Oracle EPM 11.1.2.3 in Windows 2012 Server - Installation and configuration

Oracle EPM 11.1.2.3 in Windows 2012 Server - Installation and configuration

"We had come across a situation where we did not get any Windows server other than 2012 and temporarily we had to install Oracle EPM 11.1.2.3 including HFM in 11.1.2.3 in that server. This was a temporary environment with Classic option of HFM."

Now the question is: Does Windows 2012 Operating System or OS is supported for Oracle EPM 11.1.2.3 or HFM (Hyperion Financial Management) 11.1.2.3?

It is certain that, it is not certified, but is it is supported?

During our exercise I have  evaluated and found that is supported but not certified.

Is this straight forward like any other installation?

The answer is, No.

What we have to do differently if we want Windows 2012 OS for Oracle EPM 11.1.2.3 for Oracle EPM and Classic HFM?

If you follow standard Oracle EPM installation and configuration everything else will work except HFM Web.

• Ensure ASP and ASP.net is enabled in IIS
• EPM Configurator will fail and four IIS Application for HFM will not be created.

            o  Financial management web application - hfm
            o  Smart view Provider - hfmofficeprovider
            o  Lifecycle Management - hfmlcmservice
            o  Financial Management Web Services - hfmapplicationservice

• Create the IIS Application pool for each of the four above IIS Application
• Add each of them . Use the same folder that comes during the configuration

Once all the above steps are done, Oracle EPM including Classic HFM will work properly. Use IE9 or IE11 in Enterprise mode unless you have reached 700 patch level.

In order to use EPMA, EPM registry need to be updated with the information that HFM Web configuration has been completed successfully along with its correct property value.

Upgrade Oracle EPM - Hyperion Financial Management Upgrade - Upgrade HFM from old release (i.e. 11.1.2.3) to new release 11.1.2.4

Upgrade Oracle EPM - Hyperion Financial Management Upgrade - Upgrade HFM from old release (i.e. 11.1.2.3) to new release 11.1.2.4

Requirement:

1. Need a simple HFM upgrade where minimum 7 years of historical data will be migrated along with their numbers verification.
2. Minimum cost and duration

Always there is fight which one to chose between In place (existing servers) vs. out of place (new servers). There is many writing including Oracle Document, have almost forced everyone that there is no other was than applying maintenance release on top of old version of environment. But this is certainly not the only option rather the costliest risky option.

I will never encourage my customer to follow this technique. I have got an opportunity to upgrade two HFM application from 11.1.2.3 to 11.1.2.4.101. Applying HFM 102 patch is in progress.

While discussing the available options I could not resist to say to my customer why not "Put the old liquor in a new bottle." My Scottish customer immediately had show a positive response on my recommendation.

Here I am discussing what I had proposed during  that time. Yes, I have successfully executed what I am saying here. We have got support from Oracle on few of ICT related issues (read BUG) after our upgrade in Oracle EPM / Hyperion Financial Management 11.1.2.4. I hope you have understood what I meant to say here.

"Hyperion Financial Management 11.1.2.4 can be upgrade from earlier release using old CopyApp utility."

Following are the high level steps:

1. Log into Old version HFM server and create new UDL to point new 11.1.2.4 version HFM schema.
2. Execute CopyApp and copy existing application along with data and audit data. Audit data is optional.
3. Update HFM DSN for the newly copied HFM Application
4. Launch EPM 11.1.2.4 Configuration Utility and upgrade 11.1.2.4 version HFM schema using Configuration Utility

          5. Register the HFM Application and do the provisioning. 

          6. Old version application is upgrade to 11.1.2.4 and all signed off data are in same status. A quick high-level reconciliation can be performed to sign off the migration.

