Professional SQL Server™ Analysis Services 2005 with MDX

14.4. Working with Mining Models

Analysis Services 2005 provides two types of mining models: the relational mining model and the OLAP mining model. Relational mining models are created directly from the relational data source and the OLAP Mining models are created from an existing cube or part of a cube. Use of the nine types of data mining algorithms are made within the context of relational or OLAP mining models. In this chapter you will learn both these models by creating mining models using a few algorithms and analyzing the results.

14.4.1. Relational Mining Model

The Adventure Works DW sample relational database has specific patterns to demonstrate various algorithms available in Analysis Services 2005. In this section you learn how to create and analyze a decision tree model and a clustering model. Obviously, you need to create a new mining model to explore and analyze the information. When you build a mining model, Analysis Services 2005 retrieves data from the data source and stores it in a proprietary format. When you do want to build several mining models from the data set, there will be redundant data stored on Analysis Services 2005. In order to share the data across several mining models, Analysis Services 2005 stores the information about the data that can be shared across several mining models under an object called Mining Structure. Internally the information read from relational data sources is stored as a cube in order to efficiently retrieve the data during ...