Administering Provider Services

In This Section:

Administering Provider Services

Updating References to Rehosted Servers

Logging

Setting TCP/IP Socket Communication

Configuring Options in essbase.properties

Clustering

Administering Provider Services

To perform administrative functions in Provider Services in Essbase, you must have an administrator role for the designated Essbase Server in Oracle Hyperion Shared Services. If you have an admin role, you are automatically given permission to add or administer Provider Services for that Essbase after logging into Oracle Essbase Administration Services. Provider Services communicates with the designated Essbase server and grants or denies administrator permissions based on the your role in that Essbase instance.

Use Administration Services Console to administer Provider Services:

Adding Provider Services

You can manage Oracle BI EE and Essbase connections through the Smart View Panel in Smart View. For Essbase only, to add Provider Services through Administration Services, use the following procedure.

  To add Provider Services:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, select the Hyperion Provider Services node.

  2. Right-click and select Add Hyperion Provider Services.

  3. In Add Hyperion Provider Services, in Provider Name, enter the Provider Services server name, for example, localhost.

  4. Click the URL text box. This copies the URL of the Provider Services server you entered in the previous step. For example, http://localhost:13080/aps/APS.

  5. In Authenticating Essbase Server, select the name of the Essbase server from the dropdown list. You must have an administrator role in this Essbase server to perform administrative actions.

  6. Click OK.

    The provider name is displayed under the Provider Services node.

Editing the Authenticating Essbase Server

You can manage Oracle BI EE and Essbase connections through Smart View. For Essbase only, to edit Provider Services through Administration Services, use the following procedure.

You can edit the Authenticating Essbase Server that you specified in Adding Provider Services while adding a Provider Services server in Administration Services.

  To edit the authenticating Essbase Server:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, under the Hyperion Provider Services node, select a provider.

  2. Right-click and select Edit Authenticating Essbase Server.

    A dialog box where you can edit and specify another authenticating Essbase server is displayed.

  3. Click OK.

Removing Provider Services

You can manage Oracle BI EE and Essbase connections through Smart View. For Essbase only, to remove Provider Services through Administration Services, use the following procedure.

  To remove Provider Services:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, under the Hyperion Provider Services node, select a provider.

  2. Right-click and select Remove.

  3. In Remove Hyperion Provider Services, click Yes.

Connecting to a Stand-alone Essbase Server

You can manage Oracle BI EE and Essbase connections through Smart View. For Essbase only, to connect Provider Services through Administration Services, use the following procedure.

Through Administration Services Console, Provider Services can connect to stand-alone Essbase Servers or Essbase Server clusters. Smart View, Java API, and XMLA users connect to Essbase Servers through Provider Services. To users, the accessed database is transparent. From their perspective, they connect to, and retrieve data from, one data source.

Note:

To enable users to select any stand-alone Essbase Server, add the stand-alone server to Provider Services through Administration Services Console. Add Essbase Server to the User Properties window in Administration Services Console before adding the stand-alone server to Provider Services.

  To connect to a stand-alone Essbase Server:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, select the Essbase Servers node to add Essbase Servers to administer.

  2. Right-click and select Add Essbase Server.

  3. In Add Analytic Server, enter the Essbase Server name, user name, and password, confirm the password, and click OK.

  4. Repeat step 2 to add additional Essbase Servers.

  5. From Enterprise View or a custom view, under the Hyperion Provider Services node, select a provider.

  6. Right-click and select Create, then Create Stand-alone Server.

  7. In Add Stand-alone Server, from the list of servers added in step 3, select a server.

  8. Click OK.

    The name of the stand-alone Essbase Server is displayed under the Stand-alone Server node.

    Note:

    Alternatively, if you have existing stand-alone servers, you can select the Stand-alone Server node under a provider's name, right-click, and select Create Stand-alone Server.

Connecting to Provider Services

You can manage Oracle BI EE and Essbase connections through Smart View. For Essbase only, to connect Provider Services through Administration Services, use the following procedure.

Start all Essbase Servers associated with Provider Services, as stand-alone servers or in a cluster. Ensure that Provider Services is connected so that clients can connect to it.

  To connect to Provider Services:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, select the server node under the Hyperion Provider Services node.

  2. Right-click and select Connect.

    Provider Services is now online.

Monitoring Sessions

Use the sessions window to monitor sessions of users connected to Provider Services. You can view sessions of all users or specific users and which session types are running—Smart View, Java API, or XMLA.

