Discuss SSAS 2008 and new features and key differences between SSAS 2005.

1. PASSMN SQL Summit 2009 Upgrade to SSAS 2008 Dan English Principal Consultant – Business Intelligence Architect DanE@magenic.com http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com

2. Agenda Introductions / Audience Poll Overview of SSAS Designer Improvements MDX / Engine Changes DMVs Tips & Advice Q&A

3. Who am I? Dan English http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com/ Developing with Microsoft technologies for over 12 years Over 5 years focusing on Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence Been working with SQL Server since version 6.5 Experienced in Analysis Services (OLAP) and ETL development, data modeling, and requirements gathering Microsoft Certified IT Professional (MCITP) and Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) PASSMN 2009 – Executive Board Chair Enjoy blogging and contributing to forums YouTube Videos - http://youtube.com/user/denglishbi

4. Who is Magenic? Founded in 1995, Magenic is a technical consulting firm focused exclusively on Microsoft technologies and has designed and delivered more than 500 Microsoft-based applications Headquartered in Minneapolis, with offices in Chicago, Boston, Atlanta and San Francisco 2005 Microsoft Partner of the Year, Custom Development Solutions – Technical Innovation 2007 Microsoft Partner of the Year Finalist, Data Management Microsoft Gold Certified Partner, National Systems Integrator, and Consulting Services Preferred Services Partner Over 200 consultants

5. Quick Audience Poll Anyone currently not using SSAS or first time hearing about the product? Currently using 7.0? 2000? 2005? 2008? What front-end tools are being used to access SSAS? Excel? SSRS? ProClarity? PerformancePoint? Dundas OLAP? Other? Any topics related to SSAS that you would like me to touch on or highlight during the discussion?

6. Agenda Introductions / Audience Poll Overview of SSAS Designer Improvements MDX / Engine Changes DMVs Tips & Advice Q&A

7. The Microsoft BI Platform Integrate Store Report Analyze

8. Analysis Challenges How Do You Deal With: Deploy for today’s problem but scale over time Data stored in multiple data sources Build fast but build to last The costs of learning new tools The cost of developing analytical solutions Inflexible architecture ‘Real-Time’ data access Diverse analytical needs Multiple Users, Multiple Tools Inconsistent data

9. Analysis Services 2008 Drive Pervasive Insights Design Scalable Solutions Productivity-enhancing designers Scalable infrastructure Superior performance Extend Usability Unified meta data model Central KPI manageability Predictive analysis Deliver Actionable Insight Optimized Office interoperability Rich partner extensibility Open, embeddable architecture

10. New with Analysis Services 2008

11. Design Scalable Solutions Productivity Enhancing Designers Optimized design experience Best Practice Design Alerts Project Lifecycle support Scalable Infrastructure Heterogeneous data Integration Robust Scale-Out Configuration Advanced Resource Monitoring User-differentiated perspectives Superior Performance Market leading MOLAP Engine Near real-time data access Subspace computation optimization MOLAP enabled write-back

12. Agenda Introductions / Audience Poll Overview of SSAS Designer Improvements MDX / Engine Changes DMVs Tips & Advice Q&A

13. Dimension Designer Wizard changes Configure Attribute (hierarchy) browsing Attribute type Parent-child detection (based on relationships) Attribute relationships KeyColumns setup

14. Attribute Relationships 2005 In SSAS 2005 this was often overlooked and you needed to drag the attributes within the attributes pane or the defined hierarchies.

15. Attribute Relationships 2008 In SSAS 2008 there is a new attribute relationships tab in the dimension designer which provides an easy to understand interface and diagram.

16. KeyColumns setup 2005 KeyColumns modification and layout changes to dimension designer. In SSAS 2005 required some additional clicks and not setup like the NameColumnconfiguration.

17. KeyColumnssetup 2008 In 2008 this has been setup like the NameColumn property configuration and easier to access the information.

18. Aggregation Manager 2005 In SSAS 2005 with the sample applications you could utilize Aggregation Manager to maintain your aggregation designs. Have to download from CodePlex and compile the C# application (http://www.codeplex.com/MSFTASProdSamples).

19. Aggregation Designer 2008 In SSAS 2008 you have full control and direct access right within the cube designer with the Advanced View option on the new Aggregations tab.

20. AMO Warnings / Best Practice Alerts SQL Server Best Practice Analyzer alerts embedded – database or object level

21. Designer Improvements DEMO

22. Agenda Introductions / Audience Poll Overview of SSAS Designer Improvements MDX / Engine Changes DMVs Tips & Advice Q&A

24. CREATE KPI [Adventure Works].[Internet Sales KPI]AS ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild), GOAL = ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild.PrevMember) * 1.10 -- 3% goal is 3% over previous year, STATUS = IIF(([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild) >= ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild.PrevMember) * 1.10 , 1 , IIF( ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild) >= ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild.PrevMember) * 1.10 * 0.9 , 0, -1 ) ), TREND = IIF(([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild) >= ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild.PrevMember) * 1.10 , 1 , IIF( ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild) >= ([Measures].[Internet Sales Amount], [Date].[Calendar Year].LastChild.PrevMember) * 1.10 * 0.9 , 0, -1)), STATUS_GRAPHIC = ‘Traffic Light’ -- Shapes (3), Traffic Light (3), Road Signs (3), Gauge (3), Reversed Gauge (5), Thermometer (3), Cylinder (3), Faces (3), Variance arrow (3), TREND_GRAPHIC = ‘Standard Arrow’ -- Standard Arrow (3), Status Arrow (3), Reversed Arrow (3), Reversed status arrow (5), Faces (3)// , WEIGHT = 1, CURRENT_TIME_MEMBER = [Date].[Date].LastChild, PARENT_KPI = ”, CAPTION = ‘Internet Sales KPI’, DISPLAY_FOLDER = ‘KPIs’, ASSOCIATED_MEASURE_GROUP = ‘Internet Sales’;http://www.ssas-info.com/VidasMatelisBlog/30_ssas-2008-katmai-mdx-changes

