A growing number of reliable sources (like Intel, Apple Support, Azure Blog, Amazon, Red Hat, Xen, among many others) provide details regarding major security vulnerabilities that affect modern microprocessors, and two specific exploits, called Meltdown & Spectre.

Meltdown dissolves the barriers between user applications and the operating system; This allows a program to access the memory of other programs and the operating system.

Spectre breaks the isolation between different applications on a system, allowing even well-designed programs that operate without error to leak their secrets.

Such exploits would likely include passwords or sensitive data held in memory.

applied to test environment on Friday, September 1, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, September 15, 2017

Please note that Oracle updates the document over time and most recent updates are at the top

summarized on 30 August from:

here for September 2017 include these and others:

• “Integrate business process navigation flows can connect following subscriptions (** sources for connections)”
  • Oracle Planning and Budgeting Cloud**
  • Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud**
  • Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud**
  • Oracle Tax Reporting Cloud**
  • Oracle Account Reconciliation Cloud
  • Oracle Profitability and Cost Management Cloud
  • Oracle Enterprise Performance Reporting Cloud
  • More details: “‘Connecting Subscriptions in EPM Cloud’ in the Administrator’s Guide of the source service”
  • “Connection across multiple subscriptions when services are in different domains within the same data center will be supported in a future update”
• Maintenance snapshots can now be submitted to Oracle for support
• Provisioning report has been improved
• Enhancements to the Activity Report identifies top 15 user interface requests by time to execute
• SSO is now available with Oracle Identity Cloud Services (IDCS)
• Addition of Copy Application Snapshot to the REST API
• Dimension Management now allows deleting dimension during early dev stages
• Simultaneous editing of all aliases for a member is now possible
• Analysis Views can now be sorted to aid simple reporting
• Ability to copy n number of rules added
• Smart View is supported across Private Connections
• In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

6 Defects Fixed…

The Profitability and Cost Management updates for August

applied to test environment on Friday, August 4, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, August 18, 2017

Please note that Oracle updates the document over time and most recent updates are at the top.

summarized on 28 JULY

here for August 2017 include these and others:

• IMPORTANT CHANGE to the USER role will allow write access on assigned data slice starting August and assignment of the VIEWER role where write access is denied
• Dimension Management allows editing Business, Attribute and POV dimensions in PCMC, including adding, moving, copying, deleting child members and their  properties (best used for minor edits, Validate and Enable required)
• Multiple alias table support coming in August
• Data Management now  provides access to Oracle GL through loads to Oracle Financial Cloud
• In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

Reminder:  Get ready to upgrade to Smart View ~.710 mid-August to enable new features and to support continued use of PCMC applications after August updates. Link will be here when 710 drops.

The Profitability and Cost Management updates for July

applied to test environment on Friday, July 7, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, July 21, 2017

Please note that Oracle updates the document over time and most recent updates are at the top.

summarized on 28 JULY

here for July 2017 include these and others:

• • Translated Books …”covers all features up to May 2017, except for Working with Smart View for Enterprise Performance Management Cloud…”
  • Enhanced Provisioning Report shows number unique users with Services roles
  • Run the Execution Statistics system report for Calculation Jobs, directly from the PCM job library
  • Export FR Web Studio grid to Excel
  • In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

here for June 2017

applied to test environment on Friday, June 2, 2017 and to production environment on Friday, June 16, 2017

• Preview uploaded photo for PCMC Home page
• Now able to add queries as favorites on Home page
• NONEMPTYTUPLE property clause added to calculation formula can improve calculation rule performance
• New EPM Automate utility, including improved security on importsnapshot command
• EPM Automate Manual
• Installing the utility
• Command Reference
• Database query performance data now available in the enhanced Activity report (top 10 by worst performance, duration & execution)
• Upload custom fonts (.ttf only) for FR (883 Google fonts available here)
• 1 defect fixed (Copy POV is functional again for all applications)

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

here for May 2017

• • Support for larger outlines when copying POVs along with related API updates
  • A new customization of home page appearance (background color)
  • In case one needs a reminder: (continue) to avoid special characters in artifact names, including calculation scripts

Reminder: Transition to “Financial Reporting Web Studio” as it will “become the only environment for designing and building reports”

here for April 2017

Install wxPython:

brew install wxpython

Download Loxodo for OS X or (even better):

git pull https://github.com/sommer/loxodo.git

(you did remember git is context sensitive right?)

To run, cd into the location of loxodo.py and execute:

./loxodo.py

We prefer to execute from command line, so in /usr/<username> create a symbolic link:

ln -s  /usr/local/some/obscure/location/loxodo.py /Users/<username>/loxodo.py

Now one can open a terminal to run:

<computername>:~ <username>$ ./loxodo.py

“Cristoph Sommer’s pure Python Password Safe v3-compatible Password Vault Loxodo is a thing of beauty, especially when accessing the same v3 psafe archive file from multiple operating systems.”

“Renowned security technologist”^[1] Bruce Schneier, author of many books designed Password Safe for simple and secure password management. Password Safe is maintained at https://pwsafe.org/.

