E2) Dimension file "dim name" not found or file error

[JamiseBondi]

Hi guys,

In the server log I'm getting the following error message popping up when the service is starting for a particular instance of TM1.

7756 [] ERROR 2013-06-24 09:43:48.919 TM1.Dimension E2) Dimension file "ABC_N.dim" not found or file error.

Rather than searching through all TI processes and rules for a mention of this element, what is the easiest/most reliable method of finding out what is referencing this object? Thanks in advance.

[Wim Gielis]

Hello,

Isn't that dimension supposed to be part of 1 or more TM1 cubes ?

A tool like Notepad++ allows you to search for literal text strings within a number of text files
(.pro, .rux, .vue files and a number of other file types are stored as text files within the TM1 Data Directory).

A search through Notepad++ might give you a first impression on the usage of that dimension.

[Michel Zijlema]

Hi guys,

In the server log I'm getting the following error message popping up when the service is starting for a particular instance of TM1.

7756 [] ERROR 2013-06-24 09:43:48.919 TM1.Dimension E2) Dimension file "ABC_N.dim" not found or file error.

Rather than searching through all TI processes and rules for a mention of this element, what is the easiest/most reliable method of finding out what is referencing this object? Thanks in advance.

Could it be that, while the ABC_N.dim file is missing, there still are }ElementAttributes_ABC_N.dim and/or .cub files available?
And/or are there still }ElementSecurity_ABC_N.dim and/or .cub files?
This is often the cause for these type of messages.

Michel

[Duncan P]

Look in the server log to see where the message appears. It will almost certainly be between two lines saying "Done loading header for cube ...". Those two cubes will have names which alphabetically bracket the name of the cube that cannot be loaded because it is referring to your missing dimension. Look in the data directory for a .cub file with a name in the correct range that has not been loaded. That will be the culprit.

[JamiseBondi]

Thanks to those that posted. Duncan you hit the nail on the head!! Awesome
thanks man!

[lotsaram]

Following from Duncan's point that a dimension file deletion that is needed by one or more cubes results in a .cub file that can't be loaded. Another way to quickly find the culprit cube file is to loop through the }Cubes dimension. This gets built on server load from the list of .cub files in the data directory, the dud cube will be in the cubes dimension but won't show of course in the server explorer tree as it isn't loaded. It will return false to CubeExists and you can use this to spit out the name of the suspect cube.

[JamiseBondi]

Many thanks Lotsram for that additional info, much appreciated!

[JamiseBondi]

Hi guys,

the last suggestions regarding a cube that is trying to load a dimension that doesn't exist (explained by Duncan and Lotsaram in different ways) accounts for spotting a culprit cube on server startup. In another instance I'm getting the same error message but in the server log this is random - it's not at server startup and looking through the log this happens at different times of day and not on every day. Most recently it happened 3 hours after a scheduled server backup and restart and the server wasn't running any TI processes just before this apart from the standard SaveDataAll which happens every 15 mins (in a chore).

I've done a bit of digging by coping all .pro files out of this instance into a temp folder and searching through all of them with Notepad++ feature (search within files...) and
I haven't found a TI that references this dimension yet.

Does anyone have any other ideas as to what may be calling "ABC_N.dim" or where else I can look for clues? My last guess is it's in one of the workbooks but auditing all the workbooks takes ages (unless someone knows an auditing tool that can read excel files?).
thanks.

[jstrygner]

Wim Gielis already mentioned .vue files and I understand you did not search among those, but I think this could be the direction to look based on your last description.

Is it possible you have some .sub or .vue files that refer to this dimension?
Maybe it is there for a particular user (so private subsets or views) and whenever (s)he logs in, TM1 looks for a dim that is referenced in such private .sub or .vue file?

You would need to search UserID subfolders in your data model directory to spot it.

I do not know if scenario I am describing above would result in behavior you experience, just trying to do some guessing here.

Edit: Typo

[Darkhorse]

A quicker way is to check your dimension }perfcubes against }cubes the missing cube in the perf dim is the none loaded cube, I use this method to run a check every reboot to make sure all cubes are loaded