Introduction

The last chapter in this book is very special. We're going to talk about some topics which didn't fit into the previous chapters; topics where MDX mixes with other areas, such as performance tuning, executing MDX queries in T-SQL environment, using SSAS Dynamic Management Views (DMVs) to query metadata of a cube, and SSAS's internal performance and resource. These areas will expand our horizon and motivate us to explore more.

We're starting with clearing the cache. Clearing the cache is an important technique when doing performance tuning – queries that run for a long time on a cold cache, may be instant on a warm cache. To measure the effect of any changes you make to your cube or MDX calculations, having the same initial conditions is a must. The first recipe covers two techniques for clearing the cube cache, executing XMLA command, and using a stored procedure from the Analysis Services Stored Procedure Project (ASSP). The procedure from the ASSP project can clear both the...