Skip to main content

Dashboard performance troubleshooting in MicroStrategy 10



 Dashboard performance troubleshooting in MicroStrategy 10.x

Details of Document Execution Request, introduce the Performance Troubleshooting Cycle, and present links to other resources with detailed steps for troubleshooting specific components that may affect performance.

To begin, the architecture for dashboard execution is diagrammed here:




MicroStrategy Intelligence Server
When an end user makes a Document Execution Request through any client (a web browser via MicroStrategy Web, the MicroStrategy Desktop/Developer client, the MicroStrategy Mobile app, or the MicroStrategy Office client), the request is sent to the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server, which processes the request and prepares the response.

The MicroStrategy Intelligence Server will execute all children datasets on the dashboard by either generating SQL and running this against the data warehouse, or by fetching data from a cache. The Intelligence Server will first analyze all the templates, then determine which datasets the metrics are from, extend these datasets with runtime relations if necessary, aggregate the metric to desired level, join these datasets on the common attributes, and generate the final view.

After final result for the grid has been assembled, the Intelligence Server will retrieve the design structure for the dashboard either by querying the metadata for the dashboard definition. Subsequently, the Intelligence Server will then generate the appropriate response type for rendering the dashboard. For Office documents, dashboards executed in DHTML view modes, and Flash dashboards, the Intelligence Server will generate XML, and for PDF documents, the Intelligence Server will generate PDF. For Mobile dashboards, the Intelligence Server will generate a binary in addition to XML.

When the response generation is complete, the Intelligence Server will send the response to different components depending on which client the original Document Execution Request was initiated from. For requests made from a web browser via MicroStrategy Web, the MicroStrategy Mobile app, or the MicroStrategy Office client, the Intelligence Server will send the response to the MicroStrategy Web Server, the MicroStrategy Mobile Server, or the MicroStrategy Web Services Server respectively for further processing. For requests made from the MicroStrategy Desktop/Developer client, the Intelligence Server will send the response to the Desktop/Developer client directly without going through an additional server.

MicroStrategy Web Server
End users may render dashboards executed through MicroStrategy Web in DHTML view modes, Flash mode, or PDF. When the MicroStrategy Web Server receives the response from the Intelligence Server for one of these requests, it will transform the Intelligence Server response to the appropriate HTTP response suitable for displaying in the end user browser.

For dashboards executed in DHTML view modes, the Web Server will transform the Intelligence Server XML response to HTML.
For Flash dashboards, the Web Server will first upload a Flash dashboard viewer component to the end user browser (called DashboardViewer.swf, by default located here on the Web Server machine: C:\Program Files (x86)\MicroStrategy\Web ASPx\swf\DashboardViewer.swf), then forward the Intelligence Server XML response to the DashboardViewer in order for the end user browser to render.
For PDF documents, the Web Server will forward the Intelligence Server PDF response to the end user browser directly.

MicroStrategy Mobile and Web Services Servers
Dashboards executed through the MicroStrategy Mobile app must go through the MicroStrategy Mobile Server, and dashboards executed through the MicroStrategy Office Client must go through the MicroStrategy Web Services server.
For dashboards executed through Mobile, when the MicroStrategy Mobile Server receives the XML and binary response from the Intelligence Server, it will forward this response to the end user mobile client for further processing.

The Performance Troubleshooting Cycle



The above chart illustrates the Performance Troubleshooting Cycle. The goal of the cycle is to improve performance by identifying which components are acting as bottlenecks, then making the appropriate modifications to these components specifically, the environment as a whole, or the dashboard itself.

Monitoring

The first step of the cycle is to quantify the performance by measuring the time spent in each of the components that are part of a Document Execution Request, as described in the preceding sections. The table below summarizes a few key modules that commonly consume the most amount of time during a dashboard execution:


MicroStrategy ComponentKey Module
Intelligence ServerQuery Execution
Data Preparation
XML generation
Web ServerWeb processes

Network
ClientClient rendering

To measure the time spent in these components, refer to the following resources:

Intelligence Server and Client
  • Query Execution - Reference MicroStrategy Product Documentation > System Administration Guide > Chapter 5 for a complete list on how to monitor Job Execution and system usage
  • Data Preparation, XML Generation and Client rendering - KB30914: Overview of Profiling MicroStrategy Documents
Web Server


