Upgrade Or Downgrade To OrFrom Hybrid In The CloudThere are benefits to moving to Hybrid, but there are alsosome challenges. The content of this post is not around thepros and cons, but the fact that you can upgrade yourenvironment to use it. If you find it isn’t for you, you can“downgrade” back to BSO. The flexibility provides everybodythe ability to try it.

Recreate Introduction

EPMAutomate comes with a function that allows the ability torestore an environment to a clean slate. I don’t think thisis new to anybody that has used EPMAutomate or EPM CloudPlanning. What might be a surprise is that it does more thanjust reset an environment so you can start over. It can also:

Change the type of Essbase database to Hybrid or a1.standard BSO.Temporarily convert a Planning, Enterprise Planning, Tax2.Reporting, or Financial Consolidation and Closeenvironment to an Account Reconciliation, OracleEnterprise Data Management Cloud, or Profitability andCost Management environment.

Using Recreate

The usage of the Recreate command is as follows, which alloptions.

[crayon-61e68a0db07f1598974579/]

-f forces the re-create process to start without userconfirmation. If you do not use the -f option, EPMAutomate prompts you to confirm your action. Be carefulusing this option. If you have a long day and aren’tfocused, this can make the day a whole lot worse!removeAll, removes all of the existing snapshots, aswell as the content of the inbox and outbox. Thedefault is false, meaning it retains the snapshots andthe content of inbox and outbox and nothing is removed.EssbaseChange upgrades or downgrades the current Essbaseversion in legacy Oracle Financial Consolidation andClose Cloud, Oracle Enterprise Planning and BudgetingCloud or Planning and Budgeting Cloud Plus 1environments.TempServiceType temporarily converts an environment to adifferent service environment.

Changing Your Essbase Version

To change your environment to BSO from Hybrid

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To change your environment to Hybrid from BSO

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Trying A Different Service

There are some details that must be understood to use thisoption and is dependent on the version of the cloud serviceyou have. For subscriptions other than EPM Standard CloudService and EPM Enterprise Cloud Service, meaning PBCS andEPBCS, you can use this option to convert, temporarily, to

Account ReconciliationOracle Enterprise Data Management CloudProfitability and Cost Management environment

To use this option to convert your environment to something itwasn’t originally intended for:

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To change your environment back to its original service:

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For EPM Standard Cloud Service and EPM Enterprise CloudService subscriptions, you can use this option to convert toany supported EPM Cloud service. EPM Enterprise Cloud Service

subscriptions use a common EPM Cloud platform. Initially, youcan deploy any supported EPM Cloud business process.

To switch from a deployed business process to another, youmust re-create the environment to delete the currentdeployment and to bring it back to the original EPM Cloudplatform. You then re-create it again as the new service type.

For example, if you created an Account Reconciliation businessprocess but now want to create an Oracle Enterprise DataManagement Cloud environment, you must run the re-createcommand twice.

First, reset the service.

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Second, change the service type.

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The acceptable service types, currenty, are

ARCS (Account Reconciliation)EDMCS (Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud)EPRCS (Narrative Reporting)PCMCS (Profitability and Cost Management)

That’s A Wrap

It is great that Oracle allows us to do these things. We havea ton of flexibility, not normally afforded to us in thecloud, to test and use different core database types. It alsoallows those using the old SKU to try the new services, orbusiness processes, to see if they might be something you wantto purchase.

If you want to give Hybrid a try, use your test environmentand give it a spin. If you want to get exposed to one of theother business processes, you now have the ability to see itwithout jumping through hoops.

Hybrid Planning / EssbaseGotchasHaving the best of both worlds, ASO and BSO, doesn’t comewithout some gotchas. Before you jump in with both feet,beware of some things that are not supported in hybrid. As ofFriday, May 22, 2020, @ISMBR in planning does NOT work. Idon’t know if this is a bug, but it is not documented as afunction that doesn’t exist. What is documented is thefollowing. There isn’t a ton in this post, but I thought itwould be beneficial to share this as a warning, as well as aneasy way to find the list. If you find more things that don’twork, please share with the community.

@ACCUM

@ALLOCATE@ANCEST@ANCESTVAL@AVGRANGE@COMPOUND@COMPOUNDGROWTH@CORRELATION@CREATEBLOCK@CURRMBR@CURRMBRRANGE@DECLINE@DISCOUNT@GROWTH@INTEREST@IRR@IRREX@MDALLOCATE@MDANCESTVAL@MDPARENTVAL@MDSHIFT@MEMBER@MOVAVG@MOVMAX@MOVMED@MOVMIN@MOVSUM@MOVSUMX@NPV@PARENT@PARENTVAL@PTD@SANCESTVAL@SHIFT@SLN@SPLINE@STDEV@STDEVP

@STDEVRANGE@SYD@TREND@XRANGE@XREF@XWRITE

Essbase Security: SettingFilters to GroupsFor most Essbase applications, user and group security will bea necessity. Here are the steps to set up individual filtersand then apply them to a group in Shared Services.

