IDS Performance Considerations

When developing business models or Cubes for and using IDS, it is very important to keep in mind certain performance considerations. The performance considerations to which we refer here can be found within an IDS task's configuration screen:

1.   Open an IDS task.

2.   Select Edit, and select Next to get to the Options dialog box.

Primarily the Skip Zero, Skip Aggregates, and Skip Calculated Values are the three options you need to be most aware of. The important thing to remember about IDS is that data is actually being transferred over an HTTP protocol from either the local database to the remote database or vice versa. The size and the amount of data can greatly impact the performance of your IDS task. Keep in mind that you most likely want to transfer the minimal amount of data possible using IDS. In bigger databases, by not limiting the data you are pulling back, or by unchecking any of these options, you can be retrieving or querying significant amounts of data from the remote database.

Generally speaking, for best performance, you'll want to check the following three checkboxes in the Options dialog box:

• Skip Zeros
  - Unchecking Skip Zeros will populate rows of data for any zero values that you are pulling or pushing. In the PowerOLAP Model of a very sparse database, this will introduce a lot of extra records based on this item being unchecked.
  
  
• Skip Aggregates
  - If you have a lot of Aggregates in your space or within your region, by unchecking Skip Aggregates, you may be bringing back a significant number of aggregates.
  
  
• Skip Calculated Values
  - Once again, with Skip Calculated Values, anything that's calculated by a formula, by unchecking this option, those values will be returned as well.

Configure Limited Members

After you select Next, in the dialog box to Configure Limited Members, be careful when you are setting and configuring your Limited members. Try to be as precise as possible when specifying these intersections. If you know you only need to bring back or want to bring back certain intersections from certain Dimensions, be sure to limit your IDS task to only those intersections.