Using VALIDATE to Check Integrity

The VALIDATE command performs many structural and data integrity checks:

Note:

When you issue the VALIDATE command, we recommend placing the database in read-only mode.

As Essbase encounters mismatches, it records error messages in the VALIDATE error log. You can specify a file name for error logging; Essbase prompts you for this information if you do not provide it. The VALIDATE utility runs until it has checked the entire database.

You can use the VALIDATE command in ESSCMD to perform these structural integrity checks.

During index free space validation, the VALIDATE command verifies the structural integrity of free space information in the index. If integrity errors exist, Essbase records them in the VALIDATE log. The file that you specified on the VALIDATE command holds the error log.

If VALIDATE detects integrity errors regarding the index free space information, the database must be rebuilt. You can rebuild in three ways:

See Optimizing Database Restructuring and the Oracle Hyperion Enterprise Performance Management System Backup and Recovery Guide.

Even if you do not use VALIDATE, Essbase automatically performs certain validity checking whenever a read operation is performed, to ensure that the index is synchronized with the data.

For every read operation, Essbase compares the data block key in the index page with the data block key in the corresponding data block and checks other header information in the block.

If Essbase encounters a mismatch, it displays an “Invalid block header” error message.