Feedback on Installation Instructions

A few weeks ago, I got an email from someone who used my instructions and were still having some issues. In the spirit of helping others who may be facing similar issues, I decided to post it with my responses/comments; my comments are in blue. Thank you Andre for your feedback!

Email from Andre:

A) I tried the installation on a Work Station WinXP Professional (OS German) SP2 4GB RAM.

1. And this is a really important thing. NEVER install anything into the SYSTEM Schema of an Oracle DB. This is an absolute No-go. Before you start installing the EPM with a Oracle repository back end make sure that you have created an empty schema at the target DB, e.g. schema name (call it user as well) : EPMREP. This Schema must have some privileges needed to fulfill it's purpose. You can use the DDL-Script at the bottom of this text (You have to execute it as SYS (DBA)). Now you can use this schema as container for your EPM repository. To do this in the config tool “Shared Services and Registry database Configuration” enter for “Username” the value “EPMREP” and your Password (in my script this is the same as the User “EPMREP”).

I absolutely agree. I think what I did when I worked with our Dodeca product on Oracle was to create an Oracle tablespace, created a user and assigned the user to the tablespace. You could also use SQL Server and just create a database to hold the tables.

2. The Oracle DB must have some special setting as noticed in the install hints . It is important to follow these rules. If you break these rules, shared services are unable to use the repository DB and you will get very strange (and misleading) error messages. If you are unexperienced with Oracle DB you have less chances to find out what is wrong. If you need help from a DBA (there are a lot of reasons) don't hesitate; to be sure that you will get what you need give him/her a paper copy from the appropriate page of the install manual.

Definitely work with an experienced DBA on your production system if you don't have relational database skills. I remember back in the early days of Essbase, often the Essbase admin had absolutely no idea what SQL was all about; it seems to me that is becoming less the case (but remember, when I started doing Essbase, nobody had ever heard of 'the web' ).


3. Run the installation and configuration of shared services in one round. When you are done with that EXIT (close) the install tool. Reboot the system. This is important, since it seems there are internal problems that causes problems in the following install steps. Start the installer again and now you can install all the other components in another single round.

I didn't experience this issue in any of the installs I did prepping for the blog entry nor did my assistant, who has done probably about a dozen 11.1.1 installs now, report this problem.


4. It is absolutely likely that you will fail with your first attempt of installation. Make a backup (image) of your system before you start. In my attempts I found that a lot of things remain on the system even if you use the uninstall. The system path for example becomes longer and longer because you will find the settings of every installation one after the other. If you do not have a backup make sure that you delete the Hyperion directory from you system, clean the registry (I used the cleaner tool “ccsetup213.exe”), clean all system variables relating to Hyperion and reboot the system before you start another try.

If possible, practice the install before you attempt it on a production system. VMWare is your friend here! I absolutely agree on doing the final cleanup steps.


5. In none of my attempts I have set the option “Deploy Essbase in standalone mode”, because I wanted to have the authentication with ssh. However so far it does not work, although the config tool stated to me that all tasks (in particular Register with Shared Services) have been successful. At this point I'm still investigating.

I don't think I ran an install where security was automatically externalized. I will ask my assistant if he ran any in that mode.


6. I have no idea why, but none of the known sample apps have been installed during the installation round. I found no option for that, so I assume it should have been installed by default as it was in all older versions of essbase. Only one App “$_DM...” is there but not visible in the AAS. Very strange.

I agree that is strange but it sounds familiar; I think I saw this behavior but, unfortunately, don't remember what I did to fix it (if anything).


7. Be absolutely sure that your account has FULL admin privileges on you system. I run into problems because my account had only “derived” admin privileges from a domain. It seems to be best if you logon to your system as a local admin user. Before I realized that, I was wondering why after a successful uninstall the Hyperion directory was still filled with a lot of sub-directories that should have been deleted. Please note that you get no error or warning in such a case.

Agreed!

