HFM Application migration and upgrade from V11.1.2.4 to V11.2.7

 Previously, we had used CopyApp utility to copy HFM Application from one environment to another environment or from one version to another.

However while migrating HFM application from V11.1.2.4 to V11.2.7 , we used Import application wizard as suggested by Oracle.

 There are 3 important steps for HFM application upgrade, migration to V11.2.7.

 

1)    Database Link between HFM V11.1.2.4 and HFM V11.2.7

HFM schema in new version V11.2.7 must have following privileges.

CREATE DATABASE LINK

SYS.DBMS_LOB

SYS.DBMS_SQL

Create Database Link

 Use following query to create database link between HFM V11.2.7 schema and HFM V11.1.2.4 schema.

CREATE DATABASE LINK DEVTONEWDEV CONNECT TO EPMXDEV1 IDENTIFIED BY PASSWORD USING HFMDEV11;

 To view the database links present, execute following query.

select * from all_db_links

 To view applications present in source HFM database, list out datasources using following query:

Select * from HSX_DATASOURCES@DEVTONEWDEV;

 

We received following error at this point:

Error:

ORA-12541: TNS:no listener

12541. 00000 -  "TNS:no listener"

*Cause:    The connection request could not be completed because the listener

           is not running.

*Action:   Ensure that the supplied destination address matches one of

           the addresses used by the listener - compare the TNSNAMES.ORA entry with

           the appropriate LISTENER.ORA file (or TNSNAV.ORA if the connection is to

           go by way of an Interchange). Start the listener on the remote machine.

            Error at Line: 3 Column: 31

 Our first step was to add TNS entry for source database (HFM V11.1.2.4 database) in destination database, however due to security at client, found that port 1521 was closed between source and destination databases and hence we had to get port opened through firewall request.

 After creating the DB link we can run below mentioned package in the target oracle DB.

 Oracle_Create_ImportApp_package.pck file

After successful execution, the new package, HFMUTIL_PKG, will show up under the HFM schema’s available packages, in SQL Developer. If you see the green dot showing on the package, right click and click Compile. If the green dot is not there, there is no need to do this step:

2)     Import Application

After successful creation of the database link, login to Workspace and go to Navigate -> Administer -> Consolidation Administration, then click on Import Application. The Database link should be available and a dropdown list of the source environment’s HFM applications should be available.

 

3)    Upgrade HFM Application from V11.1.2.4 to V11.2.7

Once HFM application is migrated, we need to upgrade it to V11.2.7 using upgrade utility. 

And this results in successful migration and upgrade of HFM application with more than 20 years data (750 GB) for our retail domain client. 

There were couple of issues during the process, I will soon blog about issues and solutions. 

What is different about OHS server in Oracle EPM V11.2.7

 “Technology is no match for human errors.”

Every phase of every project, consultant will agree on this.
 
When we had referred the EPM V11.2.7 Installation-Configuration guide, remembered this point of explicit OHS restart. When actually coming to the end of configuration, checked Workspace URL and got following error.

Well, after remembering the OHS start point from guide, checked Workspace URL on Shared Services Weblogic port 28080 and it worked fine. We were able to access workspace. 

The first thing you may be wondering is: how do you start the OHS server? Well it's a change from the previous few versions as OHS no longer uses OPMN for this task. Instead it uses Node Manager. If you followed the official installation and configuration guide you should have a service like the below:

With that service running we have some helper scripts to get OHS online. Browse to MIDDLEWARE_HOME\user_projects\FND1\httpConfig\ohs\bin\. Then run the following command to start OHS and store the epm_admin credentials so you aren't prompted later:

startComponent.cmd ohs1 storeUserConfig

To stop OHS simply run the command:

stopComponent.cmd ohs1

From now on you can start OHS with:

startComponent.cmd ohs1

Above steps started the OHS server and hence workspace becomes available on 19000 port. 

Clean Uninstall of Oracle Hyperion EPM V11.2.7

Begin with uninstall

Any Oracle Hyperion Admin will agree – we definitely need to go through clean uninstall of system while implementing it for new client. I guess we had that day of uninstalling EPM 11.2.7 from our Integration server today.  
As it was pending from a long time after we started with Hyperion v11.2.7, here are basic steps to perform clean uninstall Oracle Hyperion EPM V11.2.7
 Uninstall using same admin account with which we have installed Hyperion EPM V11.2.

