SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Development Cookbook

Table of Contents

SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Development Cookbook

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewers

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Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the example code

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Introduction to Multidimensional Data Model Design

Introduction

The business value of Business Intelligence

Challenges and barriers of effective BI

Overcoming BI challenges and barriers

Choosing multidimensional or Tabular Models

Star- or Snowflake-relational schema

A sample scenario for choosing the Snowflake schema

2. Defining Analysis Services Dimensions

Introduction

Defining data sources

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Defining data source views

Getting started

How to do it...

Defining entity relationships in DSV

How to do it...

Extending data source views

How to do it...

Creating named calculations and queries

How to do it...

Creating simple dimensions

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Building dimension hierarchies

How to do it...

There's more

Setting dimension properties

Setting essential attribute properties

How to do it...

Browsing dimension data

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Sorting the attributes

How to do it...

Customizing advanced attribute properties

How to do it...

How it works...

Creating parent-child dimensions

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating the date and time dimensions

How to do it...

There's more...

3. Creating Analysis Services Cubes

Introduction

Defining measure groups and measures

Getting ready

How to do it...

Setting measure properties

How to do it...

There's more...

Browsing the cube data

How to do it...

Dimension usage with measure group

How to do it...

Examining cube file structures

How to do it...

There's more...

Partitioning strategies

How to do it...

Creating partitions through the wizard

Creating partitions through AMO

Partition storage mode options

Defining partition slice

How to do it...

Merging partitions

How to do it...

Defining aggregation designs

Using BIDS Helper for customizing aggregations

How to do it...

There's more...

Distinct count measure groups

How to do it...

There's more...

Enabling write-back feature

How to do it...

Deployment options

How to do it...

4. Extending and Customizing Cubes

Introduction

Defining calculated measures

Getting ready

How to do it...

Defining named sets

How to do it...

Defining drillthrough actions

How to do it...

How it works...

Defining URL actions

How to do it...

Defining reporting actions

How to do it...

Defining key performance indicators

How to do it...

Defining perspectives

How to do it...

Defining translations

How to do it...

Defining measure expressions

How to do it...

5. Optimizing Dimension and Cube Processing

Introduction

Understanding dimension processing options

How it works...

Learning about basic dimension processing

Getting ready

How to do it...

How it works...

Learning advanced dimension processing options

How to do it...

Using out-of-line bindings for dimension processing

How to do it...

Dealing with partition processing options

How to do it...

How it works...

Using SQL Server Integration Services to process Analysis Services objects

How to do it...

Monitoring and tuning processing performance

How to do it...

6. MDX

Introduction

Returning data on the query axes

Getting ready

How to do it...

Limiting the query output

How to do it...

Sorting the query output

How to do it...

Defining query level calculations and named sets

How to do it...

Navigating dimension hierarchies

How to do it...

Working with the Time dimensions

How to do it...

MDX script's functionality

How to do it...

Monitoring and tuning MDX queries

How to do it...

There's more...

7. Analysis Services Security

Introduction

Managing instance-level administrative security

How to do it...

Managing database-level security

How to do it...

Managing cube-level security

How to do it...

Managing dimension hierarchy-level security

How to do it...

How it works...

Implementing dynamic dimension security

How to do it...

There's more...

Implementing cell-level security

How to do it...

There's more...

8. Administering and Monitoring Analysis Services

Introduction

SSAS instance configuration options

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Creating and dropping databases

Getting ready

How to do it...

Monitoring SSAS instance using Activity Viewer

How to do it...

How it works...

Monitoring SSAS instance using DMVs

How to do it...

How it works...

There's more...

Cancelling a session

How to do it...

Checking whether cubes are accessible

How to do it...

Checking SSAS object sizes programmatically

How to do it...

There's more...

Scaling out SSAS solutions

Backup and restore

How to do it...

How it works...

Synchronizing databases

How to do it...

How it works...

Detaching and attaching databases

How to do it...

How it works...

