As I had mentioned in a previous blog (Creating and processing an Analysis Services partition), instead of processing an entire partition, you can process just the indexes. Processing measure group indexes will improve performance of your cubes! In this blog, I am going to walk you through processing the index of a sample cube built using the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 database.
Step 1: Connect up to your Analysis Services using SSMS
So, let’s fire up SQL Server Management Studio and bet started. When the Connect to Server dialog box comes up, be sure to choose Analysis Services as the Server type and enter the name of the analysis services server, as shown below.
Step 2: Drill down into your Measure Group
Using the Object Explorer, drill down into a measure group as shown below. Again, in my example, I am using a sample cube that I built. Notice that I have an Internet Sales measure group and a Reseller Sales measure group.
Step 3: Process Measure Group Submenu Option
Right Click on the Measure Group and choose Process as shown in the sub menu below. In this example, I have chosen to reprocess my Internet Sales measure group.
Step 4: Change Processing Options to “Process Index”
The default processing option is “Process Full”. Update the Process Options by selecting the down arrow and then choosing “Process Index” as depicted in my screenshot with a red square and yellow highlight.
Now all that you need to do is just click OK and analyis services will begin processing the index. If all goes well, you should see something similar to below. Note that this could take a while if the index is large, so please do not test this out for the first time on your production server. J
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Brian K. McDonald, MCDBA, MCSD
Business Intelligence Consultant – Pragmatic Works
Email: bmcdonald@pragmaticworks.com
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