Installing Analysis Services 2012 in multidimensional mode

Now the time has come to really get started with the development, and in order to do this you first need to install Analysis Services. In order to do this, you need to ensure that you have a server that meets the prerequisites. As you can see in the following table, they are pretty modest when it comes to hardware. However, these are the minimum recommendations for production solutions. You need to ensure that you have a server that is powerful enough to meet the demands of your users.

Tip

Many hardware providers have sizing guides that can help you to choose a server that can work for your production databases. You can find one here from the hardware vendor, HP, as shown in the following link : http://h71019.www7.hp.com/ActiveAnswers/us/en/sizers/microsoft-sql-bi.html.

In my case, I am running my development machine as a virtual machine in Windows Azure with 7 GB of RAM and four virtual cores. This allows me to develop and process the cubes without having to wait for an extended amount of time.

When you first start the installation of SQL Server 2012, you have to choose the features that you would like to include in our installation. The installation screen allows you to install all features with its default values, or customize the different services. In this case you want to have control, so choose the option to select the different features by yourself.

Tip

To be able to follow the steps in this book, you need access to an SQL Server 2012 machine with either the Business Intelligence, Enterprise, or Developer Editions. If you do not have these versions, you can download the free Evaluation edition of SQL Server 2012 that will work for 180 days from the following link: http://www.microsoft.com/betaexperience/pd/SQL2012EvalCTA/enus/default.aspx.

Hands-on steps for installing Analysis Services

In order for you to follow the tutorial parts of this book ensure that you install SQL Server using the following steps:

  1. Double-click on the setup file.
  2. In the first screen, click on the Installation section on the right.
  3. Click on the New SQL Server stand-alone installation or add features to an existing installation.
  4. Choose the SQL Server Feature Installation.
  5. Check the checkboxes for the following features:
    1. Database Engine Services
    2. Analysis Services
    3. Reporting Services – Native
    4. SQL Server Data Tools
    5. Client Tools Connectivity
    6. Integration Services
    7. Client Tools Backwards Compatibility
    8. Client Tools SDK
    9. Documentation Components
    10. Management Tools Complete
    11. SQL Client Connectivity SDK
  6. Use the default configuration for the Database Engine Services as well as the Reporting Services – Native feature.
  7. In the Analysis Services Configuration page, specify to install a Tabular Mode database. This will be used in Chapter 9, In-memory, the Future, of this book.
  8. Then, immediately install a second instance of SQL Server. This time only choose to add the Analysis Services part of the product. Name the instance MULTIDIMENSIONAL. In the Analysis Services Configuration screen, this time, make sure that you install it using the Multidimensional and Data Mining Mode as shown in the following figure.

Now you should have one instance of the Database Engine, one instance of Reporting Services, two instances of Analysis Services, one default instance running in the tabular mode, and one named instance called multidimensional running in multidimensional mode.

During the course of this book you will use the sample databases for SQL Server to learn how to work with Analysis Services. You can find the sample database in the following link: http://msftdbprodsamples.codeplex.com/releases/view/55330.

Download the AdventureWorksDW2012 Data File package and install it using the steps explained in the next section.

Hands-on steps for attaching the sample database

  1. Download, and in case of a default database instance, save the database (.mdf) file to C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA.
  2. From Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio, connect to the SQL Server instance.
  3. Right-click on Databases.
  4. Click on Attach.
  5. Click on the Add button.
  6. Locate the AdventureWorksDW2012_Data.mdf file in C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\MSSQL11.MSSQLSERVER\MSSQL\DATA.
  7. Click on the OK button on the Locate Database Files dialog window.
    Tip

    Since the download package only contains the .mdf file, we need to remove the reference to the log file. Follow the next step to remove it.

  8. On the database details, click on the AdventureWorksDW2012_log.ldf file, and choose to remove it; a new file will be created when the database is attached.
  9. Click on the OK button on the Attach Databases dialog window to attach the database.
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