1. Memory Management in SQL Server Analysis Services
Steve Wright
Director of Product Support
SQL Sentry, Inc.

2. About the Presenter
Steve Wright – Director of Product Support for SQL Sentry Inc.
Headquartered in Huntersville, NC
SQL Sentry provides tools to monitor your entire Microsoft BI Platform

3. About this presentation…
We will discuss methods used to manage memory in SQL Server Analysis Services
Expected behavior when applying these methods.
How to monitor that behavior
Examples of Issues when these methods are mis-applied.

4. SSAS Memory Categories
Shrinkable
Easily reduced and returned to the OS
SE and FE caches
Nonshrinkable
Used for more essential system-related activites
Memory Allocators
Metadata Objects
Not easily reduced.

5. Measuring SSAS Memory MSOLAP$SQL:Memory Cleaner Memory KB
MSOLAP$SQL:Memory >Cleaner Memory (non)shrinkable KB

6. SSAS Memory Limits
Used to determine how to allocate and manage internal memory
Configurable with SSAS properties with SSMS or edit msmdsrv.ini
Memory\LowMemoryLimit
Memory\TotalMemoryLimit
Refers to physical memory on the server

7. Memory\LowMemoryLimit
Default Value 65 in SSAS2008, 75 in SSAS2005
Percentage if between 0 and 100.
Bytes if greater than 100.
Refers to total physical memory on machine

8. Memory\TotalMemoryLimit
Default Value 80
Percentage if between 0 and 100.
Bytes if greater than 100.
Total amount of memory the SSAS process(msmdsrv.exe) can consume.

9. Total Memory Limit cont.
If set to 0, SSAS will use no memory for caching
Total available to SSAS depends on platform
32-bit limited to 3GB with /Gb switch enabled
64-bit provides all memory available

10. Behavior – Low Limit Reached
Cleaner threads start moving data out of memory (non-aggresively)
Perfmon – MSOLAP$SQL:Memory > Cleaner Memory Shrunk KB/sec

11. Behavior – Total Limit Reached
Cleaner goes into crisis mode
More aggressive cleanup
More threads spawned
Dramatic performance impact

12. Behavior Between Low and Total
Economic memory management
Memory Price per KB
Depends on amount available based on limits
Memory is free and the livin’ is easy under the Low Limit!
Memory price begins to increase as total memory increases between Low and Total.

13. SSAS Memory Management
Self governing – no consideration for low physical memory conditions
Windows File Cache
Unlike SQL Server, SSAS DB’s are collection of files on files system and use file system cache
SSAS data may be loaded in RAM as file cache
Not part of SSAS process memory or limits

14. Monitoring - Perfmon Memory Usage KB Memory Limit Low(High) KB
Cleaner Memory KB
Cleaner Memory (Non)Shrinkable KB
Cleaner Memory Shrunk KB
Do NOT rely on Task Manager

15. Monitoring Example

16. The Big Picture

17. Graphical Anomaly - Background
SQL Sentry Customer – Financial Services
Beta tester of SQL Sentry Performance Advisor for Analysis Services
Eager to test as they were suffering from SSAS performance issues
Scheduled Microsoft to come on-site to help

18. Common Issues – Graphical Anomaly?

19. Graphical Anomaly – The Investigation
Memory Limit Setting
Configured Value
Perf Counter Value (KB)
Memory\LowMemoryLimit
8192
Memory\TotalMemoryLimit
13312

20. Graphical Anomaly – The Investigation

21. Graphical Anomaly – A Comparison
Before
After

22. The Investigation Continues

23. The Investigation Continues

24. The Investigation Continues
Almost all time spent on non-cached Storage Engine operations (SE non-cached)
Every time query needs data it’s not found in the FE Cache
FE requests from SE
SE unable to find in its cache
Must go to file system

25. Caught Red Handed!

26. Caught Red Handed!
Total Queries shows how many times storage engine went to the file system to read data from a partition or aggregation.
Want this to be as close to 0 as possible.
Exceptions are when Agg is first hit and loaded into cache or cache is cold.

27. Confirmation

28. Could have been worse!

29. Scenario #2
Preallocation

30. Memory Preallocation
Introduced with SQL 2005 SP2 due to limitations with memory allocations in Windows Server 2003
Edit in msmdsrv.ini
<PreAllocate> </PreAllocate>
Preallocates % of physical memory on SSAS startup

31. SQL CAT Tech Notes
Running Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services on Windows Server 2008 vs. Windows Server 2003 and Memory Preallocation: Lessons Learned
Author: Carl Rabeler Contributors: Eric Jacobsen, Thomas Kejser Technical Reviewers: Brad Daniels, Lindsey Allen, John Desch, Wayne Robertson, Kevin Cox

32. SQL CAT Report Summary
SSAS 2008 runs equally well on Windows 2008 with or without preallocation
SSAS 2008 runs substantially better on Windows 2003 WITH preallocation
Essentially equal to Windows 2008

33. Points to Consider
Be sure to set low enough so sufficient memory remains for other processes and avoid paging.
Be sure to set high enough for it to help SSAS
Use peak value for memory counters as guideline
Also applies to SSAS 2005 (no change in code)

34. PreAllocate Pitfall? <PreAllocate> 80 </PreAllocate>
<TotalMemoryLimit> 80 </TotalMemoryLimit>
<LowMemoryLimit> 65 </LowMemoryLimit>

35. PreAllocate Pitfall? PreAllocate does not “override” memory limits
Memory cleaner acts as if all preallocated memory is in use.
In this case PreAllocate = TotalMemoryLimit
Result – cleaner goes into crisis mode
Performance suffers drastically

36. Resources http://sqlcat.com/tags/Analysis+Services/default.aspx
Books Online

37. Thank you!

38. Monitoring
Perfmon counters
Another option!