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  • Building a Data Mart with Pentaho Data Integration Video Review by Diethard Steiner, Packt Publishing

    - by Compudicted
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Compudicted/archive/2014/06/01/building-a-data-mart-with-pentaho-data-integration-video-review.aspx The Building a Data Mart with Pentaho Data Integration Video by Diethard Steiner from Packt Publishing is more than just a course on how to use Pentaho Data Integration, it also implements and uses the principals of the Data Warehousing (and I even heard the name of Ralph Kimball in the video). Indeed, a video watcher should be familiar with its concepts as the Star Schema, Slowly Changing Dimension types, etc. so I suggest prior to watching this course to consider skimming through the Data Warehouse concepts (if unfamiliar) or even better, read the excellent Ralph’s The Data Warehouse Tooolkit. By the way, the author expands beyond using Pentaho along to MySQL and MonetDB which is a real icing on the cake! Indeed, I even suggest the name of the course should be ‘Building a Data Warehouse with Pentaho’. To successfully complete the course one needs to know some Linux (Ubuntu used in the course), the VI editor and the Bash command shell, but it seems that similar requirements would also apply to the Weindows OS. Additionally, knowing some basic SQL would not hurt. As I had said, MonetDB is used in this course several times which seems to be not anymore complex than say MySQL, but based on what I read is very well suited for fast querying big volumes of data thanks to having a columnstore (vertical data storage). I don’t see what else can be a barrier, the material is very digestible. On this note, I must add that the author does not cover how to acquire the software, so here is what I found may help: Pentaho: the free Community Edition must be more than anyone needs to learn it. Or even go into a POC. MonetDB can be downloaded (exists for both, Linux and Windows) from http://goo.gl/FYxMy0 (just see the appropriate link on the left). The author seems to be using Eclipse to run SQL code, one can get it from http://goo.gl/5CcuN. To create, or edit database entities and/or schema otherwise one can use a universal tool called SQuirreL, get it from http://squirrel-sql.sourceforge.net.   Next, I must confess Diethard is very knowledgeable in what he does and beyond. However, there will be some accent heard to the user of the course especially if one’s mother tongue language is English, but it I got over it in a few chapters. I liked the rate at which the material is being presented, it makes me feel I paid for every second Eventually, my impressions are: Pentaho is an awesome ETL offering, it is worth learning it very much (I am an ETL fan and a heavy user of SSIS) MonetDB is nice, it tickles my fancy to know it more Data Warehousing, despite all the BigData tool offerings (Hive, Scoop, Pig on Hadoop), using the traditional tools still rocks Chapters 2 to 6 were the most fun to me with chapter 8 being the most difficult.   In terms of closing, I highly recommend this video to anyone who needs to grasp Pentaho concepts quick, likewise, the course is very well suited for any developer on a “supposed to be done yesterday” type of a project. It is for a beginner to intermediate level ETL/DW developer. But one would need to learn more on Data Warehousing and Pentaho, for such I recommend the 5 star Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook. Enjoy it! Disclaimer: I received this video from the publisher for the purpose of a public review.

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  • Building a Data Mart with Pentaho Data Integration Video Review by Diethard Steiner, Packt Publishing

