Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
()
About this ebook
Related to Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
Related ebooks
Applied Microsoft Business Intelligence Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Microsoft Dynamics CRM 2011 New Features Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicrosoft Dynamics AX 2012 R2 Services Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsInstant SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 Cube Security Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBizTalk Server 2010 Cookbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicrosoft Dynamics CRM Online A Complete Guide - 2021 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicrosoft SQL Server 2005 Performance Optimization and Tuning Handbook Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsData Modeling Fundamentals: A Practical Guide for IT Professionals Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsETL A Clear and Concise Reference Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMetadata Projects Third Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsLogical Data Warehouse A Complete Guide - 2019 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMicrosoft SQL Server Management Studio A Complete Guide - 2021 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDatabase Testing A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBusiness Process Optimization A Complete Guide - 2019 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoftware Product Managers A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSoftware Documentation Strategy A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsNosql A Complete Guide - 2019 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsData Marts A Complete Guide - 2021 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDynamic SQL: Applications, Performance, and Security in Microsoft SQL Server Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAzure SQL A Complete Guide - 2021 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSpark SQL A Complete Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMs Sql Server Management Studio Third Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTest Automation Framework A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsRelational Databases: State of the Art Report 14:5 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTechnical Documentation A Complete Guide - 2020 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPerformance Testing Strategy A Complete Guide Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIoT Architecture A Complete Guide - 2021 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsuser stories A Complete Guide - 2019 Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIBM WebSphere Portal Primer: Second Edition Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Develop Use Cases Second Edition Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Enterprise Applications For You
3D Concrete Printing Technology: Construction and Building Applications Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Ready-to-Use Excel Formulas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excel Formulas and Functions 2020: Excel Academy, #1 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Creating Online Courses with ChatGPT | A Step-by-Step Guide with Prompt Templates Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Access 2019 For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsQuickBooks 2024 All-in-One For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBitcoin For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excel : The Ultimate Comprehensive Step-By-Step Guide to the Basics of Excel Programming: 1 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Notion for Beginners: Notion for Work, Play, and Productivity Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/550 Useful Excel Functions: Excel Essentials, #3 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Learn Windows PowerShell in a Month of Lunches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExcel Tips and Tricks Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe New Email Revolution: Save Time, Make Money, and Write Emails People Actually Want to Read! Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Enterprise AI For Dummies Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5QuickBooks 2023 All-in-One For Dummies Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSharePoint 2016 For Dummies Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Ridiculously Simple Guide to Google Docs: A Practical Guide to Cloud-Based Word Processing Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsExcel 2016 For Dummies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Systems Thinking: Managing Chaos and Complexity: A Platform for Designing Business Architecture Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Excel 2019 Bible Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Essential Office 365 Third Edition: The Illustrated Guide to Using Microsoft Office Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5ChatGPT Ultimate User Guide - How to Make Money Online Faster and More Precise Using AI Technology Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMastering QuickBooks 2020: The ultimate guide to bookkeeping and QuickBooks Online Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Reviews for Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
0 ratings0 reviews
Book preview
Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development - Simon Lidberg
Table of Contents
Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
Why Subscribe?
