EPM upgrade from version 11.2.7 to 11.2.8 to 11.2.10

Recently we upgraded our Oracle EPM environment, first from version 11.2.7 to 11.2.8 and then from 11.2.8 to 11.2.10. To give you an idea of the EPM setup, we have Essbase, HFM, HFR, HPCM, FDMEE, DRM applications in a distributed and load balanced environment.

In this upgrade journey, below are some points I found worth sharing for all who are planning to upgrade their on-prem EPM 11.2.x environment:

1- EPM 11.2.7 to 11.2.8 is upgraded through 'Apply Update' feature while 11.2.8 to 11.2.10 upgrade happens by installing OPatches (Beginning with EPM Release 11.2.9, release updates are distributed as a set of OPatches).

2- Prior to upgrade, you must take a backup of following 2 folders without fail. You can delete these folders after you apply the update and validate your applications.

EPM Oracle Home: MIDDLEWARE_HOME/EPMSystem11R1

EPM Oracle Instance: MIDDLEWARE_HOME/user_projects/epmsystem1

This will ensure quick restoration of your environment to pre-upgrade running state.

3- I am sure your IT team would already be taking backup of your EPM servers/VMs and the relational databases/schemas. Make sure you check with them to confirm.

4- You should always run installTool.cmd OR ./installTool.sh (for 11.2.7 to 11.2.8 upgrade) and .\ApplyUpdate.ps1 OR ./ApplyUpdate.sh (for 11.2.7 to 11.2.8 upgrade), as an Administrator.

5- If you have a server where only one product is installed for example, Essbase, HFM etc. (In our case it was Essbase on Linux server), then before running installTool.cmd OR ./installTool.sh (for 11.2.7 to 11.2.8 upgrade), manually create the domains folder, if its not there: EPM_ORACLE_HOME\user_projects\domains. Otherwise your 11.2.8 Installer will hang at 80% "creating Oracle Inventory". For more details, check this Oracle document- Doc ID 2853657.1 .

6- If you are upgrading from Release 11.2.5 or later to Release 11.2.8 and you are already on the latest version of Oracle WebLogic server, Oracle HTTP Server (OHS) etc. (most probably as part of your security Vulnerability patching), in that case these components will not be updated during the upgrade process.

7- Post 11.2.8 upgrade, we faced error: java.lang.NoClassDefFoundError-org-apache-log4j-FileAppender, while running FDMEE DLR (Data Load Rule). 

Solution is to apply Patch 34812016. But the tricky part here is that you should apply Patch 34812016 post upgrade to EPM 11.2.10 (if your target is to eventually upgrade to 11.2.10) otherwise during FDMEE 11.2.10 upgrade, patch conflict error will occur on FDMEE server .

8- Post 11.2.8 upgrade, your EPM JDK version is not changed. It will remain the same what you had in 11.2.7 before upgrading to 11.2.8. So technically no JDK update is required.

9- Post 11.2.8 upgrade, external user directories like MSAD remains configured/connected to your Shared Services.

10- Post 11.2.10 upgrade, your EPM JDK version will be changed to 1.8.0_331 on all the servers. It happens because Release 11.2.10 also includes Java Updates. So make sure you upgrade your JDK, If you were on some higher JDK version prior to 11.2.10 upgrade (normally we do this as part of Java security Vulnerability fixes on EPM servers).

11- As your JDK version will be updated post 11.2.10 upgrade, you must take back up of following keystores on all servers, prior to 11.2.10 upgrade:

MIDDLEWARE_HOME\jdk\jre\lib\security\cacerts

MIDDLEWARE_HOME\EPMSystem11R1\common\JRE\Sun\1.8.0\lib\security\cacerts

Ensure that you restore the backed up keystores (cacerts) after the upgrade.

12- Post EPM 11.2.10 upgrade, make sure to install the latest version of Clients like EASConsole.exe, EssbaseClient.exe, supplied with EPM 11.2.10 release.

13- Post 11.2.10 upgrade we noticed, users are unable to connect to Essbase through Smartview and also unable to see Essbase calc rules in Calc Manager. On further analysis it was identified that APS patch that comes with 11.2.10 OPatches is not fully applied using ApplyUpdate script (some files might be missing). So to fix the problem, we rolled back APS patch 33485394, downloaded it from Oracle support portal separately and reinstalled it on APS server (as suggested by Oracle).

14- Oracle Data Relationship Management (DRM) is installed separately and will continue as a full install release (for both 11.2.8 and 11.2.10 upgrade and so on).

15- Your configuration settings for DRM integration with HSS for users authentication will remain intact after DRM 11.2.8 or DRM 11.2.10 installation, so no action required on that front.

16- Before applying the update for EPM 11.2.10,  you can identify any patch conflicts on your EPM servers using following command:

On Windows: .\ApplyUpdate.ps1 <MIDDLEWARE_HOME> -verify

On Linux: ./ApplyUpdate.sh <ORACLE_HOME> -verify

If you see any patch conflict, you should resolve it before applying the 11.2.10 upgrade.

That's all for this post. I hope this article has helped you.
If you have any further queries, feel free to contact me at epmzones@gmail.com.

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