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SMARTVIEW COMMON ISSUES

MASTER BLOG PART-1

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I came across so many errors and fixed those , may be helpful for all my friends.

Issue- Smart View Not Submitting Data to Essbase Application/Database

Solution Using an existing Excel workbook that contains data, when you connect to an
Essbase application/database and Submit the data, the data is not submitted. You
have to do either an Adhoc Analysis or a Refresh first, which then overwrites the
data. According to the Smart View Users Guide: For Essbase connections, you can
submit data without first refreshing.

For example:

1. User A with Smart View creates spreadsheet Smart View Grid.

2. User B who does not have Smart View modifies the spreadsheet with new data.

3. User A tries to submit data through Smart View without doing an Ad-hoc Analysis or
Refresh. Data is not submitted.

This issue has been submitted as both an Unpublished bug and Enhancement
Request: At this time there is no workaround to this issue. Changes are being made to
the Submit data in a future release of Smart View. There is no release date assigned
yet.
Issue Unable To Copy/Paste Cells from One Worksheet to Another in SmartView
Solution SmartView versions 11.1.2.x will not allow copy and pasting of any cell from
one worksheet to another in MS Office Excel 2007. This also occurs with Excel Macros
that copy and paste that had worked prior to upgrading Smart View.The SmartView
setting of Improve Metadata Storage was disabled.
When disabling the Improve Metadata Storage setting, a copy is generated and kept in
shapes which are required by older SmartView versions. This option should be disabled
only in the case of workbook backward compatibility (older than 9.3.1.2).
From the SmartView menu within Excel go to SmartView -> Options -> Select Advanced
section on the left -> Compatibility section on the right -> then check the box Improve
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Metadata Storage. Once this option is enabled for the workbook, copy and paste should
be able to work. Open and close Excel and retry the copy and paste.

Another way to copy metadata from the grid on another worksheet to the current
worksheet:
1. Select the SmartView tab in Excel
2. Select the More icon
3. Select Import Metadata

Issue In Smart View, the Undo Menu Item is Disabled After Changing the Alias Table
Solution The Undo function for Smart View in Excel is disabled after changing the
alias table.Steps to reproduce the behaviour:
1. Connect to Essbase from Smart View in Excel.
2. Select Sample | Basic for Adhoc Analysis.
3. Change Market to West. The Undo function is enabled.
4. Change Alias table from Default to None, the Undo function is disabled.

This is expected behavior. When the alias table is changed, the grid and alias table are
out of sync.
Issue-Hyperion Essbase SmartView Displays #Invalid Intersection when Data Points
are Created with Member AND Alias Names in the Sheet
Solution SmartView against Hyperion Essbase displays #Invalid Intersection for
Copy Data Points while Member name & Alias are selected for member display.
SmartView can not create data points when both Member names and Aliases are
displayed in the sheet.
From version 11.1.2.2.0 on SmartView will display a warning for this behaviour.

Warning: Copy/Paste Data Point does not work properly with Member name and Alias
option.

Issue SmartView Member Selection Does not Find Existing Member

Solution In version 11.1.2.1.x SmartView Member search does not find existing
member. when trying to find a member using member name in Member Selection
window of SmartView.
While entering the member name its neither showing the member nor providing an
error.
For Members having an alias:

1. If the Alias table is set to None it is not possible to find that member.
2. If the Alias table is set to default, it is possible to find that member.
3. With a Member that does not have any alias, it is possible to find that member.
This issue exists in version 11.1.2.1.102 and 11.1.2.1(PS1) but not in SmartView
11.1.2.0.0.

The cause of this problem has been identified and verified in unpublished
Bug 12913916 UNABLE TO FIND MEMBERS IN SMARTVIEW USING MEMBER SELECTION
OPTION.
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Issue SmartView 11.1.2.0/11.1.2.1 Add New Server Option Does Not Appear
Solution When Installed SmartView 11.1.2.0 or 11.1.2.1. After connecting to Shared
Services through Shared Connections, the Add New Server Option is missing from the
drop down list next to the Server box. Analytic Provider Services was configured after
Shared Services, and the Shared Services Application Server was updated.
To resolve the issue in EPM v11.1.2.0 and EPM 11.1.2.1, follow these steps:

1. Stop the Analytic Provider Server and Foundation Services.

2. Open the EPM System Configurator through Start -> All Programs -> Oracle EPM
System -> Foundation Services -> EPM System Configurator.

