Post on 14-Jun-2015
Hyperion Financial Reporting:
Top 10 Tips and Tricks
Edward Roske, CEO
Oracle ACE Director
info@interrel.com
BLOG: LookSmarter.blogspot.com
WEBSITE: www.interrel.com
TWITTER: Eroske
About interRel
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•Copyright © 2007, Hyperion. All rights reserved. •4
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Disclaimer
These slides represent the work and opinions of
the presenter and do not constitute official
positions of Oracle or any other organization.
These material has not been peer reviewed and is
presented here with the permission of the
presenter.
These should not be copied, recorded or
reproduced without the expressed written
permission of interRel Consulting.
Agenda
Top 10 Tips and Tricks for Faster FR Reporting
What’s New for FR 11X
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7
Top 10 Tips for Faster Reports
1. Is it Essbase or FR? Optimize for Retrievals
2. Grid Point Of View
3. Limit Page Members for PDF Viewing
4. Limit Conditional Formatting
5. Limit Number of Combinations
6. Utilize expanded data segments when possible
7. Push calculations to the Essbase Server
8. Efficient Report Calculations
9. Multiple Print Servers
10.Data Query Optimization
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Slow Report – Is it Essbase or FR?
Run the same report using the Microsoft Excel Add-in or
Smart View
If the report runs fast in Excel and slow in Reports, the
issue is on the Reports server
Check out the following tips for faster reports
If Essbase is the culprit, review your Essbase design
Dense / Sparse settings
Hierarchy settings
Caches
Using a Grid POV
Grid POV vs Paging Members
Grid POV – can be set up to allow users to change Grid
POV (works similar to a “Page”) without all of the
processing
When page is selected, the report will run for all of the
page members
Also a good way to “fix” a member selection for a report
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Limit Page Members for PDF Viewing
All pages must be rendered so limiting the number of
members in pages leads to faster reporting.
See the tip about using Grid POVs.
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Limit Conditional Formatting
Limit Conditional Formatting – Slows down the report
ESPECIALLY when you use a function that requires
Essbase
Essbase processes the request line by line; this will tie up
the Essbase server, Reports server, and the network
Example – If Gen 2 then X, else if Gen 3 then Y.
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Limit Number of Combinations
Instead of saying DIMBOTTOM, narrow down the
member selection to reduce the number of combinations
that will be retrieved from the server.
E.g
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Expanded Data Segments
For data queries, use Expanded Data Segments when
you know “data exists”
Expanded data segment is a row or column that can be
expanded (Children of, Descendants of…)
Dynamically update the report based on the Essbase OTL
… so if new members or levels are inserted into the Essbase OTL, the
report will automatically refresh
Limitation - formatting is applied across all members in the
expanded data segment; Conditional formatting could be used
to address this issue
If you have detailed formatting or calculation requirements, then
you must use single data segments
Flip side – if you know it is only one or two members
that will have data, just pull those members (vs. pulling
everything and suppressing data
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Expanded Data Segments
Use conditional formatting to apply formatting by level or generation – see earlier tip.
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Push Calculations to the Hyperion Essbase
Sever
Hyperion Reports has an expansive list of formula and
calculation capabilities
But… this means processing on the Reports server
If you can, push calculations back to the Essbase server
Benefits
Faster
Standard formula across all reports accessible to
users
(Data integrity)
Central place for business rule / calculation logic
(Update the formula once vs. several times
throughout all reports)
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Efficient Calculations / Functions
Use row / column formulas (vs. cell formulas) Use reference properties Any row, column, or cell reference can have a
property associated with it Example: Two formulas that reach the same result
Row reference - [1:5].sum Sum Function - Sum([1:5])
First formula executes faster since it is being used as a reference property
Remove unnecessary parenthesis from formulas
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Multiple Print Servers
Multiple print servers assist in generation of PDFs. The report
server will distribute print jobs in a round robin format to
multiple print servers, providing a shared workload. 1. Stop all Hyperion Reports services
2. Open with Notepad the hr_repserver.properties file located in "C:\Program Files\Hyperion
Solutions\Hyperion Reports\Packages".
3. Next to the setting "NumberOfPrintServers=", specify the number of print servers you will
use.
4. Add an entry for each print server and specify the machine name or IP address of each
Print Server in the following convention: printserver1=machineA
5. On each print server, install Adobe Acrobat Writer or Ghostscript and install Hyperion
Reports. During the installation of Hyperion Reports, select the box to install only the Print
Server.
6. On each print server, execute the print server batch file through START->PROGRAMS-
>HYPERION SOLUTIONS->HYPERION REPORTS->START PRINT SERVER or by
double-clicking StartPrintServer.cmd file located in "C:\Program Files\Hyperion
Solutions\Hyperion Reports\Bin“
7. Start the Hyperion Reports Services in the Hyperion Reports server.
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Data Query Optimization Options
Suppress Missing on the Hyperion Essbase Server
For reports with a sparse dimension and at least one
associated attribute dimension in the grid row, “Include”
the the Essbase Sparse option
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Data Query Optimization Options
Suppress Missing on the Hyperion Essbase Server
For reports with a sparse dimension and at least one
associated attribute dimension in the grid row, “Include”
the Essbase Sparse option
New option to use MDX that is selected by default (you
may want to turn off if having performance / other
strange issues
Other Recent Tip – FR Hanging / Crashing?
Two clients recently had this issue with FR
Problem ended up being large PDF jobs that exceeded the JVM
heap for the HRPrinting.exe process
It would leave an orphan HRPrinting.exe process running using
300MB (visible through Task Manager).
Once there were 5 orphaned HRPrinting.exe
processes HyS9FRPrint.exe wouldn't spawn any more, if we
killed one of the orphan HRPrinting.exe processes the
HyS9FRPrint.exe would spawn a new HRPrinting.exe and run
successfully (unless it was larger than the allowed memory).
Solution
It helped but didn't prevent the problem to increase the JVM
setting from -XMX256M to -XMX512M in the registry at
Hyperion Solution\HReports\JVM\JVM Option2 (Can’t set higher
than 512 MB)
Create smaller batches
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And Don’t Forget…
Financial Reporting is not designed for dim bottom across all of
your sparse dimensions
If you are trying to build this type of report, you WILL have
performance issues
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Couple of Final Thoughts
Planning to Reporting Functionality in Planning 11.1.2
Map Smartlist Values to Based Dimensions
Execute Reports within Excel Using SmartView
More preferable than running in Workspace and then exporting
to Excel
Sometimes you just have to run the utility to clear the POV for all
users in FR…
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What’s New Financial Reporting 11.1.2
Go Forward Strategy for Oracle EPM and BI
Journey from Financial Reporting 9 to 11
FR Include
external
content in
books
FR Manage
POV utility
9.0 9.3.1 11.1.2
Workspace Home
page
Integration OBIEE+
and Publisher to
Workspace
Better search
FR annotations
FR define initial
preferences
FR PDF book
enhancements (cell
docs, bookmarks, pg
no)
FR HTML
FR Book
enhancemen
ts
FRExecute
FR Tracking
9.3
FR Batch
Bursting
FR Freeze row
and column
headings
Portlets
Shared
Services
Common
Workspace
One place
to get FR,
WA, and IR
content
Common
roles
(which
were really
confusing)
11.1.1
New Look for the Workspace
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Tabs Across the Top
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What’s New in Financial Reporting 11.1.2?
Book enhancements
FRExecute FR document
tracking
Support for Essbase Text
and Date measures
Formatted based on user
preference setting
Combines Services
Related content enhancements
What’s New in FR – Book Enhancements
New Properties pane at bottom of the Book Editor that allows
editing properties of the selected Book object/file
Book dialog settings moved to new properties pane
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What’s New in FR – Book Enhancements
Define a book with a Table of Contents containing sections and
indented subsections
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What’s New in FR – Book Enhancements
Insert new book object types
URL links
Heading text label and HTML files
External file types – Excel, Word, PowerPoint, PDF files and
text files
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What’s New in FR – Book Enhancements
Custom labels for objects and reports in book table of contents
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What’s New in FR – Book Enhancements
Cut and paste book
objects and sections for
enhanced book editing
Move up or down
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What’s New in FR – Book Enhancements
Display or hide sections and objects in the book table of contents
Included in the output but not in the TOC
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HTML Output
Generate book output as a static HTML web site with built in search
capabilities
Templates are provided for HTML layout and page customization
Generated through scheduled book batch
Batch bursting not supported for HTML option
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Retrieving HTML Output form Workspace
Right click on the batch once it is complete
Select Retrieve Output to download
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Customized Layout for HTML Output
Custom header and footer defined in the template.css file
Table of contents with nested sections and section headings
Navigation trail that keeps track of your location in the book
Search the entire “site”, Table of Contents, or content
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FRExecute
New custom FRExecute function enables users to embed a report,
grid or chart or cell in Word
Report content is retrieved into Word when the book is scheduled in
batch output
Primarily used with HTML output
For (some) details look in the FRWebUser guide
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What is the syntax?