Optimizing
After bottlenecks have been identified, certain component-level settings can be adjusted to optimize performance. However, since MicroStrategy deployments will typically rely on third-party components, several component-level settings may be outside the scope of MicroStrategy Technical Support but will nonetheless effect MicroStrategy performance. An example of this is an Intelligence Server may perform slowler on a machine with relatively fewer hardware resources (RAM, CPU speed, disk read/write speed, etc.) than a machine with more resources. As another example, an Intelligence Server may also perform slower on a machine with plentiful resources but many other processes running simultaneously in the background compared to a machine dedicated for just the Intelligence Server process. As a final example, an Intelligence Server and a Web Server may generate a document body quickly but a client browser may not be powerful enough to render this document in a short time period.
To adjust component-level settings specific to MicroStrategy, refer to the following resources:

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Microstrategy Custom number formatting symbols

Custom number formatting symbols If none of the built-in number formats meet your needs, you can create your own custom format in the Number tab of the Format Cells dialog box. Select  Custom  as the Category and create the format using the number format symbols listed in the table below. Each custom format can have up to four optional sections, one each for: Positive numbers Negative numbers Zeros Text Each section is optional. Separate the sections by semicolons, as shown in the example below: #,###;(#,###);0;"Error: Entry must be numeric" For more examples, see  Custom number formatting examples . To jump to a section of the formatting symbol table, click one of the following: Numeric symbols Character/text symbols Date and time symbols Text color symbols Currency symbols Conditional symbols Numeric symbols For details on how numeric symbols apply to the Big Decimal data type, refer to the  Project Design Guide . ...

Control the display of null and zero metric values

Show   Control the display of null and zero metric values in a grid report You can determine how to display or hide rows and columns in a grid report that consist only of null or zero metric values. You can have MicroStrategy hide the rows and columns in the following ways: Hide rows and columns that consist only of null metric values Hide rows and columns that consist only of zero metric values Hide rows and columns that consist only of null or zero metric values (default) Once you have defined how MicroStrategy hides null and zero metric values in the grid, you can quickly show or hide the grid using the Hide Nulls/Zeros option in the Data menu, as described below, or by clicking the  Hide Nulls/Zeros  icon  in the Data toolbar. To determine how null and zero metric values are displayed or hidden in a grid report Open the report in Edit mode. From the  Tools  menu, select  Report Options . The Report Options...

Relationship with Report Filter options for Levels metrics

Relationship with Report Filter options for Levels metrics You can define how the report filter affects the metric calculation. From the  Relationship with Report Filter  drop-down list, select one of the following: • To include only data that meets the conditions in the report filter in the metric calculation, select  Standard filtering . • To raise the level of the report filter to the level of the target, if possible, then apply the report filter to the metric calculation, select  Absolute filtering . For example, the report filter contains the Washington, DC, Boston, and New York call centers, but the Revenue metric is calculated at the Region level. Because Call Center is a child attribute of Region, the report filter's level is raised to the Region level, and the report filter is treated as if it includes the regions that contain Washington, DC, Boston, and New York (in this case, Mid-Atlantic and Northeast). Data from all call centers in the Mid-At...

Managed objects

Managed objects A managed object is any Microstrategy object that is managed by the system and stored in a special system folder that is not visible to users. A variety of objects are classified as managed objects, including all Freeform SQL objects.  Any new object that is created within a freeform SQL report like an attribute or a metric is created as a managed object. When the MSTR is integrated with SAP BW wand an OLAP cube report is created with it, the objects you create to describe the cube are also managed objects.  A single freeform report can result in many new objects as you map columns, the use of managed objects prevents you from having to individually save each attribute or metric that is created. An object can be determined a managed object or not  by the steps below: Open a Freeform SQL report in edit mode. In the Freeform objects folder, right click on desired object and select Properties The in the Properties windows, ...

Retrieve a list of user groups and the associated users in MicroStrategy

    Retrieve a list of user groups and the associated users in MicroStrategy Developer 9.x Although MicroStrategy Command Manager 9.x can be used to generate lists of all user groups and all users within a particular group, there is currently no way for it to retrieve a list of all groups and all of the users in each group. If such a list is desired, it can be created using the Project Documentation Wizard in MicroStrategy Desktop Developer 9.x. Follow the steps below to create a list of all groups and the users in each group: In MicroStrategy Developer 9.x, select 'Project Documentation' from the Tools menu to start the wizard. Select any project that is in the project source that contains the users and groups and click Next. Select only Configuration Objects for documentation. Uncheck the 'Basic Properties' object category from the next screen, as shown below: Then select only 'User Group' under the Configuratio...

