Has anybody found a way to automate this, or is it just a matter of making
sure that the analysis services data folder is backed up?

Cheers

Brett.

Hi Brett

MSAS is supplied with a command line tool, msmdarch.exe, for this purpose.
(it is located in the directory \Program Files\Microsoft Analysis
Services\Bin\)

It can easily be incorparated in a cmd/bat-file and thus automated, which I
have done myself.

Documentation about the tool is contained in the SQL Server books Online.

The tool can - as the online facility in Analysis Manager - only archive an
entire database. There is no functionality to archive parts of a database
e.g. a cube. This makes sense, when you consider the MSAS data structure.

I wouldn't recommend, that you merely backup the datafolder. Unless you stop
the MSAS-service, you can't be sure, that all files in there are closed. You
therefore run a significant risk of not backing everything up or even worse,
that you get an inconsistent backup. Besides this, the archive facility
(online or command line) heavily comresses your data (it makes a cab-file),
so the archive is significantly smaller than your actual data.

Best regards
Dan Reving

"Brett Martin" <BrettMartin (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> skrev i en meddelelse
newsA77D210-22D8-48F4-861A-7E989406CB33 (AT) microsoft (DOT) com...

Sounds interesting - I simply cannot get the synthax to work though....

In the example it says to put "" around the parameteres - does this apply
when being run in a dos prompt ? Tried thsi sentence but
nothing happens - no error - no backup - no nothing...

msmdarch /a localhost c:\program files\microsoft analysis
services\data\foodmart 2000 foodmart.cab

.....and then tried this

msmdarch /a localhost "c:\program files\microsoft analysis
services\data\foodmart 2000" foodmart.cab

/Michael

"Dan Reving" <dan.reving (AT) magasin (DOT) dknospam> wrote

See the following information from BOL -- Yes, you need double quotes.

Syntax
["command-path]msmdarch["] /a Server "OLAPDataPath" "DatabaseName"
"BackupFileName" ["LogFileName" ["TempDirectory"]]

command-path

The path containing the msmdarch.exe file. By default, this path is:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Bin

Server

The server computer name that contains the database you want to archive.

OLAPDataPath

The path of the Data directory that contains the files for the database you
want to archive. By default, this path is:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Data

DatabaseName

The name of the database you want to archive.

BackupFileName

The path, file name, and .cab extension of the archive file.

LogFileName

The path, file name, and .log extension of the archive log. If you specify
an archive log that already exists, the new archive log is appended to it.
If you specify an invalid path or file name, the archive log is written to
the DBArchive.log file, which by default is C:\Program Files\Microsoft
Analysis Services\Bin\DBArchive.log.

TempDirectory

The specified path of the temporary directory used for processing space.
This option must be specified if LogFileName is specified.

Sample:

The following command archives the sample FoodMart 2000 database included in
Analysis Services.

"\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Bin\msmdarch" /a myserver
"\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis Services\Data\" "FoodMart 2000"
"\My archives\server myserver\FoodMart 2000.cab"




--
Dave Wickert [MSFT]
dwickert (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com
Program Manager
BI SystemsTeam
SQL BI Product Unit (Analysis Services)
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

"Michael Vardinghus" <michaelvardinghus (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Dave Wickert [MSFT] wrote:

I have the same issue as Michael V, where the command line utility just isn't
responding. No log files being created, etc.

I open a command window at the 'c:\Program Files\Microsoft Analysis
Services\Bin" folder.

My command line is: msmdarch.exe /rs localhost "c:\Program Files\Microsoft
Analysis Services\Data" "c:\dev\ae\vhirs.cab" "c:\dev\ae\vhirs_cubues.log"
"c:\windows\temp". Nothing visible, no log file, no Events.

My config is XPSP2, SQL2000SP4,SQL2005 and an anti-virus app (Command
Anti-virus for Windows Enterprise.

Any suggestions/ideas?

Thanks,

Alex

Can you run the archive operation from Analysis Manager? It may give you
a better indication why the operation is failing.

--
Regards
Darren Gosbell [MCSD]
Blog: http://www.geekswithblogs.net/darrengosbell

In article <749DBC89-F760-4524-8D96-B62DDA3D5D60 (AT) microsoft (DOT) com>,
AlexThomas (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com says...

Thanks Darren,

Restoring archives from the Analysis Manager works perfectly.

Alex

Hi Alex!

I got similar problems, but I am trying to get msmdarch running on a
website.
Here is my thread:
http://groups.google.at/group/micros...6788df28649ea3

Maybe we can share our knowledge.
I have found out that errors are fatal. If you use the wrong drive or
anything it does not give you a clue and not an error message.
There is a KB on this:
http://support.microsoft.com/default...8049#appliesto

I have an idea that it might have a problem with spaces inside the file
name.
Furthermore the user issueing the command needs to be in the OLAP Admin
group.

I managed to import it with a batch file, it seems to work better than
just with the command and I check the errorlevel afterwards.
In case somebody is still interested I can post the batch file.
Has anybody an idea on what could be the trick to get it running in my
ASP.NET page?

Nice regards
Werner