FRExecute(ReportName[Type={1,2};Component
Type={1,2};ComponentName={Grid1,Grid2,Cha
rt1,Chart2,Chart3};Page={1,2,..;.}Cell=FR
Formula}
ReportName - name of the report (must include Path if not in Root
directory)
Type1 - dynamic report; Type2 - Snapshot report
ComponentType1(optional) is a grid; ComponentType2(optional) is
a chart.
ComponenentName(optional) - grid or chart name
Page(optional) - page number
Cell(optional) – specific cell; syntax is cell=cell[row,col], or
cell=[row,col]
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Steps to Using FRExecute
1. Type the syntax directly in the Word doc as well as a text box.
2. Upload word doc to Workspace
3. Insert doc into book
4. Create batch with book
5. Schedule batch and ran
6. The document is included in the book with the FR Report, grid, etc.
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Create a Word Doc
.docx not supported
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Import Doc to Workspace
File >> Import >> File
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Add to Book
Make sure to
enable
FRExecute
Processing
on Book
Setup tab
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Create and Schedule Batch
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Check Out the Output
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FR Tracking
Tracking for who used a report and when it
was last accessed FRLogging.log
Output captured in a log file with time/date
stamp, report/book name, user id and
whether report action was preview or design
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Other New Features 11.1.2 FR Features
Insert a link in a book or as part of related content to document
stored in Content Management System (Oracle Universal
Management, Workspace or third party system)
Support for Essbase Text and Date measures
Formatted based on user preference setting
Annotations on formula cells
Related content links can be created for any part of the report or
snapshot including formula, text rows and columns, headers,
images, text boxes and cells
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Combined FR Services
FR Reports server, FR web applications server and FR scheduler
server are combined into one server; Print server is still separate
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XBRL Creation and Management
Current FR XBRL functionality
Create a report, map XBRL metadata (concepts, context, units
and footnotes), and export the report output as an instance
document in FR Studio
All of the XBRL mappings are stored with the individual report
definition.
Future 11.1.2 Disclosure Management
Old way will continue to be supported
No new features
No migration path
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Disclosure Management
Manage and create critical
documents (e.g. Debt covenants,
10Q/K, Board package)
No need for third party filers for
XBRL
MS Office centered – Word for
authoring
Hot link to EPM apps
Multiple report formats
Word, HTML, PDF
Embedded XBRL Reporting
Capabilities
Based on Ubmatrix technology
Report tagging – MS Office or FR
Metadata tagging – FM, Planning, EPMA, and Essbase
Taxonomy management ; support for multiple taxonomies
Instance documentation creation and validation
What’s New?
Enterprise Performance Management (EPM) System
Cumulative Feature Overview Tool
The CFO Tool is interactive and offers customers a simple way to
determine the new features between releases
This first version covers Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance
Management System Release 9.3.1 through Release 11.1.2
The tool is available on the My Oracle Support site via this link:
https://support.oracle.com/oip/faces/secure/km/DocumentDisplay.js
px?id=1092114.1.
There is also a 7-min. recorded demo that shows how to use the
tool. Here’s the link to the
recording: http://docwiki.us.oracle.com/wiki/CFO_Tool_Demo
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Keeping up with the EPM Documentation
Follow On Twitter
You can follow EPM Documentation info on Twitter here:
HyperionEPMInfo
Follow On Facebook
You can follow EPM Documentation info on Facebook here:
Hyperion EPM Info
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Where are the Darn Log Files?
This info is hidden in the EPM Installation and Configuration
Troubleshooting Guide, page 17:
http://download.oracle.com/docs/cd/E17236_01/epm.1112/epm_ins
tall_troubleshooting.pdf
This chapter has info on the log file configuration and output
locations for all of the products
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Thank You.
Edward Roske, CEO
Oracle ACE Director
info@interrel.com
BLOG: LookSmarter.blogspot.com
WEBSITE: www.interrel.com
TWITTER: Eroske