1. Introduction to SQL Server Analysis Services

2. Presenter Principal Architect and Owner for DawaBI
Started with SQL Server developing ETL solutions on SQL Server 2000
In 2007 focused on entire MS BI stack including SSRS, SSAS, SSIS
Involved with a wide range of BI solutions
Education, Human Services, Retail, etc.
President of Denver SQL Server UG
Co-organizer of Colorado GiveCamp
Past Regional Mentor for PASS

3. Agenda History Business Uses What is Analysis Services
Dimensions / Attributes
Measures
Tools
Demo – Building your first cube

4. History 1996 Microsoft Purchased OLAP Server from Panorama 1998
Microsoft Released OLAP Services with SQL Server 7
2000
Renamed to Analysis Services and added Data Mining Functionality
2005
Major overhaul and introduction of UDM
2008
Many performance improvements
2010
BI focused release with SQL Server 2008 r2 and introduced PowerPivot

5. Business Uses Education Retail Foster Care Insurance
Student Attendance
Teacher Behavior
Standardized tests
Grades
Retail
Sales
Inventory
Customer
Foster Care
Adoption
Meeting
Service
Provider
Insurance
Claims
Premium
Fraud

6. What is Analysis Services
Key Foundation of the MS BI Stack
UDM – Unified Dimensional Model
OLAP – Online Analytical Processing
Multidimensional
Stores Aggregated Data
Storage Modes
MOLAP - Multidimensional OLAP
ROLAP - Relational OLAP
HOLAP - Hybrid OLAP
- MOLAP - Multidimensional OLAP - Both fact data and aggregations are processed, stored, and indexed using a special format optimized for multidimensional data.
- ROLAP - Relational OLAP - Both fact data and aggregations remain in the relational data source, eliminating the need for special processing.
- HOLAP - Hybrid OLAP - This mode uses the relational data source to store the fact data, but pre-processes aggregations and indexes, storing these in a special format, optimized for multidimensional data.

7. What is Analysis Services (cont.)

8. Benefits of Analysis Services
Ad-hoc reporting/querying
Caching
Aggregations
Data compression to reduce IO
Indexing structures and optimizer are designed solely for dimensional queries

9. Benefits of Analysis Services (cont.)
MDX – Ideal for analytics of time based, non- additive, etc. queries
MDX Functions
Min/Max/Median
DistinctCount
Ancestor
LastChild
ParallelPeriod

10. Dimensions / Attributes
Used to slice
Single column of a table
Examples: Fiscal Year, Last Name, State
Dimensions
A Group of attributes
A Single table
Examples: Date, Customer, Geography

11. Measures Measures Calculated Members
Typically aggregated; sum, count, etc.
Derived from a column(s) in a fact table
Examples: Extended Sales, Quantity on Hand
Calculated Members
Derived from measures in a cube
Defined with MDX

12. Tools BIDS (Business Intelligence Development Studio)
Visual Studio but with different templates
Can work offline
Main development environment
Management Studio
Query the cubes via MDX
Can manage Analysis Services and objects

13. Demo
Building your first cube

14. Demo Highlights Data Sources Data Source Views
Can pull data from multiple sources
Data Source Views
Logical representation
Calculated columns

15. Demo Highlights (cont.)
Dimensions
User Hierarchies
Attribute Relationships
Cubes
Leverage the cube wizard

16. Summary You’ve learned: What Analysis Services is and where to use it
Key components of a Analysis Services
Data Source
Data Source View
Dimensions
Cubes
How to build your own cube: The first steps!

17. Resources AdventureWorks DB: http://tinyurl.com/qd3bbg
Contoso Retail DB:
MS Training:
Professional Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services with MDX

18. Thank You!
Contact Info:
Marc Beacom
@MarcBeacom