Resetting "Windows XP Mode" to initial settings

Under Windows 7 64-bit ultimate edition, I’ve had the need to reset my “Windows XP Mode” to initial settings several times over the past few days. Initially I did this because as I used the XP virtual environment, the VHD file grew to around 10 Gig. Not huge, but I wasn’t using it for anything […]

Adventures with Virtualization

Those of us needing to run BI software in virtual environments are well familiar with the challenges of getting things running smoothly, especially if you are using a laptop as your lab or demo environment. We have a new set of challenges with Windows 7, and with SharePoint 2010. Challenge #1 – SharePoint 2010 requires 64 […]

Brilliantly stupid MDX debugging technique

Whenever I do something really stupid, rather than keep it to myself, I prefer to blog about it for the entire world to see. Even better – I came up with a debugging technique to save myself from my own, er, stupidity.The scenario is this: I am developing some SQL Server Analysis Services Date Calculations […]

Devils and Angels of BI Architecture

Devil: You don’t need to set up a separate star schema databaseAngel: Yes you do. We don’t want to interfere with the operational systemsDevil: It’s sooo much workAngel: We want to create a simplified schema to benefit our end usersDevil: Phooeh. ETL is BORINGDevil: Just query the source system directlyDevil: What could be better than […]

The “Million Dollar” BI Architecture Diagram

Anyone who has worked with me or taken training from me has seen some variant of this diagram. It’s not an original concept, although this version has been refined to include my personal experience with many Business Intelligence implementations, as well as my bias towards both the Kimball Business Dimensional methodology and using Microsoft SQL […]

Windows 7’s ‘GodMode’

Weird but cool – nice way to shortcut steps in W7: http://news.cnet.com/8301-13860_3-10423985-56.html?tag=rtcol;pop or video http://cnettv.cnet.com/enable-godmode-windows-7/9742-1_53-50081662.html?tag=mncol

Dec 8th, 2009 ITA BI Roundtable Presentation

On Dec 8th, I was fortunate to present an overview of SQL Server 2008 Integration Services to the Illinois Technology Association’s Business Intelligence Roundtable. The actively-involved participants had many questions. Here are links to all of the prerequisite, supplemental, and follow-on resources we discussed: Dimension Design (aka Star Schema) Methodology: The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The […]

Fixing "Unexpected error occurred. Attempted to read or write protected memory. This is often an indication that other memory is corrupt."

( If you don’t do hard-core Analysis Services, Reporting Services, or Integration Services development work with Microsoft Business Intelligence Development Studio, you can safely ignore this blog. ) On my workstation there was an incompatibility between Visual Studio and the SQL Server Binaries. Which led to this error: Symptom: Certain operations from Business Intelligence Development […]

Add-ons no MS Business Intelligence Developer should be without

The main two applications that are used for Microsoft-centric development are Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) and SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS). There are a few add-on utilities that increase the power and usefulness of the out of the box applications. I find these invaluable: MDXStudio – the brilliant Mosha Pasumansky‘s take on how MDX development should […]

Quick SQL Server tip : Find references to table or column names

Many times I have to look within a database and find all the programmable objects that refer to a particular column or table name (any string really). There’s probably a slicker, more “politically correct” way to do this, but this is what I generally use to accomplish this: SELECT DISTINCT ‘EXEC sp_helptext [‘ + OBJECT_NAME(id) […]