There's been some dicussion of this elsewhere in this forum, but I can't see
a clear answer. I want to keep an offline copy of my olap db so that I can
'background' process it and then switch the db's after the processing is
done, therebye achieving a transactional update. I don't want to do the
processing in the 'online' version because I'd need to do it in a transaction
which would roll-back on failure. Normally this processing operation takes >
1hr and if it fails I restart it from the point of failure, otherwîse it can
take too long. This copy/synch operation would run every day.

In AS2000 it's easy to copy a db: Just clone the source db, then copy the
data directory and .odb file, but how can I achieve this in AS2005 ? I
believe the AS2005 db synch. operation only works cross-server. Installing
seperate instances of AS2005 on the same server is something I don't want to
consider and backup-restore is way too slow for this operation.

Anyone have an idea how to do a synch/copy operation ? (I can hardly believe
that MS didn't introduce such an operation in AS2005).

I think the better way is actually installing named instance of Analysis
Services. Process the database on named instance and then use
Synchronization functionality to sync it with live database.

Edward.
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.


"Steve G" <SteveG (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

Hi Edward,

I'm asking how I make a copy of a db (including data) on the SAME instance.
In my post I said I didn't want to install mutilple named instances, that was
the whole point. It's because I don't want the administrative hassle of
dealing with so many windows services and installations (I also have mutilple
servers), and anyway its seems ridiculous to me that I should have to create
another instance just to get a copy of a database. I asked a simple question
and that is: How to copy a database on the same instance of AS2005. I'd like
to find out whether it is possible (if so, how), or not ?





"Edward Melomed [MSFT]" wrote:

I know what you talking about.
I guess my "between the lines" answer from below was too much of the
subtlety

Anyhow. The scenario you talking about is not supported. Moving parts of the
data folder is not a supported scenario.

I was hoping to sway you towards the direction of having another instance
installed. I am dealing with multiple instances all the time. I understand
this might be a bit of the hassle. But to me what you suggest. copying files
directly is more of the hack.
Even in AS2000 you had to stop the service, copy the files, start the
service again.. During this time all your users cannot connect to the
machine. So on and so forth.
The solution with Synchronization is cleaner: The Synchronization command is
transactional. Your users can query old copy of the database while Sync is
going on. It is incremental: You can process just a part of the database and
Sync is only going to copy parts that are different.

Hope that helps.

Edward.
--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.




"Steve G" <SteveG (AT) discussions (DOT) microsoft.com> wrote

Edward,

The stop service/copy files/start service hack was exactly what I used in
AS2000 because its much faster than backup/restore. You could also simulate
'incremental' copies if only data changes had occurred.

I agree that the new 'synch' functionality is much smoother, but I'm
disappointed that MS put this 'cross-server instance' restriction on it,
which means that using it for my purposes would introduce some 'down-side'.

So far I haven't got you to say that there is no way to copy a db on the
same server instance. Is it the case ? I noticed that the AMO Database class
has 2 interesting methods: CopyTo and Clone. I expect that clone works like
the old DTS clone, which copied structure but not data. However, the CopyTo
method looks more hopeful. Does it copy a db with data ? I can't get it to
work from C# and can't find any examples either. If you (or anyone else) has
used it successfully please post some sample code.


Steve Green



"Edward Melomed [MSFT]" wrote: