HP DecisionCenter

for the AIX, Windows®, and HP-UX operating systems

Release Notes

Software version: 2.00 / 31 December 2007

Last updated 26 March 2010
Original publish date 26 October 2007

Updates to this document occur when HP identifies new issues that impact users.

Revision date Revision location
26 Mar 2010 Knowledge Management article KM815414 about data missing from the Staff Turnover report
Knowledge Management article KM865540 about limited compatibility with BusinessObjects XI R2 SP5 and Java 1.5
23 Oct 2009 Knowledge Management article KM48029 about virtualized environment support policy
Knowledge Management article KM761326 about Asset Manager 5.11 and Connect-It 3.91 compatibility with DecisionCenter 2.00
Knowledge Management article KM761327 about Asset Manager 5.12 and Connect-It 4.00 compatibility with DecisionCenter 2.00
Knowledge Management article KM761328 about an Oracle update to the Service Manager 7.10 compatibility with DecisionCenter 2.00
Knowledge Management article KM765744 about the SAP® BusinessObjects security profile not having the necessary access rights
30 Apr 2009 New Related Documentation section describes how to access the HP Knowledge Base
Knowledge Management article KM543321 about Service Manager 7.10 compatibility with DecisionCenter 2.00
13 Mar 2009 DecisionCenter supports Service Manager 7.10
14 Mar 2008 Documentation defects DE2272 and DE2278
1 Nov 2007 New known issue DE2171
31 Oct 2007 Workaround for known issue DE2123

This document provides an overview of the changes made to HP DecisionCenter for the 2.00 release. It contains important information not included in the manuals or in online help. For optimal viewing, use Microsoft Internet Explorer 6.0 or later.

In This Version
Documentation Updates
Installation Notes
Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds
Verified Environments
Accessibility Support
Integration with Other HP Solutions
Support
Legal Notices

In This Version

DecisionCenter 2.00 extends the functionality of DecisionCenter 1.00 with these enhancements:

DecisionCenter 2.00 expands its compatibility matrix to include:

This version also supports more HP software products with expanded universes and out-of-box reports. For complete compatibility information, see the DecisionCenter Support Matrix (http://support.openview.hp.com).

Documentation Updates

The first page of this release notes document contains the following identifying information:

To check for recent updates or to verify that you are using the most recent edition, go to the HP Product manuals (http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv/) web site.

  1. In the Product list, click DecisionCenter.
  2. In the Version list, click the version number.
  3. In the OS list, click the operating system type.
  4. In the document list, click the document title.
  5. To retrieve the document, click Open or Download.

NOTE: To view files in PDF format (*.pdf), Adobe Acrobat Reader must be installed on your system. To download Adobe Acrobat Reader, go to the following web site:
Adobe (http://www.adobe.com).

Installation Notes

Installation requirements, as well as instructions for installing HP DecisionCenter, are documented in the Installation Guide provided in Adobe Acrobat (.pdf) format. The installer has a link to the Installation Guide.

Software and Hardware Requirements

Before installing HP DecisionCenter, make sure that your operating system, application server, web server, and database server are compatible with the support matrix. For more information, see the DecisionCenter Support Matrix (http://support.openview.hp.com).

Known Problems, Limitations, and Workarounds

The following known problems, identified by the tracking number, have workarounds. To display details about each known problem, click the tracking number. To hide details, click again.

Installation

DE2168: The installer references incorrect chapter numbers in the Installation Guide.
PROBLEM: Installer references to specific chapter numbers in the Installation Guide are inaccurate.
WORKAROUND: The correct chapter numbers are in the following table.
Installer tab reference Correct Installation Guide chapter
Analytic Content
Chapter 4
Chapter 5 Install BusinessObjects Enterprise XI
Web Application
Chapter 6
Chapter 8 Configure the Application Server
Optimization Engine
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10 Install the Optimization Engine
Chapter 11 Data Mining
DE2169: The web application installation defaults to the tomcat directory.
PROBLEM: The installation of the web application defaults to the tomcat directory and the tomcat war file. WebSphere users need to use the wsad directory.
WORKAROUND: If you need the WebSphere war file, navigate one level higher from the default, then go to the wsad directory.

