Search by ID

You probably noticed that it is not possible to make a search by using an object ID in MicroStrategy.

In most cases this should be no biggie. Still, there are some particular situations when this can be really frustrating.

Let’s just say that you are working on a multilingual project and you really need to know what the heck is the German for “Commissioned Regional Sales wo. Externals”. Let’s also assume that Babelfish may sometimes have funny ways of translating such a corporate nuisance. I’ll even go further and presume that there is not a single trace of a dictionary-like repository in your organization.

The good thing is that an object has the same ID, regardless of its project source. After all, this comes naturally with the use of Object Manager.

Enter “Search by ID“. Now you can simply log on to the project source of your choice, type the ID of the object whose name in that particular project you want to know, et voila… There you have it!

MicroStrategy 9.0 release

MicroStrategy 9.0 codenamed Orion will go GA by Q1 2009, which is still like 3-4 months behind schedule. It is too good as far as some stupid bug fixes that I wanted for long time and some dashboard stuff.

My suggestion - If you are non-English user wait till 9.0 SP1 to be released, or at least HF1. You will not regret your decision.

Report Service Documents

Every time we rename an object, MicroStrategy updates that object’s name in all of its dependants. That’s true, right?… Or is it?
Well, it’s almost true. This fails when the object whose name we change is referenced as a data field in a Document.

Tip. A data field is a text field that is created either by dragging it from the Dataset Objects area into the Layout area, or by creating it manually and then typing the object’s name. The name should appear between braces ({}) and should be also surrounded by brackets ([]) if it contains spaces or special characters. 

Now, because the data field does not have an object ID, MicroStrategy is completely oblivious if the object referenced in it is renamed, thus the document will not run. Strangely enough, it performs fine if the object was moved to a different folder.

The way to avoid such mishaps is to do a dependence check when renaming a Metric or Attribute and see if they are being used as data fields inside a Document. All it takes then is typing the new name into the text box. 

Of course, if the object is used in the Document as part of a grid, then the Metadata does its job very well. 

No projects were returned by this project source

If no projects are returned by MicroStrategy these could be reasons.

1. Run License Manager and check that you have MicroStrategy Desktop and MicroStrategy Architect among Installed Products.
2. You enabled anonymous authentication. The Guest user is a member of the Public group. By default, this user group does not have access to any projects in the project source. Revert back to Standard authentication, Administrator -> User Manager -> Public/Gest -> project Access. Set the access and privileges desired for the guest login.
3. You are trying to connect to a Microsoft Access database with database authentication. Microsoft Access does not support database authentication.
4. Similar to #2, LDAP user ID and password blank would lead to no project(s) when using LDAP authentication.

Sometimes a faulty installation is needed to be repaired.

But mostly, I have found the issue to be user not given right privileges, not connecting to right Project source or metadata corruption.

A Funny farewell letter

Today was my last day at my employer, First Indian Corporation. I was searching some good "be in touch mails" to be sent to colleague. I couldn't anything good so sent a simple straight forward email. But I also landed up some funny farewell emails too. Here is the best one.

(Great Farewell Email from ex - JP Morgan employee)

----
Dear Co-Workers and Managers,

As many of you probably know, today is my last day. But before I leave, I wanted to take this opportunity to let you know what a great and distinct pleasure it has been to type “Today is my last day.”

For nearly as long as I’ve worked here, I’ve hoped that I might one day leave this company. And now that this dream has become a reality, please know that I could not have reached this goal without your unending lack of support. Words cannot express my gratitude for the words of gratitude you did not express.

I would especially like to thank all of my managers both past and present but with the exception of the wonderful Saroj H*********: in an age where miscommunication is all too common, you consistently impressed and inspired me with the sheer magnitude of your misinformation, ignorance and intolerance for true talent. It takes a strong man to admit his mistake - it takes a stronger man to attribute his mistake to me.

Over the past seven years, you have taught me more than I could ever ask for and, in most cases, ever did ask for. I have been fortunate enough to work with some absolutely interchangeable supervisors on a wide variety of seemingly identical projects - an invaluable lesson in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium in overcoming daily tedium.

Your demands were high and your patience short, but I take great solace knowing that my work was, as stated on my annual review, “meets expectation.” That is the type of praise that sends a man home happy after a 10 hour day, smiling his way through half a bottle of meets expectation scotch with a meets expectation cigar. Thanks Trish!

And to most of my peers: even though we barely acknowledged each other within these office walls, I hope that in the future, should we pass on the street, you will regard me the same way as I regard you: sans eye contact.

But to those few souls with whom I’ve actually interacted, here are my personalized notes of farewell:

To Philip C****, I will not miss hearing you cry over absolutely nothing while laying blame on me and my coworkers. Your racial comments about Joe C***** were truly offensive and I hope that one day you might gain the strength to apologize to him.

To Brenda A**** whom is long gone, I hope you find a manager that treats you as poorly as you have treated us. I worked harder for you then any manager in my career and I regret every ounce of it. Watching you take credit for my work was truly demoralizing.

To Sylvia K*****, you should learn how to keep your mouth shut sweet heart. Bad mouthing the innocent is a negative thing, especially when your talking about someone who knows your disgusting secrets. ; )

To Bob M***** (Mr. Cronyism Jr), well, I wish you had more of a back bone. You threw me to the wolves with that witch Brenda and I learned all too much from it. I still can’t believe that after following your instructions, I ended up getting written up, wow. Thanks for the experience buddy, lesson learned.

Don M***** (Mr. Cronyism Sr), I’m happy that you were let go in the same manner that you have handed down to my dedicated coworkers. Hearing you on the phone last year brag about how great bonuses were going to be for you fellas in upper management because all of the lay offs made me nearly vomit. I never expected to see management benefit financially from the suffering of scores of people but then again, with this company’s rooted history in the slave trade it only makes sense.

To all of the executives of this company, Jamie Dimon and such. Despite working through countless managers that practiced unethical behavior, racism, sexism, jealousy and cronyism, I have benefited tremendously by working here and I truly thank you for that. There was once a time where hard work was rewarded and acknowledged, it’s a pity that all of our positive output now falls on deaf ears and passes blind eyes. My advice for you is to place yourself closer to the pulse of this company and enjoy the effort and dedication of us “faceless little people” more. There are many great people that are being over worked and mistreated but yet are still loyal not to those who abuse them but to the greater mission of providing excellent customer support. Find them and embrace them as they will help battle the cancerous plague that is ravishing the moral of this company.

So, in parting, if I could pass on any word of advice to the lower salary recipient (”because it’s good for the company”) in India or Tampa who will soon be filling my position, it would be to cherish this experience because a job opportunity like this comes along only once in a lifetime.

Meaning: if I had to work here again in this lifetime, I would sooner kill myself.

To those who I have held a great relationship with, I will miss being your co-worker and will cherish our history together. Please don’t bother responding as at this very moment I am most likely in my car doing 85 with the windows down listening to Biggie.
----

Couldn't control my laughter. One of very interesting reading I have come across in recent time.

Performance tuning in MicroStrategy

Some of collection (mine and from friends)

1. Use Aggregate tables
2. Use partition mapping
3. VLDB settings
4. Collect statistics on the tables
5. Use Index on all Key columns ( for conditions from WHERE clause, JOIN conditions, ORDER BY clause , GROUP BY clause )
6. Convince the requester of report to drop least used and most SQL intensive calculations/columns. In rare cases it works.
7. Select from in-memory tables (from Orion onwards)
8. Avoid Custom Groups
9. Use Free form reports (if any other tuning doesn't bring much improvement)
10. Use Database function instead of MicroStrategy provided function
11. Use Cartesian Products Wisely
12. Connectivity between I-Server, Web-server, Database server and meta-data server is fast.
13. chk explain plan of the query generated (teradata specific). it should indicate high confidence level... also full table scan should not be there.
14. Use Case Statement option available in VLDB Properties, If your report contains any Custom Groups.
15. If the SQL of your Report has any Sub queries, You can use the "Use Temporary Table" option available in Query Optimization in VLDB Properties. For reports with several relationship filters, temporary table syntax may execute significantly faster on the database.
16. make sure you not using lookups at fact table.
17. as others pointed out make sure indexes and collect stats are there
18. get the SQL and execute directly in DB. if it's take less time then you'll have something to do with MSTR or fine tune DB SQL with the help DBA.
19. in MSTR, go to project config, increase the project memory settings. this is the memory MSTR uses for worker set. it should be large enough to process it quickly.
20. also go to intelligence server configuration and make sure the worker set XML is at optimum level. ( you can set 5 Lk for 8.0.3)
21. web server java heap size should be more if you are working with bigger data set and RS documents. by default it is 256 MB and you can set it as 512 MB (max)
22. MicroStrategy recommends the use of warehouse partitioning when implementing cross-dimensional partitioning.

Free full-day BI classes by MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy is imparting training about "reporting, analysis, and monitoring in an enterprise BI application" specifically designed for "business users and budget owners" in various conutires starting 16th Dec.

If you don't have a MicroStrategy Account, click here for creation of account. You will have to use only and only official office email address for account access.

Schedule for various countries/cities is here.

Click on suitable date and follow the wizard and you are done.

MicroStrategy CEO may lose his Jet

MicroStrategy CEO had leased a Jet during hay days couple of years back with lot fan fare. It made CEO (Michael Saylor) stand in line with CEO of Google etc. Now it is coming back to them. USD 25 Million a year lease of plane is getting lot of flak from the investor/share holder considering that's almost equal to last quarter revenue of the company. There is grapevine that MicroStrategy would not continue with the lease that comes for payment in December end.

Update 25th Feb 2009
------------------------
this post will be taken off soon as this I found some contradicting fact(s). Reason was not immediately taking down: may not "un"harm the reputation

MicroStrategy is not planning a development center in India

Peer BI compnaies have established IDC for quite some time but MicroStrategy is yet to setup an office in India. They currently outsource to Cybage a part of their Testing, Documentation and Widget development. It is least likely that MicroStrategy would start anything like development center, sales or consulting at India anytime for next 4-5 years. They are currently setting up the base at China and that's becoming their center too much focused. A center in China make sense for MSTR as 1) Compared to India there would be large probable customer 2) i18n into Chinese and other languages (Korean, Japanese etc) would be easy to do.

Though not development wise but mainly making the product ready into different languages (They are having it for quite some time) and thus marketing the prospective customer base is a killing thing to do business in China not in India. There are just 3 clients of MicroStrategy and Indian are brought up with mentality "sasta hai to achcha hai".

All roads lead to Mumbai

This is the city that raised me.

I'll be visiting the city of dreams. Wanna enjoy every second there.

Are MicroStrategy clients doomed?

What's common in following companies who filed for Chapter-11 bankruptcy protection or had massive lay-offs of recent times or got Govt bail-out?

Circuit City
DHL
Lehman Brothers
Vachovia
Fannie May
Freddie Mac
AIG
Vodafone
Thomas Cook
UBS
Credit Suisse
Merrill Lynch
General Motors
Mervyn's
Best Buy
AMD
Royal Bank of Scotland
Yahoo
Home Depot
.....

Most of this companioes listed above user more than MicroStrategy for their BI.

MicroStrategy Inc has bad days ahead

MicroStrategy Inc have under performing the wall street estimates and it is going to be a bad time for them for next couple of years. Why?

1. Companies have tighten their purse strings.
2. The growth of number of companies that may have had required the use of MicroStrategy for their BI would slow down drastically due to global recession. (This will be biggest hurting factor as MicroStrategy charges a premium and compnaies won't be interested or deals would happen at below rake rates)
   
3. When IBM and SAP acquired Cognos and Business Objects, MicroStrategy ran campaigns to specifically tap the rats from these companies at all costs. Everyone was tapped, Consultants, Developers and Sales and during this campaign people were taken for steep prices w/o considering their value. This is going to add too much of flab to MicroStrategy Inc. Anything suffixed/prefixed BI is a costly professional. :-)
   
4. All BI companies are going to face a good show by in-memory BI compnaies. Traditional MD, Engine, Server type BI may completely die in 5 years (If the so-called DW/BI papers issued by so-called DW/BI companies, heavily funded by these BI companies, give due share to this in-memory BI companies)
   

One the whole there would be less requirement for consulting positions from the existing companies too as now everyone would like to get more out of current. So if you have invested in MicroStrategy shares, sell off as future is going to be worse compared to peer BI companies and if you are working on competing BI tool, don't jump ship. Global slowdown will hurt MSTR worse than its peer.

Learn Data modelling

Well, no one can learn by just reading but I found this site to be very interesting and helpful. Doesn't go to fine details but pretty good in understanding concept soon.

Why MicroStrategy proferssioanl are paid too much (comapred to BO, Cognos, etc)

Short answer is MicroStrategy, Inc

Long Answer: Look around, why there is scarcity of MicroStrategy guys. There are very less number of clients. Less than 10K compared to 23K of Cognos and 45K of BO. I wouldn't compare to SAP BW, as that's the crappiest BI tool around, even worse than Oracle BI Discoverer or SQL Server 2005. Hyperion, the original BI tool, lost to late entrants.

Now who needs MicroStrategy. Not small companies. Usual license cost of MicroStrategy is around ~500K PLUS cost of support and kind of support (Bronze, Silver, Gold.. Upcming Diamond, Platinum and Crude oil -;. That's hell lot of money for even a big companies. The only and only reason I would ever support any company going for MicroStrategy is the the size of warehouse (back-end). BO and Cognos are known to get slow with bigger Warehouse where as back-end scalability of MicroStrategy is immense. MicroStrategy has better COE in long term over BO and Cognos. Learning curve of MicroStrategy is very steep.

This has infected the consulting companies with rotten MicroStrategy professionals. Even they (Companies and professionals) can't help it. People with zero or near zero MicroStrategy experience are working for MicroStrategy implementation of Fortune-100 companies. That's what I call gamble. For service based companies what matter is the billing and MicroStrategy gives them top dollars compared to other BI tool.

Now is the worst part. MicroStrategy education as well as certification are obscenity costly. Giving exams costs USD 650. Education is even costly. Getting a 2 week training and 3 certification will take some aback by USD 6500. Well, that makes finding a good MicroStrategy professional hard to come by. Search amazon and you won't find a single book on MicroStrategy, where as for other BI tools, you will find tons of books. MicroStrategy training the books are privileged one and unavailable outside.

Probably the companies buying MicroStrategy never factor out the cost of hiring a MicroStrategy professional (feeding him) and the time required to hire a suitable candidate. Else 50% companies who purchased MicroStrategy wouldn't have purchased it. Not only quality even quantity resource are hard to find. BTW, most of companies purchasing MicroStrategy get the initial setup and development done by MicroStrategy Inc itself at some USD 100+ per hour. As company MicroStrategy Inc has very much right to charge it but lack of reasonably charged good education (that implies in getting good guys to maintain a company's BI system) should defiantly deter or think thrice before purchasing MicroStrategy BI platform. There are more number of MicroStrategy implementation and development consultation in MicroStrategy Inc then rest of world; something that's not true in case of BO and Cognos. One should not take it as joke.

So as long as MicroStrategy Inc doesn't change its lookout for reasonable cost education, it is not so good picture for MicroStrategy Inc. Till then I can actually sit, relax on couch.

Warehouse Partition Mapping Table in MicroStrategy

To add and set up a Partition Mapping Table in MicroStrategy:

Step 1: Create the Partition Mapping Table (PMT). Views are not recommended since they defeat the purpose of partitioning and the performance will be hampered instead of improved. Usually the PBTs hold the same structure as the original base fact table.

This table must be created with the following structure:

The ATTRIBUTE_ID column name must match the column name on the partitioned base tables. This column contains the values of the attributes at which the tables are partitioned. Attribute ID(s) used to define the partitioning (partition keys). In addition, the PMT must contain a column named 'PBTNAME' containing the names of each of the partitioned base tables.

For Example, if the partition level is at Year, this column will be named 'Year_id' and contain values such as: 1998, 1999 and 2000.

The PBTNAME column name cannot be changed. This column contains the names of the partitioned base tables. PBTNAME = Partitioned Base Table Name.

Step 2: Add this table to MicroStrategy using Warehouse Catalog. It will be added as a partition mapping table, the icon will change and the number of partitions will be shown in parenthesis. Also, all the corresponding partitions are removed from the list of available tables. The partitions function as a unit; they cannot be deselected individually. Update Schema.

Note: If a prefix is needed to access the PMTs, it has to be included into the mapping table when populating it in WH Catalog.

Step 3: Go to the Partition Mappings folder under Schema Objects. The PMT appears in the right window. Right-click on the table and select edit. Click on the 'Add' button and select the attribute that marks the level of partitioning. Update Schema.

NOTE: (1) The PBTNAME in the Partition Mapping Table (PMT) should be unique. Otherwise, double counting may occur.(2) A PMT is needed for each fact table to be partitioned. (3) A normalized partition base table (PBT) saves database space but it is not recommended if performance is a key issue. The MicroStrategy Engine always applies filters on the partitioned base table queries even if it the filter is a partitioning key.

