Professional Microsoft® SQL Server® Analysis Services 2008 with MDX

Chapter 2. First Look at Analysis Services 2008

In Chapter 1 you learned general data warehousing concepts, including some key elements that go into successful data warehouse projects, the different approaches taken to build data warehouses, and how the data warehouses are subsequently mined for information. This chapter introduces you to SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 and related tools. These are the tools, resident in two different environments, which you'll need to develop and manage Analysis Services databases. This chapter also covers some of the differences between Analysis Services 2008, Analysis Services 2005, and Analysis Services 2000.

You will familiarize yourself with the Analysis Services development environment by working through a tutorial based on a sample relational database for SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 called Adventure Works DW 2008, which you can download from www.codeplex.com. This tutorial covers many basic Analysis Services concepts by taking you through the process of building and browsing a cube. The tutorial shows you how to use the tools and also provides you insight into what the product is doing behind the scenes.

In the management environment, you learn the basic operations associated with managing Analysis Services 2008. Further, you learn about the constituent objects that make up an Analysis Services 2008 database and what actions can be taken against them in the management environment. Finally, you are introduced to using the MDX Query ...