In 9.2, OLAP Cubes can be updated incrementally. This is awesome, as you then don't have to worry about users locking your cube by closing the Web Report Studio window or leaving their EG session running. However, at the same time, this can cause the size of space an OLAP cube to increase (usually the size doubles).

Therefore, SAS OLAP Cube Studio (and DI Studio) allow you to control which dimensions can be incrementally updated. In PROC OLAP code, this adds the option NONUPDATEABLE.

Options are available on the Cube Designer - Dimension screen include:

• Never - which places the NONUPDATEABLE option on the entire proc olap code & data
• Always - which leaves the code as is (and updateable)
• On Specified Dimensions - enables an option in each Define Dimension screen to select whether to allow/disallow new members during updates.

When selecting the 'On Specified Dimensions', modify an existing dimension or when adding a new one, the option 'Allow new members during incremental update' is available. Unchecking this option will then no longer allow incremental updates of the members in that specific dimension.

Some dimensions will need to be updated regularly, such as TIME. However others, such as related to a geography hardly ever change. So using this option will require some understanding of how your data changes.