Does 32-bit Yukon still have the 3GB limit for MSOLAP ?

Yes, meaning that SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services is not AWE-aware.
We actually have 3 versions; one with plain-old-vanilla 32-bit (3GB limit);
a new one with native x64 support and virtually unlimited virtural address
space; and one with ia64 (same HUGE virtual address space availability).

Also, memory pressure on SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services is much less than
with 2000 because we have both a data cache and a dimension member cache.
This means that we don't need to have all dimensions members loaded at
startup. And thus we can build many large systems on 32-bit (even with only
3GB) which would have only been possible with 2000 using 64-bit.

For example with Project REAL
(http://www.microsoft.com/sql/bi/ProjectREAL/) -- I am on that team here at
Microsoft, -- we have a customer dimension of 6+ million and a product
dimension with 7+ million and are easily building it on a 32-bit system with
3GB (and lots of other databases on the same system :-)
--
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.


"Steve" <stephen_kirk_2001 (AT) hotmail (DOT) com> wrote

Dave

Many thanks for the update. I had been suffering from problems with
large dimensions in SQL 2K. This is a good reason to justify to
our management to go for iA64 also it brings Analysis Services to
the same level playing field as the other UNIX based solutions in large
scale solution scalability. We can easily justify going to iA64 the
large
dimensions was our biggest nightmare.

Thanks
Karen

In my mind, strategically, there are two paths to take:
1) If remaining on SQL Server 2000 for an extended period of time (more than
a year more), then you have two options: going to x64 (with SP4 you can get
4GB -- up from 3GB) or ia64 (for unlimited)
2) If going into Yukon quickly, for unlimited memory support, x64 and ia64
have virtually the same capabilities -- probably more software will be
available with x64 (i.e. data adaptors, ODBC drivers, that kind of thing)

I think in the commodity server hardware the picture is pretty clear. x64
will be virtually EVERWHERE within the next year or so. It would surprise me
greatly if you will be able to puchase a plain old 32-bit only server much
more than the next year. And on the software side, virturally anything that
won't have a native 64-bit application will support x64 under WOW. The
competitive picture between Intel and AMD means that, in my opinion, that
x64 is clearly headed into the mainstream.

The ia64 picture is a bit more unclear. Software isn't nearly as available.
WOW support isn't happening at all. It is a *very* nice hardware platform
(but then again so was the Alpha), but I don't have a crystal ball for its
long-term viability.

--
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.


<karenmiddleol (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Thanks Dave

We are not too fussy on iA64 or x64. The reason we were looking at
iA64 was Intel and HP painted longtime ago iA64 as the future
strategic platform. If x64 AMD and Intel vie in that space will drive
down prices and adoption rapidly.

Could you kindly please provide a link to what you said additional
data adaptors, ODBC drivers where can we get this information is there
a URL where we can find new data adaptors and ODBC drivers will
be available.

Thanks
Karen

We talk about the issue in this white paper:
"Microsoft SQL Server 2000 (64-bit) Analysis Services: Why Migrate, and What
to Expect If You Do"
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../ansvcs64.mspx

Here is the section:
"Lastly, do not commit to migration before you have all of the prerequisite
components available and in-place for a complete 64-bit system. For example:

. Do you have access to 64-bit OLE DB providers for all of your data
sources? SQL Server 2000 (64-bit) includes a 64-bit OLE DB provider for SQL
Server. If you are using other RDBMS products, such as Oracle, DB2,
Informix, or others, to load data directly into Analysis Services, you need
to verify that the prerequisite OLE DB providers are available.

. Do you have any user-defined functions (UDFs) or other components
written in Microsoft Visual Basic®? Not all software available for a 32-bit
platform is available for the 64-bit platform. A notable case-in-point is
Visual Basic 6, which is not available in 64-bit. You should verify this in
Analysis Services, SQL Server, and all other software that you will be using
on the 64-bit system.

. Is it a requirement to run Data Transformation Services (DTS) on the
64-bit system? The DTS runtime and its designer tools are not available on
the 64-bit platform. You can read data from and write data to a 64-bit
system from a 32-bit system running DTS, and you can physically store your
DTS packages in a 64-bit SQL Server database. But the DTS packages
themselves will not run on the 64-bit platform."

The issue is that AS loads its data through a 64-bit OLEDB provider.
Since many of these are not available on ia64 (including the OLEDB to ODBC
provider, thus you cannot use any ODBC drivers), you need to progress
carefully if you are in a non-SQL Server only environment. If you are in a
SQL Server only environment, then will have no problems.



--
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.


<karenmiddleol (AT) yahoo (DOT) com> wrote

Dave

Many thanks for taking time to explain the issues around the upgrade.

At present our only primary data source to Analysis Services is SQL 2K
we get all non-SQL Server data into the SQL 2K data mart database and
from there all the cubes are built.

So I guess since our only interface between Analysis Services and the
datawarehouse is through the SQL 2L data mart I guess this SQL2K OLEDB
driver will be available in x64 this is the only concern.

We use tools like Data Analyser, Excel Pivot reports, Reporting
services
and ThinSlicer I guess all of these would continue to work on x64. From
what I learnt all x32 will run in emulation mode on x64 if not natively

recompiled - not too much of a hassle from performance our critical
point is the large cube and dimension support we can get on x64.

Thanks
Karen