Multiple Versions on Same Computer

[ccierpik]

I'm trying to install TM1 perspectives 9.4 on my laptop for testing purposes. I'm currently using 9.1 and want to keep that version. When I run the install of 9.4 it seems to automatically uninstall 9.1 even though I'm pointing to a different directory on the install. Has anyone installed multiple versions on one computer? Thanks for your help.

[kpk]

Hello,

Make a copy of your bin directory of 9.1 version to somewhere and you will be able to use both the server and the clients from this directory.

Regards,

Peter

[wvetrone]

Peter,

Can you use the same data dir on the 2 different versions?

-- wev

[kpk]

Hello,

No, a data directory can be used by only one TM1 server at the same time.
You have to copy and set up (via CFG files) 2 different model directories for the 2 servers.

Note: some TM1 versions are not backward compatible therefore testing different versions over the same directory is not advisable.

Regards,
Peter

[jim wood]

Doesn't the incompatability apply to 9.4? I think I remember a few threads on that a long time ago. (Still being on 9.1 I've not hit it myself.)

Jim.

[Alan Kirk]

Doesn't the incompatability apply to 9.4? I think I remember a few threads on that a long time ago. (Still being on 9.1 I've not hit it myself.)

9.4 is when the databases started being stored in Unicode. Once you've opened a database in that version you can no longer open it in 9.1 or earlier.

There was also a Unicode version of 9.1 but AFAIK it wasn't widely used.

[asutcliffe]

We have multiple servers running on different versions and a subset of people need to use v8.? and v9.4.1 clients. I thought we might get away with using Perspectives provided we only had one Excel addin loaded at any given time. For version 8 this is fine but although the 9.4.1 client appears to work, I don't see any servers despite having set the admin host to our 9.4.1 server etc. Has anyone had any experience of this?

Cheers,
Alex

[Steve Vincent]

TM1 does not support different client versions to server versions, so the option of using newer clients on the older servers is out. You really should ensure all your users are on the same version otherwise you are in for a support nightmare. The location of some client files will cause you problems too - i think they changed the location of the tm1p.ini from 8 to 9 but 9.0 to 9.5 share the same one. Its causing me a nightmare during testing because using 9.5 then swapping to 9.0 again invalidates the ini file and i have to reset it everytime.

[asutcliffe]

TM1 does not support different client versions to server versions, so the option of using newer clients on the older servers is out. You really should ensure all your users are on the same version otherwise you are in for a support nightmare. The location of some client files will cause you problems too - i think they changed the location of the tm1p.ini from 8 to 9 but 9.0 to 9.5 share the same one. Its causing me a nightmare during testing because using 9.5 then swapping to 9.0 again invalidates the ini file and i have to reset it everytime.

Yeah, in a perfect world all our servers would be running the same version but that's not how things tend to work here. Anyway, I'll take a look at the location of the ini files and see if I can get anywhere.

Thanks,
Alex

[Alan Kirk]

TM1 does not support different client versions to server versions, so the option of using newer clients on the older servers is out.

Last part yes, first part no, provided that the relevant config entries are made in the server .cfg file. I've been running a low-use version 9 server with all of its users still using their 8.2.12 clients for several weeks now to test out the stability and functionality of 9.0 with our TIs and such, and no-one has noticed any difference. (The main servers are still 8.2.12.) You can use older clients with newer servers... within reason. Not sure I'd want to use an 8.2.12 client with a 9.5 server, for instance.

[Steve Vincent]

but application folders only appeared in 9.0, so if you use those then an older client is useless to you. there are also lots of GUI changes in 9.4/9.5 from previous versions, so i tend to avoid using different versions for fear of getting issues that don't really exist

[Alan Kirk]

but application folders only appeared in 9.0, so if you use those then an older client is useless to you.

Only the Application folders (and some other niceties like row or column suppress); the rest of the client functions as normal. The users don't miss what they don't know is there. And when you DO roll out the new clients, they'll get a pleasant surprise. That's actually where my problem is at the moment; getting the client software working and there's no way I can do it all across the company in one hit. I'm therefore going to deploy the 9.0 server (to get all of the added benefits of that, now that the test server has been running long enough to show that the fact that it's on a different version is transparent to the users), and update the clients over time. Our NZ site also ran different client and server versions for a while, and didn't encounter any problems with it.

there are also lots of GUI changes in 9.4/9.5 from previous versions, so i tend to avoid using different versions for fear of getting issues that don't really exist

I agree that it's not an ideal situation, and I'd be decidedly leery about going across multiple versions (although in effect I'm doing that in a way; skipping 8.3 / 8.4), but sometimes there's no choice. And I'd concur that I'd be wary of running a Unicode server with a non-Unicode client, or 9.5 with practically any other version given the large changes with sandboxes and the like. But sometimes needs must, and I'd expect that Iboglix would have done some testing with cross-version clients and servers given that the feature is available at all.

And as we know, Iboglix testing catches all bugs.

If one chooses to go multiversion, it's best to pull the clients up to the new one as fast as possible but if it's a choice between that and no upgrade at all... at some point you have to go for "something".

[Steve Vincent]

IT, its a wonderful world!

Agree with all of that, and then you can add in one company that has different TM1 instances for different reporting needs maintained entirely independantly by different teams. But there are members of the userbase that use both instances, so we have to try and co-ordinate any changes between all of us. It can be done, we managed it last time jumping from 8.1.8 to 9.0 but its not always a smooth ride...

[ccierpik]

I never was successful in getting this to work.

I tried the following steps today in an attempt to have both 8.43 and 9.5.1 on the same machine. Some notes:

Laptop has both Excel 2003 and Excel 2007 installed (OS is Vista). Goal is to temporarily use 2003 with 8.43 and 2007 with 9.5.1
I'm in the process of converting to 9.5.1 and would prefer to bring over the cubes piecemeal (in order to clean up some poor past practices and design flaws) as opposed to converting the entire 8.43 files in one shot. This means that some users will temporarily need both versions on their computer until the conversion is complete. Secondly, there is a large corporate push to move to Excel 2007 (if not 2010) and TM1 is the last program in place that doesn't play well with Excel 2007.
I only want to connect to separate TM1 servers. The goal is not to run the servers on my computer.
Installed 8.43 and verified ability to connect to a server running 8.43
Copied entire directory from program files to another location
Installed 9.5.1 and verfied ability to connect to aserver running 9.5.1
Copied back 8.43 files to their original location
When opening TM1p.xla (as a file, not an add-in although the result is the same) in Excel 2003 I get a Visual Basic Runtime error
-2147024769 (8007007f)
Automation error
The specified procedure could not be found

I noted that after this I have a file named Excel1.xlb in my Users...\Roaming\Microsoft\Excel folder

Excel 2007 with 9.5.1 continues to work.

I guess the first question has anyone had success in having both 9.5.1 and an earlier version of TM1 available on the same computer? Secondly, any thoughts on a different approach?

As always, thank you for your time and advice.