Clustering in MicroStrategy

Clustering is a popular strategy in which two or more servers/machines are configured to provide common services in a unified manner such that they behave like a single server. Each machine in the cluster is called a node. Even though it may sound very hi-fi, Clustering is one of the simplest thing in MicroStrategy. It aims for Load balancing as well as fail-over. One can cluster Intelligence server running on differ OS. eg, AIX, UX, Solaris, RH Ent Linux provided following condition are met.

1. All MicroStrategy Intelligence Servers MUST point to the same metadata
2. All MicroStrategy Intelligence Servers MUST have the projects in the same state. (i.e., if Node A has Project A in a 'Loaded' state, then Node B must also have Project A in a 'Loaded' state).
3. From each machine where I-server is installed, one should be able to browse the folders for Cache and History List. (This is aachieved by Samba on Unix Environment)
   

You can post here too

To all blog reader,

If you want to be a contributor of this blog or have some interesting article or wihs to share something about MicroStrategy, please ping me and I'll do the needful.

Thanks,
Ashish

Only the dead have seen

Only the dead have seen end of war - Plato

What should you ask your future employer

1. Work days in week? 4 days 5 days or 6 days?
2. How many hours a day?
3. How is salary credited and what day of month?
4. Position/Designation offered?
5. Do they provide free food? Do they have in-house kitchen?
6. Do you give Meal vouchers as part of CTC? How much can I avail? Is there any cap due to position? How and when it is disbursed?
7. Does the job require travel and what if yes what percent?
8. To whom I'll be reporting to and his designation?
9. Relocation reimbursement and the upper limit? T&C.
10. Initial accommodation in a new city? How many days?
11. Dress code? (For me most important question)
12. Number of leaves in a year. Leave policy in detail.
13. How long is probation period?
14. Entitlement of leaves during probation period?
15. Anytime they mentioned year ask about financial or calendar?
16. Joining date?
17. Am I insured by new employer? Are you insured from day 1?
18. Does your parent get Insurance protection (even if it is paid)?
19. Do let them know the time you need to deny/accept the offer.
20. Is LTA an optional component of CTC? If NOT opted, would it be given every month?
21. Do I get an independent extension or shared? If shared among how many people do I need to share?
22. Do I need to work from Home? What’s company policy regarding this? Do you provide laptop/ reimbursement Broadband charges?
23. Do I get unrestricted internet access in office?
24. Can I carry forward my MicroStrategy account?
25. Are you MicroStrategy Inc listed partner?

Migrating a 2 tier project source to a 3 tier source

Technically, you don't really require anything to make a 2 tier, just configure it using configuration manager (your access file). 2 Tier connection is also possible for a Oracle, SQL Server, or any other database.

There are two ways one can migrate a 2 tier (access) based project to Excel.

1. Project duplicate using Project duplication wizard or Object manager.
2. Import the access database into your relational database (Using ETL)

Types of objects in MicroStrategy

There are only and only three types of object in MicroStrategy. they are same follows:

1. Schema
2. Application
3. Configuration

Note: Public objects is just a folder in metadata which "mainly" holds application objects, it is not a type of objects. Security Filter is a configuration object even though it is created the way application objects are created.

Teradata India - a sorry picture inside

Teradata is said to be the best back-end as far as MicroStrategy is concerned. Most of MSTR people I know, they have Teradata as the back-end. FYI, Walmart has the biggest implementation of MicroStrategy with more than 100 boxes of Teradata.

Now cut short to Teradata India, which is mainly involved in selling the Teradata boxes and then co-selling its consulting services (After all database requires some front-end to make use of it). My several freinds who are client side from Teradata have bitter experience. Teradata is just concerned about selling their boxes and letting employee "manage" things at client side of it own. Lots of people are working under duress.

They keep on advertising about MSTR position almost round the year but I fail to understand why their experience MSTR resources are working on different technology or worse on bench.

Last and the serious bomb. There is set targets for employees about Teradata certification. Obviously you need not pay for it. But, if you do not achieve it, you may get no raise at all. One of my friend's friend was so busy with the work (he did a great job) that it was impossible for him to remove time and do the certification. You get a bomb that there is no raise as you have not completed any certification.

If you are planning to join Teradata, do a good due diligence.

Keys and Levels in MicroStrategy

Some notes and a tip:

Table keys are the lowest level attributes in their respective hierarchies that are present in the logical table.

Fact entry levels are the lowest attribute levels at which a fact exists. The fact entry levels correspond to the lowest-level table key attributes for all the tables that define the fact.

A fact is only extended if a join does not exist between a fact table and the attribute to which the fact will extend to, i.e. the fact does not exist at the level of that attribute.

MicroStrategy SQL Generation Engine is sensitive to differences between its internal state and the states of metadata objects, there is a risk of SQL generation failures if schema modifications take place during normal user activity. In general, it is not recommended to perform schema updates during periods of normal or high usage. Schema changes should normally be reserved for periods of little to no user activity.

3rd Compnay to purchase MicroStrategy in India

There are just two compnay taht use MicroStrategy. Wipro ePeripherals (Not Wipro Software) and Ashok Layland. Wipro license is of 7.2 and it is expired and they are not sure to purchase latest version of MicroStrategy. ALL is stil using MicroStrategy.

Now Pentaloon Retail is the latest purchasere of MicroStrategy and Mudra Garment is an unconfirmed buyer. I'll update the information as and when avaiable.

