Introduction

Welcome to the Hyperion Essbase Database Administrator's Guide. To help you get started using this guide, this introduction provides the following information:

• "Who Should Read This Guide" on page xli
• "What's in This Guide" on page xlii
• "What's Not in This Guide" on page xliii
• "What You Should Know Before You Start" on page xliii
• "Sample Applications" on page xliv
• "Document Conventions" on page xlv
• "Additional Documentation Sources" on page xlvi

Who Should Read This Guide

This guide is primarily for the following:

• Hyperion Essbase database administrators. A Hyperion Essbase database administrator is a person who installs, controls, and maintains a Hyperion Essbase system. A database administrator should have prior experience in networking, system administration, and financial software.
• People who need to use Hyperion Essbase Application Manager to create and maintain applications, databases, data load rules, calc scripts, and report scripts.

What's in This Guide

This guide provides you the following:

• A presentation of the strategies and techniques necessary to implement, design, and maintain an optimized Hyperion Essbase multidimensional database
• A technical discussion of Hyperion Essbase concepts to help you think about and manage data multidimensionally and to enable you to design a Hyperion Essbase database on your own
• Step-by-step procedures on how to use Hyperion Essbase Application Manager

Use this guide to complete any of the following tasks:

• Learn about Hyperion Essbase architecture, philosophy, and concepts
• Design a multidimensional application
• Define users and security
• Perform data loads and outline updates
• Learn techniques for developing calc and report scripts for advanced applications
• Ensure data integrity
• Optimize a database
• Backup and restore data
• Manage large databases

This guide is divided into volumes and parts that describe the major functional areas of Hyperion Essbase:

• Volume I
  • Designing Hyperion Essbase Applications
  • Building Hyperion Essbase Applications
  • Designing and Building a Security System
  • Loading Data
  • Calculating Data
• Volume II
  • Reporting on Data
  • Managing Multidimensional Hyperion Essbase Data Storage
  • Designing and Building Currency Applications
  • Maintaining Hyperion Essbase Applications

What's Not in This Guide

This guide does not describe the following:

• Command and function syntax. For this information, see the online Technical Reference in the DOCS directory.
• Procedures for installing Hyperion Essbase OLAP Server. For this information, see the Hyperion Essbase Installation Guide.
• Basic data retrieval. For this information, you need to use the spreadsheet environment. See the Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in User's Guide for Excel or the Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in User's Guide for 1-2-3.

What You Should Know Before You Start

To use all the information in this guide, you need the following:

• A working knowledge of the operating system your server uses and of the operating systems your clients use. For information on the supported operating systems, see the Hyperion Essbase Start Here booklet.
• An understanding of typical database administration requirements and tasks, including designing security, setting up user accounts, and maintaining the Hyperion Essbase database.
• Knowledge of how many users your server can accommodate and how to manage the space on your server.
• Knowledge of where the data resides in your business and who is responsible for updating Hyperion Essbase with current data.
• Knowledge of your business's data requirements, so you can apply Hyperion Essbase to your specific application.

However, you may simply want to understand the basics of how Hyperion Essbase works or use Hyperion Essbase Application Manager to do regular tasks, such as running report scripts or calc scripts. In this case, you need only a basic understanding of Windows and basic Windows terminology, such as dialog box, list box, and button. See your Windows documentation for more information on these terms.

Sample Applications

This book provides examples. The examples are based on applications that are provided with the Hyperion Essbase server software and are called Sample, Demo, Samppart, and Sampeast. (Samppart and Sampeast are examples of partitioned applications. These applications are available only if your company has licensed Hyperion Essbase Partitioning.) The individual who installs the server is responsible for making the example applications available to end users:

• Sample contains three databases: Basic, Interntl, and Xchgrate.
• Demo contains one database: Basic.
• Samppart contains one database: Company.
• Sampeast contains one database: East.

If, when you connect to the Hyperion Essbase server, any of the following problems occur, contact your Hyperion Essbase administrator:

• You cannot find the Sample or Demo applications.
• Your company has licensed Hyperion Essbase Partitioning, and you cannot find the Samppart or Sampeast applications.
• You do not have adequate access to the applications.
• You do not see any data in the databases.