2.  Stop EPM Services

Stop all Oracle Hyperion EPM services created on server. (If any)

 3.  Uninstall related software

EPM uninstaller uninstalls JRE which comes with EPM installer. It is used for installation and configuration of any Hyperion products. The same JRE is used to uninstall related non-Hyperion software components like weblogic, OHS. So, if we proceed for EPM V11.2.7 uninstall, we cannot uninstall related software components by proper procedure and so we might end up in option of deleting folders and cleaning related stuff.

 Thus, it is very important to follow following steps before uninstalling EPM V11.2.7

Uninstall Weblogic

Run WL Uninstaller separately.
Unlike previous versions and previous Windows servers, could not find shortcut for Weblogic Windows Server 2019 and for EPM V11.2.7.
Instead of spending more time on understanding options available on 2019 server, used the batch file to uninstall weblogic. 

However this file gave error. After some due diligence , found that both Weblogic and OHS uninstall files are included in FMW 12 uninstaller.

 Uninstall OHS

 Run OHS Uninstaller separately. Included in FMW 12 uninstaller. 

Uninstall Oracle FMW 12

Run Oracle FMW 12 uninstaller separately

 Once we uninstall above products, check if the respective directories is removed from MIDDLEWARE_HOME.

3.  Uninstall Oracle EPM V11.2.7

Uninstall EPM System V11.2.7
Stop all Oracle Hyperion EPM services on server.
Uninstall Hyperion EPM system by running "uninstall.bat" located at "MIDDLEWARE_HOME\EPMSystem11R1\uninstall"

4.  Post uninstallation tasks

Check shortcuts

 Shortcuts should be removed.
 
Check from Start--> All Programs, all related shortcuts should have been removed.

Windows Registry

Check under Windows registry in HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE > Software and HKEY_CURRENT_USER > Software whether the Brio > Hyperion > Oracle keys have been removed correctly.
 
Search registry and remove all the keys with keyword "Hyperion" or "Brio" or "Oracle"
With Oracle keyword, there will be keys for Oracle client which is installed as pre-requisite of EPM System.

Environment Variables

Following environment variables are created while installing hyperion EPM system and should be removed after uninstalling EPM system.

EPM_ORACLE_HOME

HYPERION_HOME

To confirm removal of environment variable, first check if the variable is still present.

If the environment variable is still present, delete it as below.

PATH variable

Check the PATH variable and delete any portions that need to be removed.

Manual File Deletion

Manually check the file system to see if any files or folders have been left behind. If any of these are left behind, they need to be removed manually.
 
    Ensure that <system drive>\Documents and Settings\<install_user>\.oracle.instance file has been deleted.
    Ensure that .oracle.products file in Middleware_Home\EPMSystem11R1 has been deleted.
    Remove any files left in the existing HYPERION_HOME if this location is to be re-used.
    Delete any BEA folder on the file system.
    Delete or rename installer records in C:\Program Files\common files\InstallShield\* if no other programs installed by this tool remain.
    Check for Oracle EPM related entries in the inventory.xml file located in C:\Program Files\Oracle\Inventory\ContentsXML and remove these entries from the file.
 
    Clean up any remaining Hyperion-related files and directories under the user's install home. E.g. "D:\Oracle\Middleware"
Registry keys deletion
Registry keys which should be deleted:
 
    HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\software\wow6432node\oracle\
    Delete any additional 'dds_proxy' settings in the registry.
    Delete any additional 'arborpath' entries in the registry.
    Delete any additional 'hyperion' entries in the registry.
 

Reboot the system

Please reboot the server after all the steps in the uninstallation have been performed. 

That makes server ready for new EPM 11.2.7 installation. 

Oracle EPM V11.2 Installers Overview

 At Oracle Open World 2019, Al Marciante presented on the latest information related to the EPM On-Premises Applications Update.  Much awaited Oracle Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) V11.2 is available from Dec 2019.

Since then, Oracle is announcing a “Continuous Innovation” release model for Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System 11.2, delivering ongoing applications and underlying technology stack updates without a major upgrade.

All EPM 11.2 for Windows download packages are available for download on Oracle Software Delivery Cloud.

Before diving into installation and configuration, we should understand installers of V11.2 well and here is an attempt.

Installers overview

We will be going through those components which are required to be unzipped to install and configure HFM and Planning/Essbase system either on single server or in distributed environment. Rest of the installers will be documented later.

 1)  V998755-01 - Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Client Installers

This zip file contains following clients. As a result, we will end up in downloading the entire file even if we are interested in single client. It is similar to V11.1.2.4 client installers zip. The only difference is number of clients are reduced as most of components are discontinued in V11.2.2.

