What is a .axis file in Analysis Services 2000?

  • Analysis Services 2000 running along-side SQL Server 2000 on Windows Server 2003.

    Does anyone know what type of files have a suffix of .axis, and what are they used for? I cannot find any info on them.

    The problem I am trying to solve is a process cube job went from 2 hrs to 8 hrs and has stayed at 8 hrs. The only change I can find is 3 files were created with a suffix of .axis.

    The theory I am working on is the Users or the Application added an extra dimension or something similar.

    Regards.

  • Cant help with the suffix.

    My first question would be has anything changed on the database side that would impact query time? Do you keep any logs of cube processing or dimension processing? I normally keep a start and end time for dimension and cube processing. That way you can identify the little critter that causes the increase in time.

    If an extra dimension has been created surely you can see that in the cube?

    M

    😎

  • Ells,

    thanks for your reply.

    I had already extracted the DTS log out of the msdb database. A number of cubes are processed and each one is showing an increase. The increase is all in the 'Writing aggregations and indexes of Partition '<cube name>' (segment <segment number>)' tasks.

    I do not know how to see if an extra dimension or something else has been created in the cube(s).

    Regards.

  • this takes me back ... 🙂 I think the axis files are related to dimensions, large dimensions. Corresponding with the increase in time has there been an increase in the data volume? Are you partitioning? if not, you probably want to consider it.

    Have you also looked through the old perf docs for 2000? a few links you may already have used, but if not, they were invaluable "back in the day" -->

    Perf implications of the architecture - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa902648(v=sql.80).aspx

    Optimizing cube perf - http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/aa902649(v=sql.80).aspx

    AS2K Perf guide - http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc917609.aspx

    Steve.

  • stevefromOz,

    thanks for the references.

    The data is growing all the time, it is possible it went over a threshold. The appearance of those .axis files on the same night the process cubes job run time went from 2 to 8 hours is a smoking gun. One complication is I was not engaged to investigate until over a month later so the before/after performance stats are gone.

    I do see that msmdvldm.exe process running which implies the Very Large Dimension Manager is active. I might try that disablement fix I have seen mentioned to at least eliminate msmdvldm.exe as a cause.

    Partitioning? Probably none.

    Regards.

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