    - by Compudicted
    Originally posted on: http://geekswithblogs.net/Compudicted/archive/2014/06/01/building-a-data-mart-with-pentaho-data-integration-video-review-again.aspx The Building a Data Mart with Pentaho Data Integration Video by Diethard Steiner from Packt Publishing is more than just a course on how to use Pentaho Data Integration, it also implements and uses the principals of the Data Warehousing (and I even heard the name of Ralph Kimball in the video). Indeed, a video watcher should be familiar with its concepts as the Star Schema, Slowly Changing Dimension types, etc. so I suggest prior to watching this course to consider skimming through the Data Warehouse concepts (if unfamiliar) or even better, read the excellent Ralph’s The Data Warehouse Tooolkit. By the way, the author expands beyond using Pentaho along to MySQL and MonetDB which is a real icing on the cake! Indeed, I even suggest the name of the course should be ‘Building a Data Warehouse with Pentaho’. To successfully complete the course one needs to know some Linux (Ubuntu used in the course), the VI editor and the Bash command shell, but it seems that similar requirements would also apply to the Windows OS. Additionally, knowing some basic SQL would not hurt. As I had said, MonetDB is used in this course several times which seems to be not anymore complex than say MySQL, but based on what I read is very well suited for fast querying big volumes of data thanks to having a columnstore (vertical data storage). I don’t see what else can be a barrier, the material is very digestible. On this note, I must add that the author does not cover how to acquire the software, so here is what I found may help: Pentaho: the free Community Edition must be more than anyone needs to learn it. Or even go into a POC. MonetDB can be downloaded (exists for both, Linux and Windows) from http://goo.gl/FYxMy0 (just see the appropriate link on the left). The author seems to be using Eclipse to run SQL code, one can get it from http://goo.gl/5CcuN. To create, or edit database entities and/or schema otherwise one can use a universal tool called SQuirreL, get it from http://squirrel-sql.sourceforge.net.   Next, I must confess Diethard is very knowledgeable in what he does and beyond. However, there will be some accent heard to the user of the course especially if one’s mother tongue language is English, but it I got over it in a few chapters. I liked the rate at which the material is being presented, it makes me feel I paid for every second Eventually, my impressions are: Pentaho is an awesome ETL offering, it is worth learning it very much (I am an ETL fan and a heavy user of SSIS) MonetDB is nice, it tickles my fancy to know it more Data Warehousing, despite all the BigData tool offerings (Hive, Scoop, Pig on Hadoop), using the traditional tools still rocks Chapters 2 to 6 were the most fun to me with chapter 8 being the most difficult.   In terms of closing, I highly recommend this video to anyone who needs to grasp Pentaho concepts quick, likewise, the course is very well suited for any developer on a “supposed to be done yesterday” type of a project. It is for a beginner to intermediate level ETL/DW developer. But one would need to learn more on Data Warehousing and Pentaho, for such I recommend the 5 star Pentaho Data Integration 4 Cookbook. Enjoy it! Disclaimer: I received this video from the publisher for the purpose of a public review.

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  • 12 és fél éve történt: Data Mart Suite és Discoverer/2000

    - by Fekete Zoltán
    Néhány hónapon belül az Oracle Hungary Kft. új irodaházba költözik. Érdemes tehát "inkrementálisan" selejtezni, ahogyan egy jó adattárházba is lépésenként kerülnek be az adatok, és témakörönként kisebb kilométerkövek mentén no a lefedett területek garmadája. :) Az imént akadt a kezembe egy jelentkezési lap az Oracle döntéstámogatás (DSS) témakörbol 1997-bol: Új döntésté(!)mogató eszközök a fejlesztok kezében, Oracle Partneri konferencia, 1997. november 7. :) Oldtimer... És mindez véletlenöl pontosan a NOSZF dátumára idozítve. Együtt ünnepelt a világ! Emlékszik még valaki, mi is a NOSZF feloldása? :) Azóta az Oracle Warehouse Builder és az Oracle Business Intelligence Enterprise Edition és a BI Standard Edition One lettek a zászlóshajók az ETL-ELT és az elemzés-kimutatáskészítés területen.

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  • Building dynamic OLAP data marts on-the-fly

