EPM 11.1.2.4 Released!

Get the latest version here Oracle Software e-Delivery

And the newest EPM 11.1.2.4 documentation!

I do really wonder how Hybrid is doing. Is Hybrid official now? I went through documents, but it seems that it’s still not officially documented.

Essbase Features No Longer Supported

Starting with Essbase 11.1.2.4, these features are no longer supported:

1. Oracle Essbase Integration Services, including Hybrid Analysis and Advanced Relational Access
2. Many of the basic concepts of Hybrid Analysis and Advanced Relational Access have been folded into the functionality of XOLAP cubes in Oracle Essbase Studio.
   Visual Basic API
3. Oracle strongly recommends using the Essbase JAVA APIs. You can also use the Essbase C APIs.
   Configuration settings:
   1. PRELOADALIASNAMESPACE
   2. PRELOADMEMBERNAMESPACE
   3. PRELOADUDANAMESPACE
   4. MAXACTIVEUPDATETRANSACTIONS
   5. MAXTOTALACTIVETRANSACTIONS

Essbase Features Deprecated in this Release

These features will no longer be updated from this release onwards, meaning that these features will come to an end in future releases. It is strongly recommended by Oracle not to use these features anymore. It’s pretty sad since first in the list is Direct I/O. I’m a huge supporter of Direct I/O from about 6-7 years back when SSDs was not the preferable choice and that RAM was not that expensive. I can see why they stop developing for this, for Linux support in the future as well as it’s Exalytics machine. Moreover, SSDs are relatively affordable now.

The following Essbase features are deprecated in release 11.1.2.4:

1. Direct I/O
2. Block storage outline synchronization
3. Outline change log
4. Currency conversion applications and currency partitions
5. Data compression types: zlib and none
6. Linked partitions
7. Oracle Essbase Administration Services JAVA API
8. Network File System (NFS) protocol on Network Attached Storage (NAS) devices
9. MaxL statements and grammar:
10. alter user statement—only the add [to group] and remove [from group] grammar is deprecated
11. create group statement—the entire statement is deprecated
12. create user statement—the entire statement is deprecated
13. display group statement—only the all grammar is deprecated
14. display user statement—only the all grammar is deprecated
15. drop group statement—all grammar is deprecated except for the from security_file grammar
16. drop user statement—all grammar is deprecated except for the from security_file grammar

Limited Data Source Support for XOLAP

Starting with Essbase 11.1.2.4, XOLAP is supported for these data sources only:

IBM DB2
Netezza
Teradata

Outline Compatibility between 11.1.2.4 Essbase Server and Client with Earlier Releases

In Essbase 11.1.2.4, an outline that is created or updated using the XML outline editing method results in a new outline version. Differences in outline versions impact whether an application can be used with an Essbase Server or client from an earlier release of Essbase.

Aggregate storage outlines:

To use the XML outline editing feature in Essbase 11.1.2.4, aggregate storage outlines that were created in an earlier release must first be migrated to 11.1.2.4.

Methods for migrating an outline:

Open the outline in Administration Services Console and, when prompted to migrate the older outline, click OK.
Use the C API function EssOtlSetOPGVersion or the Java API method setOPGVersion.
Note:
Outlines that are migrated to 11.1.2.4 cannot be edited in an earlier release client.
An aggregate storage outline created in Essbase 11.1.2.4, regardless of whether it uses XML outline editing, cannot be used in an earlier release of Essbase.
Block storage outlines:

Block storage outlines created in an earlier release of Essbase can use XML outline editing in 11.1.2.4 without needing to migrate the outline.
Block storage outlines that are created or updated in Essbase 11.1.2.4 and that use the XML outline editing feature cannot be used in an earlier release.

