Implementing Essbase 11.x: The Installation and Design

After determining what your purpose for your Essbase install and what hardware or other software needs you may have, then you can now begin to work on the installation of Essbase and design considerations. In this post I will go through the installation process of Essbase as well as give you some ideas for design or build considerations.

First, let’s talk about the installation of Essbase. If you already have a license agreement with Oracle for Essbase 11 or if you are going to use it as a trial license you can download the software in two places. You can find the downloads at Oracle Technology Network: http://www.oracle.com/technology/software/products/bi/performance-management/index.html or you can also find the downloads at Oracle E-delivery: http://edelivery.oracle.com/ under the Product Pack, Oracle Enterprise Performance Management System, instead of the old Hyperion Performance Management and BI Product Pack area. Here are the items that you will need to download:
• Start Here: Installation Documents and Readmes (optional)
• Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installer
• Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Foundation Services (4 Files)
• Oracle Essbase Client
• Oracle Essbase Server
• Oracle Hyperion Provider Services (optional)

After downloading these files you will need to complete a few pre-installation tasks. First, uncompress all the downloaded files into a common directory. Then you will need to create database repositories/catalogs in your Oracle Database, IBM DB2, or Microsoft SQL Server. The following components will require a repository for your Essbase installation:
• Shared Services
• Essbase Administration Services
• Essbase Integration Services
• Essbase Studio

Now you can run the installTool.cmd / installTool.sh file to begin installation. Select the products you wish to install by tier or individually. After completing the installation you will then need to configure the product. Make sure to configure Shared Services first before the other components then you can configure the rest of the tools and register them with Shared Services.

If you would like to see a very detailed installation process of Essbase 11, I would recommend checking out my friend, Tim Tow’s blog post: http://timtows-hyperion-blog.blogspot.com/2008/09/essbase-1111-installation-tutorial.html. Tim did an excellent job of documenting his Essbase 11.1.1 installation.

Now when we begin to discuss the design or build of your Essbase environment I would highly recommend having a design session(s) to determine where your data will be coming from and user requirments. Once you have all the information from your design session(s) we will then need to talk about which tools you want to use to help you build your Essbase applications. There are many different ways to build your Essbase application or better known as a cube. The three most popular methods for building Essbase cubes are using Essbase Load Rules, Essbase Integration Services, or the new Essbase Studio. The other options include using an ETL tool or an API. Let’s take some time to look at these different options.

Essbase Load Rules are created within Essbase Administration Services (EAS). The data and metadata is sourced from flat files, spreadsheets or relational databases (using SQL Interface). Typically, one Load Rule is created for each dimension build and data load, but these can be combined to a single Rule. This method for building Essbase cubes is extremely flexible.

Essbase Integration Services (EIS) provides a GUI, drag and drop environment for creating Essbase cubes. Data and metadata are sourced from relational database, usually in a star or snowflake schema. Using EIS enables drill-through to detail and hybrid storage functionality.

Essbase Studio is a new tool and is only available in the 11 release. Essbase Studio consolidates the cube construction activities of Essbase Integration Services (EIS) & Essbase Administration Services (EAS). The new tool also unifies the deployment and management of the cube factory. Studio allows modeling of many sources including RDBMS, Flat files, EPM Architect Dimensions and OBIEE. It enables reuse at a granular level for hierarchies, metrics, dimension, and elements. Lineage tracking is also available with Essbase Studio which allows you to understand the impacts of change to items associated with the construction of your cube. In addition you will find improved drill-through capabilities with Studio. Essbase Studio is a great tool and a welcome addition to the Essbase suite, just remember that this is the first release of the tool.

Additional options for building your Essbase cubes are using an ETL tool or APIs. Oracle Data Integrator, Informatica, or DIM are examples of ETL tools to use. Essbase comes with a full set of APIs to allow you to customize your cube builds to fit your needs.

So you can choose which tool works best for you and your environment to design and build your Essbase application. Remember that you don’t have to limit yourself to only one method you can use multiple tools to build your Essbase environment.

Check out the next blog post in this series to learn about whether to use Block Storage, Aggregate Storage, XOLAP or a Hybrid to design your Essbase cubes.