Oracle® Essbase



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Purpose. 1

New Features. 1

Installation Information. 2

Migration Considerations. 2

Defects Fixed. 3

Known Issues. 10

Documentation Updates. 14



This document includes important, late-breaking information about this release of Oracle® Essbase. Review this information thoroughly before installing Essbase. For overall Enterprise Performance Management System install-related issues and updates for this and other products, refer to Oracle’s Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management Installation and Configuration Readme.

Release is a maintenance release for Release,, or

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New Features

Certification Matrix

Information about system requirements for EPM System products is now available in a spreadsheet format in the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Certification Matrix. This matrix is posted at

System requirements are no longer part of the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation Start Here, which contains information about release compatibility, prerequisites, default ports, and other information needed to plan a successful installation.

Supported Languages

This release supports non-English languages. The list of supported languages for all EPM System products is included in the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Certification Matrix, posted at

Visual Explorer

If you use Visual Explorer, noteworthy new features of Visual Explorer are as follows (see the Visual Explorer documentation for details).

Perspectives (varying attributes). Generate historical summaries to answer questions about data that changes over time. You can calculate based on a given perspective on the data or a given point in time, and use member perspectives to selectively drill down on specific members.

Data Mining. Use Visual Explorer to build a data mining model and evaluate whether it is a good fit to use for predictions. Select from several types of models including clustering, Naïve Bayes, and regression. You can define advanced MDX expressions to build the model.

New Workspace Capabilities. The sheet sorter, a page that shows thumbnail images for all sheets in the workbook in one consolidated view, enables you to navigate and organize the sheets in your workbook. The mini film strip displays thumbnail images along the bottom of the workbook. The new start page lets you quickly open recent workbooks and data connections. Additional small changes help streamline your daily tasks.

Dashboard Enhancements. Add images, custom text areas, and blank spaces to the layout of your dashboard. Add web pages to your dashboards to display your views with content from other applications on the same screen. For constructing guided analysis paths, sheet links can now point to dashboards as their destinations.

Other features include new mark options, filtering enhancements, and improvements to printing and PDF output.

Oracle Essbase Analytics Link for Hyperion Financial Management

Oracle Essbase Analytics Link for Hyperion Financial Management provides near real-time data synchronization between Oracle Hyperion Financial Management and Oracle Essbase, enabling Essbase users to view live Financial Management data without having to create and manage extraction and load tasks. Analytics Link off-loads the Financial Management application server by managing all reporting requests, freeing resources for financial consolidations.

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Installation Information

Users installing Essbase on Windows x64-bit and Windows AMD 64-bit using the Typical installation will not be offered an option of installing either the 32-bit or 64-bit version. By default, the 32-bit version will be installed. To install the 64-bit version, select the Component installation option.

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Migration Considerations

Pre-release 9.3.1 Date-Time Dimensions Need To Be Recreated

Aggregate storage date-time dimensions created prior to release 9.3.1 are not supported. You can delete the date-time dimension from an outline and use the Create Date-Time Dimension wizard to recreate it.

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Defects Fixed

Defects Fixed in Release

·         Calculator. When attributes are retrieved from a block storage application/database, values for shared members do not roll up correctly if the base member is not a level 0 member. [8464520, 7434971]

·         Essbase Query Designer. Russian EQD displays some nonsense characters as well as some correctly formed Russian. The correct behavior is for it to display a mix of Russian and English. [8303089]

·         Calculator. Dynamic calculation results differ between Release 7.1.3 and later releases because of a dense "two-pass" calculation that depends on sparse members. [8461839, 7609962]

·         Data Extraction. While exporting data to a relational database, DATAEXPORT does not create the delimiters if there are one or more missing values in the last column. [8507606]

·         Agent. When OUTLINECHANGELOG is set to true in the essbase.cfg file, aggregate storage applications terminate abnormally when a member is renamed and the outline then is compacted using MaxL. [8464562, 7612546]

·         Server API. When running MDX queries, Essbase Server terminates abnormally if the administrator forcibly logs out all sessions. [8461819,7610230]

·         Aggregate Storage. Essbase terminates abnormally when you launch an aggregate storage outline enabled for varying attributes if there are no members with a varying attribute association in the dimension. [8441136]

·         Agent. When Essbase is running as a Windows service and the domain user logs off the machine, the Essbase applications hang, which in turn causes Essbase Server to hang. [8279377, 8464004]

·         Spreadsheet client. Visual Explorer connection time to remote Essbase servers is very slow because of the necessity of reading the metadata across networks. [7445394]

·         Data Load. While loading textual measure data, an error occurs during data load if a field is null. [8498499]

·         Metadata.  Oracle's Hyperion Planning – System 9 refresh does not complete if a database partition exists, and changes are made to a shared member. [7579482, 8464572]

·         Agent. Essbase agent fails when the app directory contains a symbolic link. [8257035, 8462434]

·         Data Extraction. Issuing Lock and Send commands causes Spreadsheet Add-in to terminate abnormally. [6672034, 8461858]

·         API. When an API query has no non-empty clauses and a user hides restricted data using the EssMDXSetHideData API call (causing #Noaccess values to be displayed as #Missing), the cell count is not adjusted to reflect the removal of the restricted cells. An error is displayed on the client when it doesn’t receive the number of cells it was expecting on the server:

Essbase Error (1030736): Internal MDX API error while receiving cell values.


·         Aggregate Storage. Retrieving data from an aggregate storage database results in an exception and the application terminates abnormally. [7585809, 8464517]

·         MaxL. Parser errors are returned if you encrypt MaxL import data statements containing slice options. [8461803, 7558950]

·         EssPerl. Repeated calls return this error message: XS: Fatal error in perl_MaxlOutputNextRecord. [8462427, 7510439]

·         API. Fix statement errors may occur when a non-Unicode API client runs a native-encoded calc script against a Unicode mode application. [8283843]

·         Aggregate Storage. Some aggregate storage outlines created by Oracle Essbase Integration Services have the compression dimension set incorrectly. [8464510, 7417550]


·         OBIEE. In some cases, OBIEE running an MDX query in a clustered Essbase environment fails with the accompanying network error:


Network error [113]


Network error [111]

Note: To fix 8585742, you must add Essbase runtime client to the OBIEE server.

[8585742, 7573999]

·         Aggregate Storage. Sending data from Spreadsheet Add-in to aggregate storage databases may fail to update some cells. [8673620]

·         MaxL. A MaxL user without administrative privileges cannot display his or her own session information using the display session command. [8451297]

·         MaxL. The names of Oracle Hyperion EPM Architect, Fusion Edition users who submit deployment jobs to Administration Services are displayed incorrectly in the Administration Services Background Process Status Window. Administration Services uses the display session MaxL statement to display the user names, and MaxL was returning incorrect results. [8391151]

·         Dimension Build. If an outline created in Essbase Studio contains an error, and the error in the outline is encountered during a dimension build, Essbase may terminate abnormally when attempting to print the error message for that member. [8484099]

·         MDX. In block storage applications, when running MDX queries using a NON EMPTY clause on one of the axes, small retrieval buffer sizes result in one or more repeated rows in the query output that contain different values in each of the repeated rows.

