Process dimension fails with message "A FileStore error from WriteFile occurred"?

Question

Hi, I am trying to process a dimension using SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services. This has worked in the past without problems but recently fails.

The dimension is hierarchical using 4 columns from a single table (the entire cube uses a single table).

The error message received (regardless if I process the entire cube or the dimension, whether I "Process full" or not) is this:

File system error: A FileStore error from WriteFile occurred. Physical file: 
\\?\L:\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL.3\OLAP\Data\MSMDCacheRowset_xxx.tmp.
Logical file: . .

My guess is that this is related to the amount of growing data (currently 15 million rows in the specific table).

• It has worked before (no changes has been made)
• The processing reads 11 million rows before displaying the error
• Physical memory on the server runs out at the time the error is displayed
• Googling the error message results in a few hits indicating column size as a problem.

Could anyone point me in the right direction? I guess that one way out could be to try using smaller columns (varchar(x) instead of varchar(y)) but it feels like going around the problem instead of solving the issue.

Best regards
Erik Larsson

Answer 1

Check the dimensional property "ProcessingGroup" for all the relevant dimensions. If it's set to 'ByTable' try setting it to 'ByAttribute'

The reason this can cause processing issues with large dimensions (# of members, # of attributes, etc.) is because when using the ByTable setting, it will try to put the entire dimension into memory.