How can we find the distinct count of all the Hierarchy and attribute members from all the dimensions.?

Hello all,

Firstly ,Happy New Year 2012 🙂 to all .!!!

In order to start this year blogging, I would like to post another blog which might be helpful to the one who works in SSAS.

Last time, I was just trying for some trick or some queries in order to quick find the distinct count of all the Hierarchy and attribute members from all the dimensions .

For Example, If we have ‘ PaidDate ‘ dim having Hierarchy members as PaidYear ,PaidMonth, PaidDay then we need to calculate the Distinct count of all those members and similarly for all the others dimension .Then I simply used the

SQL query method as:

Select count(Distinct(PaidYear,PaidMonth,PaidDay)) from PaidDate and similar for others but all I want  is some Quick methods or some DMV queries to find out my solution.

After some research and through MDSN, I finally got my solution .It’s just a simple DMV query as

select * from SYSTEMRESTRICTSCHEMA($SYSTEM.DISCOVER_DIMENSION_STAT,DIMENSION_NAME='Dimension', DATABASE_NAME = 'Database')

--Dimension -replace with the Dimension you want to find Distinct count and Database -replace with your DB catalog.

In the returned tabular result, the ATTRIBUTE_COUNT column is to describe the count that I was looking for.

Is there any alternative solution for this kind of issue .Hope someone have some idea regarding on this.

Hope this post will be useful for all of us in the field of BI mainly SSAS.

Regards,

Anil Maharjan

How Can I know who has changed anything in SQL?

Hello all,

After such a long time , I would like to post some another blog which might be helpful to the one who works in SQL.

I need to find the one who has changed the tables within my SQL Database that I have created.

For certain reason ,we may need to find /to know who has done any changes within SQL. Such as add view, delete table, modify table, create database, add column, stopped SQL agent job, create new job, modify rules, add roles, new login, and etc.

In order to trace this information and find out my solution, I have researched somewhat and find the solution as.

we can enable and disable the default trace in SQL Server. Meanwhile we can use the default trace enabled option to enable or disable the default trace log files.

If we want to capture the information about who changed the objects in SQL Server. Please try to run the script, which works for me as below:

DECLARE @filename VARCHAR(255) 
SELECT @FileName = SUBSTRING(path, 0, LEN(path)-CHARINDEX('', REVERSE(path))+1) + 'Log.trc'  
FROM sys.traces   
WHERE is_default = 1;  

--Check who dropped and created objects, altered objects
SELECT gt.HostName, 
       gt.ApplicationName, 
       gt.NTUserName, 
       gt.NTDomainName, 
       gt.LoginName, 
       gt.SPID, 
       gt.EventClass, 
       gt.IntegerData, 
       te.Name AS EventName,
       gt.EventSubClass,      
       gt.TEXTData, 
       gt.StartTime, 
       gt.EndTime, 
       gt.ObjectName, 
       gt.DatabaseName, 
       gt.FileName, 
	gt.IsSystem
FROM [fn_trace_gettable](@filename, DEFAULT) gt 
JOIN sys.trace_events te ON gt.EventClass = te.trace_event_id 
where gt.ObjectName ='DimTable' and gt.DatabaseName ='Database'
ORDER BY StartTime;
 --DimTable -replace with the trace table and Database -replace with your DB

I am able to find the one who have changed my tables that I have created.

Also we should have to know that, SQL Server only shows you the IP address of the Terminal Server machine. It has no knowledge about how the user connected to that server. You would have to find the RDP logs and enter them into the database somehow to correlate the information. Which still can be inconclusive if there are more than one user connected through RDP at the same time.

Reference from the link:

http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/performance/the-default-trace-in-sql-server—the-power-of-performance-and-security-auditing/

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlsecurity/thread/ef5f82e3-71a6-4e65-989f-5ab7b84bbc82

Is there any alternative solution for this kind of issue .Hope someone have some idea regarding on this.

Hope this post will be useful for all of us in the field of BI mainly SQL.

Regards,

Anil Maharjan

Cross joins across user defined hierarchies aren’t supported .?

Hello all,

It’s not appropriate to post as this a blog but it might help to most of us in field of BI having similar kind of confusion /issue.

