50+ Best Hyperion Financial Management Interview Questions and Answers

Last updated on 12th Nov 2021, Blog, Interview Questions

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1. What is Hyperion?

Ans:

Hyperion is a database that allows you to access the data very quickly. The company was bought by Oracle in 2007 and Oracle has continued to improve the product.The Fancy name of Hyperion is Business Intelligence and it aims to support better business decision-making.

Thus a BI system can be called a decision support system (DSS. . Though the term business intelligence is sometimes used as a synonym for competitive intelligence, because they both support decision making, BI Uses technologies, processes, and application to analyze mostly internal, structured data and business processes while competitive intelligence gathers, analyzes and disseminates information with a topical focus on company competitors.

2. What is Hyperion Planning?

Ans:

Hyperion Planning is a budgeting and forecasting application from Oracle formerly owned by Hyperion Solutions Corporation. Hyperion Planning uses Essbase (s multidimensional database product sold by Hyperion. as a database and calculation engine, a relational repository for business logic, and includes a web-based user interface.

The Software allows you to add planning or forecast data to actuals. You can use Web Forms to add the planning data or use the Excel SmartView tool. Most of the Hyperion reporting tools work great with planning.

3. What is Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM) ?

Ans:

Oracle Hyperion Financial Management (HFM. is a comprehensive Web-based application that delivers global financial consolidation, reporting and analysis in a single, highly scalable software solution.Oracle Hyperion Financial Management, part of the Oracle EPM Suite, supports the collection, consolidation and reporting of financial results in multiple GAAPs as well as IFRS, and the reconciliation of differences among the various standards. Hyperion

Financial Management can be deployed quickly to integrate data from multiple Oracle and non-Oracle transactional systems, provide top-side reporting that conforms to IFRS requirements, and help organizations make the transition to IFRS.

Master financial management with the in-depth

4. What are the different types of LOG Files?

Ans:

So many log files are there in Essbase, but the important log files are :

• Application.log
• Essbase.log
• Configtool.log
• eas_install.log
• ess base server-install.log

Suppose we have assigned Generation 2 and Generation 4 as of now and think of adding generation 3 later some time. Now can we build the dimension? No. If gen 2 and gen 4 exist, we must assign gen 3.

5. What are attributes?

Ans:

A classification of a member in a dimension. You can select and group members based on their associated attributes. You can also specify an attribute when you perform calculations and use calculation functions.

Example : The database in Sample Basic which has product dimension has some attributes like size, package type, and flavor. We can add these attributes to the dimensions where we can retrieve the data like for example to retrieve “coke with 8 Oz with bottles”, this is useful for generating reports.

6. What is TB First and TB Last?

Ans:

• TB First : in the Sample.Basic database, the accounts member Opening Inventory is tagged as TB First. Opening Inventory consolidates the value of the first month in each quarter and uses that value for that month’s parent. For example, the value for Qtr1 is the same as the value for Jan.
• TB Last : in the Sample.Basic database, the accounts member Ending Inventory is tagged as TB Last. Ending Inventory consolidates the value for the last month in each quarter and uses that value for that month’s parent. For example, the value for Qtr1 is the same as the value for Mar.

7. How does Attribute dim impact report performance?

Ans:

They highly impact the report performance as the attributes are calculated dynamically when referenced in the report. For a very large number of attributes displayed in the report, the performance could drastically reduce.

• While loading the data, you have applied both the selection criteria as well as rejection criteria to the same record.
• The record will be rejected.

8. Mention the main Features in Hyperion Planning v11.1.2.3?

Ans:

The latest release of Oracle Hyperion Planning, v11.1.2.3, offers new key features for users and administrators, including ASO support within Planning, more flexibility to import and export metadata, and task list report visualizations. MijaDeering, Principal Solutions Manager at Edgewater Ranzal, provides an overview of these and other features of the newest Planning release.

