Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

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Olivier
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Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Olivier »

Hi All,

We are upgrading our version of Tm1 from 9.1SP2UPD3.

Our main requirement to define the target version are :
- String limitation to 255 caracters
- Server stability
- Lock behaviour on cubes while chore/TI process executing
- Concurrent licences

We have tested the version 64 bits 9.1sp3 upd 2 (Server) combined with 9.1 sp3 client.

It is working fine and we find a major improvement on the server locking behaviour when chore/processes run.

Unfortunatly, this version doesn't handle more then 255 caracters in string data.

Are there any version or service pack between 9.1sp3 and 9.4 that would remove this string limitation ?

I believe that 9.4 will definitly handle this but this is not an option for us at the moment.

Thanks for any comment,

Olivier
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Olivier
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by George Regateiro »

Olivier wrote:Are there any version or service pack between 9.1sp3 and 9.4 that would remove this string limitation ?
As far as I know 9.4 is your only option on the string limitation.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Alan Kirk »

George Regateiro wrote:
Olivier wrote:Are there any version or service pack between 9.1sp3 and 9.4 that would remove this string limitation ?
As far as I know 9.4 is your only option on the string limitation.
And even then you'll need to be using Excel 2007 if you want to be able to slice them.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Olivier »

Oki doki,
Sounds like 9.1sp3 upd2 is the one for us then !

Thanks your feedbacks.

Kind regards,

Olivier
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Alan Kirk »

Olivier wrote:Oki doki,
Sounds like 9.1sp3 upd2 is the one for us then !

Thanks your feedbacks.

Kind regards,

Olivier
SP4, I would have thought; AFAIK (and please correct me if I'm wrong), all of the SP3's still have the "simultaneously running chores will crash the server" bug.

{Edit: Aside from one Area 51 release of SP3 which was made available to customers on an "as required" basis but was never generally released as I recall.)
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Olivier »

Welllllllllllllllllllllll,

i tested concurrent chore run and in my SP3 upd2 it run succesfully and organise the priority correctly.

But as you mention it, i will go thougth a fresh new serie of testing...Experience talks .)

The proper test is to launch several chore from several clients at the same time and observe a server chrash ?

I am trying that right now !

Thank for feedback Alan !

Olivier
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Olivier »

Alan,

As you suggested 9.1 sp4 i went and checked out it's release notes from http://www.bihints.com/tm1_9_1_sp4 as i cannot access the page in IBM website...

As often i am more confused now that i have read more documentation .)


In the 9.1sp4 release note, i read :
11-69233259 Copying and pasting string text that is longer than 256 characters is causing corrupt cell values in the current cell and other cells with recent text entries.
:o

What would be the scope of this fix ? String value in data cells, in text attributes, comments in rules .) ?
Why would you copy more then 256 caracters in cells that can't contain them in the first place ?
this one really gets me :)

Then, in the long list of bug fixes, it is difficult to tell which bugs are from which version.

In the below list, I removed from the original full list the ones indicated to be specific to SP3 only.
Does anybody have a clue what in the following bugs list would be specific bugs of the 9.1SP3 serie ?

List undefined version bugs fixed in SP4 :
11-76608167 & 11-82035731 Specific MDX query against a TM1 cube returned extraneous rowsets. Previous update releases degraded TM1’s response time when processing MDX statements, especially those containing zero suppression queries. TM1 server crashed when creating a view by MDX expression. :o

11-69233259 Copying and pasting string text that is longer than 256 characters is causing corrupt cell values in the current cell and other cells with recent text entries.

11-67959937 364090 11-76844524 TM1 server crashes when creating a consolidation from a subset. :o

11-77468579 & 11-79737871 DBRW formulas using alias values, instead of element ids, are sporadically returning KEY_VALUE errors in Excel.
N/A TM1 server crashes when viewing an element after the TM1 client (user) that held a lock on the element is deleted.
364647 The tm1server.log file is reporting the following message when users log into certain servers through TM1 Architect or TM1Perspectives: "TM1.Server GetCollection used to bypass GetBlobs".