9. Using Tabular Models

Introduction

Creating a Tabular Model

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

Working with data sources and loading data

How to do it…

There's more…

Modeling the data

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Creating a hierarchy

How to do it…

There's more…

Creating a calculated measure

Getting ready

How to do it…

See also

Creating a calculated column

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

Creating a KPI

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

Analyzing your model in Excel

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

Deploying Tabular Models

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Scripting Tabular Models using XMLA

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

Processing Tabular Models

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

See also

Partitioning Tabular Models

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

Implementing perspectives

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

Implementing security in Tabular Models

Getting ready

How to do it…

How it works…

There's more…

Automating Tabular Model processing

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

10. DAX Calculations and Queries

Introduction

Combining tables using calculated columns

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

Adding a calculated column

Getting ready

How to do it…

Creating measures

Getting ready

How to do it…

Creating AutoSum measures

Creating calculated measures

Testing a Tabular Model in Excel

How to do it…

Understanding Row Context

Understanding Filter Context

Using the CALCULATE function

How to do it…

Test the Measures in Excel

Working with Time Intelligence

Querying a Tabular Model

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

11. Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting Tabular Models

Introduction

Understanding usability limits

Getting ready

How to do it…

There's more…

Optimizing and managing a model's design

Managing memory usage

Diagnosing performance issues

Processing and query-related performance

Using performance tools

Task Manager and Resource Monitor

Dynamic Management Views

BISM server memory report

Investigating query performance with SQL Server Profiler

How to do it…

There's more…

See also

A. Miscellaneous Analysis Services Topics

Working with non-SQL Server data sources

SSAS data structures

Transaction isolation levels

Processing performance issues

Common yet confusing SSAS errors

Binding is too small

Attribute key cannot be found

Undefined column name

DSV does not contain definition for an xyz column

Operation is cancelled

File is corrupted

Error encountered in the transport layer

Internal error or unexpected exception

Deadlock

Dimension properties

See also

Performance considerations for many-to-many dimension relationships

DirectQuery with Tabular Models

Data sources

Security

Design limitations

Client restrictions

Index

SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Development Cookbook

SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Development Cookbook

Copyright © 2013 Packt Publishing

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embedded in critical articles or reviews.

Every effort has been made in the preparation of this book to ensure the accuracy of the information presented. However, the information contained in this book is sold without warranty, either express or implied. Neither the authors, nor Packt Publishing, and its dealers and distributors will be held liable for any damages caused or alleged to be caused directly or indirectly by this book.

Packt Publishing has endeavored to provide trademark information about all of the companies and products mentioned in this book by the appropriate use of capitals. However, Packt Publishing cannot guarantee the accuracy of this information.

First published: December 2013

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Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.

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ISBN 978-1-84968-980-9

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Credits

Authors

Baya Dewald

Paul Turley

Steve Hughes

Reviewers

Dan English

Stevo Smočilac

Acquisition Editors

Edward Gordon

Llewellyn Rozario

Lead Technical Editor

Anila Vincent

Technical Editors

Dipika Gaonkar

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Tarunveer Shetty

Proofreaders

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Copy Editors

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Project Coordinators

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Indexer

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Production Coordinator

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Cover Work

Kyle Albuquerque

About the Authors

Baya Dewald has been working with Microsoft SQL Server for over 15 years and with Analysis Services since its debut in 1999. He has architected, developed, and administered databases with millions of users and cubes measured in terabytes. Throughout his career, he has held various certifications, including Microsoft Certified Solution Developer, Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer, and Microsoft Certified Database Administrator. He has managed DBA teams and published over 100 technical articles in SQL Server Magazine, SQL Professional, Tech Target, and InformIT. He has also contributed to several technical books as a co-author and technical reviewer. He can be reached at <baya.dewald@gmail.com>.

First and foremost, I'd like to thank my family for allowing me to dedicate long hours to working on this book. I am also thankful to my friend Scot Reagin for his encouragement and support while writing this book and to my friend and mentor Kevin Kline who helped me find excellent co-authors. Thanks too to all reviewers, particularly to Dan English, for their useful and thought-provoking comments that helped to make this book more useful to the readers.

Paul Turley is a mentor with SolidQ and is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP. He consults, writes, speaks, teaches, and blogs about business intelligence and reporting solutions. He works with companies around the world to visualize and deliver critical information to make informed business decisions. He is the director of the Oregon SQL PASS chapter and user group, and the lead author of Professional SQL Server 2012 Reporting Services and 11 other books by Wrox and Microsoft Press. Paul blogs at SqlServerBiBlog.com.

Special thanks to my wife and daughters for their support and understanding. Thanks to all the mentors and staff at SolidQ, a truly world-class organization.