Defects Fixed in this Release

This section includes defects fixed in Release 11.1.2.4.000. To review the list of defects fixed between earlier releases, use the Defects Fixed Finder. This tool enables you to identify the products you own and your current implementation release. With a single click, the tool quickly produces a customized report of fixed-defect descriptions with their associated platforms and patch numbers. This tool is available here:

https://support.oracle.com/oip/faces/secure/km/DocumentDisplay.jspx?id=1292603.1

18020023, 18019954, 13698528 — Smart View. A pivot operation from row to column fails, pivoting the row member into the POV instead.
17811942 — Smart View. A pivot operation incorrectly shifts POV dimensions.
19773529 — Smart View. Incorrect values appear in a Smart View Client retrieval.
19711424 — Smart View. Data shows as #MISSING in Smart View Client after moving a member.
19832878 — Smart View. Empty rows are inserted while performing a zoom-in on a member in Smart View Client.
18036612 — Calculation. Saving an outline with a member formula containing a circular dependency results in a network error.
17824533 — Calculation. A calculation script that has FIX and EXCLUDE statements results in abnormal shutdown of the application while reordering the excluded members in the outline.
14644362 — Calculation. A calculation script that contains @CALCMODE(BottomUp) and SET CREATENONMISSINGBLK ON fails and results in an XCP file.
17583010 — Calculation. @MDANCESTVAL causes an abnormal shutdown of the application when used with runtime dependent functions.
17443687 — Calculation. @MAXSRANGE does not treat #MISSING values as described in the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference.
14191566 — Calculation. Data values may be different than expected because of rounding differences between older versions of Essbase and release 11.x. See the help topic for the @ROUND function in the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference, to optionally select a compatibility setting.
19491013 — Smart View. An aggregate storage application can terminate abnormally after connecting to and retrieving from Smart View Client.
19832630 — Aggregate storage. In some cases, aggregations return incorrect results for an aggregate storage application.
19832902 — Aggregate storage. On an aggregate storage database, an MDX formula can return inconsistent results.
14829630 — Data export. If a text measure exists in the database, DATAEXPORT fails for a relational database export using ODBC.
19783553 — Data export. Export performance was not optimal. With this fix, performance is improved.
16843064 — Report Writer. Report writer query with syntax error for <LINK command causes abnormal shutdown of application.
19571906 — Smart View. Smart View. After saving the data form, cell data is missing from a data form with three or more columns and duplicate rows or columns.
19832856 — Area. Using Smart View with Essbase Release 11.1.2.3 with SSOPTIMIZEDGRIDPROCESSING set to TRUE in essbase.cfg, data can be submitted by users to intersections that are secured as read-only.
6552344 — Calculation. Calculation performance improvements.
17363415 — Calculation. An @XREF calculation fails to process offsets correctly, and the application terminates abnormally.
17563682 — Aggregate storage. An application stops responding upon a Smart View Refresh All report.
16711423 — API. In Essbase Java API, an outline fails to verify if it has a dynamic calc member with more than 100 children.
18016800 — Metadata. An Essbase application terminates abnormally during a dimension build with an invalid rules file.
17195715 — MDX. An Essbase application terminates abnormally during an MDX query using hybrid aggregation.
18034801, 18035015 — MDX. An Essbase application terminates abnormally during an MDX query using the Count function.
18077252 — Aggregate Storage. An aggregate storage member formula referencing a member with $ in the name returns an unknown member error.
