ACG Utilities for IBM Planning Analytics

An Open Source Library of Tools and Utilities to Help Streamline and Automate the Deployment and Maintenance of IBM Planning Analytics

The below are some examples of utilities and tools that will deliver operational efficiencies and generally simplify the deployment of IBM Planning Analytics. The library is available on GitHub as open source and can be used / enhanced as needed by the user community under the GitHub licensing framework.

The library can be accessed HERE, a description of various utilities by topic is included below:

Transaction Logging and Analytics

ACG_GetTransactions.exe - This utility will retrieve recent transaction logs and store in a cube within the IBM PA model. Along with our TurboIntegrator processes, this tool is used to keep track of value changes over time.

ACG-KillTransactionLogger.exe - This application is used to stop the ACG_GetTransactions tool in cases where the log files have become too large to index. In cases where the numerous log files exist, or cube logging has been left on during data loads, the transaction log retrieval can run for long periods of time. This tool can interrupt the log retrieval to allow for clean up activities.

IBM PA Model Documentation

PA-ModelDoc.exe - When attached to an IBM Planning Analytics model, this utility will output a Microsoft Excel document detailing all asset with the model.

IBM PA Application Backup

TM1Backup.exe - The ACG TM1Backup tool is used to create backup copies of the IBM PA "data" directory. This tool allows the IBM PA Administrator to specify a number of backup files to maintain as well as specify the number of logs files to maintain.

IBM PA Integration

ACG-SecretsManager.exe - The ACG Secrets Manager utility is used to maintain a local database or "secrets" entries. For REST API interaction or tasks which require a username and password, this tool can be used to maintain an encrypted database of those entries.

IBM PA Model Deployment (Hot Promote)

PyPromote.exe - The PyPromote utility allows IBM Planning Analytics administrators to deploy assets between models without the need for a model restart. When deploying updated objects to other environments (e.g. Dev, Test, Prod, etc.), administrators have historically needed to bring down the target instance, copy files, and restart the model. This is a time-consuming practice that can be difficult to track. With PyPromote, all deployments are tracked in a cube within the model.