Administering Core Business Intelligence Services - Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Administration - page 132

The success of BI solutions is due to the administration of core services that highlight
the concerns on access levels, performance, scalability, and availability; adding further
complication to compliance when the financial data is involved. The BI processes include
commonly expressed services, such as data mining, ETL and reporting, usability and a
sophisticated set of tools to accomplish these three core BI services. This chapter covers
the implementation, configuration, and installation of core BI services SSAS, SSRS, and
SSIS, which are important steps to build and administer effective BI solutions. The recipes
emphasize the scale-out deployment practices on reporting platform and ETL processes.
SQL Server 2008 R2 exhibits new features and enhancements to the existing BI processes
and toolset. Before we prepare the recipes to administer core BI services, it is essential to
introduce these new features within the data-mining processes and BI toolset.
F The PowerPivot client add-in and server components provide an end-to-end solution
that furthers the BI data analysis for Excel users on desktop and SharePoint sites.
F PowerPivot for Excel gets a new expression language called data-analysis
expressions. This language extends the easy-to-use feature for users to create
sophisticated calculations, time intelligence, and perform lookups.
F All the samples for Analysis Services and PowerPivot are now available externally
from the CodePlex site: http://powerpivotsampledata.codeplex.com/ .
F Creation of OLAP cubes that are used for data mining make it much easier to design
dimensions and related hierarchies and attributes. The new Dimension Designer
includes the new Attribute Relationship Designer that helps you to design attribute
relationships to follow best practices.
Preparing and installing SQL Server Analysis
Services
SQL Server provides a way to install any or all of its components including Analysis Services.
The planning and architecture is an important aspect to better understand Analysis Services
multi-dimensional database and plan how to implement the multi-dimensional database into
your business intelligence solution.
In this recipe, we will evaluate the Analysis Services installation options and SQL Server
PowerPivot for SharePoint. These evaluation steps also include the best practice hardware/
software requirements, configuration, and security considerations for the installation. The
topics highlight the important considerations that you should be aware of before you install
Analysis Services. Note that many BI solutions require the installation of additional SQL Server
components to enable the development, deployment, administration, and management of
Business Intelligence suite.