25. Dynamic Sets! Ability for the named set to change based on MDX query

26. Block Computation (Measures.[Sales Amount], Product.[Product Categories].Parent Measures.[Sales Amount] / Measures.[Product Contribution] =

27. Block Computation Storage Engine requests return non-null data only Step 1: Get non-null values from the Storage Engine (Measures.[Sales Amount], Product.[Product Categories].Parent Measures.[Sales Amount] Step 2: Calculate the expression Step 3: Add null values into the query results Measures.[Product Contribution]

28. Agenda Introductions / Audience Poll Overview of SSAS Designer Improvements MDX / Engine Changes DMVs Tips & Advice Q&A

29. DMVs Now DMVs are included with SSAS 2008 Utilize the DMVs for: Resource Monitoring Data Collection Reporting and documentation SSAS DMVs are schema rowsets exposed to end-users through MDX with syntax that looks like T-SQL

30. DMVs DEMO

31. Agenda Introductions / Audience Poll Overview of SSAS Designer Improvements MDX / Engine Changes DMVs Tips & Advice Q&A

32. Tips & Advice Develop with SSAS project not server mode Use Source Control BIDS Helper http://bidshelper.codeplex.com Read the SSAS Best Practice articles http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb671432.aspx Use BIDS 2008 with SSAS 2005 Setup NULL Default Measure in Cube CREATE MEMBER CURRENTCUBE.MEASURES.UseAsDefaultMeasure AS NULL, VISIBLE = 0; ALTER CUBE CURRENTCUBE UPDATE DIMENSION Measures, DEFAULT_MEMBER = [Measures].UseAsDefaultMeasure; (http://cwebbbi.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!7B84B0F2C239489A!4123.entry and http://sqlblogcasts.com/blogs/jorg/archive/2009/02/06/speed-up-ssas-dimensions-using-a-null-default-cube-measure.aspx)

33. Sources What's New (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Database) http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb522628.aspx Blogs VidasMatelis- http://www.ssas-info.com/VidasMatelisBlog Darren Gosbell - http://geekswithblogs.net/darrengosbell Chris Webb – http://cwebbbi.spaces.live.com

34. Resources SQL Server 2008 – Analysis Services Multidimensional Data http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/cc511475.aspx Microsoft Virtual Labs (TechNet and MSDN) http://www.microsoft.com/events/vlabs/default.mspx Articles/Tutorials by William Pearson (SSAS, MDX, SSRS) http://www.databasejournal.com/article.php/1459531 SSAS Info - http://www.ssas-info.com/ Mosha’s Blog - http://sqlblog.com/blogs/mosha/default.aspx SQL Server Customer Advisor Team – http://sqlcat.com SQL Server Best Practice articles http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sqlserver/bb671432.aspx

35. Q&A

36. Thank You http://denglishbi.spaces.live.com info@magenic.com www.magenic.com

37. Microsoft Business Intelligence Offering Delivered through a Familiar Interface Self-Service access & insight Data exploration & analysis Predictive analysis Data visualization Contextual visualization BUSINESS USER EXPERIENCE Business Productivity Infrastructure Dashboards & Scorecards Excel Services Web based forms & workflow Collaboration Search Content Management LOB data integration BUSINESS PRODUCTIVITY INFRASTRUCTURE Data Infrastructure & BI Platform Analysis Services Reporting Services Integration Services Data Mining Data Warehousing DATA INFRASTRUCTURE & BI PLATFORM

38. Microsoft BI Benefit Designed for broad deployment. Delivered through familiar tools. Integrated into a business productivity suite that includes search, collaboration, unified communications, and content management. Simplified purchase for a complete BI and PM suite. SQL Server, SharePoint Server, and Excel Take advantage of existing investments. Save Money

39. Intelligent Data Platform

40. Rich Connectivity Data Providers ODBC SQL Server SAP NetWeaver BI SQL Server Report Server Models SQL Server Integration Services Teradata XML OLE DB DB2 SQL Server Data Mining Models MySAP Oracle SQL Server Analysis Services Unlock Your Data Hyperion Essbase

41. BI Maturity Model By Wayne Eckerson, Director of Research, TDWI

42. Microsoft’s BI Vision Improving organizations by providing business insights to all employees leading to better, faster, more relevant decisions Complete and integratedBI and PerformanceManagement offering Agile products that adapt tohow your need the information Built on a trusted partof your IT backbone

43. Thinking Bigger About Business Intelligence In most organizations, the majority of content for decision making is not in the ERP domain, or even a database The tools required to get the information are rigid and hard to learn Other ERP The issue is: “How does BI fit into the way I make decisions today?”

44. Star / Snowfalke Schema Fact (metric/measure) table surrounded by dimensional (entity/attribute) tables Denormalized layout optimized for reporting Less complex data model – reduces number of joins Easy for the end-users to relate with and understand versus OLTP database

45. Predictive AnalysisBring Data Mining to the masses through Microsoft Office Enable easy to use predictive analysis At every desktop For every information worker Through three powerful add-ins to Microsoft Office Predictive capabilities readily available for business users in Excel Data mining client for building data mining models in Excel Data mining templates for project visualization in Visio

46. Excel 2007 Data Mining Add-in