11-75675941 The inclusion of a comment could cause a server failure. :o

11-82290441 & 11-72058145 Active status property value is not displayed on }ClientPropertiescube. To enable this functionality now, you need to add a new
tm1s.cfg config parameter, ClientPropertiesSyncInterval, and set it to a positive number. This is frequency, in seconds, with which the thread will update the }ClientProperties cube. The config parameter is dynamically configurable. If set to 0 at any time, updates to the cube will stop. See ClientProperties Status above.
N/A Under certain complex condition rules TM1 did not skip export calc data as required.
11-81806473 Cancellation of a TI process no longer causes the error log and other ASCII files to lock up.
N/A Locking during an ODBC TI process that sometimes resulted in truncating text has been fixed.
357405 On TM1 Web, when a user enters data and then uses the spread function data sometimes appeared to be lost when data was submitted on the sheet. This problem has been fixed.
11-82261801 Views saved with automatic calculation or when zero suppression was invoked sometimes caused server failures. These problems have been fixed
11-78871122) Feeder stack Overflow prevents server from starting.

11-71446378) Opening and closing a chore changed time by one hour. :o

11-79485441) Choosing Zero Out Portion inadvertently deleted the current view. :lol:
11-76209541 ViewZeroOut improperly processed cube cells.

11-76825661) Cubes failed when a dimension index was incorrectly saved.
11-79134699 Selecting relational data after drilling through caused a failure.

11-76135698 Multiple users simultaneously accessing certain worksheets sometimes caused “unable to open file” errors.
11-76905251 Use of double apostrophe in an element name caused errors when trying to slice to a title position.

List 9.1SP3 specials bugs :
11-66294707 363327 Some TI processes are causing poor performance when executed
with TM1 version 9.1 SP3 U1.
364217 The SaveDataAll TI function is not working correctly in TM1 version 9.1 SP3 when saving views generated in a chore/process.
N/A Browsing a view in the cube viewer is slower in TM1 9.1 SP3 compared to previous versions of TM1 9.0.

Thanks for your feedbacks,

Kind regards,

Olivier
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Olivier
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Alan Kirk »

Olivier wrote:Alan,

As you suggested 9.1 sp4 i went i checked it s release notes from http://www.bihints.com/tm1_9_1_sp4 as i cannot access the page in IBM website...
As often i am more confused now that i have read more documentation .)

In the 9.1sp4 release note, i read :
11-69233259 Copying and pasting string text that is longer than 256 characters is causing corrupt cell values in the current cell and other cells with recent text entries.
What would be the scope of this fix ? String value in data cells, in text attributes, comments in rules .) ?
Why would you copy more then 256 caracters in cells that can't contain them in the first place ?
this one really gets me :)
I've just checked and confirmed that a cell in 9.1 SP4 will not hold more than 255 characters. Or at least it won't when it's entered through the cube viewer; I haven't tried with the API, but I'm betting on the same results. However that's not what the note says is happening anyway. What it's saying is that the action of pasting a long string into a cell (possibly from another source like Excel) was causing corruption in that and possibly other cells, not that the cell itself contains or will accept the long string.

I don't think that comments in rules were ever a problem, but then I use .xrus. If you have more than 256 characters in a comment cell it'll bitch at you as I recall, but won't prevent the rules from compiling.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Olivier »

Oki doki,

That's my understanding as well but never hurts to triple check .)
We have actually experienced corruption issue in 9.1sp2upd3. when trying to break down big excel comments in several tm1 data cells (comment 1, 2 , 3 ,4 ...) using vba / api...

Rule comments was sort of a joke...but what about the meaning of this one ?
11-75675941 The inclusion of a comment could cause a server failure.