3. Expand Hyperion Foundation and only tick the option Deploy to Application Server

4. Click Next through the Configurator until complete.

5. Restart the Foundation and Analytic Provider Server Services.

6. Open Excel, connect to the Shared Connections and check for the Add New Server
option, which should now be visible.

After redeploying, re-run the EPM System Configurator again and run the Configure
Web Server again.

Issue Add Server Option Missing for Shared Connections in SmartView

Solution Add server option under Essbase in SmartView is missing for Shared
Connection. Private connection works fine. This may be in During configuration it did not
update all the required files.
Step 1 : Log into Shared services > Choose Application group->Foundation-
>Deployment Metadata->Shared Services Registry->Essbase-> And locate APS LWA >
Right click > Export for edit the file datasource_name.xml

Add the datasource as below:

<dataSources>
<type name=essbase>
<dataSource srv=servername:1423 url= app=sample cube=basic form= />
</type>
</dataSources>
Step 3: Save the file.

Step 4: Log into Shared Services > Choose Application group->Foundation-

>Deployment Metadata->Shared Services Registry->Essbase-> And locate APS LWA >
Right click > Import after edit. (Import the edited startsource_name.xml file)

Step 5: Add the Essbase server in SmartView Able to add now.

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Issue Connecting to SmartView and Getting Common Provider null datasource error
Solution When using a Smart View 11.1.2.2 client to connect to 11.1.1.3 Essbase
Server with a 11.1.1.3 Provider Services environment via private connection, error
Common Provider null datasource error occurs. Reason is due to Incompatible version
of Essbase/APS with SmartView. Both Essbase and Provider Services must be at least
11.1.1.3.500 or greater.

Issue Smart View Unable to Connect Essbase 11.1.2.x After Reconfiguring the Agent to
Run on a Different Port
Solution Essbase reconfigured to run on a different port, 1523, rather than the default
port, 1423. When trying to connect to existing connections, the following error is
returned:
Cannot connect to Essbase Server at xxxxxx. Network error [10061]: Unable to
connect to [xzxxxx:1423]. The client timed out waiting to connect to Essbase Agent
using TCP/IP. Check your network connections. Also make sure tha server and port
values are correct. Do you want to connect with username/password.
This will be due to Reconfigured Essbase to run on a port other than the default
port. When Essbase is configured to run on a port other than the default port of 1423,
clients connecting to Essbase need to include the port number in the connection string.
For example: servername:portnumber.
If connections already exist in Smart View, Shared or Private, they can be removed and
new connections added. If connections are needed to connect to both, do not delete
the existing ones:
1. In the Smart View panel, click on Shared Connections.
2. When prompted, enter the user id and password to connect to the Data Source.
3. In the Select Server drop down, select the Oracle Essbase server. This will list
previously defined servers.
4. Add a new Essbase server with the new port number, servername:portnumber:

Issue POV:{} Function Does Not Display POV Members in Header and Footer of Excel
2010 in Print Preview Window
Solution Printing POV members in Header and Footer using the POV:{} function
does not display the worksheets POV in the header/footer sections of Excel 2010 in
Print Preview window.Once the sheet is printed, it will display the proper POV in Excel
2010. After printing, it also inserts the POV properly in the header/footer for the Print
Preview.
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SMARTVIEW COMMON ISSUES

MASTER BLOG PART-2

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Continuation to Previous blog.

Issue Decompression Error In Smart View on a Refresh.
Solution During a large refresh/retrieve, Smart View gives an error Decompression
Failed.
This error may also occur if the Smart View connection has timed out with the additional
message Grid Operation Failed. This may be due to Microsoft Windows is timing out
the connection. Windows network time outs can be too short for large datasets to
retrieve.
If your users have IE 7 installed, the default timeout is 30 seconds. The following two
Microsoft articles will assist in increasing the timeout:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813827
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181050
Prior to any installation, upgrade or modification, it is advised that a full backup be done
of all related environments. This includes servers, file systems, registry keys,
repositories and databases within the related environments.

