MicroStrategy ONE

Updating VLDB Properties for ODBC Connections

VLDB properties allow Intelligence Server to take advantage of the unique optimizations that different databases offer. Depending on the database type, these properties can affect how Intelligence Server handles things like:

  • Join options, such as the star join and full outer join
  • Metric calculation options, such as when to check for NULLs and zeros
  • Pre- and post-SQL statements
  • Query optimizations, such as sub-queries and driving tables
  • Table types, such as temporary tables or derived tables

For more information about all the VLDB properties, see SQL Generation and Data Processing: VLDB Properties.

Upgrading Your Database Type Properties

Default VLDB properties are set according to the database type specified in the database instance. MicroStrategy periodically updates the default settings as database vendors add new functionality.

When you create the metadata for a MicroStrategy project, the database-specific information is loaded from a file supplied by MicroStrategy (called Database.pds). If you get a new release from MicroStrategy, the metadata is automatically upgraded using the Database.pds file with the metadata update process. The Administrator is the only user who can upgrade the metadata. Do this by clicking Yes when prompted for updating the metadata. This happens when you connect to an existing project after installing a new MicroStrategy release.

The MicroStrategy system cannot detect when you upgrade or change the database used to store the MicroStrategy metadata or your data warehouse. If you upgrade or change the database that is used to store the metadata or data warehouse, you can manually update the database type to apply the default properties for the new database type.

When you update the database type information, this process:

  • Loads newly supported database types. For example, properties for the newest database servers that were recently added.
  • Loads updated properties for existing database types that are still supported.
  • Keeps properties for existing database types that are no longer supported. If there were no updates for an existing database type, but the properties for it have been removed from the Database.pds file, the process does not remove them from your metadata.

In some cases, MicroStrategy no longer updates certain DBMS objects as newer versions are released. These are not normally removed. However, in the case of Oracle 8i R2 and Oracle 8i R3, the DBMS objects were merged into "Oracle 8i R2/R3" for both Standard and Enterprise editions because Oracle 8i R3 is no longer being updated. You may need to select the merged version as part of your database instance if you are using a version of Oracle 8i. This will become apparent if date/time functions stop working, particularly in Enterprise Manager.

For more information about VLDB properties, see SQL Generation and Data Processing: VLDB Properties.

You may need to manually upgrade the database types if you chose not to run the update metadata process after installing a new release.

To Manually Upgrade the Database Type Properties

  1. In the Database Instance editor, click the General tab.
  2. Select Upgrade.

The Readme lists all DBMSs that are supported or certified for use with MicroStrategy.