Performance Counters for SSAS 2008 Part -1

To start your Basic SSAS performance analysis start with following:

MSOLAP: Processing

Rows read/sec
MSOLAP: Proc Aggregations

Temp File Bytes Written/sec
Rows created/Sec
Current Partitions
MSOLAP: Threads

Processing pool idle threads (I sometimes find "query pool idle threads" more significant, maybe you want to monitor both)
Processing pool job queue length (I sometimes find "query pool job queue length" more significant, maybe you want to monitor both)
Processing pool busy threads (I sometimes find "query pool busy threads" more significant, maybe you want to monitor both)
SQL-Server: Memory Manager

Total Server Memory
Target Server Memory
Process

Virtual Bytes – msmdsrv.exe
Working Set – msmdsrv.exe
Private Bytes – msmdsrv.exe
% Processor Time – msmdsrv.exe and sqlservr.exe
Logical Disk:

Avg. Disk sec/Transfer – All Instances
Processor:

% Processor Time – Total
System:

Context Switches / sec


So it should be clear that you need to monitor the server machine comprehensively and not only the Analysis Services Process.

However, I picked some SSAS counters from the list that are a good one to start your exploration when focusing on the SSAS processes