KScope wrap up

Well after a few days of rest I have finally recuperated from KScope. If you missed the conference, you missed a lot. The conference for me started early Saturday morning where I joined about 80 other volunteers to refurbish a Boys and Girls club in long beach. Eager volunteers cleaned painted and set up a wireless computer network. The painting included, walls, doors, railings, pool tables, basketball courts and other various things. It only took a week to get all the paint off of me.

Sunday started off strong with the Oracle symposium. I’m not at liberty to speak about what was said there do to safe Harbor  and Oracle asking that we do not blog about it. I can say the lineup of superstar presenters from Oracle was well worthwhile. The roadmaps for Hyperion in general and in depth for Essbase, Smartview, HFM, and other products was informative. I have to say, I have been on the Smartview beta and have seen the enhancements to it and am impressed by them.  After the symposium, was a reception where I got to meet lots of attendees. Following that was dinner and work on the Monday midnight madness event. I think I got to bed at around 2:00 am.

Monday started off with an opening session where we were entertained by a series of reality show clips from the ODTUG board competing to see who would pick the location for the next Kscope conference. In the end Mike Riley won (I think it was fixed) and the new Marriott resort in San Antonio was selected. I think next year’s conference is intended to be more family friendly as the resort has a water park and other family type events. I’ve heard rumor of movie nights in the water. The opening also featured a Speaker Joey Asher on the topic “Even a geek can speak” talking about how to make presentations better. I came away from it with a couple of points I used to improve my presentations and one I now know never to use. Never, never, ever do a live tweet poll with a bunch of geeks.

After the opening session, it was time to get to work. For the last three years I have had presentations during the first and last sessions of the Kscope conference. I’m not sure why. This year I was the co-presenter on a session “introduction to Essbase Studio”.  It went well, and was followed by a session I did on Advanced Studio tips and tricks. I polled the audience and 90 percent or more had never used Essbase Studio. It meant I had to explain a lot more what I meant as I was describing the tips. I did not get through all of the tips I wanted to give, but the ones I covered were the most important and I think people got a lot of good information.

While I wanted to attend sessions in the afternoon, I ended up being scheduled to do a book signing. It was the weirdest experience having people wanting me to sign their Essbase Studio books. Early evening was spent updating some presentations for another presenter then it was off to the Hyperion Monday Night Madness event.  Yes it went from 10:00 pm to about 11:30 and we had about 150 people in the room. I would like to tank Ron Moore from MTG for sponsoring the event. The desserts were delectable it was a fun time. The SIG spent Sunday surveying the EPM attendees at the conference and so Monday night we did a Family Feud game. If you missed it, I can’t describe how fun it was. Let me just say after one question was answered, it took me 7 minutes to stop laughing. Yes someone timed me. It was an event not to be missed. I finally got to bed after that around 1:30 (see a trend starting?)

Tuesday, I started off the day with a session titled. “The exception to the rule in Essbase Design”. As I was presenting, I noticed Carol Crider from Oracle in the audience. I had never met her in person and she is someone I Idolize. She knows more about Essbase than anyone I know. It actually shook me up and I became a babbling idiot trying to present. If you did not make the presentation, I am doing it this Thursday (July 7th, 2011) as an interRel webcast. If you are interested in attending, contact Danielle White Dwhite@interrel.com to get connection info.

After this session, I was on a panel with the smartest from interRel answering different product questions. After a short break, it was yet another panel during lunch for heated discussions and opinions with other Oracle Ace Directors in the EPM/BI space. People enjoyed us battling out our positions about various questions.  After that I sat in on three of Edward Roske’s sessions. I knew he had not slept since Sunday and it was interesting to see him slowly melt down by the end of the third session. Even in his altered state, he presented some great info.  Tuesday night I skipped the interRel client event. I missed the hula dancers and fire jugglers to attend the Oracle Ace dinner. I met and talked with the cadre of Oracle Aces and Ace Directors who were presenting and attending the conference. I think this conference is only surpassed by Oracle Open world in the number of Aces and Directors who attend.