Workaround: For most cases, increase the size of the retrieval buffer to 1 MB (1024 KB).

To do so, in Administration Console, right-click the database and select Edit, and then Properties. Under Data retrieval buffers, set Buffer size to 1024.

If you have a high-memory-use installation, you can configure higher retrieval buffer values. The retrieval buffer is allocated per thread, so the amount of memory needed is the number of server threads multiplied by the retrieval buffer size. [8591665, 8434364]

Defects Fixed in Release

The following defects are fixed in Essbase release The defect number follows the description of the defect.

Calculation. Use of an aggregate function in a Y-T-D formula causes Essbase to terminate abnormally. [7628404, 7434008]

Calculation. Calculations on a database do not return values because Calc is unable
to create the block [7628395, 7356930]

Error Messaging. Error code 1200664 is defined twice in the file with two different error messages:

·         1200664 Varying attributes is NOT enabled for this outline.

·         1200664 Date Formatting/Conversion Failure with Code


Calculation. Some calculations take much longer to run in Essbase
compared to Essbase 7.1.3 on HP-UX 11.11 PA-RISC. [8230484, 7661212]

API. A problem in the SSO token handling in Grid API may result in Drill Through failing to work with clients connecting using SSO token & grid API. [8230446, 7705535]

Data Extraction. Execution of incorrect asymmetric report by user with filter access causes Essbase to terminate abnormally. [8259803, 8247194]

Data Extraction. When a user with filter access runs a report against an aggregate storage database, the database may terminate abnormally. [8230474, 7694568]

Aggregate Storage. A partial data clear of two or more stored level zero members from a shared hierarchy in an aggregate storage database may cause Essbase to terminate abnormally. [7698699]

Aggregate Storage. In the following scenarios, Essbase terminates abnormally when clearing data from specific regions of aggregate storage databases:

·         When logically removing a region of the database that only has zero values.

·         When running multiple clear operations (either physical or logical) at the same time.


Data Export. In rare instances, 2GB or larger exports from aggregate storage databases cause Essbase to terminate abnormally. [7693504]

Data Extraction. The query governor does not stop a query when two queries are run simultaneously, causing memory leaks and the Essbase Agent to abnormally terminate. [7638748, 7451985]

Shared Services Security. Refreshing security between Shared Services and Essbase may fail when a large number of users belong to a large number of groups. In general, the problem occurs when the number of combinations of users and groups exceeds 32,000. (For example, 700 users * 100 groups per @ user = 70,000 user/group combinations.) [7638744, 7530514]

Currency. Adding a currency partition to the main database when other currency partitions are already present may cause Essbase to terminate abnormally during restructure. [6551266]

Server Administration. If a hostname is longer than 30 characters, creating a new application will succeed; however, creating a new database may cause Essbase to terminate abnormally. [7638778, 7342573]

Server Administration. If you define more than one volume to span the PAG and IND files on a database that is linked to a currency database, when you stop and start the application, the application terminates abnormally. [7638737, 6661605, 7417042]

Essbase Studio. When SQL Server is running on a non-default port (default port is 1433), Essbase fails to connect to SQL Server, causing Essbase Studio cube deployment to fail. [7506781]

MaxL. The MaxL option to remove zeros when merging incremental data slices on an aggregate storage database does not work. The zeros are not removed. [7715137]

MDX. Essbase server terminates abnormally on the Windows AMD 64-bit platform while running an MDX query that has a calculated member on the slicer (the WHERE clause within the SELECT statement) with a solve order of AGGREGATION_SOLVEORDER. [7690162]

MDX. Essbase terminates abnormally while running an MDX query containing a FILTER@ function with a large conditional expression. [7686896]

MDX. MDX queries with a large number of substitution variables may cause Essbase to terminate abnormally. [7690153]

Metadata. Unexpected database restructuring occurs when a dynamic calc member is added to a dense dimension. [7527166, 7444075]

Aggregate Storage. Retrievals on aggregate storage databases with time balance may fail with out of memory errors. [8251394, 8206514]

Aggregate Storage. Essbase may terminate abnormally when you kill a data load request on an aggregate storage database. [7628423]

Aggregate Storage.  Some errors occurring at the beginning of a data load to an aggregate storage database result in the load buffer being inaccessible. If you try to use or destroy the load buffer, it will result in the error message "Cannot proceed while the cube is being loaded."  If you stop the application, it will terminate abnormally.  [7628412]

Spreadsheet Add-in. With Spreadsheet Add-in enabled, performing the following series of actions may result in an error:

1.    Disconnect your network cable

2.    Log off the system

3.    Log back on

4.    Open Excel

The error is UniquifyForUser failed to get unique name size, code 1355.” Once you receive this error, to close Excel, you have to terminate it from the Task Manager. [8214299]

Visual Explorer. Executing a Visual Explorer generated MDX query may cause Essbase to terminate abnormally. [7257120]

Partitioning. When partitioned outlines are synchronized, aliases are added to target members even though the source members do not have aliases. [8219336, 6941133]

Aggregate Storage. Scripts that rename Aggregate Storage databases containing Integration Services data cause the Essbase applications to terminate abnormally. [7536114, 7390924]

Data load. An incorrectly defined data load may cause the following error to be created. Also, Essbase may have to be shut down forcefully. [7612398]

Essbase Error (1003062) The Dimension Information not found for column [No Dimensional Modifier]. Cannot load data.

Calculation. If a Dynamic Calc member has a formula containing a cross-reference to another database, changing the order of months and years causes incorrect results. [7628455, 7319366]

Essbase Studio. On UNIX and Linux platforms, Essbase may terminate abnormally when Essbase Studio is redeployed. [7558821]

Hybrid Analysis. Certain models built by Hybrid Analysis cause Essbase to terminate abnormally when querying in Web Analysis. [7483261]

Server Administration. The Administration Server call back URL is not set properly in the .instance files when Administration Server is configured on SSL port. Instead of pointing to https, it points to http. [8223884]

Security. If an administrator user exists in Administration Services Console and does not exist in Shared Services, the “set role” process fails and, subsequently, the cube deployment fails. [7459242]

Time Balance. Aggregate storage databases with shared members, time balance tags, and hierarchies enabled in the Time dimension can produce validation errors in certain instances. For example, when the main hierarchy is broken into months and the alternate hierarchy is broken into weeks, and part of a week falls in one month and another part of that week falls in another month, this can cause a validation error even though the outline is correct. [7638759, 7450127]

Aggregate Storage. Aggregate storage target databases in transparent partitions may terminate abnormally if the partition is defined on level zero members. [7688025]

Agent. Essbase may terminate abnormally when using an 11.x client with a pre-11.x block storage duplicate member outline and modifying the date format. [7461895]

Agent. Essbase may terminate abnormally when an 11.x client is used with a server and the implied share setting is on. [7461917]

Localization. In Russian language Essbase only, Essbase shortcut keys are not working as expected. [6552242]

Data Export. Using a calc script to perform data export operations against members of a sparse dimension causes incorrect data to be exported. [7628490, 7538188]

Essbase Agent. An optimization to ensure that logins do not block applications takes an excessive amount of time to start up. [7638755, 7411505]

