Updating and Rebuilding Shared Dimensions

Analysis Services

Analysis Services

Updating and Rebuilding Shared Dimensions

After you update a shared dimension or its table, you must process it. You can process a shared dimension in the following ways:

  • Incremental update

    Processes the addition of members (that is, rows) to the dimension table. This method does not process changes to a dimension's structure or relationships among members.

  • Rebuild the dimension structure

    Processes changes to a dimension's structure such as adding, deleting, or moving a level. This method also processes changes to member relationships such as moving a member from one parent member to another.

Exceptions are changing dimensions, which do not always require processing by the second method after changes to the dimension's structure or changes to member relationships. Changing dimensions include virtual, parent-child, and relational OLAP (ROLAP) dimensions. For more information, see Changing Dimensions.

Important  When a shared dimension is processed with the Rebuild the dimension structure option, all cubes that incorporate the shared dimension immediately become unavailable to users and must be processed before they can be used again.

Caution  If a shared dimension's structure is updated and saved but not processed, it will automatically be processed when any cube incorporating the dimension is processed. At that time any other cubes that incorporate the dimension immediately become unavailable to users and must be processed before they can be used again.

To incrementally update a shared dimension or rebuild a shared dimension's structure, use the Process a Dimension and Process dialog boxes.

To incrementally update a shared dimension