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Defining cube refresh schedules


For each IBM Alphablox cube, you can define a schedule for refreshing its data from the underlying database.

If the data in the relational database that underlies a IBM Alphablox cube changes, any data cached in a IBM Alphablox cube might be stale. When the data becomes stale, you should rebuild the cube to guarantee that answers derived from the IBM Alphablox cube are correct with respect to the underlying database. You can manually rebuild the cube, which rebuilds the dimensions and empties the in-memory cache, by either stopping and restarting the IBM Alphablox cube or using the REBUILD CUBE <cube_name> console command. Alternatively, if the dimensions have not changed but new or changed data has been added to the database, you can manually empty only the in-memory cache by using the EMPTYCACHE <cube_name> console command.

If the underlying database is updated at regular and predictable intervals, it might make sense to schedule regular updates to the IBM Alphablox cube that references that database. For example, if the database is updated every night at 9:00 PM, you might want to rebuild the IBM Alphablox cube every morning at 3:00 AM.

To configure a IBM Alphablox cube to rebuild itself at regular intervals:

  1. Log into the IBM Alphablox home page as the admin user or as a user who is a member of the administrators group.
  2. Click the Administration tab.
  3. Click the Cubes link.
  4. Select a IBM Alphablox cube from the list of cubes and click the Edit button. The IBM Alphablox Cube Administration dialog for the selected cube will appear in a new web page window.
  5. In the cube navigation tree on the left, click on the Schedule label. A scheduling panel appears.
  6. Select the Refresh every checkbox to enable scheduled IBM Alphablox cube rebuilding.
  7. Set the refresh interval by clicking the desired buttons and modifying the corresponding time periods. For example, to set the IBM Alphablox cube to rebuild every day at 3:00 AM, select the second button and enter 3:00 AM for the time.
  8. Click the Save button to update the IBM Alphablox cube definition.

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