Data Warehouse

DE2080, DE2115: The EVENTOUT table does not automatically remove old records.
PROBLEM: Because the EVENTOUT table in the Service Manager 7.00 database is read-only, the Connect-It scenario cannot remove old eventout records used in the delete synchronization process. The rds_sc.log generates this as an error message. If your system frequently deletes records from tables that the data warehouse uses, the EVENTOUT table may require manual deletion of records no longer needed.
WORKAROUND:
  • To avoid the error message, remove the EVENTOUT table from the scenario.
  • To control the size of the table, manually remove the old records.
    1. From the Service Manager 7.00 client, navigate to Database Manager.
    2. Search for forms using the eventout table.
    3. Search for records with an Event Code of BIRecordDelete and an Event Time prior to your last data synchronization (at least one day old).
    4. Click Mass Delete to purge the old records.
DE2091: The slowly changing dimension field 'SEVERITY.CODE' requires editing to enable proper data warehouse loading.
PROBLEM: In ServiceCenter 6.2 and later, the probsummary."severity.code" field was renamed to "severity". The data warehouse uses this field as a slowly changing dimension (SCD), listing the source fieldname as "severity.code". The SCD comparison does not find a match and always creates a new record.
WORKAROUND: Using a text editor, edit the XML file.
  1. Edit the file before you run rds_init, otherwise you must also edit the RDS_SCDCOLUMN table.
  2. Search for the record where TABLE_NAME is PROBSUMM and SRC_SCDCOLUMN is ‘SEVERITY.CODE’ (the value includes the single quotes).
  3. Change the value to ‘SEVERITY’.
  4. Change the following line in PROBSUMM_D from this: 
    <scdKey rdsFieldName="severity_code" srcFieldName="‘‘severity.code’’" srctype="char"/>
    to this: 
    <scdKey rdsFieldName="severity_code" srcFieldName="‘‘severity’’" srctype="char"/>

ITPA

DE2007: Saving a report with multiple pages in PDF produces blank pages.
PROBLEM: Multi-tab reports migrated from Business Objects 6.5 to Business Objects XI may contain blank pages.
WORKAROUND: The solution is to edit each report tab.
  1. When the report opens, expand the Properties window of the report.
  2. Check the Page Layout and the margins.
    The margins changed from 76 px to 104 px.
  3. Reset the margins to 76 px for each tab of the report.
    The report no longer has blank pages when you save it as a PDF.
DE2020: Reports with sliced category data do not download to a CSV file.
PROBLEM: When downloading an analytic to a CSV file, the sliced category data does not appear in the CSV file.
WORKAROUND: This is a Business Objects known issue, assigned to case 302858289.
DE2120, DE2150: Using an ad hoc query with CI Groups may produce inaccurate results.
PROBLEM: The process to flatten out CI Groups for DecisionCenter is currently not available in Service Manager 7.00 or ServiceCenter 6.2.
WORKAROUND: In Service Manager 7.00 and ServiceCenter 6.2, use CI Relationships instead of CI Groups in an ad hoc query.
DE2123: Scenario names with an ampersand (&) character cause analytic reports to not display data.
PROBLEM: Simulation Optimization reports use scenario names in prompts. Scenarios names that contain the ampersand character result in the analytic not displaying data.
WORKAROUND: Replace all ampersand (&) characters in scenario names with the word and. If you prefer, you can use the ampersand entity reference &amp; to replace the ampersand in the prompt value of the report. The entity reference has three parts:
  • A leading ampersand character (&)
  • The entity code for ampersand (amp)
  • An ending semicolon (;)
This is a Business Objects known issue, assigned to case 302865844.

Optimization and BIA

DE2140: When assignment groups have no shifts, a null pointer exception error occurs.
PROBLEM: An assignment group must have at least one group shift reflected in the PREP_ASSIGNMENT_SHIFT table. If not, when you run the bia_datamining tool with the GenerateIncidentTransitions command, the program stops with a null pointer exception error.
WORKAROUND: Before you run the default assignment group shift creation, make sure that all PREP_ASSIGNMENT_GROUP records that are not valid have their ALIAS_FOR field set to a valid, non alias, PREP_ASSIGNMENT_SHIFT record.
  1. Run the following query to get a list of assignment groups that are valid or need a proper alias.