It is strongly recommended to engage your Systems Administrator to assist

with the following steps.
The following client side registry keys need to be added:

1. Click Start, click Run, type RegEdit, and then click OK.

2. Locate and then click the following key in the registry:

HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\InternetSettings

3. On the Edit menu, point to New, and then click DWORD Value.

4. Type KeepAliveTimeout and then press ENTER.

5. On the Edit menu, click Modify.

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6. In the Base panel, ensure that decimal is selected.

7. Type the appropriate time-out value (in milliseconds). It is recommended that you
enter 180000 (3 minutes) or longer if required.

8. Click OK.

9. Repeat steps 3-8 above to add ReceiveTimeout and ServerInfoTimeout per below
information:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]\
ReceiveTimeout=dword:00dbba00
KeepAliveTimeout=dword:0002BF20
ServerInfoTimeout=dword:0002BF20

After making the changes, the client machine must be rebooted.

These registry changes are the recommended settings from Microsoft. In some cases
(for example, slower connection speeds), you may need to increase the
KeepAliveTimeout if these settings do not work.

Issue Unable to Perform Essbase Ad-Hoc Analysis in Smart View 11.1.2.1, Error
Cannot set cube view properties
Solution
When trying to connect from Smart View to Essbase and performing an Ad hoc analysis
on Sample/Basic, the following error occurs:

Cannot set cube view properties.

com/essbase/services/olap/main/Connection.is.ParitySupported()Z.
The reason being due to JAPI jar version and build number in files ess_es_server.jar and
ess_japi.jar are from an old version 11.1.2.1 and not from 11.1.2.1.102.
To check the version of the jar files, open the jar files using a zip extractor and go to
meta-info\Manifest.mf and verify that the ess_es_server.jar and ess_japi.jar have the
correct version.
Replace the following two files with the files contained in the APS 11.1.2.1.102 patch
(11823281):

E:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\common\EssbaseJavaAPI\11.1.2.0\lib\ess_es_serv
er.jar
E:\Oracle\Middleware\EPMSystem11R1\common\EssbaseJavaAPI\11.1.2.0\lib\ess_japi.jar

Issue In Smart View, When an Alias Table is Selected, the Essbase Grid Dimension
Metadata Returned Does Not Match the Metadata in the Alias Table
Solution In Smart View v11.1.2.1.102, the Essbase grid C-API now returns grid
dimension metadata information. However, the metadata information returned does not
match with the user selected alias table.
To reproduce:
1. In Smart View, connect to SampleU.Basic.
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2. Select to use alias table GermanNames.

3. Retrieve an empty grid.
Expected result: grid meta data dimension names match user selected GermanNames
Jahr, Produkt, Markt, Szenario, Umsatze .

Actual result: grid dimension names are in English and not matching user selected
GermanNames alias table Year, Product, Market, Scenario, Measures.

The cause of this problem has been identified and verified in unpublished BUG
12875766 ESSBASE RETURNS GRID META DATA INFORMATION NOT MATCHING
SELECTED ALIAS TABLE
Issue Does Smart View 11.1.2.5 Support the MAC Operating System.
Solution Microsoft Office 2008 (for Mac OS) is supported only for: Financial
Management and Financial Reporting.
This means that you can access HFM and Financial Report Web from a Mac OS via the
workspace.
We then also support Office 2008 on Mac for these products, e.g in HFM
web you can export a webform to office. For this functionality Office
2008 on Mac is supported.
Smart View client is currently not supported on Mac.

Enhacement request Bug 13586818 : MAC OFFICE 2011 SUPPORT FOR SMART VIEW
has been filed and is currently under internal review by Development.

At this time only Microsoft Windows is supported for Smart View.

