Dimension Build Limit

To build the outline by using a dimension build, Essbase allocates about 100 bytes per member, plus the size of the member name, plus the size of all alias names for the member (up to 10 aliases are allowed).

For a sample outline (using a single byte codepage) where the average member name is 15 characters and there is one alias (of 20 characters) per member, the memory requirement for each member that is added:

100 + 15 + 20 bytes = 135 bytes

The total number of members that can be added in a dimension build is the available memory (1.46 GB, or 153,092,060 bytes) divided by the number of bytes per member (135), approximately 11 million members.

On systems with more than 2 GB of addressable memory, the outline can be larger in proportion to the extra memory that is available.

When the dimension build is complete, a dbname.otn file is saved in the database directory. The .otn file is used as input for the outline restructuring process, which replaces the old outline with the new one. During restructuring, two copies of the outline are loaded into memory, the old one (potentially empty), and the new one, so the maximum size of an outline that can be restructured depends on the size of the old outline.

In a dimension build, which starts with an empty outline, only one outline is loaded into memory.