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Part IX: Business Intelligence
In addition to custom applications, you can access Analysis Services using several provided
tools, including the following:■ (^) SQL Server Data Tools, for defi ning database structure
■ SQL Server Management Studio, for managing and querying the server
■ (^) Reporting Services, which can base report defi nitions on Analysis Services data
■ Excel features and add-ins, for querying and analyzing data
■ (^) Performance Point 2010 for Visualizing Data in a dashboard
A wide variety of third-party tools are also available to exploit the features of Analysis
Services.
Building a Database
You would build an Analysis Services database by identifying the data to include in the
database, specifying the relationships between those data, defi ning dimension structures on
those data, and fi nally building one or more cubes to combine the dimensions and measures.SQL Server Data Tools
The process to build an Analysis Services database begins by opening a new Analysis
Services project in the SQL Server Data Tools. Each project corresponds to a database cre-
ated on the target server when the project deploys.Best Practice
Along with opening an Analysis Services project, you can also directly open an existing database in
Business Intelligence Development Studio. Although this is a useful feature for examining the confi gura-
tion of a running server, you should make changes in a project, deployed fi rst to a development server,
and deployed to production only after testing. Keep the project and related fi les in source control.Be sure to set the target server before attempting to deploy your new database, as shown
in Figure 53-1. Right-click the project in the Solution Explorer, and choose Properties. Then
set the target server in the deployment property page.Data Sources
You can defi ne a data source on any data for which an OLE DB provider exists, enabling
Analysis Services to use many types of data beyond the traditional relational sources.c53.indd 1198c53.indd 1198 7/31/2012 10:30:22 AM7/31/2012 10:30:22 AM
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