Issue Submitting #MI From Smart View Without Doing a Refresh is Intermittant
Solution Versions Smart View 11.1.2.5 , Essbase/APS 11.1.2.2.100
We have observed inconsistent behavior while submitting #missing. Sometimes SV
allows to submit #missing and sometimes it does not.

The steps are: Prepare the data sheet using Smart View. Refresh the sheet.
Send the sheet to someone who doesnt have Smart View on their system and edit the
data sheet rows with #Missing and ask them to send it back to you .
Now connect to Smart View and try to submit the sheet. You can see the #Missing data
is not submitting.

Though submit without refresh is supported, submitting #Missing from Smart View
without doing a refresh is not supported at this time.
The problem is with Smart View not identifying #Missing cell as dirty.

Enhancement Request BUG 18131605 SUBMITTING #MISSING FROM WITHOUT DOING

A REFRESH has been submitted.

Issue has been fixed in the next release of Smart View

Issue Smart View Undo Button Is Grayed Out

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Solution Sometimes the Undo button is grayed out after doing an Adhoc Query and
does not allow users to click Undo to get back to the original view.
The internal Undo buffer had not been generated yet. In order to get the internal undo
buffer loaded, run a Refresh when the sheet is first opened. This process should enable
the Undo button. The Adhoc Query does not load to the undo buffer.
Issue Error Cannot connect to the provider. Make sure it is running in the specified
host/port. Error (503)
Solution When running a large query in Oracle Hyperion Smart View, the following
error is returned after an extended period of time.
Cannot connect to the provider. Make sure it is running in the specified host/port. Error
(503).
When this occurs, the user must close Microsoft Excel and then re-open and re-login to
continue working.

Reason being Time to complete large query in Smart View exceeds specified maximum
session timeout value.
To resolve this issue modify session timeout settings, specified in mod_wl_ohs.conf on
Weblogic Managed server. In the mod_wl_ohs.conf file add if missing or modify the
parameters for the WLIOTimeoutSecs and WLSocketTimeoutSecs to be a value greater
than the time needed for the query to complete. You must restart the Oracle HTTP
Server (OHS) and the WebLogic managed server for the Analytic Provider Services (APS)
server for the new setting to take effect.

In our example the user was running a query in Smart View which took longer than 5
minutes to complete. The settings were missing for the APS location handler and the
Smart View query was unable to complete.

1. Shutdown the Essbase server service or process.

2. Backup the current mod_wl_ohs.conf file. The mod_wl_ohs.conf file can be

found on the WebLogic Managed server for your implementation of Analytic
Provider Services (APS) at the following location:
On a Microsoft Windows platform:
C:\Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\epmsystem\httpConfig\ohs\config\OHS\o
hs_component
On a Linux\Unix platform:
//Oracle/Middleware/user_projects/epmsystem/httpConfig/ohs/config/OHS/oh
s_component
Starting with EPM System 11.1.2.3 it is possible to use a Shared Location
for your Oracle HTTP Server configuration. If this is being utilized in your
implementation you should check in that Shared Location for the
mod_wl_ohs.conf file instead.

3. Open mod_wl_ohs.conf in a text editor and add or modify the parameters

for the WLIOTimeoutSecs and WLSocketTimeoutSecs properties within
the location section for APS. After modification the relevant section should
look like this:

<Location Match ^/aps>

SetHandler weblogic-handler
WeblogicCluster <aps-server-name>:13080
WLIOTimeoutSecs 1800
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WLSocketTimeoutSecs 1800
</LocationMatch>

4. Restart the Oracle HTTP Server and the WebLogic Managed server service
or process for APS.

Issue Unable to Install Smartview Extensions and Utilities

Solution Smartview extension such as Power Pack MDX Script Library Extension
Version: 1.1.2.0 listed in (http://www.oracle.com/technetwork/middleware/smart-view-
for-office/downloads/index-088403.html) are not installing.
1) Download and save .svext file.
2) Click to Install

3) Nothing happen, extensions not added in the smartview options window

to fix

1) Go to the explorer (My Computer) and type %appdata%

2) This will bring your user directory. Navigate to Oracle\SmartView\extensions\bin and
confirm that there is a folder containing the extension.

