Essbase Administration Services Release 7.1 Readme

Essbase Administration Services is the new administration tool for managing and maintaining Essbase Analytic Services. Administration Services consists of a client console (Administration Services Console) and a middle tier application server (Administration Server) that communicates directly with Analytic Servers and facilitates functionality such as background processing. Administration Services Console provides a single point of access for viewing, managing, and maintaining the Analytic Services environment. For more information, see the Essbase Administration Services Online Help.

Top

New Features

This release of Essbase Administration Services includes new features, performance improvements, and support for aggregate storage functionality that is included with Essbase Analytic Services Release 7.1. For information about these new features, see Essbase Administration Services New Features. Look for this document in one of the following locations:

· In the installation documentation zip file on Hyperion Download Center

· In the \eas directory on the 7.1 CD.

· In the Information Map: open doc_launcher.htm from the \eas directory after installation.

Information about how to use new features is available in the Essbase Administration Services Online Help. See Accessing Documentation.

The following feature was not mentioned in the New Features Guide:

Hyperion Remote Authentication Module can be used to link Windows domains

The Hyperion Remote Authentication Module 7.0, formerly called the NTLM Remote Server, can be installed from the Hyperion Download Center. In addition to enabling UNIX application users to log in using a Windows domain, the Hyperion Remote Authentication Module also allows Analytic Services to authenticate users belonging to other domains that are not trusted by the domain on which Analytic Services is installed. This removes the necessity to establish trust relationships between the domains.

For more details on external authentication and single sign-on, please refer to the Security Platform Reference section of the Technical Reference.

Top

Installation Updates

This section provides information about changes to the installation process not documented elsewhere.

· For platform support and release compatibility requirements, see the Essbase Administration Services Installation Guide.

· This release introduces new installers for all supported platforms. For information about the installation process, and for information about how to launch the installers for each platform, see the Essbase Administration Services Installation Guide.

· If you are upgrading from Administration Services Release 6.5.3 or 7.0, you must uninstall the previous release before installing this release. For complete information about the upgrade process, including migrating users from the previous release, see the instructions in the Essbase Administration Services Installation Guide.

· To uninstall shared components, such as Hyperion Hub, MySQL, and Apache Tomcat, please contact Hyperion Customer Support for details on the manual process.

· Several Hyperion products assign the system path variable ARBORPATH. Because the ARBORPATH value can be different for various Hyperion products, the products can conflict when attempting to communicate with each other or with an Analytic Server. Customers running more than one Hyperion product should take steps to maintain a consistent usage of the ARBORPATH variable.

In addition, it is not recommended to run all Hyperion products under the same Java Virtual Machine (JVM) instance of the application server. The recommendation is to run Hyperion products under different instances of JVMs in the same installation of an application server, or on different installations of an application server. If all products are installed under the same JVM, then you must have the same version of the runtime client as the product version.

· Japan(JEF), Polish (ISO-8859-2), and Polish (MS1250)are no longer supported as installation options, and Japanese_Japan.JEF@Binary, Polish_Poland.ISO-8859-2@Polish, and Polish_Poland.MS1250@Polish are invalid as manually specified locales. (80042)

· AIX 5L updated platform requirements:

· For 5.1, ML1 and ML 4 are not supported; also, an updated C++ runtime environment is required (see Updated C++ Runtime Environment for AIX 5L below).

· For 5.2, the minimum supported level is 5.2 ML 1.

· Updated C++ Runtime Environment for AIX 5L:

If the following error message is displayed on AIX, you need to install an updated C++ runtime environment on that computer:

exec(): 0509-036 Cannot load program ESSBASE because of the following errors: 0509-150 Dependent module /usr/lib/libC.a(shrcore.o) could not be loaded. 0509-152 Member shrcore.o is not found in archive

To download this file:

1. Go to the IBM technical support website: https://techsupport.services.ibm.com/

2. Search for the PTF number (U489780) or the fileset (xlC.aix50.rte.6.0.0.7).

3. Download the file.

·         Linux updated platform requirements:

kernel           2.4.9-e.25* and higher
gcc              gcc-2.96-118.7.2
glibc             glibc-2.2.4-32.11
libstdc++       libstdc++-2.96-118.7.2

· On Windows platforms, you can reduce the memory footprint of the MySQL database (the default RDBMS used for Administration Services) by adding the following two lines to the winnt/my.ini file:

skip-bdb
skip-innodb

After making these changes, stop and restart the MySQL Windows Service (Hyperion-MySQL-4.0.12) to activate the settings.

