Cover image for Hands-On SQL Server 2019 Analysis Services

Hands-On SQL Server 2019 Analysis Services

Author Steven Hughes , Adam Jorgensen
Release Date: 2020/10/01
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Book Description

Get up to speed with the new features added to Microsoft SQL Server 2019 Analysis Services and create models to support your business

Key Features

  • Explore tips and tricks to design, develop, and optimize end-to-end data analytics solutions using Microsoft's technologies
  • Learn tabular modeling and multi-dimensional cube design development using real-world examples
  • Implement Analysis Services to help you make productive business decisions

Book Description

SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) continues to be a leading enterprise-scale toolset, enabling customers to deliver data and analytics across large datasets with great performance. This book will help you understand MS SQL Server 2019's new features and improvements, especially when it comes to SSAS.

First, you'll cover a quick overview of SQL Server 2019, learn how to choose the right analytical model to use, and understand their key differences. You'll then explore how to create a multi-dimensional model with SSAS and expand on that model with MDX. Next, you'll create and deploy a tabular model using Microsoft Visual Studio and Management Studio. You'll learn when and how to use both tabular and multi-dimensional model types, how to deploy and configure your servers to support them, and design principles that are relevant to each model. The book comes packed with tips and tricks to build measures, optimize your design, and interact with models using Excel and Power BI. All this will help you visualize data to gain useful insights and make better decisions. Finally, you'll discover practices and tools for securing and maintaining your models once they are deployed.

By the end of this MS SQL Server book, you'll be able to choose the right model and build and deploy it to support the analytical needs of your business.

What you will learn

  • Determine the best analytical model using SSAS
  • Cover the core aspects involved in MDX, including writing your first query
  • Implement calculated tables and calculation groups (new in version 2019) in DAX
  • Create and deploy tabular and multi-dimensional models on SQL 2019
  • Connect and create data visualizations using Excel and Power BI
  • Implement row-level and other data security methods with tabular and multi-dimensional models
  • Explore essential concepts and techniques to scale, manage, and optimize your SSAS solutions

Who this book is for

This Microsoft SQL Server book is for BI professionals and data analysts who are looking for a practical guide to creating and maintaining tabular and multi-dimensional models using SQL Server 2019 Analysis Services. A basic working knowledge of BI solutions such as Power BI and database querying is required.

Table of Contents

  1. Hands-On SQL Server 2019 Analysis Services
  2. Why subscribe?
  3. Foreword
  4. Contributors
  5. About the author
  6. About the reviewers
  7. Packt is searching for authors like you
  8. Preface
    1. Who this book is for?
    2. What this book covers?
    3. To get the most out of this book
    4. Download the example code files
    5. Download the color images
    6. Conventions used
    7. Get in touch
    8. Reviews
  9. Section 1: Choosing Your Model
  10. Chapter 1: Analysis Services in SQL Server 2019
    1. What is SQL Server Analysis Services anyway?
      1. SQL Server Analysis Services is not SQL Server
      2. SQL Server Analysis Services through the years
    2. Why use SQL Server Analysis Services?
      1. Optimized for reporting and analytics
      2. Works great with Excel
      3. Organized with end users in mind
    3. What's new in SQL Server Analysis Services 2019?
      1. Multidimensional models in 2019
      2. Tabular models in 2019
    4. What are the tools used with SQL Server Analysis Services?
      1. SQL Server 2019 Developer edition
      2. SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
      3. Visual Studio with SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT)
    5. One last thing – our sample data
      1. Restoring the data warehouse backup
    6. Summary
  11. Chapter 2: Choosing the SQL Server 2019 Analytic Model for Your BI Needs
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding how we got here – two modes
    3. Discovering multidimensional model strengths and challenges
      1. Strengths of the multidimensional model
      2. Multidimensional model challenges
    4. Discovering tabular model strengths and challenges
      1. Strengths of tabular models
      2. Challenges with tabular models
    5. Understanding other differences that matter
      1. Partitioning
      2. Role-playing dimensions
      3. OLAP versus relational concepts
      4. Hardware requirements
    6. Choosing the model type for business-specific reasons
      1. Rapid development and change
      2. Cloud readiness
      3. Complex analysis
      4. Client tools
    7. Summary
    8. Further reading
  12. Section 2: Building and Deploying a Multidimensional Model
  13. Chapter 3: Preparing Your Data for Multidimensional Models
    1. Technical requirements
    2. A short primer on dimensional modeling
      1. Understanding the origin of dimensional modeling
      2. Defining dimensional modeling terms
      3. Key dimensional modeling concepts
      4. Common issues in relational dimensional models
      5. Planning dimensions and facts
    3. Designing and building dimensions and facts
      1. Column names – business-friendly or designer-friendly?
      2. Dimension tables
      3. Fact tables
      4. Indexing strategies
    4. Loading data into your star schema
      1. Staging your data
      2. SQL Server data loading methods and tools
    5. Using database views and data source views
      1. Data source views – pros and cons
      2. Database views as an interface layer
    6. Prepping our database for the multidimensional model
      1. Wide World Importers Sales
      2. Creating the views for the multidimensional model
    7. Summary
  14. Chapter 4: Building a Multidimensional Cube in SSAS 2019
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating the Analysis Services project in Visual Studio
      1. Adding the SQL Server database connection to the project
      2. Adding the DSVs to the project
    3. Adding dimensions, attributes, and hierarchies
      1. Creating dimensions with the Dimension Wizard
      2. Adding hierarchies to your dimensions
      3. Processing the dimensions
      4. Updating our dimensions
    4. Adding cubes and measure groups
      1. Creating the cube and measure groups
      2. Reviewing the cube's structure and modifying measures
      3. Reviewing dimension usage
    5. Summary
  15. Chapter 5: Adding Measures and Calculations with MDX
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Introducing MDX basics – SELECT, FROM, WHERE
      1. Understanding multidimensional query concepts
      2. Understanding query structure
      3. Building your first query
    3. Adding calculations and measures to your cube
      1. Using the calculations section
      2. Creating calculated measures
      3. Creating named sets
    4. Adding KPIs to our cube
      1. Understanding the basics of a KPI
      2. Building your KPI
    5. Exploring more MDX expressions
      1. Traversing hierarchies
      2. Exploring data with more MDX functions
      3. Creating more calculations with aggregation and math functions
      4. Working with time
    6. Summary
  16. Section 3: Building and Deploying Tabular Models
  17. Chapter 6: Preparing Your Data for Tabular Models
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Prepping data for tabular models
      1. Contrasting self-service and managed deployments
      2. Using a star schema data warehouse
      3. Using non-star schema databases
      4. Using nontraditional sources
    3. Data optimization considerations
    4. Prototyping your model in Excel with Power Pivot
    5. Summary
  18. Chapter 7: Building a Tabular Model in SSAS 2019
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating the solution and first tabular model
      1. Importing data into your model
      2. Marking the date table
      3. Adding hierarchies to the model
      4. Adding some measures to our model
      5. Managing partitions in tabular models
    3. Creating a tabular model with DirectQuery
      1. Creating a new tabular model project
      2. Converting the new model to DirectQuery
      3. Adding sample partitions to the DirectQuery model
      4. Enhancing your DirectQuery model
      5. Previewing the data with Excel
    4. Creating a tabular model on transactional data
    5. Importing a Power Pivot model into Analysis Services
    6. Deploying and processing your completed models
    7. Summary
  19. Chapter 8: Adding Measures and Calculations with DAX
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding the basics of DAX
    3. Adding columns and measures to the tabular model
      1. Creating item calculations
    4. Creating measures with the CALCULATE function
    5. Working with time intelligence and DAX
    6. Creating calculated tables
      1. Creating a delivery date table to support role playing
      2. Creating a filtered row set calculated table
      3. Creating a summary calculated table
      4. Creating a composite calculated table
    7. Creating calculation groups
    8. Creating KPIs
      1. Understanding the components in a tabular model KPI
      2. Building your KPI
    9. Querying your model with SQL Server Management Studio and DAX
    10. Summary
  20. Section 4: Exposing Insights while Visualizing Data from Your Models
  21. Chapter 9: Exploring and Visualizing Your Data with Excel
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Connecting Excel to your models
      1. Connecting to the multidimensional model
      2. Connecting to the tabular model
    3. Building visualizations with your models
      1. Understanding the PivotTable Fields panel
      2. Creating a PivotTable
      3. Adding a PivotChart
      4. Adding slicers
      5. Adding timelines
    4. Building and enhancing an Excel dashboard
      1. Moving the PivotTable and the filter
      2. Updating the Employee slicer
      3. Adjusting the other PivotTable
      4. Cleaning up our dashboard design
    5. Advanced design with CUBE functions
      1. Adding PivotTables to a new sheet
      2. Converting the PivotTable to formulas
      3. Formatting the new fields
    6. Sharing your Excel dashboards with others
      1. Checking your capabilities
      2. Checking your credentials
      3. Deploying your workbook
    7. Summary
  22. Chapter 10: Creating Interactive Reports and Enhancing Your Models in Power BI
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Creating Power BI visualizations using live connections
      1. Connecting to data sources in Power BI
      2. Live connecting to the multidimensional model
      3. Live connecting to the tabular model
      4. Building our Power BI report with multidimensional data
      5. Building our Power BI report with tabular data
    3. Understanding live connections and import for Power BI with SSAS models
    4. Adding measures to Power BI when using tabular models and live connections
      1. Creating a new measure
    5. Deploying your Power BI report to a Power BI workspace
    6. Summary
  23. Section 5: Security, Administration, and Managing Your Models
  24. Chapter 11: Securing Your SSAS Models
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Reviewing security settings for SSAS
      1. Opening the security settings for the server
      2. Allowing anonymous access to your model
      3. Understanding advanced security properties
      4. Setting security properties in msmdsrv.ini
    3. Setting up user roles in servers and databases
      1. Adding members to the server administrator role
      2. Adding a read-only role to the multidimensional model
      3. Adding a read-only role to the tabular model
    4. Implementing data security in multidimensional models
      1. Adding customer roles with dimension hierarchy security
      2. Adding sales group security with dynamic dimension security
      3. Adding inventory group security with cell-level security
    5. Implementing data security in tabular models
      1. Creating a role to limit access to a customer
      2. Adding dynamic security for sales territories to the tabular model
    6. Summary
  25. Chapter 12: Common Administration and Maintenance Tasks
    1. Technical requirements
    2. Understanding the languages
    3. Backing up and restoring SSAS databases
      1. Restoring your databases
    4. Processing or refreshing the data in your models
      1. Processing multidimensional models and their components
      2. Processing tabular models and their components
    5. Scaling your models
      1. Understanding processing and query servers
      2. Choosing scaling out versus clustering
      3. Synchronizing your databases
    6. Discovering how your models are performing
      1. Using Dynamic Management Views
      2. Using SQL Server Profiler
    7. Reviewing other maintenance tasks or tools
      1. Warming multidimensional models
      2. Using usage-based optimization with multidimensional models
      3. Removing unused fields from your tabular models
      4. Using open source tools to support tabular models
    8. Summary
  26. Other Books You May Enjoy
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