Administering SAS BI Dashboard

Caching in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3

SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 offers the following types of caching that improve the performance of dashboards:

Data caching. See Improving the Performance of SAS BI Dashboard with Data Caching.
Content caching. See Improving the Performance of SAS BI Dashboard with Content Caching.
Client caching. See Improving the Performance of SAS BI Dashboard with Client Caching.

Content caching was also available in SAS BI Dashboard 4.2. With one exception, data caching in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 is identical in functionality to data caching supported in SAS BI Dashboard 4.2. Previously, the DSX files that control data caching were stored on the file system. Beginning with SAS BI Dashboard 4.3, the DSX files are stored in the SAS Content Server and accessed through the metadata.

In addition to data caching, SAS BI Dashboard 4.3 includes content caching through ehcache. By default, ehcache is turned on to enable content caching. In rare instances, when an environment has extraordinary characteristics such as unusually high number of users or queries, the values for the ehcache parameters can be fine-tuned. However, in almost all environments, the parameters for ehcache do not require any special values other than the default values that are already set.

There are some key differences in caching between SAS BI Dashboard 4.2 and SAS BI Dashboard 4.3. The following table explains the different types of caching in SAS BI Dashboard 4.2 and SAS BI Dashboard 4.3.

Types of Caching in SAS BI Dashboard 4.3
Types of Caching	SAS BI Dashboard 4.2	SAS BI Dashboard 4.3
Data caching	Data caching is not enabled by default. When data caching is enabled by editing the DSX files, results of queries are cached in the middle tier.	Data caching is not enabled by default. When data caching is enabled, results of queries are cached in the middle tier. The DSX files are stored in the SAS Content Server. From the SAS Management Console, these files can be retrieved, modified, and saved.
Image caching	Images for indicators were created in the middle tier. Image caching was enabled by default with the bid.PdvOutputCacheSize property.	Images of indicators are created by Flash for the client. Therefore, images are not cached. The bid.PdvOutputCacheSize property is not supported.
Content caching	Objects are stored as files in the file system within the middle tier, and they are cached. Objects can be definition and configuration files that define ranges, indicator definitions, indicator data, and dashboards. Because these objects resided in the middle-tier, they were not cached.	By default, dashboards, indicators, ranges, and queries are cached in the middle tier and controlled by the ehcache.config file, which specifies default values for content caching. If a content object in the cache is not accessed by a user within 5 minutes or if it exceeds the expiration value (the default is 20 minutes) it expires from the cache. The default values specified for ehcache parameters are adequate for almost all environments.
Client caching	Not available.	Content objects and data referenced by each user is retained in the browser client under Flash. The parameters for size and refreshing for each client is controlled by the config.xml file.

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