    - by DrJohn
    At the forthcoming SQLBits conference, I will be presenting a session on how to dynamically build an OLAP data mart on-the-fly. This blog entry is intended to clarify exactly what I mean by an OLAP data mart, why you may need to build them on-the-fly and finally outline the steps needed to build them dynamically. In subsequent blog entries, I will present exactly how to implement some of the techniques involved. What is an OLAP data mart? In data warehousing parlance, a data mart is a subset of the overall corporate data provided to business users to meet specific business needs. Of course, the term does not specify the technology involved, so I coined the term "OLAP data mart" to identify a subset of data which is delivered in the form of an OLAP cube which may be accompanied by the relational database upon which it was built. To clarify, the relational database is specifically create and loaded with the subset of data and then the OLAP cube is built and processed to make the data available to the end-users via standard OLAP client tools. Why build OLAP data marts? Market research companies sell data to their clients to make money. To gain competitive advantage, market research providers like to "add value" to their data by providing systems that enhance analytics, thereby allowing clients to make best use of the data. As such, OLAP cubes have become a standard way of delivering added value to clients. They can be built on-the-fly to hold specific data sets and meet particular needs and then hosted on a secure intranet site for remote access, or shipped to clients' own infrastructure for hosting. Even better, they support a wide range of different tools for analytical purposes, including the ever popular Microsoft Excel. Extension Attributes: The Challenge One of the key challenges in building multiple OLAP data marts based on the same 'template' is handling extension attributes. These are attributes that meet the client's specific reporting needs, but do not form part of the standard template. Now clearly, these extension attributes have to come into the system via additional files and ultimately be added to relational tables so they can end up in the OLAP cube. However, processing these files and filling dynamically altered tables with SSIS is a challenge as SSIS packages tend to break as soon as the database schema changes. There are two approaches to this: (1) dynamically build an SSIS package in memory to match the new database schema using C#, or (2) have the extension attributes provided as name/value pairs so the file's schema does not change and can easily be loaded using SSIS. The problem with the first approach is the complexity of writing an awful lot of complex C# code. The problem of the second approach is that name/value pairs are useless to an OLAP cube; so they have to be pivoted back into a proper relational table somewhere in the data load process WITHOUT breaking SSIS. How this can be done will be part of future blog entry. What is involved in building an OLAP data mart? There are a great many steps involved in building OLAP data marts on-the-fly. The key point is that all the steps must be automated to allow for the production of multiple OLAP data marts per day (i.e. many thousands, each with its own specific data set and attributes). Now most of these steps have a great deal in common with standard data warehouse practices. The key difference is that the databases are all built to order. The only permanent database is the metadata database (shown in orange) which holds all the metadata needed to build everything else (i.e. client orders, configuration information, connection strings, client specific requirements and attributes etc.). The staging database (shown in red) has a short life: it is built, populated and then ripped down as soon as the OLAP Data Mart has been populated. In the diagram below, the OLAP data mart comprises the two blue components: the Data Mart which is a relational database and the OLAP Cube which is an OLAP database implemented using Microsoft Analysis Services (SSAS). The client may receive just the OLAP cube or both components together depending on their reporting requirements.  So, in broad terms the steps required to fulfil a client order are as follows: Step 1: Prepare metadata Create a set of database names unique to the client's order Modify all package connection strings to be used by SSIS to point to new databases and file locations. Step 2: Create relational databases Create the staging and data mart relational databases using dynamic SQL and set the database recovery mode to SIMPLE as we do not need the overhead of logging anything Execute SQL scripts to build all database objects (tables, views, functions and stored procedures) in the two databases Step 3: Load staging database Use SSIS to load all data files into the staging database in a parallel operation Load extension files containing name/value pairs. These will provide client-specific attributes in the OLAP cube. Step 4: Load data mart relational database Load the data from staging into the data mart relational database, again in parallel where possible Allocate surrogate keys and use SSIS to perform surrogate key lookup during the load of fact tables Step 5: Load extension tables & attributes Pivot the extension attributes from their native name/value pairs into proper relational tables Add the extension attributes to the views used by OLAP cube Step 6: Deploy & Process OLAP cube Deploy the OLAP database directly to the server using a C# script task in SSIS Modify the connection string used by the OLAP cube to point to the data mart relational database Modify the cube structure to add the extension attributes to both the data source view and the relevant dimensions Remove any standard attributes that not required Process the OLAP cube Step 7: Backup and drop databases Drop staging database as it is no longer required Backup data mart relational and OLAP database and ship these to the client's infrastructure Drop data mart relational and OLAP database from the build server Mark order complete Start processing the next order, ad infinitum. So my future blog posts and my forthcoming session at the SQLBits conference will all focus on some of the more interesting aspects of building OLAP data marts on-the-fly such as handling the load of extension attributes and how to dynamically alter the structure of an OLAP cube using C#.