First, create a security filter in Essbase:

Then click on “New” and add read/write access for the filter:

Here is an example of the member specification for filteraccess:

Next, click Verify and then Save at the bottom of the page.

The next step is to login to Shared Services and create a newgroup:

The group name should match the filter name to reduceopportunities for confusion. While creating the group, addgroup/user members:

Next, the group will need to be provisioned for access to thedesired application:

For Read/Write access only, assign “Filter” to the group:

For access to run calc scripts on the application along withRead/Write access, assign “Calc” to the group:

The next step is the part that has always been the trickiestpiece for me. Right click on the application under ApplicationGroups and select Access Control:

Search for the desired group and move it to the selectionwindow on the right:

Select the desired group and then use the filter & calcdropdowns to select the required filters and/or calc scriptsto assign to the group:

Click save after the desired access control for the group hasbeen set. Remember, calc’s can only be assigned if the groupwas given “Calc” provisioning for the application.

Now the security filter has been successfully assigned to agroup in Shared Services.

BUG REPORT – Shared MembersSecurity in EPMAOracle has confirmed a bug related to the deployment ofsecurity with a planning application maintained in EPMA inversion 11.1.2.x. When the Shared Members checkbox isselected in an EPMA deployment of a Planning application, itignores this option. Even if the Shared Members box ischecked, the user still only gets access to Ohio Region, andnot the children, in the example below. Oracle is currentlyworking on a patch.

What Does Checking Shared Members Do?By default, any member that is a shared member under a parentwith security, it gets excluded. For example, if the securityfor Ohio Region is set to @IDESCENDANTS with READ access, thethree members below Ohio Region would have no access.– Ohio Region– Columbus (Shared)– Cincinnati (Shared)– Cleveland (Shared)

The filter that gets pushed to Essbase would look somethinglike this.[crayon-61e68a0db0f73393509184/]When the shared members are checked, it tells Hyperion thatyou want to include shared members in the security. The sameexample above, with shared members selected, would give usersaccess to all 3 members. The filter that gets pushed toEssbase would then look like this.[crayon-61e68a0db0f7a856423439/]

The WorkaroundThe workaround for this is to deploy the hierarchies fromEPMA, and Refresh the database (security only) with SharedMembers selected from Hyperion Planning.

When a patch is released, we will release the details.

Increased EfficiencyUtilizing Saved Objects in

Financial ReportingAll developers understand the power of using objects duringdevelopment activities, a concept that can be leveraged in thedevelopment of Oracle/Hyperion Financial Reports. Utilizingsaved objects allows the development team to deliver a productin less time and provides the ability to quickly react tofuture report modifications. The information below (1)provides common saved object examples and (2) displays howsaved objects are created and used.

What type of report information should be converted into savedobjects?

The goal behind utilizing saved objects is to avoid therecreation of code, thus I find it valuable to turn all reportheader and footer information into saved objects. Items suchas company logo’s, report title/sub-tile information,dimensional point-of-view selections, date & time stamps, pagenumbers and data source information make for great savedobjects as they typically reside on all financial ormanagement reports.

The usefulness of report objects may seem less importantduring the early stages of development, but as your reportingrepository grows, their impact becomes increasingly important.For example, changing a company logo on a few reports is aminor incontinence, but making that same change to 50 reportscould take hours to complete, resulting in the inefficient useof development/ maintenance time.

How are saved objects created and used?

Creating saved objects is a simple process that requires oneadditional step after the initial creation of your object. Theexample below walks through the process of creating a reporttitle saved object. The same process will be used in thecreation of all reporting saved objects.

Step 1 – Create your Object:

Step 2 – Save the Object:

Right-click the object and select Save Object…

Best practice involves the creation of a Saved Object folderin the report repository where all saved objects willreside. Notice the use of this folder below.

IMPORTANT – Be sure to place a checkmark next to “Link toSource Object”. This link enables future modifications ofthis object to resonate across all reports where this objectexists. This checkbox allows for the increased efficiencywhen developing and maintaining reports.

Once the report has been saved, notice the object namechanges.

Step 3 – Use your Saved Object:

Once the object has been saved you can reference it infuture report development via the link. Create a new reportand insert the saved object.

Be sure to select the Type of “Text” (It will always defaultto Grid) and place a checkmark next to “Link to SourceObject”.