Oracle Hyperion Planning is a centralized, Microsoft Office and Web-based planning, budgeting and forecasting solution that integrates financial and operational planning processes and improves business predictability. It allows organizations to reduce planning, budgeting, and forecasting cycles by weeks or months and improve accuracy of plans and forecasts.

Microsoft Office products are used as an interface into Oracle Hyperion Planning, so the learning curve for users is minimized, and Planning speeds up the time it takes to update plans and refresh reports. The cost of ownership is reduced through superior application deployment, management tools, and packaged data integration.

9. How is data stored in the Essbase database?

Ans:

Essbase is a file based database where the data is stored in PAG files of 2 GB each and grows sequentially.

10. What is the difference between UDA and Attribute dimensions?

Ans:

Attribute dimensions provide more flexibility than UDA’s. Attribute calculation dimensions which include five members with the default names sum, count, min, max and avg are automatically created for the attribute dimensions and are calculated dynamically.

11. Where Is Hfm Data Available?

Ans:

Data is stored at the cells formed by the intersection of the members of the different dimension members in the sub cube. All aggregations and calculations are performed on data in sub cubes retrieved into RAM on the application server. And I hope the data will also be available in the database server.

12. How Do You Create an Icp Member In Hfm?

Ans:

Following are system defined members for ICP dimension :

1. [ICP Top] Specifies the top intercompany member[ICP None] Specifies that no intercompany member is used.

2. [ICP Entities] Specifies the entities that are designated for intercompany transactions.

3. The System will automatically create an ICP member when you select the IsICP attribute, see the below for your reference.

4. When you create an application, Intercompany Partner members are automatically created for the application. An ICP member is created for each Entity member for which the IsICP attribute is selected.

13. Explain About Entity Curr Adj Member In Hfm?

Ans:

Basically value dimension members are inter-related with so many areas in HFM, but in brief talking about Entity Curr Adj you can make any adjustments using journals into this particular value dimension, here you can perform calculation and posting journals.

14. What Is Application Profile, Can We Change Application Profile At Any Point Of Time?

Ans:

An application profile contains language, calendar, frequency, and period information for an application. You can use a profile for more than one application. For each application that you create, you must specify an application profile. You can not modify the application profile once it was created.

15. What Is A Data Audit In Hfm?

Ans:

You can use the Data Audit feature to view data changes performed by users. You can filter the data changes by date range, application server, user, and the dimension members of cells.

You can audit Scenario and Account members by setting the Enable Data Audit metadata attribute to Y for the scenarios and accounts to audit. To turn off auditing of Scenario and Account members, change the Enable Data Audit attribute to N.

16. What Is Minority Interest In Hfm?

Ans:

Relates to ownership management, it will arrived by the formula PMIN = PCON-POWN Percent of minority interest is equal to Percent of consolidation minus percent ownership.

17. How To Get Prior Year Retained Earnings?

Ans:

By using rules we can achieve it

18. What Are Different Ways Of Running Consolidation In Hfm?

Ans:

• Manual consolidation by using grids.
• Consolidation using task automation
• Custom consolidation by using rules.

19. What Is A Recurring Journal?

Ans:

Some Journals we use repeatedly. So, for that purpose, we will create recurring templates. By using the recurring templates, we will create recurring Journals.

20. What Is An Auto Reversing Journal?

Ans:

If we create a journal as Auto Reversing Journal, the journal will post in the next period by reversing the Debit and Credit.

21. How Do You Load The Data Into Hfm?

Ans:

HFM directly cannot take the data from ERP packages. So the data should be downloaded from ERP and loaded into Upstream tools like FDM and ODI etc. Then it should be mapped with HFM. And then load that into HFM.

22. What Is Hfm Architecture?

Ans:

Hyperion Financial Management is designed to operate as a multi tier system.

Client tier : The client tier contains the user interface and the ability to communicate with the application tier. You can display data and metadata, enter data, and maintain metadata in this tier.

Web tier : The Web server tier contains the Web server. You can access the Web-enabled portions of Hyperion Financial Management in this tier. The Hyperion Financial Management Web client contains all functionality available in the Windows client with the exception of security administration.

