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What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

  • 1.  What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Mon February 22, 2021 09:03 AM
    Hi All,
    Many customers and partners implement additional functionality not native in the product\service using ExecureCommand via a TI process.
    It's a powerful way to build around the service.
    We'd really like to hear about what Cloud customers (specifically cloud customers) are doing with ExecuteCommand.
    Cheers,

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    Paulo Monte
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    #PlanningAnalyticswithWatson


  • 2.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Mon February 22, 2021 10:42 AM

    Paulo,

    I have used the ExecuteCommand function in TI processes to help with backing up the data folder as well as deleting old backups, based on how many days of backups I want to keep. I've also used the function to help kick off processes when a new file has dropped into a folder via FTP.

    Mitch Dorhout



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    Mitch Dorhout
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    Original Message


  • 3.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 12:43 AM
    HI Paulo,

    Similar to Mitch's usage i.e. making backups, pruning old logs but also use it to execute a powershell script to send email from the cloud instances e.g. error records when a process fails, extracts etc. as there is no other way currently to trigger emails to users/distribution lists.

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    George Tonkin
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    Original Message


  • 4.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 01:15 AM
    Hi Paulo,
    We're implementing a process now to manage the log files with ExecuteCommand. It will be scheduled weekly to compress the files and move them to an archive folder for retention for a length of time until they're deleted.
    Kirk



    Original Message


  • 5.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 01:19 AM

    Used it to run Tis in parallel before RunProcess was introduced.

     

    R,

    Amin




    Original Message


  • 6.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 08:44 AM
    Hi Paulo,

    We're using ExecuteCommand to trigger PGP decryption of inbound files and encryption of outbound files transferred via FTPS.

    More details here if anyone is interested.

    Thanks,

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    Brian Simpson
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    Original Message


  • 7.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 09:26 AM
    Edited by System Admin Fri January 20, 2023 04:20 PM
    Hi Paulo,

    1) Moving files from a landing folder to an archive folder after they've been processed.

    2) Executing a PowerShell script to send emails.

    I had experimented with using it for logging/debug output as well to overcome TexOutput overwriting what is in a file every tab in a TI, but it was way too slow.

    Edit: this is both on Cloud and Local.

    Tom

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    Tom Cook
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    Original Message


  • 8.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 09:51 AM

    Keep them coming!

    Thanks for the great answers so far!



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    Paulo Monte
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    Original Message


  • 9.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 12:15 PM
    Hi,

    I have mainly used in the ways already described.

    Another example not mentioned so far is to grab the last modified date of a file, put that into a cube and then show this date to users, so when they run a process they know the date of the source file.

    regards,

    Mark

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    Mark Wragg
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    Original Message


  • 10.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Tue February 23, 2021 12:43 PM
    Edited by System Admin Fri January 20, 2023 04:26 PM
    Hi Paulo,

    These are some of the things we've generally done with ExecuteCommand, both in and out of IBM PA Cloud:

    1. Call TM1RunTI and/or SendEmail
    2. Perform Backup/Archiving of PA data and log files
    3. Move import/export data files between PA Server instances and across IBM PA Cloud tenants
    4. Perform bulk import from PA to ODBC sources (e.g., bcp for SQL Server), since ODBCOutput is only suitable for a very tiny data set
    5. Call custom command-line tools or scripts (anything from BAT files to PowerShell, as well as .NET, Python, etc. executables) for instance to:
      1. Monitor and perform basic actions (like email or log to a file), with and without PA REST API, based on certain log messages/events, thread locks/waits, etc.
      2. Integrate directly with non-ODBC or flat file data sources (e.g., via a native API for that data source).
    6. Read/log certain host machine counters (disk, memory, etc. usage)
    7. Stop/start other services (including PA Server instances)

    I ordered this based roughly on most to least frequent use case, but I will say that integrating with non-ODBC or flat file data sources is coming up more and more often as an ask (yes, there are many ways to do this, but would be nice to have better options on the PA end). And the lack of an efficient, native PA option for bulk inserting a TM1 extract to a relational database table (vs. having to dump to a text file and do a bulk insert) is another pain point that would be great to see addressed (we logged an enhancement request for this quite a while back).

