Manually Process the Data Warehouse and Analysis Services Cube for Team Foundation Server

You may have to process the warehouse or cube manually to move data into the warehouse or cube on demand. The warehouse supports SQL Server Reporting Services and contains data for Visual Studio Team Foundation Server. For more information, see Components of the Data Warehouse for Team Foundation.

Note

Do not use SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) to manually process the cube. Processing the cube using that tool is not supported.  

During typical operations, the relational database (Tfs_Warehouse) is processed within two minutes of changes made to an operational store, and the SQL Server Analysis Services cube (Tfs_Analysis) is processed every two hours. You can change the refresh frequencies or process the data warehouse by using the Warehouse Control Web service.

You may want to process the warehouse databases manually for one of the following reasons:

  • A project manager has an upcoming meeting and the task updates for her team do not appear in her reports. The Analysis Services cube must be updated for her reports to include the latest information.

  • The administrator for Team Foundation notices that several errors that are related to warehouse jobs appear in the event viewer on several application-tier servers. To collect information to diagnose the issue, he must manually process the warehouse for each team project collection.

  • You want to verify that the schema conflicts that occurred are now resolved. To verify that no more schema conflicts occur, you must process each team project collection.

By processing the warehouse, you help ensure that queries and reports are up to date with data that depends on the warehouse. You can process either the relational database or the cube. The time that is required to complete processing depends on how much data is in the warehouse. Before you process either database, you should determine the processing status and make sure that the status returns Idle for the synchronization job or jobs that you want to run.

In this topic

  • Access the Warehouse Control Web Service

  • Determine the Processing Status

  • Process the Data Warehouse

  • Process the OLAP Data Cube

Required Permissions

To perform these procedures, you must be a member of the Administrators security group on the application-tier server for Team Foundation. Also, your server-level Administer warehouse permission must be set to Allow. For more information, see Team Foundation Server Permissions.

Access the Warehouse Control Web Service

To access the Warehouse Control Web Service

  1. Log on to the application-tier server.

  2. Open Internet Explorer, type the following string in the Address bar, and then press ENTER:

    https://localhost:8080/VirtualDirectory/TeamFoundation/Administration/v3.0/WarehouseControlService.asmx

    For VirtualDirectory, type the IIS Virtual Directory that was specified when Team Foundation Server was installed. By default, the virtual directory is tfs.

    The WarehouseControlWebService page opens.

    Note

    The Microsoft Team Foundation Server Application Pool must be running for the Warehouse Control Web service to be available.

Determine the Processing Status

To determine the processing status of the data warehouse

  • From the WarehouseControlWebService page, click GetProcessingStatus, and then click Invoke.

    A new browser window will open and indicate the processing status. The processing status for the following jobs appears:

    • Build Warehouse Sync

    • Common Structures Warehouse Sync

    • Test Management Warehouse Sync

    • Version Control Warehouse Sync

    • Work Item Tracking Warehouse Sync

    • Full Analysis Database Sync

    • Incremental Analysis Database Sync

    A value of Idle indicates that the synchronization job is currently not running. You should process the data warehouse or the cube only when the processing status for these jobs is Idle. If a different value is returned, repeat this step until Idle is returned for the job that you want to process.

Process the Data Warehouse

To manually process the data warehouse relational database

  1. From the WarehouseControlWebService page, click ProcessWarehouse, and then click Invoke.

    A new browser window will open. The service returns True when it successfully starts the processing of the warehouse and False if it is not successful. A value of False indicates that the warehouse is currently being processed.

  2. To determine when the warehouse has been processed, return to the WarehouseControlWebService page, click GetProcessingStatus, and then click Invoke.

    Warehouse processing is completed when the GetProcessingStatus service returns a value of Idle for the following jobs:

    • Build Warehouse Sync

    • Common Structures Warehouse Sync

    • Test Management Warehouse Sync

    • Version Control Warehouse Sync

    • Work Item Tracking Warehouse Sync

Process the Analysis Services Cube

To manually process the cube

  1. From the WarehouseControlWebService page, click ProcessAnalysisDatabase.

  2. On the ProcessAnalysisDatabase page, in processingType, type either Incremental or Full, and then click Invoke.

    If you specify Incremental, data is processed only if it has been added since the most recent processing. If you specify Full, all data is processed as if the warehouse were being rebuilt. Full processes take longer to perform and should be performed only when required (for example, when a team project or project collection has been removed or deleted).

    A new browser window will open. The service returns True when it successfully starts the processing of the cube and False if it is not successful. A value of False indicates that the cube is currently being processed.

  3. To determine when the cube has been processed, return to the WarehouseControlWebService page, click GetProcessingStatus, and then click Invoke.

    Cube processing is completed when the GetProcessingStatus service returns a value of Idle for the following jobs:

    • Full Analysis Database Sync

    • Incremental Analysis Database Sync

See Also

Tasks

Change a Process Control Setting for the Data Warehouse or Analysis Services Cube

Rebuild the Data Warehouse and Analysis Services Cube

Concepts

Resolving Schema Conflicts That Are Occurring in the Data Warehouse

Generating Reports Using the Relational Warehouse Database for Visual Studio ALM

Perspectives and Measure Groups Provided in the Analysis Services Cube for Team System

Managing the Data Warehouse and Analysis Services Cube