3) If the extension is in the folder but not appearing in Options, it is probably because
the browser flagged it as a downloaded file and blocked it.

4) Right click on .svext file and go to properties. On the General tab, there may be a
button at the bottom that says Unblock. Click it and press OK.
5) Then re-run the installer, re-open Excel, and go to the Smart View options to verify
that the extension is loaded

TROUBLESHOOT SMARTVIEW
PERFORMANCE ISSUES

1 Vote
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Symptoms

Typically, the problem will arise only with large spreadsheets containing large numbers
of SmartView cells. It may only occur when Refresh All is executed but not when
worksheets are refreshed individually, or it may only occur at times of high load such as
month end. It is more likely to arise with SmartView functions than Adhoc, because
Adhocs are more efficient than functions. Such symptoms as these would point to a
performance issue rather than a bug. However, if IIS logs show Deadlock detected, this
is probably sign of a bug, where SmartView crashes IIS on the web server. Symptoms
here would be SmartView becoming unresponsive and new users being unable to log on
for a while. Restarting the web server resolves. This situation is outside the scope of this
document.

Support

Once an actual bug has been eliminated, the issue must be treated as a performance
problem. This lies outside the remit of your contract with Oracle Product Support. You
may decide to contact a consultant or to try to tune the system yourself. Please
understand that Support can only give you general and generic guidance in this. We will
not read logs or make recommendations.

Background

SmartView communicates over HTTP using .NET. This just means that requests and
responses are sent in a standard XML format that is tucked in the HTTP headers. The
mechanism is the same as when your internet browser requests a file or submits a form
(simplification). A standard Microsoft component that is part of Internet Explorer is used
for this.

There are three components (four if you include the network) in a SmartView refresh:

the client

the web server

the HFM application server

It is easiest to troubleshoot when they are on separate machines. Running SmartView

on the server to see whether it works better is a useful test to see what effect the
network is having, but doesnt show any other bottlenecks. If you run Task Manager on
these 3 machines showing the Performance tab, you will see initial activity on the client
as Excel clears the cells and the request is converted into XML. Then you see the web
server gets busy as it receives and parses the request. Then the application server is
busy as it sends the data, then the web server is busy as it compiles the results into
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XML again, and finally the client parses the XML, pushes the data into cells and runs an
Excel calculation. This last stage is the longest of all. Overall, it is typical to see the
client doing 90-95% of the work, so client performance is a very important factor. Look
out for Excels memory usage increasing and RAM becoming in short supply. Often, user
dissatisfaction with refresh times can be alleviated by installing more RAM or providing
a faster workstation.

The situation we are dealing with here, however, is when the chain of events described
above is interrupted. In this case, you will see the client or the web server wait in vain
for a response from the next machine in the chain. The case of invalid XML is similar,
but the response is truncated so that the XML is not well-formed when it arrives. XML
consists of matching pairs of tags and is not well-formed when a closing tag is missing.
This can be caused by certain network settings such as packet size (see later). The end
result in either case is the same: as Excel cleared the cells before sending the request,
cells are left blank or with zeroes.

The task now is to determine which particular component is failing.

Client

Check the HTTP timeout in the Windows registry. Example:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]\
ReceiveTimeout=dword:00dbba00
KeepAliveTimeout=dword:002BF20
ServerInfoTimeout=dword:002BF20

The default time-out limit is five minutes for versions 4.0 and 4.01 and is 60 minutes for
versions 5.x and 6. Also, the default time-out limit is 30 seconds for Windows Internet
Explorer 7 and 8. To change the settings, add the above keys. The above values are
shown in hexadecimal, not decimal and correspond to 180,000 milliseconds (3 minutes)
and 240 minutes for the receive timeout.

For more information about client timeout settings see following articles:
How to change the default keep-alive time-out value in Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813827
Internet Explorer error connection timed out when server does not respond
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181050

You must determine an adequate timeout limit for your environment and largest
workbook by trial and error or experience. Once these changes are applied, my
recommendation is to reboot the client machine.

