Jesse Orosz: SQL Server Analysis Services Blog

No cost beta 70-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 16:42:52 GMT

http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo/archive/2008/08/08/sql-server-2008-beta-exam-71-452-designing-a-business-intelligence-infrastructure-using-microsoft-sql-server-2008.aspx

You are invited to take beta exam 71-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The results will not appear on your transcript until several weeks after the final form of the exam is released. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration.

71-452: Designing a Business Intelligence Infrastructure Using Microsoft SQL Server 2008 counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

· Microsoft Certified IT Professional: Business Intelligence Developer 2008. In order to earn this certification you must also pass exam 70-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance.

Find exam preparation information: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/exams/70-452.mspx

Registration begins: August 8, 2008

Beta exam period runs: August 13, 2008– September 10, 2008

Registration Information

Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: 3568C

You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.

To register in North America, please call:

· Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

· Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

Take the beta 71-448 for free

Mon, 21 Jul 2008 21:55:48 GMT

Had the chance to go take the beta 71-448 for free this morning. Took me about an hour and a half. Since the exam is still in beta you won't receive your score for at least a few weeks. Bummer.

Definitely worth a shot, especially if you've never had the opportunity to take a MS exam test.

Only good until 7/31.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

71-448 - Promo code B6543

You are invited to take beta exam 71-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. You were specifically chosen to participate in this beta because of your current Microsoft Certification status or previous participation with Microsoft Learning. If you pass the beta exam, the exam credit will be added to your transcript and you will not need to take the exam in its released form. The 71-xxx identifier is used for registering for beta versions of MCP exams, when the exam is released in its final form the 70-xxx identifier is used for registration.
By participating in beta exams, you have the opportunity to provide the Microsoft Certification program with feedback about exam content, which is integral to development of exams in their released version. We depend on the contributions of experienced IT professionals and developers as we continually improve exam content and maintain the value of Microsoft certifications.

71-448: TS: Microsoft SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance counts as credit towards the following certification(s).

· Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist: SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance

Availability

Registration begins: June 15, 2008

Beta exam period runs: June 16, 2008– July 31, 2008

Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately. Beta exams have limited availability and are operated under a first-come-first-served basis. Once all beta slots are filled, no additional seats will be offered.

Testing is held at Prometric testing centers worldwide, although this exam may not be available in all countries (see Regional Restrictions). All testing centers will have the capability to offer this exam in its live version.

Regional Restrictions: India, Pakistan, China

Registration Information

You must register at least 24 hours prior to taking the exam.
Please use the following promotional code when registering for the exam: 943F6
Receiving this invitation does not guarantee you a seat in the beta; we recommend that you register immediately.

To register in North America, please call:

Prometric: (800) 755-EXAM (800-755-3926)

Outside the U.S./Canada, please contact:

Prometric: http://www.register.prometric.com/ClientInformation.asp

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

More info here: http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo/

Microsoft BI Conference 2008 October 6-8 - Seattle, WA

Mon, 14 Jul 2008 17:41:48 GMT

Registration is now open for the 2008 BI Conference here in Seattle. I was able to attend last year and to say it was worth it would be an understatement. Definitely attend if the opportunity presents itself.

With SQL PASS also taking place in Seattle, it's quite a busy few months in the SQL Server world here.

http://www.msbiconference.com/pages/registration.aspx

If anyone needs tips on where to stay in the Seattle area (I live a seven minute walk from the convention center), let me know.

AMO - Delete All Partitions From a Database

Wed, 11 Jun 2008 21:04:58 GMT

From time to time I'll need to recreate the dev/beta environment and I have to do that from production. I want an exact copy of production minus all the partitions that have been created with the exception of the template partitions.

At first I would go in and change the XMLA script manually to remove those partitions. However, if there were a lot of measuregroups (50-100), this could take upwards of an hour. Being that it was such a pain I probably didn't keep dev and beta as up-to-date as I should have.

An Analysis Services Stored Procedure is perfect to handle this task. Works beautifully and what took me an hour to do before now takes 30 seconds.

