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 Component	Key Module
Intelligence Server	Query Execution
	Data Preparation
	XML generation
Web Server	Web processes
	Network
Client	Client 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

Web processes - KB10211: What are MicroStrategy Web statistics and how can they be activated?

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

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:...

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...

Create an alert-based subscription in MicroStrategy Distribution Services

Create an alert-based subscription in MicroStrategy Distribution Services on Web Subscription to a report or Report Services document which will be executed when a certain conditional threshold is met based on another executing report. For example, a scheduled report executes which shows the Revenue by day for the past week. If the Revenue on any one day falls below a certain value, a subscription to another report or Report Services document can be triggered and delivered to a recipient. An alert based subscription can only be created directly on a report; however, another report or Report Services document can be delivered when the alert based subscription is triggered. Note: you need a grid report to create an alert and you cannot create if you want to create on a document with text boxes. The following example will walk through the basic steps on how to setup a subscription based on an alert like this: Follow the brief steps bel...

Apply or Pass-through functions in Microstrategy

Ap ply (Pass-Through) functions MSTR Apply functions provide access to functions or syntactic constructs that are not standard in MicroStrategy but are provided by various RDBMS systems.. Syntax common to Apply functions Apply Function Name ("expression with placeholders", Arg1, Arg2, Arg3, …ArgN) where: Apply Function Name – is a generic name used for the predefined pass-through functions described above expression with placeholders – is the string describing the actual expression or syntax that the engine uses while generating the SQL and which is sent to the RDBMS. The placeholders are represented by #0, #1, and so on. "#" is a reserved character for MicroStrategy. Arg – is an argument that replaces the parameter markers in the pattern. Arg1 replaces #0, Arg2 replaces #1, and so on. There are five pre-defined Apply functions to replace regular, predefined functions of the same type. For more details, cli...

Microstrategy Dossiers explained

Microstrategy Dossiers With the release of MicroStrategy 10.9, we’ve taken a leap forward in our dashboarding capabilities by simplifying the user experience, adding storytelling, and collaboration.MSTR has evolved dashboards to the point that they are more than dashboards - they are interactive, collaborative analytic stories . Ultimately, it was time to go beyond dashboards, both in concept and in name, and so the've renamed VI dashboards to ‘ dossiers ’. Dossiers can be created by using the new Desktop product or Workstation or simply from the Web interface which replaces Visual Insights. All the existing visual Insights dashboards will be converted to Dossiers With MicroStrategy 10.9, there was an active focus on making it easier to build dashboards for the widest audience of end users. To achieve this, some key new capabilities were added that make it easier to author, read, interact and collaborate on dashboards ...

Microstrategy Document Autotext macros:

Autotext code/macros in Microstrategy Document/dashboard This is a list of the available auto text macros that the Report Services Document engine recognizes. The following auto text codes allow you to add document variable information to your document. These auto text codes are automatically replaced by information about the document. Auto text codes for MSTR document/dashboard: AUTOTEXT DESCRIPTION {&PAGE} Display the current page. {&NPAGES} Display the total number of pages. {&DATETIME} Display the current date and time. {&USER} Display the user name that is executing the Report Services Document. {&DOCUMENT} Display the document name. {&DOCUMENTID} Display the document ID. {&DESCRIPTION} Display the document description. {&PROJECT} Display the project name. {&EXECUTIONTIME} Dis...

Create a transaction services photo uploader

Create a transaction services photo uploader 1. Create a new table "photo_upload" in Tutorial warehouse database (the default location: C:\Program Files\MicroStrategy\Tutorial Reporting\TUTORIAL_DATA_7200.mdb), as shown below: 2. The 'photo_upload' table has to be pre-populated with *exactly* 10 rows of data, the values for the 'ID' column should be 1-10 and the values for the 'uploaded' column should all be 0 3. In MicroStrategy Desktop, create a freeform report "R1" based on the new table "photo_upload" in Tutorial data created at step 1, as shown below: SELECT Location, Description, ID, uploaded, numbers FROM PHOTO_UPLOAD 4. Create another table for transaction insert SQL. Make sure to create an 'autonumber' type ID as primary key for this table, or auto_increment ID for different DBs. 5. Create...

Personalizing file locations, email and file subscriptions using macros in Microstrategy

Personalizing file locations MSTr allows to dynamically specify the File Location and Backup File Location in a file device using macros. For example, if you specify the File Location as C:\Reports\{&RecipientName}\ , all subscriptions using that file device are delivered to subfolders of C:\Reports\ . Subscribed reports or documents for each recipient are delivered to a subfolder with that recipient’s name, such as C:\Reports\Jane Smith\ or C:\Reports\Hiro Protagonist\ . The table below lists the macros that can be used in the File Location and Backup File Location fields in a file device: Description Macro Date on which the subscription is sent {&Date} Time at which the subscription is sent {&Time} Name of the recipient {&RecipientName} User ID (32-character GUID) of the recipient {&RecipientID} Distribution Services add...

Star schemas with MicroStrategy SQL Generation

Considerations for the use of star schemas with MicroStrategy SQL Generation The primary characteristic of star schema is its use of dimension tables rather than single-attribute lookup tables. For example, a Time dimension in a star schema may be supported by a dimension table with the following structure: DAY_ID DAY_DESC MONTH_ID MONTH_DESC QUARTER_ID QUARTER_DESC YEAR_ID By contrast, a snowflake schema has a separate lookup table for each level of a dimension. In a fully normalized snowflake schema, each lookup table contains only its attribute's ID and description columns, and the ID of its parent to facilitate joins up the hierarchy. Lookup tables may also be partially denormalized, in which ID columns of all parents in the dimension are included, or fully denormalized, in which IDs and descriptions of all parents are included. Fully normalized snowflake schema: DAY_ID DAY_DESC MONTH_ID MONTH_ID MONTH_DESC QUARTER_ID QUARTER_ID QUARTER_...

No 'Alert' option appear when trying to create an alert-based subscription in MicroStrategy Distribution Services

The 'Alert' option does not appear when attempting to create an alert-based subscription in MicroStrategy Distribution Services In MicroStrategy Distribution Service 9.x and 10.x, and 11.x versions it is possible to create an alert-based subscription. When right-clicking the metric header of a report in MicroStrategy Web 9.0.x, the 'Alerts' option does not appear: Cause : This issue occurs because the user attempting to create the alert does not have all of the necessary privileges on alerts. Fix : In order to create an alert-based subscription, the following privileges are required: In order ti get permissions to create alerts the user should be given the following privileges by the admin: New Version of Microstrategy 11.x: Server- Distribution: Older Versions of Microstrategy 9.x, 10.x etc..: Web Reporter > Web user Web Analyst > Web create alert ...

Microstrategy Analytics

Search This Blog