FYI: When inserting saved objects you have 4 choices (Grid,Text, Image and Chart). Be sure to select the correct typein order to locate the desired saved object.

Note that when saved objects are inserted, they are placedin the body of the report by default; the developer willneed to place the saved object in the correct position onthe report.

What’s New in Hyperion EPMA11.1.2?

What’s New in Hyperion 11.1.2?

EPMA

The release of version 11.1.2 has brought a plethora of improvements tothe entire Hyperion suite of products, and EPMA is no different. Thispost will cover some of the significant changes that were included.

Improved Support for Essbase

This release has provided several updates that increase the functionalityof EPMA as it relates to Essbase. Some of the more important onesinclude:

Utilizing the Reorder Children dialog box, a new sort order can1.now be created to reorder members in the hierarchy.Performance settings for dimensions can now be modified in EPMA2.Dynamic Time Series (DTS) is now supported on the period dimension3.

(BSO cubes)The ability to add Typed Measures and members with a Date Format4.has also been included.

Varying Attributes are still not supported in this release1.

Application Troubleshooting Support

As we all know, EPMA can occasionally become out of sync with thedimension library or one of the products to which we are trying to pushmetadata. A new application diagnostic feature has been added in thisrelease to help users fix this issue. This diagnostic tool determinesinconsistencies between the source and target. Once the inconsistencieshave been discovered, they can either be corrected manually or dealt withautomatically.

Financial Management Copy Application Utility

HFM supports the ability to copy an EPMA app using the Copy ApplicationUtility. This can be done two different ways:

Select the Financial Management app. It will then be copied as a1.Classic application. Once this has been done, the EPMA upgradefeature can be usesAlternatively, the LCM tool can be used to migrate the2.application. Once this is done, the Copy Application Utility canbe utilized to move the data.

Batch Client

This release includes a couple of adjustments to the batch client thatimprove the automation process.

Login through a proxy is now supported1.Single Sign On (SSO) login is also supported2.

Follow the link below to view the complete document of changes

Oracle EPMA Documentation

Learning Life CycleManagement (LCM): CommandLine Security SynchronizationThis purpose of this article is to introduce the command lineLife Cycle Management(LCM) utility in Oracle EPM. The LCM toolcan be used to export and import objects that can be foundwithin the Oracle EPM Environment. This includes Security,Essbase, Hyperion Planning, Financial Management … etc. Asonce gets more familiar with LCM, one comes to realize howpowerful the tool is and how empty life without LCM was.Without LCM some of the more detailed artifacts within anapplication were difficult to move between environments. LCMprovides a centralized mechanism for exporting and importingnearly all of the objects within an Oracle EPM application ormodule. The table below is listed to get an idea of all thefacets of LCM.

Application Artifacts by ModuleModule Artifacts

Shared ServicesUser and Group Provisioning

Projects/ApplicationMetadata

Essbase

Files (.csc, .rpt, .otl,.rul)Data

FiltersPartitions

Index and Page files (driveletters)

Application and DatabasepropertiesSecurity

EAS/Business Rules

RulesLocationsSequencesProjectsSecurity

Hyperion Planning

FormsDimensions

Application PropertiesSecurity

Hyperion FinancialManagement

MetadataData

JournalsForms/Grids

RulesLists

Security

Financial DataQuality Management

MapsSecurityData

MetadataScriptsSecurity

Reporting andAnalysis (Workspace)

ReportsFiles

Database ConnectionsSecurity

The LCM tool is integrated into the Shared Services WebInterface. If can be found under the Application Groups tab.Within the application groups there are three main areas ofinterest:

Foundation – includes Shared Services security such as1.Users/Groups and Provisioning.File System – This is where the exported files will go2.by default. The default location is to be stored serverside, on the Shared Services server in the location:E:\Hyperion\common\import_exportUnder this main folder, the contents are broken out bythe user account that performed the export. Within theexport folder, there is an “info” folder and a“resource” folder. The info folder provides an xmllisting of the artifacts contained within the export.The resource folder contains the actual objects thatwere exported.

The LCM Command line tool provides more flexibilitybecause it can be installed on any machine and theresults can be directed to output to any local folder.Sometimes this is very useful if the Shared Servicesnode is a Unix machine, and the LCM users are unfamiliarwith Unix. Simply install the LCM Command Line Utilityon the Windows machine and redirect its output to alocal Windows folder using the –local command lineoption.

Products and Applications – Each registered product will3.be listed and provide a mechanism to export and import

the respective objects for the associated applications,Essbase, Planning…etc.

