1. Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud Operations Guide
  2. Troubleshooting EPM Cloud Issues
  3. Optimizing Aggregate Storage Option Cubes
  4. Merging Data Slices and Removing Zeros

Merging Data Slices and Removing Zeros

A data slice is an incremental store for data. Fewer data slices improve a cube’s performance and reduce the database size.

A data slice is created in the following situations:

  • When you load data into an ASO cube

  • When you submit data from Oracle Smart View for Office

  • When you run a calculation or allocation

Creating a data slice when loading data improves the performance of incremental data loads, but increases the size of the database. After loading the new slice into the database, Oracle Essbase creates all necessary views on the slice (such as aggregate views) before the new data is visible to queries. The number of incremental data slices is displayed under Essbase ASO Cube Statistics in the Activity Report. See About the Activity Report in Getting Started with Oracle Enterprise Performance Management Cloud for Administrators.

Fewer data slices improve a cube’s performance. To improve performance, you can merge all incremental data slices into the main database slice. Alternatively, you can merge all incremental data slices into a single data slice without changing the main database slice.

If you clear data before pushing it into an ASO cube, the affected data cells show the value 0 instead of #Missing. Additionally, when you delete a value through Smart View or data forms, the value is set to 0 instead of #Missing. For optimal performance, you must replace 0 with #Missing.

You can merge data slices and remove zeros manually from Calculation Manager or schedule the process as a job. Because the database is locked during the process, Oracle recommends scheduling the job when users are not using the application.