17084177 — Smart View. A zoom-in operation produces incorrect results with formula preservation and suppress #MISSING.
17888409 — MDX. An Essbase application terminates abnormally during an MDX query of descendants, with a slicer.
17895101 — MDX. An MDX query returns #MISSING results for a dynamic member that has children with formulas.
17979579 — MDX. An MDX query returns different results for a shared member than for the results of the base member.
18032431 — MDX. An MDX query in hybrid aggregation mode fails to complete due to memory allocation error.
18067758, 18075356 — MDX. An MDX query in hybrid aggregation mode returns different results than the same query in block storage mode.
18169791 — MDX. An MDX query failed to execute in hybrid aggregation mode for function @MOVSUMX.
18259444 — MDX. An MDX query in hybrid aggregation mode returns incorrect results for a member formula due to consolidation error.
17339454 — MDX. An Essbase transparent partition source application terminates abnormally during an MDX query from the target.
17951591 — Essbase Server. An Essbase application terminates abnormally during concurrent, long-running MDX query and default calculation.
18179279 — MDX. An MDX query fails to execute in hybrid aggregation mode for a database that contains either only sparse dimensions or only dense dimensions.
19724545 — Aggregate Storage. An aggregate storage database consumes too much memory in the formula cache.
17646832 — Java API. A network error is returned while retrieving runtime substitution variables using the method cube.getCalcFileRunTimeSubVars(), when there is only one substitution variable in the script or when there is no substitution variable.
17715673 — SQL Interface. Essbase application log contains ODBC errors, even though logging of ODBC driver errors is disabled using ODBCERRORLOGOFF TRUE.
17769554 — Smart View. After zooming in and out on a grid multiple times, an error is returned: Invalid Spread Sheet data. An application protocol error might exist between server and client processes.
16907883 — Smart View. Dragging all but one dimension from POV box to the grid results in the final dimension incorrectly being moved to a row after a refresh.
18023119 — Data Load. Japanese characters are not displayed correctly in Essbase Administration Services SQL Interface.
19068245 — Data Load. In committed access mode, an Essbase data load proceeds and doesn’t abort when terminated. Hence, index and page file sizes increase after termination.
18097397 — Calculation. The following message shows intermittently in the application log during a default calculation: Total Calc Elapsed Time for [inline] : [0] seconds
18126090, 19517775 — Calculation. Improved message logging has been implemented for FIXPARALLEL calculations.
19644572 — Metadata. Essbase returns a duplicate-name error after a Smart View zoom in, instead of returning the alias.
19404334 — Aggregate Storage. Aggregate storage custom calculations or allocations fail for dynamic level-0 members with the no-consolidation operator (~).
16028783 — MDX. Essbase terminates abnormally when running an MDX query that results in an out-of-memory error.
15968738 — Essbase application terminates abnormally when performing an ad hoc analysis that results in a network time-out error.
18024633 — Localization. Certain Turkish characters load as a question mark (?).
13698559 — Smart View.Smart View does not support single member POV.
13698477 — Smart View. Smart View does not support multiple members when pivoting from POV toolbar to grid.
16193657 — Encrypting a calculation script causes some MaxL statements to be removed.
16184352 — In an active-passive cluster, Essbase and OPMN terminate abnormally.
16914851 — Calc Scripts. Opening a calc script while a security refresh is running may cause Essbase to stop responding.
14513014 — Report Writer. Running a report script containing substitution variables may fail and result in the following error: Substitution Variable does not exist.

