By Sanjeev Datta, Consultant for PerformanceG2
 
Last week, as part of my 4-part blog series,TM1 Top Utility. Today is the final chapter of my 4-part TM1 series and I will be reviewing performance counters.

Check back in next week where I will be starting another blog series on performance enhancements to TM1 environment.
 
Windows Performance Monitoring and “PerfMon”
The Windows Performance Monitoring tools is nothing but the task manager on a Windows System. There are 2 ways of monitoring the performance of the TM1 server: the Task Manager Process Tab and the PerfMon — another built-in TM1 Performance monitoring tool. This console tool provides a display of TM1 performance counters.
 

 
For more information about Cognos TM1 and Cognos TM1 training, email us at info@performanceg2.com
 
 
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By Sanjeev Datta, Consultant for PerformanceG2
 
Last week, as part of my 4-part blog series, I discussed monitoring server performance using control cubes. Today, I will be discussing TM1 Top utility.
 
TM1 Top
TM1 Top is a utility that allows dynamic monitoring of threads running in an instance of the TM1 server. This stand-alone utility runs within a console (command) window on a windows machine. It is designed to make a minimal demands on the TM1 server and the supporting network and system. The TM1 Top utility does not use any cube or dimension resource and it does not interact or use the data or meta data- hence no locks. This utility reports on the state of the server for monitoring TM1 utilization and acts as a great built in performance monitoring tools.

For more information about TM1 Top Utility, check out IBM’s TM1 information on-demand section, or email us at info@performanceg2.com
 
 
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By Sanjeev Datta, Consultant for PerformanceG2

Last week I started my 4-part blog series by discussing Message Logging in TM1. This week, I will review monitoring server performance using control cubes.
 
Monitoring Server Performance using Control Cubes
TM1 is built in performance monitoring tools exist as system cubes called Control Cubes. These four cubes hold performance statistics for clients, cubes and servers. Once these cubes are selected to capture statistical information- they track changes on a minute-by-minute basis.
 
}StatsByClient:
This cube tracks message count, average message size, total elapsed time and other measures:

 
}StatsByCube:
This cube tracks the memory used for each cube on the server:

 
}StatsForServer:
This cube tracks the connected clients, active threads and memory used for the server.

TM1 allocates memory as it needs it from the operating system (OS). However, when it frees memory, it does not return it to the OS but puts it in a garbage list, which it then re-uses as needed. Accordingly, the operating system performance monitor will not give you an accurate measure of the current consumption of memory of the TM1 Server. From below, the sum of the “memory used” and “memory in garbage” corresponds to the memory consumption reported by the OS performance monitor.

 
}StatsByCubeByClient:
This cube tracks the number of cell updates, cell retrievals, view calculations and view retrievals for each client and cube on the server.

 
Check back in next week for part 3 of Performance Monitoring with TM1, where I will be briefly go over TM1 Top Utility.

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By Sanjeev Datta, Consultant for PerformanceG2

There are multiple ways of monitoring the performance of TM1 using built-in tools. In my 4-part, weekly blog series, I will be discussing some of these tools including: Message Logging, Control Cubes, TM1 Top Utility and Performance Counters.

For part 1 of my series this week, I will be discussing Message Logging:
 

Message Logging

There are 4 internal logging files which act as “flight recorders” for the TM1 Server and can help in tracking changes made to the server. These 4 internal logging files are:

Admin Server Log: The TM1 environment is a client-server environment. As the TM1 server starts up, they register themselves with the TM1 Admin Server. The TM1 clients contact the Admin Server to find the location of all available TM1 Servers. SSL security is established between TM1 Admin Server, TM1 Client Server and TM1 Server. The log data can then be used to track the various Server startup times and the connection with the Admin Server.

Transaction Logs: These logs acts as a “User Audit Log” where all changes made to the data transactions are recorded along with a time stamp. Developers can use this log file to identify any changes made to the data by Users, Client Machines, Cube Name, Element Type and cell number. The level of detail allows to store the before and after numbers as well.

Server Message Log: This log file maintains details performed by the server such as executed processes, chores, loaded cubes and dimensions, and synchronized replications.

Audi Log: The Audit Log records any changes to TM1 objects. Login activities and modifications to dimensions, views and subsets, are all captured in this log file.
 
Check back next week for part 2 of Performance Monitoring with TM1 blog series where I will be discussing Monitoring Server Performance Using Control Cubes.
 
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Sanjeev Datta, Senior Consultant for PerformanceG2

With IBM Cognos acquiring TM1 (formerly Applix), there have been numerous case studies lately all over blog sites displaying how TM1 has helped various clients achieve phenomenal success.

Particularly, I found one case study very interesting: TM1 was used as a sales and reporting engine to feed the needs of a global sales audience – breaking away from the norm of implementing TM1 for a financial/accounting/budgeting purpose.

Microchip Technology, Inc., reviewed TM1 (Applix) and its competitors only to be impressed by TM1′s” in-memory architecture” which enabled
1. Faster Load Times
2. Faster Query Responses
3. Near Real Time Data

With its success, Microchip has just started using TM1 for its financial needs.

Click here to read more.

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Sanjeev Datta, Senior Consultant for PerformanceG2

I have used a report studio feature at a few client sites and have found it to be greatly appreciated by report authors as well as business analysts.

By default, the reports you create are stored on the Cognos 8 server. You
can, however, open and save reports on your computer. This is useful if you
want to send a report to a report author that is working in a different
environment, or you want to save the report to a source code controlled
directory on a local network or drive.

Steps
1. Obtain the LFA.dll from your Cognos 8 administrator
The DLL is located in the bin directory where Cognos 8 is installed
2. Open a command prompt window
3. Register the LFA.dll file by typing regsvr32 LFA.dll
4. In Internet Explorer, set your computer and the Cognos 8 server as
trusted sites:
• From the Tools menu, click Internet Options
• On the Security tab, click Trusted sites
• Click the Sites button
• In the Add this Web site to the zone box, type http://localhost and click
Add.
Tip: If the Cognos 8 server is not on the same computer as the browser, type
http:// instead.
• Repeat the above step for http://
• Clear the Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this
zone check
box
• Click OK twice
5. In Report Studio, from the Tools menu, click Options
6. Select the Allow local file access check box and click OK
The menu items (Local) Open and (Local) Save As appear in the File menu
7. Close and restart Report Studio

You can now open and save reports on your computer. The first time you try
to open or save a report locally, Internet Explorer asks you whether you
want to allow an ActiveX control.

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