hands on lab: building your first cube with sql...

Hands-On LabBuilding Your First Cube with SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services

Lab version: 1.0.0

Last updated: 5/20/2023

CONTENTS

OVERVIEW................................................................................................................................................. 3

EXERCISE 1: DEVELOPING THE RESELLER SALES CUBE..................................................................4Task 1 – Creating the Analysis Services Project...................................................................................5

Task 2 – Configuring the Analysis Services Project..............................................................................5

Task 3 – Creating the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 Data Source.........................................................5

Task 4 – Creating the Reseller Sales Data Source View........................................................................6

Task 5 – Configuring the Reseller Sales Data Source View...................................................................8

Task 6 – Creating the Date Dimension...............................................................................................11

Task 7 – Creating the Product Dimension..........................................................................................17

Task 8 – Creating the Salesperson Dimension...................................................................................18

Task 9 – Assembling the Reseller Sales Cube.....................................................................................21

Task 10 – Browsing the Reseller Sales Cube......................................................................................23

Task 11 – Finishing Up.......................................................................................................................23

SUMMARY................................................................................................................................................ 24

Overview

This lab will create an Analysis Services project that consists of a data source, data source view, cube and three dimensions.

Note: Before you start with this exercise you must ensure that your machine meets the system requirements detailed in the next section. Additionally, you must complete the setup steps described in the next section.

Objectives

The objectives of this exercise are to:

Create and configure an Analysis Services project

Create a data source

Create a data source view

Create dimensions

Assemble and format a cube

Browse the cube

System Requirements

You must have installed the following items to complete this lab:

Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2:

◦ Database Engine

◦ Analysis Services

◦ SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio

SQL Server AdventureWorks2008 R2 sample databases

◦ AdventureWorksDW2008R2

http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/Release/ProjectReleases.aspx

Setup

All the requisites for this lab are verified using the Configuration Wizard. To make sure that everything is correctly configured, follow these steps.

Note: To perform the setup steps you need to run the scripts in a command window with administrator privileges.

1. Launch the Configuration Wizard for this lab by double-clicking the Dependencies.dep file located under the Source\Setup folder of this lab. Install any pre-requisites that are missing (rescanning if necessary) and complete the wizard.

Cleanup

There is no need to cleanup if you intend to continue the sequence of labs in this training kit.

1. To restore the original state of the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 SQL Server database and remove the Sales Analysis Analysis Services database, execute the Cleanup.cmd script located under the Setup folder in the Source folder of this lab.

Exercises

This Hands-On Lab comprises the following exercise:

1. Developing the Reseller Sales Cube

Estimated time to complete this lab: 45 minutes.

Exercise 1: Developing the Reseller Sales Cube

In this exercise, you will commence by creating and configuring an Analysis Services project. You will then create a data source to reference the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 database. Based on this data source, you will create and configure data source view based on the FactResellerSales and FactSalesQuota tables, and some associated dimension tables. You will then create three dimensions: Date, Product and Salespeople, and then use these to assemble a cube. Finally you will deploy the project and browse the cube.

Task 1 – Creating the Analysis Services Project

In this task, you will open an existing solution that consists of the completed labs. You will then add an Analysis Services project to the solution.

1. Open SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio from Start | All Programs | Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 | SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio.

2. To open the AdventureWorksBI solution, on the File menu, select Open | Project/Solution.

3. In the Open Project window, navigate to the Ex1-DevelopingTheResellerSalesCube\Begin folder located in the Source folder for this lab, select the AdventureWorksBI.sln file, and then click Open.

Note: This solution consists of all completed labs that precede this lab.

4. In Solution Explorer, if necessary, collapse the Populate DW and Sales Reports projects.

5. In Solution Explorer, right-click the AdventureWorksBI solution, and then select Add | New Project.

6. In the Add New Project window, in the Project Types pane, ensure Business Intelligence Projects is selected, and then in the Templates pane, select Analysis Services Project.

