Book Image

Tabular Modeling with SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook

By : Derek Wilson
Book Image

Tabular Modeling with SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook

By: Derek Wilson

Overview of this book

SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS) has been widely used across multiple businesses to build smart online analytical reporting solutions. It includes two different types of modeling for analysis services: Tabular and Multi Dimensional. This book covers Tabular modeling, which uses tables and relationships with a fast in-memory engine to provide state of the art compression algorithms and query performance. The book begins by quickly taking you through the concepts required to model tabular data and set up the necessary tools and services. As you learn to create tabular models using tools such as Excel and Power View, you’ll be shown various strategies to deploy your model on the server and choose a query mode (In-memory or DirectQuery) that best suits your reporting needs. You’ll also learn how to implement key and newly introduced DAX functions to create calculated columns and measures for your model data. Last but not least, you’ll be shown techniques that will help you administer and secure your BI implementation along with some widely used tips and tricks to optimize your reporting solution. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained hands-on experience with the powerful new features that have been added to Tabular models in SSAS 2016 and you’ll be able to improve user satisfaction with faster reports and analytical queries.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
Tabular Modeling with SQL Server 2016 Analysis Services Cookbook
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewer
www.PacktPub.com
Customer Feedback
Preface

Creating a new DirectQuery project


In this recipe you will create a new tabular model project that will be configured to use DirectQuery mode.

How to do it...

  1. Create a new tabular model solution in Visual Studio named DirectQuery_CrashData.

  2. Change the model to use DirectQuery mode by selecting the Model.bim to bring up the properties and change DirectQuery Mode to On from Off:

  3. Select Microsoft SQL Server and then click Next:

  4. On the Table Import Wizard, select your server and the Crash_Data_DB and click Next. Then enter a username and password that has access to your data and click Next.

  5. Select the table in the Crash_Data_DB and select Finish:

How it works...

By enabling DirectQuery prior to building anything in the model, the options for importing data are limited to those data sources that are compatible with this mode. You will notice that unlike in-memory mode, upon completion of the table import step no data is loaded into SQL Server Analysis Services. The connections have been established...