Online Mode


As an administrator you need to ensure databases and their objects are kept up to date. Otherwise, your end users will query out of date information. After creating an OLAP database in SSMS you can use the role dialog to create roles and provide permissions to specific users to be database administrators. To reduce confusion, deployed Analysis Services projects should be named the same as the database created by the server administrator. Once the database is created then the server or the database administrator can perform administrative operations using SSMS such as adding new roles, assemblies or processing objects periodically. There might be certain design changes which you will have to make to the database based on additional requirements from the end users. In such a circumstance you would not be able to make the changes in the original project and deploy that project to the Analysis Services instance since the new objects added to the database will likely be deleted. Analysis Services 2005 provides you two ways to make additional changes. You can connect to the Analysis Services database on the server directly through BIDS and then make the changes in a mode called "online mode." The second option is to import the database on your Analysis Services instance using the Import Analysis Services 9.0 project (one of the Business Intelligence Project templates that can be used from BIDS), make changes to the database in project mode and then re-deploy the project to the Analysis Services instance. We recommend the former since you can not only make changes directly on the server which updates the objects immediately but also perform processing tasks on the objects through the online mode. Instead of designing your Analysis Services database in project mode and then deploying it to the Analysis Services instance you can design the entire database by connecting to the database in online mode. Follow the steps below to connect to an Analysis Services database in online mode using BIDS.

  1. Launch BIDS from Program Filesimage from bookMicrosoft SQL Server 2005image from bookSQL Server Business Intelligence Development Studio.

  2. To open an Analysis Services database in online mode select Fileimage from bookOpenimage from bookAnalysis Services Database as shown in Figure 12-28.

    image from book
    Figure 12-28

  3. In the Connect to Database dialog you have the option to open an existing database or create a new database on the Analysis Services instance. You would need to be a server administrator to create a database on the Analysis Services instance. Type the Analysis Services instance name and select a database to open in online mode as shown in Figure 12-29 and click Ok.

image from book
Figure 12-29

BIDS connects to the Analysis Services instance and retrieves all the database objects within BIDS. You will see all the objects of the database in the solution explorer similar to the project mode as shown in Figure 12-30. Notice that with the database connected in online mode the Analysis Services instance name is indicated next to the database name in the Solution Explorer. All the operations that you were able to perform on the objects within a database in the project mode can be performed in the online mode. You do not have the deployment option for the database. Instead you would need to save all your changes directly on the server. We recommend you to explore making changes or adding new objects in the online mode and then saving the changes directly on the Analysis Services instance.

image from book
Figure 12-30



Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX
Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX (Programmer to Programmer)
ISBN: 0764579185
EAN: 2147483647
Year: 2004
Pages: 176

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