Practical Guide to the Microsoft OLAP Server (2000)

From the Book:
First and foremost, this book is a how-to guide for implementing Microsoft OLAP Services. It provides the necessary overview and details along with a lot of practical advice as it leads you through the steps of planning and building an online analytical processing application using OLAP Services. But, it is also much more than that. It explains OLAP fundamentals and shows and where OLAP is useful within an organization. It provides a history and description of trends in the OLAP industry. It describes the characteristics and different approaches of OLAP products in the marketplace and describes Microsoft's approach to OLAP and the architecture of OLAP Services. Plus, it provides tips for advanced usage and optimization of OLAP Services.

Read on and you will be equipped with the knowledge to build and operate OLAP applications with OLAP Services. You will be able to put OLAP Services into perspective within your organization and among the universe of complementary and competing software products. You will also be able to explain, justify, and promote your OLAP projects to sponsors, users, managers, and technical staff. 

Who Should Read This Book

This book is intended for people involved in projects with Microsoft OLAP Services. It is designed to be useful to sponsors, project managers, system architects, systems analysts, developers, and administrators of OLAP applications. Trainers, technical support staff, and power users will also benefit from several chapters in the book.

The book assumes the reader has prior experience with or knowledge of basic databaseconcepts and computer applications. It does not require prior knowledge of OLAP. The introductory material provides enough background for the uninitiated to come up to speed on OLAP. Anyone who has worked on projects with Microsoft SQL Server will find it particularly easy to use this book. More experienced OLAP users can read the introductory material for refresher or skip right to the application-specific sections of the book.

Why This Book Was Written

Fourteen years ago, I began working with a number of clients to develop sales and marketing reporting systems. My clients were small to midsize companies engaged in direct-mail and telemarketing sales and promotions. They had little or no in-house computing infrastructure and were relying on service bureaus for their data processing needs. Into this mix were thrown some marketing directors unsatisfied with untimely and limited service bureau reports, the then new IBM personal computing standard, Lotus 1-2-3, dBase, and a hungry, young consultant.

We created dBase databases to import data from floppy disks prepared by the service bureaus. We created dBase data entry routines to allow users to enter sales and marketing cost data not available from the service bureaus. We stored data redundantly in a number of different table structures to support efficient hard-copy report processing for different requirements, and we exported some dBase data to Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheets to perform What if? planning. The resultant systems were little monsters, but the clients and users were thrilled to have such unprecedented access to data.

Years later, while attending my first conference on data warehousing conducted by the Data Warehousing Institute, I recognized that what we had scratched and clawed to make without knowing it were refreshable datamarts with table structures pretty close to a star schema and a series of hard-copy reports that each represented a different dimensional view of the same data. Oh, now you tell me, I thought, how much easier those projects would have been if I had known about data warehousing and multidimensional design 
When I began writing reviews on data warehousing and OLAP software products for PC Week magazine, my eyes were opened even wider as I encountered a range of tools from many vendors designed to support development of business intelligence applications. I frequently found myself thinking, What a cool product. I wish I had thought of that. I have to tell somebody about this. We've come a long way from the early PC days of dBase and 1-2-3. 
The truth is a number of vendors have marketed OLAP products for many years now that offer substantial value to users. But, due to high price, product complexity, and customers distracted by more basic computing needs, these products have been out of sight and out of reach to many potential users. Microsoft's introduction of OLAP Services, bundled with the release of SQL Server 7, reduced the traditional price and complexity barriers of implementing OLAP solutions. Millions of users who had never given OLAP a second thought found OLAP coming soon to a server near them.

So, where do you go to find out about this OLAP phenomenon? How will you prepare yourself to implement something as new and different as OLAP Services? The colleges are still focused on traditional SQL database technology. The training centers are turning out droves of certified network engineers. The press highlight software features and buying recommendations, but they don't tell you to do anything. Who is telling the OLAP story that needs to be told? Who is telling you everything you need to know to succeed with OLAP Services? 
I wrote this book because OLAP Services is one of those Why didn't I think of that? products. It is the answer to a lot of your problems, and you need to know about it. It is a significant new piece in the OLAP story that is dying to be told. I wrote this book so that you wouldn't have to scratch and claw your way to an understanding of OLAP and OLAP Services. With this book as a guide, you can focus your efforts in the right place at the right time and take care of business. 
How to Use This Book

You may choose to read this book straight through from beginning to end, and I pray that some readers will become so engrossed to do so. The goals of this book were quite ambitious, however, and may include material of varying appeal to you. The book has been arranged into four parts that allow you to easily follow along in order or skip directly to what you need.

The first part, comprising Chapters 1 through 3, provides a primer on OLAP fundamentals, a discussion of OLAP history, architectures, solutions, and trends, and a discussion of Microsoft's approach to OLAP and the architecture of OLAP Services. All three chapters are must reading for rookies. If you are unfamiliar with OLAP, this material will provide the prerequisite background you need to proceed. Experienced OLAP users who are new to OLAP Services can jump right to Chapter 3 to learn about the product's features and architecture.

The second and third parts take you through the steps of the development life cycle of an OLAP Services application. The topics proceed in order through planning, analysis, design, construction, release, and support. These chapters include explanatory material, detailed instructions, and samples throughout. 

The second part, comprising Chapters 4 through 6, covers the up-front planning, analysis, and design stages. These chapters ensure that you give appropriate attention to all the right issues and are properly prepared before proceeding to construction. They also ensure that your project starts off on solid footing with clear goals. Skip them at your own peril.

The third part, comprising Chapters 7 through 11, is where the rubber hits the road. These chapters cover the installation of OLAP Services, the construction and population of databases and cubes, the installation and use of OLAP client software, and system administration and support. Your basic OLAP system is up, running, and in use by the end of this part. 
The fourth and final part provides coverage of advanced topics in Chapters 12 and 13. Chapter 12 provides an in-depth discussion of using MDX, the new multidimensional expression syntax for querying data cubes. Designers and programmers need to understand MDX if they are developing client software. Administrators and power users may occasionally issue direct MDX queries against cubes. The rest of you who will probably never create an MDX query can gain a better understanding of OLAP Services by learning the basic MDX concepts. Chapter 13 contains examples of advanced business models using virtual cubes, calculated members, partitions, and data write-backs. This should spark ideas for you can add extra value to your applications. 
The appendix provides a list of third-party software with vendor contact information for products that may be useful components in an OLAP Services implementation. The book concludes with a glossary of jargon, acronyms, and significant technical terms appearing within the text and a bibliography that includes books and white papers that cover complementary material on data warehousing and OLAP.