Essbase on Unix: Tips and Tricks

Oracle's Hyperion Essbase is a multidimensional database primarily utilized for providing robust analytical capabilities. Real-time slicing and dicing of data, exploration of KPIs and their material basis, and decision making assistance make Essbase an indispensable financial engine for organizations of all sizes. This blog addresses some of the lesser known tips and tricks with running Essbase on Unix. Linux, AIX, Solaris, and HP UX are all supported, see the Oracle web site for a full list of supported operating systems, including specific release notes.

1. Essbase startup
Oracle Essbase has a preference for running under a C or Bourne shell. Often, this conflicts with the default shell on many installations (Korn). Ensure that your startup script for Essbase begins with "/bin/sh". Also, avoid using "nohup" (it is not necessary for a C or Bourne shell; it is only needed for a Korn shell)- nohup has been shown to cause a race condition in larger installations when making changes to the security file. For some reason, the default startup script included with the version 11 release does not follow the documented convention to start Essbase; if you're having strange problems with your installation I would recommend making changes to this script to make it similar to the documented startup script. For an example startup script see the Essbase Technical Reference chapter "Maintaining Essbase", section "Running Essbase Servers, Applications, and Databases." (the example script also shows how to hid the console password from nosey users on HPUX/Solaris systems)

2. Environment variables
Oracle Essbase requires certain environment variables to be preconfigured for correct operation. These variables are typically documented in a file named "hyperionenv.doc" on the Unix server during installation, however the convention utilized does not export the variables. Ensure that the processes that start Essbase, as well as any scripts calling Esscmd or Maxl scripts, have their environment configured by using this script as a template (remember to export the variable settings).

3. Filesystems
Essbase doesn't like NFS. It gets all whiny and fussy, like a 6 year old that can't have cake. In all seriousness, Essbase's IO requirements and file locking characteristics don't mesh well with filesystems mounted via NFS. This problem is particularly troublesome for ASO database, but affects BSO databases as well. To sum it up, using NFS for Essbase is not supported, so save yourself the headache- don't do it.

4. Stopping Essbase
No one runs Essbase in the foreground, so you can't just type "exit" to stop Essbase. Essbase can be stopped via Administration Services by manually selecting the server and selecting Stop. Alternatively, scripts can be written on the Unix server utilizing either Maxl or Esscmd to stop the server. The relevant Maxl statement is "alter system shutdown" (after logging in to the server) or "shutdownserver" in Esscmd (no login necessary, as the login information is used as a part of the shutdownserver command syntax). Whatever you do, do not "kill" the Essbase server- at worst you're risking serious database corruption, at best you're applications will need to go through free space recovery on startup- a time consuming operation that is unavoidable when the server is killed and which prevents users from being able to connect to their applications and be productive. Note- the version 11 installation does not include a shutdown script; you'll have to write your own, and add it to the appropriate place in the EPM shutdown script to properly stop your server.

5. Best Practices (not necessarily for Unix, but for Essbase administration in general)
Consider carefully the tradeoffs with any of these recommendations. They're all made with the assumption that their advantages outweigh their disadvantages.

• Database restructures (particularly for read/write applications) - performing periodic full database restructures (using Maxl statement "alter database application.database force restructure;") will improve performance, and reduce free space recovery time if a crash does occur.
• Place the application in read-only mode before shutting the server down - this forces the Essbase server to write all open files held in memory to the disk, in particular the Free Space file.
• Fully shutdown the server before performing a backup. Applications can be backed up in read-only mode while the server is running, however the Essbase security file can not. Shut the server completely down to make a backup of this critical file.