Linked Reporting Objects. If a grid contains two consecutive cells returning multiple LROs with objects of different types, the returned LRO types are not correct. This happens only if the cell value is either zero or #missing. [7656220]

Server Administration. A shared memory optimization does not work if the location alias is defined with AGT:PORT. [7432891]

Aggregate Storage. If an aggregate storage outline is built using an ESSCMD dimension build, the outline is created with short attribute names, which is incorrect. The outline should be created with long attribute names. [6548878]

Spreadsheet Add-in. The Essbase menu item on the Excel View > Toolbars menu still says Hyperion Essbase. It should say Oracle Essbase. [7623901]

MaxL. When IFERROR is used with ALTER SYSTEM SHUTDOWN, errors are not captured. [7628497]

Installation. Installations of Essbase create an invalid \MIGRATIONUTILITY folder. This is from the old Migration Utility, which is no longer used. [7494011]

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Defects Fixed in Release


Spreadsheet Add-in. Performing multiple zoom in operations, whether manually or by using a macro, results in not enough memory or out of stack space errors. [6972577]

Spreadsheet Add-in. When the Formula Fill option is selected, zooming in on a member (whether using mouse actions or menu items) may result in slow retrieval performance and an error message indicating that the maximum number of rows has been exceeded.

When the Retain on Zoom option is selected, zooming out on a member (whether using mouse actions or menu items) may result in slow retrieval performance.

The Formula Fill and Retain on Zoom options are on the Mode tab of the Essbase Options dialog box. [6695282, 7019501]

Spreadsheet Add-in. On Windows Vista, launching Query Designer from Spreadsheet Add-in causes Excel to terminate abnormally. [6775410]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Exporting reports to Microsoft Excel from Oracle Financial Analyzer (OFA) results in a MS VC++ program error when Oracle Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in is installed and registered on the same computer as OFA. [7111076]

Spreadsheet Add-in. When an Excel spreadsheet contains multiple generation- or level-based members per retrieval, the Essbase application terminates abnormally. [7135200]

Calculation. Formulas executed out of sequence return incorrect values in certain cases. [7268175, 7158413]

Calculation. Unable to successfully run a calculation script in which the EXCLUDE calculation command references shared members. [7376914, 7358669]

Agent. Unable to synchronize Shared Services group security with Essbase due to token timeout issue. [7385229, 7339400]

Aggregate Storage. For aggregate storage databases, creating a report that does not have at least one column causes the database to terminate abnormally, if the user running the report has filtered access (data filter is set for the user). [7380455, 7364327]

Data Extraction. Extracting data from dynamic calc members using the sparse data extraction method (using the <SPARSE command in a report script), might result in incorrect results for the dynamic calc members or in a blank report. [7278583, 6991732]

MDX. Execution of an MDX script containing + or – operators causes an application crash when executed by a user with filtered access to the application. [7420692, 7403336]

Partition. Under certain conditions, refreshing a replicated partition takes a very long time because of the large number of data blocks that exist. In this case, Essbase Server is not hung, even though it might appear to be. [7226746]

Partition. Under certain conditions, a block storage application with a transparent partition to an aggregate storage target application crashes when drilling down to level-0 members. [7341048, 7270550]

Calculation. The DATAEXPORT calculation command may return incorrect results when a dense dynamic calc member is selected to be exported from a sparse dynamic calc block. [7355015, 7345031]

UDA. In aggregate storage databases, unable to unassign a UDA that was previously assigned the Japanese (double-byte) property. [6887710]

Spreadsheet Add-in. A non-administrative Citrix MetaFrame XP user connecting to Hyperion® Essbase® — System 9 Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel for a second or subsequent time encounters the following error message: Pipe: Thread: Controller() CreateNamedPipe() failed with code 5 [6585003, 8-658460194]

MaxL. Filter access granted to a user fails to provide the appropriate access when the database is in Shared Services security mode. [7426171, 7332718]

Calculation. Executing the @PARENTVAL command on a dense dimension causes the database to terminate abnormally, under certain conditions. [7341019, 7245595]

Agent. If a native group name matches an external provider group name, when you display the group table in Administration Services Console, Essbase Agent terminates abnormally, with no exception log. [6591937, 8-659366062]

Agent. In some cases, creating or replacing a filter using the definition-only option corrupts the filter if the agent is terminated abnormally. When the Agent is restarted and the filter is accessed, the Agent terminates abnormally. [6632356]

API. Under certain conditions, adding a linked reporting object (LRO) to a cell that intersects with a member whose name contains a plus sign (+) returns this error message: Valid Essbase data cell(s) must be selected prior to selecting the Linked Object Menu. [6568942, 8-514486664]

Aggregate storage. Euro symbols (€) are not displayed in applications because the ESSLANG setting in Administration Services differs from that in the Essbase application. [6592228, 8-664655881]

Aggregate Storage. Attempting to save an outline fails because, during outline restructure, an abnormal termination occurs when compiling a formula that depends on another formula that has syntax errors. [6668848]

Aggregate Storage. Essbase Administration Server terminates abnormally when adding large amounts of query hints. [6872325]

Calculator. In some cases, MaxL and Administration Services ignore the EXCLUSIVECALC TRUE configuration setting. [6570305, 8-537064115]

Calculator. Including a CLEARDATA command within a FIX statement, resulting in the same member being fixed on and cleared, causes Essbase Server to terminate abnormally. [6584951, 8-626830701]

Data Extraction. Report Writer exits abnormally during database restructuring. [6574023,

Data Extraction. Running multiple reports simultaneously causes incomplete results. [6582850,

Dimension Build. Aggregate storage dimension builds cannot alter label-only attributes. [6673116]

Kernel. Cell intersections of LROs are incorrect when edited in Administration Services Console, and exporting and importing them back yields incorrect results. [6577566, 8-592652965]

MaxL. Essbase Perl module does not compile on AIX. [6580998, 8-607942959]

MaxL. Using the MaxL ALTER DATABASE script to rename a database that does not have associated data mining objects returns errors. [6551201, 2-HYPER00083132]

MaxL. Advanced mappings in partitions are not created correctly. [6835318]

MDX. Formulas that use the Ancestor function do not return correct values when queried for parent members, under certain conditions. [6589172, 8-651528329]

Metadata. Member comment information is not returned to the ESSCMD GETMBRINFO or to the MaxL query database appname.dbname get member_info command. [6552031, 2-HYPER00082687]

Server Administration. In aggregate storage outlines, you cannot load alias names into a database that has duplicate member names enabled. [6720273]

Shared Services. Administrators that are provisioned using an external group cannot shut down Essbase Server. [6635061]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Spreadsheet Add-in interferes with the Excel VLOOKUP function. [6585714, 8-632381742]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Generation 1 members that contain user-defined attributes (UDAs) are not displayed in Excel (Essbase Member Selection). [6587357, 8-623347048]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Cells that contain more than 511 characters cause Excel to terminate abnormally. [6539463, 1-189901549]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Saving and closing a worksheet that contains macros in Excel causes the error: NULL IDispatch passed to Autowrap (). [6762646]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Essbase Server terminates abnormally when you right double-click a text cell that is longer than the member comment. [6877083]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Running Hyperion® Essbase® — System 9 Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel on Windows XP SP3 causes Excel to terminate abnormally. [7313885]

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Known Issues

The following issues are the noteworthy known issues of this release.  The defect number follows the description of the issue.

