HI..

I have an setup like
- 2xXeon 2.8 dual-core 8GRAM, Win2003 x64, SQL 2005 EE x64
- PC P4 3.2G 2 G RAM. Win 2003 x86 SQL 2005 EE x86

I don't know why but on the PC the AS is working *much* faster than on the
Xeon system.

Especially designig agregation/creating roles/ creating partitions a.s.o. So
it seems that the same XMLA is executed almost twice as fast on the PC than
on the dual xeon.

On the dual xeon maschine each time an XMLA is executed, one of the 8
(2xdualcore + hyperthreading) "cores" is 100% but all other are doing
nothing.

On the same maschines SQL is running much faster on the Xeon maschine than
on the PC.


Any ideeas?

Thanks,
Radu

a standard MDX query against a non partitionned cube use only 1 thread so 1
CPU.
if you have partitions or a query which ask for measures from different
measure group you should see more then 1 CPU to works at the same time.

its true, sometimes a single PC is better then a Xeon server, but not when
you start to have multiple users or processes.

sorry to say this, but I also found SATA drives far better then SCSI
drives!!!
SCSI drives are good only when the controller has enough cache.
so take a look at your disks and test them.

"Radu Colceriu" <radu_colceriu (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

It's sad to hear that the MDX queries on a single partition cannot be
paralelised

The disk sys on the xeon srv is a FC SAN where I have an array of 4 FC HDD
in RAID 10... quite fast.

What is bothering me are the XMLA commands. For example, saving aggregations
(XMLA) on the PC is almost twice as fast as on the XEON server ... Xeon
2.8GHz, PC 3.2 GHz... so in this case GHz > Mutiprocesor





"Jéjé" <willgart_A_ (AT) hotmail_A_ (DOT) com> wrote

Hmm the GHz > Multiprocessor is not true ..

I've installed the olap database backup on a 2.13GHz, 2G RAM notebook and
the save agregation is still running twice as fast as the xeon server...

the xeon is x64 and the notebook and pc are x86...

Is something screwed up with the x64 version of AS???.. The SQL is running
like a charm on the same maschine.


"Jéjé" <willgart_A_ (AT) hotmail_A_ (DOT) com> wrote

It is not accurate that a single partition query cannot be parallelized. It
is the formula engine that is serialized in evaluating calculations. Some
metadata operations will also be serialized (like create/alter/delete).

However, your description below is a little confusing to me -- do you find
that it is only the metadata operations (create/alter/process) that are slow
on the x64 box. Are queries fast? That may indicate network issues if just
processing is slow...

Are the number of databases on the x64 box equivalent to the 32-bit box? And
the environments? Perhaps Profiler would help narrow things down a little
more.

One thing you could try is to install a new x86 instance on the x64 box and
see how slow/fast it works -- if it is also slow, then that would indicate
an environment/hardware issue.

Also, keep in mind that 64-bit is not expected to necessarily give you
better performance -- but rather better scalability. In fact, an x64
application has to deal with double pointer sizes and this can cause some
perf degradation in some cases. In other cases, the larger physical memory
available makes better caching possible which helps performance of queries.

Thanks,
Akshai
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"Radu Colceriu" <radu_colceriu (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Hi,

The query performance is quite good. My issues are related with XMLA command
execution (metadata operations) like create/modify aggregation design, roles
a.s.o.

The server is dual dual-core with HT .(8 virt exec units). When an XMLA is
executed one of the execution units goes 100% for some seconds (10-20).
For example I've just redesigned the aggregations for a MOLAP partition
using the wizard. At the last step (pressing Finish) the window freeze for
(10-20) sec and the msmdsrv.exe process going 100% on one execution unit.
I've used the management studio on the server via remote desktop.
I've taked the backup of the OLAP database, restore-it to a PC (3.2Ghz P4,
x86) and make the same operation wich there takes 1-2 sec.
All XMLA commands are somehow very slow executed on the server. The SLQ is
SP1 build 2153. The Win2003 OS is up to date with SP1 and all online updates
available.

