Customer Reviews

Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Analysis Services Step by Step (Step By Step (Microsoft))

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

This is an excellent starter for the OLAP portion of SSAS.

Chapters 1 and 2 provide a great introduction to some of the initially quirky concepts that SSAS uses. (A proper understanding of fundamental things like attribute hierarchies is crucial, especially if you come to SSAS with dangerous baggage from non-MDX-based BI platforms. If this describes you, make sure you understand these 2 chapters implicitly before proceeding).

Each of the following chapters has the same format - a conceptual overview followed by some exercises. The overview pieces are usually short (yet fairly complete, for overviews), very readable and can absolutely stand on their own - in other words, you can return to the material months later and clarify a concept in 60 seconds without having to wade through pages of rambling blather. I find this quite unusual for what is nominally an exercise-oriented book.

Chapters 8 and 10 contain nuggets regarding Scenario Dimensions and Writeback - personally I would really like to have seen the discussion on Planning applications developed a bit further, but it's probably of fairly narrow interest. Chapter 13 contains the best conceptual overview of Aggregation Design that I have yet seen.

If you find SSAS OLAP the most exciting part of the MS BI stack, and want to focus solely within that area, this is the best place to start. It's an easy (and at only 400 pages, quite breezy) read - you won't be a master when you get through it (specifically, MDX), but you will understand all of the major SSAS concepts, and that's an achievement in itself.

Note to SSAS OLAP newbies: Do NOT use the MSFT Books Online to start with. The tutorials there are adequate when it comes to button-pushing, and the technical reference sections are excellent when you have achieved a level of competency ... however, neither addresses the CONCEPTS properly ... start with this book and save yourself 3-6 months of pain!

Excellent step by step setup, configuring, creating, and so forth. Get this book if you need a guided example so you don't waste your time troubleshooting procedures.

Very useful book. Easier to comprehend than online help. Well organized with detailed explanations. Also includes CD with example databases and projects.

I bought this book and started building cubes in a very short time frame. I would highly recommend this book to anyone who is new to SSAS 2008.

I am just finishing this book, and overall I liked this book. I am not a day-to-day Olap developer but, it gave me quite good understanding of how everything is organized. I only had issues with the examples as those are all for Enterprise edition but, I have standard. But, again, I can't blame the writer as there are many more features available in Enterprise edition and, one can also download evaluation edition for 180 days or so. So, overall, I am quite satisfied that I bought this book - it helped me a lot in creating fundamental concepts of MS OLAP solution - this book does not cover data mining.

I just finished this book and I am really impressed with it -- It was very well written: the chapters are very organized from beginning to end; it is very easy to follow and you get to practice in each sub-section as you go, steps by steps just like the title said; when you are done with it, it gives you a good foundation of basic knowledge to intermediate level of SSAS 2008; and every explanation it has in the book is just right (not lengthly) and neccessary for you to understand.

What struck me the most is the book has no error -- can you believe it? It's a miracle. Most of the technical books I bought so far I was so frustrated because not only they are not organized, but errors appear left and right in the code and in the exercises. I read this book and followed every step to the T, and everything works as it said (I have SQL Server 2008 Developer Edition and VS Team System 2008 Development Edition, but if you have the basic system requirements requirements said in the book, it should work as well).

First, this book may serve well as a reference book when I become more experienced with SQL Server 2008. Definitely, a book with much information and an attempt to provide details to users; however, as an introduction to SQL Server 2008 I find it hard to use and long for the simplicity of MySQL or PostGreSQL (of course one person's complexity is another person's feature set.

This book did help with me installing SQL server (that in online blogs on the subject).

But, I just purchased the Murach series on this subject which in the past has provided excellent introductory information.

So it might be that I will write a new review saying how good this book is when I become an experienced user.

Please note, although I find this book overly complex, definitely the author's put effort into it.

Excellent walk-throughs in this book, it is offered in Kindle format, however, how does one get a companion CD for the examples?

It is hard to follow and install SQL server 2008 and analysis service. The book only shows the website to download. There is no detail to explain and install the entire requirement, including Visual Studio 2008.

I started reading the book, installed the samples files and did everything the book told me to find myself at the point to start the exercises but incapable of selecting the sample database on the drop down list because the database wasn't there and although I went online and follow a couple of instructions from other users, the installation didn't work and so.... couldn't use the book at all!!!!
I've already highlighted parts of the books so I am not even sure that I will get my money back.
I can't just understand how can they release a book with a bad CD on it, and if you go to the support page they direct you to for errors, this error is NOT even there!
Useless!!!!

After the bad taste in my mouth for wasting time trying to fix the problem, I am happy because of the great customer service Amazon provides. After contacting them on a chat and explaining my problem, they have accepted a free return for this book and emailed me with a free return label. Thank you Amazon!