B) I tried the installation on a Win2003 Server (OS English) 4GB RAM.

B1) First try:

1. The installation failed. Non of the components could be registered with ssh. I have tested the install process without a reboot after the installation and configuration of ssh components – although she installer and the check stated that everything was OK. So it seems that an reboot is essential after the install of ssh is done.

2. I was connected NOT as the (local) user “administrator”. This username is forbidden in our environment. Renaming the “administrator” to a different name is the first task after setting up a machine.

3. Then sample apps has been installed. This has been (and still is) an issue on my PC.

4. Uninstall failed with the same issue as in 7. above (directories and files still there).

B2) Second try.

1. I have NOT deleted anything manually (like I did it after the latest uninstalls on my PC), but rather started the install tool like I did for the first try.

2. During the install of the ssh I was not asked (like I woild expected it) to specify the repository DB. I started the ssh console and the site opened correctly. At this point nothing else to do; but to reboot the system …

3. Enter the install tool and installed the rest of the foundation components (these that are not installed in the same round with ssh), Essbase, Web Analysis, HPS.

4. Stopped all running EPM services and Reboot.

5. Want to start the config utility, however it is not longer in the program’s directories path.

6. Well, this is the point where I stop, since this indicates (at least to me) that the EPM system is no longer in a consistent condition. So it makes no more sense to make any further effort in trying to get the system work properly.

7. I will restore the backup image on next Monday and try it again.

So fare it would like to conclude my experiences in the following:

1. Maybe there is at least one way (or even more ways) to install the above mentioned components properly, however I did not found one.

2. There seems to be a lot of critical / important conditions to be considered, but sadly enough there are no hints relating to these things.

3. It is very easy to bring the system into an inconsistent (or at least not understandingly) condition.

4. Most queerly it seem to be a mission critical issue if the installer is not connected as user “administrator” at the local machine. In particular this seems to be critical for the uninstall procedure that is not working properly if you install and uninstall as a different user.

5. A reboot between the single steps of installation and/or configuration seem to be needed, but is not forced (or at least advised) by the installer/config tool.

6. If you don’t have a clean before image you will likely end up in a mess. So never make a try without such a fallback solution.

Well, this is not my first installation with Hyperion.
I’m working with Essbase / System 9 for more then 7 years now.
However, it has never been that frustrating and messy.
Best Regards!
Andre

DDL-Script for creating the EPM-Repository-Schema in a Oracle 11gR1 DB:
Connect as SYS (DBA) and run this script:
CREATE USER EPMREP
IDENTIFIED BY EPMREP
DEFAULT TABLESPACE USERS
TEMPORARY TABLESPACE TEMP
PROFILE DEFAULT
ACCOUNT UNLOCK;
-- 1 Role for EPMREP
GRANT CONNECT TO EPMREP;
ALTER USER EPMREP DEFAULT ROLE ALL;
-- 12 System Privileges for EPMREP
GRANT CREATE SYNONYM TO EPMREP;
GRANT ALTER SESSION TO EPMREP;
GRANT CREATE VIEW TO EPMREP;
GRANT CREATE SESSION TO EPMREP;
GRANT CREATE SEQUENCE TO EPMREP;
GRANT CREATE PROCEDURE TO EPMREP;
GRANT ALTER USER TO EPMREP;
GRANT CREATE TRIGGER TO EPMREP;
GRANT CREATE TABLE TO EPMREP;
GRANT SELECT ANY DICTIONARY TO EPMREP;
GRANT CREATE TYPE TO EPMREP;
GRANT ALTER SYSTEM TO EPMREP;
-- should be revoked after Installation of EPM
-- REVOKE ALTER SYSTEM TO EPMREP;
-- 1 Tablespace Quota for EPMREP
ALTER USER EPMREP QUOTA UNLIMITED ON USERS;

To sum it up, despite improvements in the installation process with 11.1.1, it still isn't a process for the faint-of-heart.

Tim