Benefit we have received:

1. Post upgrade the application data reconciliation was 100% correct and there was not a single data issue
2. All the former sign-off was already in place
3. Consolidation for past data was never required to be executed, though for checking purpose last 2 year data was consolidation to build confidence in the new upgraded application in UAT environment. That test was also successful.
4.  As-Is rule have seen a performance gain around 20%
5. A separate CR was kicked of to convert few  Member List loops to Data Unit in rule file. Post Data Unit implementation the consolidation time was reduced to 30 minutes compared to 1 Hour 20 Min in old version.  (16 thousand lines of Rule was there in the rule file)

Oracle EPM - Hyperion Financial Management - Upgrade Options and Recommendation for version 11.1.2.4

Oracle EPM - Hyperion Financial Management - Upgrade Options and Recommendation for version 11.1.2.4

Upgrade Options and Recommendation

Two methods: In place (existing servers) vs. out of place (new servers)

Note: In place upgrade is also known as a “maintenance release”

In place upgrades do not allow you to make other system-wide changes:

•         No server operating system updates

o   On July 14th, 2015 Windows 2003 will have all support end –this includes mainstream and extended support

•          I.T. departments are forced to move forward with a new platform or face security risks

o   On January 13th, 2015 Windows 2008 saw mainstream support expire

•          Only security updates until January 14th, 2020

o   Version 11.1.2.4 enabled Windows 2012 support so upgrading the OS and EPM together makes sense

• When you perform an in place upgrade, you lose the ability to upgrade hardware
• Performance issues are generally not solved by upgrading your software
• This is not as important with virtualized configurations
• You will not be able to restructure your environment
• Unable to solve performance issues
• Looking to add a new product (FCM, Planning, etc.)
•          Oracle is not good at cleaning up after itself
•          Old applications and data are left behind
•          Upgrading to 11.1.2.4 will leave FDM classic intact!
•          Shared Services database often has incorrect data remaining that can cause issues down the road
• Running an in place upgrade on production means bringing down the environment for an extended period of time

o   Risky

o   No opportunity to do proper UAT and data reconciliation

• Version 11.1.2.4 had consolidation engine rebuilt to support Linux –you will want to tie out your data

For all of these reasons, it is always advised to go for Fresh Installation than in place upgrade.

I am sounding the same voice that Finit Solution has already said.

An approach to backup and restore Essbase Application using traditional file system backup

An approach to backup and restore Essbase Application using traditional file system backup

"...few year back during a server name change for an Essbase server due to a crash that could not be restored, several finding was made to know the alternates to restore Essbase from file system backup. Every time I say this is still in conceptualization stage. But it should work even in 11.1.2.4..."

Abstract— This document discusses a method to accomplish Essbase Application backup without logging into the application and bypassing the traditional data export method in either levels.
This document also focusses on the possible benefits and concerns associated with this method.

Keywords: Essbase, Oracle EPM 11.1.*, Essbase Backup, Essbase File system

The white paper is still available. Incas anyone want to read.

techrepublic still hosts the white paper since 2013. techrepublic link

Oracle EPM 11.1.2.4 Development Architecture for 8-10 Concurrent User

As I have promised, this is the first architecture diagram. Few more to follow...

After a long discussion and delayed confirmation for project go ahead, your customer has suddenly realized they have to start the project immediately. They have asked for the sizing and unhappily conveyed the message their organization has a lead time of 10 weeks before delivering any server. So they are requesting if they can have some bare minimum configuration that can be given even without going for any procurement and obviously virtual server.

If situation does not permits to have best practices to follow and other so called factor of safety, you can follow the below architecture.

Oracle EPM 11.1.2.4 Development Architecture for 8-10 Concurrent User

Assumption (Type of User):

• One project manager who occasionally log into Hyperion System
• One wise Functional consultant will be mostly limited to giving details either email or word / excel document for various requirements / requirement clarification
• One system admin; who will also help here and there
• One HFM Functional (CPA/CFA/etc.)
• One HFM Developer
• One Planning Functional Consultant
• One Planning Developer
• One  Reporting Builder
• One FDMEE / Data Loader
• One all-rounder technical who will cover DRM/HFM Metadata/Planning outline building part and etc.
• One watchdog who need access to everywhere but movement would limited on tail only