Web server
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Look for errors in logs showing that the web app didnt respond/disconnected or timed
out waiting for another application (i.e. the HFM application server). Eliminate load
balancers etc. during testing in order to isolate the problem and to ensure that the user
always goes to the same web server. Otherwise, logs can be hard to interpret. See also
the IIS Tuning Guide for IIS settings. We cannot recommend particular settings, as each
client must establish the optimal settings for their own environment after performance
testing. If necessary, engage the services of a suitably qualified consultant.

Application Server

HFM application server performance is very dependent on whether the data is already in
RAM or not. If the first refresh fails but the second one succeeds, this is probably a sign
that the memory cache needed to be populated, which had been done during the first
refresh. HFM loads whole subcubes (Scenario, Year, Value and Entity) into cache, so
requesting large number of accounts in the same subcube quickly returns results, but if
large number of entities is requested the results are returned slowly as the server runs
out of available RAM and starts unloading subcubes to make room for more. The HFM
event log (HsvEventLog.log) shows this happening, but dont forget that the messages
you see are a normal consequence of the way HFM works and are not a problem unless
you see a hugely elevated number of them during the period the refresh occurs.
Another sign would be page file thrashing. If there are several servers in a cluster, use
sticky sessions in HFM to make sure tests always go the same server, or hit one server
directly rather than using the cluster.

Solutions here involve installing more RAM on the server and changing the worksheet
design to restrict the number of subcubes accessed. A separate consolidation server, so
that reads are not competing with intensive consolidations and calculations, would be a
good thing.

Network

To find out if packets get fragmented, use

ping -l size -f

To send a big packet with the dont fragment flag. E.g.

ping -l 1024 -f oracle.com

If you see a reply like Reply from 141.146.8.66: bytes=1024 time=200ms TTL=245 then
the size you specified is below the packet limit of the network. But if you use, for
example, 2000 in place of 1024, and you get Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set,
then you know you have exceeded the limit. Combine this investigation with a Fiddler
trace (https://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/) to see what size data messages are being
sent and received.

Troubleshooting Guidance
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1. During troubleshooting process, fix your environment so that it is

predictable. Register a single HFM application server and connect to that.
Use a single web server and dont go through Apache or any other redirector.
Make sure we know which machine to go to for logs. This would be a
temporary measure and it doesnt stop the other users using the full, load
balanced system so long as it doesnt involve your server.

2. As far as possible keep other users from using it during testing, unless you
are specifically testing for performance under load. We want to see what
activity is due to SmartView and not random other jobs.

3. Use PerfMon on all three machines: client, web server and application
server.

4. Clear Logs before testing and note the times of each test so the logs can be
correlated.

5. Log CPU activity, memory usage, network throughput, page faults, thread
count etc. Im no expert on this so get advice from someone who is.

6. In addition to the performance logs, from the IIS Server get:

a. HTTP.SYS Error Log %windir%\System32\LogFiles\HTTPERR (Default
location; configurable)
b. IIS Website Log %windir%\System32\LogFiles\W3SVC# (Default location;
configurable)
c. Event Log (both System and Application) in EVT or EVTX and TXT (tab
separated) formats

7. From HFM Application server get:

a. HsvEventLog.log (in <HFM install>\Server working Folder)
b. Event Log (both System and Application) in EVT and TXT (tab separated)
formats

8. Be aware of all timeout settings in your environment (i.e. IIS & the network)
and time your tests. This can show whether it is an ASP timeout, script
timeout, client side timeout or whatever. Note that the Web Session Timeout
setting for SmartView in HFMs Server and Web Configuration is a separate
issue from IIS timeouts. Web Session Timeout controls the length of idle time
before SmartView makes the user log in again. Default 20 mins.

9. Run Fiddler traces to directly observe the XML and check for HTTP failures.

TROUBLESHOOT SMARTVIEW
PERFORMANCE ISSUES
s

1 Vote

Symptoms

Typically, the problem will arise only with large spreadsheets containing large numbers
of SmartView cells. It may only occur when Refresh All is executed but not when
worksheets are refreshed individually, or it may only occur at times of high load such as
month end. It is more likely to arise with SmartView functions than Adhoc, because
Adhocs are more efficient than functions. Such symptoms as these would point to a
performance issue rather than a bug. However, if IIS logs show Deadlock detected, this
is probably sign of a bug, where SmartView crashes IIS on the web server. Symptoms
here would be SmartView becoming unresponsive and new users being unable to log on
for a while. Restarting the web server resolves. This situation is outside the scope of this
document.