From git the source is open.

On Windows, each formal release of  Password Safe is digitally signed with the project administrator’s gpg key. To verify the signature, use this public key (key fingerprint = A703 C132 8EAB C7B2 0175   3BA3 9194 6451 5CCF 8BB3).

Not much has changed between Business Rules and Calculation Manager when using the CmdLineLauncher for loading with a runtime prompt file.

steps

The solution to using CalcMgrCmdLineLauncher.cmd with Runtime Prompts AND getting multiple values passed in to work as they have previously.

Create a string value in variable manager of Calculation Manager
Create the substitution variables in the application (Planning in this case)
Process the rule from command line like: CalcMgrCmdLineLauncher.cmd [-f:passwordFile] /A:appname /U:username /D:database [/R:business rule name | /S:business ruleset name] /F:runtime prompts file

tested with file V44215-01
5/24/2015
The README for Patch 17529887: (Release 11.1.2.3.500 Patch Set Update (PSU): 17529887)  indicates you can apply to 11.1.2.3.0 and that there are no prerequisites beyond the usual Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable Package.

This is not exactly the case, as various Windows OS prerequisites impact whether the patch is applied successfully.

As others have noted, the ADF patches often do not truly apply. I have applied the superpatch on nearly a dozen systems without having any issues so was surprised to finally see the ADF patch deployment failure today.

A new interesting quirk came up as well, when installing the patch with local accounts on a multi-node system. The Microsoft (R) Windows Script Host will fail to process vbscripts like:

D:\software\17529887\custom\scripts\create_version_history.vbs(32, 1) Microsoft VBScript runtime error: Path not found

The intrepid Windows administrators had not set up Windows with cohesive Region and Language settings.

steps

Rollback the patch

D:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\OPatch\opatch rollback -id 17529887 -oh D:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1 -jre D:\Oracle\Middleware\jrockit_160_37

Check that Region and Language settings match the System Locale. This was corrected by changing the Region and Language setting from “English (United Kingdom)” to “English (United States)“.

Reapply the patch.

Verify after restart that the expected versions are picked up and showing in Workspace > About.

description

None

external links

None at this time

The documentation for Oracle EPM Release 11.1.2.4 is widely available from Oracle Help Center.

You may be familiar with Oracle Help Center as the new documentation portal. The old documentation portal is OTN technetwork.

The majority of this content summarizes notes from an Oracle presentation of what is new and what is coming.

Release 11.1.2.4

Some of the good news is:

• commitment to existing applications
• innovation with new offerings
• more cloud
• more mobile – “Managing the close on the run”

This translates as:

• FDMEE – complete parity with legacy FDM
• FDMEE – data synch between EPM applications
  • DRM integrations
  • Sub-ledger transactions for ARM
  • HFM journal write-back
  • Import from any relational with simple UI mapping
  • SAP BW metadata load
  • Integration with FCM
• Supplemental Data Manager (new product)
• FM (HFM) reborn with some platform independence, pre-built dashboards, application creation wizards (a.k.a. Web Profile Editor), and stellar performance claims, especially in consolidation times
• FM User Interface gets some love as formats and layouts are more controllable
  • Disable modules for an entire application
  • Security role fixes for Task and Data Audit
  • Audit log on metadata difference after load, a.k.a., metadata merge utility
  • UDAs are 256 characters
  • Support for on-demand rules
  • DCOM replaced with TCP communications
  • Web control of system settings
  • Multi-file select for load actions
• Platform independent (with limitations, notably to Exalytics–long live Big Iron!)
• Ongoing commitment to deployment simplicity
• FCM:  a well-supported product receives continued investment
  • Close Manager
  • Account Reconciliation Manager
  • Supplemental Data Manager
  • TAX
• …more to be discovered

Extended Support

Extending support for EPM 11.1.2.x releases is the sleeper announcement that deserves applause! Oracle extended Premier Support to April 2018 and Extended Support to April 2021.

licensing

With this terminal release of FDM migrationto FDMEE is required. The good news here is an additional license fee is not required.

external links

Naturally, the legendary John Goodwin has a nice delve into the installation and configuration already online.

EPM Documentation

tested PSU 11.1.2.2.104,~.105, ~.106
After installation of the Essbase Client via exe file p17608120_111220_MSWIN-x86-64.zip a number of source files will be over-written and corrupted. For example, epmsys_registry.bat, validate.bat, and ziplogs.bat will no longer work. The applications will still start from Windows Services.msc but will no longer communicate with each other nor with the Admin Server.

steps

The general format I use in this publication is to provide steps to replicate the issue.

You should not replicate this issue.