Middle tier : The middle tier contains the domain intelligence and connections to the relational database.

Database tier : The data tier contains the relational database and all Hyperion Financial Management data and metadata.

23. How Many Account Types In Hfm?

Ans:

We have 10 Account types in HFM.

24. How Do Different Cell Colors Indicate In Hfm? (ask Any Specific Color. ?

Ans:

• Blue- Header cell
• Off White -An input cell. You can manually enter or edit data.
• Light Yellow -Locked or derived cell
• Light Gray Text -No write or Read access, or may be derived data
• Dark Yellow-Indicates one of these conditions:
• Cell data has been modified but has not been saved
• The input status is OK, but the status of the adjustment is not OK (CH, CN, or TR.
• Light Green -Allows allocations and derived data
• Dark Green -Read-only
• Orange -Invalid POV (Point of View. intersection

25. How Many Types Of Adjustments We Can Post?

Ans:

In HFM we have :

• Entity Currency Adjs
• Parent Currency Adjs
• Parent Adjs
• Contribution Adjs

26. What Is Good Will ?

Ans:

Goodwill in financial statements arises when a company is purchased for more than the fair value of the identifiable net assets of the company. The difference between the purchase price and the sum of the fair value of the net assets is by definition the value of the “goodwill” of the purchased company. The acquiring company must recognize goodwill as an asset in its financial statements and present it as a separate line item on the balance sheet.

27. How many Custom dimensions are there in HFM?

Ans:

Here you need to answer as per your HFM version.

Example : 9 versions to 11.1.2.1 version only having 4 custom dimensions. After that versions are like (11.1.2.2 and 11.1.2.3. having 100 custom dimensions.

28. Can you please Explain 8 standard dimensions?

Ans:

Those 8 Standard dimensions are like :

• Account
• Value
• Scenario
• Year
• Period
• View
• ICP

29. What are the HFM services you need to start?

Ans:

• Hyperion Foundation Shared Services – Web Application
• HFM- DME Listener
• Hyperion Web Service Manager
• Hyperion Workspace- Agent Application
• Hyperion Workspace- Web Application

30. What does Service dependency mean?

Ans:

Hyperion is dependent on services. Means services are to be started in a specified sequence only.

31. How many Environments do you have in your Project?

Ans:

We have 3 environments. Those are :

• Development Environment
• QA Environment
• Production Environment

32. Explain those Account types in the account dimension?

Ans:

There are 10 account types –

• Asset
• Liability
• Equity
• Expense
• Balance
• Balance recurring
• Flow
• Dynamic
• Group label
• Currency Rate

33. What is COA?

Ans:

COA is nothing but the chart of accounts, whatever the members we will define under the account dimension will be called sometimes chart of accounts (COA)

42. What are the different ways of running consolidation in HFM?

Ans:

Consolidate- will consolidate only what has changed from the previous execution of consolidation, including the execution of all necessary calculations and currency translations for individual entities (the ones that have the impacted status of course.

43. What is the minimum role to be given to a user to access HFM?

Ans:

Default or view access.

34. What is the difference between switch sign for and switch type for and in which dimension it exists?

Ans:

It exists in the custom dimension :

Switch sign for : It is ticked to change :

• ASSET to LIABILITY
• LIABILITY to ASSET
• EXPENSE to REVENUE
• REVENUE to EXPENSE

Switch type for : It is ticked to change :

• ASSET to EXPENSE
• EXPENSE to ASSET
• LIABILITY to REVENUE
• REVENUE to LIABILITY
• BALANCE to FLOW
• FLOW to BALANCE

35. What does a balance sheet contain?

Ans:

In financial accounting, a balance sheet is a summary of the financial balances of a company. Assets, liabilities, and ownership equity are listed as of a specific date, such as the end of its financial year.

36. How will you perform the Review Process?

Ans:

To perform the Review process, we should have the “Review Supervisor” Security authority. In the Explore Data Module, we will perform Process Management.

