When activating the Analysis Server Startup Group of performance counters I
can see a counter telling me

Analysis Server:Startup\Total bytes - on my machine it says: 101617089 -
that would mean about 100 mb - how can I use this ? I was hoping to have
some detailed information on what in AS that fills up memory - for instance
I have some dimension tables with 20-30.000 members - and 6-7 hierachies -
would like to have these listed one by one - isn't that possible ?

If not can I co a calculation myself from some kind of formula to get an
idea ... ?

/Michael V.

Opps...was a lot info in this

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/d...reskit/en-us/p
art6/c2661.mspx

It says app 125 bytes per member + member prop

So that means a dimension with about 20.000 members would be about 2,5 mb ?
That is close to nothing...

A question about the Query results cache....will this be flushed when
restarting AS / The Server ?


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

This is discussed in great detail in the SSAS Performance Guide
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../ansvcspg.mspx
in the section titled: "How Analysis Services Uses and Manages Memory"

The bottom line is that there are more variables associated with memory
usage besides the items you mentioned below.

However, I'll be honest with you, there has been great discussions within
the product group whether (and under what circumstances) this equation
holds. Rather than this formula, we here on the BI Practices Team advocate a
more practical approach. Suppose that you want to estimate the amount of
memory usage for 100,000 member dimension. We have found that the memory
utilization is roughly linear. So what we recommend is doing something like:

1) using task mgr establish the virtual memory usage of the msmdsrv process
once the system stabiliizes after a service restart.
2) process the dimension with 1000 members; then for 2000 members; then for
5000 members (roughly 1-5% of the total). Each time, recording the virtual
memory after the msmdsrv process stabilizes.
3) based on these data points, you should have linear memory usage out to
your final count (100,000).

We've used this approach out even for 50 million member dimensions on large
64-bit servers very successfully.
http://www.microsoft.com/technet/pro.../64btdwc4.mspx
See the linear chart for figure 11 -- and the paragraph immediately below
the chart itself.

I think you will find it to be a much more reliable approach.

Hope that helps.
--
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

Thanks a lot Dave - that was extremely helpful - one more thing:

I actually don't yet quite get the memory information in the Task manager -
not just related to AS - but if I take mem usage for all processes it would
be about 400 - 500 mb but the usage is 1,2 gb....

This is on a fresh machine where the sql server service was stopped and
started but not AS and not Targit (front end which also has a server
service).

Is this normal ? Is it because I cannot see how much the operating system
takes ? That could'nt just be it - two days ago the normal level after a
fresh sql server was about 0,8 gb and no it's about 1,2 gb...

I'm gonna contact Targit to get their input as well but can you tell if the
msmdsrv.exe which takes up about 100 mb is telling the whole truth ? Is
everything contained in this number ?

Could i Schedule a stop and start of AS as well....?


"Dave Wickert [MSFT]" <dwickert (AT) online (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

when you look at Task Manager, and it says 1.2gb-- 'MEM Usage' has to do
with the combination of Physical Memory and Virtual Memory.

Select the processes tab, and then <VIEW><SELECT COLUMNS><VIRTUAL MEMORY
SIZE>

That is probably why you're confused (how adding everything up equals
400-500mb, but it says 1.2gb used)

-Aaron




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