    For SQL Server: 
    SELECT ag.* 
FROM                 PREP_ASSIGNMENT_GROUP ag 
     LEFT OUTER JOIN PREP_ASSIGNMENT_GROUP alias 
       ON ag.ALIAS_FOR = alias.NAME AND alias.ALIAS_FOR IS NULL
WHERE ISNULL(ag.VALID, 0) <> 1 AND alias.NAME IS NULL
    For Oracle: 
    SELECT ag.* 
FROM                 PREP_ASSIGNMENT_GROUP ag 
     LEFT OUTER JOIN PREP_ASSIGNMENT_GROUP alias 
       ON ag.ALIAS_FOR = alias.NAME AND alias.ALIAS_FOR IS NULL
WHERE NVL(ag.VALID, 0) <> 1 AND alias.NAME IS NULL
  2. For each assignment group in the list, create at least one shift and associate it with that assignment group.
  3. If necessary, create the default assignment groups, starting with the statement $NAME=SHIFT_ADD.
DE2147: Changes in IT environment definitions made in ServiceCenter may not be reflected in the BIA extraction process resulting in inaccurate impact calculations.
PROBLEM: After updating the DecisionCenter application tables using the dco_rds.scn scenario, it is possible that some relationships that were removed in ServiceCenter are still present in the application.
WORKAROUND: You can clear those relationships prior to refreshing the database with the dco_rds.scn scenario.
  1. Using your SQL executor program, connect to your DecisionCenter database.
  2. Run each of the following statements: 
    truncate table assignment_group_shift
truncate table holiday_group_holidays
truncate table businessservice_configitem
truncate table valuecenter_businessservice
truncate table incident_business_service
truncate table incident_configuration_item
truncate table incident_valuecenter
  3. From the Connect-It Service Console, run the dco_rds.scn scenario to reconstruct the table relationships correctly.
DE2156: The Optimizer may produce an exception error when running in multi-threaded mode.
PROBLEM: In multi-threaded mode, the optimizer may produce a ConcurrentModificationException error if you define rules with ValueCenter and a Business Service of <any>.
WORKAROUND: If you have rules with ValueCenter/any, run in single-threaded mode.
DE2171: Using Connect-It 3.8.1 with Oracle causes an error message with the TIMESTAMP data type in BIA.
PROBLEM: The CHANGE_PHASE_HISTORY_V view returns the PHASE_END field. Connect-It 3.8.1 on an Oracle database misinterprets the TIMESTAMP data type and returns an error message.
WORKAROUND: Change the view definition from CURRENT_TIMESTAMP to CURRENT_DATE.
Run the following script to fix the view. 
CREATE OR REPLACE VIEW CHANGE_PHASE_HISTORY_V
AS
SELECT MAX(Z_RDSTRANSLASTIND) AS IS_CURRENT, MIN(Z_RDSCREATEDDATE) AS PHASE_START, 
MAX(CASE WHEN Z_RDSTRANSENDDATE IS NULL THEN CURRENT_DATE ELSE Z_RDSTRANSENDDATE END) AS PHASE_END, 
CURRENT_PHASE, NUMBERPRGN, CATEGORY, TRUNC(MIN(Z_RDSCREATEDDATE)) AS DATE_KEY, 
SUM(CASE WHEN Z_RDSTRANSENDDATE IS NULL THEN SYSDATE -
 Z_RDSCREATEDDATE ELSE Z_RDSTRANSENDDATE - Z_RDSCREATEDDATE END) AS PHASE_DURATION_IN_DAYS
FROM       CM3R_D
WHERE     (OPENPRGN = '1')
GROUP BY CURRENT_PHASE, NUMBERPRGN, CATEGORY;

Documentation

DE2272: The User Guide has broken links.
PROBLEM: Some links in the User Guide navigate to page 1.
WORKAROUND: The links now navigate to the correct page.
DE2278: The help and User Guide have incorrect measurement details for an out-of-box report.
PROBLEM: The layout measurement details for the Incident Escalations by Category report are incorrect.
WORKAROUND: The measurement detail information is: Overall Average Reassignment, Total Incidents.

Verified Environments

For more information, see the DecisionCenter Support Matrix (http://support.openview.hp.com).

Most of the support areas require that you register as an HP Passport user and sign in. Many also require an active support contract. To find more information about support access levels, go to the Access Levels (http://www.hp.com/managementsoftware/access_level) web site.

To register for an HP Passport ID, go to the HP Passport Registration (http://www.managementsoftware.hp.com/passport-registration.html) web site.

Accessibility Support

Hewlett-Packard is committed to providing enterprise software products that are accessible to users with disabilities and are developing the HP DecisionCenter software application for usability, functionality, and integration with third-party assistive technology (AT) to ensure conformance with Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act. Although Hewlett-Packard is committed to delivering fully accessible and 508 conforming solutions and will take all practical steps to ensure that future releases meet conformance in the areas they do not today, HP DecisionCenter’s complete Section 508 conformance is also dependent upon a third-party technology that today does not conform in some areas. Hewlett-Packard is working with our third-party vendor and internal development to resolve currently identified conformance issues.

HP is working to ensure that new HP management software releases comply with the latest international accessibility standards. For more information about HP accessibility, visit the Accessibility (hp.com./hpinfo/abouthp/accessibility) web site.

