Say Hello To HFM 11.1.2.4

As many of you may already have heard, the Oracle EPM release 11.1.2.4 was made available on Oracle Technology Network earlier this week. Social media has been abuzz with activity since and many bloggers have already written posts about all the new features. Instead of making another set of installation screenshots I wanted to take a closer look at Hyperion Financial Management as HFM is the product that has gone through most changes in this version.

Backup Utility And Index Update Utility for HFM 11.1.2.2 And Later

In my previous post I mentioned the following information that was originally included in the readme file for HFM 11.1.2.2 Patch Set Update 306 (the rows have later been removed though):

• Defect Fixed: 16317490 - HFM application backup utility provided for 11.1.2.2.X.
• Defect Fixed: 12332259 - HFM Index update utility provided for 11.1.2.2.X.

I thought this meant that the aforementioned utilities would be included in the PSU package but this was not the case. The Application Backup Utility has been updated to support HFM versions 11.1.2.2 and 11.1.2.3 but you still have to log on to Oracle Support and open the following article to download it: How To Use HFM Application Backup Utility (HFMApplicationBackUpUtility.exe)? - Doc ID 1515967.1

Please note that the HFM Application Backup Utility is not meant for production use (as a means to back up your HFM applications for example). But I still find it handy for extracting single applications from a running system (the tool produces a single zip file) and loading them into a virtual machine for testing or troubleshooting purposes. The utility includes options for anonymizing data values and strings, making it safer to transfer applications into sandbox environments.

The HFM Index Update Utility is still a mystery though. The original Support article written about the utility (How to Find the FMIndexUpdateUtility for Hyperion Financial Management? - Doc ID 1535195.1) tells me that I should find an updated version included in the new HFM PSU package but either I am blind or it just is not there. I have just asked Support about the utility and will update the post once I receive their reply.

2014-02-03 - Update from Oracle Support about the Index Update Utility (thanks Usha):

It seems that the statement about the updated HFM index utility has been added to the documents in error:

"Development are currently working on an indexing utility that will work with 11.1.2.2.x, but currently there is no such utility available"

resetConfigTask Utility

Here's a tip for those who haven't yet subscribed to the Hyperion Error of the Day blog maintained by Nicholas King. Nicholas has written a useful post about the resetConfigTask utility which enables you to reset the task configuration status for any given EPM product. This may be useful in case you want to reconfigure a certain module after a failed configuration attempt. The utility is available starting with the EPM 11.1.2.2 release.

Link: Hyperion Error of the Day blog post: resetConfigTask.bat