Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services

Design and Implement Fast, Scalable, and Maintainable Cubes

By: Alberto Ferrari, Chris Webb, Marco Russo

Write A Review

eText | 15 July 2009 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Format
ePUB

eText

$67.09

or 4 interest-free payments of $16.77 with

or

Instant online reading in your Booktopia eTextbook Library *

Design and implement fast, scalable and maintainable cubes

Key Features

A real-world guide to designing cubes with Analysis Services 2008
Model dimensions and measure groups in BI Development Studio
Implement security, drill-through, and MDX calculations
Learn how to deploy, monitor, and performance-tune your cube
Filled with best practices and useful hints and tips

Book Description

Microsoft's SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 is an OLAP server that allows users to analyze business data quickly and easily. However, designing cubes in Analysis Services can be a complex task: it's all too easy to make mistakes early on in development that lead to serious problems when the cube is in production. Learning the best practices for cube design before you start your project will help you avoid these problems and ensure that your project is a success. This book offers practical advice on how to go about designing and building fast, scalable, and maintainable cubes that will meet your users' requirements and help make your Business Intelligence project a success. This book gives readers insight into the best practices for designing and building Microsoft Analysis Services 2008 cubes. It also provides details about server architecture, performance tuning, security, and administration of an Analysis Services solution. In this book, you will learn how to design and implement Analysis Services cubes. Starting from designing a data mart for Analysis Services, through the creation of dimensions and measure groups, to putting the cube into production, we'll explore the whole of the development lifecycle. This book is an invaluable guide for anyone who is planning to use Microsoft Analysis Services 2008 in a Business Intelligence project.

What you will learn

Build a data mart suitable for use with Analysis Services
Create and configure an Analysis Services project in Business Intelligence Development Studio
Use the Dimension Wizard and the Dimension Editor to build dimensions
Create measure groups and associate them with dimensions
Add calculations to the cube, including implementing currency conversion and a date tool dimension
Explore the security model, including dimension security and cell security, and implement dynamic security
Tune queries to get the best possible performance
Automate processing and partition creation
Monitor your cube to see who s actually using it

Who this book is for

This book is aimed at Analysis Services developers who already have some experience but who want to go into more detail on advanced topics, and who want to learn best practices for cube design.