Introduction

Essbase provides an aggregate storage kernel as a persistence mechanism for multidimensional databases. Aggregate storage databases enable dramatic improvements in both database aggregation time and dimensional scalability. The aggregate storage kernel is an alternative to the block storage kernel. Aggregate storage databases typically address read-only, “rack and stack” applications that have large dimensionality, such as the following applications:

A sample application (ASOsamp), a data file, and a rules file are provided to demonstrate aggregate storage functionality.

Aggregate storage applications, which differ from block storage applications in concept and design, have limitations that do not apply to block storage applications. The following sections describe the differences.