7. In the Name box, replace the text with Sales Analysis, and then click OK.

8. To save the solution, on the File menu, select Save All.

Task 2 – Configuring the Analysis Services Project

In this task, you will configure the TargetServerURL property in preparation for the deployment task later in this lab.

1. In Solution Explorer, right-click the Sales Analysis project, and then select Properties.

2. In the Sales Analysis Property Pages window, select the Deployment page, set the Server property to <servername>, and then click OK.

Note: You will need to substitute <servername> for the name of the machine that hosts Analysis Services.

Task 3 – Creating the AdventureWorksDW2008R2 Data Source

In this task, you will create the AdventureWorksD2008R2 data source.

3. In Solution Explorer, in the Sales Analysis project, right-click the Data Sources folder, and then select New Data Source.

4. In the Data Source Wizard, read the welcome message, and then click Next.

5. In the Select How to Define the Connection step, in the Data Connections list, select the SqlServerTrainingKitAlias.AdventureWorksDW2008R2 connection.

Note: SQL Server Business Intelligence Studio caches previously defined connections. If this data source is not listed, complete these steps to create it:

Click the New button.

In the Connection Manager window, in the Server Name box, type SqlServerTrainingKitAlias, and then in the Select or Enter a Database Name dropdown list, select AdventureWorksDW2008R2.

Click OK.

6. Click Next.

7. In the Impersonation Information step, select Use the Service Account, and then click Next.

Note: A preferred practice is to use a dedicated domain account. For simplicity you will use the service account in this lab.

8. In the Completing the Wizard step, accept the default Data Source Name, and then click Finish.


Task 4 – Creating the Reseller Sales Data Source View

In this task, you will you create the Reseller Sales data source view. The data source view is the foundation upon which dimensions, cubes and data mining models are developed.

1. In Solution Explorer, in the Sales Analysis project, right-click the Data Source Views folder, and then select New Data Source View.

2. In the Welcome to the Data Source View Wizard, read the welcome message, and then click Next.

3. In the Select a Data Source step, notice that the data source you created in Task 4 is selected, and then click Next.

4. In the Select Tables and Views step, in the Available Objects list, while pressing the Control key, select the following eight objects.

Note: To fully display the object names you may need to expand the size of this dialog box by dragging any of the window’s corners.

Object

DimEmployee

DimProduct

DimProductCategory

DimProductSubcategory

DimSalesTerritory

FactResellerSales

FactSalesQuota

vDateFeed

5. Click the arrow to add the selected tables to the Included Objects list.

Figure 1Adding the Objects to the Included Objects List

6. Click Next.

7. In the Completing the Wizard step, in the Name box, replace the text with Reseller Sales, and then click Finish.

8. When the wizard completes, in Solution Explorer, notice the addition of the Reseller Sales data source view, and that the data source view designer opens automatically.


Task 5 – Configuring the Reseller Sales Data Source View

In this task, you will refine the design of the data source view. This will involve providing friendly names for each of the tables, creating named columns to produce date keys in each fact table, establishing relationships between the fact tables and the Date table (which is based on a view), and replacing the Employee table with a named query that restricts the columns and rows to those relevant to salespeople.

1. To rename the tables, in the data source view designer, in the Tables pane (located in the bottom left corner), select the DimEmployee table, and then in the Properties window, modify the FriendyName property to Employee.

Note: If the Properties window is not visible, on the View menu, select Properties Window.

2. Repeat this step for each table, except vDateFeed, to remove the Dim or Fact prefix.

3. For the vDateFeed table, modify the FriendlyName property to Date.

Note: The purpose of this step is to create a user-friendly data model. It is important to configure friendly names at the data source view level so that they are consistently inherited throughout the objects (cubes, dimension and, mining models) created upon this view.

4. To create a named calculation in the ResellerSales table, in the Tables pane, right-click the ResellerSales table, and then select New Named Calculation.