· To use Hyperion Hub version 7.0 with Administration Services version 7.1, you must use MySQL or SQL Server as the Hub relational database. If you are using Hub version 7.0.1, with Administration Services version 7.1, all relational databases are supported.

· Currently, Essbase Administration Services is configured to Hyperion Hub version 7.0 with 8080 as the default port number. In Hyperion Hub version 7.0.1, the default port is changed to 58080. If you are using Hyperion Hub 7.0.1 with Administration Services version 7.1 and want to use the default Hub port, you need to modify the port number specified in the hub.properties file to 58080. The hub.properties file is installed with Administration Services in the eas\console directory.

· Subsequent maintenance releases and service packs for third-party platform software may be used where the vendor asserts backward compatibility. Please be aware, however, that although these assertions are made in good faith, certain incompatibilities may exist. In the event that an incompatibility is identified, Hyperion may experience a delay in reproducing and fixing resultant issues for the affected versions.

· Complete information about installing Administration Services is provided in the following documents:

· Installation Checklist (eas_install_checklist.pdf)

· Installation Guide (eas_install.pdf)

Look for these documents in one of the following locations:

· In the installation documentation zip file on Hyperion Download Center

· In the \eas directory on the 7.1 CD

· In the Information Map: open doc_launcher.htm from the \eas directory after installation.

Top

Known Issues

Every effort has been made to ensure that Administration Services is as free of bugs as possible. The following are selected known problems and system limitations, with workarounds when appropriate. Vantive ID numbers are listed first; numbers in parentheses are internal reference numbers for Hyperion Solutions.

Aggregate Storage

· For rules files associated with aggregate storage databases, the Data Prep Editor UI displays information that is not relevant to aggregate storage (for example, dense/sparse settings).
(76028)

· If you are performing a SQL-based data load for an aggregate storage database and the SQL database is located on the same machine as Administration Server, supplying a username and password for the database is unnecessary. However, Administration Services will not process the data load until username and password are supplied.

· When using the Migration Wizard to migrate aggregate storage applications from one server to another, the wizard displays information that is not relevant to aggregate storage.

· In aggregate storage outlines, unassigning a UDA in member properties does not work correctly.
381507(80248)

· An error occurs when loading data from a data file if the path to the file contains a space, and the data is not loaded.
377046(76497)

· In the Aggregate Storage Data Load dialog box, if data sources of different types are listed (for example, a data file and a SQL source), selecting a data source in the table does not automatically select the appropriate data source type radio button.
377134(77052)

· Attempting to copy an aggregate storage application returns errors if the application is not started.
380393(79823)

· When you initially create a SQL data source using a wrong username, then add a second data source, then return to the first data source to correct the name, the user name is not corrected.
377188(77374)

· If an initial data load fails because the rules file is wrong, then trying another data load without specifying the rules file also fails because the first rules file is still being referenced.
377319(78325)

· For an aggregate storage database, when an error occurs during a data aggregation view selection, no message appears in the message panel of the Administration Services console.
(80407)

Installer

· The uninstaller program does not remove the EssbaseAdministrationServices7_0_0Suite entry from Add/Remove Programs in Windows Control Panel. A workaround is to remove the entry from the Windows registry and delete the directories manually.
374112(76977)

· The uninstaller program erroneously lists an option to remove the MySQL component. The MySQL component should not be removed.