37. Sometimes, we cannot post a Journal. What will be the Reason?

Ans:

In the Entity Dimension, we should check the “allow adjustment “property. And the period in which we created the journal should be kept open. And we should have the security authority to create journals.

38. How do we Migrate applications from server to server?

Ans:

We migrate applications with a copy application utility. Another way of migrating application is the traditional way that extracts all required files from development and loads the same files in production

39. How do you enable Rules to customize consolidation?

Ans:

Application Settings -> consolidation Rules -> Y

40. What are the HFM services you need to start?

Ans:

Hyperion Foundation Shared Services – Web Applicationm :

• HFM- DME Listener
• Hyperion Web Service Manager
• Hyperion Workspace- Agent Application
• Hyperion Workspace- Web Application

41. How do you create a member list in HFM?

Ans:

Member list we can write with the function called list and we will save with extension .lst, once you upload the member list you can select the member in a particular POV working with different areas like journals, ICP, etc., we can also create our own custom member list for different purposes.

44. What is Line ITEM detail in HFM? How to enter it?

Ans:

Line Item detail is additional information to the data. It is entered into the data file.

45. Explain Olap and mention if it is related to Hyperion Financial Management?

Ans:

Hyperion HFM/ Hyperion Planning both are Essbase based. They are front-end tech and Ess-base is the back end. Ess-base is an M-OLAP. There are three types of OLAP technology present in the market. These are ROLAP, MOLAP, and HOLAP.

An example of ROLAP is BO. Here we deal with the table and they act as a virtual cube. But if we think about Oracle Express Hyperion Essbase and Cognos then they are real cubesats. Thus MOLAP. ROLAP+MOLAP=HOLAP.

In the case of BO, we need to join to attain the OLAP effect virtually but behind is a joined table. But in the case of MOLAP, there is no concept of the table; it is cube only.

For example : a page is a table then a Book is a Cube. If the data is large then it is advisable to take up ROLAP not MOLAP. because the performance of the cubes degrades. If the size of data is around 100 GB to 150 GB then it is fine to go with MOLAP and if it is more than that then we should choose BO.

46. Explain why we use Hyperion?

Ans:

We have IIS for HFM although there is no IIS for OLAP. If there is no IIS then it is a time taking process to retrieve financial data.

Is it possible to have one ASO database and one BSO database in a single application Justify No, because ASO/BSO classification is defined at the Application level and not at the database.

47. How do you load the data into HFM?

Ans:

HFM directly can’t take the data from ERP packages. Then loaded into FDM and mapped with HFM.

48. What is the data lock?

Ans:

A user-controlled mechanism that prevents changes to data according to specified criteria, such As period or scenario.

49. What is a Dynamic memberlist?

Ans:

As the dimension members are added and deleted, the dynamic member list automatically reflects the changes by replying to the user-defined criteria.

50. What is the difference between switch sign for and switch type for and in which dimension it exists?

Ans:

It exists in the custom dimension

Switch sign for: It is ticked to change	Switch type for: It is ticked to change
Asset To Liability	Asset To Expense
Liability To Asset	Expense To Asset
Expense To Revenue	Liability To Revenue
Revenue To Expense	Revenue To Liability
Balance To Flow	Balance To Flow
Flow To Balance	Flow To Balance

51. What are Configurable Dimensions?

Ans:

Configurable Dimension allows the HFM administrator to set the number of custom dimensions in the application. For each dimension, it is possible to set the size of the dimension and give a short name and a long name (alias)

52. What are the benefits of Configurable Dimensions?

Ans:

Configurable Dimensions provides HFM the flexibility lacking in the traditional tools with predefined fixed structures. HFM applications can be built with the exact number of custom dimensions needed. If 2 custom dimensions are necessary, then the application can be built with 2 dimensions. If it needs 4 or 6, the number of custom dimensions can be set accordingly. Customer requirements drive the design and the structure of the application without constraints or compromises.

