Reloading Dimensions

It is common to reload dimensions at various points throughout the history load, or even in-sync with every history batch run. Ensure that your core dimensions, such as the product and location hierarchies, are up-to-date and aligned with the historical data being processed. To reload dimensions, you may follow the same process as described in the Initial Dimension Load steps, ensuring that the current business load date in the system is on or before the date in history when the dimensions will be required. For example, if you are loading history files in a monthly cadence, ensure that new product and location data required for the next month has been loaded no later than the first day of that month, so it is effective for all dates in the history data files.

It is also very important to understand that history load procedures are unable to handle reclassifications that have occurred in source systems when you are loading history files. For example, if you are using current dimension files from the source system to process historical data, and the customer has reclassified products so they are no longer correct for the historical time periods, then your next history load may place sales or inventory under the new classifications, not the ones that were relevant in history. For this reason, reclassifications should be avoided if at all possible during history load activities, unless you can maintain historical dimension snapshots that will accurately reflect historical data needs.