· Installing the Essbase Administration Services Console may intermittently fail on some computers. If you encounter this problem, launch the installer in console mode using setup.exe –console.
376710(78464)

· On all UNIX platforms, you need to run the following command prior to running the installer; otherwise, MySQL service may not start:
umask 022
As a workaround, you can change the permissions of the my.cnf file to read-only. Under the common/DBMS/MySQL/4.0.12/data directory, change permissions using the following command:
chmod 644 my.cnf
382171(80521)

Outline Editor/Outline Viewer

· If the ESSLANG setting for an application is different from that of the machine running Administration Services, an error message "Failed to save outline due to error 1,060,128" may be displayed when you try to save updates to any outline within the application. A workaround is to create a new application and database and save the outline in the original application to a database in the new application.
380932(80002)

· If you copy a database from one type of server to a new application on a different type of server (for instance, from a Windows server to an HP-UX server), an error may be returned when you open the database in Outline Editor. To work around this problem, after creating a new application on the new server, copy any existing database on the server to the new application, and then delete the database.
380434(79839)

· In Outline Editor, when you attempt to export an alias table to the application level, an alias table export file is not created. A workaround is to export the alias table to the database level or to the file system.
366404(73862)

· After undoing a delete operation in Outline Editor that includes an attribute dimension, the attribute dimension is restored to the wrong location in the outline, which may cause verification errors.
379505(79485)

· In Outline Viewer, when viewing member properties for a member that has a formula associated with it, the Formula panel is not displayed.
380980(80025)

· When you delete a dimension that contains more than 10,000 members, the delete operation cannot be undone. There is no warning message returned before the delete operation.
(80188)

· When you delete a dimension that has attributes associated with it and then undo the delete operation, all attribute associations are lost. There is no warning message returned before undoing the delete operation.
381363(80192)

· In Outline Viewer, the Relational tag may not be displayed when viewing Hybrid Analysis members, but when viewed using Outline Editor, the Relational tag is present.
380227(79773)

· In Outline Viewer, performing a search on a member in an attribute dimension may fail.
380104(79711)

Script Editors

· You cannot click the Cancel button while a calculation script is executing. A workaround is to kill the session from another Administration Services Console session.
287914(70649)

· All report outputs are truncated to 20MB. If the output is less than 20MB, then you will not see any effect. If the report output is greater than 20MB, the output is truncated. Use MaxL or ESSCMD as a workaround to see outputs larger than 20MB.
380410(79831)

· In Formula Editor and Calculation Script Editor, comments that span longer than a single line are not displayed with the proper color coding. However, the syntax is still correct.
379136(79310)

Data Prep Editor

When Analytic Server and Administration Server are running on Solaris, an Excel data load file cannot be read into Data Prep Editor.
377736(78707)

Partitioning

· When connecting to a Release 6.5.x Analytic Server, partitions cannot be created using a non-default Agent port in the connection information for the partition. For example, the Analytic Server connection cannot be defined as ServerMachineName:Port#.

· When working with partitions in Administration Services, do not use IP addresses when connecting to Analytic Services; otherwise, the partition may be incorrectly displayed under the Orphan node in Enterprise View, even though the partition is a valid one.

As a workaround, map the system name to its IP address in two hosts files, one under C:\I386 and another under C:\WINNT\system32\drivers\etc on Windows or /etc/hosts on UNIX.
382357(80572)

External Authentication

The following are known issues with external authentication:

· Searching for groups using Administration Services 7.1 running on a machine with a German version of Windows (2000, XP) does not return the entire set of groups.

· Enabling SSL for communication between Analytic Services 7.1 and Hyperion Remote Authentication Module 7.0 can give errors due to expired Class 3 and Class 2 Verisign PCA root certificates in various releases of J2SE SDK and JRE. To find out more and resolve the issue, refer to

http://sunsolve.sun.com/pub-cgi/retrieve.pl?doc=fsalert%2F57436

· Microsoft Active Directory sp2 and earlier releases are known to have connectivity issues over SSL. To resolve this situation, refer to:

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;en-us;Q320711.