  To monitor Provider Services sessions:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, under the Hyperion Provider Services node, select a provider.

  2. Right-click and select Sessions.

    The Provider Services Sessions window is displayed:

    • Session—Active session ID

    • Session Type—Type of request, from stand-alone server or cluster

    • Mode—Stand-alone server mode (server) or Analytic Cluster mode (cluster)

    • User—The use who generated the request

    • Analytic Server— Essbase Server to which the request was made

    • Application—Application name

    • Database—Database name

    • Request Time—Time of request

    • Request—Name of current running request, if any

  3. To see one user's sessions, select Show sessions for user and select from user lists.

  4. To see a session, select Show sessions for type and select JAVA, XMLA, or SMARTVIEW

  5. Click Refresh to update the view.

Specifying Session Timeout

You can specify how many minutes the session can be inactive before timing out.

  To specify the session timeout limit:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, under the Hyperion Provider Services node, select the Provider node.

  2. Right-click and select Edit, then Properties.

  3. In Hyperion Provider Services Properties, select Settings.

  4. In Idle Session timeout in minutes, specify how long the session can be inactive before timing out (default is 60). If the session times out, Smart View users must reconnect to Provider Services.

  5. Click Apply.

  6. Click Close.

Specifying Maximum Rows and Columns

Administrators can specify maximum values for rows and columns to be retrieved in a Smart View grid. By default, Provider Services installations set a maximum of 5000 rows and a maximum of 255 columns. If all Smart View users are using Excel 2007 or later, the administrator can increase these maximum values for rows and columns. However, if some or all Smart View users are using Excel 2003, then the default values of 5000 rows and 255 columns (the limits set by Excel 2003) must be used.

Changes to the maximum row and column properties take effect only after the Smart View client connects to a new session of Provider Services.

  To specify maximum rows and columns:

  1. Open Administration Services.

  2. From Enterprise View or a custom view, under the Hyperion Provider Services node, select the Provider node.

  3. Right-click and select Edit, then Properties.

  4. In Hyperion Provider Services Properties, select Settings.

  5. In Maximum number of rows, specify the number of rows to retrieve (default is 5,000).

  6. In Maximum number of columns, specify the number of columns to retrieve (default is 255).

  7. Click Apply.

  8. Click Close.

Automatically Deploying Client Upgrades

You can enable automatic deployment of new Smart View client releases.

  To automatically deploy Smart View clients:

  1. From Enterprise View or a custom view, under the Hyperion Provider Services node, select the Provider node.

  2. Right-click and select Edit, then Properties.

  3. In Hyperion Provider Services Properties, select Client Deployment.

  4. Select an option:

    • Force Smart View client to upgrade—Users must upgrade to continue using Smart View.

    • Warn Smart View client to upgrade—Informs users of available Smart View upgrade. Users can continue using Smart View clients without upgrading.

    • Apply Smart View client to upgrade—Enables the administrator to apply new versions of Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office and inform users without requiring Provider Services restart.

  5. Click Apply.

  6. In ORACLE_HOME/common/epmstatic/wspace/SmartView, open version.xml.

  7. Add the following Provider Services URL to version.xml:

    http://<server name>:13080/aps/APS?downloadClient

    This sample version.xml shows where to place the URL:

    <?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
    <CommonAddinVersion>
    	<internalVersion>
    		<major>
    		4
    		</major>
    		<minor>
    		2.1.0.0
    		</minor>
    	</internalVersion>
    	<externalVersion>
    		11.1.2.1.00
    	</externalVersion>
    	<installFile>
    		http://<server name>:13080/aps/APS?downloadClient
    	</installFile>
    </CommonAddinVersion>

Updating References to Rehosted Servers

If you are upgrading to this release by installing EPM System products on a new host machine, you must update Provider Services references to any of the following to reflect the new host name and port number.

  • Essbase servers

  • Active-active Essbase clusters configured by Provider Services

  • Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition servers

See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration GuideUpdating References to a Rehosted Environment” section for general rehosting information and for information about updating Provider Services references to Essbase servers.

  To update Provider Services references to active-active Essbase clusters configured by Provider Services or to Oracle BI EE servers:

  1. Navigate to EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE/bin/upgrades.

  2. From a command prompt, run the following script:

    ApsUpdateEssbaseServer.bat|sh fromHost toHost

    where fromHost is the host name of the original host, and toHost is the name of the new host.