Aggregate Storage. On aggregate storage databases, using user-defined attributes to define member groups greatly decreases the execution speeds of Essbase functions. To avoid this performance loss, use Attribute dimensions to define member groups. [6535068, 1-137820670]

Data Extraction. Extracting data using the ReportWriter STARTHEADING command causes the heading to repeat every 162 rows.  To work around this issue, structure the report script so that column member selections precede row member selections, and make sure that the script contains at least one column member. [6587473, 8-637653176]

Calculator. In the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference, Example 1 for the @XRANGE calculation function incorrectly uses a colon to separate members. Members should be separated with a comma, for example: @XRANGE(Jan, Mar) [7149078]

Outline Editor. Essbase Outline Editor verifies that time balance properties are applied only to stored Time dimensions. [7159709]

Data Extraction. In the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference, the report that is output by the sample code in the example is not correct. The correct report output is as follows:

                                        Sales Scenario

                                       Jan      Feb      Mar

New York         100-20           #Missing #Missing #Missing
                 100-30           #Missing #Missing #Missing
                 200-20           #Missing #Missing #Missing
                 200-30           #Missing #Missing #Missing
                 300-30           #Missing #Missing #Missing
                   Diet           #Missing #Missing #Missing
                 200-10                 61       61       63
                 400-30                134      189      198
                 300-20                180      180      182
                 400-20                219      243      213
                 400-10                234      232      234
                 300-10                483      495      513
                 200-40                490      580      523
                   200                 551      641      586
                   400                 587      664      645
                   300                 663      675      695
                 100-10                678      645      675
                   100                 678      645      675
                     Product         2,479    2,625    2,601


Aggregate Storage. The SSAUDIT configuration setting does not generate log files when enabled for aggregate storage databases. Only block storage databases can use SSAUDIT settings. [7356627]

Spreadsheet Add-in. Spreadsheet Add-in does not support worksheet sizes greater than 65,536 rows by 256 columns. [7486542]


SQL Interface. In the Oracle Essbase SQL Interface Guide, ignore the instruction to execute the file when configuring data sources on UNIX. As of Release 11.1, the file is no longer installed with Essbase. [8519289]

Essbase Query Designer. EQD is translated into the following languages: French, German, Spanish, Japanese, Korean, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, and Russian.  EQD for the following languages will be in English: Swedish, Danish, Italian, Turkish, and Brazilian Portuguese. [7346082]

Migration.  Migrating aggregate storage outlines from 32 bit Essbase Release to 64 bit Essbase Release 11.1.1.x when the host name is longer than 30 characters does not work.

Workaround: Add to the
essbase.cfg file a NODENAME entry with the value set to a short logical name. [8264400]

Turkish Language Calculation Function Names. When the ESSLANG variable is set to certain non-English languages, Essbase returns a syntax error when validating some calculation function names that were entered in lower case, instead of upper case. By default, when validating calculation scripts, Essbase converts lower-case characters to upper-case characters. The validation error occurs when the language being used, such as Turkish, has different case rules than English for mapping upper- and lower-case characters.

For example, in English, there are two versions of the letter “I”: a lower-case, dotted “i” and an upper-case, dotless “I.” In Turkish, there are four versions of the letter “I”: an upper-case dotted "İ"(Latin capital letter with a dot above), a lower-case dotted "i" (same as English), an upper-case dotless  "I" (same as English), and a lower-case dotless "ı" (Latin lower-case letter without a dot above. Therefore, when using Turkish, calculation function names that are entered using the lower-case character “i” in the first three characters that follow the “@” sign, such as @ichildren and @idescendants, are not properly validated.

Workaround: Enter calculation function names in all upper case. [8240203]

User and Group Names. In Essbase, user and group names must be unique, regardless of whether Essbase is in native security mode or Hyperion Shared Services mode. If using Hyperion Shared Services mode, the user and group names must be unique regardless of whether the names are within the same user directory provider or in different user directory providers. For example, Essbase does not support having a user and a group with the same name within the same OpenLDAP provider. Similarly, Essbase does not support having a user named user1 in an OpenLDAP provider and a user named user1 in an MSAD provider. [7497485]

Security. When you delete a user (in Shared Services) that is provisioned as an administrator user for Shared Services, Essbase, and Essbase Studio, you must be sure to refresh security (in Administration Services Console) between Essbase and Shared Services. Failure to refresh security will result in a "Failed to deploy Essbase cube..." error when attempting to deploy a cube from Essbase Studio.

For procedural information on refreshing users, see “Refreshing Security from Shared Services” in the Essbase Administration Services Online Help. Alternatively, see the Essbase Technical Reference to use MaxL to refresh security (alter system resync sss).  [7459242]

Red Hat Linux AS 4.0. When running Essbase on Red Hat Linux AS 4.0 and starting or creating Essbase applications, the following error message is encountered if Essbase cannot find the shared library named


Verify that exists on the computer on which you are running Essbase and that the library environment is set up correctly. If does not exist, you can create the library by creating a soft link in the directory where is located. To create a soft link, you must have the appropriate permissions in the directory where you are creating the link.

Linux. If the installation program hangs while installing Oracle and Oracle Hyperion products, turn off the automount daemon for file systems that have a large hierarchy. (1-155495984)

If the installation program hangs while installing Oracle and Oracle Hyperion products and automount is on, verify the version of Linux you are running. Essbase 11.1.1 requires Red Hat Linux AS 4.0 Update 2 with glibc-2.3.4-2.13 or later. (1-171301321)

Aggregate Storage Databases. Restructuring an aggregate storage database may result in all data slices being merged into one slice.

In order for the aggregate storage cache to have enough memory to restructure an aggregate storage database, all existing data load buffers are destroyed.

Character Sets. The JISX0213 Japanese character set, which replaces the JISX0208 and JISX0212 Japanese character sets, is supported on Windows Vista.

The Essbase family of products does not support the JISX0213 Japanese character set. [6576813,

MaxL Shell. Prior to release 11.1.1, MaxL Shell sent the login statement to Essbase Server twice, affecting the Hyperion Shared Services password policy that is introduced in 11.1.1. Upon password expiration, Shared Services allows a configurable number of successful logins, but the MaxL Shell double login reduced the allowed number by half.

To rectify the issue, release 11.1.1 MaxL Shell does not issue the login statement twice when a user attempts to log in.

However, if an earlier version of MaxL Shell is used with Essbase Server release 11.1.1, the configured number of login attempts allowed by Shared Services is still reduced by half. Therefore, Oracle recommends using release 11.1.1 MaxL Shell with release 11.1.1 Essbase Server.

The release 11.1.1 MaxL Shell is not supported with Essbase Server releases prior to release 7.0.