53. Does Configurable Dimension have an impact on performance?

Ans:

The configurable dimension does not have a direct impact on performance. In an application where Calculation rules are correctly written, performance is driven by the amount of data in the application, not by the number of dimensions or the number of elements in each dimension.

54. How many custom dimensions should be used in an application?

Ans:

The number of custom dimensions depends on the level of details of the reporting. When the same detailed analysis exists for multiple accounts, this detail should be created in a custom dimension. For instance, if Sales, Cost of Good Sold, and Gross Margin must all be detailed by-products, then it is advised to create a Product hierarchy in a custom dimension. When an account must be analyzed by a combination of details, for instance, Sales by Product and also simultaneously by Market, then these details should be created in separate dimensions. The more analytical details are required, the more dimensions are necessary. For instance, if Sales, Cost of goods sold, and Gross margin must be analyzed simultaneously by Product, Market, Channels, and Packages, then it is advised to use 4 custom dimensions.

55. Can custom dimensions contain details of different natures?

Ans:

Yes. A custom dimension can contain different types of details, as long as these details are used on different accounts. For instance, if the P&L accounts are detailed by Products and the Balance Sheet accounts are detailed by Flows, then it is possible to use the same custom dimension for both details. Products and Flows will be created as separate hierarchies in the same dimension. When defining the accounts, P&L accounts will be associated with the Product hierarchy and Balance Sheet accounts will be associated with the Flow hierarchy.

56. How will you calculate minority interest in Hyperion financial management?

Ans:

We need to write in rules as PCon=POwn-PMin, to calculate the percentage of minority interest.

• %Minority=%consolidation-%ownership

57. What is the importance of Hyperion financial management?

Ans:

Many finance executives face the daunting task of consolidating their Companies’ financial and operating results using spreadsheets that are difficult to maintain and audit.

58. What is Triangulation?

Ans:

A means of converting balances from one currency to another via a third common currency.

59. .Can we have multiple databases in a single application ?

Ans:

Yes, in this one database per application.

60. Can we start and stop an application individually and how to increase performance using this ?

Ans:

We can manage our server resources by starting only applications which receive heavy user traffic. When an application is started, memory is accompanied by all associated data bases.

61. What are the design considerations for calculation optimization?

Ans:

You can configure a database to optimize calculation performance. The best configuration for the site depends on the nature and size of the database.

• Block Size(8Kb to 100Kb. and Block Density
• Order of Sparse Dimensions
• Incremental Data Loading
• Database Outlines with Two or More Flat Dimensions
• Formulas and Calculation Scripts

62. How can you prevent and remove fragmentation?

Ans:

You can prevent and remove fragmentation :

1. To prevent fragmentation, optimize data loads by sorting load records based upon sparse dimension members. For a comprehensive discussion of optimizing data load by grouping sparse members.

2. To remove fragmentation, perform an export of the database, delete all data in the database with CLEARDATA, and reload the export file.

3. To remove fragmentation, force a dense restructure of the database.

63. What are the conditions affecting Database restructuring?

Ans:

Intelligent Calculation, name changes, and formula changes affect database restructuring :

If you use Intelligent Calculation in the database, all restructured blocks are marked as dirty whenever data blocks are restructured. Marking the blocks as dirty forces the next default Intelligent Calculation to be a full calculation.

If you change a name or a formula, Essbase does not mark the affected blocks as dirty. Therefore, you must use a method other than full calculation to recalculate the member or the database.