If you insist on replicating the issue, install the client in a vanilla server, then back-track any mismatch between target files and the files installed by the Essbase Client using a nice diff utility. Here is one for Mac OS X.

description

11.1.2.2.105 Essbase Client exe corrupts EPM Systems: Do not install!

None at this time

external links

None at this time

tested through PSU 11.1.2.2.305
Unable to process request occurs with some but not all FR reports.

steps

For each FR server, update to TRACE:32 the logging levels in

<MIDDLEWARE_HOME>\user_projects\domains\<DOMAIN>\config\fmwconfig\servers\FinancialReporting<x>\logging.xml

for three loggers:

<logger name=’oracle.EPMFR’ level=’TRACE:32′ useParentHandlers=’false’>
<handler name=’epmfr-handler’/>
</logger>
<logger name=’oracle.EPMFR.access’ level=’TRACE:32′ useParentHandlers=’false’>
<handler name=’epmfr.access-handler’/>
</logger>
<logger name=’oracle.EPMFR.jsp’ level=’TRACE:32′ useParentHandlers=’false’>
<handler name=’epmfr-handler-jsp’/>
</logger>

Restart the FR servers
Replicate the issue
Check these logs for details of the problem:

Generate

description

This error in the sysout log:

at oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLError.flushErrors1(XMLError.java:323)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseEndTag(NonValidatingParser.java:1604)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseElement(NonValidatingParser.java:1549)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseRootElement(NonValidatingParser.java:409)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.NonValidatingParser.parseDocument(NonValidatingParser.java:355)
at oracle.xml.parser.v2.XMLParser.parse(XMLParser.java:319)
at oracle.xdo.common.config.ConfigReader.read(ConfigReader.java:463)
at oracle.xdo.common.config.ConfigReader.read(ConfigReader.java:442)
at oracle.xdo.template.PropertyManager.getProperties(PropertyManager.java:279)
at oracle.xdo.template.PropertyManager.getRuntimeProperties(PropertyManager.java:194)
at oracle.xdo.template.FOProcessor.generate(FOProcessor.java:955)
at com.hyperion.reporting.printengine.PrintEngine.printFormattedReportXml(Unknown Source)
at com.hyperion.reporting.printengine.PrintEngine.generateFormattedReportXml(Unknown Source)
at com.hyperion.reporting.printengine.PrintEngine.printReport(Unknown Source)
at com.hyperion.reporting.printserver.PrintEngineInstanceThread.processInstance(Unknown Source)
at com.hyperion.reporting.printserver.PrintEngineInstanceThread.generateInstanceOutput(Unknown Source)
at com.hyperion.reporting.printserver.PrintEngineInstanceThread.run(Unknown Source)

indicates that the xdo.cfg file is corrupted/improperly formatted.

In addition to specifying a temp location “c:\temp” (which may not be a valid location in your environment, the attached xdo.cfg file also appears to have a misplaced comment tag (–>) at line 24 and an extra tag at line 27. As currently defined the file is not a valid xml document and does not open/parse correctly in a browser. I have uploaded a revised/corrected xdo.cfg file to the SR (xdo_rev.cfg) if you want to compare it to a properly formatted file. Note, the revised file still has the “c:\temp” line active. You can edit this line to refer to refer to the valid system directory. Alternatively, you can also simply comment out this line; FR Web will use the System Temp directory defined by the %TEMP% environment variable.

xdo.cfg fix tags comparison

None at this time

external links

None at this time

tested through PSU 11.1.2.2.305
3/4/2014

The README for Patch 17740222: Patch Set Update: 11.1.2.2.306 for Oracle Hyperion Financial Management indicates Defect fixed in this patch (“17328388: The Consolidation Administration menu is not available for users with the Run Taskflows role.”) Testing to follow…

Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Documentation for 11.1.2.2 indicates on page 232

Run Taskflows – Permits users to only run and view taskflows. Users with this role cannot create new taskflows or edit existing taskflows

As implemented, the placement of the Taskflows interface within Consolidation Administration effectively blocks all but HFM administrators from viewing or managing Taskflows. Until the application design catches up with the documentation one would need to provide access to Taskflows via EPMA rather than HFM.

steps

If you would like assistance with Taskflows in HFM 11.1.2.2+ please let me know as I can help you with your HFM-Planning automation processes.

description

None at this time

external links

None at this time

native://DN=cn=HUB:23,ou=HUB,ou=Roles,dc=css,dc=hyperion,dc=com?ROLE

Examination of LCM export of all provisioning as well as Users, Groups and Roles indicates this role is not in Shared Services.

Oracle Support indicates:

There is no problem with the user provisioning. Everything is working correctly. In a future release we will address this so that no error message is logged.
This bug won’t not cause any functional problems.

steps

Error messages that repetitively appear in FoundationServices0, the Workspace.log, like:
[2013-08-16T20:51:47.921-04:00] [FoundationServices0] [ERROR] [01301] [oracle.bi.bifndnepm.workspace.security.RoleChecker] [tid: 14] [userId: ] [ecid: 123414233212341234123412340000e,0] [SRC_CLASS: com.oracle.workspace.security.RoleChecker] [APP: WORKSPACE#11.1.2.0] [SRC_METHOD: initializeRoleCache:187] Could not resolve role: native://DN=cn=HUB:23,ou=HUB,ou=Roles,dc=css,dc=hyperion,dc=com?ROLE