5. In the Create Named Calculation window, in the Column Name box, type MonthKey.

6. In the Expression box, enter the following expression, and then click OK.

T-SQL

OrderDateKey / 100

Note: The ResellerSales table data is stored by month not day. This expression removes the date portion from the OrderDateKey. For example, the OrderDateKey value for 1 January 2008 is 20080101. The MonthKey derived from this value is 200801. The MonthKey column will relate to the MonthKey column in the Date table.

7. Repeat the last three steps to create a new named calculation in the SalesQuota table named CalendarQuarterKey based on the following expression.

T-SQL

(CalendarYear * 10) + CalendarQuarter

Note: The SalesQuota table data is stored at calendar quarter granularity.

8. To establish a relationship between the ResellerSales table and the Date table, in the Tables pane, expand the ResellerSales table, right-click the MonthKey column (located at the end of the column list), and then select New Relationship.

9. In the Specify Relationship window, in the Destination Table dropdown list, select Date.

10. In the Destination Columns column, ensure that MonthKey is selected, and then click OK.

Figure 2Creating the ResellerSales to Date Table Relationship

11. Repeat the last three steps to create a relationship between the SalesQuota table’s CalendarQuarterKey column and the Date table’s CalendarQuarterKey column.

12. To delete the relationship between the ResellerSales table and the SalesTerritory table, in the Tables pane, in the ResellersSales table, expand the Relationships folder (located at the end of the column list), right-click the SalesTerritory relationship, and then select Delete Relationship.

13. When prompted to delete the relationship, click OK.

Note: The relationship between the ResellerSales and SalesTerritory tables is valid, but is not required in this project.

14. To replace the Employee table with a named query, in the Tables pane, right-click the Employee table, and then select Replace Table | With New Named Query.

15. In the Create Named Query window, in the Name box, replace the text with Salesperson.

16. In the lower pane, replace the query text with the following.

Note: The query required in the following step may be copied from the Assets\Snippets.txt file in the Source folder of this lab.

T-SQL

SELECT EmployeeKey, SalesTerritoryKey, LastName + N', ' + FirstName AS SalespersonName, EmailAddress, PhoneFROM dbo.DimEmployeeWHERE SalesPersonFlag=1;

17. On the toolbar, click the Run button, and verify that 17 rows are returned.

Figure 3Executing the Salesperson Query

18. Click OK.

19. In the data source view designer, to arrange the tables, right-click in a blank area of the diagram, and then select Arrange Tables.

Note: To facilitate exploring the data source view diagram, click on the four-headed arrow located in the bottom right corner. While continuing to hold the click, drag about the thumbnail view to navigate across the diagram.

Figure 4Navigating the Data Source View Diagram

20. To explore the data in the Salesperson table, in the Tables pane (or the diagram), right-click the Salesperson table, and then select Explore Data.

21. Notice the four tabs in the window that allow exploring data in Table, PivotTable, Chart and PivotChart views.

Note: It is also possible to click column headers to sort the rows by that column order, ascending or descending.

22. To close the explorer window, on the File menu, select Close.

23. On the File menu, click Save All.

24. To close the data source view designer, on the File menu, select Close.


Task 6 – Creating the Date Dimension

In this task, you will create the Date dimension. This dimension will consist of four attributes to define calendar date periods. To support efficient and convenient navigation, you will also define a user-defined Calendar hierarchy to deliver drilldown and drillup paths. These paths will permit users to summarize cube measures at different levels of granularity.

1. In Solution Explorer, in the Sales Analysis project, right-click the Dimensions folder, and then select New Dimension.

