By Sanjeev Datta, Consultant for PerformanceG2

Last week I started my 4-part blog series by discussing Message Logging in TM1. This week, I will review monitoring server performance using control cubes.
 
Monitoring Server Performance using Control Cubes
TM1 is built in performance monitoring tools exist as system cubes called Control Cubes. These four cubes hold performance statistics for clients, cubes and servers. Once these cubes are selected to capture statistical information- they track changes on a minute-by-minute basis.
 
}StatsByClient:
This cube tracks message count, average message size, total elapsed time and other measures:

 
}StatsByCube:
This cube tracks the memory used for each cube on the server:

 
}StatsForServer:
This cube tracks the connected clients, active threads and memory used for the server.

TM1 allocates memory as it needs it from the operating system (OS). However, when it frees memory, it does not return it to the OS but puts it in a garbage list, which it then re-uses as needed. Accordingly, the operating system performance monitor will not give you an accurate measure of the current consumption of memory of the TM1 Server. From below, the sum of the “memory used” and “memory in garbage” corresponds to the memory consumption reported by the OS performance monitor.

 
}StatsByCubeByClient:
This cube tracks the number of cell updates, cell retrievals, view calculations and view retrievals for each client and cube on the server.

 
Check back in next week for part 3 of Performance Monitoring with TM1, where I will be briefly go over TM1 Top Utility.

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By Sanjeev Datta, Consultant for PerformanceG2

There are multiple ways of monitoring the performance of TM1 using built-in tools. In my 4-part, weekly blog series, I will be discussing some of these tools including: Message Logging, Control Cubes, TM1 Top Utility and Performance Counters.

For part 1 of my series this week, I will be discussing Message Logging:
 

Message Logging

There are 4 internal logging files which act as “flight recorders” for the TM1 Server and can help in tracking changes made to the server. These 4 internal logging files are:

Admin Server Log: The TM1 environment is a client-server environment. As the TM1 server starts up, they register themselves with the TM1 Admin Server. The TM1 clients contact the Admin Server to find the location of all available TM1 Servers. SSL security is established between TM1 Admin Server, TM1 Client Server and TM1 Server. The log data can then be used to track the various Server startup times and the connection with the Admin Server.

Transaction Logs: These logs acts as a “User Audit Log” where all changes made to the data transactions are recorded along with a time stamp. Developers can use this log file to identify any changes made to the data by Users, Client Machines, Cube Name, Element Type and cell number. The level of detail allows to store the before and after numbers as well.

Server Message Log: This log file maintains details performed by the server such as executed processes, chores, loaded cubes and dimensions, and synchronized replications.

Audi Log: The Audit Log records any changes to TM1 objects. Login activities and modifications to dimensions, views and subsets, are all captured in this log file.
 
Check back next week for part 2 of Performance Monitoring with TM1 blog series where I will be discussing Monitoring Server Performance Using Control Cubes.
 
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By Craig Harding

In Cognos 8, you now have the ability to create global filters and shared drill behavior from a dashboard in Cognos Connection. I have put together a video with step by step instructions on how to do this. You can find it at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7ntBdPvtT0 .

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Kirk Wiseman, VP of Training for PerformanceG2

I just uploaded a new video on YouTube which examines the issues of managing Slowly Changing Dimension in TM1.  

As we know, data that we want to keep track of within a TM1 dimension can change over time. For example, sales reps become responsible for different geographies; Products are rebranded or reformulated and so on. These types of slow changes are appropriately named Slowly Changing Dimensions or SCD’s.

There are several types of SCD’s but the two most common are Type 1’s (we don’t care about history) and Type 2’s (we care about and wish to track historical changes).  An example of a Type 1 change would be if a product, say tents, rolled up to a product type of camping equipment, however a change was made to consolidate tents into the product type of Outdoors equipment. In this case, we want to see all data, including history, roll-up to the new product type of outdoors equipment.

On the other-hand a type 2 change would be if we wanted to see the historical data for tents roll-up into Camping equipment and any new data for tents to rollup to Outdoor Equipment. This can be useful for trending analysis, etc.

To watch this example applied to TM1 — check out the video on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KD3QwRHPZ38

For more information on how PerformanceG2 can assist you in your TM1 needs, click here.

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