This file contains additional information that was not included in the Release Notes shipped in FixPak 8 for DB2 OLAP Server Version 7.1.
The index and page file sizes will grow only if direct I/O is turned on. If you migrate directly from DB2 OLAP Server V1.1 to V7.1 FixPak 8, then the file sizes should remain the same because buffered I/O is the default in FixPak 8. But if you migrate from V1.1 to any level of V7.1 prior to FixPak 8 in preparation for migration to FixPak 8, or migrate from any level of V7.1 prior to FixPak 8, then direct I/O is the default and the file sizes will grow. Previous cache settings will be maintained. You can add DIRECTIO TRUE to the essbase.cfg file, and maintain your previous settings. If you wish to keep the buffered I/O default, you may want to adjust caches (Index Cache, Data Cache) if you previously changed them for direct I/O.
MaxL Installation update:
MaxL and the files necessary to install MaxL Perl Module (Essbase.pm) are installed with the Essbase OLAP Server on all platforms and with Application Manager on Windows platforms. MaxL files are added to your /bin and /api directories of your installation. You do not have to install the API to use MaxL.
Temporary Directory Path Issues:
On UNIX, if you have an environment variable called TMPDIR set, then unset this environment variable so Essbase can create temporary files in /tmp directory. If you want to use the TMPDIR environment variable, ensure that its path name is no longer than 15 characters. If the full path to the temporary file is greater than 15 characters, some DB2 OLAP Server functions may fail.
Negative values for DLTHREADSPREPARE and DLTHREADSWRITE essbase.cfg settings. If the number of threads in the DLTHREADSPREPARE and DLTHREADSWRITE essbase.cfg settings are specified as negative values, Essbase uses the maximum value, 16.
DISKVOLUMES Still Available. You can still use the configuration setting DISKVOLUMES, in the configuration file essbase.cfg, instead of the database-specific settings available via Application Manager. Use DISKVOLUMES only if you need backward compatibility with earlier releases, or if you are setting up a large number of databases with the same DISKVOLUMES value at the same time.
Sample Application Versus Example Application. A section of the Essbase Database Administrator's Guide uses an example application called TCC, The Car Company. This is not a sample application supplied with the software but is an example used to illustrate how you can quickly create your own first application. The sample application supplied with Essbase is TBC, The Beverage Company.
Cross-Dimensional Operator Works with Member Set Functions. Expressions such as ("1998":"2001" -> @Levmbrs (Year, 0)), using the cross-dimensional operator with a member set should now function. This operator is associative (x -> y) -> z=x -> (y -> z), but not commutative because x -> y = y -> x is a set, but the order of elements is different. (21505)
CLEARDATA Does Not Work in an IF Block. The calculation script CLEARDATA command does not work in an IF block. This is not documented. (20949)
Moving Members and Attribute Associations. In an outline, moving base members with attribute associations now keeps the attribute associations. The documentation incorrectly states that it does not.
DB2 OLAP Server Does not Generate Trace Files. DB2 OLAP Server does not generate trace files, but some documentation still indicates that it does. (014112)
Unclear Spreadsheet Example. The example in Spreadsheet Add-In User's Guide for Excel, chapter 3, pages 3-28 through 3-31, is unclear. It will be improved for next release. (25511)
Calculation Results Difference. Small differences in the precision of cell values may occur between calculations run on different platforms, due to operating system math library differences.(007598)
Null processing in Dimension Build. Documentation should state that in the dimension building setting for a Product dimension, you must select the Allow moves check box, or null processing with a generation reference will fail. (020022)
EssListCalcFunctions() Requires Supervisor Privilege And Database Access. The documentation is missing information about the privileges required to use EssListCalcFunctions(). You must have supervisor privilege (usually granted to the administrator), and you must have database access privileges to receive this list, or an error may occur. This means, for example, if you run a program with EssListCalcFunctions() when logged in as a user who does not have both supervisor privilege and access to the database, an error will occur.
Reserved words that Require Quotation Marks. The documentation may not contain a complete list of reserved words that must be enclosed in quotation marks to be used for member names. The list will be updated in a future release.