2. In the Welcome to the Dimension Wizard, read the welcome message, and then click Next.

3. In the Select Creation Method step, ensure the Use an Existing Table option is selected, and then click Next.

4. In the Specify Source Information step, in the Main Table dropdown list, select Date.

5. In the Name Column dropdown list, select DateLabel, and then click Next.

6. In the Select Dimension Attributes page, check the following attributes, and rename them as follows.

Attribute Rename Attribute To

Date Key Date

Month Key Month

Calendar Quarter Key Calendar Quarter

Calendar Year Key Calendar Year

Figure 5Selecting the Date Dimension Attributes

7. Click Next.

8. In the Completing the Wizard step, click Finish.

9. In Solution Explorer, notice the addition of the Date dimension, and that the dimension designer opens automatically.


11. In the dimension designer, in the Data Source View pane, right-click the Date table, and then select Explore Data.

Figure 6Exploring the Date Data

12. Review the data and formats in each column.

Note: Pay particular attention to pairs of columns suffixed with Key and Label. The Key columns are unique numeric representations of the date parts while the Label columns are user-friendly formats of the date parts. During the wizard creation of this dimension you selected attributes from the Key columns. The following steps will configure the Label columns to provide a friendly name (NameColumn) for each member in the attribute.

13. To close the explore window, on the File menu, select Close.

14. In the Attributes pane (located on the left), select the Calendar Year attribute.

Figure 7Selecting the Calendar Year Attribute

15. To configure the NameColumn, in the Properties window, select the NameColumn, and then click the corresponding ellipsis.

Figure 8Clicking the NameColumn Property Ellipsis

16. In the Name Column window, in the Source Column list, select the CalendarYearLabel column, and then click OK.

17. Repeat the last three steps to configure the following attributes NameColumn bindings.

Attribute NameColumn Binding

Calendar Quarter CalendarQuarterLabel

Month MonthLabel

Note: The Date attribute’s NameColumn property was already configured during the wizard configuration.

18. To assign properties to the dimension and attributes, in Solution Explorer, right-click the Date dimension, and then select Add Business Intelligence.

19. In the Welcome to the Business Intelligence Wizard, read the welcome message, and then click Next.

20. In the Choose Enhancement step, select the Define Dimension Intelligence enhancement, and then click Next.

21. In the Define Dimension Intelligence step, in the Dimension Type dropdown list, select Time.

22. In the Dimension Attributes list, check the Year attribute type, and then in the corresponding row in the Dimension Attribute column, select the Calendar Year attribute.

23. Repeat the last step to assign types to the following attributes, and then click Next.

Attribute Type Dimension Attribute

Quarter Calendar Quarter

Month Month

Date Date

24. In the Completing the Wizard step, review the type assignments, and then click Finish.

Note: Mapping dimension attributes to types is especially important for the Date (Time) dimension. This metadata is required to distinguish the dimension and its attributes, and is referred to by certain time features, for example semi-additive cube measures, and certain MDX time functions.

25. To create a hierarchy, from the Attributes pane, drag the Calendar Year attribute into the Hierarchies pane.

Figure 9Creating a Hierarchy

26. To add a new level to the hierarchy, from the Attributes pane, drag the Calendar Quarter attribute into the hierarchy, directly beneath the Calendar Year level (on top of the <New Level> caption).

27. Repeat the last step to add the Month, and then the Date, attributes as new levels for the hierarchy.

28. To rename the hierarchy, right-click the name of the hierarchy (named Hierarchy), and then select Rename.

29. Modify the name of the hierarchy to Calendar, and then press Enter.

30. To rename the first level of the hierarchy, right-click the Calendar Year level, and then select Rename.

31. Modify the name of the level to Year, and then press Enter.

32. Repeat the last two steps to rename the Calendar Quarter level to Quarter.

33. Verify that your Calendar hierarchy looks like the following.

Figure 10Completing the Calendar Hierarchy

34. To define the attribute relationships, in the dimension designer, select the Attribute Relationships tab.

Note: As visualized, presently the Calendar Year, Calendar Quarter and Month attributes in this dimension are not related (except directly to the Date attribute). This is incorrect and inefficient. With the understanding that months belong to calendar quarters, and calendar quarters belong to years, this needs to be explicitly configured in the dimension.

35. To relate the Months attribute to the Calendar Quarter attribute, first select the Month attribute, and then drag it on top of the Calendar Quarter attribute.

