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There are many, many, essbase administrators out there that should
be using Esscommand. Even a simple task like kicking off a calc script is a much
simpler process. If you launch a calc script using Application Manager,
the application is tied up until the script is finished. While you can
also kick off calc scripts from Excel, you don't maintain full Excel
functionality while the script is running.
Intro to
Esscommand
Esscommand Tradeoffs
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Benefits |
Gotcha's |
| ability to launch calc scripts |
security- in scripting, you have to type in the password for
a designer user. If the location of these scripting files is not
secured, (ie. people can map to where the scripts are stored), then your
password is compromised. |
| near 0 footprint (does not tie up your client computer until
the calc script is complete) |
future development of this tool has been slowed or halted.
A replacement called Maxl has been in existance for about 3 years now.
This replacement tool has a lot more administration features that will never
be built into Esscommand. This tool also has a plug in for Perl.
While this tool has many good features, it is not as easy to learn.
It's more IT centric than simple batch scripting. |
| the original scripting / automation tool for Essbase, easy
to learn |
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| You can design your Essbase model to build dimensions, load
data, and calc the cube before you come in in the morning. With some
creativity, you can also add emailing capabilities so you can get notified
when calc scripts finish. |
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If you are an administrator (meaning you load and calc essbase
cubes), this is one skill you simply need to learn to make your life easier.
Esscommand has mainly 2 modes of operation. Interactive
mode, where you type comnmands and it performs them real time and then batch
mode. In batch mode, you write scirpt files (a text file that contains the
commands you would type by hand) that you can then kick off when you want them
to run or by scheduling them with a windows scheduler.
In the following example, you will see how easy it is to kick off
a calc script on your Essbase server without tying up your Applicaiton manager
or Excel. (Another key benefit of using esscommand to launch calc scripts
is that the amount of memory for each esscommand is around 200k while app
manager seems to take about 1 meg and excel these day is taking +10 meg.
You can easily have 5 esscommands running on your client machine at one time.)
Intro to Esscommand:
In the following screencam, you will see the following functions
performed:
| launching Esscommand |
You can either select this from the start menu under
Hyperion Solutions, Hyperion Essbase, Esscommand or double click on the
executable which might be located at
c:\hyperion\essbase\bin\esscmd.exe
Ideally, you'll want to place a shortcut on your desktop to this tool |
| logging on the Essbase server |
For this step, you will need the name of your Essbase server
and an ID and password with designer or greater priviledges |
| select application and database you want to perform commands
on |
For this step you will need the name of an application and
databaes that you wish to calc. This command, will load the application /
database if it is not already loaded. |
| kicking off of default calc script |
Since we are going to initiate the default calc for your
application / databaes (usually the scripts is calc all;), this one command
you can actually use on all your databases. There is a reserved word
for performing this task. So we type the following command then hit
enter: CALCDEFAULT . |
| exiting Esscommand |
To exit esscommand, type the word Exit then hit enter. |
Another benefit of running calc scripts from Esscommand is that
the duration of the calc time is left on the screen after it completes.
From the questions about what class can I take to learn
esscommand while teaching, it is clear people are just a little afraid of
learning Esscommand on their own.
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