Performance-Related Settings

You can customize Hyperion Essbase at the database level, using either the Database Settings dialog box in Hyperion Essbase Application Manager, the alter database statement in MaxL, or ESSCMD.

This section contains information on many performance-related Hyperion Essbase settings. It focuses on general performance rather than, for example, Calculator, data load, or Report Writer performance.

For information on optimizing Calculator performance, see the following chapters:

This appendix provides general-purpose information and does not account for the wide variety of configuration possibilities. For more detailed information on the Hyperion Essbase kernel, see the following chapters:

Table A-1 helps you understand what each setting controls and where to adjust each setting:

*Table A-1: Database Settings and Defaults*
Setting	Hyperion Essbase Application Manager Setting	ESSCMD or MaxL	Default Value and Comments
Index cache size	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 12 MaxL: alter database	10 MB (default), 1 MB (minimum) Recommendation: Combined size of all ESS*.IND files if possible; as large as possible otherwise. See Sizing Your Index, Data File, and Data Caches.
Data file cache size	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 27 MaxL: alter database	32 MB (default), 8 MB (minimum) Recommendation: Combined size of all ESS*.PAG files if possible; as large as possible otherwise. See Sizing Your Index, Data File, and Data Caches.
Data cache size	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 5 MaxL: alter database	3 MB (default and minimum) Recommendation: 0.125 * data file cache size value. However, certain calculations require a larger data cache size. In general, if you have to choose between allocating memory to the data file cache and allocating memory to the data cache, choose the data file cache. See Sizing Your Index, Data File, and Data Caches.
Index page size	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 13 MaxL: alter database	With direct I/O, 8 KB (default). With buffered I/O, 1KB (default and minimum). Recommendations: If direct I/O is in effect, Hyperion Essbase ignores the index page size setting and always uses an index page size of 8 KB. If buffered I/O is in effect, use the default setting. Hyperion Essbase accepts any value between 1 KB and 8 KB, but only uses values of 1 KB, 2 KB, 4 KB, or 8 KB. Hyperion Essbase rounds up the value you enter to an acceptable value if necessary.
Cache memory locking	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 26 MaxL: alter database	Disabled. Recommendation: If you want to give the Hyperion Essbase kernel priority usage of the system RAM, then enable cache memory locking, being careful to leave at least one third of the system RAM for operations other than Hyperion Essbase kernel. Otherwise, disable cache memory locking.
Isolation level	Database > Settings, Transaction tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 18 MaxL: alter database	Uncommitted. See Ensuring Data Integrity for more information.
Commit Blocks	Database > Settings, Transaction tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 21 MaxL: alter database	3,000 Effective only when isolation level is uncommitted. Note: A zero value means no synchronization points; Hyperion Essbase commits all affected blocks at the end of a transaction. If either Commit Blocks or Commit Rows has a non-zero value, a synchronization point occurs when the first threshold is reached. For example, if Commit Blocks is 10 but Commit Rows is 0, and you load data, a synchronization point occurs after 10 blocks are updated.
Commit Rows	Database > Settings, Transaction tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 22 MaxL: alter database	0 (no implicit commit); A synchronization point occurs at the end of a transaction. Effective only when isolation level is uncommitted. See the note under Commit Blocks.
Wait for write access to locked data block	Database > Settings, Transaction tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 20 MaxL: alter database	Indefinite wait (-1 in ESSCMD). Effective only when isolation level is committed.
Pre-image access	Database > Settings, Transaction tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 19 MaxL: alter database	Enabled. Effective only when isolation level is committed.
Disk Volumes: volume name	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 23 SETDBSTATEITEM 24 MaxL: alter database	If you do not specify this setting, the Hyperion Essbase kernel uses only the volume that ARBORPATH points to and fills the entire volume as needed. Replaces DISKVOLUMES volume_name in ESSBASE.CFG, which is then used only for initial migration.
Disk volumes: partition size	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 23 SETDBSTATEITEM 24 MaxL: alter database	Unlimited. (Uses all available space on the specified volume.)
Disk volumes: file type	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 23 MaxL: alter database	Index and data.
Disk volumes: maximum file size	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 23 MaxL: alter database	2 GB
Retrieval buffer size	Database > Settings, General tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 16 MaxL: alter database	10,240 B (10 KB). Note: In Version 4, this setting is specified as REPTKBYTEBUF in ESSBASE.CFG.
Retrieval sort buffer size	Database > Settings, General tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 17 MaxL: alter database	10,240 B (10 KB). Note: In Version 4, this setting is specified as REPTKBYTESORTBUF in ESSBASE.CFG.
Data compression	Database > Settings, Storage tab	ESSCMD: SETDBSTATEITEM 14 SETDBSTATEITEM 15 MaxL: alter database	Bitmap compression enabled. In Hyperion Essbase Application Manager, you use a single setting to choose bitmap compression, RLE (run-length encoding) compression, or no compression. In ESSCMD, use SETDBSTATEITEM 14 to enable or disable compression and SETDBSTATEITEM 15 to control compression type.