Wednesday was an “Off” day for me as I did not have any presentations . I attended sessions on a variety of topics. Two sessions that stood out were a panel session with Oracle Support helping to demystify how to get the most out of support and support answering questions. They were not technical questions, but more general questions on how to most effectively work with them. From the session, I was asked to email one of them to follow up on a problem I am having and am happy to say I’ve already gotten a response. It is not the answer yet, but a good beginning.  I think the best session for me of the week was a session from Steve Liebermensch (Steve forgive me if I butchered your name) from  Oracle on “Procedural calculations on ASO”. Steve assumed everyone in the room had heard about procedural calculations before and did not go over the basics but rather took the approach of showing how he optimized procedural calculations at a customer. Wednesday ended with the the closing night party on the Queen Mary. I actually wore a tux. You could call me a well dressed nerd. On the ship were too many things to do in the short amount of time we were there. The food was varied and good, there was a dueling piano bar, blackjack and poker for prizes, a band and what I went to. Don McMillian  and Engineer comedian who uses power point to convey his points. He had two shows with different material and I attended both. He was really funny, especially for the geeky crowd listening. The night ended with a special guest artist Young MC. A rapper. I’m not really into rap, so it was ok foe me.Following him was a  huge fireworks display and then the bus back to the hotel.

The final day of the conference, Thursday, I was again up early for sessions. I was coerced into going to a session on Groovy and I’m glad I did. For anyone who wants to write using the Java API but is intimidated, Groovy makes it easy. It takes and simplifies Java. Thanks to Joe Aultman for a great presentation. I then went to a session on HPCM and although it was not well attended, I got a lot out of it. My final presentation of the conference was a a co-presenter for Henry Robin from ConnocoPhilips. It was an interesting presentation of how they used LROs to add commentary to their  applications.  I was supposed to discuss other alternatives, but the audience was so enthralled by what Henry had to say, I didn’t get to say much.

With that the conference was ending. For some strange reason, some people wanted to take their picture with me. I guess they needed a new face for the dart board. I went back to my room, packed and headed home from one of the best conferences I’ve attended. While it was exhausting for me, I got a lot out of it and think others who attended did as well.  If you missed it, you missed a great event. Start planning now for San Antonio. As a matter af fact, if you would like to present, you can already submit your abstract at kscope12.com

I look forward to seeing you all there next year.  

My Kscope Schedule

The Kscope 11  conference is less than a week away and I’m getting more and more anxious as it nears. For my groupie (That means Cameron), I thought I would share my schedule with you.

Sunday

Of course on Sunday, I’ll be at the EPM symposium all day long. During lunch and at various time during the day, you’ll see me wandering aimlessly with a clipboard talking to people. I’m doing some surveys and need as many people to answer them. If you see me stop me and force me to ask you questions.  During the evening I’ll be at the opening reception where a few fun and surprising things will be happening.

Monday

Monday is a busy day for me.

11:15 am Oracle Essbase Studio in room 102AB. I am a co-presenter with Saundra Holloway from CareFirst.  If I feel nice, I might give away a look smarter than you are with Essbase Studio book.

1:15 PM Advanced Tips and Tricks 11.1.2 Essbase Studio Room 103A

3:00 – 4:00 I’ll be signing books at the interRel booth. Well, I’ll be there. We will see if anyone wants a book signed.

10:00 PM, that is correct PM, I’ll be hosting the Hyperion Midnight Madness. Great deserts and a good time will be served. It is an event not to miss.

Tuesday

Of course there is no better way to end a late evening than to have the first session of the day.

8:30 am The Exception to the Rule: Essbase design Principles That Don't Always Apply Room 102AB

9:45am is the vendor presentation time. Edward, Tracy, a few others and I will be answering your deepest darkest questions in room 101B The session is titled “Ask interRel's Oracle EPM Guru's:more Fun Than A Barrel of Consultants” No I don’t name them so don’t complain to me

11:15 AM. EPM/BI Expert Panel Room 102AB. Similar to the interRel panel above, but with other experts in the field.  Corrected, it turns out I’ll not be on this panel so you get a rest from me

12:15-1:45pm EPM/BI Lunch and Learn. Room Promenade B & C. I’ve been asked as with a number of other Oracle Ace and Ace Directors to have a panel where you can get the answers to the questions you were not able to ask at the interRel session at 9:45 or the panel at 11:15. Bring your lunch and watch us scramble to figure out answers for you. looks like Tuesday is the day to ask your weird and troubling questions.

Tuesday evening I get to relax (yea right) and go to dinner with the Other Oracle Ace and Ace Directors at the conference. It should be a good time. At the same time interRel is hosting it’s client event.

Wednesday

I am sleeping all day long!!!! not really, but unless a tree falls on someone, I actually don’t have any presentations to do. There are of course a number of presentations I really want to listen to.  Of course I’ll be at the mystery event on the Queen Mary. It will be interesting to see what is there.

Thursday

For the last two years, I have had sessions to open and close the conference. This year is no exception. I’ll be co-presenting with Henry Robins from ConocoPhillips . Sorry Henry that I added an S to the end of you last name. Of course I was referring to the infamous Henry Robin not Robins.

11:45am Commenting on Oracle Essbase Commentary at ConocoPhillips room 103C

After that I go home collapse for the rest of the day and work on multiple client projects that I will have neglected all week long.

Last chance to save money

Kscope11 is almost upon us. I know my boss, came up with the Ksocpe bit, but I actually liked calling it Kaleidoscope better. I’m an old fart and don’t abbreviate everything. I’m not one of the cool kids, but I will be at Kaleidoscope. I’ve got 2 official presentations to do: Advanced Essbase Studio tips and tricks on Monday morning and The Exception to the Essbase Rule on Tuesday. In addition, I’m on a couple of panels where you can ask your questions. One with Edward and Tracy for interRel’s vendor presentation.  Yes this year, the panel will actually happen.  I’m also helping on a few other presentations, like the intro to Essbase Studio on Monday. so you will see me all over the place. It will be a busy week for me. Who said going to conferences was a boondoggle never went to this conference.
The early registration discounts for the KScope11 conference end on Thursday June 9th. After that the conference is full price. If you want to still save a bit more money register with the code IRC and save an additional $100. Even after the deadline  you can save the $100 off registration.
Last year we had a great time at the Hyperion madness event  on Monday night. Due to the time it conflicted with a lot of people eating dinner (who needs food anyway). We decided to move it back to 10:00 pm this year. This is the time we did it the previous two years. I’ve been told there will be a great dessert selection to satisfy  your late night sweet tooth. Join us and be part of the madness.
If you are at the conference and you should be, look me up and say Hi. It is nice to meet the people that actually read my blog and follow my OTN and Network54 posts.

ODTUG Hyperion Sig Elections

The announcement just went out that nominations are being accepted for the ODTUG Hyperion SIG board. There will be a change this year in how the elections are done.

First, instead of elections being held at KScope, the nomination period has been extended to July 8th. This change was made to allow those at KScope to think about becoming a board member and still having time to act on it.

Second, elections will be online. I have mixed feeling about this. While I think it will be more efficient, I actually think we will get less voters than when we did it on site at Kscope. Along with this change, in order to vote, you now have to be an ODTUG member. If you were not before the conference and signed up, you automatically became a member. It would be people who did not re-up their memberships that would be left out. Please prove me wrong and when voting time comes, cast your ballot for the people who will represent you on the Hyperion SIG.

Third, in order to prevent mistakes that have happened in the past, After the election the candidates will all be notified of the results and a general announcement will go out on or around July 29th.

I’ve posted the description and requirements below. I think there is a slight type, It says you have to be a paid member to be a candidate, It really should say you have to be a paid member to be a member of the board.

It is very important for the board to have client representation. That is why at least 50% of the board has to be from clients. If not, it would allow us vendors to run amok. I don’t know about you, but there is too much Mok around already. So if you are a Oracle client, consider running. The board needs new fresh input. The time commitment is really not bad, the board meets on conference calls once or twice a month and during Oct, Nov and Dec is the heavy work of selecting content for the next conference. After that, there is some work on newsletters and other projects to make the SIG better for the community.

 

If you are at Kscope this year, look me up and say hi. It is noce to meet the people who actually read my blog.

 

The ODTUG Hyperion SIG is currently seeking nominations for its board. There are three (3) open seats. 1 of these seats can be filled by a vendor/partner.
The board’s responsibilities are:
• Enable communication with Oracle Corp on direction and strategy
• Share information and experiences among Oracle Hyperion developers and database administrators
• Facilitate training and education among the Oracle Hyperion developers and database administrators (DBAs)
• Provide representation for the Hyperion SIG at Kaleidoscope and Oracle Open World
• Develop the Hyperion tracks at Kaleidoscope
• Maintain Hyperion SIG’s web page on ODTUG.com with relevant and informative content to the development community
Board member requirements include: current paid member of ODTUG; regular participation in board conference calls; coordinating/contributing to meetings and conferences including ODTUG Kaleidoscope and Oracle Open World.
As a board member, one needs to support and promote the Hyperion SIG goals by taking an enthusiastic role in the activities that help continually provide value to the technical community. Giving a presentation at ODTUG’s annual conferences, assisting with membership and awareness campaigns, mentoring new members and encouraging other developers/DBAs to participate in the Hyperion SIG are just a few ways that board members can display leadership and contribute to the SIG's growth and success.
If you would like to help shape the future direction of the Hyperion SIG by joining the board, please submit the following information to doug_burke@paramount.com:
Name
Company
Title
Address
Email
Phone Number
Head Shot
Four to five sentence bio
Please be aware of the following rules/guidelines:
• Candidates must be a current paid member of the Oracle Development Tools Users Group (ODTUG).
• Elections are for individual volunteers, not the companies that employ them. The person elected will be a board member. It is recommended that individuals seek approval to run before submission as a candidate.
• Board will consist of nine members with no more than 50% from employees of Oracle Vendors (50% vendor rule).
• A board member’s term will last three years. At the end of their term, former members may choose to run for re-election after one year.
• On any given year, there will be 3 open positions on the board.
• If positions become open on the board during the year, board members may appoint members at their discretion as long as it does not violate the 50% vendor rule.
• Nominations will be open now until July 8th.
• Voting will be from July 11-25th on the ODTUG website.
• Results will be published July 29th.

Sometimes less is more!

I have a client that has two Essbase instances, a test server and a production server. Both are running on VMs and use the same number of CPUs(4), the same memory (8 gig) run the same Windows 64 bit operating system, have the same cfg file, the same SAN, running at the same time with the same exact data and nothing else running on them. So why am I writing this? The test server was processing everything much faster that the production server. When I say much faster, I mean test ran a process in 7 hours while production ran in 13 hours. Neither is fast, but this system is very complicated with a lot of data loads, calculations, extracts and reloads in the process. We were dumbfounded by the differences. Something had to be different.

We checked everything we could think of and finally found it. On the test server, the virtual memory was set at 6 gig while on production it was set at 11 gig. The normal wisdom is that you set your virtual memory (system page file) at 1.5 times your actual memory. Interestingly enough, in the very old days of Essbase we used to crank up the virtual memory as high as we could. We did some experimentation and increasing the memory on test degraded performance and reducing the virtual memory on production improved performance.