36. Repeat the last step to relate the Calendar Quarter attribute to the Calendar Year attribute.

37. Verify that your attribute relationships look like the following.

Figure 11Configuring the Date Dimension Attribute Relationships

38. Before browsing the dimension, the project must be deployed to the server. To deploy the project, in Solution Explorer, right-click the Sales Analysis project, and then select Deploy.

39. When deployment completes (note the status line at the bottom of the window), in the dimension designer, select the Browser tab.

40. In the Hierarchy dropdown list, notice that the Calendar hierarchy is selected.

41. In the browser pane, browse the hierarchy membership by expanding the All member, and children members until you have expanded to the Date level of the hierarchy.

42. In the Hierarchy dropdown list, select the Calendar Year hierarchy, and browse this hierarchy also.

Note: Unlike the Calendar hierarchy you created in this lab, this hierarchy is shallow (i.e. it exists of an All level and a single level beneath it which contains distinct calendar years). This type of hierarchy is referred to as an attribute hierarchy.

The Calendar hierarchy you created is referred to as a multi-level (or user-defined) hierarchy. It provides convenience when drilling down or drilling up to summarize cube measures at different levels of granularity.

43. Browse each the remaining hierarchies.


45. To close the dimension designer, on the File menu, select Close.

Task 7 – Creating the Product Dimension

In this task, you will create the Product dimension. The development process is very similar to the creation of the Date dimension. To this end, the steps in this task have been abridged. If you need guidance with this task, refer to the more detailed steps in the previous task.


2. In the Welcome to the Dimension Wizard, click Next.

3. In the Select Creation Method step, ensure the Use an Existing Table option is selected, and then click Next.

4. In the Specify Source Information step, in the Main Table dropdown list, select Product.

5. In the Name Column dropdown list, select the EnglishProductName column, and then click Next.

6. In the Select Related Tables step, notice that the related tables are checked, and click Next.

Note: The Product dimension will be based on all three product tables. This is referred to as a snowflake dimension.

7. In the Select Dimension Attributes step, check the following attributes, and rename them as follows (if applicable).


Product Key Product

Color (Not applicable)

Product Subcategory Key Subcategory

Product Category Key Category

8. Click Next.



11. In the dimension designer, configure the following attributes NameColumn bindings.


Category EnglishProductCategoryName

Subcategory EnglishProductSubcategoryName

12. Assemble the appropriate attributes to create the Products hierarchy.

Note: Attribute relationships do not need to be defined because they were inferred via the relationship between the snowflake dimension tables.

13. To deploy the project, in Solution Explorer, right-click the Sales Analysis project, and then select Deploy.

14. When deployment completes, select the Browser tab.

15. Browse each the hierarchies available in Hierarchies dropdown list.



Task 8 – Creating the Salesperson Dimension

In this task, you will create the Salesperson dimension. The development of this dimension is very similar to that of the Product dimension. Different to the Product dimension, however, is that this dimension includes two attributes, Email Address and Phone, which you will configure not to produce hierarchies. As such, they will be available as member properties only.


2. In the Welcome to the Dimension Wizard, click Next.

3. In the Select Creation Method page, ensure the Use an Existing Table option is selected, and then click Next.

4. In the Specify Source Information step, in the Main Table dropdown list, select Salesperson.

5. In the Name Column dropdown list, select SalespersonName, and then click Next.

6. In the Select Related Tables step, notice that the related table is checked, and then click Next.

Note: The Salesperson dimension will be based on the Salesperson and SalesTerritory tables.

7. In the Select Dimension Attributes step, check the following attributes, and rename them as follows (if applicable).


Employee Key Salesperson

Email Address (Not applicable)

Phone (Not applicable)

Sales Territory Key Region

Sales Territory Group Group

8. For the Email Address and Phone attributes, uncheck the Enable Browsing checkboxes.

Note: There is no benefit to producing a hierarchy of email addresses or phone numbers. Unchecking the Enable Browsing checkbox will ensure that a hierarchy is not produced for these attributes. The data will otherwise be available as member properties that may then be introduced into queries and reports.

