SSAS Basics by Régis Baccaro

Abstract

SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) is the technology from the Microsoft Business Intelligence stack, to develop Online Analytical Processing (OLAP) solutions. In simple terms, you can use SSAS to create cubes using data from data marts / data warehouse for deeper and faster data analysis.
Cubes are multi-dimensional data sources, which have dimensions and facts (also known as measures) as its basic constituents. From a relational perspective, dimensions are like master tables and facts measureable details. These details are generally stored in a pre-aggregated proprietary format and users can analyze huge amounts of data and slice this data by dimensions very easily. Multi-dimensional expression (MDX) is the query language used to query a cube, in the same way T-SQL is used to query a table in SQL Server.

This session will give you an understanding of the basics of OLAP development from the eyes of an OLTP practitioner.

Attendee’s pre-requisites/profile

Prerequisite:

• At least 2 years’ experience of working with relational databases, including:
• Designing a normalized database.
• Creating tables and relationships.
• Querying with Transact-SQL.
• Some basic knowledge of data warehouse schema topology (including star and snowflake schemas).
• Some exposure to basic programming constructs (such as looping and branching).
• An awareness of key business priorities such as revenue, profitability, and financial accounting is desirable.

Profile:

• Want to become a BI professional and want to understand the full depth and breadth of Microsoft’s approach to BI
• Already working in a BI environment and you want help solving challenges in your job right now.
• Has worked in BI before, using tools from other companies or previous versions of Microsoft’s BI technology, and want to learn what Analysis Services and related products bring to the table.

Contents

• Prerequisite
• High level cube development process
• Difference between OLAP and OLTP - What is a multidimensional model
• Data source creation
• Data source views
• Cube creation
• Dimension fundamentals
• Dimension Hierarchies
• Dimension attribute relationships
• Dimension storage
• Dimension discretization
• Parent/Child dimension hierarchies
• Star and snowflake schemas
• Creating calculated measures and named sets using MDX
• Cubes Security
• Deploying and processing cubes
• Browsing cubes for Analysis
• Consuming Multidimensional models

About Régis

Régis is a Senior Consultant working with databases and administrations since 1999.

He has been working with Business Intelligence since SQL Server 2000 and with SharePoint since 2003.

He specializes in mentoring, performance tuning and scalable architecture of datawarehouses and bi-solutions.

His background and work experience mixes technology and business, providing him a unique edge to contribute to datawarehouse and SharePoint projects, being able to effectively interact with technical and business decision makers.

Régis is a frequent speakers at SQL Server conferences and is a board member of the Danish SQL Server User Group and the founder of the SQL Saturday Denmark community event.

Required/Suggested Materials and Software

A working installation of SQL Server 2012 (at least SP1)/2014, SQL Server Analysis Services 2012 (at least SP1)/2014 in Multidimensional mode, Visual Studio 2012 or more, Excel 2013.

Either on a physical or a virtual machine.