In the upcoming release of SQL Server Analysis Services 2016, one of the new features you’ll see is the ability to perform a database consistency check against your SSAS cubes and Tabular models. Just like in the database engine side of things, DBCC for SSAS checks for corruption across the entire database or individual objects within the database.

Check out what’s new in SSAS 2016

The DBCC command is shaped likes the XMLA Process command so there’s not a lot of complexity to it. Below here, you can see the basic syntax for the SSAS DBCC command. Its worthing noting that the syntax of the command will look the same whether you’re running it against an SSAS multidimensional database or Tabular model.

<DBCC xmlns="http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine">
    <Object>
        <DatabaseID></DatabaseID>
        <CubeID></CubeID>
        <MeasureGroupID></MeasureGroupID>
        <PartitionID></PartitionID>
    </Object>
</DBCC>

To run the DBCC command, just open a new MDX query window and use the code seen above. Enter in the IDs of your Database, cube, measure and/or partition.

When you’re running the DBCC command against a Tabular model, there are a couple things I’d like to point out.

In the element for the CubeID, you’ll need to specify the ID of the Model. And in the element for the MeasureGroupID, specify the ID for the table you want to check.

If you want to check the whole database or model for consistency, simply remove the lower elements. For example, if I wanted to check the whole model, I just would leave out the elements for MeasureGroupID and PartitionID.

To find the MeasureGroupID (Table ID) or PartitionID in a Tabular model, just navigate to the Properties for that object.

To find the Partition ID in a Tabular model, right click the table and select Partitions. Then highlight the partition you want to check and click the Settings icon.

I also ran a trace against my SSAS 2016 OLAP instance to watch each segment of the partitions being checked.

DBCC for multidimensional validates metadata, segment statistics and indexes and looks for physical corruption while DBCC for Tabular checks segments, dictionaries, column stats and compression.

Resources

Download the SQL Server 2016 Community Technology Preview 2.3 and take her for a spin.

For the total lowdown on DBCC for SSAS, check this out. Scroll down to the bottom to see a list of the errors related to DBCC and their resolutions.