11.1.2 Shared Services changes

This entry was posted in Shared Services on by (updated 2303 days ago)
My first blog on 11.1.2!!!!! (feels really interesting…..)
I wanted to experiment on this new release for a longtime but couldn’t get a chance to do that (busy schedule :)). But here I’m writing the 1st blog on 11.1.2 Hyperion Shared Services changes…..


The first noticeable change on all Hyperion Products is the look and feel…..(blue and white color of fusion products is clearly visible) then a lot of changes in the folder structure (I think it’ll be difficult for the admins to relate to the previous versions)…..and then the introduction of OHS as HTTP server….(hope this will get changed in the future release).


As you all know 11.1.2 Shared Services is using relational database as the native user directory (openLDAP is history now). Hope that this adds more reliability to the services.


I was interested in knowing what changes are introduced into relational databases (to replicate ….(user information and preferences)…..so I did some experiments on user addition, group addition….so these are the results…..


To capture the changes I enabled auditing on Oracle (with the help of my dear friend Arun Pillai).


Enable Auditing on Oracle


Using SQLPLUS connect to your Oracle database as sysdba. Issue the following command to check the status of Audit.



SQL> SHOW PARAMETER AUDIT

NAME                                 TYPE        VALUE
———————————— ———– ——————————
audit_file_dest                      string      F:ORACLEPRODUCT10.2.0ADMIN
                                                 CERAHYPADUMP
audit_sys_operations                 boolean     FALSE
audit_trail                          string      NONE

If the audit_trail is set to none, issue the following SQLPLUS command to enable it.

SQL> ALTER SYSTEM SET audit_trail=db SCOPE=SPFILE;

System altered.

Now we need to define auditing for the Shared Services database user. My Shared Services user is called as HSSADMIN.

AUDIT ALL BY HSSADMIN BY ACCESS;
AUDIT SELECT TABLE, UPDATE TABLE, INSERT TABLE, DELETE TABLE BY HSSADMIN BY ACCESS;
AUDIT EXECUTE PROCEDURE BY HSSADMIN BY ACCESS;

So now we have all the setup to capture the changes made by Shared Services (when a user is added)

Restart the database to start auditing…. (remember to turn this feature off after the experiment)

Now I’m going to add a user in Shared Services.
                                                                    before

CSS_USERS is the table that stores the Native user information

                                                                   before

CSS_USERS table after the addition

A closer look reveals that it still follows many of the openLDAP conventions
?USER at the end for the user…
ou=People,dc=css,dc=hyperion,dc=com structure.

I was interested in knowing whether any other table got updated. So I ran the below query to check the changes.

SELECT username,
       extended_timestamp,
       owner,
       obj_name,
       action_name
FROM   dba_audit_trail
WHERE  owner = ‘HSSADMIN’ and (ACTION_NAME =’INSERT’ or ACTION_NAME  =’UPDATE’)
ORDER BY timestamp;




and found that CSS_IDENTITY table will also get updated when you add a user.

This table contains the IDENTITY_ID and the LOWER_IDENTITY_ID  of all users and groups.

For a group

When you add group there are three tables that gets changed.
  • CSS_GROUPS
  • CSS_IDENTITY
  • CSS_GROUP_CACHE_DELTA


When you add a group to a group or a user to a group then in addition to the above 3 tables CSS_GROUP_MEMBERS table also gets updated.

There are many new tables added to Shared Services repository (Essbase clustering information and Smart View Shared Connection information comes from here)

Will post more details on 11.1.2 as I progress with my experiments with the new software.

About Celvin Kattookaran

I’m an EPM Consultant, my primary focus is on Hyperion Planning and Essbase. Some of you from Hyperion Support team might recognize me or have seen my support articles, I was with the WebAnalysis Support Team. I'm an Independent Consultant with “Intekgrate Corporation” based out of Aurora office. I’m from God’s Own Country (Kerala, India), lived in all southern states of India, Istanbul and Johannesburg (and of course United States). I’m core gamer :) and an avid reader. I was awarded Oracle ACE Director for my contributions towards EPM community.

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0 thoughts on “11.1.2 Shared Services changes”

  • Reply ↓
    ilhan

    Hi Celvin,

    I appreciate and follow your blog, thanks a lot.
    I have a small question. In 11.1.1.3, there is CSSImport utility. In 11.1.2, how can we import User and Group definitions from file system using flat files ?

    Kind regards,

    İlhan.

  • Reply ↓
    Anonymous

    Good post…..Will be upgrading our environment to system 11.1.2.2 soon. By the way you can mail me the installation doc, if you have any[:)]….Thanks in advance.
    –Amit Dutta Roy.

  • Reply ↓
    PK

    Hi Celvin,
    I am not able to get full list of Active directory users ( which are assigned to Native Groups) from CSS_Identity table – as (Name and Provide) col of said table is showing null, What could be other table i should look into it.

    PK

  • Reply ↓
    Amit Ranjan

    Hi Celvin,
    We are trying to create audit dashboards and need information on when a user got added to a CSS_Groups from and audit perspective. We have the sql which tell s us who is in what group but missing the audit piece whn a user was added or removed from a particular group.

    We are on 11.1.2.3.501, and I was wondering if you have an update on this piece and whether this setting allows for such reporting and if it does whether it can be kept turned on for live reporting.

    I appreciate your feedback.

    Thanks

    Amit