I have some confusion on crossjoin function within MDx.

while I try to crossjoin the different level sets of same Hierarchy. It shows error as

For example.

‘The Customer Geography hierarchy is used more than once in the Crossjoin function.’

select {{[Customer].[Customer Geography].[Country].&[United States]}*

{[Customer].[Customer Geography].[State-Province].members}} on 0

FROM [Adventure Works]

WHERE Measures.[Internet Sales Amount]

Cannot we Cross joins across user defined hierarchies ,or they aren’t supported .?

Coz I really need to implement as above MDx within my real Cube.

I try to implement by making as another Hierarchy Member but it doesn’t gives the value result as what we want/need.

with member [Customer].[Country].[United States ]as [Customer].[Customer Geography].[Country].&[United States]

select {

{[Customer].[Country].[United States ]}*

{[Customer].[Customer Geography].[State-Province].members}} on 0

FROM [Adventure Works]

WHERE Measures.[Internet Sales Amount]

Though while looking on Adventure Works Cube ,it has attribute as Country, State-Province, and others along with the User define Hierarchy as Customer Geography with in a Customer Dim.

So while we crossjoin in the members of attribute of same Customer  dimension it gives result

SELECT

{      {[Customer].[Country].[United States]}*

[Customer].[State-Province].Members

} ON 0

FROM [Adventure Works]

WHERE Measures.[Internet Sales Amount]

But similarly, while we try to crossjoin with in the attribute members of user define Hierarchy from  Customer Geography it gives error.

Does that mean we need to create some dummy/hidden attributes for that particular dimension in other to obtain the solution for my case. ?-may be this is the solution

Does this mean we cannot crossjoin across user defined hierarchies?

It is just an example ,I simply need like this within from same user defined Hierarchy. By defining as user define calculated member of different attribute/dimension I am able to obtain the output as below but the values doesn’t valid or match.

with member [Customer].[Country].[United States ]as [Customer].[Customer Geography].[Country].&[United States]

member [Customer].[State-Province].[Alabama ]as [Customer].[Customer Geography].[State-Province].&[AL]&[US]

select

{Measures.[Internet Sales Amount]} on 0,

{{[Customer].[Country].[United States ]}*

{[Customer].[State-Province].[Alabama ]}*

{[Customer].[Customer Geography].[Postal Code].members}} on 1

FROM [Adventure Works]

Country State-Province Postal Code(Can be Top 10 members) Internet Sales Amount Other Measures
United States Alabama

2015

$9,389,789.51

111

2450

$9,389,789.51

222

2010

$9,389,789.51

333

Is there any alternative solution for this kind of issue .Hope someone have some idea regarding on this.

I also posted on MSDN as link

http://social.msdn.microsoft.com/Forums/en-US/sqlanalysisservices/thread/f03cd36e-8a4f-4ae7-a4b4-fb6f499dc9b9

Thanks,

Anil Maharjan

Generate possible combination of MDx automatically by just pointing the SSAS cube Catalog.

