Feeder statement cleanup

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grusty
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Feeder statement cleanup

Post by grusty »

Hi Experts,

I'm cleaning up some inefficient feeders that I implemented a year ago and now with more experience realize are not necessary. I'm finding that after removing many of the feeder statements that the total memory used for feeders has not changed in }StatsByCube. Does the .feeder file need to be deleted and feeders reprocessed for the memory savings to take effect? Maybe I don't understand how feeder files work, but when I remove some feeder statements some feeders still remain so should the .feeder file not be updated on rule save?

In another example I've removed all feeders for one massive cube that is storing sales information. Can I simply delete the .feeder file on the server?

Thank you in advance for your insight.
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Steve Rowe
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Re: Feeder statement cleanup

Post by Steve Rowe »

If you've done a major rewrite then I'd suggest deleting all feeder files with the server shut down. It will sort itself out on start-up.
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Wim Gielis
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Re: Feeder statement cleanup

Post by Wim Gielis »

Or you could use the TI function DeleteAllPersistentFeeders:
https://www.tm1forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=5294#p22566
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paulsimon
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Re: Feeder statement cleanup

Post by paulsimon »

Hi

Memory is only released when you restart the TM1 Service.

So delete the feeder files, and restart the TM1 Service.

You might find that if you have optiimised your feeders to reduce over-feeding that you no longer need to use feeder files, so you can turn them off.

I used feeder files briefly once, but haven't used them for years. In my view they are more trouble than they are worth. I think you have just found out one of the problems with them. Another issue is that they tend to get invalidated quite frequently which can lead to highly variable server start up times.

In practice the TM1 Server is so much more stable these days than it used to be that the service going down and therefore needing to be restarted quickly during the day is a much rarer occurrence. Feeder files only help reduce start up times. If you have an overnight or weekend batch window where you can restart the TM1 Service then it probably doesn't matter if it takes a bit longer.

Other issues with feeder files is that they can give unexpected bugs. Eg a change is made to rules and feeders which means that something is underfed but you don't notice because the feeder file is still there. However, when something happens to cause the feeder files to be invalidated suddenly the value is no longer fed, and it may be a while before that is spotted. I would never use feeder files in the Dev environment for this reason.

Regards

Paul Simon
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Steve Rowe
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Re: Feeder statement cleanup

Post by Steve Rowe »

Wow, we're all up late!
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grusty
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Re: Feeder statement cleanup

Post by grusty »

Thanks everyone, I'm going to go ahead and use the DeleteAllPersistentFeeders function. Hoping server startup won't take too long.

I recall last year it taking a good 8 hours to reprocess all feeders in the model. I've since deleted about 90% of all feeder statements in the model, some I replaced with TI populated values instead of rule calculated. Amazing how much you can learn in a year. The old me just fed the crap out of everything. I think I FINALLY have a solid grasp of how feeders work now though.
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Re: Feeder statement cleanup

Post by Wim Gielis »

grusty wrote: Fri Jul 05, 2019 12:56 amI've since deleted about 90% of all feeder statements in the model
Which may or may not reflect 90% of your fed cells.
I mean that a very short statement like:

['Actual'] => ['Forecast 1+11'];

may lead to a big number of fed cells.

But I hear you, you removed a LOT of fed cells.
Best regards,

Wim Gielis

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https://www.wimgielis.com ==> 121 TM1 articles and a lot of custom code
Newest blog article: Deleting elements quickly
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