BUILDING YOUR FIRST ANALYSIS SERVICES TABULAR BI SEMANTIC MODEL WITH SQL SERVER 2012

Frederik VandeputtePartner @KoheraPresident @SQLUG.BEfrederik.vandeputte@kohera.be

AGENDA

• Introduction•Demo•Wrap Up

3

ANALYSIS SERVICES: TODAY

Broad adoption “Customers in the Magic Quadrant survey report that their Microsoft average deployment sizes are now larger than any other vendor in the survey in terms of users.”

“Use of OLAP functionality by Microsoft customers is more than double that for the rest of the survey respondents.”

Source: Gartner Magic Quadrant for BI Platforms, 2011

Highest rated infrastructure and development tools“Microsoft customers rate its BI platform infrastructure and development tools among the highest compared to other vendors, and a higher percentage of customers use them extensively.”

Source: Gartner Magic Quadrant for BI Platforms, 2011

Large ecosystem "Wide availability of skills is among the top reasons customers select Microsoft over competing vendors.”

Source: Gartner Magic Quadrant for BI Platforms, 2011

ANALYSIS SERVICES: TOMORROW

Build on the strengths and success of Analysis Services and expand its reach to a much broader user base

Embrace the relational data model – well understood by developers and IT Pros

Bring together the relational and multidimensional models under a single unified BI platform – best of both worlds!

Provide flexibility in the platform to suit the diverse needs of BI applications

Analysis Services VisionBI Semantic Model

BI SEMANTIC MODEL

One Model for all End User Experiences

Client Tools Analytics, Reports, Scorecards,

Dashboards, Custom Apps

Data SourcesDatabases, LOB Applications, OData Feeds,

Spreadsheets, Text Files

BI Semantic ModelData model

Business logic and queriesData access

Team BIPowerPivot for

SharePoint

Personal BIPowerPivot for

Excel

Organizational BIAnalysis

Services

BI Semantic ModelData model

Business logic and queries

Data access ROLAP MOLAP VertiPaq DirectQuery

MDX DAX

Multi-dimensional

Tabular

Third-partyapplications

ReportingServices

Excel PowerPivot

Databases LOB Applications Files OData Feeds Cloud Services

SharePointInsights

BI SEMANTIC MODEL: ARCHITECTURE

SO WHAT’S ANALYSIS SERVICES TABULAR ANYWAY

• “Server Side version of PowerPivot v1”• Development in Visual Studio, not in Excel• Adding PowerPivot v2 features• Adding Enterprise features like • security• partitions• management• ...

WHAT’S NEW COMPARED TO POWERPIVOT V1

• Richer Models• KPIs• Descriptions• Persisted formatting• Advanced sorting • Mark as Date Table• Distinct count• Drill-through• Perspectives• Hierarchies• Multiple relationships• Parent child

Optimized UsabilityImproved Date and Text filteringDiagramMeasure gridVarious usability enhancements

Reporting PropertiesRepresentative ColumnTable DetailTable IdentifierImageURL

DEMO TIME

ABOUT THE DEMO

• Built a first SSAS Tabular model from scratch• Enhance the model step by step• Compare and highlight differences with PowerPivot and SSAS Multidimensioal (OLAP)

GETTING STARTED – 3 NEW OPTIONS

THE WORKSPACE DATABASE

• Can be local or remote server • Holds in memory “development copy” of model• Databasename = ProjectName + username + GUID• Analyze in Excel connects to workspace DB• No need to redeploy to see changes in Excel or Cube browser

MEASURES MUST BE EXPLICITELY CREATED

• PowerPivot will create implicit measures when you drag a column to the values area in a pivot table

• Not possible in BISM (No_ measure defined)• Like in SSAS OLAP – measures must be created explicitely• Eeasiest way: AutoSum in SQL Data Tools

HIDE COLUMNS FROM CLIENT TOOLS

•Make your model user friendly• Hide (surrogate) key columns• Hide columns used in formulas• Hide SalesAmount• Sum of Sales Amount visible

DAX DATA ANALYSIS EXPRESSION

• DAX = Data Analysis Expressions• Launched with PowerPivot• DAX goals• Make data analysis really easy• Used relationships defined in PowerPivot/BISM model (no need for

VLOOLUP)

• Excel like Syntax • Support for +/- 80 Excel function• 35 Built in Time Intelligence functions• + Additional functions

WHAT CAN WE DO WITH DAX

•Create caclulated columns•Create calculated measures•Define security in the model•Query the BI Semantic Model• out of scope of this presentation• Power View uses DAX as a query language

CALCULATED COLUMNS

• Just another column in a table• Similar to named calculations in SSAS OLAP Datasource

views• Calculated after data has been loaded (cube processing)• Can be placed in colums, rows, filters and slicers• Evaluated in row context• Examples

• [Amount] =[Qty] *[Price] • [Full Name] = [First Name] & “ “ & [Last Name]

CALUCATED MEASURES

•Created in the measure grid•Calculated “on the fly”•Can only be placed in values area of PivotTables•Evaluated in filter context• Rows/Columns/filters/Slicers

•Examples• [Sales] = SUM (Sales[Amount])• [Average Sale] = AVERAGEX ( Sales, Sales[Amount])

DATE CALCULATIONS

• TOTALYTD function• Calculated Year To Date Values• SalesAmtYTD:=TOTALYTD(SUM(AutoSales[SalesAmount]);Dates[Date]

)

WRONG RESULTS

CREATE A DATE DIMENSION

• Mark Time Dimension Table as Date• Use data column from Time dimension in Calculations • Sort Columns By key column• Create Hierarchies (in Diagram view)

CORRECT RESULTS

KPIS

DAX EDITOR

• Code highlighting• No intellisense• Free download at http://daxeditor.codeplex.com/

NO DETECTION OF MISSING RELATIONSHIPS

• PowerPivot detects missing relationships• No warning in SSAS Tabular• Create relationships manual

PERSPECTIVES

SECURITY

PARTITIONS

MANAGEBILITY OF YOUR BISM CUBES

• Via SSMS• Backup/Restore• Script• Deploy• Partition and security Managements

• SSIS• Analysis Services Processing Task

• AMO/ADOMD/PowerShell• Other tools• Deplyoment wizard, msbuild, source control, ..

CONCLUSIONS

• Tabular model vs traditional SSAS OLAP cubes• Easier learing curve• No MDX, but DAX• Not all SSAS OLAP features are available in BISM tabular

o SCOPE statementso Write Backo Native support for many to many dimensionso ...

• Personal BI -> Team BI – Corporate BI• PowerPivot for Excel PowerPivot for Sharepoint BISM• Watch Kasper’s session tonight on Power View

SOME RESOURCES

• Blogs• http://www.vandeputte.org (Frederik Vandeputte)• http://www.powerpivotblog.nl/ (Kasper De Jonge)• http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/ (Marco Russo)• http://sqlblog.com/blogs/alberto_ferrari/ (Alberto Ferrari)• http://cathydumas.com/ (Cathy Dumas new)• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cathyk/ (Cathy Dumas old)

• Sites• http://

social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/277.powerpivot-overview.aspx (PowerPivot Wiki)

• http://www.powerpivot-info.com/• www.sqlug.be• www.kohera.be

THANK YOU