Understanding Data Loads

This section does not apply to aggregate storage databases.

Loading a large data source into an Essbase database can take hours. You can shorten the data loading process by minimizing the time spent on these actions:

To optimize data load performance, think in terms of database structure. Essbase loads data block by block. For each unique combination of sparse dimension members, one data block contains the data for all the dense dimension combinations, assuming that at least one cell contains data. For faster access to block locations, Essbase uses an index. Each entry in the index corresponds to one data block. See Sparse and Dense Dimensions, Selection of Dense and Sparse Dimensions, and Dense and Sparse Selection Scenarios.

When Essbase loads a data source, Essbase processes the data in three main stages:

This process is repeated until all data is loaded. By using one or more processing threads in each stage, Essbase can perform some processes in parallel. See Using Parallel Data Load.

Examples in this chapter assume that you are familiar with the following topic: Data Sources.