Tips and Techniques on how to better Monitor, Manage and Optimize your MicroStrategy System
By: InfoCepts Jan 2013
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Brief Overview of InfoCepts
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Helping Our Customers Derive Value from Their Data since 2004
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High ROI DW and BI Solutions Mobile App Snapshot
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High ROI DW and BI Solutions Tips and Techniques on how to better Monitor, Manage and Optimize your MicroStrategy System
High ROI DW and BI Solutions What are the important issues faced in managing MicroStrategy environment?
Why do my Are my reports get MicroStrategy delayed? reports secure?
Why has my report Object Migration performance gone takes away a lot of down? my time!
How are my Has Testing licenses being Automation helped used? me enough?
High ROI DW and BI Solutions “My Critical Reports are Often Late!!”
High ROI DW and BI Solutions # 1 Intelligence Sever or Narrowcast Server running Reports Getting out of memory at the time of report execution Delayed
Avg. memory Required Memory Pro-active alert to required to > Administrator for execute critical Current Memory? freeing up memory reports
Performance Counter Notification e-mail
High ROI DW and BI Solutions # 1 Intelligence Sever or Narrowcast Server running Reports Getting out of memory at the time of report execution Delayed
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Reports Getting # 2 Delay in ETL Batch Load Delayed
Avg. ETL Batch Current Execution Time Pro-active alert to execution time > Administrator on the using ETL tool Avg. Execution Time? possible delay statistics DB
Free form SQL report Notification e-mail
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Reports Getting # 2 Delay in ETL Batch Load Delayed
High ROI DW and BI Solutions “Report Performance Degradation Over Time”
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Report Performance #1 Unwanted Cross Joins in a report Degradation
Enable “Report Job SQL” Statistics DB
Are there reports with cross joins?
Send the list to e-mail developers to review the notification necessity of cross joins
Remove unwanted cross joins
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #2 Fact table is referred more than once in a SQL Report Performance Pass Degradation
Enable “Report Job SQL” Statistics DB
Are there reports with Fact Table count in a SQL pass >1?
Identify and share the e-mail reports with Developers notification
Modify wherever possible
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #3 Too much processing on Intelligence Server to Report Performance execute a report Degradation
Total Report Execution Time Total Report Execution Time
Database Analytical Engine Database AE
Can also be done using Enterprise Manager
For Expensive Reports . Identify reports for which – % Analytical Engine Time > Defined Threshold
. Notify Developers to optimize, wherever possible
High ROI DW and BI Solutions “Inefficient Object Migration”
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Inefficient Object Manual Object migrations across environments Migration
. Developers/Leads create Object Migration Package using MicroStrategy Object Manager
. Create a folder where all the migration packages will be uploaded
. Create a File Watcher script which checks if new file is uploaded
. When a new file is detected, object is migrated to the new environment
. Send notification of task completion or failure
High ROI DW and BI Solutions ! !
Questions / Comments ?
High ROI DW and BI Solutions “Security Breach in MicroStrategy ”
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #1 Duplicate Attributes in a project Security Breach
. Consider an example of Regional Sales Reports
Region Region Region1
Regional Manager East Regional Manager East
• Region = East • Region = East • Location = East, West, North South
. Check if duplicate attribute definition exist using a Command Manager Script
. Remove, if unauthorized duplicate attributes exist
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #2 Use of Pre – Post SQL VLDB Settings of Security Breach MicroStrategy
. Use command manager script to get list of reports where VLDB setting – Pre- Post Statement property is used
. Get SQL of the these reports using Integrity Manager
. Remove unauthorized Pre – Post statements
28 High ROI DW and BI Solutions #3 User is able to view reports that he/she is not Security Breach entitled to
Process Action
First time Project Ensure “Everyone” group is not Migration granted project access
Command Manager Scripts Ensure Folder Access Control List is not undesirably changed by Object Migration comparing with Baseline Access Control List
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #4 Multiple user connection request to MicroStrategy Security Breach Servers in Enterprise environment
. Breach of corporate “Password” security policy
. Monitor the list of distinct IPs for user by executing command manager script in Statistics Database
. Automatically report suspicious activity
High ROI DW and BI Solutions “Manual interventions required while using Integrity Manager ”
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #1 Manual Test Creation for multiple reports in Integrity Manager Integrity Manager
. Create Tests using Test Generator Excel
. Basic input parameters to create a test: . Report List . Server Connection Details . Processing Options . Output
. MTC file is generated automatically
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #1 Manual Test Creation for multiple reports in Integrity Manager
Using Perl Script
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #2 Manual Creation of Baselines for Critical Reports Integrity Manager
. Integrity Manager Executable File is used to run test MTC files to automatically create baselines
. Automate the process for multiple reports using batch scripts
High ROI DW and BI Solutions #3 Manual Monitoring of Test Results to Integrity Manager determine errors
. Write a Batch script to parse Integrity Manager summary XML file
. Automated mail alert in case of Erroneous Test results
High ROI DW and BI Solutions “Ineffective License Management”
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Ineffective License Incomplete view of License usage and allocation Management
MicroStrategy License Manager Report
. Number of Licenses by Product . Users by Product
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Ineffective License Licence Management - How you would like it to be Management
Only 1 license being used out of 10- INVESTIGATE
Admin and Sales Depts are Over utilizing – REALLOCATE All 11 licenses being used- PLAN
User has not logged in for a month - CHECK Over utilizing licences by 1 – IMMEDIATE ACTION
High ROI DW and BI Solutions Let’s Summarize
Topic To-do steps Proactively manage memory availability Reports Getting Delayed Notify if ETL loads are behind schedule • Detecting Cross Joins Report Performance • Detecting Multiple Fact Table references in a Degradation SQL pass • Analytical Engine time optimization Object Migration Automate Object Migration process • Detecting Duplicate Attributes • Detecting Unauthorized Pre-Post SQL Security Breach statements • Manage unauthorized access to reports • Preventing “password” sharing Automate Test creation Integrity Manager Automate Baseline creation Automate Error Detection License Management License Management Dashboard
39 High ROI DW and BI Solutions iManage
High ROI DW and BI Solutions 40 High ROI DW and BI Solutions High ROI DW and BI Solutions High ROI DW and BI Solutions High ROI DW and BI Solutions High ROI DW and BI Solutions High ROI DW and BI Solutions High ROI DW and BI Solutions Presentation Giveaway
Giveaway: Key Metrics for MicroStrategy Administrators
Will be available on Feb 01, 2013 on:
http://www.infocepts.com/microstrategyworld/
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High ROI DW and BI Solutions