I decided to use arrays within the procedure even though you could write the proc without them.

*objDatabase is a database object I've set in another function

Public Sub DeleteAllPartitions()

Dim oCube As Cube

Dim oMeasureGroup As MeasureGroup

Dim oPartition As Partition

Dim i As Integer

Dim j As Integer

Dim k As Integer

Dim AryCubes As String()

Dim AryCubesSize As Integer

Dim AryMeasureGroups As String()

Dim AryMeasureGroupsSize As Integer

Dim AryPartitions As String()

Dim AryPartitionsSize As Integer

'Create the cube array (AryCubes)

AryCubesSize = (objDatabase.Cubes.Count - 1)

ReDim AryCubes(AryCubesSize)

'Loop through each of the cubes in the database and throw the cube names in an array

For Each oCube In objDatabase.Cubes

AryCubes(i) = oCube.Name

i = i + 1

Next oCube

'Loop through the cube array

For i = 0 To AryCubesSize

'Set the cube object to the current item in AryCubes

oCube = objDatabase.Cubes.GetByName(AryCubes(i))

'Create the measuregroup array (AryMeasureGroups)

AryMeasureGroupsSize = (oCube.MeasureGroups.Count - 1)

ReDim AryMeasureGroups(AryMeasureGroupsSize)

'Set j back to zero for the current item

j = 0

'Loop through each of the measure groups in the cube and throw the measure group names in an array

For Each oMeasureGroup In oCube.MeasureGroups

AryMeasureGroups(j) = oMeasureGroup.Name

j = j + 1

Next oMeasureGroup

'Loop through the measure group array

For j = 0 To AryMeasureGroupsSize

'Set the measure group object to the current item in AryMeasureGroups

oMeasureGroup = oCube.MeasureGroups.GetByName(AryMeasureGroups(j))

'If the measuregroup is linked then don't delete partitions

If oMeasureGroup.IsLinked = False Then

'Create the partition array (AryPartitions)

AryPartitionsSize = (oMeasureGroup.Partitions.Count - 1)

ReDim AryPartitions(AryPartitionsSize)

'Set k back to zero for current item

k = 0

'Loop through each of the partitions in the measure group and throw the name in an array

For Each oPartition In oMeasureGroup.Partitions

AryPartitions(k) = oPartition.Name

k = k + 1

Next oPartition

'Loop through the partition array and drop the partition if its not the template partition

For k = 0 To AryPartitionsSize

If AryPartitions(k) like "template" Then

oPartition = oMeasureGroup.Partitions.GetByName(AryPartitions(k))

oPartition.Drop()

End If

Next k

End If

Next j

Next i

End Sub

Star vs. Snowflake in OLAP Land

Wed, 28 May 2008 21:31:43 GMT

About six months ago I had a discussion with another guy about what my preferred data warehouse schema was: snowflake or star. Without hesitation I said snowflake. He looked at me with befuddlement and asked why. I told him that OLAP processes dimensions more efficiently against a snowflaked schema instead of a star. We had nearly a twenty minute discussion exactly why Analysis Services likes snowflakes better than stars but I failed to convince him. He firmly believed that the star schema was superior and anything short of me taking his firstborn hostage wouldn't change his belief in that. Star vs snowflake usually initiates that type of steadfastness.

To back up my believe I put together a test. I created a dimension with three levels with each level having two attributes that were outside of the "Advertiser-Ad Campaign-Banner Ad" hierarchy. A total of nine attributes in the dimension.

1. Advertiser (15k rows)

PaymentType (2 rows)
Status (2 rows)

2. Sales Campaign (500k rows)

Category(16 rows)
TargetCountry (225 rows)

3. Banner Ad (12 million rows)

Size (8 rows)
AdType (4 rows)

An Advertiser has Sales Campaigns and a Sales Campaign has Banner Ads with Banner Ads being the attribute key.

-In star schema land this would all be put into a single table having nine columns across.