    I'll close by adding that although Cognos Command Center can be used to do some of the simple tasks above (like file watching & movement) we've typically found that ExecuteCommand alternatives for simple, discrete tasks tend to perform much more efficiently overall, including in PA Cloud.

    Regards,
    Mike

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    Michael Cowie
    QueBIT Consulting
    Tuscaloosa AL
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    Original Message


  • 11.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Thu February 25, 2021 11:01 AM
    Performing backups is the most common but I also have one application where I send emails.

    Mitch

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    Mitch Petty
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    Original Message


  • 12.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Mon June 12, 2023 12:09 PM

    Hello,

    As I understand It, whe are allowed to do anything with ExecuteCommand EXCEPT COPY OR SETUP  our own executable.

    Personally, I run (via execute command) a powershell script that compresses the entire data directory except for the feeders and copies the result to a rotating directory-> then I can have 2 fully backup by day and restore that I want.

    Regards,

    Philippe



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    Philippe CHAMPLEBOUX
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    Original Message


  • 13.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Mon June 12, 2023 08:59 AM

    Hi,  We want to use DOS via execute command to interact with the file system in IBM SaaS PA, i.e. move processed files to an archive folder.

    We're being told this is not possible by support.

    Has the position changed since this post was made?  This thread seems to imply that what we want to do should be possible.

    TIA



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    Steven Rowe
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    Original Message


  • 14.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Mon June 12, 2023 11:54 AM

    Please disregard, working now.....



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    Steven Rowe
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    Original Message


  • 15.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Thu June 15, 2023 04:39 AM
    Hi Paulo,
    in addition to all of the above, we are also using ExecuteCommand to :
    1) Run other tools to manipulate files, for feature or performance reasons (vs what could be do by TI process) 
        a) awk.exe, to create X files from a source one, splitting on data present in column X.
              (for example, I have a file with the 12 months, and it want to create 12 monthly files which can then be imported in parallel)
        b) sfk.exe, to:
               - Sort the contents of a file by selected columns, and optionally removing duplicates lines
               - create another file with only unique values (dimension elements) in certains columns.
                  For example when importing a file uploaded by a user, I wand to clear the perimeter based on BusinessUnit, Scenario and Year from this file.
                  This operation will create a file with the scope to be cleared.
      c) Powershell, to 
               - Get the modification date/time of a file
               - Get the size of a file (to determine if we should split it and import the resulting files in parallel, or not)
               - get a file HASH (useful for external systems that consume files generated by the application)
    2) Run Powershell Scripts (for example, execute the Process Scheduler, passing a configuration file generated by a process)
    3) Execute TI processes 'externally' and wait for them to complete, using ExecuteCommand( '...\tm1runti.exe ...', 1)
               >> in PA Engine, we can/will instead use RunProcess() in conjunction with WaitForAllJobs(). 
                   + it would be nice to have these Wait...() functions available in PA Local, it would make the transition easier.

    Cheers !



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    Renaud MARTIAL
    PA Applications Manager
    L'Oréal
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    Original Message


  • 16.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Thu June 15, 2023 09:31 AM

    Hi Paulo,

    I am using ExecuteCommand here to call python scripts (reading web services and writing thru TM1 REST API and TM1py), calling a python executable created with pyinstaller when using Planning Analytics on cloud (as it is required a standalone in these cases), calling a curl executable on cloud as well, to call a web service. Calling a command to get http status from curl output using file techniques, etc.

    Regards

    Márcio



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    Marcio Costa
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    Original Message


  • 17.  RE: What are you using ExecuteCommand for in the Cloud? We want to hear from you.

    Posted Mon July 10, 2023 11:10 AM

    to do any job that cannot do inside or by TM1 but have to be one package as one TM1 package. Execute command can do anything as long as the command can be executed by OS command line 



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    Veronika Gultom
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    Original Message