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Role-playing Dimensions
Dimensions are often recycled for multiple purposes within the same database. For instance, a “Date” dimension can be used for “Date of Sale”, as well as “Date of Delivery”, or “Date of Hire”. This...
View ArticleTop SSAS white papers
These are my favorite SSAS white papers released by Microsoft, with many from SQLCAT. I’ll keep this post updated with new versions of the white papers as well as new ones that come along that I find...
View ArticleFactless fact table
A factless fact table is a fact table that does not have any measures. It is essentially an intersection of dimensions (it contains nothing but dimensional keys). There are two types of factless...
View ArticleJunk dimensions
Junk dimensions are dimensions that contain miscellaneous data such as flags and indicators. When designing a data warehouse, you might come across a source system that has a bunch of yes/no indicator...
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Improving cube processing time
As your SSAS cube gets bigger, cube processing time will become a problem. This is especially true as more and more companies want cube processing during the day instead of the usual off-hours time...
View ArticleSSAS fact table dilemma
Here is a situation I ran into recently concerning using a fact table in SSAS. This experience may help you out if you run into something similar: A data warehouse has an advertising table that has...
View ArticleComplex reporting off a SSAS cube
While using a cube in SSAS is usually a great source for reporting, it is not always the best choice. Sometimes it is better to report off of the data warehouse that the cube is built from. For...
View ArticleTinyInt problem in SSAS
If you have a source table that has a Tinyint primary key column defined as IDENTITY and you create a Data Source View (DSV) in SSAS and add that table (usually a dimension table), that IDENTITY field...
View ArticleBIDS Helper 1.6 for SQL Server 2012 released
BIDS helper is Visual Studio add-in with features that extend and enhance the functionality of the SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008 BI Development Studio, and now supports SQL Server 2012 (including...
View ArticleSQL Server 2012: SSAS enhancements
My previous blog, SQL Server 2012 (“Denali”): Details on the next version of SSAS, talked about the major new feature in SSAS, which is BISM. But what other changes are there? Well, not much. Here...
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SQL Server 2012: Multidimensional vs tabular
To expand on what I talked about in SQL Server 2012 (“Denali”): Details on the next version of SSAS, there is a new data model called Tabular. So when you are creating a new project, which model...
View ArticleSSAS development quick tip
When creating a new cube in SSAS, you are frequently making changes that cause the whole cube to reprocess when you use the “Deploy” option (such as structure changes or aggregation design changes)....
View ArticleSSAS File System Error
I received this error the other day when trying to process a particular SSAS cube: Error 18 File system error: The following file is corrupted: Physical file:...
View ArticleBeing careful in SSAS to not make a cube/dimension unprocessed
A big headache in SSAS, especially when dealing with a large cube, is making a change that when deployed, causes a cube to become unprocessed, forcing you to do a full process so the cube is usable....
View ArticleWhat happens when a SSAS Tabular model exceeds memory?
If you are using the Tabular model in SSAS, it will use the xVelocity technology to load your entire database in memory (greatly compressing the database). So what happens if your database is too big...
View ArticleComparing DirectQuery and ROLAP for real-time access
In the multidimensional model in SSAS, there is a storage mode called relational OLAP (ROLAP), which is the multidimensional solution for allowing real-time access to relational data sources. In the...
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Visual Studio 2012 does not support BI
UPDATE 3/6/13: VS 2012 now supports BI! Check out Microsoft SQL Server Data Tools – Business Intelligence for Visual Studio 2012 In the same vein as my post Watch out, Visual Studio 2010 does not...
View ArticlePrevent wiping out of SSAS partitions
There have been a few times when I have created SSAS partitions outside of BIDS using script code in an SSiS package, then later made a change in BIDS and deployed the cube, wiping out those partitions...
View ArticleSSAS: One giant cube or many small ones?
When using SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) to build a cube, you may start out with one fact table, but then decide to add another fact table. You are then faced with a decision: Do you add that...
View ArticleVisual Studio 2012 now supports BI!
My most popular blog has been Visual Studio 2012 does not support BI. In short, this means VS 2012 does not support SSAS, SSIS, or SSRS. Well, not anymore! Just released is Microsoft SQL Server Data...
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