Youarenotalone - Teradataapps.teradata.com/tdmo/v08n01/pdf/AR5567.pdf · as a Teradata database...

ASK THE EXPERTS TECH2TECH

s a Teradata user you are part of the

Teradata PARTNERS User Group

community made up of thousands of

professionals active in data warehousing

and its associated technologies and pro-

ducts. An advantage of being one of these

partners is the wide variety of opportuni-

ties available to share your experiences,

successes and challenges.

When your ideas or issues

are related to support ser-

vices and other areas that fall

beyond the scope of product

enhancements, the Teradata

PARTNERS Service Focus

Team (SFT) stands ready

to assist.

The Steering Committee

of the PARTNERS User Group

established the SFT, which

is composed of 15 data ware-

housing experts. These indi-

viduals, selected by their peers,

are charged with helping to

identify and resolve support

and service issues that affect

Teradata customers.

The SFT concentrates on

topics drawn from Service

Focus Statements (SFS) that

are submitted by users. These

documents outline service-

related issues and concerns,

which the SFT analyzes at

a high level. If the problem

appears to be universal and

not specific to a company or

region, it is presented to the appropriate

departments within Teradata. The SFT

then acts as a liaison between the customer

and Teradata to ensure resolution.

Additionally, the SFT focuses on influ-

encing Teradata’s direction on future

services and support development. This

kind of networking helps maintain open

communication between Teradata and its

user community and turns active feed-

back into viable solutions.

To give you a better understanding

of how a problem recognized by a

single company can benefit companies

globally, Teradata Magazine asked four

SFT members to each present a unique

situation that has been addressed by

the group.

A

You are not aloneThe Teradata Service Focus Team is at your side.

Four members of the Teradata Service Focus Team each share a technical issue that they helped to resolve. Teradata cus-tomers around the globe benefit from this network of data warehouse experts. From left to right, they are David Belcher(British Airways), Kyle Prescott (Unum Group), Erin Redshaw (Royal Bank of Canada) and Mark Andrews (Macy’s Inc.).

PAGE 1 | Teradata Magazine | March 2008 | ©2008 Teradata Corporation | AR-5567

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Q What was the catalyst for this

SFS submission?

AA customer experienced a signifi-

cant delay during a relational

database management system (RDBMS)

software upgrade because the process

went astray and multiple VPROCS

were set offline. The PUT software that

pilots the upgrade displayed continued

progress even beyond the time period

allocated in the upgrade change control.

PUT did not detect a problem with the

upgrade, nor did it display any log that

would alert the users that something had

gone awry.

Q Why was it important to you to act

as the champion of this effort?

AWith more and more systems used

in an active or operational manner,

it is crucial that planned upgrades and

maintenance are performed within already

squeezed maintenance windows. Any prob-

lems or delays need to be ferreted out as

soon as possible to avoid unnecessary and

costly delays.

Q What was the resolution to this issue

or problem?

APUT was changed to improve commu-

nication with the upgrade scripts. This

includes adding specific messages to the

script output and updating PUT to inter-

pret them. These messages indicate the step

a script is currently running, how long a step

is expected to run, or that a failure has been

encountered. The result is the user now sees

concise messages on-screen that indicate

what the script is doing as it executes.

Enhancing PUT to use estimated com-

pletion times resolves the original issue

of a script running for hours with no indi-

cation of a problem. In this case, the user

would have been notified on-screen that

the current step was running longer than

expected as soon as the expected comple-

tion time was exceeded. This same func-

tionality addresses the similar problem

of a script hang.

Q What benefit did the resolution bring

to you in your role?

ANo matter how carefully a user plans

an upgrade or maintenance outage

window, inevitably the unexpected occurs.

As operations and project manager for

Teradata maintenance, this resolution

will allow me to stay on top of the upgrade

progress and not be later surprised when the

upgrade scripts do not perform as planned.

This resolution also allows Teradata tech-

nicians to more quickly resolve any issue

that arises during the maintenance window.


to your company?

AThis improvement allows not just

Unum but all user companies to

more actively monitor their upgrades

and keep informed during highly visible

maintenance tasks. It will also help avoid

unnecessary delays during planned main-

tenance windows.

Q How did the SFT bring value in

driving this problem to resolution?

AOn behalf of the Teradata customer

base, the SFT sponsored this project

to assure positive customer experience and

avoid lengthy delays during the planned

maintenance windows. The SFT continues

to seek further refinement and improvement

to the utility and its monitoring capability.

TECH2TECH ASK THE EXPERTS

Name: Kyle Prescott, SFT chairperson

Company: Unum Group

Title: Database administrator

Kyle Prescott has 18 years of IT experience, eight years specifically with Teradata warehouse systems sincehe joined Unum in 1999. A TeradataCertified Master, Kyle has been a mem-ber of the SFT since 2000, was vicechairperson from 2005 to 2006 and has been the chairperson since 2006.

Issue: Parallel Upgrade Tool (PUT) softwaredoes not display any logging or pro-gression messages to allow the enduser to have confidence that themigration is progressing.