Free Access for Packt account holders
Instant Updates on New Packt Books
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. Self-service Business Intelligence, Creating Value from Data
Identifying common user requirements for a BI system
Creating a flexible reporting solution
Getting user value through self-service reporting
Summary
2. Installing SSAS and Preparing for Cube Development
Understanding the BI semantic model architecture
Choosing the deployment mode
Actions
Aggregations
Custom assemblies
Custom rollups
Distinct count
Linked objects
Many-to-many relationships
Parent-child hierarchies
Translations
Writeback
Tool support
Installing Analysis Services 2012 in multidimensional mode
Hands-on steps for installing Analysis Services
Hands-on steps for attaching the sample database
Starting SQL Server Data Tools for the first time
Choosing the correct project
Hands-on steps for creating your first cube project
Navigating the project environment
Solution Explorer
Properties window
Build menu
Hands-on steps for configuring your cube project
Summary
3. Creating Your First Multidimensional Cube
An introduction to data warehousing
Understanding data sources
Creating the data connection
Understanding the data source view
Creating a new data source view
Adding objects to the data source view
Extending the data source view
Understanding dimensions
Creating the Date dimension
Preparing the Date dimension for end users
Renaming attributes
Creating a hierarchy and attribute relationships
Processing the dimension to review the results
Creating the first cube
Creating the Fact Internet Sales cube
Creating additional dimensions and adding them to the cube
Summary
4. Deploying and Processing Cubes
Deploying objects to Analysis Services
Deploying the FirstCube project to the server
Deploying projects using advanced deployment strategies
Processing objects in Analysis Services
Processing the FirstCube project
Using advanced processing options when processing cubes
Scheduling processing
Building a SSIS package to control processing
Troubleshooting processing errors
Partitioning cubes to speed up processing
Adding partitions to the FirstCube cube
Configuring storage modes in Analysis Services
MOLAP
ROLAP
HOLAP
Proactive caching
Adding a ROLAP dimension to the FirstCube cube
Summary
5. Querying Your Cube
Understanding multidimensionality
Writing MDX queries using Management Studio
Connecting to the cube using Management Studio
Understanding the anatomy of an MDX query
The FROM clause
The WHERE clause
The query axis clause
Important query concepts
Unique names
Finding unique names of objects
Tuples
Sets
Calculated members
Named sets
Functions
Using Excel as the query tool against cubes
Connecting Excel to the FirstCube cube
Advanced Excel features
Named sets
Calculated measures
Calculated members
Using Reporting Services together with your cube
Summary
6. Adding Functionality to Your Cube
Adding measures
Adding additional measure groups
Adding dimensions to the FirstCube project
Adding referenced dimensions
Adding many-to-many dimensions
Adding dimensions with parent-child hierarchies
Adding calculations to cubes
Simple calculated measures
Adding advanced calculated measures
Adding calculated members
Time and date calculations
Key Performance Indicators
Adding perspectives to simplify cube browsing
Adding translations to support global implementations
Extending the cube with custom actions
Building budget solutions using writeback
Summary
7. Securing Your Cube Project
Understanding role-based security
Adding users to the fixed server role
Adding custom roles to the database
Securing objects in Analysis Services
Adding dimension security to the FirstCube project
Securing measures
Implementing data security
Testing data security
Enable Visual Totals to restrict what a user can see
Understanding security when a user belongs to several roles
Implementing dynamic data security
Summary
8. Using Aggregations to Performance Optimize a Cube
Understanding cube aggregations
Adding aggregations to improve performance
Running the aggregation wizard
Adding aggregations manually
Using usage-based optimization to optimize the cube
Summary
9. In-memory, the Future
Understanding tabular models
Installing a tabular mode instance
Creating a tabular mode project
Defining the workspace server
Connecting to the data source
Adding tables to the data model
Adding data from other data sources
Working with partitions in tabular models
Creating calculations
Adding calculated columns to the tabular model
Creating calculated measures in the tabular model
Creating advanced calculations
Specifying other types of tables and columns
KPIs
Adding hierarchies
Sorting data based on other columns
Hiding columns and tables from the end users
Creating perspectives
Adding security to your in-memory model
Optimizing the tabular model for performance
Querying tabular models
Summary
10. Cubes in the Larger Context
Using Microsoft frontend tools to query Analysis Services
Developer-focused tools
Using Reporting Services to query your cube
SharePoint PerformancePoint Services
Self-service tools
Using Excel as a self-service tool against Analysis Services cubes
Using Excel PowerPivot to allow user-created models
SharePoint Excel Services
Introducing Power View – an analytical tool
Third-party tools
Summary
Index
Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
Getting Started with SQL Server 2012 Cube Development
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 author, 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: September 2013
Production Reference: 1040913
Published by Packt Publishing Ltd.
Livery Place
35 Livery Street
Birmingham B3 2PB, UK.
ISBN 978-1-84968-950-2
www.packtpub.com
Cover Image by Suresh Mogre (<suresh.mogre.99@gmail.com>)
Credits
Author
Simon Lidberg
Reviewers
David Loo
Richard Louie
Donabel Santos
Acquisition Editor
James Jones
Lead Technical Editor
Dayan Hyames
Technical Editors
Anusri Ramchandran
Dennis John
Kapil Hemnani
Gaurav Thingalaya
Project Coordinator
Apeksha Chitnis
Proofreader
Mario Cecere
Indexer
Tejal Daruwale
Graphics
Yuvraj Mannari
Production Coordinator
Manu Joseph
Cover Work
Manu Joseph
About the Author
Simon Lidberg is a database veteran, who has worked in the Computer industry since the mid nineties. He has had roles as Consultant, Support Engineer, Escalation Engineer, and Technical Presales Specialist. In the past 15 years, he has worked with databases and ERP Systems at companies such as Digital Equipment, Compaq, and Microsoft.