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  • How to generate a monotone MART ROC in R?

    - by user1521587
    I am using R and applying MART (Alg. for multiple additive regression trees) on a training set to build prediction models. When I look at the ROC curve, it is not monotone. I would be grateful if someone can help me with how I should fix this. I am guessing the issue is that initially, MART generates n trees and if these trees are not the same for all the models I am building, the results will not be comparable. Here are the steps I take: 1) Fix the false-negative cost, c_fn. Let cost = c(0, 1, c_fn, 0). 2) use the following line to build the mart model: mart(x, y, lx, martmode='class', niter=2000, cost.mtx=cost) where x is the matrix of training set variables, y is the observation matrix, lx is the matrix which specifies which of the variables in x is numerical, which one categorical. 3) I predict the test set observations using the mart model found in step 2 using this line: y_pred = martpred(x_test, probs=T) 4) I compute the false-positive and false-negative errors as follows: t = 1/(1+c_fn) %threshold based on Bayes optimal rule where c_fp=1 and c_fn. p_0 = length(which(y_test==1))/dim(y_test)[1] p_01 = sum(1*(y_pred[,2]t & y_test==0))/dim(y_test)[1] p_11 = sum(1*(y_pred[,2]t & y_test==1))/dim(y_test)[1] p_fp = p_01/(1-p_0) p_tp = p_11/p_0 5) repeat step 1-4 for a new false-negative cost.

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  • How do you verify the correct data is in a data mart?

    - by blockcipher
    I'm working on a data warehouse and I'm trying to figure out how to best verify that data from our data cleansing (normalized) database makes it into our data marts correctly. I've done some searches, but the results so far talk more about ensuring things like constraints are in place and that you need to do data validation during the ETL process (E.g. dates are valid, etc.). The dimensions were pretty easy as I could easily either leverage the primary key or write a very simple and verifiable query to get the data. The fact tables are more complex. Any thoughts? We're trying to make this very easy for a subject matter export to run a couple queries, see some data from both the data cleansing database and the data marts, and visually compare the two to ensure they are correct.

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  • Forbes Announcing The World’s Top 20 Billionaires

    - by Suganya
    Forbes company recently conducted a survey to figure out the world’s Billionaires list and has released it listing the top 20 names of the Billionaires. The company says that for the third time in the last three years the world has a new richest man for this year. So it means that Bill Gates was beaten up by someone else in world. Who is the new richest man in the world?   Forbes.Com announced the richest man in world and this time it is not Bill Gates. But it is Carlos Slim Helu who is into Telecom industry. Carlos lives in Mexico and he had the third richest man’s place last year. Having shown a Net worth of $ 53.5 Billion, Carlos has increased $18.5 Billion in a year. Carlos swooped on the privatization of Mexico’s national telephone service during the last decade and now has achieved the world’s first richest man. Following Carlos, in the second position is Bill Gates with the Nett worth of $53 Billion. As Bill Gates requires no great introduction, lets move on to the next place. The third place is occupied by Warren Buffett followed by Mukesh Ambani and Lakshmi Mittal in fourth and fifth places respectively. The top 20 names of world’s richest people, their occupation and the Nett worth that they hold are S.No Name Nett Worth (in $ Billion) Source of Income 1 Carlos Slim Helu 53.5 Telecom 2 Bill Gates 53 Microsoft 3 Warren Buffett 47 Investments 4 Mukesh Ambani 29 Petrochemical, Oil and Gas 5 Lakshmi Mittal 28.7 Steel 6 Lawrence Ellison 28 Oracle 7 Bernard Arnault 27.5 Luxury Goods 8 Eike Batista 27 Mining, Oil 9 Amancio Ortega 25 Fashion, Retail 10 Karl Albrecht 23.5 Supermarkets 11 Ingvar Kamprad and Family 23 IKEA 12 Christy Walton and Family 22.5 Wal-Mart 13 Stefan Persson 22.4 H & M 14 Li Ka-shing 21 Diversified 15 Jim C. Walton 20.7 Wal-Mart 16 Alice Walton 20.6 Wal-Mart 17 Liliane Bettencourt 20 L’Oreal 18 S. Robson Walton 19.8 Wal-Mart 19 Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Alsaud 19.4 Diversified 20 David Thomson and Family 19 Thomson Reuters   Source: Forbes and Image Credit : kevindooley Join us on Facebook to read all our stories right inside your Facebook news feed.