A new MicroStrategy forum

I've started a forum on MicroStrategy. Take a look.

http://microstrategy.co.in/phpBB3/index.php

What's new in next version of MicroStrategy 9.0 (Orion)

1. Connect to two different warehouse in same report but Free form SQL report won't be having this feature.
2. RS document not to lose derived metric or object prompt in the included report.
3. Track object changes by user name, from which machine, IP address, etc. (change audit)
4. Drilling in RS document. A new mode for RS document to accomplish this feature.
5. Drill to multiple objects.
6. ACL control in web but not so well as in desktop.
7. Prompt and filter creation in web.
8. In web, when drilled to a template, prompt in template will be executed. Currently, it happens only in Desktop.
9. I-Server metadata and NCS metadata will be part of same database.
10. Intelligent cube can be controlled by end user.
11. On-fly custom group creation feature called Derived Element.
12. **Monitor** cache, projects, cluster, jobs, user connection, and similarly. These users can't edit, modify or create.
13. Rules creation "what to do" when History List is full.
14. Explicit RS Document **caching** not just containing reports

Need to change fretting attitude

I look back my "situation/thing is not perfect" attitude and look back. or why is He angry with me. Being a classic quitter (by classic I really mean it), I've changed employers like anything and it has give me pain in the end. Politics exists in very organization and I'm happy that in my current organization has next to nil. Yeah, not like IvyComptech, where it was none. Something from my friend Stanlay (working in Indian Army) from his Orkut profile.

-------
After i joined the army I received a letter from my
Girlfriend back home, It read as follows:

Dear Stan,
I can no longer continue our relationship. The distance between us is
just too great. I'm sorry. Please return the picture of me that I sent
to
you.
Love, %@#$**


With hurt feelings,I asked my fellow soldiers for any
snapshots they could spare of their girlfriends, sisters or ex-girlfriends.

In addition to the picture of my girl, I included all the other
pictures of the pretty gals I could manage from my buddies.
With 57 photos in that envelope I wrote back to her:

Dearest !@#$@@!,
I'm so sorry, but I can't quite remember who the hell you are. Please
take your picture from the pile, and send the rest back to me.

Take Care,
Stan

Moral of the story:
If you can't change your fate, change your attitude.
If u cant do that either then pls dont crib abt being Single!!
--------

I've changed my attitude towards things in office, something that I've learnt hard way.

R.I.P. Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw

Got up early by 9 AM and switched on TV. While browsing TV I came to know about death of First Field Marshall Sam Bahadur (Hero of Indo-Pak war of 1971). From IBN-Live

----
India’s first Field Marshal Sam Hormusji Framji Jamshedji Manekshaw, who is credited with crafting the campaign that led to the creation of Bangladesh after the 1971 war with Pakistan, died early on Friday morning in Wellington in Tamil Nadu.

Manekshaw, 94, had been battling a series of old age-related ailments. He breathed his last at the Military Hospital in Wellington, where he settled down after retiring as the Army chief in 1973.

The Padma Vibhushan and Military Cross awardee, who was admitted in the hospital for "progressive lung disease," had slipped into coma and the end came just after midnight at 0030 hours IST, the Defence Ministry said in a statement.

Manekshaw had developed "acute bronchopneumonia with associated complications" and was placed under intensive care four days ago after his condition became serious.

President Pratibha Patil condoled the death of the Field Marshal along with Defence Minister A K Antony who said, "In his demise, the nation has lost a great soldier, a true patriot and a noble son."

----

May All mighty give him highest place in heaven.

His response “There will be no withdrawal without written orders and these orders shall never be issued” energized the Armed forces and the nation to stand tall against a deceitful enemy. The stuff that legends are made of.

AXIS Bank phishing attack

Action: Your access to Online Services has been disabled.
Date: June 2008

Your access to Online Services has been disabled due to a mismatch of access code between your
personal and security details. To enable you continue accessing your online account, it will take you a
few minutes to re-activate your account.
Click on the reference link below, and you will be guided to your quick re-activation page.

https://www.axisbank.co.in/BankAway/web/L001/RetailSignOn.aspx?RequestId=re-activation

Important Notice : You are strictly advised to match your details correctly to avoid service denial.

Thank you,
Axis Bank Security Department Team.

-------------------------------------

If you click on that link in mail, you would be taken to phishing site. Have a look at the snapshot. Servers of this site is located at Spain (Look at bottom right)

MicroStrategy Business Objects Cognos comparision

Single Metadata – Object definition is stored in a database (called metadata), How easy is changes to be integrated made from one interface to another.

64 Bit support – 32 bit system can’t address more than 4 GB of system space. All non-Windows OS are available in 64 bit for ages. Windows also got it in June 2005, but BI vendor should be able to support 64 bit OS.

Scalability – Any calculation performed in database is the best and fast and let very small load on the BI architecture. But not all BI vendors let it happen.

Reusable Objects – Make once use zillion times.

Objects Version Control – Ability to have different version of same (schema) objects.

WYSIWYG – Look and feel of what you created and finally how it looks.

Security – Object, User security.

Personalization – Single report but show different output to different users.

Manual fine-tuning SQL – Easily making changes to generated SQL.

Ease of SQL Generation – Make Schema object and system and forget about the right SQL generation.

MS Office integration – Run report directly from Word, Excel or Powerpoint.

(There is some bug with HTML parser on Blogger.com. Please scroll down for the comparison table. Do write into your comments. I'd update/add more information accordingly)

	MicroStrategy	Business Objects	Cognos
Single Metadata	Yes	No	No
64 Bit support	Very Good	Good	Good
Scalability	Excellent	Good	Very Good
Reusable bjects	Excellent	Good	Good
Objects Version Control	Very Bad	Excellent	Very Good
WYSIWYG	Very Good	Very Good	Very Good
Security	Very Good	Good	Very Good
Personalization	Very Good	Good	Bad
Manual fine-tuning SQL	Good	Excellent	Excellent
Ease of SQL generation	Excellent	Very Good	Very Good
MS Office integration	Very Good	Bad	Good
Learning Curve	Bad	Very Good	Very Good
Number of Clients	10000	42000	23000
Number of Employees	2000	NA	3500
Cost of License	$$$$$	$$	$$$
Support Cost	$$$$$	$$$	$$$
Average Pay (USD)##	83000	78000	79000
Job Security	Good	Excellent	Very Good
Cost of License	$$$$$	$$	$$$
Support Cost	$$$$$	$$$	$$$

## - indeed.com

Heros of this blog

There are two heroes of this blog, whom I've mentioned a couple of time. They finally arrived on this blog and left some comments. Actually in Jan 2008.

