Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

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CathyBoots
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 1:20 pm
OLAP Product: Tm1
Version: 10.2.2
Excel Version: Prof Plus 2013

Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by CathyBoots »

Hi all

The company I'm currently working for is looking to upgrade their 10.2.2 to PA.
Has anyone experienced any issues from upgrading?

Thanks
Cathy
daniel.havassy
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2016 9:26 am
OLAP Product: Planning Analytics Local
Version: 2.0.4
Excel Version: 2016

Re: Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by daniel.havassy »

Hi Cathy,

it really depends on what you expect from your upgrade. Assuming you want to migrate to Planning Analytics Local, here are a few suggestions:

You can install Planning Analytics, copy over your data directories, set up the services in Cognos Configuration and things will most likely work out of the box for you, and you'll still be able to use Perspectives (the version that comes with your PA installation) and TM1 web.

But you'll need to decide if you want to start using the new features that actually make the upgrade worthwhile (PAW, PAX, hierarchies, sandbox dimensions...).

Because of that, I'd suggest setting up a sandbox environment where you can try out the new stuff first. Migrate a test TM1 database over, then set up PAW. Planning Analytics Workspace installation will be an entirely new and different experience as it is based on dockerized microservices. So, you'll need either a Linux instance running on VMWare on a Windows box, or a separate Linux server. The IBM Analytics Youtube channel has a video on how to do it on Windows. Once you've succeeded with that, check how the modelling functionalities (rules, TI, dimension editing) and how dashboarding (data visualization) works in PAW. You should experiment with the hierarchies too. Once PAW is in place, you'll be able to use Planning Analytics for Excel (PAX). If you play around with PAX, you'll get a general idea what it takes to move your existing Perspective reports over and do a rough effort estimate.

The bottom line is, you'll need to decide if and how you'd want to use hierarchies, PAW and PAX which will determine the course you'll take, or just treat moving to PA as an old fashioned version upgrade. If you elaborate a bit on what you want, maybe I can give more specifics.
CathyBoots
Posts: 19
Joined: Wed Aug 10, 2016 1:20 pm
OLAP Product: Tm1
Version: 10.2.2
Excel Version: Prof Plus 2013

Re: Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by CathyBoots »

Hi Daniel

Thanks for your reply.

The business is very risk adverse, so I'm expecting we'll upgrade Architect and Perspectives (old fashioned upgrade) but will mostly ignore the new features until they have been thoroughly tested.

I'm just hoping to get an idea of what issues I can expect during the upgrade to help speed up the testing and upgrading processes.
We've got a large amount of excel workbooks with perspectives and VB in them, which I'm expecting to be an issue.

I'm a bit concerned about the PAW/PaX side of things as it's using a Linux docker - it sounds like another area of risk! I tried an early version of PA on prem and the docker/PAW wasn't working at all. Despite that, I'd like to get PAW into the business as it will really add something interesting for the users!
daniel.havassy
Posts: 30
Joined: Wed Sep 14, 2016 9:26 am
OLAP Product: Planning Analytics Local
Version: 2.0.4
Excel Version: 2016

Re: Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by daniel.havassy »

Hi Cathy,

the basic upgrade for us went pretty smoothly and the regression testing was without major issues to solve. However, I have to point out that we did not have complex Perspectives reports with VBA, so I wouldn't dare to comment on that. Also, we did not use Citrix with Perspectives, so in case that is something you're interested in, I hope someone else can help you out.

The early versions of PAW were really hard to configure to actually do something. Now we're at release 37 and things got better in my opinion. I'm using an installation on a Linux server and it has not been complicated to install and has been up and running for 4-5 months now without any problems whatsoever.

Getting our existing Perspectives reports to work in PAX was a different story though. We've had issues with converting our Perspectives action buttons and you'll have compatibility issues with your Perspectives VBA code. We've also noticed performance issues with big formula based reports (Dynamic Reports). I think that's rather due to the fact that even the latest release of PAX still relies on PMHub for some of the processing.
bgregs
Posts: 77
Joined: Wed Sep 12, 2018 11:19 am
OLAP Product: TM1 / Planning Analytics
Version: 2.0
Excel Version: 2016

Re: Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by bgregs »

A few things to watch out for from my experience:
  • Do you have different versions of Perspectives that will be used? If so, SupportPreTLSv12Clients=T
  • If you have VBA worksheets and want to use them in PAW, be prepared to gut them and start over with the logic
  • Docker is nothing to be afraid of, but if you don't have anybody familiar with Linux systems, be prepared for some fun configuration (the IBM guide is actually very helpful, and things generally work once they are setup)
  • PAW is basically a nice looking GUI that calls the RestAPI in the background. It IS still buggy, but it has gotten a LOT better over the past months; make sure your users are aware
  • Training, training, and more user training; things will look and act a little different in PAX and PAW, make sure you spend the time going over these changes with the users to reduce frustration (trust me, I've been there ;) )
That's all I can think of for now. Perspectives versions getting fragmented can and will be a pain if it's not caught early (mostly common in environments with multiple Citrix servers). Aside from that, most of the pain is rebuilding web sheets. Hope it helps!
Paul-TM1
Posts: 124
Joined: Tue Jun 13, 2017 3:20 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2
Excel Version: 2010

Re: Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by Paul-TM1 »

Hi,
We have upgraded from 10.2.2 to PA 2.0.4. and also to PA 2.0.6 and we are still not Production ready. I was looking for experiences on the upgrade and wanted to continue the same thread.

My experiences:
1. Server restart increased by 1.5 hrs.
2. Nightly chores increased by 2 Hrs and it was part due to attributes (One TI process was disabled and I explained in the next point) and another due to feeders. IBM says attributes was expected.
3. One TI process Updating attributes that could take few days (may be 5) guess from the counter. It used to take less than a minute. We have disabled so it does not affect other stats. We are looking for a solution from IBM on this.

What other experiences do others have to share?

Thanks,
Paul.
gustav
Posts: 1
Joined: Wed Dec 05, 2018 3:46 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 2.0.6
Excel Version: 2016

Re: Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by gustav »

Hi,

I am in the middle of an upgrade from TM1 10.2.2 to PA 2.0.6. We are experiencing greatly increased loading times and it seems the larger the cube/dimension the larger proportional increase in time needed. Small dimensions are even faster than before.

We have installed on both physical and virtual servers and tried different loading scripts and removed all rules etc. etc.

Paul please share if/when you find your solution

Regards
Gustav
Paul-TM1
Posts: 124
Joined: Tue Jun 13, 2017 3:20 pm
OLAP Product: TM1
Version: 10.2.2
Excel Version: 2010

Re: Upgrading from 10.2.2 to PA

Post by Paul-TM1 »

Sure Gustav.
I have not found anything worth suggesting. Also noticed that Manage rights (for contributor) is now taking 1.5 times in PA 2.0.4 compared to V10.2.2.
I have opened a ticket with IBM and they are almost like "It's expected".

Thanks,
Paul.
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