He has been an expert in Microsoft SQL Server since he started to work with Version 6.5 at Microsoft as a Support Engineer. Since 2006, he has worked with the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack that includes Analysis Services.
Since then, he has helped numerous companies to start using Analysis Services as well as have trained hundreds of people on Microsoft BI.
Simon is also a frequent speaker at conferences such as PASS SQLRally and Microsoft TechDays. He currently blogs at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/querysimon
I wish to thank the people at Packt Publishing who gave me the opportunity to write this book. I have tried to write the book that I felt was missing when I moved into the Business Intelligence space, after having worked with databases for 10 years. I hope that you, as a reader, will find it beneficial and that it will help you know Analysis Services.
I also want to thank the people who have helped me while writing this book, Mikael, Stephen, and all the rest; thanks for your help and inspiration.
Most of all, I wish to thank my wife, Marita, for the support during the work with the book.
About the Reviewers
David Loo is a Senior Software Development Professional with over 25 years of experience in both software development and people management. He is respected for his ability to focus teams on service excellence and for designing and implementing practical process improvements. Always on the lookout for ways to contribute his knowledge and experience of software development, team-building, and development best practices.
Richard Louie is a Business Intelligence developer at Redwood Trust, a residential and commercial mortgage investment firm. He has extensive experience in Oracle and Microsoft SQL for ETL, SSIS, SSRS, SSAS, and VB.NET. Richard is ASQ Green Belt Certified. He is a graduate in Information and Computer Science from the University of California, Irvine.
Donabel Santos is a SQL Server MVP and is the Senior SQL Server Developer/DBA/Trainer at QueryWorks Solutions, a consulting and training company in Vancouver, BC. She has worked with SQL Server since Version 2000 in numerous development, tuning, reporting, and integration projects with ERPs, CRMs, SharePoint, and other custom applications. She holds MCITP certifications for SQL Server 2005/2008, and an MCTS for SharePoint. She is a Microsoft Certified Trainer (MCT), and is also the lead instructor for SQL Server Administration, Development, Tableau, and SSIS courses at British Columbia Institute of Technology (BCIT). Donabel is a proud member of PASS (Professional Association of SQL Server), and a proud BCIT alumna (CST diploma and degree).
Donabel blogs at www.sqlmusings.com and her twitter handle is @sqlbelle. She speaks and presents at SQLSaturday, VANPASS, Vancouver TechFest, and so on. She writes for Packt, Idera, SSWUG, and so on. She is the author of Packt's SQL Server 2012 with PowerShell V3 Cookbook, and a contributing author of Manning's PowerShell Deep Dives.
www.PacktPub.com
Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more
You might want to visit www.PacktPub.com for support files and downloads related to your book.
Did you know that Packt offers eBook versions of every book published, with PDF and ePub files available? You can upgrade to the eBook version at www.PacktPub.com and as a print book customer, you are entitled to a discount on the eBook copy. Get in touch with us at
At www.PacktPub.com, you can also read a collection of free technical articles, sign up for a range of free newsletters and receive exclusive discounts and offers on Packt books and eBooks.
http://PacktLib.PacktPub.com
Do you need instant solutions to your IT questions? PacktLib is Packt's online digital book library. Here, you can access, read and search across Packt's entire library of books.
Why Subscribe?
Fully searchable across every book published by Packt
Copy and paste, print and bookmark content
On demand and accessible via web browser
Free Access for Packt account holders
If you have an account with Packt at www.PacktPub.com, you can use this to access PacktLib today and view nine entirely free books. Simply use your login credentials for immediate access.
Instant Updates on New Packt Books
Get notified! Find out when new books are published by following @PacktEnterprise on Twitter, or the Packt Enterprise Facebook page.