You can request accessible electronic manuals for this product by visiting HP Product Manuals (http://ovweb.external.hp.com/lpe/doc_serv/).

  1. Click Send Feedback near the bottom of the page.
  2. Specify the product name, product version, operating system, and document names, and indicate that you want to obtain them in fully accessible form.

Configuring HP DecisionCenter 2.00 Accessibility

Browser options in Microsoft Internet Explorer enable you to increase your viewing experience.

To activate accessibility support, perform the following:

  1. From Internet Explorer, click Tools > Internet Options.
  2. On the General tab, click Accessibility.
  3. Select your formatting preferences and click OK.

To change the text size:

  1. From Internet Explorer, click View > Text Size.
  2. Select your text size preference and click OK.

Integration with Other HP Solutions

HP DecisionCenter Analytics includes out-of-box integration with HP AssetCenter and HP ServiceCenter. HP DecisionCenter Optimization operates against Incident Management data, which is provided using the out-of-box integration with ServiceCenter.

Instructions for configuring DecisionCenter to integrate with Service Manager 7.10 are available through Customer Support.

For more information, see the DecisionCenter Support Matrix (http://support.openview.hp.com).

Support

You can visit the HP Software Support (http://support.openview.hp.com) web site.

This web site provides contact information and details about the products, services, and support that HP Software offers.

HP online software support provides customer self-solve capabilities. It provides a fast and efficient way to access interactive technical support tools needed to manage your business. As a valued support customer, you can benefit by being able to:

NOTE: Most of the support areas require that you register as an HP Passport user and sign in. Many also require an active support contract. To find more information about support access levels, go to the Access Levels (http://www.hp.com/managementsoftware/access_level) web site.

To register for an HP Passport ID, go to the HP Passport Registration (http://www.managementsoftware.hp.com/passport-registration.html) web site.

Related Documentation

The HP knowledge base (http://support.openview.hp.com/selfsolve/documents) web site enables you to provide your own search criteria to help resolve your software questions. You must sign in with valid HP Passport credentials. Make sure that you register for a Passport ID before you access the support site.

You can search for an article by document ID number or by keywords and phrases.

  1. Go to HP Software Support Online.
  2. Click Sign-in with HP Passport.
  3. Enter your valid User ID and Password.
  4. Click Sign-in.
  5. From Self-solve knowledge search, type the document ID number or keywords.

    Note: Check Technical documents on the Advanced search page to limit your search results.
  6. Click Search.

The documents listed in this table are in the HP Software knowledge base. The table will be updated when new white papers, articles, and documents become available.

Document ID Title Description
KM48029 Is it possible to use the former Peregrine products in a Virtual Machine (VMWare) environment? This document provides information about the HP support policy for a virtualized environment.
KM543321 Is Service Manager 7.10 supported with DecisionCenter 2.00? This document provides information about ServiceCenter 7.10 compatibility with DecisionCenter 2.00.
KM761326 DecisionCenter with Asset Manager 5.11 and Connect-It 3.91 ETL update This document provides information about Asset Manager 5.11  compatibility with DecisionCenter 2.00.
KM761327 DecisionCenter 2.00 and Asset Manager 5.12 Support and Integration (with Connect-It 4.00) This document provides information about Asset Manager 5.12  compatibility with DecisionCenter 2.00.
KM761328 HP DecisionCenter 2.00 and Service Manager 7.10 Support and Integration The document identifies a function that does not work for Oracle database users. Oracle sites need to use "ceil" instead of "ceiling" for the function.
KM765744 Your security profile does not include permission to refresh Web Intelligence documents. The document identifies how to edit group rights in SAP® BusinessObjects to grant the necessary rights.
KM815414 Staff turnover report does not have data. The document identifies how to import data from an external data source such as SAP, another database, or Excel files.
KM865540 Limited compatibility with BusinessObjects XI R2 and Java 1.5. The document describes how to install BusinessObjects XI&nbps;R2 Service Pack 5 after first installing Service Pack 2.

Legal Notices

©Copyright 2007–2008 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.

Confidential computer software. Valid license from HP required for possession, use or copying. Consistent with FAR 12.211 and 12.212, Commercial Computer Software, Computer Software Documentation, and Technical Data for Commercial Items are licensed to the U.S. Government under vendor’s standard commercial license.

The only warranties for HP products and services are set forth in the express warranty statements accompanying such products and services. Nothing herein should be construed as constituting an additional warranty. HP shall not be liable for technical or editorial errors or omissions contained herein.

The information contained herein is subject to change without notice.

Adobe® is a trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated.
Microsoft® and Windows® are U.S. registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation.