Managing Concurrent Access for Users

Essbase uses the block locking system to manage concurrent access to users. This system ensures that only one user at a time can update or calculate a particular data block. How Essbase handles locking blocks and committing data depends on the isolation level setting.

When Essbase calculates a data block, it creates an exclusive lock; other users cannot update or calculate it, but they can have read-only access. When Essbase finishes the calculation, it releases the block. Other users can then update the block if they have the appropriate security access.

When a user is updating a data block, the block is locked. If a database calculation requires a data block that is being updated by another user, the calculation waits for one of the following conditions:

Essbase does not provide a message to say that the calculation is waiting for the data block to be released.

You can prevent calculation delays caused by waiting for locked blocks by using Essbase security options to do either of the following:

For information about security options, see Disconnecting Users and Terminating Requests in Essbase Native Security Mode and Managing Passwords and User Names in Essbase Native Security Mode.

For information on how Essbase handles locks and transactions, see Understanding How Essbase Handles Transactions and Data Locks.

Note:

When Essbase locks a block for calculation, it does not put an exclusive lock on the dependent child blocks, so another user can update values in the child blocks. If necessary, you can use the above security options to prevent such updates.