{"id":31620,"date":"2015-08-05t15:35:05","date_gmt":"2015-08-05t19:35:05","guid":{"rendered":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/?p=31620"},"modified":"2019-10-18t09:55:16","modified_gmt":"2019-10-18t13:55:16","slug":"clean-pobs-xer-file","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"\/\/www.deco-dalles.com\/clean-pobs-xer-file\/","title":{"rendered":"xer file slow to import to p6? try cleaning pobs data"},"content":{"rendered":"

the other day one of our 世界杯2022亚洲比赛时间 members called our support line with an unusual p6 problem. i’m always happy to help out our members<\/a> solve p6 problems, even when it’s 4:30pm on the friday afternoon before i’m off on a full week of vacation….<\/p>\n

ok. full disclosure here.<\/p>\n

i had already powered down my laptop for the weekend and was just about to grab something ice-cold and carbonated when the phone rang. i was hoping it was something we could solve quick or that i had already written a solution for. i was tired, and it was hot in the office. the patio was calling. this wasn’t how i was expecting to wrap up my week. oh well.<\/p>\n

the call was was from doug (not his real name) from alberta, a 世界杯2022亚洲比赛时间 member who works for a large national construction company…and he was having problems with an xer file<\/a> he was sending to a client. doug’s client was trying to import doug’s xer file, but it was taking hours to import not an exaggeration – doug said it took 6 hours for the client to import his p6 xer file successfully. something was clearly wrong.<\/p>\n

sometimes you get those problems that just can’t stay away from because it’s something you haven’t seen before and curiousity just takes over. that’s what happened here for me. i was thinking “6 hours to import? how can that possibly be?”<\/p>\n

so i made a bargain with myself. if i could help doug in the next 30 minutes (by 5pm), then i would reward myself with not one, but two ice-cold carbonated bevvies. \u00a0i would be on vacation after all and sometimes you have to motivate yourself!<\/p>\n

now doug described his project schedule to me. it was a few thousand lines – not uncommon – and it was both resource and cost-loaded. he and his client were using primavera p6 professional v8.4.<\/p>\n

i did some quick research online about\u00a0slow\u00a0importing of xer files, but there wasn’t any obvious leads there. here’s what i suggested to doug.<\/p>\n

xer file slow to import into primavera p6? pobs xer file data may be the culprit<\/h2>\n

doug’s xer file was clearly taking too long to import. in this case, i can see 2 things that might need addressing:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. the xer file is is having issues.<\/li>\n
  2. the client’s machine or database is having issues.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    my experience is that most machines and databases don’t run into slow performance issues like they used to 10+ years ago…back in the day when you had too many background processes running on your pc and those programs would grind the processor to a halt. so i was thinking there was likely something going on with the xer file.<\/p>\n

    here’s what i recommended to doug:<\/p>\n

    a) rather than use the xer file format, try the xml format that p6 supports instead.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

    the xml format<\/a> functions much like the xer file format. there are some differences, but the project will come across regardless. if the xml file imports quickly, then there’s a problem with the xer file.<\/p>\n

    b) remove the pobs data from the xer file.<\/strong><\/p>\n

    this solution was suggested recently on planningplanet\u00a0where this pobs issue<\/a> came to my attention (and thanks to the smart p6 experts who suggested it there). i’ll outline the steps to easily removing pobs data soon, including a tip that will be a major timesaver, but first, what did doug do?<\/p>\n

    doug opted to try suggestion b). by removing the pobs data from his xer file, we found that he was able to reduce his file’s size from 25mb down to 2mb!<\/strong> wow! that’s a lot of pobs data!<\/p>\n

    for doug, removing the p6 pobs data also reduced the import time from 6 hours to >2 minutes! that’s an exponential improvement!<\/p>\n

    yes, we got doug fixed and i made it to the patio and kicked off a great vacation week. but i’m not finished with this pobs issue. i’m not completely sure why it’s cropping up right now, but i’ve seen enough online grumblings about it to want\u00a0to tackle it in detail.<\/p>\n

    so let’s dig in and get down to the bottom of pobs data and xer files in primavera p6.<\/p>\n

    what is pobs data?<\/h2>\n

    since this is a fairly new issue with p6, i’ve done some homework around the pobs data issue.<\/p>\n

    every primavera p6 database has a pobs table. looking at the primavera p6 database schema docs, pobs stands for performing organizational breakdown structure. the pobs data isn’t used (yet) by primavera p6 professional or primavera p6 eppm. here’s what an oracle support doc titled “what is the pobs table used for and what data is stored in pobs? (doc id 1959228.1)<\/a><\/strong>” had to say:<\/p>\n

    functions related to table pobs have not been implemented yet so the table has not been put to use. the table may be removed in a future release.<\/em><\/p>\n

    if there is data in this table, then it’s probably present in the sample database and not inserted during operations performed in the application.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    that doc says it applies to primavera p6 eppm v7.0.3.0 or later.<\/p>\n

    what are the problems with pobs data & xer files?<\/h2>\n

    another support doc discussed how the pobs table is getting overly large and affecting performance of the application. let’s cover that issue another time.<\/p>\n

    however, at least 1 bug has been logged for performance issues related to pobs data (bug 20800033 : exclude pobs data from xer export & import operations<\/a>), and the bug had this to say about xer import issues:<\/p>\n

    we do not utilize the pobs table yet we export\/import the data from this
    \ntable when completing xer export\/import.\u00a0 the xer export\/import should be
    \nwritten to exclude this data with xer export\/import operations of p6
    \nprofessional.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    so essentially, here’s what we know:<\/p>\n