Top SSAS Commands for SQL Server Analysis Services

What are SentryOne Top Commands?

The SQL Sentry Top Commands tab shows SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) query-level collection and any MDX, DAX, or XMLA commands that have run longer than one second. All the like queries have been rolled up and grouped together so that you can see their total impact. Top Commands is one of many features in SQL Sentry that helps you identify and address performance problems with SSAS.

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Are you frustrated by slow performance of SQL Server Analysis Services?

If your database performance is slow, the culprit could be SSAS. But troubleshooting SSAS is notoriously challenging.

As a DBA, you can use SQL Server Profiler to capture and analyze trace events that are generated by their SSAS instance. You can also use Perfmon to track server and process performance and activity.

But can you continuously monitor all these events and store them for historical investigation?

To get to the root of SSAS performance problems, you need the ability to go back to any point in time to see how specific events performance.

Did MDX queries or XMLA commands execute?
Do your queries need optimized?
Do you have a performance bottleneck in the Storage Engine?

To accelerate your SSAS Multidimensional or Tabular environment performance, look no further than SSAS performance monitoring capabilities in SQL Sentry.

The SQL Sentry Performance Analysis Dashboard helps you drill down into performance details, including Top Commands, to resolve performance problems with SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS).

SQL Sentry Top Commands for Analyzing SSAS Trace Events

The Top Command tab in the SQL Sentry Performance Analysis Dashboard provides granular insight into what's going on in your SSAS instance. SQL Sentry captures MDX, DAX, DMX and XMLA commands that are running in your environment.

You can set the thresholds for collecting these commands, which by default are set to a minimum duration of one second.

You can view the runtime statistics for any command and look at:

Queries currently running on the SSAS server
Queries that were collected if they exceeded a minimum threshold
Completed queries that were collected according to a date and time range

By looking at these commands and their associated resource utilization, including CPU, Formula Engine, Storage Engine, Processing, and SQL Query times, you can determine which statements are having the most impact on the performance of your monitored SSAS server.

Because of the way the data is stored in SSAS in Multidimensional and Tabular modes, the Top Command tab in SQL Sentry shows mode-specific performance counter information.

The Top Commands tab also displays the command text associated with each query in a separate window.

This two-minute video walks through the Top Commands tab in SQL Sentry, which displays relevant metrics you need to find and fix SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) performance problems.

What You Can Do with Top Commands

The Top Commands tab supports SSAS Multidimensional and Tabular modes
Analyzes the performance of MDX, DAX, and XMLA commands
Collects and groups SQL Server Profiler trace events by event class, e.g., Command Begin/End and Query Begin/End
Filters events by minimum query duration time and others
Allows you to view both running and completed queries
Enables you to drill down to individual queries and analyze relevant performance counters
And more

More about Top Commands

More resources

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SSAS Top Commands

See the Total Impact of Your MDX, DAX, or XMLA Commands