• Planning (Planning SV Extension)
• EAS Console
• Essbase Client
• CloseMgrSupplementalData SmartView extension
• TaxOpsTaxSupplemental SmartView Extension

 Following clients from V11.1.2.4 are not present in V11.2.2.

• Disclosure Management
• EPMA client
• Essbase Studio
• HFM Client
• FR studio
• Oracle Interactive reporting client
• Production reporting remote client
• Predictive planning
• Smart View
• Strategic Finance Client

 This is different than V11.1.2.1 which was having separate installer for clients. (e.g. Essbase client was involved with Essbase installer)

 The combined zip for clients is started from v11.1.2.2. But IR and PR clients were in separate zip in V11.1.2.2.

 This installer zip is present in both HFM plus and Planning Plus.

 2)  V998784-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Installation Documents and Readmes

As name specifies, it contains all documentation part for Hyperion EPM V11.2.2.

It is present in both Planning Plus and HFM Plus suites

 3)  V933015-01, V933018-01_1of2, V933018-01_2of2

This set of 3 installers zip files contain FMW – Oracle Fusion Middleware.

Oracle Fusion Middleware 12c (12.2.1.3.0) is the latest release of the Fusion Middleware 12c (12.2.1) software

Oracle Fusion Middleware is a comprehensive family of products ranging from application development tools and integration solutions to identity management, collaboration, and business intelligence reporting.

 This has replaced Oracle Identity management in V11.2.4 - V37387-01

In v11.1.2.4, FMW 11g was present – 11.1.1.7.0 OIM – Oracle Identity Manager - Provides provisioning, reconciliation, request-based provisioning, self-service, and integration with heterogenous identity systems through connectors (LDAP, operating systems, mainframe/midrange, ERP packages, email/collaboration suites, databases, etc.)..

 4)  V998756-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Oracle HTTP Server

This file contains separate Oracle HTTP server. We can skip this component if we are planning to use weblogic server as web server. Weblogic server comes along with our Foundation services.

Ø  OHS

 5)  V998761-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Part 1

This is similar to the EPM System Installer and it contains

• Installer (InstallTool.cmd)
• Common products
• Product common components
• Essbase common components
• Opmn

6)  V998765-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Part 2

This zip file contains:

• Static Contents
• Shared Services
• Oracle Common Home
• Tools – HSS Migration Utility

 7)  V998766-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Part 3

This file contains

• DB client – 32 bit and 64 bit
• Calc Manager
• BIplus core services
• BIplus financial reporting
• BPM Architect

 8)  V998769-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Part 4

All the applications are bundled in this file.  In this upgrade case, We are interested only in HFM as those are used in our application, but we will still need to download Planning, strategic finance and all listed components. It then shows all these components while installation. Don’t get confused with unwanted components and ignore them while installation.

• AIF
• ARM
• Financial Close
• HFM
• HPM
• HSF
• ODI
• Planning
• SDM
• TaxOP
• TaxProvisioning
• TSS

This is very similar to v11.1.2.4 installer “Part 5 V74044-01 “

In v11.1.2.1, applications were distinguished among different installers zip files and we could download only required applications.

This did not cause any confusion while installing or configuring among applications

9)  V998771-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Part 5

This installer zip is present only in Planning Plus and not in HFM plus.

It contains Essbase related assemblies

• Essbase services
• EAS webapp
• Essbase webapp

10)   V998779-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Part 6

This installer is all about Weblogic. It contains:

• Weblogic Common components

 11)                   V998780-01- Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System Release Part 7

It contains setup files

 12)                   V998783-01- DRM

This is separate installer for DRM component which comes bundled with HFM plus or planning plus  

 

Oracle EPM 11.2 discontinued and new features

They say “The most important adage and the only adage is, the customer comes first, whatever the business, the customer comes first.”

While answering to client queries, came up with list of features discontinued and added to Oracle EPM V11.2.x

Below are the features which will be discontinued in EPM V11.2 version as compared to the earlier versions.

 Hyperion Financial Management

• Financial Management Analytics
• Essbase Analytics Link for Hyperion Financial Management
• Quantitative Management and Reporting for Solvency

Hyperion BI+ (Hyperion Business Intelligence applications)

• Interactive Reporting (IR)
• Production Reporting (SQR)
• Web Analysis (WA)

Hyperion Planning

• Hyperion Strategic Finance
• Crystal Ball (replaced by Predictive Planning)
• Simplified User Interface (SUI)
• Workforce Planning
• Capital Expense Planning
• Project Financial Planning
• Offline Planning

Additional

• EPM Architect (EPMA)
• Disclosure Management
• EPM Mobile

Below are the new features which will be available with 11.2 version release.

