Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals) [Paperback]

OLAP Train (Author), Reed Jacobson (Author)

Book Description

Series: DV-DLT Fundamentals | Publication Date: October 6, 2000

MICROSOFT® SQL SERVER™ 2000 ANALYSIS SERVICES STEP BY STEP shows Microsoft Excel and Access experts, IS managers, and database developers how to build applications that take advantage of the powerful data-analysis services in Microsoft SQL Server 2000. You’ll discover why these services make it easier to analyze huge amounts of data quickly, and you’ll learn how to develop a wide range of advanced dimensional-data applications—from enterprise reporting tools to advanced decision-support systems. The book’s easy-to-follow lessons begin with clear objectives and include real-world business examples, with a companion CD full of sample files that support each lesson.

This title shows you how to:

• Administer the Analysis Manager: Understand the fundamentals behind data dimensions and hierarchies, data warehousing, and the Microsoft Analysis Services architecture, and use the Microsoft Analysis Manager application to define and populate data cubes.
  
• Create and display cubes: Define and modify measures and dimensions. Design, build, process, and view cubes, from simple to advanced, with cube and dimension editors. Use Microsoft Excel PivotTable® Reports and the PivotTable List in Microsoft Excel to browse cubes, and create cubes using Microsoft Office.
  
• Query cubes: Use multidimensional expressions (MDX) values and sets and the MDX Sample application to query and display dimensional data.
• Perform advanced administration: Choose data storage options and the Storage Design Wizard to optimize, manage, and update data efficiently. Automate the Analysis server to process an OLAP database. Work with partitions and automate updates, and apply security to cubes.

A Note Regarding the CD or DVD

The print version of this book ships with a CD or DVD. For those customers purchasing one of the digital formats in which this book is available, we are pleased to offer the CD/DVD content as a free download via O'Reilly Media's Digital Distribution services. To download this content, please visit O'Reilly's web site, search for the title of this book to find its catalog page, and click on the link below the cover image (Examples, Companion Content, or Practice Files). Note that while we provide as much of the media content as we are able via free download, we are sometimes limited by licensing restrictions. Please direct any questions or concerns to [e-mail].

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press (October 6, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735609047
• ISBN-13: 978-0735609044
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 7.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,495,034 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #94 in Books > Computers & Technology > Business & Culture > Technical Support

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 29 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good for getting started with Analysis Services, April 18, 2001

By 

Douglas Welzel (Seattle, WA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals) (Paperback)

This Step by Step guide serves as a great starting point for getting familiar with Microsoft's Analysis services. It starts with a quick introduction to data warehousing (without resorting to giving an entire history of the subject, as seems so common today) and how it relates to OLAP and then moves right into the Analysis Servies tools.

The chapters are well written and get you the information you need, without missing any major details. Even if you don't plan to take the "step by step" approach, this book is worth having by your side.

All right... now for the downsides. At best this book is good for beginners. These are some of the areas where I found it came up short:

- Sizing systems that will support Analysis Services. The book talks a bit about how big cubes are, but there is no information about cube performance/cube sizing, etc. Basically, this book won't help you develop a hardware plan for hosting Analysis Services.

- Accessing Analysis Services via the web. All of Microsoft's literature talks about how SQL Server 2000's great support for the web/XML. Strangely, it is very hard to find this information for Analysis Services, and this book doesn't provide any guidance. Right now it seems that the best you can do to find this information is hunt around Microsoft's site.

Overall I still think this is good book. However, if you are going to be building a large Analysis Services system, expect to be looking for other sources to answer all of your questions.

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Analysis Services, December 6, 2000

By 

"johnr98798" (North Hollywood, CA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals) (Paperback)

This book is very basic and should provide a good foundation for those people who are not familiar with SQL 7's OLAP or the newer implementation called 'analysis services'.

It is easy to read, the examples on the cd work perfectly and the tutorials provide a good overview of how to create your own cubes.

It's pretty thin and after reading through the first few chapters I found myself putting it down and just diving into designing my own stuff with microsoft's interface. It's a very logical application and with little or no resource materials people could easily figure this out with the tutorials included with the software.

This is not a good reference book, though I'm at a loss as to what would be a decent reference book on this subject since it's one of those things you either know or you don't.

MDX is VERY thin, and since you can teach the basics to yourself, a reference/primer book on MDX may suit you better.

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not what it needs to be, November 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Microsoft® SQL Server(TM) 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step (DV-DLT Fundamentals) (Paperback)

This book shows some basic examples by mousing through the menus with a pre-cooked script, but the on-line tutorial does about the same thing. However, there are no explanations why one would select one option over another, no explanations about how to construct different cubes to solve problems and no explanations about the syntax of Analysis services. There is no overriding theory presented that allows one to gain an understanding about how to frame and solve problems using Analysis services nor about what kinds of problems can and can't be solved. After reading the book I have a high level understanding about potentially what can be done, but I have not gained enough information to build anything useful.