Steve Hughes is a Practice Lead at Magenic. In his current role, he develops strategy and helps guide data, business intelligence, collaboration, and data integration development using Microsoft technologies, including SQL Server, SharePoint, and BizTalk. He continues to deliver data and business intelligence solutions using these platforms. He has been working with technology for over 15 years with much of that time spent on creating business intelligence solutions. He is passionate about using data effectively and helping customers understand that data is valuable and profitable. He also has experience working with a large software company as a service vendor and there received awards for customer satisfaction and engineering excellence.

In 2010, he received the Consultant of the Year honor at Magenic. He has delivered multiple presentations on SQL server, data architecture, and business intelligence over the years. Steve can often be found at Professional Association for SQL Server (PASS) events where he serves as a regional mentor and is active with the Minnesota SQL Server User Group (MNPASS). He shares his insights from the field on his blog at http://dataonwheels.wordpress.com.

I want to thank my wife, Sheila, and our four children—Kristyna, Alex, Andrew, and Mikayla—for their patience as I worked on this project. Their support has been awesome in this and my other endeavors. I also want to thank the team at Packt Publishing and the reviewers for their guidance throughout the writing of this book as it has allowed us to put together a better product for all of you. Finally, I dedicate all my efforts to my father-in-law, Ed Jankowski, without whom I would have never been involved in software at all. We all 
miss you, Ed.

About the Reviewers

Dan English is a Microsoft SQL Server MVP and the Business Intelligence Practice Manager at Superior Consulting Services in Minneapolis, MN. He has been developing with Microsoft technologies since 1996 and has focused on data warehousing and business intelligence since 2004. He has presented for the Minnesota SQL Server user group, the Microsoft Minnesota BI user group, and Minnesota TechFuse, along with SQL Server and SharePoint Saturday events. He is also an avid blogger and tweeter.

He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration from the Minnesota State University, Mankato. He is an MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer 2005 and 2008 and a Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) for Microsoft SQL Server Business Intelligence—Implementation and Maintenance and also for Microsoft Office SharePoint Server 2007—Configuring.

He and his wife, Molly, live in Minnesota and have two children, Lily and Wyatt.

Stevo Smočilac is an Associate Principal Consultant at Magenic, a Microsoft Gold Certified Partner that specializes in business intelligence solutions.

He has over 12 years' experience working in software development, the last seven of which have focused on designing, implementing, managing, and administrating technical solutions developed using Microsoft SQL Server and the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack. He has been involved in all phases of the BI development lifecycle from envisioning through operational support and is passionate about the field of business intelligence.

He is currently a Virtual Technology Solutions Professional (V-TSP) for business intelligence, a Microsoft Certified IT Professional, and holds a B. Tech degree in Information Technology.

Originally from South Africa, he now resides in the (much colder) northeastern United States with his wife, Talya. When not in front of his computer, he can often be found either playing the guitar or riding his mountain bikes.

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Preface

SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Development Cookbook is a friendly companion to individuals implementing and managing business intelligence applications using Microsoft's flagship product, SQL Server Analysis Services. The book provides step-by-step recipes for developing Analysis Services objects. Readers will learn how to develop business intelligence solutions using the Analysis Services multidimensional model as well as the Tabular Model. In addition to development recipes, the book also includes recipes for administering, securing, monitoring, troubleshooting, and scaling Analysis Services solutions. The book discusses methods beyond the initial cube design, exploring cube maintenance with partitions and designing effective aggregations, as well as options for synchronizing analytics solutions. Filled with tips and recommended best practices based on years of experience, the book is designed to quickly get the reader from beginner level to the point of comfortably architecting solutions.

What this book covers

Chapter 1, Introduction to Multidimensional Data Model Design, discusses the value of business intelligence as well as challenges faced when undertaking a business intelligence project and how to overcome them. You will learn high-level differences between Analysis Services tabular and multidimensional models and when each is appropriate. Finally, you will learn the differences between star and snowflake schemas for dimensional modeling.

Chapter 2, Defining Analysis Services Dimensions, starts off by explaining how to define data sources and data source views. You will learn how to extend data source views beyond the model available in the relational database. The chapter's main focus is on teaching you how to build and customize most commonly encountered dimensions within the Analysis Services multidimensional model.

