If the number of blog comments signifies how important a subject is, this blog post takes the cake.
The built-in time intelligence features (YTD, Y/Y, etc) of Analysis Services don’t work very well.
Enter DateTool dimension: an alternative Time Intelligence implementation
SQLBI - Marco Russo : DateTool dimension: an alternative Time Intelligence implementation
An oldie but goodie, some MDX examples and best practices around building BI data warehouses. Some content may not be relevant with SQL R2 but some stands the test of time.
Best Practices for Business Intelligence Using the Microsoft Data Warehousing Framework
In SQL Server Denali, Reporting Services leverages the SharePoint service application infrastructure and it doesn't require installing a Reporting Services server. Not only this simplifies setup but improves performance because there is no round-tripping between SharePoint and report server anymore. Configuring Reporting Services for SharePoint integration mode is a simple process that requires the following steps:
1. Get your spatial data ready. If you’re just starting to work with spatial data and don’t have a handy .shp file, you can visit some of these sites which provide publicly available shapefiles:
http://www.vdstech.com/map_data.htm
http://wwwn.cdc.gov/epiinfo/script/shapefiles.aspx
http://www.mapcruzin.com/download-free-arcgis-shapefiles.htm
http://www.census.gov/geo/www/cob/bdy_files.html
2. Download the SQL Server Spatial Tools from ArcGIS, which include the Shape2SQL tool.
I think it’s Best Practice but whatever, looks interesting…
Analysis Services Best Practise Analyser (SqlAsBpa for short) is a tool which checks your live Microsoft Sql Server Analysis Services 2005 against some important best practises, and reports items which violate these best practises.
Resmon exposes the Analysis Services 2008 DMVs as a cube, which could help expose performance problems and find resolution.
With Analysis Services 2008 and later, data from dynamic management views can be retrieved with SQL query syntax as described here. Therefore, it is possible to build an Analysis Services cube which uses Analysis Services DMV SQL queries as the data source.
The ResMon cube rolls up information about Analysis Services such as memory usage by object, perfmon counters, aggregation hits/misses, and current session stats.
On Tuesday this week we published a whitepaper that goes into great depth about using SQL Server with Dynamic Memory. You can download it from here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh372970.aspx
Windows has had a recycle bin since Version 3.1, perhaps even earlier. Even DOS had an undelete command. How come SQL requires you to restore from backup, assuming a backup even exists?
The Oracle feature, Flashback, just sold me on using Oracle for a solution requiring high availability and uptime, provided the budget is there... Not sure what a red query has anything to do with it though.
Sometimes it is a rouge query, sometimes a simple data clean up effort by the users, whatever may the cause be, inadvertent data-loss is a very common phenomenon. Backup and recovery capabilities are provided by the database management systems which ensure the safety and protection of valuable enterprise data in case of data loss however, not all data-loss situations call for a complete and tedious recovery exercise from the backup. Oracle introduced flashback features in Oracle 9i and 10g to address simple data recovery needs.
Spatial data in SQL 2008 R2 allows you to create freeform diagrams in your Reporting Services Reports. Some interesting possibilities here with data-driven diagrams. For instance, what stores on a mall map generate the most traffic? What part of an automobile has the most frequent damage replacements? What part of the body is most affected by a lab test?
The ability to flag these shapes with red/yellow/green traffic lighting makes it a cool proposition for some deep visual reporting.
My session is about using SSRS, SQL spatial data and DMVs to visualise SSAS OLAP cube structures and generate real-time automated cube documentation (blog post here if you want to know more…).
This shows an unusual use for spatial data, drawing diagrams instead of the usual demonstrations which are pretty much always displaying sales by region on a map etc. Whilst writing my demos, it got me thinking – why not use spatial data to draw even more complex pictures, diagrams or logos…
Drawing a logo or diagram using SQL spatial data | Purple Frog Systems