· If you created a new project in Hyperion Hub, then later export an Essbase object from Essbase Administration Services to this created project, the export fails.
369582(75153)

· When logging in as an externally authenticated user to Essbase Administration Services and Analytic Services and viewing the version of an exported object, then logging in as a different externally authenticated user and exporting the same object, the object version is displayed as being owned by the first user.
369583(75154)

Migration

If you use Migration Wizard to migrate substitution variables with an application, you must click Refresh in the Substitution Variables window on the target Analytic Server after migration in order to see the migrated substitution variables.
367615(74429)

Security

Setting the password expiration to more than 60000 days may cause login failures for users. Use the MaxL statement as a workaround to set no password expiration limit:
alter system set password_reset_days none
373137, 373046 (76483,76449)

Remote Start Server

If you use "localhost" as the value for the Server1 key in the Remote Start Server configuration file (ARBORPATH\bin\server.properties on the Analytic Server machine), and if either your DNS long name or machine name is uppercase or mixed case, then the machine will not be found. If your DNS or machine name is uppercase or mixed case, always use the machine name instead of "localhost" for this value.
(80527)

Third-Party Application Servers

· In the last chapter of the Installation Guide, the instructions for deploying to WebLogic and WebSphere refer to the following directory:

/EAS_HOME/eas/deployments/tomcat/4.1.30/webapps

The reference should be to the following directory (with a capital T on Tomcat directory):

/EAS_HOME/eas/deployments/Tomcat/4.1.30/webapps

· For UNIX platforms only, in Chapter 7 of the Installation Guide in the section "Deploying on a WebLogic Server," you need to export the ARBORPATH, ESSLANG, LD_LIBRARY_PATH, SHLIB_PATH, and LIBPATH variables after setting these variables as shown in step 5b on page 82. The following examples illustrate how to export these variables:

LD_LIBRARY_PATH=EASPATH/eas/server/bin:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH
export LD_LIBRARY_PATH

SHLIB_PATH=EASPATH/eas/server/bin:$SHLIB_PATH
export SHLIB_PATH

LIBPATH=EASPATH/eas/server/bin:$LIBPATH
export LIBPATH

ARBORPATH=EASPATH/eas/server
export ARBORPATH

ESSLANG=English_UnitedStates.Latin1@Binary
export ESSLANG

Miscellaneous

· Attempting to display user locks on data for a 6.5.x Analytic Server returns an error, and an empty Locks window is displayed.
380388(79822)

· After sorting the User Properties table for Administration Services, changes made after the sort are not saved. A workaround is to close the User Properties, re-open it, then make the changes without any sorting.
381364(80193)

· On Linux, when viewing the session connection IP information for Analytic Server, the IP address is displayed in reverse; for example, 1.0.0.127 instead of 127.0.0.1.
381407(80209)

· Users with create and design application privileges can copy an application, but cannot delete it using Essbase Administration Services.
381493(80240)

· When opening a saved template in Data Mining, you need to specify the task settings. After resaving, and then reopening the templates, the task settings are lost.
364640(73390)

Top

Tips and Troubleshooting

· How do I troubleshoot problems if I'm not seeing error messages in Administration Services Console?

When Administration Server is running, an agent window displays debugging and execution messages for that server. There may be information in this window that is not currently being displayed by the Console user interface. If you are having problems, check this window for additional error messages and relay them to Technical Support.

· I don't see any entries on the Start menu for Essbase Administration Services. How do I start the server and console?

Start Administration Server by launching the following file from the directory in which you installed Administration Server (by default, in the EASPATH directory, usually c:\hyperion):

· Windows: \eas\server\bin\startEAS.exe

· UNIX: /eas/server/bin/startEAS

Then start the console by launching the following file from the directory in which you installed Administration Services Console:

Windows: \eas\console\bin\admincon.exe

· How do I know if Administration Server has started properly?

When Administration Server starts properly, you see the following message in the Administration Server agent window:

Essbase Administration Services - Version x.x.x.x Build x
Copyright 1991-200x Hyperion Solutions Corporation. All Rights Reserved.
US Patent Number 5,359,724
US Patent Number 6,317,750
Current time stamp: xx xx xx xx:xx:xx

If you do not see this message, Administration Server has not started properly.

