Hyperion

http://hyperion-learn.blogspot.in/2010/09/hyperionessbase-interview-questions.html Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Hyperion Essbase interview Questions
Hi All, Started this blog to help the hyperion learners. here are some of the interview FAQ's. 1) Difference between ASO & BSO? 2) What is Incremental Dimensional Built and one time Dimension Built? 3) What are the different types of LOG Files? 4) What is the Extension of Cal Scripts and Rule File? 5) Why are Filters used? 6) What are dense and sparse dimensions? 7) What are Filters? 8) What are Attributes? 9) Different Types of Attributes? 10) What is Substitution Variable? 11) How is Data Stored in Essbase? 12) What is an hour glass modle? 13) Types of Build Methods? 14) What is Two Pass Calculation? 15) What is TB First and TB Last? 16) How do you calculate the Size of the datablock? 17) How many data blocks are there in your cube? 18) What is meant by Descendents and can you give me the best example to describe it? 19) How do you do the Data Load? 20) Where is IS Member Command used? 21) What is the difference between FIX and If Command? 22) What is intelligent Calcuation? 23) What is meant by Clean block and Dirty block? 24) Commands of Intelligent calcuation? 25) How do you calculate the subset of a cube? 26) Difference between standard dimension and attribute dimension? 27) Difference between UDA and Attribute Dimension? 28) What is meant by XREF Function? 29) Can you give the same name to different members in UDA? 30) What is Data Cahce ? 31) What is the Difference between the Data Cache and Data File Cache? 32) What is the Size of your cube?

33) What is Shared members? Can shared members can have children below it ? 34) What are the different storage properties in Essbase? 35) What is the difference between Dynamic calc and Dynamic Calc and Store? 36) How does Essbase consolidates the Data? 37) Different types of Dimension Building? 38) What is Label only? Give the the example of it? 39) Difference between calc all and Calc Dim? 40) Explain me about your project? And tell me any difficulities that you have faced and how did you resolve it? 41) What is Commit Block? 42) Tell me different steps so that your can optimze the performance your cube? 43) What is Partition? 44) What are different types of Partition? Have you ever worked on partation? 45) What is MAXL ? and where is it used? 46) What is Alias? 47) How many Alias Tables can be created? 48) How is Data Retrived from Essbase? 49) How is Data Stored in ASO? 50) Different types of Attributes in ASO? 51) Tell me about your project and what is your role in your project? 52) Did you write any MDX Member formulas in your Project? 53) What are different Types of Data Blocks? 54) Where do you check the data has been loaded properly or not? 55) What is Fact Table ? What are supporting Dimensions? 56) What is your Fact Table in Cube? 57) How do you create shared members in your cube? 58) Why do you use Fix Command? 59) Can you use the same logic which are used in calculation scripts in MDX formulas? 60) You have 5 dimensions in your cube and to load the data in the cube you have got only 4 columns what do you do? 61) Why do you use set update cal on and set update calc off? 62) What is mean by free form data load? 63) When do delete one member from the outline what will be status of the block? 64) What are different Types of blocks? 65) What is the difference between Attributes and UDA? 66) What is meant by location Alias 1) What is Incremental Dimensional Built and one time Dimension Built? A: Incremental Dimensional Build: Builds and reads from different data sources for dimension builds and delay restructuring until all data sources have been processed. 2) What are the different types of LOG Files? A: So many log files are there in essbase, but the important log files are 1. Application log 2. Essbase.log 3. Configtool.log 4. eas_install.log 5. essbaseserver-install.log

3) 4) 5) 6) 7) 8) 9) 10) 11) 12) 13) 14) 15) 16) 17) 18) 19) 20) 21) 22) 23) 24)

How many data blocks are there in your cube? How do you calculate the subset of a cube? What is meant by XREF Function? How does Essbase consolidates the Data? How is Data Retrieved from Essbase? Different types of Attributes in ASO? Did you write any MDX Member formulas in your Project? YES What are different Types of Data Blocks? Where do you check the data has been loaded properly or not? Can you use the same logic which is used in calculation scripts in MDX formulas? When do delete one member from the outline what will be status of the block? What are different Types of blocks? DO you know Housekeeping What is a datablock. how many types of data blocks are there? Potential number of blocks? Block size? Different areas of a calculation Script.? Do you know set commands? Can we link calculation script with business rules? How is data calculated in Essbase? Hour glass model? If the accounts dimension is sparse will be it calculated first or the highest dense dimension is given preference? 25) Can we use dense dimension in Fix command? If yes what happens or if no why? 26) Calculation order of consolidation operator? 27) What is clustering? 28) How many ways we can create data blocks. 29) What is XRANGE function? 30) What is the difference between planning thick and planning thin client 31) What is the difference between the versions 6.x,7.x and 9.x 32) Which dimension will decide the index size? 33) Which dimension will decide the block size? 34) Can we make dense dimension into attribute dimension 35) Can we give formula to the attribute members?

What is the use of Rule files in Essbase?

To ignore the fields that do not need to be Build and loaded into cube. To concatenate two or more fields to one. To add dynamic meta data to the outline. To remove the unnecessary records during load. To change the scaling of decimal numbers. To remove the header from the input files. To add aliases and update the member storage properties. To reject invalid data records.

What is the Difference between ASO and BSO in ESSBASE

Essbase system has two distinct storage options Aggregate Storage Option (ASO) and Block Storage Option (BSO) each one has its own unique significance. Characteristics of ASO:

High dimensionality. No Calculation scripts. Only one database can be created under one application. Mandate to fallow the naming conventions for Application name as Applications names should not be metadata, temp, log, default. Dynamic time series and Time balance properties are not available. The dimension build process builds any new member then the data will be erased otherwise the data will be alive. Only one type of partition available (Transparent) There is no concept of Sparse and Dense dimensions. No Boolean attribute tag. Only store data, never share, label only data storage properties are available.

Characteristics of BSO: Less number of dimensions but shows the business model. Special functionalities for Accounts and Time dimensions like Dynamic time series, Time balance, Variance reporting. 3 types of partitions Replicated, Transparent, Linked. Currency conversion is possible. There is no restriction of the number of databases under one application but performance costs. Complex calculations can be achieved using calc scripts.

What is the difference between CALC ALL, CALC DIM and AGG in Essbase?
Each meant for the specific purposes: AGG : It consolidates the database values ignoring all member formulas. It works on the sparse dimensions. It is faster than CALC for less than 6 consolidation levels. Syntax: AGG (Dimension list); CALC ALL: It calculates and aggregates entire outline database based on Outline. Order of the calculation depends upon the characteristics of the dimensions in the outline. Syntax: CALC ALL;

CALC DIM: It calculates and aggregate values for all members in the specified dimensions. Order of the calculation based on the Sparse and Dense types. Ex : CALC DIM(dense1,sparse2,dense3,sparse4) then the order of the calculation is dense1,dense3,sparse2,sparse4. If at all you want to specify your own order use separate function for each dimension. CALC DIM(dense1); CALC DIM(sparse2); CALC DIM(dense3); CALC DIM(sparse4); Syntax : CALC DIM(dimension);