Chapter 3, Creating Analysis Services Cubes, explains how to define measure groups and measures while setting appropriate properties. You will learn how to relate database dimensions to each measure group and implement basic as well as advanced measure aggregation functions, including distinct count and semi-additive measures. The chapter also discusses cube file structures and teaches the most effective strategies for measure group partitioning and building aggregations. Finally, you will learn various methods of deploying your multidimensional projects to your Analysis Services instances.

Chapter 4, Extending and Customizing Cubes, builds on the foundation of cube development laid in Chapter 3, Creating Analysis Services Cubes. You will learn how to make your solutions more useful to the business by adding calculated measures, named sets, actions, key performance indicators, perspectives, translations, and measure expressions to your cubes.

Chapter 5, Optimizing Dimension and Cube Processing, teaches basic and advanced options for processing multidimensional objects through XMLA, SQL Server client tools, as well as using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). This chapter also demonstrates how you should monitor and tune processing performance.

Chapter 6, MDX, explains how to write the most commonly encountered Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) queries and calculations. You will learn how to return data on query axes, limit and sort query output, define calculations and named sets, and navigate dimension hierarchies. The chapter also explains the basic functions used within MDX scripts and introduces the framework for monitoring and tuning MDX queries.

Chapter 7, Analysis Services Security, teaches how to manage multidimensional model security at the Analysis Services instance, database, cube, dimension, and cell levels. In addition to basic role-based security, the chapter also includes a recipe for implementing dynamic security.

Chapter 8, Administering and Monitoring Analysis Services, starts off by providing an overview of Analysis Services configuration options. Next, you learn how to create and drop databases, monitor and troubleshoot Analysis Services instances, and check the size of each object. Additionally, you will learn various methods for scaling out your multidimensional business intelligence solutions using backup and restore, synchronization, and the detach and attach options.

Chapter 9, Using Tabular Models, teaches you how to define data sources and models and load data into Tabular Models. You will learn how to define hierarchies, define calculated measures, and extend the Tabular model using key performance indicators. The chapter also explains recommended strategies for processing, partitioning, and securing Tabular Models.

Chapter 10, DAX Calculations and Queries, introduces the reader to Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) fundamentals as it applies to defining calculations within the Tabular Model and querying the model. You will learn how to write calculated columns and measures in the Tabular Model designer and DAX queries within SQL Server Management Studio.

Chapter 11, Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting Tabular Models, discusses the Analysis Services Tabular Model's usability limits. The reader will learn about diagnosing issues, optimizing performance, and memory use using various tools for troubleshooting suboptimal performance, which include Windows Resource Monitor and SQL Server Profiler.

Appendix, Miscellaneous Analysis Services Topics, discusses various Analysis Services topics that don't lend themselves to effective presentation in a recipe format. The chapter teaches you about various dimension properties, as well as outlining considerations for multidimensional design when developers are not permitted to create objects in the relational data sources.

What you need for this book

You will need Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Analysis Services multidimensional as well as tabular instances to which you have administrative access in order to follow along with the examples presented in this book. All examples are based on the Adventure Works sample relational database and Adventure Works Analysis Services database, which can be downloaded from www.codeplex.com. Each chapter referencing these samples includes a link to sample downloads.

Who this book is for

The book is for individuals intending to build, maintain, use, and administer business intelligence solutions exploiting Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services multidimensional as well as tabular databases. The intended audience includes seasoned professionals who have worked with databases and are embarking on more complex business intelligence solutions as well as for people who have built Analysis Services solutions in the past but would like to hone their skills further by administering, tuning, and scaling databases.

Conventions

In this book, you will find a number of styles of text that distinguish between different kinds of information. Here are some examples of these styles, and an explanation of their meaning.

Code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles are shown as follows: Temporary files can be found under the folder as specified in the msmdsrv.ini configuration file.

A block of code is set as follows:

    -1

    C:\key_errors.txt

    ReportAndStop

    ReportAndContinueReportAndContinue

    ReportAndStop

New terms and important words are shown in bold. Words that you see on the screen, in menus or dialog boxes for example, appear in the text like this: Now if you query the cube as a role member and choose All Products as the product category, you will see a different number than what you would see as the total of Bikes and Accessories.

Note

Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.

Tip

Tips and tricks appear like this.

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