Vidas Matelis, Toronto SQL Server User Group November 13, 2008
Quick info about me Microsoft BI Consultant – SQL Server, SSIS, SSAS, SSRS; over 13 years experience with SQL Server Microsoft SQL MVP My website: My blog: 18 Microsoft certification exams – MCP, MCSE-NT4, MCSE-W2K, MCDBA (SQL 2000), MCTS-SQL2005, MCTS-BI2005, MCTS-BI2008, MCIP-BI Developer
Agenda Quick info about SSAS – what it is and why to use it SSAS terminology explained – Database, cube, measures, dimensions, attributes We will create POC SSAS DB on existing SQL Server DB
Short SSAS history and future Panorama SQL Server 7.0 SQL Server 2000 SQL Server 2005 SQL Server 2008 SQL Server Kilimanjaro and Gemini
About SSAS AS is a server-based platform for OLAP and data mining. Tools - BIDS, SSMS Query language – Multidimensional Expressions or MDX; for Data Mining - Data Mining Extensions or DMX MDX Query: SELECT [Date].[Calendar].[Calendar Year].Members ON COLUMNS, [Product].[Category].Members ON ROWS FROM [Adventure Works] WHERE ([Measures].[Reseller Sales Amount], [Geography].[Geography].[Country].&[Canada] );
Why use SSAS Speed – MOLAP queries are much faster than relational DB queries (especially summarized data)
Why use SSAS Speed – MOLAP queries are much faster than relational DB queries (especially aggregated data) There are many front end tools available that allow users to build reports themselves
Demo 1 – Terminology Database Cube Measure Dimension Hierarchy Attributes
How to use SSAS properly Extract data from source system(s) ETL data into relational data warehouse, conforming data from different sources, using surrogate keys Create SSAS database. Choose front end and start building reports.
Building POC using SSAS Choose SQL Server database with data YOU KNOW Build a fake DW database using views and some tables Create SSAS database Choose front end and start building reports.
Demo We will build POC on Adventure Works LT 2008 DB We will create new SQL Server DB We will create views that define dimensions and fact table We will create SSAS Database We will query data from SSAS Database using Excel
Summary We learned what SSAS can do for you We learned how to build POC using SSAS
What to do next Get more info from – articles, papers, webcasts, FAQshttp:// Build POC using your company data and show it to your boss
Q & A Any questions?