Category Archives: fun

Inputting to level 1 and a crazy app idea

Happy Friday! These weeks are flying by like a blur, it seems.

As you may know from my previous posts, I’m constantly thinking up little Hyperion-related app ideas. And since it’s Friday, I’m feeling a little whimsical and have YET ANOTHER app idea. How about an app that detects when you are designing a cube that takes input at level 1 (or level 2 for good measure), then you run the app and it automatically emails you too tell you that you’re an idiot. BONUS POINTS for turning off Aggregate Missing Values!

Genius. I like this.

Possible idea for a tool: cube delta

I have a question for my audience about a tool idea. Would it be useful to be able to tell what the data differences between two cubes with the same (or highly similar) dimensional structure is? For example, let’s say you had Sample/Basic on one server, and Sample/Basic on another server. Would it be useful to check for differences in the data loaded to them, if any?

I could see this as possible being helpful in checking for differences between cubes in development/qa/production, between archive cubes and ‘real’ cubes, and possibly during testing when you spin off a side cube to check some calcs.

Just a thought. Let me know! After HUMA is kicked over the wall I’ll be looking for my next side project (as time permits) and I am trying to focus on things that will increase the productivity of Hyperion developers.

Stupid Essbase names for a fish

Happy Monday.

Do you love random, not-quite-Essbase-related posts? Well, I’m going to find a way to relate this to Essbase, believe it or not. I am the proud owner of an AquaFarm. Actually, I’m not sure if proud is quite the right word. I am very enthusiastic about aquaponics, but my current living arrangements don’t quite accommodate my interest. I received an AquaFarm as a gift a while back, which is a very miniature aquaponics setup. The kit has everything you need: the tank, pump, shale rocks, seeds, growing baskets… but no fish. Nicely enough they give you a coupon for a betta fish from Petco. Right now the fish is named Mr. Fish.

Just for fun and to cement my Essbase geek cred, I propose giving the fish an Essbase inspired name. Here are my thoughts so far:

  • Low Block Density
  • Inter-dimensional Irrelevance
  • Unable to Save Custom Views
  • Multiple Retrievals On A Single Sheet

Have your own stupid name for my new fish? I’d love to hear it. :D

Hyperion Health Check Hit List

I am asking for your Hyperion wisdom again, oh beloved readers! In particular, I am soliciting information from you consultanty types and those of you who otherwise hop into a lot of different Hyperion systems.

Oftentimes a client needs help with speeding up an Essbase/Hyperion process/server/cube that has become unwieldy and slow. So you take a look at things. When you happen to hop in to an environment and assess its health, what do you look for, from a Hyperion point of view? For example, on BSO cubes I go right for the stats and check out the block density and average cluster ratio. From there I can go in any number of directions, looking at the overall outline, automation, cache settings, and so forth. So I have this already:

  1. Check block density and other cube stats
  2. Review outline for any red flags
  3. Check size of index cache with respect to the size of the index itself
  4. Take a look at outline for things that can be removed/deleted/dynamic calc, etc
  5. Ensure logs are not huge
  6. Look for XCP files, if any
  7. And a few others

I am really, really, curious if you have something you look for, particularly if it’s something you might dive into with EAS. I’m working on something interesting and your feedback is very appreciated! It can be anything at all: checking the server, checking the app or the cube, checking the file system, calc scripts, business rules, automation, and so on. Thanks!

Cool Hyperion Infographic

Just a quick post for this beautiful Monday. A colleague of mine, Daniel Poon, has put together a really cool Hyperion infographic showing the development of Essbase over the last 23 years. The timeline lays out when various versions came out and what the major features of the time were.

It’s especially cool for me to see since I am a relative Hyperion/Essbase “newbie”, having started working with it in 2005. At the time I was taking care of a few cubes on a server that had just been upgraded to Essbase 6.5.1. My server hardware was something of a corporate “hand me down” and sported quad 200 megahertz CPUs. Yes, that’s 200 megahertz, not 2000. Sometimes you didn’t know if a calc was just taking a long time (but still working) or had just completely run off the rail. Of course, I know many of you out there have been at this much longer than I have and will have stories about your even more quaint-by-today’s-standards hardware – and I’d love to hear about your first Hyperion server in the comments.