Error Files. When using Oracle Essbase Administration Services client to perform data loads or dimension builds on an Essbase Administration Server located on a different computer, if the generated error file is larger than 2 GB, the error file will not be created on the server; an empty error file will be created on the client, and the load will complete with an incorrect “Success” status rather than “Warning.” [6589657, 8-651709938]

VB API. You cannot use the VB API to populate partitions because esb32.bas is missing required structures. As a result, these VB APIs are not fully functional and should not be used [6629996]:

·         EsbPartitionReplaceDefFile

·         EsbPartitionValidateDefinition

·         EsbPartitionValidateLocal

·         EsbPartitionNewDefFile

·         EsbPartitionOpenDefFile

·         EsbPartitionFreeDefCtx

·         EsbPartitionReadDefFile

·         EsbPartitionWriteDefFile

·         EsbPartitionFreeOtlChanges

·         EsbPartitionCloseDefFile

Data Export. 64-bit Essbase does not support using the DATAEXPORT calculation script command to export data in batch export mode directly into a SQL data source. [6668535]

Aggregate Storage Databases. Loading #Missing values to aggregate storage databases with typed measures (text or date) is not supported using Send operations or using incremental data loads.

Oracle Hyperion Smart View for Office, Fusion Edition and Spreadsheet Add-in display a warning message if you attempt to load #Missing to text- or date-typed cells using a Send operation.

Workaround: To load #Missing values to aggregate storage text or date typed measures, perform a full data load using “overwrite” mode. [6973834]

EsbLROPurgeObjects. In the VB Main API, running the EsbLROPurgeObjects function does not delete any linked objects. [6589153, 8-651484045]

MDX. Running the MDX Parent function does not return the member’s parent. [6589847,

Spreadsheet Add-in. In the Drill-Through Wizard, table or column names that are longer than 80 characters are truncated to 80 characters.  When selecting, ordering, and filtering columns in the wizard, only the first 80 characters of the table or column name are displayed.

Spreadsheet Add-in. If, after viewing an unprotected worksheet's Essbase Aliases options, you then view a protected worksheet's options, the protected worksheet seems to inherit the unprotected worksheet's Aliases option settings. [6542214, 1-243469667]

Spreadsheet Add-in. With Excel 2007 on Windows XP or Windows Vista, running a VB script to log into a spreadsheet results in slow connection times. [7035038]

Varying Attributes. Dimension builds using rules files do not support varying attributes. Instead, use Essbase Studio to deploy dimensions with varying attributes, or use Outline Editor in Administration Services to add varying attributes. [7257317]

MaxL. When Shared Services security mode is in effect, the following MaxL password management clauses are not supported:

·         Alter user USER-NAME set password_reset_days …

·         Alter system set password_reset_days …  [7198014]

Top of Document

Documentation Updates

This section describes additional items, updates, and deletions that are not yet part of the Release 11.1.1.x documentation.

Accessing Hyperion Product Documentation

The most recent version of each Hyperion product guide is available for download from the Documentation area of the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Web site ( Deployment-related documentation is also available from the Oracle E-Delivery Web site ( Individual product guides are available for download on the Oracle Technology Network (OTN) Web site only.

Note: Not all of the documentation for this product has been updated from Release or Similarly, the product UI may not have been updated from Release or

Drilling Through to Oracle Applications

The following limits do not appear in the Oracle Essbase Addendum regarding the drill-through to Oracle applications feature:

·         The number of drill-through URLs per database is limited to 255.

·         The number of drillable regions in a drill-through URL is limited to 256.

·         The number of characters per drillable region is limited to 65536.

Two Pass Calculation Members on Dense Dimensions

If a query includes a two-pass calculation member in a dense dimension, the query needs one dynamic calculator cache for each block retrieved. [7184888] 

Nested FIX Commands

FIX commands can be nested within other FIX command blocks. However, using nested FIX commands incorrectly can result in incorrect results. For example, the intent of the following calculation script is to assign 1 to all children of East and then assign 2 to New York:

       FIX (''New York'')

However, the nested FIX command fixes on a subset of the dimension that is specified by the FIX command above it; therefore, the script assigns 2 to all children of East because the script runs as if it were written as:

FIX (@CHILDREN(EAST),''New York'')

Rather than using nested FIX commands, use two separate FIX command blocks. For example:


FIX (''New York'')


Aggregate Storage Database Outlines Cannot Exceed 64 Bits per Dimension

In Essbase Administration Console, to see the number of bits a dimension requires:

1.    From the Enterprise view or a custom view, select a database.

2.    Right-click, and select Edit and then Properties.

3.    In the Database Properties dialog box, select the Statistics tab. In the Aggregate Storage Statistics area, the number of levels and bits used in each dimension is displayed.

The number of bits needed by a dimension is the maximum number of bits used by any level-0 child, including the level-0 children in alternate hierarchies and associated attribute dimensions. For the purposes of member numbering, attribute dimensions are treated as alternate hierarchies of their base dimensions.

In general, the formula to determine the number of bits required for any member in a dimension can be expressed as:

#_bits_member’s_parent + log(x)

Where x is the number of children of the parent.

For example, if the member’s parent is member A, which requires 5 bits, and A has 10 children, the number of bits required by each child is:

5 +log(10) = 9 bits

The top member of a dimension or hierarchy usually uses 0 bits. However, when one or more top generations consist of label-only members, the label-only members do not receive member numbers (because they are not considered stored members). Therefore, if there are x members in the first non-label-only generation, those members use log(x) bits. The rest of the children below them are numbered normally. 

Similarly, if a dimension or hierarchy is dynamic, only the level-0 members that are stored or shared receive member numbers. The number of bits required for those members is log(x), where x is the number of level-0 members that are stored or shared (that is, the number of level-0 members that are not formula members). 

If, however, any alternate hierarchies have stored (non-shared) level-0 members, each member of every hierarchy in the dimension (including associated attribute dimensions) uses an extra log(x) bits, where x is the total number of hierarchies and associated attribute dimensions for this base dimension. 

The following example uses the Products dimension in the ASOsamp.Sample database.

The Products dimension has two hierarchies: All Merchandise and High End Merchandise, which is an alternate hierarchy. High End Merchandise has one stored level-0 member: Stored Member. The Products dimension does not have any associated attribute dimensions.

Members All Merchandise and High End Merchandise use log(2) = 1 bit. 

Note:  If the alternate hierarchy High End Merchandise did not have any stored level-0 members, the top members of each hierarchy (and associated attribute dimensions) would each use 0 bits. 

The calculation of the number of bits required by each level-0 children: 

All Merchandise = 1 bit

   Personal Electronics, Home Entertainment, Other = 1 + log(3) = 3 bits

       Digital Cameras/Camcorders, Handhelds/PDAs, Portable Audio = 3 + log(3) = 5

           Children of Digital Cameras/Camcorders = 5 + log(3) = 7

           Children of Handhelds/PDAs = 5 + log(3) = 7

           Children of Portable Audio = 5 + log(2) = 6

       Televisions, Home Audio/Video = 3 + log(2) = 4

           Children of Televisions = 4 + log(5) = 7

           Children of Home Audio/Video = 4 + log(4) = 6

       Computers and Peripherals = 3 + log(1) = 3  *  

        Systems, Displays, CD/DVD drives = 3 + log(3) = 5

             Children of Systems = 5 + log(2) = 6

 High End Merchandise = 1 bit

     Flat Panel, HDTV, Stored Member = 1 + log(3) = 3 bits 

* Member Computers and Peripherals have the same number of bits (3) as its parent Other.

The maximum bits used by any level-0 children in the Products dimension is 7 (Children of Digital Cameras and Children of Televisions). Therefore, Products uses 7 bits, which is less than the dimension size limit of 64 bits.

If the dimension size exceeds 64 bits:

·         Essbase generates the following error when saving the outline:

Hierarchy [DimensionName] is too complex: maximum width member number exceeds 64 bits. See application log for details.

·         Essbase logs messages similar to the following messages in the application log:

Member number for member [level0member] requires [65] bits to encode

   Member [level0member] contributes [5] bits to member number

   Member [level1parent] contributes [20] bits to member number

   Member [level2parent] contributes [20] bits to member number

   Member [level3parent] contributes [20] bits to member number

To fix the error, use one of these recommendations:

·         If possible, delete some siblings of any of the members referenced in the messages.  Reducing the number of siblings by a power of two saves one bit. For instance, assume that level0member, which contributes 5 bits to the member number, has 18 siblings, including itself. Reducing the number of siblings to 16 or fewer saves one bit because log (16) = 4. Similarly, reducing the number of siblings to 8 or fewer saves two bits.

·         Reclassify some siblings of members referenced in the messages. For example, move half of level0member’s 18 siblings to another parent that doesn’t have as many children. Alternately, create a new parent as a sibling of level1parent and move half of level1parent’s children under the new member. This approach saves one bit.

·         Combine some intermediate levels. For instance, move level0member, and all of its siblings, to be children of level2parent and then remove level1parent. This approach is more involved but it can save many bits.

[6536747, 1-55853784]

Disabled Create Blocks on Equations

If Create Blocks on Equations is disabled for a database and data blocks exist for members on the left or right side of an equation, the formula produces results. [6539881, 1-212975642]

Attributes on Dense Members

For attributes to work on dense members, data blocks for the dense members must exist. When retrieving data on a dense member that has a Dynamic Calc formula and no attributes, Essbase dynamically creates the data block and returns a value. However, if the Dynamic Calc dense member has an attribute, doing a retrieve on the attribute member results in #MISSING, because Essbase skips the calculation on the dense member and, therefore, the data block is not created.

To identify nonexisting stored blocks, export the database or run a query to find out whether the block has data. [6550822]

Disk Volumes

When using disk volumes:

·         For new files, disk volume settings become effective after the database is restarted. Previously existing files and volumes are not affected.

·         Files are written to the disk volume in the following directory structure:


[6554135, 2_HYPER00081388]

Report Samples to Augment Report Scripts Documentation

To augment the following topics in the "Developing Report Scripts" chapter in the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator’s Guide, see the related report sample in the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference:

·         For "Selecting Members by Using Attributes," see "Sample 20: Using Attributes in Member Selection"

·         For "Selecting Members by Attribute Association," see "Sample 21: Using the WITHATTR Command in Member Selection"


Migrating Users and Groups

When migrating users and groups to Shared Services, users and groups that fail migration are listed in the Essbase Server log (ARBORPATH/essbase.log). If any part of the migration process fails, review the messages in the Essbase Server log before you remigrate users and groups using the Externalize Users Wizard in Essbase Administration Console.

[6583827, 8-620852578]

Updated Visual Basic API Examples

In the Essbase API Reference, the following code examples replace the existing examples for the VB functions EsbListRequests and EsbKillRequest.  (8313273)


Sub ESB_ListRequests()

     Dim Items As Integer


     Dim sts As Long

     Dim pAccess As Integer


     'sts = EsbSetActive(hCtx, AppName, DbName, pAccess)

     'sts = EsbDefaultCalc(hCtx)


     ' List Requests


     sts = EsbListRequests(hCtx, UserName, AppName, DbName, Items)

     Debug.Print "EsbListRequests = " & sts & " " & Items


     For n = 1 To Items


       ' Get next Request Info

       ' from the list


       sts = EsbGetNextItem(hCtx, ESB_REQUESTINFO_TYPE, ReqInfo)

       Debug.Print "EsbGetNextItem = " & sts & " " & ReqInfo.LoginId & " " &




  End Sub




  Sub ESB_KillRequest()

   Dim Items As Integer


   Dim sts As Long

   Dim pAccess As Integer



   ' List Requests



   'Debug.Print "EsbSetActive = " & sts

   'sts = EsbDefaultCalc(hCtx)

   'Debug.Print "EsbDefaultCalc = " & sts


     Debug.Print "EsbListRequests = " & sts & " " & Items

   For n = 1 To Items


     ' Get next Request Info

     ' from the list


     sts = EsbGetNextItem(hCtx, ESB_REQUESTINFO_TYPE, ReqInfo)



     sts = EsbKillRequest(hCtx, ReqInfo)

     Debug.Print "EsbKillRequest = " & sts


End Sub

Unsupported Visual Basic API Functions

The following Visual Basic API functions are in the API Reference, but are not supported in the Visual Basic API. Therefore, the documentation for them should be ignored:



Incorrect descriptions of Alter Application command parameters

In the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference, in Chapter 6, “Maxl,” the following Maxl command parameters contain errors:


Incorrect text

Correct text

disable autostatup

disable autostartup

set hostname as at

set hostname as

numerical display


data from

dimensions from

purge outline change file

purge outline change_file


begin archive


Incorrect description of Drop Lock command

In the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference, in Chapter 6, “Maxl,” the “Drop Lock” command contains the following errors:

The introductory paragraph reading, “Remove locks acquired through a spreadsheet operation” should read as follows: “Remove locks acquired through a spreadsheet operation. Removing a user’s lock forces a logout of that user’s session.”

The use of the command Drop Lock with USER-NAME should read as follows:

Drop-lock on system held by USER-NAME


Error in ESSCMD Documentation for the REPORT Command

In the ESSCMD documentation for the REPORT command, the following example report script is incorrect.





The correct example is:





Updated C Grid API Example

In the Essbase API Reference, the following code example replaces the existing example found in the topic entitled “C Grid API Example.”  [7314583]

/* This function allocates the necessary data to send to the server */





ESSG_ULONG_T  ulIndex;



ppTemp = (ESSG_PPDATA_T) malloc(sizeof(ESSG_DATA_T*) * ulRows);

if(ppTemp == NULL)

return ppTemp;


memset(ppTemp, 0, (sizeof(ESSG_PDATA_T) * ulRows));


for (ulIndex = 0; ulIndex < ulRows; ulIndex++)


ppTemp[ulIndex] = (ESSG_PDATA_T)malloc(sizeof(ESSG_DATA_T) * ulCols);


memset(ppTemp[ulIndex], 0, (sizeof(ESSG_DATA_T) * ulCols));



return ppTemp;




/* This function frees the memory allocated by AllocTwoDims */

void FreeTwoDim(ESSG_PPDATA_T ppDataToFree, ESS_ULONG_T ulRows)


        ESS_ULONG_T ulIndex;




                if(ppDataToFree[ulIndex]->usType == ESSG_DT_STRING)









/* This function builds a table based on the above grid. */

/* Note: The items in the grid are hard coded.           */



        ESSG_PPDATA_T   ppTable;

        ESS_ULONG_T     ulRow, ulCol;


        /* Your code would probably not be hard-coded here... */

        pRange->ulRowStart      = 0;

        pRange->ulColumnStart   = 0;

        pRange->ulNumRows       = 2;

        pRange->ulNumColumns    = 5;

        ppTable = AllocTwoDims(2, 5);


        /* ROW 1 */

        ppTable[0][0].usType = ESSG_DT_BLANK;

        ppTable[0][1].usType = ESSG_DT_BLANK;

        ppTable[0][2].usType = ESSG_DT_STRING;

        /* Some compilers allow you to specify \p to indicate */

        /* the length of the string */

        ppTable[0][2].Value.pszStr = "\pYear";

        ppTable[0][3].usType = ESSG_DT_STRING;

        ppTable[0][3].Value.pszStr = "\pProduct";

        ppTable[0][4].usType = ESSG_DT_STRING;

        ppTable[0][4].Value.pszStr = "\pMarket";


        /* ROW 2 */

        ppTable[1][0].usType = ESSG_DT_STRING;

        ppTable[1][0].Value.pszStr = "\pActual";

        ppTable[1][1].usType = ESSG_DT_STRING;

        ppTable[1][1].Value.pszStr = "\pSales";

        ppTable[1][2].usType = ESSG_DT_DOUBLE;

        ppTable[1][2].dblData = 123.45;

        ppTable[1][3].usType = ESSG_DT_BLANK;

        ppTable[1][4].usType = ESSG_DT_BLANK;


        return (ppTable);



/* This function makes the necessary calls to the */

/* EGAPI to perform a basic retrieval.            */

/* NOTE:  This example does not show the                   */

/* initialization of the EGAPI or the grid.       */

/* Also, the hGrid is assumed to be external.    */

void CallEGAPI(void)


        ESSG_PPDATA_T   ppDataIn,

        ESSG_PPDATA_T   ppDataOut;

        ESSG_RANGE_T    rRangeDataIn,rRangeDataOut;

        ESSG_STS_T      sts;

        ESSG_ULONG_T    ulRow, ulCol;

        ESSG_USHORT_T   usState;


        /* Connect the grid to a database on the server */

        sts = EssGConnect(hGrid, "Server", "User", "Password",

                                       "App", "Db", ESSG_CONNECT_DEFAULT);

        if (sts == 0)


                ppDataIn = BuildTable(&rRangeDataIn);

                /* Start the retrieve operation */

                sts = EssGBeginRetrieve(hGrid, ESSG_RET_RETRIEVE);


        if (sts == 0)


                /* Send the entire grid to define the query */

                sts = EssGSendRows(hGrid, &rRangeDataIn, ppDataIn);


        if (sts == 0)


                /* We're done sending rows, perform the retrieval */

                sts = EssGPerformOperation(hGrid, 0);


                /* Free the data we built */

                FreeTwoDim(ppDataIn, rRangeDataIn.ulNumRows);


        if (sts == 0)


                /* Determine the results of the retrieve and how much data

                 * is being returned.


                sts = EssGGetResults(hGrid, 0, &rRangeDataOut, &usState);


        if (sts == 0)


                /* Get all of the data */

                sts = EssGGetRows(hGrid,0, &rRangeDataOut,

                        &rRangeDateOut, &ppDataOut);


        if (sts == 0)


                /* Interate though the data ... */

                /* First the rows */

                for (ulRow = rRangeDataOut.ulRowStart;

                                ulRow < rRangeDataOut.ulNumRows;



                        /* Then the columns */

                        for (ulCol = rRangeDataOut.ulColumnStart;

                                        ulCol < rRangeDataOut.ulNumColumns;



                                /* Here's a cell ... just render it. */

                                switch (ppDataOut[ulRow][ulCol].usType)


                                        case (ESSG_DT_STRING):



                                        case (ESSG_DT_LONG):



                                        case (ESSG_DT_DOUBLE):



                                        case (ESSG_DT_BLANK):



                                        case (ESSG_DT_MISSING):



                                        case (ESSG_DT_ZERO):



                                        case (ESSG_DT_NOACCESS):



                                        case (ESSG_DT_MEMBEREX):









                /* Tell the API we don't care about this request any more */

                EssGEndOperation(hGrid, 0);

                /* Free the data returned */

                EssGFreeRows(hGrid, &rRangeDataOut, ppDataOut);



        /* Disconnect if you wish */

        EssGDisconnect(hGrid, 0);



MaxL Perl Module example scripts contain errors

In the documentation for MaxL Perl Module, the and example scripts contain errors.

Lines in which print statements check whether $dbh is defined should be removed, as $dbh is always defined upon a successful connect. For example, the following should be removed:

 print defined $dbh ?


Database Manager permission is required for the MaxL alter database Statement

The documentation for the MaxL alter database statement states that Database Manager permission is required. Instead, create_application permission is required.


Error in Documentation for the Report Writer CURRENCY Command

In the documentation for the Report Writer CURRENCY command, the example script contains an error. The following line:


should be changed to:



Documentation for the MaxL alter filter Statement Contains an Error

The following example for the MaxL alter filter statement shows how to edit multiple rows in a single filter:

alter filter sample.basic.filt8 add read on '@Descendants("East")', add write on '@Descendants("West")';


Incorrect Note in Documentation for SERVERPORTBEGIN and SERVERPORTEND

In the Technical Reference documentation for the SERVERPORTBEGIN and SERVERPORTEND essbase.cfg settings, the following Note is incorrect:

You must insert these settings in both the configuration file for the Essbase Server computer and the configuration file for the client computer.

The two settings only need to be in the server configuration file. [8589997]

CALCLIMITFORMULARECURSION does not apply to formulas in MDX queries

The essbase.cfg setting CALCLIMITFORMULARECURSION does not apply to formulas in MDX queries (for example, calculated members).

If the following error occurs upon execution of an MDX script, CALCLIMITFORMULARECURSION FALSE cannot be used to override the limit.

Error executing formula for [MDX query] (line 0): Recursion limit [31] reached

Instead, the formula must be rewritten to be iterative instead of recursive. The following MDX query example contains an iterative formulas in the WITH section.



 AS 'TupleRange (([FY2007],[Apr 1]),([FY2007],[jun 30]))'















 AS '([UDF_MG]-[UDF_C]) / ([UDF_MV] + [UDF_C])'



 AS 'IIF(IS([TIME].CurrentMember,[Apr 30]) AND

  IS([YEAR].CurrentMember,[2003]),0,ln(UDF_MVY + 1))'



 AS 'Sum({([FY2003],[Apr 30]):(Year.CurrentMember,Time.currentMember)},UDF_MVY1)'



 AS '[UDF_D] / [UDF_MV]'



 AS '[UDF_MVY] + [UDF_DY]'



 AS 'Exp(UDF_MVY2)'







FROM b8477941.TEST




Using Correct Characters When Naming Applications and Databases

When you name applications and databases, you must use characters that are supported by the character set that is specified by the ESSLANG variable. On the computer where Essbase Server is installed, the ESSLANG variable must be set to the locale that is defined for the computer's operating system. [8287660]


In the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference, the SET COPYMISSINGBLOCK calculation command is incorrectly listed in the Contents under the Essbase.CFG Configuration Settings heading; it should be listed under the Calculation Commands heading. In the DATACOPY calculation command topic, the reference to adding SET COPYMISSINGBLOCK OFF to the essbase.cfg configuration file should be ignored. This command should be used in a calculation script; for example:


[7624193, 7634220, 7634574]

Reference Cubes Are No Longer Supported

Essbase no longer supports reference cubes. Topics related to reference cubes in the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator’s Guide, Oracle Essbase API Reference, and Oracle Essbase Technical Reference should be ignored.

The @XREF function, which is mentioned in some reference cube topics, is still available in Essbase.

Clearing Data from Specific Regions of Aggregate Storage Databases

The following information updates the “Clearing Data from Specific Regions of Aggregate Storage Databases” topic in the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator’s Guide:

When using the physical method for clearing data from a region, queries to the physically cleared region return #MISSING values.

ESS_DBSTATS_T Structure, NonExclusiveLockCount Field

In the ESS_DBSTATS_T structure, the NonExclusiveLockCount field is no longer valid. References to this field in the 11.1.1 Oracle Essbase API Reference should be ignored. [6923736]

Date-time Members Supported on Block Storage Databases

You can now create a date-time member in a block storage database. This enhancement is currently not documented for block storage databases in the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator’s Guide.

The following new calculation functions support date analysis on block storage date-time members:

·         @DATEDIFF

·         @DATEPART

·         @DATEROLL

·         @FORMATDATE

·         @TODATEEX

See “Aggregate Storage Time-Based Analysis” in the Oracle Essbase Database Administrator’s Guide for more information.

Referencing Members Using Shortcut Names

The Oracle Essbase Database Administrator's Guide section entitled "Using Shortcut Qualified Member Names" includes a table showing the syntax that Essbase uses in different scenarios to construct shortcut qualified member names in duplicate member outlines.

However, Essbase constructs the shortcut names internally, and not all of the listed syntax options can be used by a client for referencing members. You must get the shortcut name directly from Essbase, using one of the following methods.

Administration Services

View the Qualified Member Name field in the member properties in Outline Viewer.


Use the MEMBER_UNIQUE_NAME intrinsic property. For example:

{Product.Members} DIMENSION PROPERTIES member_unique_name
FROM Sample.Basic

Report Writer

Use the <REPQUALMBR command. For example:


C Outline API

Use the EssOtlGetMemberUniqueName() function call. See the example in the Oracle Essbase API Reference.

Grid API

Use the following constants to retrieve qualified member names:



Additionally, the following "differentiating ancestral" method can be reliably used to reference duplicate as well as non-duplicate members.


For example:


Teradata Parallel Transporter (TPT) Support Changes

Essbase supports Teradata Parallel Transporter (TPT) 12 with the Teradata 12 ODBC driver. TPT 12 can connect to Teradata V2R6.x and V12.x databases, not to Teradata V2R5.x databases. Consult your Teradata documentation for supported configurations. 

In the Oracle Essbase SQL Interface Guide, references to TPT 8.2 and Teradata 3.6 ODBC driver should be ignored. Also, in the Solaris variable examples, references to the “8.02.00” directory should be replaced with the “” directory for Teradata 12 ODBC. For example:

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH = <library path>:$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

export LD_LIBRARY_PATH = /usr/tbuild/$LD_LIBRARY_PATH

For information about the versions of Teradata databases that Essbase supports as data sources, and supported Teradata ODBC drivers, see the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Management System Installation Start Here.

SET MSG Calculation Command, Warns Parameter

The SET MSG calculation command topic in the Oracle Essbase Technical Reference includes references to the WARNS parameter. The WARNS parameter is obsolete. Use the SET MSG ERROR command. [7138584]


When using the display session MaxL statement to view active login sessions, specifies whether to convert the IP address of the client computers that are logged into Essbase to the computer’s hostname.

When set to TRUE, IP addresses are not converted to hostnames, which improves the performance of the display session MaxL statement. [7314737]

MAX_SIZE_PER_FETCH Configuration Setting

Specifies the maximum size of the grid after grid expansion.

If, after grid expansion, the size of the grid is greater than the maximum size specified, grid expansion will not occur for the query, which might result in a slight degradation of performance.

When using MAX_SIZE_PER_FETCH, GRIDEXPANSION must be set to ON.

MAX_SIZE_PER_FETCH applies to block storage databases.

Note: For databases that are the target of a transparent partition, Oracle recommends a smaller maximum grid size to retain the advantages of grid expansion.


MAX_SIZE_PER_FETCH [appname [dbname]] n

The default value is 102400000 cells.


MAX_SIZE_PER_FETCH Sample Basic 75000000

Limits the grid to 75 million cells after grid expansion for each query to the Basic database associated with the Sample application.


Essbase Agent and Application Log Files

Release modifies the default file size and file-naming convention used for Essbase Agent and Application log files.

The AGTMAXLOGFILESIZE and APPMAXLOGFILESIZE configuration settings enable users to specify the maximum size for Agent and Application log files.

The default maximum log file size is 2 GB (2147483647 bytes), which is used if no values are specified for these configuration settings.

For Agent log files, the current log file is always ESSBASE.LOG. When maximum log file size is reached, the file is renamed ESSBASE.LOG.n (for example, ESSBASE.LOG.1, ESSBASE.LOG.2, and so on), and a new ESSBASE.LOG file is created.

For Application log files, the current log file is appname.LOG. When maximum log file size is reached, the file is renamed appname.LOG.n (for example, appname.LOG.1, appname.LOG.2, and so on), and a new appname.LOG file is created.


Time Balance Feature

Oracle® Essbase Outline Editor verifies that time balance properties are applied only to Time dimensions that are stored. [7159709]

Time Behavior Beyond 2038

Dates beyond 2038 are not supported on any platform. [7260852]


The Oracle Essbase Technical Reference states that the MDX property MEMBER_UNIQUE_NAME returns NULL for unique members, and a system-generated key for duplicate members.

However, the MEMBER_UNIQUE_NAME  property, which is part of the XML for Analysis standard, actually returns a fully qualified member name with every usage, regardless of whether the database is enabled for duplicate member names or the database contains all unique member names.  [6537517]

Documentation Correction for Load Buffer ID Constraints

The BUFFER-ID terminal used by the MaxL alter database … initialize_load_buffer statement is documented as any number between 1 and 4294967296. Instead, it should be a number between one and 1,000,000 (one million).

The same constraint applies to the ulBufferId field of the C API function EssBeginDataloadASO.   [7417595]

Converting Block Storage Outlines to Aggregate Storage Outlines

Block storage non-Unicode outlines can be converted to aggregate storage non-Unicode outlines; however, block storage Unicode outlines cannot be converted to aggregate storage Unicode outlines. [8208584]

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