I have virtual cube which is built on 5 regular cubes.
Every time I process any one of the regular cubes, the virtual cube is
processed after the aggregations are written.
The regular cube is set for full process and do not update shared dims.
Since I have to process all 5 cubes every evening, this is somewhat
wasteful, but that's not the main problem.
When I process them in parallel, and they complete close to the same time,
the final step fails for all but the first one because the virtual cube is
locked.
Also, if a shared dimension has been reprocessed, the virtual process forces
reprocessing of the other dependent cubes, which also fails because they are
already being processed.
Can I avoid this auto-processing of the virtual cube?
--
Thanks and Good Luck.
Fergus

Hello Fergus,

To understand the issue better, I'd like to know how you process cubs in
parallel? Do you use Analysis Services Parallel Processing Utility? Any
details might be helpful.

If you don't use Analysis Services Parallel Processing Utility (PPU), you
may consider use it to process your cubes.

http://thesource.ofallevil.com/downl...=a2eef773-6df7
-4688-8211-e02cf13cbdb4&displaylang=en
http://download.microsoft.com/downlo...2-ac1d-bc9d047
9fc88/ParallelProcess.exe

I have extracted the following informtion from readme file of PPU:

======================================

• Virtual cubes are now specifically handed by the utility. In previous
versions, virtual cubes looked like physical cubes and the underlying
physical cubes looked like partitions. In V3, the system not only displays
them properly, it now has a separate pass for them.

Requests are now handled in 3 passes: first, all dimensions are processed;
then physical cubes and partitions, then virtual cubes – in the order
specified in the configuration file.
This option is available only with virtual cubes. In Food Mart, if you want
to try this new feature, create a configuration with the Warehouse and
Sales virtual cube. You will notice that when it select it, the form
changes the available options (it no longer displays the underlying
physical cubes as if they were partitions), and the request display on the
main form now clearly shows that this is a virtual cube. If you add another
item, such as a dimension and an partition, you will notice that there are
now three passes. Even though the virtual cube is the first item in the
request list, it is actually processed after dimensions, and then
cubes/partitions.

=======================================

Also, you may want to see "Changing Properties of an Analysis Services
Processing Task" in SQL Server Books on-line, and you might be able to use
workflow of the DTS to control the process of virtul cubes.

If you have any update, please feel free to let's know. We look forward to
your reply.

Best Regards,

Peter Yang
MCSE2000/2003, MCSA, MCDBA
Microsoft Online Community Support
==================================================
Get notification to my posts through email? Please refer to
http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscripti...ult.aspx#notif
ications
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/managednewsgroups/default.aspx>.
Note: The MSDN Managed Newsgroup support offering is for non-urgent issues
where an initial response from the community or a Microsoft Support
Engineer within 1 business day is acceptable. Please note that each follow
up response may take approximately 2 business days as the support
professional working with you may need further investigation to reach the
most efficient resolution. The offering is not appropriate for situations
that require urgent, real-time or phone-based interactions or complex
project analysis and dump analysis issues. Issues of this nature are best
handled working with a dedicated Microsoft Support Engineer by contacting
Microsoft Customer Support Services (CSS) at
<http://msdn.microsoft.com/subscriptions/support/default.aspx>.
==================================================
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.

Peter,
The parallel processing is not the issue. That is just something that could
be made worse by the original problem. In fact, I do not process them in
parallel in the current production environment.

The problem is that my virtual cube gets processed every time I process any
one of the participatng cubes. I do not want this to happen until I am ready
and submit the virtual cube myself, several hours later.

--
Thanks and Good Luck.
Fergus



""privatenews"" wrote:

Hello Fergus,

Thank you for your reply and I understand you do not want to virtual cube
to be processed automatically when any underlying cube is processed.

Based on my test, there is no method to change this behavior in Analysis
Manager. However, you may be able to process the partitions of the normal
cubes independently and or shared dimensions and then you could process
virtual cube afterwards.

I tried to use 4 DTS "Analysis services processing task". The first 3 are
used to process the partitions of sales cube partition and warehouse
partitions. The last one is to process virtual cube "warehouse and sales"
of foodmart sample database. I use "on completion" workflow to make the
process in sequence, and it works fine. The following is the log of the
processing:

8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 *
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 * Processing Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 * Server: SHA-2003
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 * User:
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 * Time Processing started: 8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 * Log ID: 2245
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 *
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 Initiating transaction in Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 Processing Partition 'Sales' Start time:
3:01:32 PM
8/29/2006 3:01:32 PM 2245 Initializing Partition 'Sales'
8/29/2006 3:01:33 PM 2245 Partition 'Sales' Execute : SELECT
"store"."store_id", "time_by_day"."quarter", "time_by_day"."month_of_year",
"product"."product_id", "promotion"."media_type",
"promotion"."promotion_name", "customer"."customer_id",
"customer"."education", "customer"."gender", "customer"."marital_status",
"customer"."yearly_income", "sales_fact_1997"."unit_sales",
"sales_fact_1997"."store_cost", "sales_fact_1997"."store_sales",
"sales_fact_1997"."product_id",
"sales_fact_1997"."store_sales"-"sales_fact_1997"."store_cost" FROM
"sales_fact_1997", "time_by_day", "store", "product", "promotion",
"customer" WHERE ("time_by_day"."the_year"=?) AND
("sales_fact_1997"."time_id"="time_by_day"."time_i d") AND
("sales_fact_1997"."store_id"="store"."store_id ") AND
("sales_fact_1997"."product_id"="product"."product _id") AND
("sales_fact_1997"."promotion_id"="promotion"."pro motion_id") AND
("sales_fact_1997"."customer_id"="customer"."custo mer_id")
8/29/2006 3:01:38 PM 2245 Writing data of Partition 'Sales'
(segment 1). Rows processed: 86837
8/29/2006 3:01:39 PM 2245 Writing aggregations and indexes of
Partition 'Sales' (segment 1)
8/29/2006 3:01:39 PM 2245 Writing aggregations and indexes of
Partition 'Sales' (segment 2)
8/29/2006 3:01:39 PM 2245 Completed Processing Partition 'Sales'. End
time: 3:01:39 PM Duration: 0:00:07 Rows processed: 86837
8/29/2006 3:01:39 PM 2245 Committing transaction in Database 'FoodMart
2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:39 PM 2245 Committed transaction in Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 *
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 * Processing Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 * Server: SHA-2003
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 * User:
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 * Time Processing started: 8/29/2006 3:01:40
PM
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 * Log ID: 29225
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 *

8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Initiating transaction in Database 'FoodMart
2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Processing Partition 'Warehouse' Start time:
3:01:40 PM
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Initializing Partition 'Warehouse'
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Partition 'Warehouse' Execute : SELECT
"store"."store_id", "time_by_day"."quarter", "time_by_day"."month_of_year",
"warehouse"."warehouse_id", "product"."product_id",
"inventory_fact_1997"."store_invoice", "inventory_fact_1997"."supply_time",
"inventory_fact_1997"."warehouse_cost",
"inventory_fact_1997"."warehouse_sales",
"inventory_fact_1997"."units_shipped",
"inventory_fact_1997"."units_ordered",
"inventory_fact_1997"."warehouse_sales"-"inventory_fact_1997"."warehouse_Cos
t" FROM "inventory_fact_1997", "time_by_day", "store", "warehouse",
"product" WHERE ("time_by_day"."the_year"=?) AND
("inventory_fact_1997"."time_id"="time_by_day"."ti me_id") AND
("inventory_fact_1997"."store_id"="store"."store_i d") AND
("inventory_fact_1997"."warehouse_id"="warehouse". "warehouse_id") AND
("inventory_fact_1997"."product_id"="product"."pro duct_id")
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Writing data of Partition 'Warehouse'
(segment 1). Rows processed: 4070
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Writing aggregations and indexes of
Partition 'Warehouse' (segment 1)
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Completed Processing Partition 'Warehouse'.
End time: 3:01:40 PM Duration: 0:00:00 Rows processed: 4070
8/29/2006 3:01:40 PM 29225 Committing transaction in Database 'FoodMart
2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 29225 Committed transaction in Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 *
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 * Processing Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 * Server: SHA-2003
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 * User:
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 * Time Processing started: 8/29/2006 3:01:41
PM
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 * Log ID: 28326
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 *
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 Initiating transaction in Database 'FoodMart
2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 Processing Partition 'warehouse 98' Start
time: 3:01:41 PM
8/29/2006 3:01:41 PM 28326 Initializing Partition 'warehouse 98'
8/29/2006 3:01:42 PM 28326 Partition 'warehouse 98' Execute :
SELECT "store"."store_id", "time_by_day"."quarter",
"time_by_day"."month_of_year", "warehouse"."warehouse_id",
"product"."product_id", "inventory_fact_1998"."store_invoice",
"inventory_fact_1998"."supply_time",
"inventory_fact_1998"."warehouse_cost",
"inventory_fact_1998"."warehouse_sales",
"inventory_fact_1998"."units_shipped",
"inventory_fact_1998"."units_ordered",
"inventory_fact_1998"."warehouse_sales"-"inventory_fact_1998"."warehouse_Cos
t" FROM "inventory_fact_1998", "time_by_day", "store", "warehouse",
"product" WHERE ("time_by_day"."the_year"=?) AND
("inventory_fact_1998"."time_id"="time_by_day"."ti me_id") AND
("inventory_fact_1998"."store_id"="store"."store_i d") AND
("inventory_fact_1998"."warehouse_id"="warehouse". "warehouse_id") AND
("inventory_fact_1998"."product_id"="product"."pro duct_id")
8/29/2006 3:01:42 PM 28326 Writing data of Partition 'warehouse 98'
(segment 1). Rows processed: 7282
8/29/2006 3:01:42 PM 28326 Writing aggregations and indexes of
Partition 'warehouse 98' (segment 1)
8/29/2006 3:01:42 PM 28326 Completed Processing Partition 'warehouse
98'. End time: 3:01:42 PM Duration: 0:00:01 Rows processed: 7282
8/29/2006 3:01:42 PM 28326 Committing transaction in Database 'FoodMart
2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:42 PM 28326 Committed transaction in Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 *
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 * Processing Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 * Server: SHA-2003
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 * User:
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 * Time Processing started: 8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 * Log ID: 5193
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 *
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193
************************************************** ************************
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 Initiating transaction in Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:43 PM 5193 Processing Cube 'Warehouse and Sales' Start
time: 3:01:43 PM
8/29/2006 3:01:44 PM 5193 Initializing Cube 'Warehouse and Sales'
8/29/2006 3:01:44 PM 5193 Completed Processing Cube 'Warehouse and
Sales'. End time: 3:01:44 PM Duration: 0:00:01
8/29/2006 3:01:44 PM 5193 Committing transaction in Database 'FoodMart
2000'
8/29/2006 3:01:44 PM 5193 Committed transaction in Database 'FoodMart 2000'
8/29/2006 3:05:28 PM 10355


You may also use DSO to write some code to process cube partitions/shared
dimensions other than cube itself.

Also, if you only create virtual cube and select not process it, this
virtual cube will not be processed when the underlying normal cubes are
processed.

Hope this is helpful. If you have any comments or questions, please let's
know. Thanks.

Best Regards,

Peter Yang
MCSE2000/2003, MCSA, MCDBA
Microsoft Online Partner Support


================================================== ===

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