Performance Enhancement to TM1 Environment, Database Techniques- Part 2
By Sanjeev Datta, Consultant for PerformanceG2
There are multiple ways of enhancing the performance of TM1 using tools and techniques. This week for my 3-part blog series, I will be discussing Database Techniques.
Database Techniques
TM1′s in-memory or “on-demand” architecture is made possible with the way it handles memory management. TM1 uses algorithms which efficiently compress data to allow large data sets to fit in relatively small amounts of RAM which result in reduced storage and improved performance. This sparse memory management scheme allows the server to hold very large cubes in much less space compared to the same amount of data stored in a relational database.
Below are the Database Techniques you could use to improve performance:
1. ReadersBypassWriters: This is a manual addition that needs to be made to the configuration file (TM1s.cgf). When this value is st to TRUE, it causes a write to the TM1 database to wait until all prior read requests are executed. Any writing requests to the database only begin when no incoming read requests are detected.
2. Locking: This prevents other users from reading or writing to the server while a TI process is executing. This is done within Turbo Integrator (TI) so as not to corrupt memory or cause a server crash when updating server objects at the same time that users are trying to read from the server.
3. Batch Updates: A best practice, batch updates allow you to improve the performance of input-intensive applications by holding changes to cube data and saving those changes to cubes in a single batch. This would hold all edits to cubes residing on a selected server in a temporary storage structure until the batch update is saved. After the batch is sent, all edits are committed to the target server and the temp storage structure is destroyed. This process minimizes the impact on users who need to access the server when the TI process is running. Typically performance by a TM1 Administrator or a process creator and can be scheduled to run as a chore in TM1. All edits that are held in batch updates are not written to the servers log file until you save the batch updates. NOTE: If you lose connection to your TM1 server, or if the server shuts down abruptly, all changes/edits would be lost.
Check back next week for part 3 of Performance Enhancements to the TM1 Environment blog series where I will be discussing spreadsheets.
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