Avoid specifying ROLAP storage mode or enabling proactive caching with the OnlineMode property set to Immediate for dimensions containing either unary operators or custom rollups

This rule analyzes database dimensions to determine which ones contain either unary operators or custom rollups, and meet one of the following conditions:

• The dimension has ROLAP storage specified.

• The dimension has proactive caching enabled, and the proactive caching settings have the OnlineMode property set to Immediate.

Best Practices Recommendations

For best performance, you should typically use MOLAP storage for all database dimensions that contain unary operators or custom rollups. If you enable proactive caching on the dimension, you should also avoid proactive caching settings that enable the dimension to enter the ROLAP mode. (That is, avoid setting the OnlineMode property to Immediate.)

If you specify ROLAP storage for the dimension, the slower performance of ROLAP combined with the computational intensiveness of unary operators and custom rollups could significantly slow performance.

For More Information

For more information about how to configure proactive caching, see Proactive Caching in SQL Server Books Online.

For more information about performance issues related to proactive caching, see the section, "Near real-time data refreshes," in the SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Performance Guide.