Refreshing the Database

On the Application page, you can refresh the application database, which is used to store data in the application. Databases are structured according to dimensions, hierarchical members, attributes, and other data specified in an application.

You must refresh the application database whenever you change the application structure. Changes made to an application aren’t reflected to users performing data entry and approval tasks until you refresh the databases for the application. For example, when you modify properties of an Entity member, add a Scenario, or change access permissions, these changes are stored in the relational database until you refresh the application database.

Before refreshing the database, you can choose whether to enable all users or just the current administrator to use the application in maintenance mode during the refresh process. You can also log off all users, and you can terminate any active application requests. After the database refresh, you can enable users to use the application.

Note: Refreshing the Database may take longer if there are any changes in the Dense dimension. A dense restructure occurs when the Dense dimension (for example, Account, or Period and Movement) is modified and a Database Refresh is executed. The Database Refresh can take a long time, so it is a best practice to do a Database Refresh after hours if there have been changes to metadata.

To improve refresh database performance, the OLURatesLoad substitution variable has been automatically enabled. The more scenarios, currencies and rate accounts in an application, the more noticeable the improvement will be.

By default, to improve performance, the system recognizes the changes resulting from a metadata load and performs only the necessary actions for a database refresh based on the metadata changes. If you want to disable this behavior and have the system execute all processes regardless of metadata changes, you can add a Substitution Variable called DeltaDBRefresh and set it as "False".

• If there has been no change to the Entity structure, it will no longer be necessary to "Recompute Ownership" on the Manage Ownership screen. Recomputing ownership is now only required if there has been an Entity structure change, and will therefore no longer be required after the Database Refresh executed during each monthly version update.

• If there has been no change to the Entity structure and Entity currency property, it will no longer be necessary to push rate data to the Rates cube or Supplemental Data Manager, so the system will skip the relevant rules "RefreshDataBase_PostProcess_Rates" and "RefreshDataBase_SDMCurrencyRates". You can check the Jobs log to see whether these rules were executed.

Caution:

Before you refresh, a best practice is to back up your outline file and export data from all databases.

To refresh the database:

1. On the Home page, click Application.
2. Click Overview, then from Actions, select Refresh Database.
3. On the Refresh Database page, click Create.
4. Make selections for before and after the database refresh:

   • Before Refresh Database

     • Enable use of the application for—Allows All users or Administrators (or the current logged-in administrator) to access the application in maintenance mode during the refresh.

     • Log off all users—Logs off all users before starting the refresh

     • Kill all active requests—Terminates any active requests in the application before starting the refresh

   • After Refresh Database

     Enable use of the application for—Allows All users or Administrators to use the application after the refresh

5. Choose an option:

   • To refresh the database now, click Refresh Database, review the confirmation message, and then click Refresh.

   • To schedule a database refresh job, click Save as Job, name the job, and then click Save.

     Note:

     If you schedule a recurring refresh database job, the refresh job options that you select are applicable each time the job is run. To edit your selections, click the name of the job in the Jobs console, and then click Save.