Microsoft Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2008 - (Microsoft, BI, SSRS, SSAS, SSIS, Data Warehouse, Mining)

Course Overview

Business Intelligence, also referred to as BI - is the collective term for technologies and software applications which are used to gather, provide access to, and analyse data and information about operations throughout the enterprise. Business Intelligence systems allow companies to understand factors affecting their business, such sales metrics, production, internal operations, which can help organisations make well-informed business decisions.

This course is the combination of our SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services (SSAS) training courses and has been written to cover all the main aspects of designing and building data warehouses and cubes using SQL Server 2008, Analysis Services and Integration Services, and how to make best use of the reporting functionality of Reporting Services.

Audience

Anyone interested in getting raw data to the end user as information that has integrity, is retrieved quickly and requires little or no programming. Developers and analysts who need to design and build reports. Administrators who wish to deploy and manage reports.

Skills Gained

1. A thorough understanding of the need for data warehouses and OLAP.
2. A practical understanding of how to build star schemas and cubes in Analysis Services.
3. Practical skills in the use of Integration Services to transform data into star schemas and cubes.
4. Use Reporting Services to display cubes.
5. Manually design reports in Reporting Services, and get the most out of the automated wizards.
6. Report against both relational and OLAP databases.
7. Deploy and administer reports
8. Set up report subscriptions and control report security.

Prerequisites

Delegates should have some basic knowledge of SQL language queries.

Course Outline

Introduction to SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services

• Architecture
• Reporting Services
• Report Server
• Report Server databases
• Report Designer
• Report Manager
• Report Models
• Report Builder
• Report Viewer

Designing a simple report

• Report wizards
• Report Designer
• Basic formatting
• Using templates
• Previewing
• Deploying

Working with data

• SQL queries
• Query Builder
• MDX queries
• DSV (data source views)
• Grouping

Advanced reports

• Formatting
• Using expressions
• Page breaks
• Matrices
• Headers
• Graphics

Interactive reports

• Parameters

Report Builder

• Tables and matrices
• Adding clickthrough
• Sorting and filtering

Administration

• Report Manager
• Configuration Manager

Management areas

• Managing Report Server
• Managing security
• Managing subscriptions
• Managing access
• Managing deployment

Introduction - SSAS

• Database Design
• Review of third normal form and traditional OLTP databases
• Introduction to designing OLAP star and snowflake schemas
• Introduction to designing cubes

Analysis Services (using Business Intelligence Development Studio - BIDS)

• Building fact tables
• Building dimensions
• Building cubes

Pivot Tables and Matrices

• Browsing cubes in BIDS and Management Studio (SSMS)
• Browsing cubes in Excel
• Browsing cubes in Web Pages
• Cubes in Reporting Services (SSRS)

Maintaining data warehouses

• Backup and restoring star schemas
• Backup and restoring of cubes
• Cube security
• Updating cubes

SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

• Using SSIS Wizards
• Using SSIS Designer
• Using SSIS to normalise data
• Using SSIS to denormalise data
• Using SSIS to process cubes
• Using SSIS as an ETL Tool
• DataFlow tasks

Analysis Services programming

• MDX queries and expressions
• DMX data mining queries
• ASSL and XMLA and AMO

Running and saving SSIS

• Scheduling SSIS packages
• Running from stored procedures
• Saving to SQL Server
• Saving to file

Advanced Analysis Services

• Data mining
• Deployment
• Perspectives
• Actions
• Write-back

Follow On Courses

• Microsoft Business Intelligence Training Course: SQL Server 2008 / 2008 Analysis and Integration Services (SSAS / SSIS)
• Advanced SQL Server Analysis Services Training Course
• SQL Server 2008 / 2008 Reporting Services Training Course
• Advanced Microsoft Business Intelligence with SSAS & PerformancePoint Server 2007 Training
• Microsoft Performance Point 2007 Training Course - Visualising Business Intelligence
• SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Training Course for existing SQL Server 2000 / SQL Server 2008 users
• SQL Server 2008 Applications Development training course
• SQL Server 2008 Database Administration Training Course
• SQL Server 2008 Comprehensive Upgrade Training Course for existing SQL Server 2000 / Oracle / MySQL users
• SQL Server 2000 Applications Development training
• SQL Server 2000 Database Administration
• SQL Server Performance Tuning
• SQL Server OLAP, DTS & Cubes Training
• SQL Design and Information Retrieval

Microsoft Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2008 - (Microsoft, BI, SSRS, SSAS, SSIS, Data Warehouse, Mining) / SQL0220