Specific example: > Incident RECC4QHMW: during

recent upgrade migration toV2R6.0.2 TPA, restart loop oc-curred and VPROCS/PEs were setoffline/fatal. PUT utility continued

to show an “elapsed” time of theupgrade script with [completion]estimations of 112 minutes. After115 minutes, the SSR began inves-tigating why the script was notfinished. The OSM log showedTPARESETs and fatal VPROCS(after two minutes during theupgrade script).

> With CCL/TVI disabled for themigration, there is no alertingmechanism that the process hasgone awry.

> VPROCS were set online, root causewas determined and corrected, andscripts were restarted, but not be-fore three hours were wasted.

Consequences: Three hours of downtime were incurreddue to the tool not having adequateprogression messages.


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Q What was the catalyst for this SFS

submission?

A I was trying to find out which versions

of the Teradata Database supported

the Teradata CRM application. Our tech-

nical account manager had provided an

earlier version, but a current matrix could

not be obtained. I also noted that some

other support/compatibility matrices were

not all up to date (and one case was very

out of date). It seemed to me that such

information should be up to date and

available through Teradata @ Your Service,

since this is the site Teradata encourages

users to visit for support issues.



AWith my SFT hat on, I asked myself:

Is this a problem experienced only

at British Airways or could it affect other

Teradata customers? My answer was the

latter, so I raised a Feature Request (Ser-

vices) through Teradata @ Your Service.

The request was discussed at the next SFT

monthly meeting and accepted as an SFS.

Teradata was thereby asked to respond to

the request.


or problem?

AThe resolution was to update the

current matrices, add the missing

matrix and engage a process to keep them

up to date. Since the changes were imple-

mented, there have been further changes

to Teradata @ Your Service, which mean

that these matrices and roadmaps are

now accessible using the Search facility.



A I was able to obtain an up-to-date view

of roadmaps, etc., and will, in the future,

be able to obtain the information without

involving my technical account manager.


to your company?

AWith this process in place, I can get the

information easier and quicker. While

this is not information for which I would

have an immediate need, I will spend less

time getting it in the future. This solution

also benefits Teradata account managers

whose time is saved for more important

customer-related activities.



AThe SFT accepted the submitted

request as an SFS, which, therefore,

required Teradata to respond. The response

was favorable, and its progress was dis-

cussed and monitored between myself

and the SFT member who had taken

ownership of the SFS.

Name: David Belcher

Company: British Airways

Title: Database Team Leader

David Belcher, a British Airwaysemployee since 1989, has workedas a Teradata database administrator(DBA) since 1994. Now, as the mainTeradata DBA and technical liaison,David works on upgrade projects,security design, change managementand performance issues. He has beenan SFT member since 2004.

Issue: Roadmaps for Teradata software aresometimes incomplete and held indifferent formats.

Specific example: The Teradata database managementsystem (DBMS) software roadmap isstored in an Excel (.xls) file attached to a knowledge article. The customerrelationship management (CRM)

roadmap is available from theDocuments link on Teradata @ YourService and stored in a PowerPoint(.ppt) file but is not easily savedlocally. I cannot find the matrix thatlinks Teradata Customer RelationshipManagement versions with Teradataversions with Teradata Tools andUtilities (TTU) versions.

Consequences: It is difficult to find information thatchanges infrequently and is fairlybasic.

Expected or desired resolution:A central location—easily accessiblefrom a Teradata @ Your Service link—that stores all roadmaps along withmatrices of inter-dependenciesbetween Teradata software items.

“With this process in place, I can get theinformation easier and quicker. … I willspend less time getting it in the future.”

—David Belcher, database team leader, British Airways


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TECH2TECH ASK THE EXPERTS

Q What was the catalyst for this

SFS submission?

AUpgrading TTU and Teradata software

has become a regular occurrence at our

data center. Because of this, many prelim-

inary checks are performed to verify the

functionality of all new software. TTU

can be installed on various platforms, and

when new software is owned by another

department, it is imperative that we confirm

appropriate installation has been completed.

During a past upgrade, an error was

encountered when installing TTU, and I

had to check every release of every utility

that was running. Ensuring each utility

was the appropriate version became a

spreadsheet nightmare since all versions for

all utilities were different and the versioning

numbers showed no consistency. To con-

firm which new version of software was

running for each utility was time con-

suming and cumbersome.

Furthermore, when troubleshooting

problems, not only was it difficult to deter-

mine, at a glance, what versions of the TTU

a department might be running but it was

also hard to identify whether the version the

department was running was associated with

the latest version of TTU.



ABecause new software releases are

implemented regularly and the old

versions become unsupported, it becomes

very difficult to ensure the users are on the

newest version of TTU. Individually check-

ing utilities for a version number is very

time consuming.


or problem?

AThe resolution was to sync up all of

the release numbers for the RDBMS

software, as well as the utilities, so that

starting with Teradata 12.0 (released October

2007) users are able to determine, at a glance,

the version with which they were working.



