AS2K SP4

SQL Server SP4 is in beta (you can sign up here), and I’ve been looking at the long list of fixes that have gone into Analysis Services here. One thing that really leaps out at me are the number of fixes for dynamic security, one of my pet subjects – if you’ve currently implemented it, you really should take a look. The other thing of interest is the first official documentation of two connection string properties that I’ve found very useful for query performance tuning: Cache Ratio2 and Cache Policy. The writeup of Cache Ratio2 is fairly detailed and gives a good insight into the workings of the engine (when is someone going to write an ‘Inside Analysis Services’ book?); the writeup for Cache Policy doesn’t really explain what it does, unfortunately, and just discusses a fixed bug. I have a draft of a so-far unreleased whitepaper which goes into much more detail about Cache Policy, and which in my opinion ought to get an official release.