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Friday, October 30, 2015

Copy Application Utility For HFM 11.1.2.4 - Well, sort of...

Oracle has just released a new patch for Financial Management 11.1.2.3. The patch delivers what many (if not all) customers who have adopted the latest HFM release have been asking for: a version of the Copy Application utility that works with HFM 11.1.2.4. The following actions are possible using the updated utility:
  • Copy HFM applications between different 11.1.2.4 environments (both need to have minimum patch level of 11.1.2.4.100)
  • Copy HFM applications from older release (11.1.2.x) to 11.1.2.4. The Upgrade Applications taks must be performed in EPM System Configurator afterwards.




The utility included in the PSE is the same old Windows program that has been bundled with HFM for ages. The only real change is that is has been fixed to correctly handle the APPNAME_CC_LOCK tables used by latest HFM versions.

Update 2016-05-01: The latest version of the utility (11.1.2.3.702) handles the HSX_DATASOURCES table correctly and removes the need to manually insert the name of the copied application into this table.

Please also note that this version of CopyApp requires the target database to be HFM patch level 11.1.2.4.100 or higher. I tested the utility by copying an application between two environments running HFM 11.1.2.4.101 and it did the job without any apparent hitches.

Note: When using this CopyApp version to copy HFM applications from an older release you still need to run EPM System Configurator to upgrade the application tables to the latest version!

Patch information


Release 11.1.2.3.700 Patch Set Exception (PSE): 22046375

Update: I recommend downloading HFM Patch Set Update 11.1.2.3.702 that includes the latest version of the utility . You don't necessarily need to apply the patch on an existing 11.1.2.3 environment because the executables can be extracted from the zip file and used independently. The path inside the patch archive is:

22323578\files\products\FinancialManagement\Utilities\HfmCopyApplication_x64.exe 

(and HfmCopyAppCmd_x64.exe for the command line version).




18 comments :

  1. This is the droid I've been looking for! I'm curious if this utility still requires that we execute the SQL statement to wipe out calculation rules from versions prior to 11.1.2.2.500.

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    Replies
    1. I have to say that I never had to do that... I guess you have run into some issue with HFM rules that required this action?

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  2. Hi Henri,
    Thanks for posting, we've all been waiting for this! Do you know if they will release the HfmCopyAppCmd.exe command line utility?
    Cheers,
    Guillaume

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    Replies
    1. Sorry for a very late reply but the HfmCopyAppCmd tool is included in the 11.1.2.3.701 PSU (as you probably noticed already)!

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  3. I think this is a temporary stop gap fix. When I spoke to HFM dev, a few weeks back, they said there is supposed to be a new utility coming in HFM 11.1.2.4.200

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  4. Hi Henri, good to know. An alternative to that SQL command is to create an empty HFM application shell before.
    Kind Regards
    Marc

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  5. Hi Henri, thanks for the post.
    Do you think it would be possible to run the "11.1.2.3.701 copyapp utility" to migrate an classic HFM application from 11.1.1.2 version to 11.1.2.4.100 and then run the Upgrade Applications from Earlier Release on the epm configurator?
    Kind regards.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Yes, it it possible to migrate applications this way (not sure what Oracle feels about this though so don't quote me when raising a Service Request if you run into problems :). You will need to add the copied application to the HSX_DATASOURCES table before performing the Upgrade Applications task.

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  6. Hello, tested with success
    Great

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  7. Hi
    I tested it from 11.1.2.1 to 11.1.2.4.201 but it throws below error .
    EPMHFM-66054: The system was unable to find the Datasource process for application APPLIC4

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    Replies
    1. what is your DB version?

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    2. is your issue fixed? I am planning to do the same.

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    3. If you copy from a different HFM version, you also have to launch EPM Configuration Utility and run the Upgrade Applications task to update the application tables to the latest version.

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  8. Delayed question here, and not specifically on this version, but are you able to copy between different DB's, eg from SQL to Oracle DB? (let's assume version is the same 11.123.500/700)

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    Replies
    1. Yes, that has always been possible with the CopyApp utility (as far as I remember), because the utility connects to the source database, loads data to memory on the server and then writes it to the destination database. You just need to have database client software and UDL files on the computer where you run CopyApp on.

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  9. Hi Henri

    Did you try to use the advance option to copy a specific year's data? Is there any concern?

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    Replies
    1. Yes, I have copied separate years (and scenarios) without issues... And I know customers who have used those options too. Of course you have to consider rules, web forms etc. that might try to use data from years that you are leaving out but other than that I don't have any concerns.

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  10. Hello Henri,
    Can i just run this utility to bring my 11.1.2.2 HFM app to 11.1.2.4, ro do i need to do any other steps prior ?
    Thanks,
    Azmat

    ReplyDelete

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