Support

Once an actual bug has been eliminated, the issue must be treated as a performance
problem. This lies outside the remit of your contract with Oracle Product Support. You
may decide to contact a consultant or to try to tune the system yourself. Please
understand that Support can only give you general and generic guidance in this. We will
not read logs or make recommendations.

Background

SmartView communicates over HTTP using .NET. This just means that requests and
responses are sent in a standard XML format that is tucked in the HTTP headers. The
mechanism is the same as when your internet browser requests a file or submits a form
(simplification). A standard Microsoft component that is part of Internet Explorer is used
for this.

There are three components (four if you include the network) in a SmartView refresh:

the client

the web server

the HFM application server

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It is easiest to troubleshoot when they are on separate machines. Running SmartView

on the server to see whether it works better is a useful test to see what effect the
network is having, but doesnt show any other bottlenecks. If you run Task Manager on
these 3 machines showing the Performance tab, you will see initial activity on the client
as Excel clears the cells and the request is converted into XML. Then you see the web
server gets busy as it receives and parses the request. Then the application server is
busy as it sends the data, then the web server is busy as it compiles the results into
XML again, and finally the client parses the XML, pushes the data into cells and runs an
Excel calculation. This last stage is the longest of all. Overall, it is typical to see the
client doing 90-95% of the work, so client performance is a very important factor. Look
out for Excels memory usage increasing and RAM becoming in short supply. Often, user
dissatisfaction with refresh times can be alleviated by installing more RAM or providing
a faster workstation.

The situation we are dealing with here, however, is when the chain of events described
above is interrupted. In this case, you will see the client or the web server wait in vain
for a response from the next machine in the chain. The case of invalid XML is similar,
but the response is truncated so that the XML is not well-formed when it arrives. XML
consists of matching pairs of tags and is not well-formed when a closing tag is missing.
This can be caused by certain network settings such as packet size (see later). The end
result in either case is the same: as Excel cleared the cells before sending the request,
cells are left blank or with zeroes.

The task now is to determine which particular component is failing.

Client

Check the HTTP timeout in the Windows registry. Example:

[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet Settings]\
ReceiveTimeout=dword:00dbba00
KeepAliveTimeout=dword:002BF20
ServerInfoTimeout=dword:002BF20

The default time-out limit is five minutes for versions 4.0 and 4.01 and is 60 minutes for
versions 5.x and 6. Also, the default time-out limit is 30 seconds for Windows Internet
Explorer 7 and 8. To change the settings, add the above keys. The above values are
shown in hexadecimal, not decimal and correspond to 180,000 milliseconds (3 minutes)
and 240 minutes for the receive timeout.

For more information about client timeout settings see following articles:
How to change the default keep-alive time-out value in Internet Explorer
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/813827
Internet Explorer error connection timed out when server does not respond
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/181050
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You must determine an adequate timeout limit for your environment and largest
workbook by trial and error or experience. Once these changes are applied, my
recommendation is to reboot the client machine.

Web server

Look for errors in logs showing that the web app didnt respond/disconnected or timed
out waiting for another application (i.e. the HFM application server). Eliminate load
balancers etc. during testing in order to isolate the problem and to ensure that the user
always goes to the same web server. Otherwise, logs can be hard to interpret. See also
the IIS Tuning Guide for IIS settings. We cannot recommend particular settings, as each
client must establish the optimal settings for their own environment after performance
testing. If necessary, engage the services of a suitably qualified consultant.