Going Command LineThe Shared Services LCM GUI is a great way to become familiarwith the LCM tool. However, when it is time to startautomating LCM tasks and debugging issues, the Command LineLCM utility is very helpful. To get started, the LCM CommandLine tool requires a single command line argument, an xml filethat contains the migration definition. The quickest way toobtain the xml file is to use the Shared Services LCM Webinterface to select the objects you wish, select DefineMigration to pull up the LCM Migration Wizard, and follow theprompts until the last step. Two options are presented,“Execute Migration” or “Save Migration Definition”. Choose“Save Migration Definition” to save the migration definitionto a local file.

That is pretty much all there is to it… move the xml migrationdefinition file to the location you have installed LCM. Forinstance, \Hyperion\common\utilities\LCM\9.5.0.0\bin, open acommand line and run Utility.bat as indicated:[crayon-61e68a0db1188858373600/]

LCM Example: Synchronizing SharedServices Security between EnvironmentsLCM often requires moving objects and security betweenenvironments, such as from a development environment to aproduction environment. While LCM makes it easy, it is not asstraightforward as simply running an export from oneenvironment and importing into another environment. The reasonis that LCM imports work in a “create/update” mode. In otherwords, the operations performed in LCM are typically additivein nature. While the typical LCM method would capture newusers and new application provisioning, it will not handleremoving user provisioning, removing or changing groups, oressentially removing users from the system. This can be aneasy oversight, but it will ensure that the security becomesout of sync over time and can cause issues as well as securityimplications. At a high level, the steps to sync provisioningusing LCM would be:

Export Users/Groups/Provisioning from Source Environment1.Export Users/Groups from Target Environment2.Delete Using Step 2 Results the Users/Groups in Target3.EnvironmentImport Users/Groups/Provisioning into Target Environment4.

Essentially, Step 1 and 4 are the typical import/exportoperations – where security is exported from one environmentand imported into another environment. However, two additionalsteps are necessary. In Step 3, the users and groups in thetarget environment are deleted, removing provisioning too.

This leaves an empty, clean environment to then importsecurity, ensuring no residual artifacts remain in theenvironment. To use the LCM delete operation, a list of itemsto be deleted must be supplied. This is where Step 2 comes in,a simple export of the Users and Groups in the Targetenvironment will provide the necessary information to provideto Step 3 – deleting the respective users and groups.

Below are some sample XML migration definitions for each step:

Step 1 – Export Users/Groups/Provisioning fromSource EnvironmentNote: By default the results will be sent to the source SharedServices server in the “import_export” directory. You can useLCM to redirect the output to keep the results all in the sameenvironment (the target system) by using the command lineoption [-local/-l] (run utility.bat without any command lineoptions to see help for your version of LCM). Simply redirectthe results into the local folder,\Hyperion\common\import_export, in the Target system.[crayon-61e68a0db1195895329415/]

Step 2 – Export Users / Groups from TargetEnvironment[crayon-61e68a0db1198843136983/]

Step 3 – Delete Users/Groups in Target Environment[crayon-61e68a0db119c008391869/]

Step 4 – Import Users and Groups into Clean TargetEnvironmentThis step assumes that Step 1 was redirected onto the targetenvironment within the import_export directory. The respectivefolder, Step1UsersGroupsSource, can also be manually copied

from the source to the target environment without using theredirection to a local folder technique.[crayon-61e68a0db119e989083452/]

Troubleshooting with Command Line LCMLCM can be a great tool when it works flawlessly. However, itcan quickly become part of mission critical activities likepromoting artifacts from development to production.Consequently, it is necessary to learn some troubleshootingskills to maintain business continuity using LCM.

Review the output of the LCM operation. Usually it will1.provide some detail about the error that was received.Review the server side Shared_services_LCM.log in2.ORACLE_HOME\logs\SharedServices\SharedServices_LCM.logTurn on debugging for the command line LCM tool. Change3.the line “info” to “debug” in the filesE:\Hyperion\common\utilities\LCM\9.5.0.0\conf in log.xmland hss-log.xml<param name=”Threshold” value=”info” />Use Google, the Oracle Knowledgebase to search for more4.information.Try only a subset of the initial objects. For instance,5.Essbase can export a number of objects, Outline, CalcScripts, Rule Files, Report Scripts, SubstationVariables, Location Aliases, and Security. Try one at atime to determine which part of the whole is failing.Restart the environment. LCM is an emerging technology6.and can sometimes just be in a bad state. I’ve seencountless LCM issues where bouncing the environmentclears the issue up.Look for special characters that might be present in7.your data. LCM is a java tool and uses xml and textfiles to transmit data. There are instances wherespecial characters can mess up the parsing.Look for patches – as mentioned previously, LCM is an8.

emerging technology and is still somewhat buggy(especially older versions). Check release notes inpatches for enhancements/bug fixes in LCM.