Errors in the OLAP storage engine: A duplicate attribute key has been found when processing: Table: dbo_DimProduct_test,

Column: ProductKey, Value: 227.

Posted by roopesh.valluru on December, 25th 2012 SSAS Friends, This is my 100th post and hence decided to go with the most useful stuff in this post. n this post we are gonna discuss about the most frequently occurred error in SSAS. The error message looks like below (table and column names may vary). Errorsin the OLAPstorageengine:A duplicateattributekey has beenfoundwhenprocessing:Table: dbo_DimProduct_test,Column:ProductKey,Value:227. Firstly lets see what is this error message and then we can discuss about FIX for the same. If you see the above error message, it is clearly saying that TABLE DimProduct_test ,which is used a as dimension ,has duplicate key and need to be fixed. Here we have to understand couple of things before thinking about fix and lets start with those. Identifyingthe Issue Most of the guys are not aware HOW IT LOOKS when SSAS engine throws an error. It looks like the below given screenshot.

As seen in above pic, you will get 100s of icons in RED(Saying Error). You dont waste time by looking at all those. Just concentrate on the LAST one in Yellow which has YELLOW WARNING icon. This will have ACTUAL error. Remaining are just BULL SHIT. Reasonfor Issue- Now select the warning message and click on View Details button present at the bottom of the wizard to see the full description of the issue as shown below.

It is pretty clear from the message that the table used to create dimension has DUPLICATE RECORDS in it. As per the functionality of SSAS, It doesnt support duplicate values in the dimension tables.

Reproducethe Error- If you are not getting this error then you are lucky because the data present in your datawarehouse is pretty good. To know more about this lets try to reproduce this issue. PFB the steps to be followed.

I have taken Adventure Works DW database to demonstrate the same. You can download the same from Microsoft site free of cost. Take Dimproduct table and crate a duplicate table with same structure but with out IDENTITY and CONSTRAINTS. PFB the query of the same.

CREATE TABLE [dbo].[DimProduct_test ]( [ProductKey] [int] NOT NULL, [ProductAlternateKey] [nvarchar](25) NULL, [ProductSubcategoryKey] [int] NULL, [WeightUnitMeasureCode] [nchar](3) NULL, [SizeUnitMeasureCode] [nchar](3) NULL, [EnglishProductName] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL, [SpanishProductName] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL, [FrenchProductName] [nvarchar](50) NOT NULL, [StandardCost] [money] NULL, [FinishedGoodsFlag] [bit] NOT NULL, [Color] [nvarchar](15) NOT NULL, [SafetyStockLevel] [smallint] NULL, [ReorderPoint] [smallint] NULL, [ListPrice] [money] NULL, [Size] [nvarchar](50) NULL, [SizeRange] [nvarchar](50) NULL, [Weight] [float] NULL, [DaysToManufacture] [int] NULL, [ProductLine] [nchar](2) NULL, [DealerPrice] [money] NULL, [Class] [nchar](2) NULL, [Style] [nchar](2) NULL, [ModelName] [nvarchar](50) NULL, [LargePhoto] [varbinary](max) NULL, [EnglishDescription] [nvarchar](400) NULL, [FrenchDescription] [nvarchar](400) NULL, [ChineseDescription] [nvarchar](400) NULL, [ArabicDescription] [nvarchar](400) NULL, [HebrewDescription] [nvarchar](400) NULL, [ThaiDescription] [nvarchar](400) NULL, [StartDate] [datetime] NULL, [EndDate] [datetime] NULL, [Status] [nvarchar](7) NULL )

Now load the data from MAIN DimProduct table using the below query.

insert into DimProduct_test select * from DimProduct

Execute the above query more than once so that you will get DUPLICATE records into the newly created table. Now add this table to DSV in the SSAS cube solution.

Create a dimension with this table ans execute this dimension. You can get the .above given error.

Now you have this error in your plate and hence lets see the FIX now.

IssueFix - The column what you use as KEY in Dimension creation should not have DUPLICATES and SSAS doesnt bother about remaining columns. It bother about ONLY the column which you use as KEY and hence the FIX for this issue is to ELIMINATE duplicates from the KEY column. If you have backup of data then you can delete the data in this table and insert only UNIQUE records is one way to fix this issue. Now let me show what will happen when duplicates are removed. To eliminate the duplicates do the following

Delete the records from the table DimProduct_Test using the below given query.

Truncate table DimProduct_test

Insert the data from DimProduct table using the below given query and this time EXECUTE ONLY ONCE as we dont want duplicates in our table.

insert into DimProduct_test select * from DimProduct

Now process the dimension and you can see the dimension executed successfully.

That is it .. This is the reason and we also discussed the FIX. I am pretty sure that this info will be very very helpful to you guys who are new to SSAS. Enjoy Fixing and mind to drop a comment if this helped you !! Regards, Roopesh Babu V