Case functions Microstrategy

Ca se functions Microstrategy Case functions return specified data in a SQL query based on the evaluation of user-defined conditions. In general, a user specifies a list of conditions and corresponding return values. Case This function evaluates multiple expressions until a condition is determined to be true, then returns a corresponding value. If all conditions are false, a default value is returned.  Case  can be used for categorizing data based on multiple conditions. This is a single-value function. Syntax Case ( Condition1 ,  ReturnValue1 ,  Condition2 , ReturnValue2 ,...,  DefaultValue ) Example Case(([Total Revenue] < 300000), 0, ([Total Revenue] < 600000), 1, 2) sum(Case (Day@DESC in (“Sat”,”Sun”), Sales, 0) {~+} Sum(Case(Category@DESC In("Books","Electronics"),Revenue,0)){~+} CaseV (case vector) CaseV  evaluates a single metric and returns different values according to the results. It can be used to perfo...

Custom Tooltips in Microstrategy developer and Web

Custom Tooltips in Microstrategy developer and Web The following table describes the macros you can use to customize graph tooltips in both MicroStrategy Developer and MicroStrategy Web: Macro Information Displayed {&TOOLTIP} All relevant labels and values associated with a graph item. {&GROUPLABEL} Name of the graph item's category. This value is often the graph item's attribute element information, as attributes are commonly used as the categories of graph reports. {&SERIESLABEL} Name of the graph item’s series. This value is often the graph item's metric name information, as metrics are commonly used as the series of graph reports. {&VALUE} The value of a given data point. {&XVALUE} The X-value of a data point. Only applicable to Bubble charts and Scatter plots. {&YVALUE} The Y-value of a data point. Only applicable to Bubble charts and Scatter plots. {&ZVALUE} The Z-value of a data point. Only applicable to Bubble charts and Scatter plots. {...

Types of prompts in Microstrategy

Types of prompts in Microstrategy The different types of prompts allow you to create a  prompt  for nearly every part of a report. Prompts can be used in many objects including reports, filters, metrics, and custom groups, but all prompts require user interaction when the report is executed. The correct prompt type to create depends on what report objects you want users to be able to base a filter on to filter data, as described in the list below. Filter definition prompts   allow users to determine how the report's data is filtered, based on one of the following objects: Attributes in a hierarchy : Users can select prompt answers from one or more attribute elements from one or more attributes. The attribute elements that they select are used to filter data displayed on the report. This prompt lets you give users the largest number of attribute elements to choose from when they answer the prompt to define their filtering criteria. For example, on a repor...

MicroStrategy VLDB properties with Hive

 Recommended VLDB Properties for use of  MicroStrategy 9 with Hive 0.7x The recommended VLDB optimizations for Hive 0.7x are listed below. These values are set by default when the "Hive 0.7x" database object is used (set at  Configuration Managers > Database Instances > Database Instance > Database connection type ) Selected Default VLDB Properties for Hive 0.7x  VLDB Category  VLDB Property Setting  Value   Tables  Fallback Table Type  Permanent Table  Tables  Maximum SQL Passes Before FallBack   0 (no threshold)  Tables  Maximum Tables in FROM Clause Before FallBack  0 (no threshold)  Tables  Drop Temp Table Method  Drop after final pass   Tables  Table Creation Type  Implicit Table  Query Optimizations   Sub Query Type   Use Temporary Table, falling back to IN (SELECT COL) for cor...

MicroStrategy URL API Parameters

MicroStrategy URL Structure The following table summarizes the root URL structure used for every request to MicroStrategy Web. Environment Main Application URL Administration URL J2EE http://webserver/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWeb http://webserver/MicroStrategy/servlet/mstrWebAdmin .NET http://webserver/MicroStrategy/asp/Main.aspx http://webserver/MicroStrategy/asp/Admin.aspx Every request sent to MicroStrategy Web calls a central controller. Parameters are appended to  Main.aspx  or  mstrWeb  (in a .NET and J2EE environment, respectively) to indicate to the controller how the request should be internally forwarded and handled. The following examples show a URL for accessing a MicroStrategy folder when the user does not have an existing session. The URL contains not only the parameters needed to connect to MicroStrategy Web, but also the parameters needed to log on and create a session. J2EE environment: <a href="http:...