Category: Reporting

BI, Reporting, SSAS6 Comments

Adventure Works SQL DW on Pentaho OLAP, part 1

mssqldude

Let’s say you have SQL Server databases for your data marts and warehouses in your organization, but you are looking for alternatives to SSAS cubes and SharePoint-based dashboards. If you are like me and have built many BI solutions in SSAS OLAP and PPS, then you’ll find a transition to OSS with Pentaho to be very easy and a natural fit for those BI scenarios. We’re going to take this SQL Server 2012 DW and SSAS cube and recreate it all in Pentaho: I’m going to kick this series off with a very simple BI dashboard using the traditional SQL … Continue reading Adventure Works SQL DW on Pentaho OLAP, part 1

2012, BI, Dashboards, Data Visualization, Reporting, sql mag, SSAS, SSRS1 Comment

What Does the New SQL 2012 BI Environment Look Like?

mssqldude

This is sort of a continuation of my recent tool by tool exploration of the SQL Server BI ecosystem in SQL Server 2012 that I’ve been writing about for SQL Server Pro Magazine here and here. For years, I’ve carried around with me many different high-level data flow diagrams of what and end-to-end BI solution using the Microsoft stack would look like. Come to think of it, I was able to use essentially the same diagram in SQL Server 2005 and SQL Server 2008. Some of the rendering tools changed like Proclarity, PerformancePoint and SharePoint added more BI features. But … Continue reading What Does the New SQL 2012 BI Environment Look Like?

Administration, Azure, BI, Cloud BI, Dashboards, Data Visualization, Mobile, Reporting, VisualizationLeave a comment

New MSSQLDUDE Videos: SQL Inventory with MAPS and WP7 Cloud BI

mssqldude

If you would like a short 10-minute intro on how to get started using the Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit (MAPS) to inventory, discovery and record your SQL Server footprint, versions, utilization, users, licenses, etc., then you can have a look at the video that I just posted on our Microsoft YouTube channel for SQL Server data warehouse & BI group here in the East Coast U.S. field organization: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VdHs8Ee1iZI. BTW, the MAPS tool is a FREE download from Microsoft.com, see it here. This is version 6.5 of this tool and if you have any version prior to it, I … Continue reading New MSSQLDUDE Videos: SQL Inventory with MAPS and WP7 Cloud BI

Oracle, Reporting, SSRS4 Comments

SSRS Against an Oracle Data Source

mssqldude

My continuing coverage of integrating Oracle and SQL Server … Today’s post is a bit of a cheat: I’m just going to point you back to a blog post that I did when I was with Oracle where I showed you how to leverage SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) against an Oracle data warehouse that was loaded from the Oracle Primavera enterprise project portfolio management product (EPPM): http://blogs.oracle.com/EPPM/2010/05/new_p6_reporting_database_r2.html. The reason that I felt compelled to post that example when I was with Oracle is that I would constantly run into customers who were using 1 of 2 products for ad-hoc … Continue reading SSRS Against an Oracle Data Source

Performance, ReportingLeave a comment

SQL Server Reporting Services Performance

mssqldude

I just returned from having several in-person discussions this week with customers, DBAs and developers who were looking for guidance, best practices and whitepapers on scaling SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) 2205 & SSRS 2008. I compiled what I feel are the best publicly available postings from Microsoft’s internal SQL CAT & product teams for each of these areas below … enjoy! Best, Mark Scale-out for both SSRS 2005 & SSRS 2008. You will find a link in there to report catalog (metadata) DB best practices as well as suggestions for load balancing. When you read this article on lessons … Continue reading SQL Server Reporting Services Performance

BI, ReportingLeave a comment

Microsoft BI with Oracle Applications

mssqldude

Is it necessary to always think in terms of Microsoft v. Oracle from a DBA or developer’s perspective? Or can these 2 technologies co-exist and flourish together when you are faced with such a heterogenous environment? Of course, they can exist side-by-side and I have experienced many environments like this and have written a few pieces about some of these mixes. An example would be a Microsoft .NET or Microsoft BI developer writing solutions and reports against an Oracle application. I have some examples such as on my Oracle blog here which I authored when I was an Oracle product manager, where … Continue reading Microsoft BI with Oracle Applications

ReportingLeave a comment

World Map CodePlex Project for Reporting Services

mssqldude

Really cool project on Codeplex to make available maps from across the globe, beyond the out-of-the-box maps that you see in Report Builder today: http://mapgallery.codeplex.com/  This is a copy & paste right from the Codeplex project site: MapGallery of Reporting Services in SQL Server 2008 R2 World map separeted by countries, able to join Map Gallery in Reporting Services inside SQL Server 2008 R2. Join us, and make your country in this world map. Everyone can upload your own country map By default, only USA maps came with Reporting Services. This proposal is make a world map to use for … Continue reading World Map CodePlex Project for Reporting Services

BI, ReportingLeave a comment

How EZ are Bing Maps in SSRS 2008 R2?

mssqldude

IMHO, ridiculously easy using Report Builder 3.0. I put this together in 10 minutes by using this Microsoft tutorial that shows you how to take geospatial data, link it to analytical data and display it on a map, overlay Bing Maps and visualize data points for awesome BI dashboards. What you will notice right away from my screenshot below is that I am not a graphic artist! But this is an awesome point in a visualization project to get to quickly and then modify the details as you need for your project. Keep in mind, though, if you walk through that … Continue reading How EZ are Bing Maps in SSRS 2008 R2?