BAM Infrastructure Limitations
The BAM infrastructure has the following design limitations for this release of BizTalk Server:
Real-time aggregations (RTAs) do not support the MIN or MAX function.
You cannot reference a one-level alias by more than one data dimension in one RTA view.
Neither regular cube nor RTA supports distinct count measures. The BAM Management utility creates a default count measure for both regular cube and RTA. The default count is the total count of facts (also known as "activity instances"), and not the distinct count.
Do not define multiple RTAs that use the same BAM activity. If you do so, the RTA data will be incorrect when you archive the BAM data.
BAM maximum number of objects
The following table lists the maximum number of objects in the BAM infrastructure.
| Object | Implementation Limit | Reason |
|---|---|---|
| Checkpoints in Activity | 1,000 | SQL Server supports 1,024 Stored Procedure arguments and BizTalk Server uses three of the system procedures. |
| Indexes in Activity | 245 | SQL Server supports 245 non-clustered indexes per table. BizTalk Server always creates an index on ActivityID. |
| DataLength | 4,000 Unicode characters | SQL variables of type NVARCHAR are used. |
| ActivityRef | 128 | You can obtain the view by joining the Primary Import database and Relationship tables (two per Activity). SQL Server supports 256 tables in SELECT statement. |
| Columns in View (Aliases, durations, plus dimension levels) |
150 | SQL Server limit of 1,024 columns on the Staging Table of which BAM reserves 24 for system columns. |
| Dimensions in OLAP cube | 128 | OLAP limitation - 128 dimensions per cube |
| Measures in OLAP | 1,024 | OLAP limitation - 1,024 measures per cube. The Count measure is always created. |
| Dimension levels in OLAP | 64 | OLAP limitation with an additional limit of 256 levels per cube. |
| Dimension levels in RTA view | 14 dimension levels | BAM creates an index on all dimension levels, a SQL Server index can be created on up to 16 columns, and BAM reserves two for system columns. |
| Measures, hidden measures (default count, hidden SUM measures for AVG), and dimension levels in RTA view | 1,024 | Maximum of 1,024 columns in SQL table/view. |
| ActivityViews | 63 | When you configure an alert, you are limited to 63 ActivityViews under SQL Server. |
BAM object names
The following table lists the limitations of object names in the BAM definition schema and Microsoft Excel spreadsheet.
| Object Names | XSD Limitation | Excel Limitation |
|---|---|---|
| Checkpoint name | 50 characters | 50 characters |
| Index name | 100 characters | 100 characters |
| Duration name | 100 characters | 100 characters |
| Alias name | 50 characters | 50 characters |
| Activity name | 48 characters | 20 characters |
| View name | 18 characters | 18 characters |
| ActivityView name | 52 characters (The name consists of the prefix "View" plus the 48 character view name.) | N/A (derived from Activity name) |
| Cube name | 20 characters | N/A (derived from View name) |
| RealTimeAggregation name | 48 characters | N/A (derived from Cube name) |
| Dimension name | 20 characters | 20 characters |
| Level name | 20 characters | 20 characters |
| Measure name | 20 characters | 20 characters |
| Alert name | 128 characters | N/A |
| Alert message | 1024 characters | N/A |
| Event Rule name | 255 characters | N/A |
| Event Provider name | 255 characters | N/A |