Understanding the Compression Dimension for Aggregate Storage Databases

By default, the compression dimension in an aggregate storage database is the Accounts dimension. Changing the compression dimension triggers a full restructure of the database. Essbase requires the compression dimension to be a single dynamic hierarchy. If the dimension has a different hierarchy setting, such as multiple hierarchies, it will be set to single dynamic hierarchy automatically. The original hierarchy setting is lost (setting a different dimension as compression does not return the original hierarchy setting). Attribute dimensions cannot be compression dimensions, nor can dimensions with attributes associated to them.

The choice of compression dimension can significantly affect performance. A good candidate for a compression dimension is one that optimizes data compression while maintaining retrieval performance. This topic provides information about choosing an optimal compression dimension.

Note:

The information in this topic applies to loaded databases. See Loading Data into Aggregate Storage Databases.