Any good books? 2

[AlexCuse]

I have a couple of relatively small databases that I need to generate reports out of. Reports are currently being generated out of access and they look to be designed a long, long time ago. I have been pushing my boss to try and get reports generated out of SQL, mainly because the views involved in creating the reports are just too big for access and causing performance issues.

I had to go open my big mouth, and as a result I have been charged with researching what we need to do to make the switch our reporting to Analysis Services. I also need to decide if we would be better off just upgrading to SQL Server 2005. Any advice on this would be greatly appreciated, and I would also like to know any good books on Analysis Services that I could read. Thanks a lot,

Alex

 

[kdemulder]

I don't know if an upgrade is needed. With SQL2000 you also get Analysis services and, if you want to get further, reporting services. SQL2005 in my opinion is more of an improvement if you want to do serious ETL.

As for books, the usual will do (Wrox, Kimball,...). I got myself mainly SQL 2005 books, sorry =/
You would be surprised how good the online books are (included with SQL 2000)! Check them out!

 

[johnherman]

Why wouldn't you want to be on the 2005 version? You'll have to do it sooner or later anyway.

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The trouble with doing something right the first time is that nobody appreciates how difficult it was - Steven Wright

 

[AlexCuse]

Do I need to upgrade to Visual Studio 2005 in order to take advantage of the Analysis services add-on? I'm currently using Visual Studio 6.0. From this setup, let me know what you think I'd need to do to install and start using Analysis Services.

I feel like the reporting offered by analysis services may be overkill for this application, but I have heard great things about the new DTS Packages (Integration Services?). It also can never hurt to offer clients richer reports. Thanks for getting back to me

 

[kdemulder]

The analysis services is in the SQL2005 but if you want to develop dimensions and cubes, yes, you need VS2005 but there is a BI edition of that called "BI Development Studio" included in the package if I'm not mistaken.
Same thing for Integration Services and if you liked DTS you sure will LOVE Integration Services.

 

[MDXer]

If you use SQL2K AS then you just install it and Use the Analysis Services Manager. If you upgrade to SQL2k05 then you don't need to upgrade your visual studio but the install will install all of the Development an mnagement apps that use the .net Development Studio for the BI Developement Studio and SSIS Development studio.

Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[MDXer]

as for books Kimball's latest DW 2005 book is a good place to start. Any of the MS Press books would probably be useful as well.

Shoot Me! Shoot Me NOW!!!
- Daffy Duck

 

[AlexCuse]

Thanks for all the help guys. I guess for 2000 I would only need .net if I wanted to connect to cubes and do some more sophisticated reporting? That is kind of the impression I got from Microsoft's website. I will check out the Kimball books, one of my co-workers has one that may be helpful (Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit?). I also found one called SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step. I am in the process of getting approval from IT to download 120 day trials for Analysis Services and VS 2005 to a spare machine so we can start seeing what we can do.

Unfortunately I am kind of handcuffed as far as upgrading to 2k5 :-(

My company uses Advantage accounting software, and they won't switch to 2k5 until Advantage discontinues support for SQL 2k. Pretty weak, but I think getting analysis services going now, even if not in production, would really help me to not be so far behind the curve when we go to 2k5 as far as report design, etc... And I won't mention that we don't need VS 2005, because I am getting kind of fed up with hearing so many good things about .net and being stuck with 6.0;-)

Thanks for your help guys, and if you have any other tips for me I'm all ears! Wish me luck, and I'm sure you'll be seeing some questions from me as I get into it.