OLAP 101

Let’s begin our exploration of Analysis Services with a “quick hit” introduction to OLAP. In this chapter, you’ll learn the fundamentals of OLAP, including general OLAP concepts and the basics of how to build, maintain, and query OLAP cubes in Microsoft SQL Server 2008. Specifically, we’ll cover the following topics:

  • Definitions of several terms, including cubes, measures, dimensions, attributes, hierarchies, levels, members, and axes

  • Data warehousing concepts and the motivation behind so-called star and snowflake schemas

  • The basics of Microsoft Visual Studio Analysis Services projects, such as data sources, data source views, the cube and dimension designers, and various wizards

  • Querying cubes in the cube designer’s Browser tab

As we just ...

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