1

a brand of

www.sqlbi.com Who

• BI Experts and Consultants

• Founders of www.sqlbi.com

o Problem Solving

o Complex Project Assistance

o Data Warehouse Assessments and Development

o Courses, Trainings and Workshops

• Book Writers

• Microsoft Business Intelligence Partners

• SSAS Maestros – MVP – MCP

Brief History of SQL

Year Release Number

1993 SQL Server 4.2

1995 SQL Server 6.0

1996 SQL Server 6.5

1998 SQL Server 7.0

1999 SQL Server 7.0 OLAP First release of SSAS

2000 SQL Server 2000 SSAS 2000 – MDX Language

2003 SQL Server 2000 64 bits

2005 SQL Server 2005 SSAS 2005 –UDM – MDX Script

2008 SQL Server 2008 SSAS 2008 – Few improvements

2010 SQL Server 2008 R2 SSAS 2008R2 – Very Few improvements

2010 PowerPivot for Excel First introduction of the VertiPaq Engine

2012 SQL Server 2012 BISM – Multidimensional – Tabular

Some Facts About SSAS

• 13 years of life (1999-2012)

• OLAP

o Multidimensional Data Modeling

o MDX Language / MDX Script

• Unified Data Modeling

o Metadata layer on top of the DWH

• Huge customer base

Analysis Services 2012

• UDM

o Mature technology

o Few improvements

• xVelocity in-memory engine (VertiPaq)

o Not an evolution of OLAP

o Brand new SSAS Engine

o Programmed and queried with DAX

o New modeling experience (Tabular)

• UDM + Tabular = BISM

BI Semantic Model: Architecture

Third-party applications

Reporting Services Excel PowerPivot

Databases LOB Applications Files OData Feeds Cloud Services

SharePoint Insights

Power View

2

BI Semantic Model What about existing Applications?

New

applications New technology options

Existing

applications Based on Unified

Dimensional Model

Existing

applications Every UDM becomes a BI

Semantic Model

Existing

applications Based on Unified

Dimensional Model

Flavours of BISM

• Multidimensional

o SQL Server Analysis Services

• Tabular

o SQL Server Analysis Services

o PowerPivot for SharePoint

o PowerPivot for Excel 2010

Agenda

• Create a Tabular model

o Simple initial model

o Count and Distinct Count measures

o New Customers, Returning Customers

o ABC Analysis

o Security

o Deployment

o Querying

Analysis Services Server Mode

• Choose server mode of Analysis Services DeploymentMode setting in msmdsrv.ini

o 0 – Multidimensional and Data Mining (default)

o 1 – SharePoint

o 2 – Tabular

• Different icons in Object Explorer

• Same code, different behavior

• Choice at the INSTANCE level

• Two SSAS instances needed to use both

Sample Project

• Prepare development environment

• Implement simple model and measures

• Some DAX Patters,

• Security

Key Points

• Servers

o Workspace Server

o Deployment Server

• Project Properties

o Deployment Options

o Deployment Server Edition

• Model Properties

o Data Backup

o Workspace Retention

3

Workspace Database

• SSDT always works with the Worskpace DB

o Data is not inside SSDT

o It is stored in the Workspace Database

o Each model update is reflected on the server

• Workspace databases

always use UserName

and GUID

o Can be safely deleted

when not in use

Simple cube

• Load data from views

• Workspace database

• Calculated columns

• Hierarchies to simplify navigation

• Measures

Count, DistinctCount

• Count customers/Product

• Distinct Count fo buying customers

• New customers or returing customers?

New Customers

NewCustomers:= CALCULATE( COUNTROWS( Customers ), FILTER( Customers, CALCULATE( COUNTROWS( Sales ), FILTER( ALL( Calendar ), [DateKey] <= MIN ( [DateKey] ) ) ) = 0 && CALCULATE( COUNTROWS( Sales ) ) > 0 ) )

Users never bought anything

Users who bought something now

ABC / Pareto

• What is ABC analysis?

• Clustering technique

• Helps focusing on

company’s core

business

Class Percentage

A (some products) 70%

B (few products) 20%

C 10%

GRAND TOTAL 100%

ABC in Excel

4

ABC in SQL

SUM( Amount) GROUP BY Product

INTO #temp

UPDATE #temp SET Percentage =

RunningTotal on Product Amount / SUM( Amount )

UPDATE product SET Class = A/B/C (from

#temp)

SQL

SQL

SQL

ABC in MDX

Process Sales cube MDX query

on Sales cube to extract ABC Class

UPDATE product SET Class = A/B/C

• from MDX query

• Requires ETL or Linked Server

Process Product Dimension

• Update Sales aggregations (ABC flexible attribute)

SQL

OLAP

OLAP

OLAP

Add security

• Role based security

• Similar to SSAS Multidimensional

• No cell security

• No differences between dimensions and

maesure group(s)

• Table level security by using DAX

Conclusions

• Simpler data model

• Don’t use dimensional modeling

• Calculated columns – Mesaures

• DAX changes the way we create data models

• Speed is a modeling tool

And now?

• Learn DAX

o Really… learn it!

o Is not so easy as it might seem at first sight

Link

• SQLBI website http://www.sqlbi.com

• Blog by Alberto Ferrari http://sqlblog.com/blogs/alberto_ferrari/default.aspx

• Blog by Marco Russo http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/default.aspx

• Blog by Jeffrey Wang http://mdxdax.blogspot.it/

5

Thank you! Check daily our new articles on

www.sqlbi.com

Consulting Assessment Outsourcing Technical

Fellowship

Are you sure to get the best out of

your analytical environment?

Ask to SQLBI, we offer many services to help you:

Find out more on

www.sqlbi.com/consulting

Oh, just another thing…