Preface
Most books about Analysis Services are targeted at people who already work in the BI space and want to become experts. I wanted to write a book that could be read and understood by a novice who wants to become a BI developer. I have made this journey myself; I had worked with database solutions for more than 10 years when I started to work with BI solutions. I had a hard time finding a book that would cover the introduction to multidimensional modeling.
The intent of this book is not to be a complete book on Analysis Services development, but to serve as an introduction that will allow the user to get started. The book also contains links to where a reader can find more in-depth material on the topics covered. This will allow the user to start as a novice and to move into the role of an intermediate Analysis Services developer.
What this book covers
This book is a step-by-step instruction on how to get started with cube development. It takes the reader through the steps of installing and developing a BI solution built on Analysis Services. It contains the following chapters:
Chapter 1, Self-service Business Intelligence, Creating Value from Data, serves as an introduction to Business Intelligence solutions and specifically self-service solutions.
Chapter 2, Installing SSAS and Preparing for Cube Development, discusses the different models available to a user in Analysis Services. It covers the installation of Analysis Services and an introduction to the development environment.
Chapter 3, Creating Your First Multidimensional Cube, starts with an introduction to data warehousing modeling followed by a step-by-step instruction covering the initial development of the first OLAP cube.
Chapter 4, Deploying and Processing Cubes, covers the deployment and processing of cubes that are necessary in cube development. You will learn how you can automate processing of cubes to ensure that they contain the latest information from the data warehouse. You also learn how to partition your cubes to minimize processing times.
Chapter 5, Querying Your Cube, serves as an introduction to MDX, the query language used in Analysis Services. You will also learn how Excel can be used as a query tool against multidimensional cubes.
Chapter 6, Adding Functionality to Your Cube, looks at how you can extend your cube with calculations such as calculated measures and members, key performance indicators (KPIs), time calculations, and actions. It also contains information about how you can use your cube in a multi-lingual environment through the use of translations, and how you can build budgeting solutions using Analysis Services.
Chapter 7, Securing Your Cube Project, discusses how security works in Analysis Services and how a cube can be secured. You will learn how you can implement a dynamic security model using MDX functions.
Chapter 8, Using Aggregations to Performance Optimize a Cube, covers how aggregations can be used in Analysis Services to improve the performance of the BI solution. You will learn how you can create aggregations based on the actual usage of the cube.
Chapter 9, In-memory, the Future, introduces how you can build in-memory models in Analysis Services tabular mode. The chapter discusses measures, hierarchies, security, partitioning as well as more advanced topics such as time calculations and KPIs.
Chapter 10, Cubes in the Larger Context, shows how cubes fit into the larger architecture of a BI solution. You will get an introduction to the available frontend tools from Microsoft as well as the third-party tools that can be used as query tools against cubes.
What you need for this book
To follow the step-by-step instructions in this book you need a computer with the following software:
Windows Vista SP2 or later if you install it on a workstation, or Windows Server 2008 SP2 or later if you install it on a server.
One of the following Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Enterprise, BI, Developer, or Evaluation Editions. You can download the Evaluation Edition at the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=29066
Adventure Works Data Warehouse 2012 sample database. You can download the sample using the following link: http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/downloads/get/165405
Who this book is for
The audience of this book includes SQL Server developers that previously have not worked with Analysis Services, but want to move into the BI space. It is assumed that you have experience with relational databases but no skills in cube development are required.
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 are shown as follows: We can include other contexts through the use of the include directive.
A block of code is set as follows:
--Query 5.2
SELECT [Measures].[Sales Amount] ON COLUMNS,
[Product].[Product Hierarchy].[Product Category] ON ROWS
FROM [Adventure Works DW2012];]
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: clicking on the Next button moves you to the next screen
.
Note
Warnings or important notes appear in a box like this.
Tip
Tips and tricks appear like this.
Reader feedback
Feedback from our readers is always welcome. Let us know what you think about this book—what you liked or may have disliked. Reader feedback is important for us to develop titles that you really get the most out of.
To send us general feedback, simply send an e-mail to <feedback@packtpub.com>, and mention the book title via the subject of your message.
If there is a topic that you have expertise in and you are interested in either writing or contributing to a book, see our author guide on www.packtpub.com/authors.
Customer support
Now that you are the proud owner of a Packt book, we have a number of things to help you to get the most from your purchase.
Downloading the example code
You can download the example