Legacy DSO Applications

If you have experience with DSO (object model used for managing Analysis Services 2000), we expect you will find AMO straightforward. The good news is that if you have imported your Analysis Services 2000 database to Analysis Services 2005, you can still make those client apps written for Analysis Services 2000 work. This is accomplished using the version of DSO shipped with Analysis Services 2000 Service Pack 4 along with some additions. We refer to the DSO installed with SQL Server 2005 as DSO8.5. If you have an existing DSO application you will be able to use that application to manage the upgraded or migrated database as long as there has been no changes to the migrated database using SQL Server 2005 tools. The overall architecture showing how an existing DSO application can communicate with Analysis Services 2005 is shown in Figure 12-32.

Figure 12-32

When an existing DSO-based application attempts to connect to Analysis Services 2005; DSO8.5 is used to make the connection. DSO 8.5 first tries to connect to Analysis Services 8.0 (Analysis Services 2000), followed by Analysis Services 7.0. When connections to both Analysis Services 8.0 and 7.0 fail DSO 8.5 connects to Analysis Services 2005 through AMO. Repository connection string information and the locks directory are garnered and stored as properties in the Analysis Services configuration file when Analysis Services 2000 is upgraded to Analysis Services 2005. AMO returns the repository connection string and lock directory properties to DSO 8.5. Changes to the Analysis Services database initiated by the DSO application such as modifications to dimensions, cubes or mining models, are only reflected in the repository. When the client application issues a process command; then DSO8.5 retrieves the metadata for the database, uses the migration DLL to migrate to Analysis Services 2005 objects and then, using AMO, sends the entire database to be updated to Analysis Services 2005. Any information that is updated on the database in the meantime using SQL Server 2005 tools would be lost. After the migration or upgrade from Analysis Services 2000 to Analysis Services 2005 if you make any changes to the imported database, which uses features specific to Analysis Services 2005 we recommend you not continue on with your legacy DSO application. We encourage you to re-write your management application using AMO unless it is cost prohibitive to do so.