-In the snowflake world this ends up in nine different tables. There'd be an Advertiser table with three columns: Advertiser/PaymentType/Status, a PaymentType table with a single column PaymentType, a Status table with a single column Status, ect (generically speaking).

This dimension has more levels and more attributes but I decided to pare it down for simplicity. The test was run on an Intel Xeon 2.8 with 4GB of RAM with SQL Server RDBMS and Analysis Services on the same box. I created two different dimensions: one based off of a star schema and the other off of a snowflake schema (separate DSV's). Each dimension was processed nine times (three Process Full, six Process Update) and the times averaged.

The star based dimension averaged a total of 8:35 per process vs 6:42 for the snowflaked based dimension. Why the big difference?

Each attribute runs a SELECT DISTINCT against the source dimensional table. Take the AdType attribute under the Banner Ad level. Against a star schema this SELECT DISTINCT query would execute against a table with 12 million rows, however, against a snowflake schema it would execute on a table with only four rows.

For smaller dimensions this doesn't matter much, however if you have large dimensions and update quite frequently such as we do (hourly) a snowflake schema can make a world of difference.

Snowflakes are harder to read and tougher for the ETL guy to write, however dimensions process much faster against them. Also, if you're building a dimension using a wizard (shame on you!) the wizard will be able to detect natural hierarchies whereas a star schema won't.

Of course this test was done in an afternoon and not under the most scrutinizing conditions so I'm curious as to what others have experienced or think about the subject. What are your thoughts?

A Trio of Interesting Snowflakes by Ralph Kimball:
http://www.intelligententerprise.com/010629/warehouse1_1.jhtml;jsessionid=Y5BJ04CASJZKMQSNDLOSKHSCJUNN2JVN?_requestid=147558

OLAP: How to Index Star/Snowflake Schema Data:
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/199132

Analysis Services Books

Thu, 03 Apr 2008 22:27:30 GMT

Surprisingly I get a fair amount of hits for books related to Analysis Services. Being that I've bought nearly all of them, I thought I'd give a short opinion on each of them.

1. Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 - Teo Lachev

This was the first book released on Analysis Services 2005 and it's pretty decent. It can't be used as a reference book since it's not deep enough; it's more of a tutorial book.

If you're looking to learn Analysis Services 2005, I'd start with this book. It has easy to follow exercises and isn't overwhelming (for a beginner) like a few of the other books.

2. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services - Edward Melomed, Irina Gorbach, Alexander Berger, Py Bateman

This is THE BOOK for SSAS2005. Excellent book, and the one I use the most. It was written by long time members (before MS bought the technology) of the SSAS team over at MS and it's obvious that's the case.

There are entire chapters devoted to AMO, Memory Managment, Query Execution, and the Physical Data Model. These chapters cover subjects you won't find on MSDN or BOL. Gets really into the internals of Analysis Services.

Get this book. If I could only have one book on my shelf this would be this one. I'm currently reading it cover to cover.

FYI: The link for the Foodmart 2005 sample are no longer valid, so get them here: http://www.e-tservice.com/downloads.html

3. Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX by Sivakumar Harinath, Stephen R. Quinn

I'd place this book between Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 (Lachev) and Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (Melomed, Gorbach, Berger, Bateman). Not too deep, not too easy. A good medium.

IMO Chapter 13 about Performance Optimization is the most worthwhile section of this book.

If you're looking for a book about MDX don't be mislead by the title. There are only a couple chapters discussing MDX and you'll be better off buying a MDX specific book.

4. Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Step by Step - Reed Jacobson, Stacia Misner, Hitachi Consulting

Don't have much to say on this one since I don't own it. During one of my walks downtown to get a cookie at Barnes and Nobles (they have the best chocolate chip cookies BTW) I did get a chance to flip through it. Eh, it's OK. If you're just looking to learn the real basics it works. However, if you're doing anything outside of the scope of building a simple cube I'd stay away. Start with the Teo Lachev book (Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005) instead. Probably a perfect book to use to study for the MS Certification tests.

SQL Server 2008 Exam Changes

Wed, 20 Feb 2008 23:59:11 GMT

I had a few minutes this afternoon so I decided to watch the SQL Server 2008 Certification Live Meeting.

The most interesting part, at least to me, were the numbers who had passed the various certifications:

MCDBA 2000 - 149,590
MCTS: SQL Server 2005 (70-431) - 24,939
MCITP: Database Administrator (70-443, 70-444) - 4,006
MCITP: Database Developer (70-441, 70-442) - 1,596
MCTS: Business Intelligence (70-445) - 801
MCITP: Business Intelligence Developer (70-446) - 364
MCA Database (on campus in Redmond) - 10

From what I gathered, not much is going to change with the release of the 2008 certs. It will still only be two tests to receive your MCITP in BI. One thing I was hoping for were SSAS, SSRS, and SSIS independent tests. Not this time around.

70-445: SQL Server 2005, Business Intelligence Implementation and Maintenance is being replaced by 70-448: SQL Server 2008, Business Intelligence Development and Maintenance. My guess is that the exams will differ as much as the title change. If you have the time, study for 70-445 now; no need to put it off for another six months. Beta exams will rollout in June with public consumption in August. No mention of the replacement for 70-446.

They also spoke about the MCA Program quite a bit. At only ten people currently having their MCA and it costing 25k a pop, it seems more of a novelty that anything.

Trika's blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/trika/
Gerry's blog: http://blogs.msdn.com/gerryo

OLAPQueryLog StartTime is Wrong

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 19:03:45 GMT

I recently saw a post on the newgroup about the StartTime in the OLAPQueryLog being incorrect. We have the same problem here (StartTime is eight hours ahead) and it's something I accepted but never looked into the cause.

It appears the insert is using GetUTCDate, not GetDate. GetDate uses the OS time zone. I haven't found a way to change this behavior.

You could add another column to store the value, however I just wrote a view on top of the table. From what I can tell this should (at least is does right now) handle daylight savings time correctly; hardcoding the hour difference may not.

SELECT

MSOLAP_Database,

MSOLAP_ObjectPath,

MSOLAP_User,

Dataset,

(DATEADD(HOUR,(DATEDIFF(HOUR, GetUTCDate(), GetDate() )),StartTime)) as StartTime,

Duration

FROM

OlapQueryLog

Calling MDX from a SQL Server Stored Procedure

Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:25:08 GMT

I work for an online media company which allows our customers to login to a website and check their numbers. For the last several years all their activity reports have been pointed at SQL Server aggregated tables. While this worked, it wasn't the ideal solution. Reports often timed out and the database server would have a high load throughout the day, specifically early month while everyone was checking month end numbers.

Eventually my boss approached me about speeding up the reports and possibly pointing them at a cube. However, there could be no changes to the report files or how the data was being called (no front end changes). All the modifications had to be done in the stored procedure.

After initial testing, by pointing at cubes rather than aggregated tables, most of the reports would be sped up by a factor of 5-10x. A definite improvement and well worth the work involved.

Here are the steps I had to take in order for it to happen:

1. Read http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931192 and install the hotfix on your dev box or desktop. You don't have to do this if you'll be working directly on the server.

2. Follow the steps here: http://jesseorosz.spaces.live.com/blog/cns!E322FD91218E57CF!329.entry. Double hop authentication is funky with SSAS.

3. Create a linked server on the same server the stored procedure resides. Use the fully qualified domain name (not optional).

Example:

/****** Object: LinkedServer [MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase] Script Date: 02/12/2008 13:17:57 ******/

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver @server = N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @srvproduct=N'cubes', @provider=N'MSOLAP', @datasrc=N'MYCUBESSERVER.IPADDY.COM', @location=N'MYCUBESSERVER.IPADDY.COM', @catalog=N'Sales Cube Database'

/* For security reasons the linked server remote logins password is changed with ######## */

EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin @rmtsrvname=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase',@useself=N'False',@locallogin=NULL,@rmtuser=NULL,@rmtpassword=NULL