Gurvinder Singh Chhatwal (Project Manager of MicroStrategy-QA project in Cybage, Pune)
"At least a MILLION times people around you, who have worked and lived with you have told you what an IDIOT you are. But seems you still fail to understand.
Pity on you."

Paramjeet Singh Sidhu (Project Lead of MicroStrategy-QA project in Cybage, Pune)
"No wonder you write all bullshit about the people you work with because they all know how sick your thoughts and you were (seems like you still are). Anywayz, you and your fantasies go on and on.
May god help you."
---------
People like you give me good learning. I'll not forget Cybage because of people like you. I owe you this. I pity having worked under you guys. I don't think I'll ever get any manager like you and pray to god that no one in this world gets it. and who was/is sick is known to persons concerned. May god help both of you. Last but not least, thanks for stopping by on the blog.

MicroStrategy Intelligence Server query flow

The main components of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server are:

1. Intelligence server bus
2. Intelligent Cubes server
3. Communication layers for the metadata and data warehouse
4. SQL Generation Engine
5. Query Engine
6. Analytical Engine

The query flow below describes the primary functions of each component.

MicroStrategy Intelligence Server query flow

1. The MicroStrategy Intelligence Server receives a report request from any interface.
2. The request is passed to the Intelligence Server bus, which coordinates all the tasks necessary to execute the report.
3. Intelligence Server first checks the cache to see whether the report results are already there. The report results will already be in cache if another user or a schedule previously ran the report. If a cache exists, Intelligence Server skips directly to step 9.
4. If no valid cache exists for the report, the Intelligence Server bus obtains the report definition and application objects from the metadata.
5. The bus sends this information to the SQL Generation Engine. The SQL Generation Engine creates the optimized SQL, specific to the database being used. The SQL passes are then returned to the bus.
6. The bus sends the SQL to the Query Engine. The Query Engine runs the SQL against the data warehouse and the report results are returned to the bus.
7. The Intelligence Server bus invokes the Analytical Engine. Additional calculations are performed as necessary (when the calculation is unavailable in the database being used), and the Analytical Engine formats the results. The results are returned to the Intelligence Server bus.
8. Depending on the analytical complexity of the report, the results might be passed back to the SQL Generation Engine for further processing by the database. Only MicroStrategy can provide this collaborative analysis with the database, resulting in forms of queries that can only be solved by MicroStrategy. In this case, steps 4–6 are repeated until the final report results are obtained. Finally, the formatted results are returned to the client communication layer.
9. The Intelligence Server passes the formatted results back to the client.

----------------------------------------------
I had this article for around 2+ years in my archives. Most probably this is an internal MicroStrategy document. If you are © owner and want me to pull this down, please post a comment. There is a link to post comment. I come to know about any comment on blog as soon as it happens. If you can help me with the origin/source of this document, please help me. This is the first post on this blog which is not straight from heart, but hope I don't deviate from it.

Tiers in MicroStrategy

I have heard people saying web is three tier connection in several interview and desktop (with I-server) is a two tier connection. Such answers about tiers really gives me tears. [:)]. You are hear reading this page just mean that you are too lazy to read the MicroStrategy PDFs. Anyways here is the information about various tiers.

Anything that doesn't requires I-server is 2 tier. One can have two tier connection not only with Access but also SQL Server, Oracle, Netizza, Teradata, etc, In fact with any damn database. In such case, Desktop and Metadata/Database are two tires. DSN is important in this case. In fact that become heart in 2 tier. You never need to use Configuration Manager in case of a 2 tier connection.

Any time you use configuration manager to connect I-Server to Metadata (obviously with DSN) is a three tier. In this case the tiers are, Desktop - I-Server - Metadata/Database.

Any time you use Web is a 4 tier architecture. And tiers are as follows.
Web Browser - Web Server - I-Server - Metadata/Database.

A 5 tier architecture is also possible. There are various vendors who sell installable reporting tool based on MicroStrategy architecture. In this case the 5th tier sits between Web Browser and Server.

Version control in MicroStrategy

MicroStrategy doesn't support Versioning. BTW, There are two types of versioning in MicroStrategy. Source control (what I'm taking about over here) and Slowly changing dimension (SCD). Lots of clients have put requests to MicroStrategy to have this feature of version control for schema object or at least attributes. In short the answer for this question is NO and I would never want MicroStrategy to have this features. Such a feature request is only idea that can come from bad MicroStrategy practice. Why in this world, do you want to have two definition. If a change in attribute breaks a report or sql goes haywire, one should rather fix this (that why it is job of MicroStrategy Architect). Such a feature would lead to lots of useless trial-n-error stuff in MicroStrategy. If you know any company who is behind this feature request, please post the name over here.

FYI, as per document ID (TN4100-800-0349), A current enhancement request exists for this functionality. Contact MicroStrategy Technical Support for the latest update of this request.

This would be a good feature for nuts in MicroStrategy and will give sane people hard time.

Update 13 Feb 2009

Cognos supports this feature. But one can't use different object(s) from different set of version. :-(

Difference between accessing fact table and lookup table in Grouping option of Metric creation

There is another important difference between accessing a fact table and a lookup table. If a value, such as April sales, is missing from a fact table, the row still exists in the table and is reported as null or zero. If that same value is missing in a lookup table, the April row does not exist. The previous or next value (March or May) is reported, depending on whether the level is set to beginning or ending value.

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Please post your comment on this.

Can't wait for papa john

I love Pizzas. When I arrived at Bangalore, I used to have 2-3 a week. I had this (bad) habit for around till mom came over here in month of Dec and now Papa John is coming to India soon. Can't wait for Papa.

And ManU has defeated Arsenal and they have clear 6 pt lead from Chelsea. Wanna see them lose the title [:D]

What's factless fact

I have been reading about factless fact table for quite some time and had assumption that bridge table in case of M-M relationship was "the" factless. But while having a knowledge sharing session I was given a total new definition. That was convincing but unbelievable. Though bridge table is actually a factless fact table but not as per Kimball.

A factless fact table is table that doesn't have fact at all. They may consist of nothing but keys. There are tow types of factless fact table. 1-> event 2-> coverage.

Take an example of a factless fact table that records an event. Many event-tracking tables in dimensional data warehouses turn out to be factless. Take an example of tracking student attendance. Imagine that you have a modern student tracking system that detects each student attendance event each day. When the student walks through the door into the lecture, a record is generated.

One can easily list the dimensions surrounding the student attendance event.
Date: one record in this dimension for each day on the calendar
Student: one record in this dimension for each student
Course: one record in this dimension for each course taught each semester
Teacher: one record in this dimension for each teacher
Facility: one record in this dimension for each room, laboratory, or athletic field

The only problem is that there is no obvious fact to record each time a student attends a lecture or suits up for physical education. Tangible facts such as the grade for the course don't belong in this fact table. This fact table represents the student attendance process, not the semester grading process or even the midterm exam process. Actually, this fact table consisting only of keys is a perfectly good fact table and probably ought to be left as is

A second kind of factless fact table is called a coverage table. Coverage tables are frequently needed when a primary fact table in a dimensional data warehouse is sparse. Take simple sales fact table that records the sales of products in stores on particular days under each promotion condition. The sales fact table does answer many interesting questions but cannot answer questions about things that didn't happen. For instance, it cannot answer the question, "Which products were on promotion that didn't sell?" because it contains only the records of products that did sell. The coverage table comes to the rescue. A record is placed in the coverage table for each product in each store that is on promotion in each time period. In general, which products are on promotion varies by all of the dimensions of product, store, promotion, and time. This complex many-to-many relationship must be expressed as a fact table.

The coverage table must only contain the items on promotion; the items not on promotion that also did not sell can be left out. Also, it is likely for administrative reasons that the assignment of products to promotions takes place periodically, rather than every day. Often a store manager will set up promotions in a store once each week. Thus we don't need a record for every product every day. One record per product per promotion per store each week will do.

Answering the question, "Which products were on promotion that did not sell?" requires a two-step application. First, consult the coverage table for the list of products on promotion on that day in that store. Second, consult the sales table for the list of products that did sell. The desired answer is the set difference between these two lists of products.

तो सर्व दिवस ओला होता

MicroStrategy doesn't have affinity to Snowflake schema (anymore)

During my days at Cybage, I used to read lots of internal documentation from MicroStrategy. Well, I had access to or were give documents for knowledge purpose. For months, even after having left Cybage, I used to try to decode why MicroStrategy likes Snowflake schema more than Star Schema. (Kimball hates Snowflake and abuses it like anything, read Warehouse Toolkit by him). That's why I used to like reading about Enmon more. I came to know about this so call affinity was actually a shortcoming the way MicroStrategy was designed and/or programmed.

MicroStrategy document used to say and recommend Snowflake over Star. Reason - MicroStrategy is designed to make most of snowflake schema. Well actually it is a bug in MicroStrategy that will prevent it to work perfectly in Star schema.

Snapshots are from MicroStrategy Tech Notes:

This schema is characterized by one lookup table per dimension, with base tables at the lowest level. This is the fastest way to set up a data warehouse:


This type of schemas is fully supported but difficulties may arise when adding aggregate tables:



Problem ----> Double counting

According to the diagram above, a report that contains [Month] and the a metric SUM(SALES_AMT) will go to the aggregate table [MONTH_STORE_SALES] and join to the [MONTH_ID] column to retrieve the description from the [LU_TIME] table. Since the [MONTH_ID] column is not unique in its lookup table, the results will appear duplicated.

Why ----> MicroStrategy is optimized to work with snowflake schemas, where each attribute level has a distinct lookup table.

Solution ----> If aggregate tables are needed, use one lookup table per attribute to avoid double counting.

Reaction -----> Give me a break.

I could never understand why this affinity. I came to know about this during my early months working on MicroStrategy and no one could solve it.

BTW, I was lucky to know this thing. Person holding position of Director had come to India for knowledge transfer. He is the man behind getting MicroStrategy into the company.I had gone for a tea break and when I came back I didn't notice that every MicroStrategy developer is missing. I thought they must have gone for a break. But I thought checking out what' was going on. Karthik told me there was a session by Asif but he said it won't help me much. Still, I thought I should attend and in that meeting I came to know this. Wow.. this made the visit fruitful for me.

Status of this defect -----> It has been weeded out. I've done several implementation of it. But working on 7.2.2 was pain. I had to go for duplicate Logical tables. Those days it was not a good help too.

----
Update on 21st Sept 2008

MicroStrategy have updated technote last month stating that custom logical tables are workaround to solve this problem.

10 men Arsenal can walk away only with victory

While browsing channels I just was there was a match between Arsenal (my most fav club) and Bolton. I thought to watch it for some time. Gunners were 2-0 down. I've not watched any sport event for long time even though most of time in home I get bored. Got no body to talk about the games so the interests has been killed. it is like, when I used to stay in hostel, we used to watch F1 w/o fail and we would talk about till next F1 race. But here is different story. I hate watching cricket and no one knows anything other than Cricket at FIC.

The slippery defense of Arsenal made me feel very disappointed. Bolton were three good. They were attacking like anything. Constant attacks. That's was a real good match. Arsenal were emotionally down as they were trailing by two goals. Now Taylor missed chance of a hat-trick. Wow.. superb game.

Gunners' capt Gallas put the first goal and they were awarded a penalty, that Persie converted in Goal. But the main excitement was, OG about 10 second the 90 min game time. So happy that Arsenal won. The visiting fans were singing, "You'll never play us again".

