PAfE 2.0.90 introduces support for Universal Reports (long awaited!) The configuration instructions mention the TM1 Evaluation Service. What is it and what does it do? Why does Universal Reports need another component? The incremental complexity (bugs, upgrades, crashes, install, etc) introduced by new service just to support a new report type seems out of place. 

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/planning-analytics/2.0.0?topic=reports-configure-evaluationservice-distributed-tm1-deployments

Thanks for this post. I also don't like nor understand the approach adding another dependency for Universal Report. In evalservice_config.xml - is it really required to add a configuration for every single TM1 database? 

Would be great to get some more information here. Thank you!

According to the product documentation, the Evaluation Services must be configured when the TM1 Admin Server and the TM1 server instances are not running on the same machine. As in the TM1 server instances are configured to use a TM1 Admin Server running on a remote machine. When the TM1 server instances are configured to use a local TM1 Admin Server, one running on the same machine as the TM1 server instances, the Evaluation Service is not needed.  

Links:

https://www.ibm.com/docs/en/planning-analytics/2.0.0?topic=reports-configure-evaluationservice-distributed-tm1-deployments
Configure the EvaluationService for distributed TM1 deployments

About this task
Note, you need to configure the EvaluationService only for deployments that use the distributed TM1 environment. A distributed TM1 environment is one in which independent TM1 servers run on multiple logical hosts that are distinct from the admin host.

I had a call 2 days ago with IBM and they confirmed that you only need to configure the Evaluation Service when the admin host and the tm1 server are on different machines.

@Ted Phillips could you provide some insight on this topic?

Hey Ryan,

I see this post now, and will provide a remark.
I'm off today but wanted to ping here so you know it's on my radar. It's a great topic.

Also will chime in real quick to check out the other semi-related threads; being new UR's has initiated a lot of questions, some unfounded (ex: you do not need a TM1 upgade to use it, barring the platforms where PA service updates are co-delivered as a bundle. similarly, you do not need to adjust any Eval Service configuration for most typical PA deployments)

Also, I'll point out the hopefully obvious that We're watching all the questions/topics coming up very closely and will improve the documentation and such further.