Conclusion :
We will take the time to test 9.1SP4 before choosing our upgrade target.
Now i have seen this release note for 9.1 sp4 i am doubting...

Thanks again for your comments / advice / feedback !


Kind regards,

Olivier
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Alan Kirk »

Olivier wrote:Oki doki,

That's my understanding as well but never hurts to triple check .)
We have actually experienced corruption issue in 9.1sp2upd3. when trying to break down big excel comments in several tm1 data cells (comment 1, 2 , 3 ,4 ...) using vba / api...

Rule comments was sort of a joke...but what about the meaning of this one ?
11-75675941 The inclusion of a comment could cause a server failure.
I don't know. There's no context for it. A comment? In rules? In the Rules editor? In an .xru? What comment? Where comment? Who comment? Why comment? It probably makes sense to the person who submitted it, but not to anyone else.

It's worth noting that that in the list on the BI Hints page that this is shown as a RESOLVED issue in 9.1SP4, meaning that it was an issue in earlier versions, not that one.

However I haven't seen the release notes for 9.1SP4 because they're not easy to get hold of. In theory they're on this page:

http://www-01.ibm.com/support/docview.w ... wg27014166

Except that while the link to the 9.1SP3 document works, the 9.1SP4 link doesn't. I therefore rated the page as somewhat less than useless and gave them the feedback that a dead link is as good as no link at all. In fact I'm pretty certain that I've been there before a while back (it's hard to tell with the labrynth that is the IBM series of web sites), and gave the same feedback; if so, it was clearly to no avail.

I've only got the "Known Issues" document for 9.1SP4 (which was the more important one for me, after I determined that the two-chore crash bug was resolved), which I don't think is the same thing. The documentation for any given release seems to be separated out into a seemingly random number of components since the Cognos takeover, of which I suspect that this is only one. Issues like those in the BI Hints list don't appear in the document that I have, which makes me think that it's a different document.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Olivier »

I thougth it was all the fault of my french brain :)
I noticed the non working link too ,)


Would you mind copying\pasting here the known issues list you have got for 9.1 sp4 ?

Thanks,

Olivier
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Alan Kirk »

Olivier wrote: Would you mind copying\pasting here the known issues list you have got for 9.1 sp4 ?
I was afraid that you were going to ask that. The copy's at work, and right now it's 9.43pm on a Friday evening. While I can connect to work from home, it's a painful, painful process. Also the document is quite lengthy; it's not just a neat list of bullet points. I'll take a look on Monday and see what I can set up though if you want to PM me your e-mail address I'll... oh wait, I'm an admin, I can log on to the control panel to get your e-mail address. {Slaps own head} duuuh.

OK, let me rephrase that, if you want me to e-mail it to you just let me know either in here or in a PM and I'll do that. It's not a huge document (in kilobytes) so it shouldn't gum up your inbox but I don't want to do it unless you're OK with it.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by David Usherwood »

My 2m ZIM$:
- String limitation to 255 characters
9.4
- Server stability
9.0SP3U9
- Lock behaviour on cubes while chore/TI process executing
9.0SP3U9 plus use of AllowExternalEvents. Like to know (and will probably test when time permits) how 9.1+ _actually_ behaves with the new locking, given that AEE was canned.
- Concurrent licences
Commercial issue - IBM will most likely force you to named user basis when you change, albeit at favourable conversion rates.

We (InfoCat) continue to recommend 9.0SP3U9 for most situations, and that hasn't so far proved inappropriate. The one exception was a client who moved to Vista/O2007. Don't think they've enjoyed the move. And I have another client overseas who didn't tell me some of them had V/O2007 and I only had 9SP3U9 with me. We went ahead with the install and to be frank, it works pretty well. Some clients (not all) have nasty VB project error messages, but then everything (so far) works. No ribbon though - I was devastated (oh no I wasn't).