Wow was this counter-intuitive! Apparently reducing the memory allowed the 64 bit operating system to handle the memory better on its own. When you use virtual memory, it is actually writing to disk, real memory has no IO associated with it. I’m guessing  when we reduced the virtual memory, it forces the OS to use more real memory since it could not write it to disk.

We thought is 6 gig is good, maybe 5 gig would be better. We were wrong. For this server 6 gig seems to be the sweet spot. Does this affect 32 bit systems? I don’t know, but I do now know this can be an impact on 64 bit systems. This just goes to show that sometimes less is more.

I know everyone who reads my blog are cool kid (That’s why I’m not allowed to read my own blog), so I wanted to remind you that KScope11 is fast approaching. As I write this it is only 47 days away. I also know you have all registered for the conference already. You didn’t? what are you waiting for? You want a deal, register and enter the code IRC and get a $100 discount on registration. Also if you are not already a member of ODTUG, you get a complimentary  membership worth $99.  That way you have access to all the cool stuff like papers, presentations and webcasts.

Why server file loads are quicker

Most of us know that if the data file exists on the server (especially in the database directory) and we do a data load it is faster than if the file is on the client. But what do EAS and MAxL actaully do when the file is on the client machine? If you look at an EAS data load,  when you start it, you see the box:

When the dialog hits 100%, in the message area of EAS, you will see a statement something like:
User selected data file ‘C:\temp\data.txt’ is uploaded to server for execution at location d:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\epmsystem1\tmp\tempfile9706446338807355961.txt
(your path will vary depending on what version of Essbase is installed)
EAS uploads (FTPs) the file onto the Essbase server then processes it. When the process is complete, it deletes the file.  What is the implication of this. Aside from being slower that having the file on the server, it is possible that aborted loads are leaving dead files in the temp directory. I had a system where the number of files and space consumed became significant.
Talking about slower, at a client I’m at, I tested the differences in load time. I’m connected over a VPN connection and have a data file that is 65 meg. For each test, I loaded into the same empty ASO database.  I’m running the web version of EAS so it is on my local machine.  Running the data load process with a client file took about 36 minutes.
Running the same file on the server in the database directory took less than 1 minute. 35 minutes of savings which is significant when you are waiting for processes to run.
To improve my time overall since the files were on my local machine, I would zip them up, copy them to the server, unzip them and then process them. In all I saved about 20 minutes off EAS’s client time. This showed me that the upload does not do any file compression when it copies the file.

Update note:
I've talked with a few people that have read this post and need to clearify. When I talk about a server file, I mean the file should be in the application/database directory on  the server. This way EAS recongnizes it as a server file. The easy way to check if the system thinks it is a server file is to open up the load utility in EAS and select find file. Click on the server tab. IF the file pops up, it is in the right place (It should be saved as a txt file to make life easier).


While this will not affect most people as they are doing their processing on the server or in house on fast networks, it does help to understand what EAS and MaxL do when you have a client file to load.
This is just a single tidbit of the type of information you can get at Kscope 11. I’ll be presenting a couple of sessions. One on Advanced Essbase Studio tips and another one on the exception to the rules on outline design. I think both are pretty good sessions. Come see for yourself and let me know. I’m sure I’m going to get sucked into some other sessions , like a panel or two on Hyperion.
If you want to save $100 off of registration,  enter the three character code IRC   (which stands for interRel consulting). I’m not sure how long the code is good for, so don’t wait too long.

Essbase Studio book released (Finally)

It took a bit longer than I expected, as the editors, especially Cameron Lackpour, found numerous little issues that needed to be fixed, but the Look Smarter Than you are with Essbase Studio book has finally be released to the general public. You can go to Lulu.com and just search for Essbase Studio books. It will be the only one or if you are smarter than I are, you can just click on the link Studio Book and go right to it. If you are at the Collaborate 11 conference, you can get it quicker as they have some copies in the bookstore. 

You can even preview the first chapter of it without buying it (I think it is the funniest chapter).