Missing Configuration Parameter for Data Load Errors. The documentation does not include information about NOMSGLOGGINGONDATAERRORLIMIT, a configuration setting you can add to your server essbase.cfg file to prevent data load errors from being written to the application event log file after the limit described by the value of DATAERRORLIMIT is reached. Add this item to your server configuration file essbase.cfg:
NOMSGLOGGINGONDATAERRORLIMIT TRUEThe default is false. (22146)
API Client Message Change. Client messages are messages sent to the user-defined Callback function, passed to DB2 OLAP Server in EssInit. Previous to FixPak 8, if a message contained NLS characters (non-English characters, such as accented characters), DB2 OLAP Server provided them in OEM (DOS) format. In FixPak 8, the client messages are completely in character (Windows) format, to avoid the misinterpretation of certain characters. This only affects languages other than English.
API Error for ESSG_INIT_T. ulMaxRows has a limit of 65535 rows, and ulMaxColumns has a limit of 256 columns. The API documentation for ESSG_INIT_T is currently incorrect on these two issues (18435).
Missing Grid Expansion Configuration
Settings (14987, 18987, 20709, 22585). If Essbase returns
incorrect results from a calculation using both two-pass calculation dynamic
members and you are aggregating across partitions, enter this configuration
setting in your server essbase.cfg file, then restart OLAP Server: GRIDEXPANSION
FALSE. The default is TRUE.
If Spreadsheet Add-In retrievals involving
partitions generate many instances of this message: "grid expansion enabled
for this query," you can turn off the messages by adding this entry to
your server configuration file essbase.cfg, and then restarting OLAP Server:
GRIDEXPANSIONMESSAGES OFF.
The default is "ON."
Missing Parameter for Functions @NEXTS, @PRIORS. Both these functions accept these parameters:
SKIPNONE | SKIPMISSING | SKIPZERO | SKIPBOTH, mbrName [,n, rangeList])The documentation currently omits SKIPBOTH. (28642)
Functions to Help Performance on Dense Ranges. Consider using these functions instead of prior and next if your calculation operates on dense ranges - i.e., Both crossmbr and range are along dense dimension:
@SHIFTPLUS(Mbr, CrossMbr, ShiftAmt, Range)Instead of: Mbr + @SHIFT(CrossMbr, ShiftAmt, Range)
@SHIFTMINUS(Mbr, CrossMbr, ShiftAmt, Range)Instead of: Mbr - @SHIFT(CrossMbr, ShiftAmt, Range)
Incorrect essbase.cfg MAXLOGINS. The configuration setting MAXLOGINS is incorrectly listed as MAXLOGIN in the Technical Reference and Database Administrator's Guide.
(n/a) In MaxL, although the limit for stored calculations is 64 KB, calculation scripts created in MaxL that have multi-byte characters cannot exceed 40 KB. MaxL does not support outline synchronization in this FixPak.
(n/a) In the LRO example for DB2 OLAP Server Objects 7.1, the RetrieveLO method of dataserver control does not function properly.
(29210) When you attempt to kill a restructuring process, a "command not accepted" error is returned, and the restructure process is not terminated.
(16674) A formula calculated top down may not create all blocks when calculated. To correct, you can either set Create Blocks on Equation to ON, or run the calculation with update-calc off.
(18188) DB2 OLAP Server allows two instances of the an outline to be open at the same time by the same login ID. This means it is possible to have two versions of the same outline open at the same time. If you do this, each Save overwrites the changes of the other instance. Therefore, this practice is not recommended.
(18529) In Excel, from the Query Designer, the server location radio button may not be active in the "Hyperion Essbase Query Designer Save As Query" window when you try to save a query. This occurs because a selected cell is in Edit mode.
(18745) If all the children of a dense parent are label only, you may not be able to make that parent label only. However, you can if the parent is sparse.
(19278) If a member name contains the ampersand (&), even if it is surrounded with quotation marks, and if the member name is in a calculation script, the script may fail validation if the user has Application Designer permission. DB2 OLAP Server incorrectly interprets the ampersand as the signal for a substitution variable. If you run the script without validation, it performs the calculation correctly. Users with supervisor privilege do not receive this validation error.
(19593) DB2 OLAP Server does not support discontinuous selection in Lotus, although it does in Excel.
(19614) For Lotus, after a calculation, the Controls on Calculation box may not be selectable.
(20451) DB2 OLAP Server does not warn you if you request that export results be placed in essbase/bin when there is an export results file with the same name already in that location.
(20488) If you create a dimension build rule that uses "Create Using Text" on the last column, and if the last true field in the input file is an "Alias" column that has some blank records, the text generated by the "Create Using Text" feature will not be placed into the last column, but will be placed in any record where the "Alias" column is blank. The rule, which passes validation, will fail during the build. To correct it, delimit the blank fields.
(20562) Long idle time with Spreadsheet Add-in may cause extra "Please Log In" messages. Click OK until the message stops appearing.
(20600) If you create a data file with blanks in the file name, such as My Documents, Essbase may display an error message. If you encounter this error, change the file name so that it contains no blanks.
(20606) When logged in with database designer privilege, the entire list of users is displayed in Security > Database, even though only the list of users that the database designer has privileges to modify should appear. Attempts to modify users for whom database designer should not have privileges will not be successful.
(21012) If you use Set Member Filter in EQD, any MBCS values may display as broken characters. Type the values into Notepad, and then copy and paste them over the broken characters.
(21300) Using the calculator hash table optimization to speed up calculations can negatively impact performance on some outlines.
(21332) @MOD may fail validation on the client but pass validation on the server. If your attempts to save an outline on the client fail, and the outline is associated with a calculation script containing @MOD, try saving it on the server.
(21616) Incompatibilities exist between the filtering feature in Microsoft Excel and the Spreadsheet Add-in.
(22235) Using Dynamic Time Series (DTS) members on a partitioned database may cause a server crash if ALL of the following criteria are true:
-Partitions are of the type Replicated or TransparentWorkaround: Remove the DTS members from the target partition.
-DTS member or members are on the target partition
-The Time dimension is sparse on the target partition and/or the source partition
If you have this situation there is another workaround:
-The outline has DTS members defined in Time dimension and(22370) Running root.sh on Solaris to enable cache memory locking, which runs only under direct I/O, not buffered I/O, will disable SQL Interface. Workaround: run chmod 555 ESSSVR. SQL Interface works again, however, cache memory locking is disabled.
-The partition definition doesn't mention Time dimension, indicating it should include all members.
Then you should mention time dimension explicitly, for example, Idesc("Time-dimension-name").
(22545) When compiling client API programs on NT, with MS VC ++ version 6.0 and higher, you may experience random API program crashes because when a workspace file is created a bug in MS VC++ causes the API program to crash. Workaround: compile the program on the command line by using the compiler "cl" directly, after verifying that there are no problems with the API program itself.
(22636) @member does not validate on the client if it is used with a function. Syntax checking on the client fails; however, on the server it returns no errors.
(22678) Valid calculation scripts with a FIX command and nested parentheses within the FIX command may not validate in the Calc Script Editor of the Application Manager and may report spurious errors. The same script will run without problems on the server.
(22716) If a member name contains an embedded space, &, ? or ^, you may not be able to create a security filter for the member unless you surround the member name in quotation marks, such as "Year to Date."
(22782) If you edit a custom-defined function or macro, the application may shut down and restart. If you are creating a new custom-defined function or macro, consider clicking New instead of Edit.
(22784) You may not be able to delete a custom-defined macro or a custom-defined function using Application Manager if the name is longer than 59 characters.
(22847 closed) Lack of memory during database restructure may crash server. This is an HP issue. If you encounter a problem, use this setting: set _M_ARENA_OPTS 1:32. Consult your HP documentation for more information.
(24037) Even though only one member of a dimension has an attached report, all the members in a dimension may be highlighted as if they had a report attached.
(24106) If you use the Query Designer to
change members in a spreadsheet, then select a dimension and choose Essbase
> Cascade, and then in the Destination Options tab, select the option "One
Workbook, Separate Sheets," you may receive the Microsoft Visual C++ Runtime
Library error:
Runtime Error! C:\Program Files\Microsoft Office\Office\Excel.exe....abnormal
program termination! error.
(24981 closed) DB2 OLAP Server calculator functions that take strings as arguments (for example, @ISUDA, @UDA, @CONCATENATE, @SUBSTRING, @MATCH, @NAME) may not perform correctly if there is a member alias that is the same as the string. In this case, use the function @ALIAS, described in the Technical Reference.
(25511) Step 15 of "Preserving Formulas When Retrieving Data" in the Spreadsheet Add-In User's Guide is technically correct but somewhat confusing. It will be improved for a future release.
(25717) Using @ISIDESC in a dynamic calculation, that is nested inside a dynamic calculation with a two-pass calculation tag may cause OLAP Server to freeze.