AWith this resolution, it is simple to

determine which platforms must be

upgraded to support a new version of

Teradata software. In addition, a consistent

versioning system greatly streamlines and

simplifies troubleshooting, and users can

quickly and easily determine the version

of the software being used. No longer are

spreadsheets required to determine the

supported versions of TTU and RDBMS.


to your company?

AWhen dealing with software-related

issues, having clearly identified release

numbers shortens the time involved in

troubleshooting and problem solving.

As a preliminary step, if we identify that

the version of software that is running is

unsupported, we can ensure the software is

upgraded before any lengthy investigations

begin. Many times, this will solve the issue.



AThe SFT is a great sounding board for

ideas and suggestions. The SFT pro-

vides feedback to the user and Teradata and

confirms if an issue is global in nature or

restricted to one site. In this way, if all

customers are in agreement, Teradata can

better understand the severity of an issue.

Name: Erin Redshaw

Company: Royal Bank of Canada

Title: Manager, Client Services

Erin Redshaw is the manager of ClientServices in Enterprise InformationManagement, which is the first line ofsupport for RBC’s Teradata warehouse.Erin has worked on the Teradata enter-prise data warehouse and severalapplications since 1999. She has been amember of the SFT since 2000, was vicechairperson of the team in 2002/2003and was chairperson in 2004/2005. Erinis a Teradata Certified Master.

Issue: It is difficult to know what Teradata Toolsand Utilities (TTU) version is installedwith each utility as each utility has adifferent version.

Specific example: TTU 8.1 contains multiple Teradatautilities, which all have different releasenumbers. For example, Arcmain isversion 08.01.00, FastLoad is version

07.07.00.001, MultiLoad is version07.08.00.003 and ODBC is version03.05. A spreadsheet of all the TTUreleases with the appropriate versionof the utility must be kept to keeptrack of versions.

Consequences: It is very difficult for support groups tosee, at a glance, if a user is running anunsupported version of a utility, or ifthey have upgraded their utility soft-ware. Because utilities can be installedindividually, troubleshooting becomesa nightmare just to understand whichversion of a utility is being run.

Expected or desired resolution:All associated utilities with a TTUversion should have the same versionlisted. This would enable everyone tosee, at a glance, what version of a utilityis being run.


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Q What was the catalyst for this SFS

submission?

AAs customers, we are always trying

to find the next stable release to

upgrade to that also addresses most of

our outstanding issues. Previously, there

was no tool that would enable a user to

quickly identify the DRs that were fixed

in which release. The catalyst for this sub-

mission was an upgrade we were planning

that also included fixes for outstanding

technical issues.



AThis was simply another issue that we,

as Teradata customers, faced on a regu-

lar basis. The nature of this problem is such

that it obviously applies to all customers as

well. As a member of the SFT, it is always

on my mind to identify issues that, when

resolved, can benefit every user.


or problem?

ATeradata developed a query tool

that enabled Teradata @ Your Service

users to input their current release, then

select a release they considered upgrad-

ing to. The tool returns a list of specific

DR fixes in that particular release. Users

could also input a potential starting re-

lease then add a later release to identify

unfixed DRs.



A It made it easier for me to advise my

company on future release upgrades

we considered.


to your company?

A It made it easier for us to see the

future release that would provide

us the most benefits.



AThe SFT brings problems that affect

most, if not all, customers directly to

Teradata. Teradata has always worked very

closely with the SFT and has done a won-

derful job implementing the majority of

the committee’s suggestions.

Q You probably had an outcome in

mind. Did the actual result deliver

any benefits or added value over and above

your expectations?

AThis project actually dovetailed

into a much larger project in which

Teradata needed to incorporate a new

underlying database and migrate onto

it some of their legacy systems. This con-

solidation of data enabled several other

key initiatives on which Teradata and the

SFT collaborated.

Name: Mark Andrews

Company: Macy’s Inc.

Title: System Specialist, Enterprise Data Warehouse

Mark Andrews is currently a database

administrator for Macy’s. Mark has

worked on data warehouse systems

for numerous companies since 1992.

A Teradata Certified Master, Mark

was one of the original SFT members

in the early 1990s and served as the

committee’s vice chairperson in 2000

and chairperson in 2001 and 2002.

Issue:

Customers need detailed information

about hardware and software bugs

that exist on a given release.

Specific example:

Historically, customers have not been

able to tell what Discrepancy Reports

(DRs) were in effect from one release

to another. There was no tool that gave

the customer the ability to determine

the DRs that have been fixed from their

current release to the next release they

are considering.

Consequences:

When planning for an upgrade, custo-

mers could not easily distinguish the

best version of RDBMS and parallel

database extension (PDE) software that

would include all of the fixes, features

and functions they need.

The SFT is the channel through which

you, as users, can communicate your con-

cerns regarding service improvements.

From each SFS detailed in this article,

a service enhancement was developed

because a Teradata user expressed a con-

cern about a particular issue.

By sharing your situation or idea with

the SFT, not only will your company’s

problem be resolved but other partners

across the globe will benefit as well. T

For more about the Service FocusTeam, visit Teradata.com/

teradata-partners/committees/service.cfm.

TOnline


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