Resources for 6234 – SQL Server Analysis Services 2008

Here are some additional resources as discussed in this week’s class here at Ameriteach:

Classes:

• Taking the Mystery out of MDX  August 26-27 at Ameriteach
• MDX for Analysis and Reporting Services June 21-23 at Ameriteach

Books:

• Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services (Publisher link for ebook) (Amazon link)
• Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server 2005 and the Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset (Kimball Group) (Amazon link) (source code files)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 MDX Step by Step (Amazon link)
• Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Step by Step (Amazon link)
• MDX Solutions: With Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 and Hyperion Essbase (Amazon Link)
• SQL Server MVP Deep Dives – written by a posse of MVPs, proceeds go to charity

White Papers:

• Analysis Services 2008 Performance Guide

Sites/Blogs: (These represent just a portion of the great resources out there)

• Microsoft SQL Server Customer Advisory Team
• Kimball Group
• http://www.ssas-info.com/
• Teo Lachev's blog
• Chris Webb’s blog
• Brian Knight’s blog (lots of great info on other SQL BI tools as well as SSAS)
• Stacia Misner’s blog
• Richard Lees’s blog (some very cool live online demos)
• Darren Gosbell’s blog
• Todd McDermid’s blog
• Nick Barclay's blog
• Alberto Ferrari’s blog
• Yaniv Mor’s blog

Tools:

• BIDS Helper
• MDX Studio
• Excel Data Mining Plug-in (for SQL Server and Excel 2007)
• Adventureworks Sample Databases
• Adventureworks Sample SSAS project
• Contoso Retail Sample DW and SSAS Project (larger data volumes)
• Project REAL
• SSRS Reports to document SSAS 2008 DB structure using DMVs 

Online Virtual Labs

• Labs at MSDN – most of the BI content is for 2005, but much still applies to SSAS 2008
• Labs at TechNet – same comment applies as above

Miscellaneous:

• Clearing the cache for performance monitoring