Monitoring SSAS cube performance and usage

Amit BansalCTO | Peopleware India (unit of eDominer Systems)www.amitbansal.net | www.WeTogether.in | www.peoplewareindia.com

<about> Amit Bansal </about>

CTO, eDominer Systems & Peopleware IndiaCorporate Trainer/Consultant & EvangelistConducted more than 200 workshops on SQL Server & BI for top notch IT companies world wideMicrosoft MVP for SQL Server, UG LeadMicrosoft Certified Trainer Advisory Council memberSpeaker at TechED India, TechED US & TechED EuropeTechnical Reviewer – MSL courses on SQL ServerSME – SQL Server 2008 certificationsManager – www.WeTogether.in, www.BlogBoard.inPresident – SQLServerGeeks.com

IntroductionWhen you create large, enterprise-scale databases, you may encounter performance problems caused by poor database design or hardware limitations.When you have performance issues, it is critical to first properly diagnose the problem before you take corrective measures.

Shared resourcesCPU

For processing & queryingDuring partition processing, CPU is used mainly to build aggregations

MemoryAlmost all processes within SSAS need memory

I/OSSAS generates I/O operations both directly and indirectly

Using Task Manager to monitor CPU usage

DEMO

ToolsTask ManagerWindows Reliability And Performance MonitorSQL Server ProfilerDynamic Management Views

Windows Reliability & Performance Monitor

Provides tools to analyze operating system, application, and hardware performance.Consists of three components:

Resource ViewReliability Monitorand Performance Monitor

Windows Reliability & Performance Monitor

What do you monitor?CPU

% Processor TimeMemory

Pages/sec is the number of pages read from and written to disk to resolve hard page faultsCommitted Bytes is the amount of virtual memory requested by all running processes

Windows Reliability & Performance Monitor

What do you monitor?I/O

Current Disk Queue Length represents the current number of queued requests to the disk. If this number is constantly above the number of spindles plus 2, the disk subsystem could be improved by adding spindles (to a RAID 0/10 configuration) or by using faster disksDisk Read Bytes/sec & Disk Write Bytes/sec

Windows Reliability & Performance Monitor

What do you monitor?SSAS counters:

MSAS 2008: Memory – Memory Limit High KBMSAS 2008: Memory – Memory Limit Low KBMSAS 2008: Memory – Memory Usage KBMSAS 2008: ProcessingMSAS 2008: Proc AggregationsMSAS 2008: Proc Indexes

Monitoring Processing PerformanceSSAS counters:

MSAS 2008: ProcessingTotal Rows ConvertedTotal Rows ReadTotal Rows Written

SQL Server ProfilerCommand Events

Command BeginCommand End

Progress ReportsProgress Report BeginProgress Report EndProgress Report Error

Monitoring using Performance Monitor

DEMO

Monitoring Processing PerformanceUsing Dynamic Management Views (DMVs)SELECT TOP 10 *FROM $System.DISCOVER_OBJECT_ACTIVITYORDER BY OBJECT_CPU_TIME_MS DESC

Monitoring using DMVs

DEMO

Monitoring Query PerformanceRegardless of the tool we use, trace data is the most important source of information on query related operations.Trace data provides information on the internal operations of the Storage Engine and the Formula Engine, for example showing if aggregations are used or not or if calculations are evaluated in bulk mode or not

Monitoring Query PerformanceProgress Report Begin (5) / Progress Report End (6)

Query (14) shows when the Storage Engine accesses a partition or aggregation to get data. This will only happen if the data required is not available in the Storage Engine cache.

Query Begin (9) / Query End (10) – are raised at the start and end of query evaluation.

MDXQuery (0) shows the MDX statement sent to Analysis Services. For the Query End event, the Duration column shows the overall amount of time taken to run the query and return its results back to the client.

Monitoring Query PerformanceCalculate Non Empty Begin (72) / Calculate Non Empty End (74) – have no related subclass events.The Calculate Non Empty events are raised when Analysis Services performs non empty filtering operations, for example when the NonEmpty MDX function or the Non Empty statement is used in a query, and these operations are often the cause of slow query performance.

Monitoring Query PerformanceGet Data From Aggregation (60) – has no related subclass events. This event is raised when the Storage Engine reads data from an aggregation.Get Data From Cache (61) – is raised when data is read from cache.

Monitoring Query PerformanceQuery Cube Begin (70) / Query Cube End (71)Query Dimension (81) - this event is raised when queries retrieve members from dimension hierarchiesQuery Subcube (11)Query Subcube Verbose (12) – is functionally identical to Query Subcube, but it adds more information about the multidimensional

Monitoring Query Performance using SQL Server Profiler

DEMO

Monitoring Query PerformanceCan you monitor query performance using Performance Monitor?

MSOLAP: CacheMSOLAP:MDX

Summary

Monitoring Processing PerformancePerformance MonitorSQL Server ProfilerDMVs

Monitoring Query PerformancePerformance MonitorSQL Server ProfilerDMVs

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