Thanks,
Radu

"Akshai Mirchandani [MS]" <akshaim (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

It sounds like the difference is unrelated to query performance and disk i/o
etc.

My guess is that it is something environmental -- perhaps you have lots of
active sessions on the 64-bit server which causes transaction commit to be
an expensive operation because it has to refresh active sessions. Or the
cached data on the 64-bit server is much larger and it the commit operation
is releasing memory pages... Or perhaps you have lots of other databases on
the 64-bit server that are not present on the 32-bit server.

Have you tried to restart the AS process on the 64-bit box? Also, I would
suggest taking a look at the event log to see if there are unusual
errors/warnings reported there...

Another option to try would be to rename your current data folder and start
from a new data folder, restore the backup file and work from there...

Thanks,
Akshai
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"Radu Colceriu" <radu_colceriu (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Hi,

Thanks for your replys.

The server is not a productive one at this moment. I'm the onlyone working
on it.
In total there are 4 AS databases with a total disksize of 5 Gb. One of the
datatabses have approx 250 roles.


Thanks,
Radu



"Akshai Mirchandani [MS]" <akshaim (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

I've traced with profiler the XMLA sent to AS. I've modified a role diving
it Admin priviledges. The management studio sent 2 XMLA to as wich total
execution time was around 15 sec. I was alone on the server.
Each execution made one execution unit 100%.

In the meantime the server was not able to respond queries sent to other
database. As soon as the XMLA was executed the queries get answered.

I have AS 2005 EE x64., 2x processor license.


Thanks,
Radu


--- first
<Alter AllowCreate="true" ObjectExpansion="ObjectProperties"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine">
<Object>
<DatabaseID>ROEFIX_PROD</DatabaseID>
<RoleID>Einkauf</RoleID>
</Object>
<ObjectDefinition>
<Role xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<ID>Einkauf</ID>
<Name>Einkauf</Name>
<Members>
<Member>
<Name>RRO\escharin</Name>
</Member>
<Member>
<Name>RRO\agut</Name>
</Member>
</Members>
</Role>
</ObjectDefinition>
</Alter>

<PropertyList xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-analysis">
<Timeout>0</Timeout>
<SspropInitAppName>Microsoft SQL Server Management
Studio</SspropInitAppName>
<LocaleIdentifier>3079</LocaleIdentifier>
<ClientProcessID>2076</ClientProcessID>
</PropertyList>

--- second
<Alter AllowCreate="true" ObjectExpansion="ObjectProperties"
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine">
<Object>
<DatabaseID>ROEFIX_PROD</DatabaseID>
<DatabasePermissionID>Einkauf</DatabasePermissionID>
</Object>
<ObjectDefinition>
<DatabasePermission xmlns:xsd="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema"
xmlns:xsi="http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance">
<ID>Einkauf</ID>
<Name>Einkauf</Name>
<RoleID>Einkauf</RoleID>
<Process>true</Process>
<ReadDefinition>Allowed</ReadDefinition>
<Read>Allowed</Read>
<Administer>true</Administer>
</DatabasePermission>
</ObjectDefinition>
</Alter>

<PropertyList xmlns="urn:schemas-microsoft-com:xml-analysis">
<Timeout>0</Timeout>
<SspropInitAppName>Microsoft SQL Server Management
Studio</SspropInitAppName>
<LocaleIdentifier>3079</LocaleIdentifier>
<ClientProcessID>2076</ClientProcessID>
</PropertyList>




"Akshai Mirchandani [MS]" <akshaim (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

Sorry, I can't explain this behavior... It would appear to be some sort of
locking issue where the operation may be waiting to obtain a commit lock and
is blocked by some other session.

Perhaps you have enabled proactive caching and it is busy doing some work?
When you run Profiler against the server do you see any other activity?

Also, I would suggest that you try my earlier suggestion of installing the
x86 version on the x64 hardware and see if the behavior is similar.

Thanks,
Akshai
--
Try out the MSDN Forums for Analysis Services at:
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This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights
Please do not send email directly to this alias. This alias is for newsgroup
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"Radu Colceriu" <radu_colceriu (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote