Best Learning Resources For SSAS 2005

[nomom0n3y]

i've been working through some books on ssas 2005 but they're not very good.

if you have any suggestions on books or websites that are helpful i'd really appreciate any input you have.

the book i'm currently using is Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 but i'm not finding it very helpful.

 

[Skittle]

I agree I'm finding good sources a bit hard to find.
I'm trying to get through the book 'SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services Step By Step' but I'm finding it heavy going.




Dazed and confused

 

[MDXer]

The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit published by Wiley, and the SSAS book published by Wrox are very good resources, and anything by Kimball. As for online courses or anything like that I doubt you will find much. The key is to learn the methodologies, techniques and mdx once you have these down pat the rest is just learning the tool set.

Don't believe you are going to sit down and produce a cube capable of complex analytics in a week, you probably won't even do it in a month. The reality is that creating a useable BI solution is a time consuming process, which is typically hard for mgmt to accept. My Last company believed we should turn out a data mart from idea to useable product in 6-10 weeks, this was with out business requirements and included Design, Devlop, Document, Test.

Some tips are:
1) Build a solid sensible star schema.
2) Build natural heirarchies that make sense.
3) Limit the use of attribute hierarchis.
4) Limit the number of Calculated Measures (Calculated Members on the measures dim)
5) Start Small
6) Start with basic dimension usage avoid the reference, and many to many to you are more confident
7) Oh yeah Start Small.
8) Build, Test, Modify
9) Start Small
10) Start Small.



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

 

[Skittle]

Excellent. Thanks. As luck would have it I ordered the
'Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit' yesterday.


Dazed and confused

 

[Skittle]

...also for a complete introduction and an understanding of the arcitechture of OLAP with SQL Server 2005 I really like this link:-

http://www.devx.com/dbzone/Article/21410

Dazed and confused