Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008

• Microsoft Windows Vista, Microsoft Windows XP
• Microsoft Windows Server 2003 or Microsoft Windows Server 2008
• Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2008
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 (the relational engine)
• Microsoft Visual Studio 2008 and BI Development Studio
• SQL Server Management Studio
• Excel 2007 is an optional bonus as an alternative method of querying
the cube
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Preface
We recommend that you use SQL Server Developer Edition to follow the examples
in this book. We'll discuss the differences between Developer Edition, Standard
Edition and Enterprise Edition in chapter 2; some of the functionality we'll cover is
not available in Standard Edition and we'll mention that fact whenever it's relevant.
Who this book is for
This book is aimed at Business Intelligence consultants and developers who work
with Analysis Services on a daily basis, who know the basics of building a cube
already and who want to gain a deeper practical knowledge of the product and
perhaps check that they aren't doing anything badly wrong at the moment.
It's not a book for absolute beginners and we're going to assume that you understand
basic Analysis Services concepts such as what a cube and a dimension is, and that
you're not interested in reading yet another walkthrough of the various wizards in
BI Development Studio. Equally it's not an advanced book and we're not going to try
to dazzle you with our knowledge of obscure properties or complex data modelling
scenarios that you're never likely to encounter. We're not going to cover all the
functionality available in Analysis Services either, and in the case of MDX, where
a full treatment of the subject requires a book on its own, we're going to give some
examples of code you can copy and adapt yourselves, but not try to explain how the
language works.
One important point must be made before we continue and it is that in this book
we're going to be expressing some strong opinions. We're going to tell you how we
like to design cubes based on what we've found to work for us over the years, and
you may not agree with some of the things we say. We're not going to pretend that
all advice that differs from our own is necessarily wrong, though: best practices are
often subjective and one of the advantages of a book with multiple authors is that
you not only get the benefit of more than one person's experience but also that each
author's opinions have already been moderated by his co-authors.
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