Hello all,
After such a long time , I would like to post some another blog which might be helpful to the one who works in BI mainly in SSAS/MDx.
I simply need to generate some possible combination of MDx automatically by just pointing the SSAS cube Catalog.
In order to got my solution I had research a lot and also post the request in MSDN as well as BIDN forum and got some help through my MSDN post by Hari .
For getting the solution ,we simply need to create the SSIS package as below.
Following are the steps below.
1. Build new SSIS package and in data flow task.
2. Add script component with Source setting as the first task.
3. Paste the code shown in the code shown below. This code takes as input the SSAS server and Database name. This is iterate through the dimensions and base measures. For each base measure it identifies all the corresponding dimension. For each dimension it will identify the attribute which is mapped to the measure group and attribute directly relating to it. Output of this task is dimension, cube, attribute, basemeasure.
Note: Add the reference ‘ Microsoft.AnalysisServices.dll ’ in your code which can be found in the server where you have SSAS installed .i.e. C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL Server90SDKAssemblies
String strCube, strDimension, strAttribute, strMeasure, strDatabase;
Server s;
CubeCollection cc;
MeasureGroupCollection mgc;
MeasureGroupDimensionCollection mgdc;
MeasureGroupAttributeCollection mgac;
RegularMeasureGroupDimension rmgd;
ReferenceMeasureGroupDimension rfmgd;
MeasureCollection mc;
strDatabase = “Adventure Works DW 2008”;//add catalog here
s = new Server();
s.Connect(“ANILMAHARJAN”);//add server here
cc = s.Databases[strDatabase].Cubes;
foreach (Cube c in cc)
{
strCube = c.Name;
mgc = c.MeasureGroups;
foreach (MeasureGroup mg in mgc)
{
mgdc = mg.Dimensions;
mc = mg.Measures;
foreach (MeasureGroupDimension mgd in mgdc)
{
strDimension = mgd.CubeDimension.Name;
if (mgd.GetType().Name == “RegularMeasureGroupDimension”)
{
rmgd = (RegularMeasureGroupDimension)mgd;
mgac = rmgd.Attributes;
}
else if (mgd.GetType().Name == “ReferenceMeasureGroupDimension”)
{
rfmgd = (ReferenceMeasureGroupDimension)mgd;
mgac = rfmgd.Attributes;
}
else
break;

foreach (MeasureGroupAttribute mga in mgac)
{
if (mga.Type.ToString() == “Granularity”)
{
strAttribute = mga.Attribute.Name;
foreach (Measure m in mc)
{
strMeasure = m.Name;
AttributeRelationshipCollection arc;
arc = mga.Attribute.AttributeRelationships;
int iFlag = 1;
GetRelatedAttribute(iFlag, strDatabase, strCube, strMeasure, strDimension, mga.Attribute);
}
break;
}
}
}
}
}
}
public void GetRelatedAttribute(int iFlag, String strDatabase, String strCube, String strMeasure, String strDimension, DimensionAttribute att)
{
String strAttribute;
AttributeRelationshipCollection arc;
arc = att.AttributeRelationships;
strAttribute = att.Name;
CubeMetadataBuffer.AddRow();
CubeMetadataBuffer.Database = strDatabase;
CubeMetadataBuffer.Cube = strCube;
CubeMetadataBuffer.Dimension = strDimension;
CubeMetadataBuffer.Attribute = strAttribute;
CubeMetadataBuffer.Measure = strMeasure;
iFlag = 0;

if (arc == null)
{
return;
}
else
{
foreach (AttributeRelationship ar in arc)
{
GetRelatedAttribute(iFlag, strDatabase, strCube, strMeasure, strDimension, ar.Attribute);

}
}

}
}
4.Add second script component with Transformation setting with coding as
String strCube, strMeasure, strDimension, strAttribute, strMDXQuery;
strCube = “[“+Row.Cube+”]”;
strDimension = “[“+Row.Dimension+”]”;
strAttribute = “[“+Row.Attribute+”]”;
strMeasure = “[Measures].”+”[“+Row.Measure+”]”;
strMDXQuery = “select nonempty(” + strDimension + “.” + strAttribute + “.” + strAttribute + “.members,” + strMeasure + “) on rows, {” + strMeasure + “} on columns from ” + strCube + “;” + “rn”; Row.MDXQuery = strMDXQuery;

5.Store those outputs within the table or any file for further propose and also we can add user calculated sets and Members within the MDXQuery. which can be very helpful for other purpose i.e. to capture performance statistics.
Snapshot of SSIS Package

Some output sample MDx Queries
select nonempty([Promotion].[Promotion].[Promotion].members,[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]) on rows, {[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]} on columns from [Adventure Works];
select nonempty([Promotion].[Min Quantity].[Min Quantity].members,[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]) on rows, {[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]} on columns from [Adventure Works];
select nonempty([Promotion].[End Date].[End Date].members,[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]) on rows, {[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]} on columns from [Adventure Works];
select nonempty([Promotion].[Start Date].[Start Date].members,[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]) on rows, {[Measures].[Internet Sales Amount]} on columns from [Adventure Works];
Hope this post will be useful for all of us in the field of BI.
Regards,
Anil Maharjan

How to find a Calculated Measure and Calculated Dimension with in particular cube.?