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'collation compatible', @optvalue=N'false'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'data access', @optvalue=N'true'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'dist', @optvalue=N'false'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'pub', @optvalue=N'false'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'rpc', @optvalue=N'false'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'rpc out', @optvalue=N'false'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'sub', @optvalue=N'false'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'connect timeout', @optvalue=N'0'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'collation name', @optvalue=null

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'lazy schema validation', @optvalue=N'false'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'query timeout', @optvalue=N'0'

EXEC master.dbo.sp_serveroption @server=N'MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase', @optname=N'use remote collation', @optvalue=N'true'

4. If your database server is running SQL Server 2000 and you are pointing at a 2005 OLAP database (which was our case), you'll need to install the 9.0 OLAP provider on that box.

5. Here's a generic example of what the stored procedure looks like (removed error trapping, nocounts, ect)

CREATE PROCEDURE [dbo].[MsrsWebsiteAdCampaignHitsPerDay]

@CustomerID INT,

@BeginDate DATETIME,

@EndDate DATETIME

--Generate the dynamic SQL

DECLARE @sqlcode VARCHAR(5000)

SELECT @sqlcode =

SELECT

"[Date].[Date].[Day].[MEMBER_CAPTION]" AS ActivityDate

,' + (CAST(@CustomerID AS VARCHAR(10))) + ' AS CustomerID

,"[Sales].[Customer to AdCampaign].[AdCampaign].[MEMBER_CAPTION]" AS AdCampaign

,CAST(convert(float, "[Measures].[Hits]") AS int) AS Hits

,CAST(convert(float, "[Measures].[Cost]") AS money) AS Cost

FROM Openquery(MYCUBESERVER_SalesCubeDatabase,

SELECT NON EMPTY { [Measures].[Hits], [Measures].[Costs] } ON COLUMNS ,

NON EMPTY { { { DESCENDANTS( [Sales].[Customer to AdCampaign].[Customer].&[' + (CAST(@CustomerID AS VARCHAR(10))) + '], [Sales].[Customer to AdCampaign].[AdCampaign] ) } * { [Date].[Date].[Day].[' + @BeginDate + ']:[Date].[Date].[Day].[' + @EndDate + '] } } } ON ROWS

FROM [Sales]

'')

--Create the temp table to insert the data produced by the MDX

CREATE TABLE #AdCampaignHitsPerDay

(

ActivityDate NTEXT,

CustomerID INT,

AdCampaign NTEXT,

Hits BIGINT,

Cost MONEY NULL

)

--Insert the data

INSERT #AdCampaignHitsPerDay EXEC(@sqlcode)

--Select for the MSRS report

SELECT

CAST(CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)) AS SMALLDATETIME) AS ActivityDate,

CAST((CAST((MONTH((CAST((CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME)))) AS VARCHAR(100)) + '/' + CAST((day((CAST((CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME)))) AS VARCHAR(100))) AS VARCHAR(61)) AS [Date],

YEAR((CAST((CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME))) AS [YEAR],

MONTH((CAST((CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME))) AS [MONTH],

CAST(AdCampaign AS VARCHAR(50)) AS AdCampaign,

SUM(Hits) AS Visitors,

SUM(Cost) AS Cost

FROM

#AdCampaignHitsPerDay

WHERE

Hits > 0

GROUP BY

CAST(AdCampaign AS VARCHAR(50)),

YEAR((CAST((CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME))),

MONTH((CAST((CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME))),

(CAST(CAST(.ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)) AS SMALLDATETIME)),

(CAST((CAST((MONTH((CAST((CAST(.ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME)))) AS VARCHAR(100)) + '/' + CAST((day((CAST((CAST(ActivityDate AS VARCHAR(100)))AS DATETIME)))) AS VARCHAR(100))) AS VARCHAR(61)))

ORDER BY

AdCampaign, ActivityDate

ORDER BY

AdCampaign, ActivityDate

DROP TABLE #AdCampaignHitsPerDay

exit_procedure:

6. That's really about it. 90% of the time was spent just trying to get the double hop authentication working.