Execute this script once for each reference to be updated.

Logging

Provider Services uses the Oracle Diagnostic Logging framework (ODL) for logging purposes. See the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Troubleshooting Guide.

Setting TCP/IP Socket Communication

In the TCP/IP socket communication between Provider Services Java API and Essbase, you do not need to configure the socket timeout. By default, control returns to the client when the socket communication completes, when the server resets the socket state or closes, or when the socket times out because TCP/IP timed out. However, you can specify the network operation timeout within which the control returns to the client.

  To specify network operation timeout:

  1. Navigate to EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE\bin\essbase.properties.

  2. Double-click essbase.properties to open the file.

  3. Set olap.server.netSocketTryInfinite=false.

  4. Set olap.server.netRetryCount= xxx, where the total network operation timeout = olap.server.netRetryCount x olap.server.netSocketTimeOut in milliseconds.

Configuring Options in essbase.properties

The following Provider Services options are configurable only in essbase.properties:

Table 1. essbase.properties Settings

SettingDescription

olap.server.netConnectRetry

The number of attempts a client makes to connect to an Essbase server

olap.server.netDelay

The time that the thread waits before attempting another connect against Essbase

olap.server.netRetryCount

The number of times an API can retry a unsuccessful network operation

olap.server.netLoopIPAddresses

For connections to hosts with both IPv4 and IPv6 network interfaces, enables performance benefit

olap.server.netSocketTimeOut

The time that a network operation can be blocked before it times out

olap.server.netSocketTryInfinite

Indicates that the client will keep trying infinitely on a network operation

Configuring essbase.properties

  To edit essbase.properties:

  1. Navigate to EPM_ORACLE_INSTANCE\bin\essbase.properties.

  2. Double-click essbase.properties to open the file.

  3. Enter each setting on a separate line.

    Semicolon terminators are not required.

  4. Save and close essbase.properties.

  5. Restart the Provider Services server.

Configurable Options in essbase.properties

olap.server.netConnectRetry

Description

The number of attempts a client makes to connect to an Essbase Server before failing and reporting an error.

Some causes of connection failures: network congestion, server inaccessibility, and network interruption.

Syntax

olap.server.netConnectRetry=n

Parameters

n - An integer value (default is 3).

Example

olap.server.netConnectRetry=20

olap.server.netDelay

Description

The time in milliseconds that the thread waits before attempting another connect against Essbase.

Syntax

olap.server.netDelay=n

Parameters

n - Integer value of 100 or greater, expressed in milliseconds (default is 200).

Example

olap.server.netDelay=300

olap.server.netRetryCount

Description

The number of times an API can retry a unsuccessful network operation before failing and reporting an error. If olap.server.netSocketTryInfinite is true, then olap.server.netRetryCount is ineffective.

Syntax

olap.server.netRetryCount=n

Parameters

n - An integer value (default value is 600 retries).

Example

olap.server.netRetryCount=400

olap.server.netLoopIPAddresses

Description

If Provider Services is needed to connect to hosts that have both IPv4 and IPv6 network interfaces enabled but only one is being used, this property can be set to false to get a performance benefit. When set to false, Provider Services will not loop through all the interfaces while connecting and instead use only the default one returned by host network environment.

Syntax

olap.server.netLoopIPAddresses=boolean

Parameters

True or false - (default is true).

Sample

olap.server.netLoopIPAddresses=true

olap.server.netSocketTimeOut

Description

The maximum time in milliseconds that a network operation can be blocked before the operation times out. A timeout of zero is interpreted as an infinite timeout.

Syntax

olap.server.netSocketTimeOut=n

Parameters

n - Integer value of 0 or above, expressed in milliseconds (default is 200).

Example

olap.server.netSocketTimeOut=120000

olap.server.netSocketTryInfinite

Description

Indicates that the client will keep trying infinitely on a network operation. If olap.server.netSocketTryInfinite is true, then olap.server.netRetryCount is ineffective.

Syntax

olap.server.netSocketTryInfinite=boolean

Parameters

True or false - (default is true).

Sample

olap.server.netSocketTryInfinite=true

Clustering

For information about using Provider Services to cluster Essbase databases, see Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System High Availability and Disaster Recovery Guide.

For information about clustering Provider Services, see “Clustering Web Applications” in Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide.