Tech4Him – Technology with Integrity

Presenter: Erik Veerman
erik@solidq.com

In a Business Intelligence solution, the fact tables hold the core data that you are analyzing – facts (also called measures). Therefore, fact tables are a critical component to get right the first time. Poor fact table design will lead to poor performance and difficult calculations. This session dives into fact table and considers the basic column types, measure aggregation types, fact table types, and volume considerations. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 4% [?]

Presenter: Erik Veerman
erik@solidq.com

Dimension Tables are one of the core components in a dimensional design and it is critical to design your dimension tables correctly in order to lay a solid foundation to a Business Intelligence system. This session dives into the dimension design techniques and considers the core components of a dimension table, surrogate keys, attributes, and hierarchies. In addition, we will consider advanced hierarchy types such as parent-child hierarchies, snowflake designs and unbalanced hierarchies. Finally, we will consider the best practices in tracking changes historically. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 7% [?]

Presenter: Erik Veerman
erik@solidq.com

This session focuses on the basic design patterns for building relational database structures for Business Intelligence applications on SQL Server. By laying the foundation to dimensional modeling, this session provides an overview of dimension modeling theory and the justification of dimension modeling by reviewing the core structures involved in data marts and data warehouses and contrasting these design techniques to other types of systems. If you are new to Business Intelligence or feel you need a refresher on dimensional modeling, this session is for you. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5% [?]

Presenter: Craig Utley
craig@solidq.com

DB –> SSIS –> Relational Data Warehouse –> SSAS (Cubes) –> SSRS

Data Sources

• SSAS Projects have one or more data sources that point to data in some physical format
• Data sources should impersonate a domain use with least privileges for the purpose of accessing data. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 3% [?]

Presenter: Craig Utley, Mentor with Solid Quality Mentors

craig@solidq.com
http://learnmicrosoftbi.com

General Design

• SSAS 2005 and 2008 are extremely different from SSAS 2000
• Upgrading from 200 might work on small simple cubes. Not recommended
• In almost all cases, expect to redesign the AS db to take advantage of new features
• For larger project, plan to have a hardware expert available who understands SAN, load balancing, etc… Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 8% [?]

Below I am posting some of my notes from the various sessions, along with comments, observations and occasional odd humor.

The Accidental Business Intelligence Administrator

This session is designed for SQL Server DBAs who find themselves having to support SQL Server Business Intelligence projects using Reporting Services, Integration Services or Analysis Services. We’ll talk about the lifecycle of projects using these tools, how they impact your SQL Server infrastructure, and what adaptations you might need to make as a production DBA in order to maintain and secure them. Along the way, you might just learn what all those “other” services do that are listed in the SQL Server Configuration Manager. Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 5% [?]