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Essbase v11.1.2.x Cluster Configuration on Windows Systems (Doc ID 1447382.1)
Modified: Oct 3, 2013 Type: REFERENCE
In this Document
Purpose
Scope
Details
References
APPLIES TO:
Hyperion Essbase - Version 11.1.2.1.000 and later
Information in this document applies to any platform.
PURPOSE
This document will help understand setting up an Essbase active/passive failover environment on a Windows system.
SCOPE
This document is intended for Systems Administrators responsible for installing and configuring the Essbase clustered
environment.
DETAILS
Pre-requisites
Identical User ID's must be configured on both servers, for example "epmadmin".
A shared drive must be created that is accessible and writable to both Essbase nodes. These types of shared drive
are supported:
SAN storage device with a shared disk file system supported on the installation platform such as OCFS.
NAS device over a supported network protocol.

Note: Any networked file system that can communicate with a NAS storage device is supported, but the cluster nodes
must be able to access the same shared disk over that file system at the same time.

SAN or a fast NAS device is recommended because of shorter I/O latency and failover times.
The mapped drive on both servers for the shared disk must be identical.
UNC support for the shared drive is included in the EPM 11.1.2.2.000 Release.
Tips on Configuring the Cluster
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For instructions on configuring an Essbase cluster, please read/review the chapter, "OPMN Service Failover for Essbase
Server" in the "Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Installation and Configuration Guide" and
"Essbase Server Clustering and Failover" in the "Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System High
Availability and Disaster Recovery Guide".
Use different instance names when configuring the Essbase nodes. For example on the Active Node, use the
instance name epminstance2 and on the Passive Node, use the instance name epminstance3.
After the configuration is complete, modify the opmn.xml files on both the active and the passive nodes. Refer to
the "Setting Up Active-Passive Essbase Clusters" chapter in the "Installation and Configuration Guide".
Define the ias-component name in the opmn.xml file as the clustername defined during the configuration. This
should be the same for both Essbase nodes. The clustername is case-sensitive.
The essbase.cfg setting FAILOVERMODE TRUE may need to be set manually.
Testing the Cluster
Once Essbase is installed and configured on both nodes, and the opmn.xml files have been modified, test starting the
cluster and connecting to it from an Essbase Client.
NOTE: The clustername used in the opmnctl commands is case-sensitive.
1. Start OPMN and Essbase on the Active Node using the opmnctl command:
opmnctl startall
2. Verify that OPMN and Essbase are up and running on the Active Node:
opmnctl status
3. Start OPMN (and Essbase) on the passive server:
opmnctl start (or startall)
4. Verify that OPMN is running on the passive server but the Essbase server is Down:
opmnctl status
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5. Stop Essbase on the Active Node:
opmnctl stopproc ias-component=EssbaseCluster-1
6. Check to see that Essbase stopped on the Active Node:
opmnctl status
7. Check to see if Essbase started on the Passive Node:
opmnctl status
8. Using MaxL, connect to the Essbase cluster. Use the full path to the Analytic Provider Service, for example:
login admin password on "http://<aps_servername>:<aps_port>/aps/Essbase?
ClusterName=EssbaseCluster-1";
To connect using the cluster name, refer to "How To Connect To an Essbase v11.1.2.x Cluster via MaxL or ESSCMD?"
NOTE: If you then run the same stopproc command on the second node, Essbase will NOT failover to the first node as
it was explicitly stopped. To re-establish the failover, stop OPMN on both nodes and start up the first node then the
second node.
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Notes:
Only the Agent (ESSBASE) fails over.
Applications are not restarted on an Agent failover.
Clients will need to reconnect/relogin and re-submit their request.
TIPS:
Restart-on-Death Setting
When restart-on-death is set to TRUE, OPMN will attempt to restart Essbase on the same node first for 3 times (first start
+ 2 retries, configurable in opmn.xml). When all attempts fail, Essbase will failover to the second node.
When set to FALSE, OPMN will immediately failover to the second node without a retry.
If set to TRUE and Essbase crashes, it will be restarted on the same node in a few seconds. The only time it will take
longer to restart Essbase is when the current node is having trouble restarting Essbase after all retries.
Logs
%MIDDLEWARE_HOME%\user_projects\epmsystem1\diagnostics\logs\OPMN\opmn:
console~Essbase2~EssbaseAgent~AGENT~1.log EssbasePing.log opmn.out
console~EssbaseCluster-1~EssbaseAgent~AGENT~1.log opmn.log
%MIDDLEWARE_HOME%\user_projects\epmsystem1\diagnostics\logs\essbase\essbase_0:
ESSBASE_ODL_1328087597.log
ESSBASE_ODL.log
leasemanager_essbase_{servername}.log
OPMN
The behavior of the OPMN process and all of the OPMN components are controlled and configured in the opmn.xml file.
The following command can be used to detect any syntax errors in that file:
opmnctl validate

NOTE: This will only check for syntax and format related issues. It will not tell you if the information that
you may have entered into the opmn.xml file is incorrect.
Common OPMN Commands
The OPMN process and the opmnctl command are used for the control of the Essbase process as of version 11.1.2. Here
are a few commonly used opmnctl examples as they are used with Essbase:
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The following command starts the OPMN process only, not Essbase:
opmnctl start
To check the current status of OPMN and all associated components, use the following command:
opmnctl status
Once the OPMN process is running, you can then start Essbase in the following manner:
opmnctl startproc ias-component=EssbaseCluster1

NOTE: You will need to use the correct name of the ias-component to use this command. You can find
that name by using the "opmnctl status" command as described above. The clustername is case
sensitive.
The command to stop Essbase is similar:
opmnctl stopproc ias-component=EssbaseCluster1
The following command will start OPMN and all ias-components as defined in the opmn.xml file, (this will start OPMN and
Essbase):
opmnctl startall
Similarly, if you'd like to stop all OPMN components and OPMN itself, you would use the following:
opmnctl stopall
Setting Essbase to run as a service in a fail-over environment:
Essbase Node 1:
1. Set the "Oracle Process Manager (EPMinstance)" service to login using a network account instead of the local system
account.
2. Modify the \Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\epmsystem2\bin\opmnctl.bat file. Change the service name to the one
displayed in the Service properties. For example:
set OpmnService=opmn_EPM_epmsystem2
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3. Start the "Oracle Process Manager (EPMinstance)" service.
Essbase Node 2:
1. Set the "Oracle Process Manager (EPMinstance)" service to login using a network account instead of the local system
account.
2. Modify the \Oracle\Middleware\user_projects\epmsystem2\bin\opmnctl.bat file. Change the service name to the one
displayed in the Service properties. For example:
set OpmnService=opmn_EPM_epmsystem3
3. Start the "Oracle Process Manager (EPMinstance)" service.
After the services show as started, confirm the Essbase agent is "Active" on Node 1 and "Down" on Node 2 using the
opmnctl status command.
Configurable Settings (essbase.cfg)
Take care when setting these values, especially if the timeout value has been modified in the opmn.xml file. If the timeout
is set too low, you may run into a situation where both nodes will try to start and obtain a lease.
Essbase Agent:
AGENTLEASEEXPIRATIONTIME - Specifies the number of seconds before a lease expires.
AGENTLEASEMAXRETRYCOUNT - Specifies the number of times that Essbase Agent attempts to acquire or renew a lease.
If the attempts are unsuccessful, the agent terminates itself.
AGENTLEASERENEWALTIME - Specifies the time interval, in seconds, after which Essbase Agent attempts to renew a lease.
This value must be less than the value of AGENTLEASEEXPIRATIONTIME.
Essbase Server (ESSSVR/applications):
SERVERLEASEEXPIRATIONTIME - Sets the maximum amount of time that Essbase Server can own a lease before the lease
is terminated.
SERVERLEASEMAXRETRYCOUNT - Specifies the number of times that Essbase Server attempts to acquire or renew a lease.
If the attempts are unsuccessful, the server terminates itself.
SERVERLEASERENEWALTIME - Specifies the time interval after which Essbase Server renews its lease.
Bin Directories
The cluster configuration will lay down two EssbaseServer\bin directories, one under the MIDDLEWARE_HOME directory
and another on the shared mount point. When troubleshooting issues, you will need to check both directories.