Hyperion Financial Management

• Automated Consolidations will be added
• Configurable by admin
• Native Metadata Editor
• Replaces metadata management
• Purging source tables after import
• Performance improvements
• SV, DB batch processing, etc.

EPM Infrastructure

• Additional 3rd party certifications

Hyperion Planning

• Smart Push
• Dimension Editor SV extension
• Extended Attribute support
• Valid Intersections

Data Relationship Management

• Batch scripts to ease EPMA replacement
• Enhanced DRG Experience
• DRG Mass Approvals
• SFTP Connection

The new era of AI for EPM

Recently after the reorg in Capgemini , EPM is now part of “AI&A” ( Artificial Intelligence and Analytics). So thought to spin the thinking towards interconnection of EPM n AI.

 Oracle Hyperion EPM has been the leading EPM vendor in last 5 years and I guess it still continues in 2022. Apologies, being Oracle EPM consultant for over a decade, I feel a bit inclined towards Oracle Hyperion EPM 😊
However, An effective business strategy (along with pricing) targeted to get hold of existing potential customers is absolutely necessary and many new EPM vendors are coming up with a business strategy to get hold of these potential customers. Onestream, Anaplan and Tagetik are growing very fast and acquiring some big clients using different vendor for EPM.

Further, many of the EPM implementations serve the purpose of a central tool to capture user inputs and thereafter consolidate the data. Such implementations does help the organizations to avoid the pain of maintaining and synchronizing discrete excel sheets but these EPM implementation neither provide any intelligence nor does it changes the manual nature of arriving at various assumptions.

Artificial Intelligence is one such capability which if imbibed thoughtfully into EPM products can enrich the capabilities of the EPM product and at the same time make the tasks easy for planners.

With Machine Learning algorithms, various assumptions such as interest rate, runoff rate, growth% etc can be methodically derived. Artificial Intelligence can help further by learning from the past predictions and continuously improve the predictions accuracy.

With these advanced technologies, Finance organizations are now at a pilotable place in the lifecycle of budgeting, planning, and corporate performance management (CPM) tools.  Much like when spreadsheets “ruled the Earth” on small disks, and when we went from linked spreadsheets to Essbase, learning new software and predictive analytics will place immense power into the hands of the high performers and decision makers of your company.

Artificial Intelligence (AI): Thinking of the things we generally miss…

OK – what is AI?  At its core, Artificial Intelligence (AI) replicates how humans think at a rate of speed and with quality and consistency humans cannot match.   Embedded into AI are algorithms that recognize patterns, correlations, and which can then predict trends, events, etc.  The promise of AI is that it makes the technology layer perceptively “less technical” to the end users.  AI adds transparency to the data and automates tasks that previously required human interaction – and thus opened up the chances of errors.

 Often, artificial intelligence technology is presented through the use of “bots.”  These bots ask questions.  Using lexical technologies, bots are able to understand how people in different professions, such as Finance, talk and write.  Various bots are embedded at different points to ask the user what they want to do or where they want to go.  This is used from the point the installation has begun and drives how the application will be laid out.  It drives how the data will interrelate for meeting the specific needs of the enterprise.  It helps define reports, alerts, rules, etc.

 How AI Is Changing Finance

Artificial Intelligence offers an incredible functional jump forward for Enterprise Performance Management (EPM).  AI functionality means that the finance model can warehouse all our legacy institutional knowledge, and use it to learn more institutional knowledge.  It can do this more efficiently and much faster than we ever could. 

In theory, one could staff to a level where every transaction is reviewed individually.  Realistically, this is highly unlikely – and it’s cost prohibitive.  AI can review every financial transaction in fractions of a second.  What’s more, AI can examine the relationships between these millions of transactions.

 AI and Predictive Analytics

In addition to AI, we now have very powerful predictive analytics tools.  The proliferation of R (a language and environment for computing and graphics) and its different flavors has turned IT report writers into financial analysts.  Period over period corporate performance in relation to the variables that effect this performance creates true, event-based predictive analytics.  Using trending functions (linear, polynomial, etc.) is like throwing rocks at the moon, compared to a robust and well thought out R-based analytics package.

 The power of these new tools greatly shrinks the effort of gathering data.  We now have the real tools to shrink the work that goes into the true value-add effort of analyzing the data.  AI sees the cuts of the data that highlight questions to be asked, so now we’ve got the technology to truly cut what we held aside as human value-add.

So, AI will be the new Era of EPM irrespective of vendor.