Hello all,

After such a long time , I would like to post some simple tips for calculating the Calculated Measure and Calculated Dimension within a particular cube in SSAS.

Though it might simple but this help me a lot.

I simply need to list down the calculated measures within a particular cube for which I have to open the BIDS project and lookup how many calculated Measure that I had made and their names which seems little odd. So ,after some research and trying out DMV queries I finally got a simple way .

DMV:

Dynamic Management Views is introduced in Analysis Services 2008 and is used to track the server resources used .It can be queried like SQL –Like syntax. We can run DMV query in SQL server Management Studio in an MDX Query.

For Calculated Measure and Calclated Dimension Member and other entire details of Cube Catalog from SSAS.

SELECT * FROM $system.MDSCHEMA_MEMBERS

WHERE [MEMBER_TYPE] = 4

Refer some other DMV queries from the link

http://dwbi1.wordpress.com/2010/01/01/ssas-dmv-dynamic-management-view/

http://www.bidn.com/blogs/Anil/ssas/2101/how-to-find-a-calculated-measure-and-calculated-dimension-within-a-particular-cube

Thanks,

Anil Maharjan

Load 1TB data in just 30 Minutes with SSIS

Today , I came to read some nice blog post by Microsoft regarding the data loading process.

If your company needs to load the maximum data then I think this post would be really helpful.
If you want to load 1TB data in just 30 Minutes with SSIS then.. Plz read this post by Microsoft.
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd537533(v=SQL.100).aspx

since, the article was posted long time ago but might be helpful for the one who is just looking for this kind of approach.
Though ,I could not tried it out but sooner or later I would definitely like to test this process too.

Thanks,
Anil Maharjan

Backup all SSAS databases automatically and schedually.

With the course of time, you might need to backup all the SSAS databases within a server instance automatically and schedule to backup these database monthly wise or according to your specific time set.

May be there are a lot of alternative methods to perform this task and many solution’s.

But I have researched a lot regarding to backup all the SSAS databases within a particular server instance.

In my last blog post I have shared “How to schedule and dynamically backup all the SQL databases within a server instance”.
Here ,I am going to show how to obtain all the cube databases backup automatically along with schedule time set.

These are the following steps you should have to follow.
1. Adding a linked server in SSMS.
You can simply add a linked server within a SSMS by using a script as
–Adding a linked server
EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedserver
@server = N’SSAS_Backup’
, @srvproduct=N’MSOLAP’
, @provider=N’MSOLAP’
, @datasrc=N’ANILMAHARJAN’ /* <<< My Analysis Services server name */
/* <<< My Analysis Services database name */
go

–Setup security as per your environment requirements.
EXEC master.dbo.sp_addlinkedsrvlogin
@rmtsrvname=N’SSAS_Backup’
, @useself=N’False’
, @locallogin=NULL
, @rmtuser=NULL
, @rmtpassword=NULL
go

2. Make a SSIS package.
You can simply create the SSIS Package as shown in below

2.1. Create the table in SSMS of the output of all the catalog name within a server given by frying the query into the DMV in SSAS from SSMS.
You can use the following script in order to find all the current catalogs name within a server.
IF EXISTS(SELECT * FROM INFORMATION_SCHEMA.TABLES WHERE TABLE_NAME = ‘CubeBackupInfo’) DROP TABLE [CubeBackupInfo]
SELECT * into CubeBackupInfo FROM OPENQUERY(SSAS_Backup,’select * from $system.dbschema_catalogs’)

2.2. Read the total no of database backup to be made by reading the max count of catalog name from the table just we created above.

2.3. Read the backup XMLA within a variable into SSIS from a particular location.i.e backup XMLA that generated manually and we can also generate it by using a some C# or vb.net code embedded within SSIS.
Here is an XMLA script for backup
2.4. Now, within a for loop, set the max loop to the variable as @Max_No_Backup i.e max no of backup to be made.

2.5. Here read the catalog name of database with in a server one by one by using a table that we created before from CubeBackupInfo.
2.6 Modify the XMLA script using ‘Script Task’ within where I have used C# code in order to modify the XMLA and generate the modified XMLA for each catalog name one by one.

