:
  1. Make a backup copy of db2cli.ini.
  2. Delete 'DATABASE=OLAPCATP' and 'DATABASE=OLAPCATD' from each stanza.

     [OLAPCATP]
     DATABASE=OLAPCATP <----------------------------------(delete)
     DESCRIPTION=OLAPCATP
     DBALIAS=OLAPCATP 
      
      
     [OLAPCATD]
     DATABASE=OLAPCATD <---------------------------------(delete)
     DESCRIPTION=OLAPCATD
     DBALIAS=OLAPCATD  
     

• Hyperion Integration Server does not add a metaoutline filter description in the OLAP Metaoutline Assistant.
• Use the following workaround to avoid a scheduling problem in the AIX English version environment.

  For all new AIX servers, add <username> to the /var/adm/cron/cron.allow command to allow scheduling for the specified user. Create an empty file named <username> for the specified user and provide permission equal to 555 in the var/spool/crontabs directory. A similar setup is required for other UNIX environments; for details, see the man page for crontab.

• A DBCS space is not recognized as a DBCS space by OLAP Integration Server. The following transformation space settings do not work for source data columns that contain a DBCS space:
  • Dropping leading/trailing spaces
  • Converting spaces to underscores
  • Concatenating
• OLAP Integration Server cannot save a dimension description in the OLAP Model Assistant if the description contains DBCS characters.
• OLAP Integration Server does not support pass-through (database specific) transformations using SQL functions. Specifying a built-in RDBMS function, such as Substring, or Left, causes OLAP Integration Server to generate invalid SQL.
• Creating hierarchies in OLAP Model Assistant causes OLAP Integration Server to create an empty folder in the Hyperion\IS\Loadinfo folder on the client. The empty folder contains an empty .txt file. Empty folders and files are also created when you access either a View Sample from the Edit Hierarchy dialog box, or the Preview Results dialog box from the Edit OLAP Model dialog box in the standard user interface.

  To prevent buildup of empty folders and files, you can delete them from the Loadinfo folder at any time.

• OLAP Integration Server does not display a message to confirm that a dimension table has been deleted from an OLAP model.

  Following is a suggested workaround: If you did not save the OLAP model after you added the dimension table that you want to delete, click Close to close the OLAP model without saving any changes, then revert back to the previous version of the model. Any other changes that you made during the current session will also be lost.

• OLAP Integration Server does not support Essbase ESSCMD scripts. The IS\esscript directory has not been deleted from the OLAP Integration Server directory structure that is created during the installation process. This directory is an empty directory that is not used.

24.5 OLAP Starter Kit Spreadsheet Needs Current Windows svc.pack

Before installing DB2 OLAP Server on Windows NT, you must apply MS Windows NT 4.0 service patch 5.

If problems occur while installing the OLAP Starter Kit spreadsheet add-in on Windows 95 or Windows 98, this may be due to down level Microsoft System files. Download the following files from Microsoft via a Windows 95/98 service pack, or unzip %arborpath%\bin\olapewd.zip and copy the files into the windows system directory. Make sure you do not replace any files already on your system that have a newer release date. The Windows 9x system files and their required levels are:

• ASYCFILT.DLL 2.20.4118.1
• COMCAT.DLL 4.71.1441.1
• COMPOBJ.DLL 2.10.35.35
• DCOMCNFG.EXE 4.0.1381.4
• DLLHOST.EXE 4.0.1381.4
• IPROP.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• OLE2.DLL 2.10.35.35
• OLEAUT32.DLL 2.20.4118.1
• OLECNV32.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• OLEDLG.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• OLEPRO32.DLL 5.0.4118.1
• OLETHK32.DLL 4.0.1371.1
• RPCLTC1.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• RPCLTCCM.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• RPCLTSCM.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• RPCMQCL.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• RPCMQSVR.DLL 4.0.1381.4
• RPCNS4.DLL 4.0.1371.1
• RPCSS.EXE 4.0.1381.4
• STDOLE2.TLB 2.20.4122.1
• STDOLE32.TLB 2.10.3027.1
• STORAGE.DLL 2.10.35.35

24.6 OLAP Spreadsheet Add-in EQD Files Missing

In the DB2 OLAP Starter Kit, the Spreadsheet add-in has a component called the Query Designer (EQD). The online help menu for EQD includes a button called Tutorial that does not display anything. The material that should be displayed in the EQD tutorials is a subset of chapter two of the OLAP Spreadsheet Add-in User's Guide for Excel, and the OLAP Spreadsheet Add-in User's Guide for 1-2-3. All the information in the EQD tutorial is available in the HTML versions of these books in the Information Center, and in the PDF versions.