KB13711: How to invalidate/delete caches and History List messages in MicroStrategy Intelligence Server using a scheduled administration task

Cache management can be automated in Strategy Intelligence Server using the administration scheduling in Strategy Desktop. In order to schedule administration tasks, follow the steps below:
 

• Login to Strategy Desktop as an administrator and connect to a 3-tier project source.
• Go to the Administration menu and select Scheduling -> Schedule Administration Tasks. The Schedule Administration Tasks window opens, as displayed below:
  

Several administration tasks can be performed using the 'Schedule Administration Tasks' window including invalidating/deleting caches as well as deleting History List messages. The schedules used for the scheduling of administration tasks are the same schedules used for scheduling of reports and created under the Schedule Manager.
 
Delete History List messages
History List messages can either be deleted for all the projects or for selected projects only. This can be selected from the Available projects drop-down list. Then, select 'Delete History List messages' from the actions drop-down list, as shown below:
 

 
Select one of the pre-defined schedules that are available for selection. History List messages can be deleted using several different criteria:
 

• Lifetime (days): Users can choose to delete messages that are older than a given number of days since creation. For example, if the number entered here is 10, the system will delete all the messages that are more than 10 days old and keep those that are less than 10 days old. A value of 0, which is the default value, means that all messages will be deleted regardless of their creation time.
• Status: Users can also specify the status of the History List messages to be deleted that includes:
  
• Read
• Unread
• All
• Groups: Users can also specify the user or group by using the Add Members dialog box, as shown below:
  

NOTE: Schedule the deletion of History Lists when Strategy Intelligence Server is not busy, such as during off-hours. Otherwise, this maintenance task could potentially overload the server. Also, stagger the deletion of History Lists. Deleting History Lists for a large group places a heavy load on Strategy Intelligence Server. Therefore, instead of scheduling the deletion of History Lists for all users at one time, it is best to schedule the deletion for smaller groups distributed over time, for example, each with a different schedule at 1 AM, 2 AM, and 3 AM, and so on.
 
Delete Caches
Caches can be deleted for only one project at a time. To delete caches, select a project from the Available Projects drop-down list. Then, select 'Delete Caches' from the Actions drop-down list, as shown below:
 

 
Again, select one of the pre-defined schedules that are available for selection. There are 3 options available to users to choose from when deleting caches as seen below:
 

• History message caches - deletes all caches that the history messages are pointing to in the project. This not only deletes caches of type 'History' but also deletes caches of type 'Matching, History'
• Report caches - deletes all matching caches created during report execution in the project. This not only deletes caches of type 'Matching' but also deletes caches of type 'Matching, History'
• All caches - deletes all history message and report caches in the project.

Strategy 9.x provides an additional selection criteria called "Cluster Option" to select the Intelligence Server node (in the case of a clustered environment) where the user wants to run the schedule as seen below:

Invalidate Caches
Similar to deleting caches, caches can only be invalidated for one project at a time. To invalidate caches, select a project from the Available Projects drop-down list. Then, select 'Invalidate Caches' from the Actions drop-down list, as shown below:
 

 
Select one of the pre-defined schedules that are available for selection. It is possible to enter Table names from the warehouse upon which users would like the scheduling to depend. A table or a list of tables can be added via the Project tables box, as shown below:
 

 
When a table or a list of tables are selected by moving them to the right, the caches of all reports that use these tables as source tables are invalidated. In the image above, the caches of all reports which use LU_COUNTRY as a source table are invalidated in the Strategy Tutorial project.
Strategy 9.x provides additional selection criteria for users to customize their scheduling process as seen below:

Note: If there is no history list message tied to the report cache, the report cache will be removed as soon as it is invalidated. However, if the report cache has a history list association with it, deleting the report cache will cause any associated history list messages to fail when the message data is retrieved.