Soon after post match stuff, I started browsing channels once again and stopped at History. Babe Ruth's speech was being aired. What a day!!

'Cause it's a bittersweet symphony this life

Trying to make ends meet, you're a slave to the money then you die.

"I must have done grave sin in my last birth that I landed in Bangalore." this would be the biggest understatement that I would have in my life. This city is said to be IT capital on Asia. This is also the worst metro city in India. It lacks everything that you should expect in a such a kind of city. 24x7 clean running tap water, roads, traffic manner, good housing, wide roads, electricity, affordable and good transport, hospitals, police stations, fire brigades, eateries serving at least good south Indian food. It lacks everything.

Life has come to a stand still coming to Bangalore. I have not made any good friend after coming here except a few whom I knew before coming to Bangalore. Two close friends were lucky enough to move back to Pune or Mumbai. But, sadly I'll be here for long time to come. At least employer is good and paying good too even though there is turbulence in USA Real Estate market. No company would take me. I could be having one of the shakiest retention record in India, specially in IT. I know ITeS can beat me by large. A friend of mine has never completed training in last eight jobs in two years, but he is still surviving. I can't survive long in IT if I go this way. Guru, a warehousing professional working with Covansys (ex-employer) for 7+ years, suggested me during my last days, to stick with a company for 3 years at least, else I'd never get good role after having 10 years of experience. I think it is all coming back to me.

I pity myself and everyone who has come to Bangalore for any reason and suffering. May God help them being strong! Amen.

Covansys - a CSC company is cheat

I received the full and final settlement after leaving Covanys (now acquired by CSC, but with separate P&L) within 20 days but the settlement paper arrived there after I moved into rented apartment. Anyways, I received it in my hand when I had gone there to meet my old pals. I was shell shocked to see that Covansys had deducted Rs 10000 (Ten Thousand only) as Visa fees. Not to forget, they refused reimbursement of relocation on the pre-text of not having promised in writing, even though it was said by Chris, the HR person. Secondly, they forgot to pay me the transfer allowance (at least that was given in writing) in time and asked to wait for another month for the same. Now, coming back to F&F settlement thing.

I have sent 3 mails to P Gunasagar, undersigned the F&F statement, about the extra charge for fees and not having my PF account closed and money given to me. So far he hasn't replied to me. I'd never asked for onsite position, never agreed to pay the fees, there is no such a policy that B1 visa fees would be taken from the employee, but still I have been charged Rs 10000 for the same. Even though Covansys gave me best MicroStrategy assignment, it seems more right having left Covansys for HR reasons. BTW, I have left companies only after HR reasons. They dupe employees. I have sent mail with electronic signature, so that in future I can take on Covansys (a CSC company) in court for this. One day I would definitely go tooth and nail to get my money back. After all I never worked for a cheat employer. Let me see if they give it or not. and my PF account is not settled. Some 30K must be lying in it. I had asked for my PF account to be closed, but they haven't done it till now.

BTW, if you can help me to get my money please drop a comment. I come to know about comments left immediately.

Update about Covansys and PayPal.
------------------------------------
PayPal has started its own development center in Chennai in Oct 2007. All the employees of Covanysy on the PayPal project were absorbed by PayPal. But, PayPal work outsourced to various Indian companies still continue. Their MSTR dev still remains with CTS, Chennai. I'll update as and when I have any information.

eBay Inc. and PayPal’s development center are recruiting technical professionals with expertise in product development, software engineering and other IT functions. Applicants can apply for positions by sending resumes to IDC@paypal.com or idc_hiring@ebay.com.

BTW, PayPal IDC is people for position for Director.

No Money

I get a call from mom while having a cuppa coffee with Rohit in Barista at Koramangala that my wallet was at home. What!! Never ever in my life I have left home with out wallet, just like I never ride bike w/o helmet (I'm alive and writing this blog because of that habit). Luckily, Rohit, a CDAC pal, wouldn't mind paying off my bill.

BTW, I went out on a weekend after a month, at least.

5 ¾ hours on phone

I talked from 10:30 (27th) to 4:10 (28th) non-stop on phone, setting a new record.

Constant whining by blog readers

I should make this post sticky actually.

This is a personal blog. I write about my life and stuffs. But after having said truth about Bangalore Motoring Club, there has been a sudden increase in comments. I generally get comments on post related to MicroStrategy. Those who call me ideat, then I must accept that I'm. I've been very truthful to my job whatever and whereever it is. For me work is religion. But I've not been able to smart, cunnin and crooked with people around me in office. I can't be. Not my habit to spend time and eneregy for such things. When people intentaionlly and willfully do something wrong and faced my fierce reaction in life or blogs, they realize it. Being not smart it tue but definately I'm very intelligent and have eyes and ears open. You can't have your cake and eat it too.

About some people hating my feeling against my PM and PL at Cybage.
The day before I put my papers, I had spoke to my PM (Gurvinder Singh Chhatrwal) about lots and lots of things that weren't right. He just gave me smart answers, not appreciated by me. One can be smart with people, but one should realize taht they can't go long with it. Such person are biggest reason behind attrition. I hope most of us reading this must have read famour forward "people leave managaers not organization". That's very much true in my case and 90% of people around me.

All those who have acted smart, I have given them time to improve because when I feel it is too much, I will hit back. But something in my due course of time I've realized it, this kinda behaviors is almost everywhere. I shouldn't be direct. Rather I should try to be smooth (I just hate being so), but I've realized that I can't be it, I'd speak out the fierce words instantly if I don't think something is right. I do think it is foolishness, but I can't help it. But I'm improving.

--I''ll be updating this.

Update on 1st March
------------------------
I'd found on the very next day. IP address of the commenter's clearly indicate one of them was Paramjeet Singh Sidhu (now Param Sidhu). the other comment souce could not be nailed down, though I had suspect.