When you delete members from an aggregate storage outline, the corresponding records of members in the outline file (.otl file) are marked as deleted but remain in the file. The outline file continues to grow as members are deleted and added. You can minimize the outline file size by compacting the file to remove the records of deleted members. Compacting the outline file causes Essbase to restructure the outline and can take place only when no other users or processes are actively using the database. Compacting the outline does not cause Essbase to clear the data.