Oracle Essbase 11.1.1 and 11.1.2 include several new features such as varying attributes to store slow changing data, text and date measures, improved backup and restore functionality, aggregate storage databases as targets for partitions, new calculation script functions, and life cycle management tools. Version 11.1.2 adds EPM security linking, allocations on aggregate storage cubes, custom calculations, IPv6 support, and monitoring of data loads and dimension builds.

1. Oracle Essbase 11.1.1
New Installer : Common Installer for all Product
Change in Directory Structure Essbase uses a new variable ESSBASEPATH
Single HYPERION_HOME
Varying Attributes (Slow changing attributes) : enables us to store data for situations where attributes
can change
Analyze data based on perspective
Text/Date Measures (Text Lists) : Text and Date as measures in multidimensional reporting
Perform analysis on text or date measures
Text measures are stored as numbers
Backup, Transaction Logging and Replay (BSO Only) :Backup & Restore
Copy the files to a specified location during
backup
Database in read only mode during backup
Restore from copy at later point
Transaction logging & replay
Track write operations to the database
Choose which events to replay or replay all. This
features could be used as pseudo data
mirroring
Aggregate Storage Partial Data Clear : Remove Data before load
Set region of data to 0 or #missing with MDX Statement
Logical or Physical Clear
Aggregate Storage Databases as Targets of Partitions : An ASO cube can be a target of replicated
partition. From a BSO cube data is transferred
into an ASO Cube

2. Customer will take care of cube structural
maintenance between the source and the
target once the replication is done.
New Calculation Script Functionality : @LANCESTORS/@LDESCENDANTS
@SHIFTSIBLING/@PREVSIBLING/@NEXTSIBLING
New MDX Functions : JulianDate/ UnixDate
GETNEXTDAY / GETFIRSTDAY / GETLASTDAY/ GETROUNDDATE
LINKMEMBER
LifeCycle Management : Consistent ,repeatable movement of apps, cubes, repositories or
individual artifacts between dev, prod, test
User Interface & Command Line capabilities
Auditing & Application Comparison
Export/Import HSS from/to local or server file system
Oracle Essbase 11.1.2
EPM security link – Essbase apparently does not store user details in the .SEC file, if running
in EPM security mode. This means there is no need to synchronize
security between Shared Services and Essbase anymore.
Allocations on ASO cubes – You can now perform allocations on ASO cubes, previously this could
only be done in BSO.
Custom Calculations on ASO – Basically this means you can now write calc scripts for ASO cubes. Not
as fully featured yet as for BSO, for example you can only target level 0
cells
32 alias tables – Instead of 10 you can now have up to 32 alias tables

3. IPv6 support – As all the other modules in EPM 11.1.2, Essbase also supports the new
IPv6 internet protocol, which aims to allow many more addressable
internet addresses.
OCI support – Essbase can now use OCI to connect directly to Oracle sources in load
rules, rather than ODBC.
Monitor progress of data loads and dim builds – While data loads or dim builds are in progress, you can
now query the progress, to get info such as which stage of the process is
taking place, number of records processed and rejected, etc.
MaxL Error Handling improved – You have an IfError in the MaXL Shell that can detect errors like syntax
and no permission errors. You can therefore directly in the MaxL shell
test for more complicated errors and exit with a return code, or
continue processing. This should make error trapping and processing in
MaxL scripts a little better than currently possible.
Export metadata to XML files – You can now export metadata to an XML file, using a MaxL command
(EXPORT OUTLINE). These XML files can then be used by other
processes where you need outline information, or to compare outlines
Dynamic Write-Back to Blocks During Calculation - Using the @XWRITE calculation function, Essbase can
write to blocks other than the ones being calculated. The write can
occur in the same database or on a remote database. @XWRITE, like
@XREF, uses a location alias.
Conversion of Block Storage Outlines to Unicode-mode Aggregate Storage Outlines - In addition to
supporting the conversion of non-Unicode block storage outlines to
non-Unicode aggregate storage outlines, Essbase supports these
conversion scenarios:
- Non-Unicode block storage outline to Unicode aggregate storage
outline
- Unicode block storage outline to Unicode aggregate storage outline