Building ElastiCubes

After defining a schema and connecting your data tables, it's time to build your ElastiCube. Building an ElastiCube imports the data from the data source(s) that you added. The data is stored on the Sisense instance and future dashboard queries will be run against it. You must build an ElastiCube at least once before the ElastiCube data can be used in a dashboard.

Watch this short overview of build settings.

Builds can be monitored in the Build log window, shown in the upper-right of the screen once a build is launched. If your data set is very large, a build may take some time. Build time varies depending on various factors, such as the amount of data being imported. You can cancel the build, by clicking the Cancel button located in the build log, opened when you run a build.

Note:

All timestamps are based on the UTC time zone. If an accumulative build is defined by a timestamp column containing time zone information, this accumulation will still be calculated based on the UTC timezone. However, if you are using the Salesforce connector, you can change the time zone to match your Salesforce database. For more information, see Connecting to Salesforce.

To build an ElastiCube:

  1. In the Data page, open the relevant ElastiCube and click . The Build Options dialog box is displayed.

  2. Select one of the following build options:

    • Replace All - Builds the ElastiCube from scratch by utilizing the current data from all of the data sources. This option creates a new ElastiCube snapshot of the database. Once the build is complete queries are routed to the new snapshot, and the old snapshot is purged.
    • Changes Only - Builds the ElastiCube by adding new tables and/or updating tables with a modified schema (e.g., a new column, a data type change, a custom column added, etc.). For an in-depth description of these settings and their implications, see Defining ElastiCube Build Settings.
    • By Table - Builds the ElastiCube based on a per-table definition. A table that dose not have a build type definition (Build All/Build Changes) is built from scratch. This type of build has a non-blocking mechanism, by creating two ElastiCube snapshots; an 'original', and an 'alternative'.

    Notes:

    • The By Table option requires a duplication of the storage required.
    • The By Table option only becomes available once at least one table is configured with a non-default build typ

  3. (Optional) Toggle the Sample Data switch (shown below) to limit the number of rows imported. The counter determines the maximal amount of rows queried from each individual table.

    This is useful for building samples of your data and reduces the overall amount of time it takes to build an ElastiCube. It is especially relevant when running development cycles rather than working with the entire dataset, saving time by avoiding building and validating logic for larger data.

  4. Click Build

    A popup opens and displays the build log. The log describes the build process. When the build is complete, the following message appears in the logs: Build Succeeded

    Note:

    If the log screen stops updating during a build, the actual build continues to run in the background. In such cases, refresh the screen, and from the menu click View Latest Logs.

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