July 16, 2010 at 12:09 am
HI All,
I have begun with basic data warehousing concepts now. I need to learn SSAS. Could anyone tell me how to start with it?
I dont know anything abt it . so if you can suggest some online books or pdfs it would be great.
Something which teaches me the basics of SSAS and help me in building a sample SSAS project would be great.
Thanks in adv.
Malavika.
July 16, 2010 at 12:54 am
Hi Malavika,
Concrete your fundamentals for Dimensional modelling even before you begin with any OLAP tool.
Raunak J
July 19, 2010 at 1:37 pm
malavika.ramanathan (7/16/2010)
HI All,I have begun with basic data warehousing concepts now. I need to learn SSAS. Could anyone tell me how to start with it?
I dont know anything abt it . so if you can suggest some online books or pdfs it would be great.
Something which teaches me the basics of SSAS and help me in building a sample SSAS project would be great.
Thanks in adv.
Malavika.
Hi Malavika,
I've been a DBA for almost 10 years now and software developer for longer than that, and for me the OLAP and DW concepts have been the most confusing to learn... but they're also very logical once you get a grasp of them.
First suggestion is to grab these books:
- The Data Warehouse Toolkit by Ralph Kimball
- The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit by Mundy, Thornthwaite, and Kimball
... basically anything by Ralph Kimball is great, he pretty much wrote the book on modern OLAP systems.
The first book gives a great overview of the theories behind a DW without being too database specific, but the second book carries these theories into a Microsoft SQL database. Also Ralph Kimball's website - http://www.ralphkimball.com/ - has TONS of great info plus a fairly active message forum. I also agree with Raunak that you need to get a decent grasp of the concepts before jumping into any type of modeling.
It's also very common for computer science majors to do their thesis on setting-up a data warehouse or some aspect of DW, and I've honestly found these to be a great resource. Often you can find papers on writing a DW in the field you're in. Here are a few examples:
- Thesis: Clinical Data Warehouse - http://www.meduniwien.ac.at/imc/mias/studarbeiten/2002-DA-Puhr.pdf
- Optimization Strategies for Data Warehouse Maintenance in Distributed Environments - http://www.wpi.edu/Pubs/ETD/Available/etd-0430102-133814/unrestricted/bliu.pdf
- Role of Metadata in the Datawarehousing Environment - http://epubl.luth.se/1653-0187/2006/24/LTU-PB-EX-0624-SE.pdf
- Asset management data warehouse data modeling - http://eprints.qut.edu.au/19310/1/Avin_Mathew_Thesis.pdf
And if you really have some cash to drop, the AppDev program on SSAS 2008 is great. Here's a link: http://www.appdev.com/prodfamily.asp?catalog_name=AppDevCatalog&category_name=SA8Product&cookie_test=1 . It uses the Adventure Works database and she'll show you step by step how to setup everything. We have a subscription to AppDev through my work, and I'm only about 1/5th through the lesson, but thus far it's awesome.
But in the end after learning all the concepts you'll still need to come-up with something that works for your business needs since every OLAP system is different. I also suggest before you start working on it, talk to the people around your office and see what their needs are.
Hope this helps --
Sam
July 19, 2010 at 10:35 pm
Hi Sam,
Thanks a lot for your reply.
This is very informative. This i am not doing as my academic proj. i needed it for my office work. but however it helped me a lot as it is very informative.
I will definitely try to get these books and read them.
Thanks again!
Regards,
Malavika.
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