· I get a "Login failed" error message when I try to log in.

Possible solutions:

· If this is the first login to this installation of Administration Services, enter the default login information for the administrator account (username: admin; password: password).

· If this is not the first login to this installation of Administration Services, enter the login information for an existing Administration Server user. Your username and password for Administration Server are not necessarily the same as those for Analytic Server. Contact your Administration Services administrator to find out this information.

· If the login failure is not related to your username and password, make sure you are entering the correct Administration Server name. This name should be the same as the machine name on which the Administration Server is installed. It may not be the same as the Analytic Server name.

· I can see Administration Server in Enterprise View, but no Analytic Servers.

In Administration Services Console, launch the User Setup Wizard (Wizards > User Setup Wizard) to help you set up users and access to Analytic Servers. Also, make sure you are logged in to the console as a valid Administration Server user. For more information, see the Essbase Administration Services Help, or click the Help button from the User Setup Wizard.

· I can see my Analytic Server in Enterprise View, but I can't do anything to it.

Make sure you have already started Analytic Server. After you start Analytic Server, you can then operate on that server from Enterprise View.

Top

Documentation Updates

Accessing Documentation

To access Essbase Administration Services documentation:

· To access Administration Services documentation after installation, go to the Information Map, which contains live links to all online documentation. Launch the Information Map in one of the following ways:

· On Windows platforms, launch the Information Map from the Windows Start menu (Start > Hyperion Solutions > Essbase Administration Services > Information Map), if you chose to add shortcuts to the Start menu during installation.

· Open doc_launcher.htm from the \eas directory after installation.

· Most documentation files can also be launched directly from the Help menu in the Administration Services Console.

External Authentication Documentation

The following information updates the use of external authentication with Administration Services:

· When you do not specify a domain element in the Hyperion security platform configuration XML file, then using Administration Services to search for a specific user or group specified in multiple places returns only the first match. The match order is as follows:

· Local machine

· Domain of local machine

· Trusted domains

For example, if the local machine and its domain both have an "Administrators" group and the domain element of the NTLM server is left empty in the external authentication configuration file, then all methods that look for the "Administrators" group return only one "Administrators" group. That group is the group on the local machine. It is therefore recommended that you specify a domain element in the external authentication configuration file.

· When the same user ID exists simultaneously with different passwords in an NT LAN Manager repository and in another repository (LDAP or Microsoft Active Directory) and NT LAN Manager is earlier in the search order, authenticating the LDAP or Microsoft Active Directory user ID could result in locking out the NT LAN Manager user account. To address this situation, it is recommended that you use the provider hint while authenticating a user, if the authentication repository is known.

· When multiple providers are defined in the search order and one of the providers is misconfigured, Administration Services stops processing the search.

· Ensure that the search order for directories in Administration Services 7.1 is configured the same as the search order for directories in Netegrity SiteMinder.

· Users with empty passwords are not supported.

Known Problems with Documentation

· The Essbase Administration Services online help is best viewed in Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.x or higher. Although the online help system can be viewed in Netscape Navigator, certain features of the help system are not supported by any version of Netscape Navigator.

· If your default Web browser is Netscape, you might need to open Netscape Navigator before you attempt to launch the help system.

· If your default Web browser is Netscape, make sure that the Netscape browser executable file is added to your PATH environment variable before attempting to launch online documentation.

· If your default Web browser is Netscape (any version), you may experience problems when launching “Help Topics” from the Help menu in the Administration Services Console. If you experience problems, try launching the help system directly from the file system on the machine hosting the Administration Server:

/eas/deployments/tomcat/4.1.30/webapps/easdocs/eashelp/eas_help.htm

· Make sure that you do not have older versions of Netscape Navigator (prior to version 4.7x) installed on your machine. In some cases, when you launch “Help Topics” from the Help menu in the Administration Services Console, the older version may be used.

Top