For more information about the sample applications, see the Hyperion Essbase Installation Guide.

Document Conventions

This book uses several formatting styles to indicate actions you should take or types of information you need. The following table lists each document convention.

Table i: Conventions Used in This Document  

Item	Meaning
Arrows indicate the beginning of a procedure consisting of sequential steps.
Brackets []	In examples, brackets indicate that the enclosed elements are optional.
Bold	Bold text indicates words or characters that you type exactly as they appear on the page. Bold in procedural steps highlights major interface elements.
CAPITAL LETTERS	Capital letters denote commands and various IDs. (Example: CLEARBLOCK command)
Example text	Courier font indicates that the material shown is a code or syntax example.
Ctrl + 0	Keystroke combinations shown with the plus symbol (+) indicate that you should press the first key and hold it while you press the next key. Do not type the + symbol.
Courier italics	Courier italic text indicates a variable field in command syntax. Substitute a value in place of the variable shown in Courier italics.
Italics	Italics in a product-related term in the body of a book indicates that the term is included in the glossary of the book.
Ellipses (...)	Ellipsis points indicate that text has been omitted from an example.
Mouse orientation	This document provides examples and procedures using a right-handed mouse. If you use a left-handed mouse, adjust the procedures accordingly.
Menu options	Options in menus are shown in the following format: Menu name > Menu command > Extended menu command For example: File > Desktop > Accounts
n, x	The variable n indicates that you must supply a generic number; the variable x indicates that you must supply a generic letter.
	This icon alerts you to the fact that there are one or more ESSCMD commands that can be used to accomplish the task and where the command information is located.
	This icon alerts you to the fact that there are one or more MaxL commands as well as one or more ESSCMD commands that can be used to accomplish the task and where the command information is located.

Additional Documentation Sources

In addition to the Hyperion Essbase Database Administrator's Guide, the Hyperion Essbase documentation set includes the following:

• The Hyperion Essbase Start Here booklet, which provides late-breaking information as well as the most important migration and feature information for this release of Hyperion Essbase.
• The Hyperion Essbase Documentation Roadmap, which lists all the Hyperion Essbase documentation and tells you how to access the online information.
• The Hyperion Essbase Installation Guide, which shows you how to install and configure the Hyperion Essbase server, Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in, Hyperion Essbase Application Manager, Hyperion Essbase SQL Interface, Hyperion Essbase API, Runtime Client, and sample applications.
• The Hyperion Essbase Quick Path Card (QPC), which provides an overview of the tasks involved in creating, using, and maintaining Hyperion Essbase databases.
• The Hyperion Essbase Application Manager online help file, which explains how to use the Application Manager user interface.
• The Hyperion Essbase Quick Technical Reference, which provides syntax for Hyperion Essbase functions, calculation commands, report commands, ESSCMD commands, and configuration file (.CFG file) settings.
• The online Technical Reference in the DOCS directory, which lists and describes Hyperion Essbase functions, calculation commands, report commands, ESSCMD commands, and configuration file (.CFG file) settings.
• The Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in User's Guide, which explains how to use Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in features with Microsoft Excel or Lotus 1-2-3 for Windows. This guide is provided in the \ESSBASE\DOCS\CLIENT directory in.PDF format for online viewing and printing in Adobe Acrobat Reader (Version 3.0.1 or later). Adobe Acrobat Reader is provided on the Hyperion Essbase CD-ROM, and can also be downloaded from WWW.ADOBE.COM.
• The Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in online help files, which explain how to use Hyperion Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in, and provide all the spreadsheet macros and VBA functions.
• The online API Reference in the DOCS directory, which lists and describes programmatic functions available through the Hyperion Essbase API, and provides information to help you start programming with these functions.
• The Hyperion Essbase SQL Interface Guide, which contains information on how to set up systems to load data by means of Hyperion Essbase SQL Interface. This guide is provided in the\ESSBASE\DOCS\CLIENT directory in.PDF format for online viewing and printing in Adobe Acrobat Reader (Version 3.0.1 or later). Adobe Acrobat Reader is provided on the Hyperion Essbase CD-ROM, and can also be downloaded from WWW.ADOBE.COM.

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