(26130 closed) Calculator function @RANGE and the cross-dimensional operator (->) cannot be used inside a FIX/ENDFIX statement.
(26931) If, during outline revision, you delete a member with a particular alias name, and then create a new member with the same alias name, the alias will fail to register and DB2 OLAP Server creates the new member without an alias. Workaround: Either delete the alias from the Outline Editor and save, or use a different alias name when revising.
(27034) Due to a Microsoft bug, you may not be able to display the Spreadsheet Add-in in IE 5.0 if you are running on operating system NT4.0. If you try to open an .xls file from IE 5.0 on NT4.0, the spreadsheet may open in a separate window.
(27370) The application view event log, when displayed via Application Manager, may incorrectly fail to show log entries because it evaluates "today" as GMT. To view log entries, select "All Dates."
(27417) If calculation times slow greatly from V1.1 to V7.1 FixPak 8, and your time dimension is dense, try changing it to sparse.
(27865) Running too many concurrent reports may overwhelm DB2 OLAP Server or operating system resources, especially against partitioned databases. If this occurs, the report processes do not ever finish.
(27927) Whenever one process is logged out by another process (such as Application Manager running on another machine), the process is logged off, and trying to access the server produces an error message even though Application Manager controls appear to still be active. Workaround: log in again.
(28064) Trying to associate an attribute with an implied shared member that has an implied shared child causes the association to be ignored, and DB2 OLAP Server writes a message to the application event log. An implied shared member is a member with only one child.
(28140) EssOtlQueryMembers: On UNIX, the currency conversion type returned is incorrect. Workaround: Use EssOtlFindMember instead.
(28208, 23213) When attempting to logout all users with Application Manager, the request is honored but additionally the user making the request is also disconnected. Workaround: Login again after such a request.
(28254) Excessively large outlines (greater than 400 Mb) may fail to open.
(28339) If you export an LRO attached to a shared member, then import it again, the LRO attaches to the original member (the member that actually stores the data referenced by the shared member), not the shared member.
(28506) When the installation program for SQL Interface asks you to specify a driver, if you specify MERANT, you won't be able to use DB2 Native drivers, and if you specify DB2 Native drivers, you won't be able to use Merant drivers.
(28507) Some characters, such as those using umlaut or accent marks, cannot be typed in ESSCMD interactive mode.
(28646) If a supervisor logs out a Spreadsheet Add-In user, and that user performs a drill-down, they will not see any error, but the retrieval will be empty. If they try to reconnect to server, then they will see a dialog box informing them of disconnect, and if they click OK the log in dialog screen appears.
(29311) If you have created the sample application Demo without direct IO, then add the direct IO configuration parameter to essbase.cfg (DIRECTIO TRUE), you may not be able to start the Demo application.
If you receive compilation errors in your calculation scripts, check the errors to be sure that variable names are not enclosed in quotation marks. The first character of variable names must be a letter (a through z). Variable names may contain letters, numbers (0 through 9), and these special characters: $ (dollar sign), # (number sign), and _ (underscore).
For Japanese versions of DB2 OLAP Server to work properly on AIX and Solaris, you must install additional locales not shipped with Essbase. These are included on the setup CD of each operating system. The locale needed for Solaris is ja_JP.PCK, and the locale needed for AIX is IBM-943. (21012)
The essbase.jar file should always reside in the /java directory of your installation if you intend to use the samples provided.
When migrating from V1.1 to V7.1 FixPak 8, if you notice a degradation in calculation performance and your outline has several formulas on dynamic calculation members, add a line with EVENT 28, and a line with CALCMODE BLOCK to your essbase.cfg file. Restart Essbase, then rerun the same calculation to see if it improves performance.
Java adds a startup memory requirement of approximately 10MB per application. If you install Java but are not using custom-defined macros or functions, you can reduce your startup memory requirement by disabling Java. To disable Java, remove all parameters from the JVMMODULELOCATION setting in the ESSBASE.CFG file. For more information about this setting, see the online Technical Reference.
On HP-UX platforms, if you observe DB2 OLAP Server using an inordinate amount of memory, it could a bug in the HP-UX operating system with respect to memory management for multi-threaded programs. Consider installing the following HP-UX operating system patch:
XSWGR1100 B.11.00.48 HP-UX General Release Patches, March 2000and the following library patch:
PHCO_22314 1.0 libc cumulative patch