Robert L Davis

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P.M. SQL Server Master Certification Program at Microsoft
Sr. Database Administrator at Microsoft
www.SQLSoldier.com
@SQLSoldier
www.linkedin.com/in/robertldavis
SQL Saturday 265, Portland, OR (11/16/2013)
10 SQL components dont play well together
Database Engine, Analysis Services, and SSIS
Packages are resource hogs
Each one will try to use as many resources as it can
They dont care what the other needs
Recommendation: separate components to different
servers

9 File placement still matters
Separate files to different drives for best
performance
BackupDir
DataDir
LogDir
TempDir
8 Backup the encryption keys
SSRS stores data encrypted in ReportServer
database
Data source accounts and passwords
Report subscription recipients
Key can be recreated but encrypted data will be lost
Import to other SSRS instances to create a farm
7 Warm the cache in SSAS
Run a pre-defined set of queries
Use the WITH CACHE statement to pre-load a
commonly used slice of a cube

WITH CACHE AS '([Sales Territory].[Sales Territory
Region].Members)'
SELECT
{[Sales Territory].[Sales Territory Region].Members} ON
COLUMNS,
{[Measures].[Order Count]} ON ROWS
FROM [Adventure Works];
6 Paging file matters in SSAS
More RAM > large paging file > out of memory
errors
SSAS uses RAM if it can
If available RAM is low, SSAS will use the paging file
If out of RAM and paging file space, out of memory
errors may occur
5 Tune parallelism for high CPU servers
ThreadPool\Query\Maxthreads <= 2 X CPU count
Controls maximum concurrency
ThreadPool\Process\MaxThreads <= 10 X CPU
count
Controls maximum parallel threads per process
Logical CPUs
4 Use partitioned views
Older, static data in partitioned table
Newer, changing data in stand-alone table
Combine with a partitioned view


3 Load balancing SSAS > Clustering
Hardware or Software load balancing
Allows you to process cubes one at a time
programmatically without downtime
Scalable to many servers
2 Dont give SSRS users database access
Used stored credentials of a non-user domain
service account
1 Back up your databases
SSAS databases should be backed up too
Use SSMS to create backup script in XMLA
Schedule via a SQL job

<Backup
xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engi
ne">
<Object>
<DatabaseID>Adventure Works DW 2012</DatabaseID>
</Object>
<File>E:\MSSQL\OLAP\BAK\Adventure Works DW
2008R2.abf</File>
<AllowOverwrite>true</AllowOverwrite>
</Backup>
10 Things All BI Administrators Should Know
Robert L Davis
www.sqlsoldier.com | @SQLSoldier