TM1 9.5 to PA

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Mithun.Mistry1103
Posts: 58
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:14 pm
OLAP Product: cognos
Version: 10.2.2
Excel Version: 2010

TM1 9.5 to PA

Post by Mithun.Mistry1103 »

Hello

I am keeping my eyes open on how Planning Analytics is going and just wondered if anyone has gone onto PA from 9.5 or if they plan too and could point out any worrying points. I am guessing it should work with a few changes?

Or worth going to the 10.2 version first then PA.

Would be great to know.

Thank you
Mithun
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Elessar
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OLAP Product: PA 2
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Re: TM1 9.5 to PA

Post by Elessar »

Hi,

Upgrading from 10.2 to PA would not be a problem.

The real challenge will be upgrading from 9.5 to 10.2
The most difficult tasks will be:
1) Upgrading the contributor applications: Application types (Approval, Responsibility, Central) are added, as well as "Enforce Rights" and another new parameters which can affect your security
2) Upgrading websheets: TM1 ver. >= 10.2.0 uses Open XML file formats for Microsoft Excel worksheets. There is utility to convert you websheets, but it can make errors, so you will need to recreate all the websheets:
https://www.ibm.com/support/knowledgece ... heets.html
Best regards, Alexander Dvoynev

TM1 and Data Science blog: 6th article - PAfE + VBA: Commit each cell without pressing “Commit” button.
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paulsimon
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Re: TM1 9.5 to PA

Post by paulsimon »

Hi

I don't think you will gain much by going from 9.5 to 10.2 instead of PA.

The main difference is the complete re-write of TM1 Web which applies in both 10.2 and PA.

The difference specific to PA is the use of Docker.

We needed to deploy two more virtual machines, one for Docker and one for Websphere as we use IIS for other parts of the application, and there were other issues that required this.

However, you don't need Docker if (a) you don't intend to use PAW (and there is an extra license fee for this), and (b) if you don't immediately need to use PAX. You can continue to use Perspectives instead of PAX, without the need to install Docker. However, PAX has some advantages over Perspectives, so it is worth looking at in the future. PAX does need PAW running on Docker to provide the Subset Editor. We have been waiting for months for confirmation from IBM that our existing license does allow us to use PAW to provide the Subset Editor for PAX so long as we don't actually use PAW.

The TM1 Web URL API is very different in 10.2 and PA so if you use this you will need to make changes. In my view these changes were unnecessary. Surely the point of an API is to insulate users from the underlying details, but there are many odd decisions such as the Row index in the new URL API is zero based instead of the original 1 based scheme. As far as I am aware the first row in Excel is still 1.

As well as upgrading any Web sheets to .xlsx format you may need to re-create or at least re-size Action Buttons.

There are additional ports that need to be opened which unfortunately are not covered in the documentation.We needed several calls to IBM to uncover this. However, our setup is more complex than most. If you install everything on a single machine, it will be easier.

The server is likely to need additional RAM I would guess at 20% more than 9.5. We are going from 10.1 to PA and we currently need 100% more, but this is the subject of an outstanding PMR with IBM.

On a little bit of plus and minus, the new Java based TM1 Web is much faster, however, it is less forgiving than the old ASP.NET TM1 Web so be sure to test any existing sheets to make sure that they function correctly.

On the plus side 10.2 and PA offer improvements in locking. To reduce locking further, it is certainly worth converting TIs to use temporary subsets and views where you are just creating these to act as the data source or to clear out data. This is a simple change as there is just an extra parameter in ViewCreate.

Regards

Paul Simon
Mithun.Mistry1103
Posts: 58
Joined: Thu Jul 03, 2014 1:14 pm
OLAP Product: cognos
Version: 10.2.2
Excel Version: 2010

Re: TM1 9.5 to PA

Post by Mithun.Mistry1103 »

Hello guys. Thank you for that. That was so useful.

@Paul, few points you had pointed out has been spot on for me, so thank you so much.

RAM/CPU is going to be a bugger for me. I hope to try adopt the MTCL/MTQ approach to speed start up and ease the queue of processes. See how they ease the pressure on the server.

PAW I am guessing it would only be a CAM use for us. Nothing more unless the world changes and its decided that PAW should be utilised to its maximum capability.

You mentioned about the deployment of the docker on another VM. That would be similar for me. So thank you for mentioning that.

I have just been trying to understand Cognos BI this morning(a great start to the day). It is out of support now so for people who have cognos BI, what will they do? I am guessing alot of people will try to avoid going to Cognos Analytics until they go to Pax/PAw but I am guessing they would need to buy extended support for BI until then, (would probably take 12 to 24 months) and if thats the case then they would also need to understand what version of cognos BI will be compatible for 10.1/10.2.1/10.2.2 for the 2 years or so (considering, if possible, people get extended support on those versions of tm1?

This is a quite a wind whirl :) lol.

Thank you
Mithun
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