Those who are following me on Twitter and Facebook know that recently I am reinforcing my own concept for SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). Like many of us, I worked with Analysis Services in early years. In an earlier job, I got many projects for relational database performance tuning and over time, I lost touch with SSAS. This does not mean that I forgot all of the concepts, but the ‘real’ hands-on experience was gathering dust. Looking back at the last five years, I realized that I have deep experience with relational performance tuning, but there are a few new things which I have yet to explore and learn.
My Learning
One weekend I decided to learn SQL Server Analysis Services. I woke up early in the morning at 6 AM and by 7 AM I was sitting with coffee at my dual screen computer monitor. I had a free subscription to Pluralsight so on one screen I turned on their Analysis Services Fundamentals course. This course is well organized and I attended first six modules by 1 PM. After having a quick lunch with my family, I reviewed all the tasks and lessons given in the course. As it was the weekend and I had properly digested all the concepts, I decided to continue the remaining four modules the next day. The next day, the same routine: I followed and finished all the remaining modules along with the exercises. At the end of six hours of video learning and practicing for more than 8 hours, I felt very comfortable with the subject. I re-discovered my knowledge of SSAS which I used to practice a few years ago, before I opted for performance tuning.
Course Details
You can read the official details of the course here yourself. Here is my view of this course. This course is very well structured. I have found many books and attended SSAS training where the training starts with Bottom Up Designing methodology. I have never had any course where the instructor started from Top Down Designing methodology. This course really got my attention as it covers the all the core concepts in a very reasonable time with crisp and clear instructions. After that it jumps to very easy to understand and follow-along demos where one can practice their skills. I am personally a big fan of the AdventureWorks database as that makes our life much easier and everybody has access to that database for free. Thanks to the instructor, Stacia, for using the same database for every single demonstration and exercise.
I have seen many demonstrations where someone takes an already-built cube and imports that into the system and starts explaining various concepts of the cube. I personally do the same when I have to demonstrate some cool new feature of the SSAS in a one hour presentation. However for in-depth learning, the whole game is different and I prefer to learn from the beginning. I prefer to learn how dimensions are built, how measures are categorized and how cubes are built from nothing. One always learns properly when the lesson is explained in structured manner. In this course Stacia has done the same thing – starting from no elements on screen and very quickly building all the modules from scratch. A perfect experience for beginners and experts.
Course Content
This course covers various topics and you can read all the documentations on the official course page. However, as an outline, here are the module names. I am also attaching the image which demonstrates that I have attended every single module of the course. If you stop the course any place during the lesson, when you come back to the course content page tracks your progress; this is very convenient.
- Introduction to Analysis Services
- Dimensional Model Development
- Dimension Development I
- Dimension Development 2
- Cube Development I
- Cube Development 2
- Calculations 1
- Calculations 2
- Database Processing
- Security
Future Expectations
The title of the course says this is an Introduction to Analysis Services. However, I thought this was quite a comprehensive course. I am assuming that there will be another version of this course. Stacia also hinted couple of times during the course, what will be in the advanced course. Well, what I expect in the advanced course is that the quality and presentation stay the same.
Reference: Pinal Dave (https://blog.sqlauthority.com)
147 Comments. Leave new
Hi Pinal. I need your honest opinion. I don’t have any programming or database background but would like to switch my career to IT. Do you honestly think doing this course (or any other courses) or self-learning would enable me to work in an organization? I am not sure if this is something that can be learnt in a resonable time (say 1-2 months) and I should consider the offer. Kvai
Good article and nice way to earn moeny through cross referencing the website “Pluralsight ” :)
Hi Pinal,
I’ve been following your blog for some time now and respect your opinion when it comes to SQL server! I need to learn SSAS so have signed up to Pluralsight’s free trial and if it proves to be beneficial, I’ll carry it on.
Keep up the good work :)
All the best
Clegg
Pinal – as always this is a great post. Thanks for this and all your help
Hi Pinal
I am a .Net Developer with a decent knowledge of database. By decent, I mean I can manage creating procedures, functions, triggers (or for that matter anything required to accomplish functional requirements of the application on which i am working. Occasionally I have even designed databases, although for relatively smaller applications. However, my current work requires me to learn SSAS, design cubes and use them to generate reports in SSRS. I have gone through a numbers of tutorials and articles and gathered bits and pieces of information and somehow can manage generating cubes as well as use them in my reports.
However, now I am at a point where I am stuck up with redesigning my OLTP database, I need to convert it to an OLAP database which I am confused with so as how to do it. Also I am not able to decide the measures and dimensions for my project which would help me with faster processing of the data. Please help.
I have to work on ssas now acc to my new business…so wanna learn
I would like to learn SSAS from basic.
i would like to take SSAS training. Please share me the details for processing.
i am from hyderabad, INDIA, pls mail me the details.
I would like to have the subscription :(
i would like to take SSAS training. Please share me the details for processing.
i am from Mumbai, INDIA, pls mail me the details.
Hi Pinal, I want to learn SSAS as I have worked with SSIS and SSRS. Pl share me the training details of SSAS
Hi My name is prasanga I really need a help hope you can help me. My quarry is Need a help in this requirement. He is planning to outsource this project build from the scratch later. This an affiliate marketing network project they need a white label solution. System is highly complex build up over the years.
SSAS uses for reporting modules in report engine(custom report engine written by them in c#).
1. Company running SSAS cubes (MSSLQ server 2008) having complex data base structure.
2. Cubes published long time ago and data filled over the years.
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3. Requirement is to include newly added fields in the tables in the necessary cubes and publish to the SSAS.
4. Important! will this affect to loose data analyzed old published cubes due to the updates under same cube names?
5. If so what is the work around of publishing it not affecting data analyzed in the cubes.
need advice on these please.
how to run these vidoes .? it need to pay for that i can not pay becasue i belong to lower middle class family. plese help me.
with regards
rohit
[email removed]
basically i want to in BI(ssis+ssas+ssrs)
please send me the vidoes so that i can gain more knowledge
with regards
rohit
[email removed]
basically i want to make carrier in BI(ssis+ssas+ssrs)
please send me the vidoes so that i can gain more knowledge
with regards
rohit
rohitsethi123. waiting for your reply gmail
[email removed]
Hi …….i really want to learn SSAS so kindly provide me with the subscription.
sir
how do i get these vidoes please guide me
Hi
how do i get these vidoes
Sir
Can u say which are the types of DBAs,?
Hi My name is rohit I really need a help hope you can help me. My quarry is Need a help in this requirement. He is planning to outsource this project build from the scratch later. This an affiliate marketing network project they need a white label solution. System is highly complex build up over the years.
SSAS uses for reporting modules in report engine(custom report engine written by them in c#).
1. Company running SSAS cubes (MSSLQ server 2008) having complex data base structure.
2. Cubes published long time ago and data filled over the years.
so please give the vidoes