1. SQL Server 2017 New BI Features
SQL Saturday Charlotte
October 14, 2017
David Mellinger

2. About me David Mellinger
Data Platform & Analytics Practice Lead at DMI\Allegient
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/dmellinger
MCSE: BI\Data Management & Analytics
Live in Columbus, Indiana
Active member of Terrace Lake Church
Sports fan HS, College, and Pros various sports

3. Agenda Overview of New BI Features in SQL Server 2017
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) - Demo
Power BI Report Server
SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) - Demo
Azure Analysis Services
BISM Normalizer
SQL Server Machine Learning Services (formerly R Services) - Demo
SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
Talk about more to SQL Server 2017 than just Linux
2017 has a decent amount of BI\Analytics features, particularly considering its 1 year out of a release
This will likely become the norm, b\c cloud first dev allows quick turnaround and user testing in the cloud resulting in shorter cycles

4. SSRS Web Portal Report comments
Comments can be added to all report types (Paginated Reports, Mobile Reports, and Power BI Reports)
Can add picture or PDF attachments to comments
Basic Reply and Security options available
Adds some light collaboration to the Web Portal
The only feature enhancement to SQL Server 2017 per se are comments
Only other SQL Server 2017 specific feature is the lightweight stand alone installer and separate install path

5. SSDT and Report Builder Native DAX Support
Native DAX queries in SSDT and Report Builder
Graphic Designer works with SQL Server Tabular Models
Can switch to text and write DAX for 2012, 2014 Tabular models

6. Power BI Report Server
Superset of SSRS, with the ability to surface Power BI Reports
Secure and govern Power BI reports in SSRS Web Portal
Power BI Desktop edition
Currently limited to Live Connection to (Tabular or MD) Analysis Services models
Surfacing Imported Models and Excel worksheets is in preview
License comes with Power BI Premium or SQL Server Enterprise Edition with Software Assurance
Secure and Govern
More limitations to the visuals available
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7. SQL Server 2017: SSRS and power bi report server
Demo

8. SSAS New Features Modern Get Data Experience
Get Data M\Power Query Data Sources
Power BI like data source experience
Can still utilize “legacy” data sources
Currently quite buggy in SSDT
Many more data sources
Lot of potential; easy to load and relate non-DW data, lookup sKey via natural key and tie ad-hoc data to EDW

9. SSAS New Features Object Level Security
Object Level Security (Table and Column metadata security)
Previous security was data security
These features prevent users via roles from being able to see if a table or column even exists in the model
This also closes loophole of seeing ‘hidden’ data via Show Details

10. SSAS New Features Custom Detail Rows for Measures
Ragged Hierarchy Support (Hide Members)
Encoding Hints
Value: Better for aggregate, dense number fields
Hash: Better for lookup\key, sparse number fields
DAX Editor in SSDT
SSMS DAX Query Editor

11. SSAS Related Features BISM Normalizer
Free\Open Source SSAS Tabular Schema Compare Tool
Should be core tool used for SSAS Tabular development and management
Easy to see developers changes from deployed models or between environments
Allows easy incremental deployments
Allows for much easier concurrent development
Can deploy model, but maintain Partitions, so development can be loaded and be manageable with much less data (different partitions)
Now in SSAS Git Repository
If you are going to take away anything from this presentation, this should be it
If you have never heard of BISM normalizer or aren’t that familiar, I encourage you to dive into the tool, I promise it will help you out immensely

12. SSAS Related Features BISM Normalizer
If you’ve ever done a TFS right-lick compare on Tabular Model, you know how ugly, long that is and how it is hard, sometimes impossible to compare

13. Azure Analysis Services Web Designer
Can create models from Azure SQL DB, Azure SQL Data Warehouse, or a Power BI Desktop File
Power BI Desktop importing via SSDT to SSAS Tabular project is on the roadmap

14. Azure Analysis Services Web Designer
Intended for quick creations of basic models or creating simple changes
Can check basic querying as well
SSDT is still primary authoring tool
Its intended for quick creation of models or applying simple changes quickly, of course you need to be careful with changes to production models

15. SQL Server 2017: SSAS and BISM Normalizer
Demo

16. Machine Learning Services Python Support
Formerly SQL Server R Services
Renamed as it now supports Python and possibly supporting more platforms in the future
In addition to In-Database options for running R\Python on an instance of SQL Server, there are also Machine Learning Server options
RevoScalePY and MicrosoftML packages both support Python
Python has same Data Science and Support as R has in SQL 2016

17. Machine Learning Services Native Scoring
New PREDICT T-SQL function
Takes a pretrained model and data and scores it
Uses optimized intra-database C++ libraries, does not call separate R\Python runtime
Fast performance
No external script security concerns
Train a model in Data Science environment, save serialized model to SQL Server table, then can be used to score via PREDICT
No need for any Machine Learning Services to be installed on the SQL Server instance
Currently only supported for a few RevoScaleR algorithms, likely RevoScalePY and MicrosoftML algorithms in the future

18. SQL Server 2017: Machine learning services
Demo

19. SSIS New Features Scale Out
SSIS Scale Out
Allow packages from a SSIS Project Deployment to run on different servers concurrently
Consists of one Master and one or more Workers which pull jobs from the Master
Master server can also be a worker
Can be ran via SSMS Dialog, via SSIS Stored Procedures, or via SQL Agent
Will NOT run child packages called from Execute Package Tasks on separate Workers, so may require redesign to take advantage
If use ELT a lot or if database is bottleneck, not too helpful
Most helpful if SSIS server’s Memory or CPU is bottleneck

20. SSIS New Features SSIS Azure Feature Pack Updates
Azure Data Lake Store
Azure SQL Data Warehouse
HDInsight Updates
Linux Support (sort of)
Severely limited
Ubuntu and Red Hat only
File System Deployment Only
Call via dtexec
No SQL Agent Support
Dynamics Online ODBC connections support
Azure Data Factory can now run SSIS Packages (any version)

21. Microsoft BI\Data Analytics Feature Comparison
SQL Server 2017 Windows
SQL Server 2017 Linux
Azure\Cloud
Data Warehouse
SQL Server RDBMS
Azure SQL DB
Azure SQL Data Warehouse
Data Movement
SSIS
SSIS (weak)
Azure Data Factory
Semantic Model
SSAS (Tabular and MD)
N\A
Azure Analysis Services (Tabular)
Reporting
SSRS (Paginated, Mobile, Power BI Reports)
Power BI (Service and Reports)
Advanced Analytics
SQL Server Machine Learning Services
Azure Machine Learning
Apache Spark for Azure HDInsight
Master Data Management
Master Data Services
Big Data Support
Interaction through Polybase
Azure HDInsight
Azure Data Lake

22. Resources Links What’s new in SQL Server 2017 BISM Normalizer
Blog and Whitepaper
Azure Analysis Services Web Designer
Power BI Report Server
Preview (Imported Models and Excel Surfacing)
SQL Server 2017 download and play around
Blogs, Google and explore!

23. Questions?