I don't see any real 'must haves' in 9.1+ (_certainly_ not performance, stability or bugs). But of course, over time, 9.4 is where Cognos will put the development effort and slowly, slowly, it will seem more like being left behind. Tricky one.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by belair22 »

Hi David - TM1 9.0... Can't say I'm a big fan.

I'm led to believe the 9.0 series was basically 8.4 but with a new skin and a few tweaks to reporting capabilities. While this isn't necessarily a bad thing (8.4 was IMO the most stable release of all time) there have been improvements in performance and specifically the locking mechanism has been significantly relaxed in post 9.0 releases.

Until recently 9.1SP4 was my preferred release but over time I have encountered 1 or 2 bugs and IMO its not a great release in terms of scalability (certain TI's stopped working when rules were tweaked here and there - a known issue in 9.1 SP3 & SP4). 9.4 MR1 has ironed out most of the bugs and I've heard clients regularly say great things about the new Active Forms.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by stephen waters »

Belair,
You are almost correct that "9.0 is basically 8.4 with a new skin", however the one big change in functionality was the complete rewrite of TM1 web in 9.0 which finally made it useable.

If you are considering 9.1\9.4 for improved reliablity and performance take care. Earlier SP's had severe problems and, although the worse ones are fixed, in certain areas performance is still not back to 8.4 levels. We have a client who had to upgrade from 8.4.5 to 9.4 because they were migrating to Excel 2007. They are very disappointed by the overall sluggishnness of the system, eg views that used to take 1-2 seconds to refresh now taking 14-15 seconds, plus their process workbooks take 20 times ( TWENTY times) as long to run. The response from Cognos support to these problems has been pretty disappointing as well.

I use 9.4 for demonstrations and am still not fully confident that it will behave properly, even simple actions like bringing up the "edit dimension" box can sometimes take 5-10 seconds when previously it was instantaneous.

As for the improvements to the locking mechanism, I believe you will only see the benefits if you design your system for the changes. So, if you have a large population of inputters, eg cost centre budget owners, you would set up separate cubes for each cost center and then set up a TI process to transfer the input data into a consolidation\reporting\processing cube. This is very different to the estalished TM1 design approach where input cubes are linked to other cubes via rules. However, this feature may be useful for tM1 users with a large population of inputters.

Best version at present? Unless there is a good reason not to (eg Vista, Excel 2007) we recommend our clients go 9.0 SP3, it is reliable, proven, repsonsive and supported.

I agree that active forms in 9.4 are a very nice feature (also action buttons in 9.1) but for most of our clients this is not yet compelling enough to take the risk and the current downsides of a move to 9.4.

I know the Cognos development team have been putting a lot of resource and effort into resolving problems with 9.1 and 9.4; hopefully we will see the full benefits in the couple of MR's time.
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Steve Rowe »

Also I think 9.0 was the first 64 bit windows release?
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by stephen waters »

Steve Rowe wrote:Also I think 9.0 was the first 64 bit windows release?

You could run previous versions of 8 ( not sure how far back) on 64 bit windows but it needed Itanium hardware which was very very expensive and not that common. Version 9.0 and onwards runs on the cheaper 64 bit specificiation hardware (I think EM64T)
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Olivier »

Hi All,

I just received a mail from Rebecca Hansen in IBM with the documents coming with 9.1 sp4 release.
I attached them if anybody is interrested while the ibm website links to it get fixed.

Kind Regards,
Olivier
Attachments
Documentation_Updates_9_1_SP4.pdf
(121.71 KiB) Downloaded 610 times
IBM official 9.1sp4 documentation.zip
(419.88 KiB) Downloaded 589 times
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by belair22 »

FYI -
IBM/Cognos appear to have a fix for 9.4MR1 that 'improves' performance issues across WANs (and possibly LANS) when using any Server Explorer functionality (ie Cube Viewer, Subset Editor,..etc.).
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Re: Upgrade - TM1 Version selection

Post by Ken Vuong »

Where did you hear about the 9.4 MR1 fix?

Ken
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