This runs contrary to customary SQL server practice, but :

You may want to evaluate whether you back up the SSAS servers at all. I have several clients for whom there already was a robust SQL backup (and/or HA) in place. For these clients it turned out that it was quicker to rebuild straight from SQL than it was to load and restore SSAS from file based backups.

In such cases it’s more important to have the metadata (the XMLA script or BIDS solution) than to have the data itself. For most of these clients we don’t worry about metadata because we’re using source code control software of one form or another.

Obviously this approach would be less viable for larger SSAS installations. On the other hand, I’ve been frequently surprised to learn that the rebuild was faster, especially when off-line or off-premise backups are involved.

Tom

]]> http://contextq.com/2011/08/22/backing-up-ssas-yes-or-no/feed/ 0 http://contextq.com/2011/08/15/agile-and-business-intelligence/ http://contextq.com/2011/08/15/agile-and-business-intelligence/#comments Mon, 15 Aug 2011 16:06:11 +0000 Tom Huguelet http://contextq.com/?p=296 Continue reading →]]> I had a client ask me about some of the techniques we are currently using,

“Tom, Can you send me authors, book titles and/or links outlining agile development (Story conferences, sprints, scrums, etc…).”

This was my response:

Here is the site that "started it all": http://agilemanifesto.org/

I used this book:
http://www.amazon.com/Agile-Data-Warehousing-World-Class-Intelligence/dp/0595471676
to acquire some of the principles we are currently using.

Obviously the WikiPedia entries are also good to start researching this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agile_software_development

Personally I don't think there's a perfect fit between the "orthodox"
Agile approach and Business Intelligence. However, I think that many Agile
practices are a great antidote for inefficient and counter-productive
practices we often see with database development.

HTH,

Tom

Hosted by SQL Server Magazine, sponsored by Tableau Software.

I really had fun creating this webinar. Gave me an opportunity to organize and clarify a lot of previous experience from Business Intelligence implementations I have done.

Hope you join me!

Here are the slides from today’s session.

Information Dashboard Design is a great resource. Key ideas from this book: “Less is more” “Keep it simple”.

Another related issue is “can I have a dashboard if I don’t have and don’t plan to use SharePoint”. In many cases I think it can be better to start the dashboard discussion with no immediate plans to use SharePoint. It narrows the focus and keeps things on target (pun intended). SharePoint can do a lot, but it’s also a considerable investment in time and infrastructure. Finally, the use of a dashboard may help to prioritize the investment in SharePoint (or not).

Frequently the tools at hand are simply those in the basic Microsoft SQL Server stack, (SQL Server, Analysis Services, Reporting Service, Integration Services). I’ve frequently created v1.0 of a Dashboard using only these tools.

Scenario #1: Integrate in existing portal:

In this case we had a simple intranet portal in place. By creating a page with an iFrame region, we were able to embed the report. You can opt to either show the Report control (which would give you the little spin-y green circle) or have the report appear as an HTML output by changing the flags on the URL

Scenario #2: Use a master report and subreports to create the dashboard. In this scenario we had several user-selectable parameters. The “outer” report was simply a shell to collect the parameters and provide layout positions of the sub-reports. The sub-reports were a collection of small tables, graphs, etc.

Rob Fisch created a nice tutorial that describes many of the techniques I used. I don’t have access to examples I worked on since these were for previous consulting engagements. I am working on one right now, but it’s not available publicly.

One last tip: even before stoplight indicators were integrated in Reporting Services, it was possible to have red/green/yellow indicators. Simply use the switch function to substitute which icon file to display in your report. So you can have effective dashboarding (with KPI indicators, going all the way back to the first version of SSRS)

In my experience it’s far better to get early and simple dashboards off the ground using the technology at hand than to wait until the “next big thing” in software comes along. Feature-rich software is great if you need and use the features, but the dialog with the business stakeholders needs to take place to determine which features are needed. The best way to start that dialogue is with working examples of dashboards and KPI’s.

If you haven’t already, check out the Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Update for Developers Training Course and corresponding description, This kit was written by friends and colleagues Stacia Misner of DataInspirations and Greg Low and Peter Myers of Solid Quality Mentors, as well as Roger Doherty and Mariano Converti.

I’ve actually had a bit of trouble using this resource, based on not having all the requirements present.

One last error that always tripped me up was this one:

It turns out the error has nothing to do with prerequisites but rather to do with whether the file has been unblocked (if it’s been downloaded from the internet). Described in David Yack’s blog .

Back in business (intelligence)!

It was a lively discussion, with participants from both BI Backgrounds and Cloud Backgrounds.

We used this following materials to support the discussions:

• PowerPoint (with links to references throughout)
• Gartner’s Key Initiatives: Cloud Computing whitepaper
• Gartner’s Who Really Cares about the Cloud
• Gartner’s The Real Truth about Saas

We did look at research other than Gartner, those links are in the PowerPoint PDF

Here’s the same query morphed to work with Adventure Works:

WITH
  MEMBER [mbrcnt] AS [Date].[Calendar].Children.Count
  MEMBER [mbrcnt2] AS Descendants([Date].[Calendar].CurrentMember, 2).Count
SELECT
  {[mbrcnt],[mbrcnt2]} ON 0
  , FILTER([Date].[Calendar].Members, [mbrcnt] > 0) ON 1
FROM
  [Adventure Works]

This only returns rows for members that have more than 1 child member.

Slide deck is posted here.