13408039 — Agent. Essbase may shut down abnormally when an administrator logs off remotely.
13075833 — Administration Services. In certain non-standard EPM System installations, renaming an Essbase application from Oracle Essbase Administration Services Console may result in the following error: 1053003 Application directory does not exist.

17430484 — Smart View. In Smart View Client, comments to the right and left of the Essbase members disappear when the sheet is refreshed.
17168989 — Smart View. Cells with comments between rows, columns and data are cleared when a sheet is refreshed in Smart View.
18204427 — Aggregate Storage. Export of aggregate storage data was failing.
19553648 — When Essbase runs on Oracle Exalytics In-memory machine, associating filters to groups runs slowly.
18898415 — Data load. Essbase is unable to load data from a load rules file that uses the dimension reference method with quotes.
18327910 — Data import. The DATAIMPORTBIN command stops importing data after encountering the first #MISSING value.
16987712 — DB2. While deploying an XOLAP cube from Oracle Essbase Studio, Essbase is unable to connect to the DB2 data source and the cube deployment fails.
16091482 — Data load. Essbase is unable to load data from a data file in which the filename has multiple dots (for example, name.withdots.txt).
17326375 — Smart View. In Oracle Smart View for Office, unable to drill down to a linked partition.
17797213, 18416709 — Partitions. When running an MDX query on a transparent partition, the target application terminates abnormally.
14571411,16993227 — Smart View. Error encountered when retrieving data from a transparent partition: Error (1040023) Invalid network data. Type is matched but length is zero. An application protocol error might exist between server and client processes.
13027168, 13830462 — Triggers. When triggers are defined and users fix on multiple blocks, messages written to the spool file differ from the messages sent via email.
13715545 — Partitioning. Essbase Server may terminate abnormally when the @XWRITE calc function is used to update the target in a transparent partition.
13941885 — MDX. MDX queries on members containing the @ symbol may return a syntax error.
13998834 — Partitioning. Cannot create a partition using hostname:port.
14098621 — Partitioning. Replacing partition definition files may fail when Essbase is set to a Japanese locale.
15844420 — Essbase does not start because of the presence of the essbase.lck file in ARBORPATH/bin.
15949711 — MDX. Queries using the CrossJoin MDX function may take longer than expected.
15956201 — MaxL. The MaxL import data statement (aggregate storage version) may fail when using the data_string and to load_buffer options.
16371237 — Aggregate Storage. Aggregate Storage applications may terminate abnormally when doing concurrent incremental data loads.
16558387 — Import. On block storage databases, creating a dimension with more than approximately 524,000 members may fail.
19346471, 19348655 — Kernel. An application log message pertaining to restructuring is incorrect after a successful recovery.
19508701 — SQL Interface. An error message is unclear when an Oracle Call Interface (OCI) connection fails in SQL Interface.
19508718 — SQL Interface. A data retrieval using Oracle Call Interface (OCI) from SQL Interface displays only first characters of column names. Hence, unable to proceed with data load or dimension build.
19508740, 19508748 — SQL Interface. A data and column name retrieval using Oracle Call Interface (OCI) from SQL Interface displays garbled characters. Hence, unable to proceed with data load or dimension build.
19508773 — SQL Interface. A data load having Unicode characters failed via ODBC (retrieved garbled characters) from SQL Interface.
18267036 — MDX. A log message related to recursive formulas in hybrid aggregation mode references the wrong member name.
19595221 — MDX. A query using the Leaves() function fails due to a memory limitation.
19658894 — Data Export. Data export from empty outlines did not succeed. Now it succeeds and creates a 0-byte file.
19911956 — Data Export. A data file exported from a calculation script, in some cases, contains an incorrect header record.
20124119 — Smart View. High retrieval time and incorrect results occur when a queried member is a label-only parent and one of the children (other than first child) is in the partition definition.
18544423 — Misc. Wrong version information is shown in the process explorer for a .dll.
18638598 — Report Writer. Results are not optimal for a report script retrieval from an aggregate storage transparent partition target.
18355797 — Metadata. Use of the allowed member name $NULL$ returns an error message upon retrieval.
18731237 — Metadata. Outline verification succeeds in a Planning database refresh even though a member formula is invalid.
19517775, 18126090 — Calculation. Improved message logging has been implemented for FIXPARALLEL calculations.
19827483 — Data Load. Cannot cancel parallel data load initiated from ESSCMD.
19943308 — Misc. Deleting drill-through definitions might cause application to hang.
20047312 — Misc. Defunct processes are listed on a UNIX server.
20124477 — Data Export. When run inside FIXPARALLEL, DATAEXPORT with “DATAEXPORTOPTIONS { DataExportRelationalFile ON; ..}” might produce an incomplete result.
18936565, 19781319 — Metadata, Queries. Reports and calculations run too slowly with ISUDA() in a member formula.
20005755 — Metadata. Unable to view an aggregate storage outline containing long text lists.
20027524 — Calculation. A member formula error causes abnormal shutdown of an application and partial generation of .xpc file.
19920209 — Calculation. A calculation script fails with a message that the query member count is too large.
18603365 — MDX. An MDX function that receives a String as a parameter returns an error if the String parameter comes as a property value.
20200253 — Smart View. An application stops responding upon a Smart View data submission when the spreadsheet has more than 256 columns.
18690087 — MDX. Incorrect results are returned for an Accounts member with a formula and Time Balance Average tag.
18742275 — MDX. An application stops responding during a query on a two pass member parent with children that have Time Balance tags (hybrid aggregation mode enabled).
18742510 — Hybrid Aggregation. Stopping an application and removing its hybrid aggregation mode subdirectories causes the application cache_size setting to reset.
19382266 — Hybrid Aggregation. Hybrid aggregation subdirectories cause recovery implications after abnormal shutdown.
19517637 — Kernel. The Essbase Server can terminate abnormally when running concurrent requests to calculate the database as well as run queries.
20124157 — Kernel. Two new informational messages are introduced in the application log (at the start and the end of an index write): “Begin writing [%s] dirty index pages for database [%s].” “Finished writing dirty index pages for database [%s].”

19177623 — Calculation. An error is returned during a calculation using @XWRITE: “Error executing formula for [mbrName] (line 0): stack full”
19627818 — Calculation. In a subsequent FIX statement, a calculation fails on a block newly created in a prior FIX statement with @CREATEBLOCK.
19830716 — Calculation. An application terminates abnormally while running concurrent calculations and report scripts.
19832532 — Outline API. In some cases, moving a member in an outline can terminate the application abnormally.