Upgrade Or Downgrade To Or From Hybrid In The Cloud

There are benefits to moving to Hybrid, but there are also some challenges.  The content of this post is not around the pros and cons, but the fact that you can upgrade your environment to use it.  If you find it isn’t for you, you can “downgrade” back to BSO.  The flexibility provides everybody the ability to try it.

Recreate Introduction

EPMAutomate comes with a function that allows the ability to restore an environment to a clean slate.  I don’t think this is new to anybody that has used EPMAutomate or EPM Cloud Planning.  What might be a surprise is that it does more than just reset an environment so you can start over.  It can also:

1. Change the type of Essbase database to Hybrid or a standard BSO.
2. Temporarily convert a Planning, Enterprise Planning, Tax Reporting, or Financial Consolidation and Close environment to an Account Reconciliation, Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud, or Profitability and Cost Management environment.

Using Recreate

The usage of the Recreate command is as follows, which all options.

 epmautomate recreate [-f] [removeAll=true|false] [EssbaseChange=Upgrade|Downgrade] [TempServiceType=Service_type]

• -f forces the re-create process to start without user confirmation. If you do not use the -f option, EPM Automate prompts you to confirm your action. Be careful using this option.  If you have a long day and aren’t focused, this can make the day a whole lot worse!
• removeAll, removes all of the existing snapshots, as well as the content of the inbox and outbox.  The default is false, meaning it retains the snapshots and the content of inbox and outbox and nothing is removed.
• EssbaseChange upgrades or downgrades the current Essbase version in legacy Oracle Financial Consolidation and Close Cloud, Oracle Enterprise Planning and Budgeting Cloud or Planning and Budgeting Cloud Plus 1 environments.
• TempServiceType temporarily converts an environment to a different service environment.

Changing Your Essbase Version

To change your environment to BSO from Hybrid

epmautomate recreate EssbaseChange downgrade

To change your environment to Hybrid from BSO

epmautomate recreate EssbaseChange upgrade

Trying A Different Service

There are some details that must be understood to use this option and is dependent on the version of the cloud service you have.  For subscriptions other than EPM Standard Cloud Service and EPM Enterprise Cloud Service, meaning PBCS and EPBCS, you can use this option to convert, temporarily, to

• Account Reconciliation
• Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud
• Profitability and Cost Management environment

To use this option to convert your environment to something it wasn’t originally intended for:

epmautomate recreate -f removeAll=true TempServiceType=ARCS

To change your environment back to its original service:

epmautomate recreate

For EPM Standard Cloud Service and EPM Enterprise Cloud Service subscriptions, you can use this option to convert to any supported EPM Cloud service.  EPM Enterprise Cloud Service subscriptions use a common EPM Cloud platform. Initially, you can deploy any supported EPM Cloud business process. 

To switch from a deployed business process to another, you must re-create the environment to delete the current deployment and to bring it back to the original EPM Cloud platform. You then re-create it again as the new service type.

For example, if you created an Account Reconciliation business process but now want to create an Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud environment, you must run the re-create command twice.

First, reset the service.

epmautomate recreate -f removeAll=true

Second, change the service type.

epmautomate recreate -f TempServiceType=EDMCS

The acceptable service types, currenty, are

• ARCS (Account Reconciliation)
• EDMCS (Oracle Enterprise Data Management Cloud)
• EPRCS (Narrative Reporting)
• PCMCS (Profitability and Cost Management)

That’s A Wrap

It is great that Oracle allows us to do these things. We have a ton of flexibility, not normally afforded to us in the cloud, to test and use different core database types.  It also allows those using the old SKU to try the new services, or business processes, to see if they might be something you want to purchase. 

If you want to give Hybrid a try, use your test environment and give it a spin.  If you want to get exposed to one of the other business processes, you now have the ability to see it without jumping through hoops.