64. What are the files used during Restructuring?

Ans:

When Essbase restructures both the data blocks and the index, it uses the files described :

• essxxxxx.pag Essbase data file
• essxxxxx.ind Essbase index file
• dbname.esm Essbase kernel file that contains control information used for db recovery
• dbname.tct Transaction control table
• dbname.ind Free fragment file for data and index free fragments
• dbname.otl Outline file in which is defined all metadata for a database and how data is stored

65. Which restructure operations are faster?

Ans:

These types of restructure operations are listed from fastest to slowest :

• Outline only (no index or data files.
• Sparse (only index files.
• Dense (index files and data files. as a result of adding, deleting, or moving members and other operations
• Dense (index and data files. as a result of changing a dense dimension to sparse or changing a sparse dimension to dense

66. What are Implicit Restructures?

Ans:

Essbase initiates an implicit restructure of the database files after an outline is changed using Outline Editor or Dimension Build. The type of restructure that is performed depends on the type of changes made to the outline

67. What are Explicit Restructures?

Ans:

When you manually initiate a database restructure, you perform an explicit restructure. An explicit restructure forces a full restructure of the database. A full restructure comprises a dense restructure plus removal of empty blocks.

68. What are the design considerations for calculation optimization?

Ans:

You can configure a database to optimize calculation performance. The best configuration for the site depends on the nature and size of the database.

• Block Size(8Kb to 100Kb. and Block Density
• Order of Sparse Dimensions
• Incremental Data Loading
• Database Outlines with Two or More Flat Dimensions
• Formulas and Calculation Scripts

69. How can you prevent and remove fragmentation?

Ans:

You can prevent and remove fragmentation :

• To prevent fragmentation, optimize data loads by sorting load records based upon sparse dimension members. For a comprehensive discussion of optimizing data load by grouping sparse members.
• To remove fragmentation, perform an export of the database, delete all data in the database with CLEARDATA, and reload the export file.
• To remove fragmentation, force a dense restructure of the database.

70. When do you use RLE over Bitmap Compression?

Ans:

Use RLE over Bitmap When, Average block density very low (< 3%. . Database has many consecutive repeating Values.

71. When do you disable compression?

Ans:

You may want to disable data compression if blocks have very high density (90% or greater. and have few consecutive, repeating data values. Under these conditions, enabling compression consumes resources unnecessarily. Don’t use compression if disc space/memory is not an issue compared to your application. It can become a drain on the processor.

72. What is LRO (Linked reporting objects. ?

Ans:

An LRO is an artifact associated with a specific data cell in an Essbase database. LROs can enhance data analysis capabilities by providing additional information on a cell. An LRO can be any of the following :

• A paragraph of descriptive text (a “cell note”.
• A separate file that contains text, audio, video, or graphics
• A URL for a Web site
• A link to data in another Essbase database

73. How do you create LRO’s?

Ans:

Users create linked objects through Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel by selecting a data cell and choosing a menu item. There is no limit to the number of objects you can link to a cell. The objects are stored on the Essbase Server where they are available to any user with the appropriate access permissions. Users retrieve and edit the objects through the Essbase Spreadsheet Add-in for Excel Linked Objects Browser feature, enabling them to view objects linked to the selected cell.

74. Does adding or removing links to a cell does not affect the cell contents?

Ans:

No.LROs are linked to data cells –not to the data contained in the cells. The link is based on a specific member combination in the database. Q.Give a few examples of LRO’s? Ex1: A sales manager may attach cell notes to recently updated budget items. Ex2: A finance manager might link a spreadsheet containing supporting data for this quarter’s results. Ex3: A product manager might link bitmap images of new products. Ex4: A sales manager may link the URL of a company’s Web site to quickly access the info on the Web

75. How does Essbase locate and retrieve linked objects?

Ans:

Essbase uses the database index to locate and retrieve linked objects. If you clear all data values from a database, the index is deleted and so are the links to linked objects. If you restructure a database, the index is preserved and so are the links to linked objects.

76. Do shared members share LRO’s?

Ans:

Shared members share data values but do not share LROs. This is because LROs are linked to specific member combinations and shared members do not have identical member combinations. To link a given object to shared members, link it to each shared member individually.

77. Can you change the member combination associated with any linked object?

Ans:

You cannot change the member combination associated with any linked object. To move an object to another member combination, first delete it, then use Essbase Spreadsheet Add In for Excel to re-link the object to the desired member combination.

78. Why do we need to limit the LRO file sizes for storage conversion?

Ans:

Because Essbase stores linked files in a repository on the server and, by default, the size is unlimited. Limiting the file size prevents users from taking up too much of the server resources by storing extremely large objects. You can set the maximum linked file size for each application. If a user attempts to link a file that is larger than the limit, an error message displays. The maximum file size setting applies only to linked files and does not affect cell notes or URLs. The lengths of the cell note, URL string, and LRO descriptions are fixed.

79. What is partitioning?

Ans:

A partition is the piece of a database that is shared with another database. An Essbase partitioned application can span multiple servers, processors, or computers.

80. What is Essbase Partitioning?

Ans:

Essbase Partitioning is a collection of features that makes it easy to design and administer databases that span Essbase applications or servers. Partitioning is licensed separately from Essbase

81. What are the types of Partitions available in Essbase?

Ans:

Three types of partitions.

• Transparent partition :

  A form of shared partition that provides the ability to access and manipulate remote data transparently as though it is part of your local database. The remote data is retrieved from the data source each time you request it. Any updates made to the data are written back to the data source and become immediately accessible to both local data target users and transparent data source users.

• Replicated Partition :

  A portion of a database, defined through Partition Manager, used to propagate an update to data mastered at one site to a copy of data stored at another site. Users can access the data as though it were part of their local database.

• Linked Partition :

  A shared partition that enables you to use a data cell to link two databases. When a user clicks a linked cell in a worksheet, Essbase opens a new sheet displaying the dimensions in the linked database. The user can then drill down those dimensions.

82. What is the process for designing a partitioned database?

Ans:

Here is the suggested process for designing a partitioned database :,

• Learn about partitions.
• Determine whether the database can benefit from partitioning.
• Identify the data to partition.
• Decide on the type of partition.
• Understand the security issues related to partitions.

83. What are the parts of the partition?

Ans:

Partitions contain the following parts,

• Type of partition : A flag indicating whether the partition is replicated, transparent, or linke
• Data source information : The server, application, and database name of the data source.
• Data target information : The server, application, and database name of the data target.
• Login and password : The login and password information for the data source and the data target.
• Shared areas : A definition of one or more areas, or sub cubes, shared between the data source and the data target.
• Member mapping information : A description of how the members in the data source map to members in the data target.
• State of the partition : Information about whether the partition is up-to-date and when the partition was last updated.

84. What are the benefits of partitioning?

Ans:

Partitioning applications can provide the following benefits :

• Improved scalability, reliability, availability, and performance of databases
• Reduced database sizes
• More efficient use of resources
• Data synchronization across multiple databases.
• Outline synchronization across multiple databases.
• Ability for user navigation between databases with different dimensionality.

85. Can you define different types of partitions between the same two databases?

Ans:

No

86. Can a single database serve as the data source or data target for multiple partitions?

Ans:

Yes

87. What is the overlapping partition?

Ans:

An overlapping partition occurs when similar data from two or more databases serve as the data source for a single data target in a partition.

88. Is overlapping partitions valid in all the partitions?

Ans:

An overlapping partition is allowed in linked partitions, but is invalid in replicated and transparent partitions and generates an error message during validation.

89. When do you use substitution variables in partitions?

Ans:

Using substitution variables in partition definitions enables you to base the partition definition on different members at different times.

90. Can we use attribute values to partition a database?

Ans:

Yes,You can use attribute functions for partitioning on attribute values. But you cannot partition an attribute dimension.

91. Can we partition an attribute dimension?

Ans:

No, we cannot partition an attribute dimension.

92. What is the limitation on version and mode during partition?

Ans:

Both ends of a transparent, replicated, or linked partition must be on the same release level of Essbase Server. For example, if the source of a linked partition is on a Release 7.1.2 server, the target must also be on a Release 7.1.2 server. In addition, for transparent and replicated (but not linked. partitions, the application mode of both ends of the partitions must be the same–either Unicode mode or non-Unicode mode.

