Slow DB loading

Fabiano Martino
Fabiano Martino Customer
5 Up Votes First Comment First Anniversary
edited June 2022 in Platform
Hi,

I have a scheduled daily procedure to load the data into Board.

I noticed that before running the procedure steps the Board Engine loads the DB in memory.
This is correct, since I scheduled the service restart every night.

The problem is that the DB loading takes around 2 hours.
I can't change the time schedule of the procedure.
The first question is about the loading time. Is this normal or should I review my DB structure? Consider that the DB size on disk is about 6 GB.

I noticed in the Board Server Configuration Tool, General Settings, the Preloaded databases option.
To get more information I looked in the online manual, but found only a reference for the client option for the previous version of Board (https://www.boardmanual.com/prev-man/Chapter_3_-_Installation_and_Configuration_files/Board_client_options.htm).

How should this be configured? Since it requires the DB name I assume it is the name in the C:\Board\Database directory, without the .hbmp extension.

Should I expect any disadvantage by preloading the DB?

Thanks
Fabiano

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Fabiano Martino
Senior Developer
A.F.I.S. G. CLERICI SPA
Italy
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Answers

  • Fabiano Martino
    Fabiano Martino Customer
    5 Up Votes First Comment First Anniversary
    edited June 2022
    Hi,

    I changed the Board server configuration to preload the database.
    Checking the log I confirmed that the database was indeed preloaded after the service restart.

    Still, the database took nearly 2 hours to load and the procedure started only after this.

    Do you have any suggestion?

    Thanks
    Fabiano

    ------------------------------
    Fabiano Martino
    Senior Developer
    A.F.I.S. G. CLERICI SPA
    Italy
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    -------------------------------------------
  • Andreas Rehmer
    Andreas Rehmer Active Partner
    Second Anniversary First Comment Photogenic
    edited June 2022
    Hi Fabiano,

    could you tell my the file size of the five biggest cubes? Also what are the specs of the system? 

    Kind regards

    ------------------------------
    Andreas Rehmer
    Senior BI-Entwickler und ERP Berater
    XAX Managing Data & Information GmbH
    Germany
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
  • Fabiano Martino
    Fabiano Martino Customer
    5 Up Votes First Comment First Anniversary
    edited June 2022
    Hi,

    my biggest cubes have the following dimensions:
    - 720 Mb
    - 715 Mb
    - 535 Mb
    - 410 Mb
    - 335 Mb

    for a total of 2715 Mb.

    The server is a virtualized Windows Server 2019 with 8 cores and 64 GB of RAM.

    Thanks
    Fabiano

    ------------------------------
    Fabiano Martino
    Senior Developer
    A.F.I.S. G. CLERICI SPA
    Italy
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
  • Bettina Clausen
    Bettina Clausen Employee
    Fourth Anniversary 25 Up Votes 25 Likes 5 Answers
    edited June 2022
    Hi,

    do you maybe have a full sparsity?
    What if you export all cubes, clear all cubes (to clear also the sparsity) and then reload them? Does this make your database faster?

    Kind regards
    Bettina

    ------------------------------
    Bettina Clausen
    Team Leader
    Board Community
    Germany
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  • Fabiano Martino
    Fabiano Martino Customer
    5 Up Votes First Comment First Anniversary
    edited June 2022
    Hi,

    during a session with a Board Consultant I reviewed the configuration of the system.

    I removed the preloading of the DB, since this was causing problems to the Board Engine service (it would not accept the stop command and I was forced to kill it from the Windows task manager).

    I also made some changes in the data readers, reducing the amount of data read (from 5 years to 2 years) where possible.

    After this the initial loading of the DB and the procedure went back to normal execution times.

    Thanks
    Fabiano

    ------------------------------
    Fabiano Martino
    Senior Developer
    A.F.I.S. G. CLERICI SPA
    Italy
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------
  • Fabiano Martino
    Fabiano Martino Customer
    5 Up Votes First Comment First Anniversary
    edited June 2022
    I monitored the procedure in the System Administration > Running tasks window.
    I noticed that the procedure reported the status as "Loading DB <DB Name>" for about 50 minutes.

    Considering the size of the DB (6 GB) is this timespan correct?
    Are there any action/configuration I could implement to reduce the load time?

    Thanks
    Fabiano

    ------------------------------
    Fabiano Martino
    Senior Developer
    A.F.I.S. G. CLERICI SPA
    Italy
    ------------------------------
    -------------------------------------------