So there should be around 8 concurrent user every time

Following primary modules are required to be installed

• Oracle Hyperion Shared Service 11.1.2.4
• Oracle Hyperion Workspace 11.1.2.4
• Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting 11.1.2.4.003
• Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) 11.1.2.4.101
• Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) 11.1.2.4
• Oracle Hyperion Planning 11.1.2.4
• Oracle Hyperion Essbase 11.1.2.4                
• Oracle Financial Data quality Management (FDMEE) 11.1.2.4
• Oracle Financial Close Management 11.1.2.4
• Oracle SOA 11.1.1.7.0
• Oracle EPMA 11.1.2.4

We need minimum two dedicated virtual or physical server and a shared or dedicated database

Oracle database is my recommendation

Serve 1 and 2: OS Recommended Windows 2012 Enterprise Edition
CPU: Minimum 8 core (per core 2.1 GHz or more, dedicated)
RAM: 32GB or more (Dedicated RAM only).
Disk: Minimum 80 GB or more

*** MUST *** dedicated I/O on each server : Minimum 20MBPS

DB Server: Oracle Enterprise Linux, Oracle 11.2g+

Shared database with mentioned schema in diagram. 

All schema can be created in two tablespace. 

FDMEE in one tablespace and rest in other tablespace.

Note: Before Starting installation of Oracle EPM FCM suite, please ensure you have dedicated RAM, you absolutely have no issue with network and CPU usage % while logged in come down to less than 1% or 0%.

 

Oracle EPM 11.1.2.4 Development Architecture

Requirement - Oracle EPM 11.1.2.4 Architecture / Hyperion 11.1.2.4 Architecture

Requirement - Oracle EPM 11.1.2.4 Architecture / Hyperion 11.1.2.4 Architecture – Sample Production and Pre-Production / UAT Hyperion Architecture with all the Luxury of modern features but with minimum cost

Business Sponsor requirement:

1. I want to have proven market standard Hyperion Architecture that all my competitor are doing
2. I have limited one time budget
3. I have limited recurring budget

Solution Architect requirement:

1. I want to have layered Architecture
2. I want Load Balancing Architecture
3. I want High Availability
4. I need a business continuity plan for my Hyperion Environment
5. We have two data centre; can we have data centre level fail-over or load balancing.
6. I want a single sign on in my Hyperion System. (I do not want Hyperion System to challenge me while login. But due to the sensitive data in Hyperion System and organization have given a directive, I am ok with external authentication)
7. In our organization Hyperion is mission critical application. (I know it is not but, I want to grab more attention as there is no other task in my hand right now)

End User requirement:

1. I want no new environment. I am happy with what I have. But if I have to use Hyperion (to save my job), I need extremely user friendly system.
2. I do not want a new set of user id and password to log into Hyperion System
3. I want the system should not log me off even if I go for a coffee or a chat over coffee with my college.
4. I want to use Excel to create a mission critical report with many metric, that no one in the universe can do except me. I do not have any specific requirement to give for that report while building the system.
5. I want Hyperion System should give me email alert that should go to my “Ignore email” folder.

List of Hyperion Modules customer want:

• Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) – two application
• Hyperion Planning (Planning) – two application each with Plan Type 1 and 2. No ASO reporting
• Hyperion Essbase (Essbase) – In addition to planning, 1 more BSO and 1 more ASO
• Oracle Hyperion Financial Reporting – 25 HFM report and 40 Planning report
• Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office – User will have their own. But there will be around 10 excel based smart view template which will reside in workspace folder
• Hyperion Financial Data quality Management Enterprise Edition (FDMEE)
• Enterprise Performance Management Architect (EPMA)
• Hyperion Financial Close Management (FCM)
• Hyperion Supplemental Data Management (SDM)
• Oracle Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud Service (EPRCS) – Cloud based Annual Group Report and BU Report preparation

Total Named User / Peak Concurrent User estimation:

• ·         Year 1 - 50 (20)
• ·         Year 2 - 150 (45)
• ·         Year 3 - 250 (63)

Upgrade Plan:

a) No upgrade in next 3 years. All Oracle published patches will be applied

Note: All of the above are fictitious requirement and you know why I have to say this.In the next “Tyne Article”, I’ll give the Oracle EPM / Hyperion Architecture diagram, sizing and few more recommendation and options to chose.

Hello World

Hello Hyperion World !
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