93. What are the major differences between ASO & BSO?

Ans:

If we have more dimensions (generally more than 10. then we will go for ASO that simply rollup If we have less dimensions then we will go for BSO We cannot write back in ASO we can write back in BSO Most of the dimensions are sparse in ASO Most of the dimensions are dense in BSO

94. What is “Enterprise Analytics”?

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ASO in System 9 is called Enterprise Analytics.

95. Explain in detail about the features of ASO?

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ASO databases are created specifically to deal with the requirements of very large sparse data sets with a high number of dimensions and potentially millions of members. ASO does not have indexes or data blocks. ASO does not use calculation scripts. Bcoz calculations are not complex. ASO uses a new kind of storage mechanism that allows improved calculation times from 10 to100 times faster than BSO. ASO can store up to 252 dimensional combinations. The front end tools usually do not care if the database is ASO or BSO. Even Maxl sees minor differences. We can have attribute dimensions in ASO. In ASO there is no concept of dense and sparse dimensions. We do not have two pass logic and built in time balance functionality.( time balance functionality is present from 9.3 version onwards. Member formulas are not supported in stored hierarchies. Only non consolidation (~) and addition (+) operators are supported in shared hierarchies.

We cannot create more than 1 database in ASO. ASO does not utilize procedural calculation scripts. ASO formulas are written in MDX syntax. ASO has an Accounts dimension but it is completely different from the account dimension of BSO. ASO is read-only. You cannot write to ASO databases, but there is a workaround using transparent partitions and pointing to an attached BSO database for those duties. You can load data to level zero members only. The database must restructure after any members in the standard dimensions are added ,deleted or moved. In fact most actions on an ASO outline will either cause a loss of data or restructure.

96. How do you differentiate ASO applications?

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Can easily differentiate the ASO database in the Administrative Services Console by the red star beside the application name.

97. How do you create an ASO application?

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ASO has two types of hierarchies : stored and dynamic. The dimension can contain both types of hierarchies (if you enable multiple hierarchies. .Other properties that need to be set for dimensions and members include Dimension Type Data Storage(store, never share, label only. Member solve order

Alias :

You can add dimensions using the visual editor or the rules files. Unlike in block storage ASO does not allow you to preview the outline changes. If you are unsure of the build file, make a backup of your outline before running the new build rule. For ASO databases after the data values are loaded into the level 0 cells of an outline, the database requires no separate calculation step. For retrieving from the ASO database, retrieve and analyze just as in the BSO database.

98. How do you create an ASO database using the ASO Outline Conversion Wizard ?

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You can also create an ASO database using ASO Outline Conversion Wizard. This wizard uses the existing BSO database to convert to an ASO database. This is advantageous because we do not need to create an ASO database from the Scratch. However we need to perform reengineering of dimensions and hierarchies.

99. How do you create ASO in the Automated Way?

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The final way of creating an ASO application is by using “Create Application” , “Create Database” ,”Create Outline ” commands using MaxL. Typically this method is used when you are running the MaxL command as a part of the batch job. **Unicode is supported for BSO databases only. **Data Mining is not supported by ASO databases. **MDX is the only mechanism for defining member calculations in databases. Unicode applications use UTF-8 encoding form to interpret and store character text, providing support for multiple character sets. To set up a Unicode application

Set Up a computer for Unicode support by doing one of Install the for that supports UTF-8 encoding, Install a Unicode editor

• Set the Essbase server to Unicode Mode via Administrative Services or MaxL.
• Check the Unicode box when creating a new Unicode -mode application.
• You can also migrate from non-Unicode applications to Unicode applications (but not the other way round.

Report Scripts are outdated but still can be helpful when extracting subsets of data from Essbase for online backups or feeding into other systems. The Wizards Tab of Administrative Services Console menu has the following components :

• Migration
• Aggregate Storage Outline Conversion
• Aggregate Storage Partition
• User Setup
• Data Mining Wizard