Figure 12Selecting the Salesperson Dimension Attributes

9. Click Next.



12. In the dimension designer, configure the following attribute NameColumn binding.


Region SalesTerritoryRegion

13. Assemble the appropriate attributes to create the Salespeople hierarchy.

Figure 13Completing the Salespeople Hierarchy

Note: As for the Product dimension, attribute relationships do not need to be defined because they were inferred via the relationship between the snowflake dimension tables.


15. When deployment completes, select the Browser tab.

16. Browse each the hierarchies available in Hierarchies dropdown list.

17. Notice the absence of the Email Address and Phone attributes that you configured not be browsable.



Task 9 – Assembling the Reseller Sales Cube

In this task, you will create the Reseller Sales cube by defining the measure group (fact) tables, measures and the dimensions to add to the cube. Once the cube is created, you will format the measures and deploy the project to the server.

1. In Solution Explorer, in the Sales Analysis project, right-click the Cubes folder, and then select New Cube.

2. In the Welcome to the Cube Wizard, read the welcome message, and then click Next.

3. In the Select Creation Method step, ensure the Use Existing Tables option is selected, and then click Next.

4. In the Select Measure Group Tables step, check both the ResellerSales and SalesQuota tables, and then click Next.

5. In the Select Measures step, uncheck the top most checkbox to the left of the Measure header.

Figure 14Unchecking All Measures

6. Check only the following measures, and then click Next.

Measure Group Measure

Reseller Sales Order Quantity

Reseller Sales Total Product Cost

Reseller Sales Sales Amount

Sales Quota Sales Amount Quota

7. In the Select Existing Dimensions step, ensure all dimensions are checked, and then click Next.

8. In the Select New Dimensions step, uncheck the top most checkbox to the left of the Dimension header, and then click Next.

9. In the Completing the Wizard step, accept the default cube name (based on the data source view name), and then click Finish.

10. In Solution Explorer, notice the addition of the Reseller Sales cube, and that the cube designer opens automatically.


12. In the cube designer, to format the all measures, right-click in the blank area inside the Measures pane (located at the upper left corner), and then select Show Measures In |Grid.

13. Select the first measure, and then while pressing the Shift key, select the last measure.

14. In the Properties window, in the FormatString property, type #,#.

Note: This will format the values with a comma for the thousands separator.

15. Right-click inside the Measures pane again, and then select Show Measures In | Tree.


Task 10 – Browsing the Reseller Sales Cube

In this task, you will use the cube browser to construct a simple query to test your cube.

1. In the cube designer, select the Browser tab (the last tab).

2. In the Metadata pane (located on the left), expand Measures, and then expand the Resellers Sales measure group.

3. Drag the Sales Amount measure to the Drop Totals or Detail Fields Here zone of the pivot control.

4. Expand the Sales Quota measure group, and then drag the Sales Amount Quota measure to the right of the Sales Amount measure.

5. Expand the Date dimension, and then drag the Calendar hierarchy to the Drop Column Fields Here zone of the pivot control.

6. To filter on a particular year, click the down arrow next to the Year header, uncheck (All), check the CY2007 member, and then click OK.

Figure 15Filtering on CY2007

7. On the columns, expand the CY2007 member to reveal the quarters of the year.

8. In the Metadata pane, expand the Salesperson dimension, and then drag the Salespeople hierarchy to the Drop Row Fields Here zone of the pivot control.

9. On the rows, expand the North America member, and then expand the Northwest member to reveal the salespeople.

Task 11 – Finishing Up

In this task, you will finish up by closing all applications.

1. To close the cube designer, on the File menu, select Close.

2. In SQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio, on the File menu, select Exit.

Summary

In this lab, you have created an Analysis Services project that consists of a data source, data source view, cube and three dimensions. The Reseller Sales cube is a queryable object that delivers rapid ad hoc access to data.

hands on lab: building your first cube with sql...

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