Analysis Services allows for two types of relationships to be defined between related attributes in a dimenson. Flexible relationships are those which may change over time, while Rigid relationships are those which are not expected to change. An example of a flexible relationship would be CustomerID and Customer City, because customers often move, the city attribute value could change as part of a dimension update. Thus, any aggregations at the customer city level or above may no longer be valid after a dimension update, and requires that the aggregations be rebuilt. An example of a rigid relationship would be Calendar Date and Calendar Year. Because a date is not expected to move, a dimension update for a rigid relationship will not invalidate an aggregation that contains only attributes where the relationship is rigid. Analysis Services is optimized to improve performance of dimensions where rigid relationships are defined. As a result, rigid relationships should be used where possible.
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