Application Server

HFM application server performance is very dependent on whether the data is already in
RAM or not. If the first refresh fails but the second one succeeds, this is probably a sign
that the memory cache needed to be populated, which had been done during the first
refresh. HFM loads whole subcubes (Scenario, Year, Value and Entity) into cache, so
requesting large number of accounts in the same subcube quickly returns results, but if
large number of entities is requested the results are returned slowly as the server runs
out of available RAM and starts unloading subcubes to make room for more. The HFM
event log (HsvEventLog.log) shows this happening, but dont forget that the messages
you see are a normal consequence of the way HFM works and are not a problem unless
you see a hugely elevated number of them during the period the refresh occurs.
Another sign would be page file thrashing. If there are several servers in a cluster, use
sticky sessions in HFM to make sure tests always go the same server, or hit one server
directly rather than using the cluster.

Solutions here involve installing more RAM on the server and changing the worksheet
design to restrict the number of subcubes accessed. A separate consolidation server, so
that reads are not competing with intensive consolidations and calculations, would be a
good thing.

Network

To find out if packets get fragmented, use

ping -l size -f

To send a big packet with the dont fragment flag. E.g.

ping -l 1024 -f oracle.com

If you see a reply like Reply from 141.146.8.66: bytes=1024 time=200ms TTL=245 then
the size you specified is below the packet limit of the network. But if you use, for
example, 2000 in place of 1024, and you get Packet needs to be fragmented but DF set,
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then you know you have exceeded the limit. Combine this investigation with a Fiddler
trace (https://www.fiddler2.com/fiddler2/) to see what size data messages are being
sent and received.

Troubleshooting Guidance

1. During troubleshooting process, fix your environment so that it is

predictable. Register a single HFM application server and connect to that.
Use a single web server and dont go through Apache or any other redirector.
Make sure we know which machine to go to for logs. This would be a
temporary measure and it doesnt stop the other users using the full, load
balanced system so long as it doesnt involve your server.

2. As far as possible keep other users from using it during testing, unless you
are specifically testing for performance under load. We want to see what
activity is due to SmartView and not random other jobs.

3. Use PerfMon on all three machines: client, web server and application
server.

4. Clear Logs before testing and note the times of each test so the logs can be
correlated.

5. Log CPU activity, memory usage, network throughput, page faults, thread
count etc. Im no expert on this so get advice from someone who is.

6. In addition to the performance logs, from the IIS Server get:

a. HTTP.SYS Error Log %windir%\System32\LogFiles\HTTPERR (Default
location; configurable)
b. IIS Website Log %windir%\System32\LogFiles\W3SVC# (Default location;
configurable)
c. Event Log (both System and Application) in EVT or EVTX and TXT (tab
separated) formats

7. From HFM Application server get:

a. HsvEventLog.log (in <HFM install>\Server working Folder)
b. Event Log (both System and Application) in EVT and TXT (tab separated)
formats

8. Be aware of all timeout settings in your environment (i.e. IIS & the network)
and time your tests. This can show whether it is an ASP timeout, script
timeout, client side timeout or whatever. Note that the Web Session Timeout
setting for SmartView in HFMs Server and Web Configuration is a separate
issue from IIS timeouts. Web Session Timeout controls the length of idle time
before SmartView makes the user log in again. Default 20 mins.

9. Run Fiddler traces to directly observe the XML and check for HTTP failures.
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SMART VIEW ERROR

PROVIDER IS NOT SHARED
SERVICES PROVIDER WHEN
USING SHARED OR
PRIVATE CONNECTIONS

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When using shared or private connections in SmartView the following error message is
displayed:

Provider is not Shared Services Provider.

There are two possible causes for this issue:

Internet explorer timeout

Internet explorer proxy settings where the server needs to be added to the
exception list

To prevent timeout issues, add modify Windows Registry on the client workstation where
Smart View is installed:

1. Open Windows Registry editor.

2. Navigate to
[HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\Internet
Settings]

3. Add the following values:

ReceiveTimeout=dword:001b7740
KeepAliveTimeout=dword:001b7740
ServerInfoTimeout=dword:001b7740

If issue is related to proxy settings do the following:

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1. Open Internet Explorer

2. Open menu Tools > Internet Options > Connections > LAN Settings > Proxy
server > Advanced

3. Add the server to the proxy exception list and save changes.

4. Close IE and reopen