2.7. Backup all the cube database with in a server into a default location of SSAS backup.
-stores acc to the ‘catalog name’ along with the ‘system date’ in order to know the particular backup date. as i.e. TestCube-03-11-2011.abf
-also catalog name can overwrite it if it exist already.
i.e. : C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSAS10.MSSQLSERVEROLAPBackup

3.Make a SQL Server Job agent.
3.1. You can easily make a job in SQL by following this link http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Stairway+Series/72267/
and Running and Scheduling SSIS Packages by following the link as http://www.sqlshare.com/running-and-scheduling-ssis-packages_53.aspx
4.Make schedule to backup all the catalogs/ database within a particular server. i.e. monthly or weekly according to your specific time set.

Hope this will help for someone , also I am thinking to post another blog about ‘Dynamic partition within a cube’ using a similar approach where I have researched a lot in this topic too.

Thanks,
Anil Maharjan

OLAP PivotTable Extensions

Wow, I am so excited that there is such a cool extension available for the excel 2007 onwards ,firstly I don’t know that we can use this cool features add-in extension within an excel .I have often used the PivotTable but I never try it for this particular extension and its features.

I had bookmark for this particular page link a few months ago while I was doing my intern program but suddenly I check it back again now and I found why should not I had look the page clear fully before and why I had not use it or try it out before asking myself. 

But , nice to know that it has some great features like :
1. Private Calculated Members,
2. Calculations Library,
3. View PivotTable MDX,
4. Changing PivotTable Defaults,
5. Searching,
6. Distributing PivotTables

Among these I found the most useful and cool features is viewing entire MDx script and searching features.

Also as we know there are a lot of different tools/software’s that provides these facilities but one simple thing is that we can easily download this extension and it is free too.
You can visit the links as
http://olappivottableextend.codeplex.com/
http://www.ssas-info.com/analysis-services-tools/298-olap-pivottable-extensions-

Thanks,
Anil Maharjan

How to schedule and automate backups of all SQL Server databases in SQL Server.

Hello all,

With the course of time, you might need to backup all the databases within a server instance automatically and schedule to backup these database monthly wise or according to your specific time set.

Also, what I want to say is that ,I cannot stop myself to write this another blog of mine.

writing a blog and sharing some knowledge through the blog makes us really feels happy and also somewhat we also become addicted to it. 🙂

This may be simply for one but for someone it will be helpful for those who don’t know how to do it.

May be there are a lot of alternative methods to perform this task and many solution’s.

But I have researched a lot regarding to backup all the SQL database as well the SSAS catalogs database backup with in a particular server instance.

Here ,I am going to show how to obtain the SQL database backup automatically along with schedule time set.
Firstly, I have created a SSIS package where I used simply “Back up Database Task “ from toolbox and click right then clicking in edit tab, we can set the connection as show in figure1 below:

Then we can set the Backup Type as full or other type after that you can select the databases to backup as show in figure2 below where we can set required databases to backup.

After that you can set the other different properties like
1.Backup set Expire
2.Bakup to
3.Append or overwrite if backup exist
4.for everyday backup options
5.Backup location directory currently I set to default location.
6.allow compression or not.
You can figure out by looking the figure3 below.

Now all you need to create a job agent to schedule the backup task and run SSIS package. In order to do this you can check out the link by Brian Knight as
http://www.sqlshare.com/running-and-scheduling-ssis-packages_53.aspx

or simply go to SSMS and start Sql Server Agent and right click and create new job where you have to setup some properties as shown in figure4.

Here you can schedule the backup going into the schedule tab and then just check the job working or not by right clicking it and Start job at step then you can check the all the backup database within the default location as : C:Program FilesMicrosoft SQL ServerMSSQL10.MSSQLSERVERMSSQLBackup

Hope you get some ideas to obtain the schedule Sql databases backup automatically ,also I am thinking to post into my another blog for “ Automate and schedule all SSAS catalogs database backup with in a server instance by using Job Agent” or similar approach which have taken most of my research time and I am happy to obtain the result successfully.

Lastly,this may be simple but I think it may work out for someone .

Thanks,
Anil Maharjan