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  • What's New in OIC Analytics 11g?

    - by LuciaC
    Oracle Incentive Compensation (OIC) Analytics for Oracle Data Integrator (ODI) breaks down traditional front and back office silos bringing together sales performance data with those responsible for the sale and selling costs. It is a framework for Sales Performance Management  based on a data mart of key performance metrics regardless of whether or not these metrics are incentivized.Commissionable metrics are brought into OIC for commission calculation and brought back to enrich the performance data mart.  Executives and Product Marketing/Product Line Managers are provided with actionable sales performance analytics.  Incentivized salesreps and partners are provided with commission dashboards on a frequent basis to inform them how they are doing and how far they are from their goals.OIC Analytics is now certified with 11g and has additional features.  Oracle continues to invest in OIC Analytics but the baseline for the investments will be the 11gR1 certification version of OIC Analytics.  Read about what's new and the certification details in Doc ID 1590729.1.

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  • How do you handle reboots?

    - by Mart
    We have one VPS (Windows 2008 R2+IIS7.5), with an asp.net mvc 3 application. The main question is: how to handle issues when Windows needs to reboot? (after installing Windows Updates or anything else). The goal is to make the website 24/7, but first it's ok to show a message to the users. (we'll be back soon, something like app_offline.htm) Our application uses SQL and also writes/reads some files (uploaded photos, documents) which are not stored in SQL. What do you recommend? Load balancing with ARR? (with 1+2 servers, but what if the front-end server needs reboot?) Windows failover cluster? SQL failover cluster? What to do with uploaded files? I really don't know what would be the best (and simplest) solution.

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  • WMI query to check setting "Reversible Encryption" in Windows XP

    - by Mart
    In Windows XP, there are two settings in Group Policy I'm looking at: Password must meet complexity requirements Store password using reversible encryption Both of these settings are under Local Computer Policy/Computer Config/Windows Settings/Security Settings/Account Policies/Password Policy. For the first one, I have found the setting in RSOP_SecurityEventLogSettingBoolean class in WMI. However, I can't find the latter. Does anybody know in which class in WMI can I read that particular setting?

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  • Renaming Files & Folders in Windows 7

    - by Mart
    This has been happening to me for some time now. I'm currently running Windows 7 RTM. When I try to rename a new folder that is created (by copying usually), I usually get a "Folder is in use" error. I would have to wait a while before I would be able to modify the folder name. Files behave the same way too. I am thinking that this is because I am sharing the folder, or library, via Homegroup Sharing. Is anyone who is running Windows 7 RTM experience this as well? EDIT 1: I'm using Windows 7 Ultimate.

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  • Pie chart of *nix shell use [closed]

    - by hayk.mart
    I've encountered a situation where it would be very helpful to know the breakdown of shell use by percentage. For example, I'm looking for something like bash: X%, sh: Y%, csh, tcsh, zsh, ksh, dash, etc.. Obviously, I know there are several complications - multiple shells, the definition of "use", uncertainty and so forth, but I would like to see an informed answer derived from actual data and based on some stated metric, even if the result could be horribly wrong. Bonus if there is historical data demonstrating a shift in preferences.

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  • What is the correct way to implement a massive hierarchical, geographical search for news?

    - by Philip Brocoum
    The company I work for is in the business of sending press releases. We want to make it possible for interested parties to search for press releases based on a number of criteria, the most important being location. For example, someone might search for all news sent to New York City, Massachusetts, or ZIP code 89134, sent from a governmental institution, under the topic of "traffic". Or whatever. The problem is, we've sent, literally, hundreds of thousands of press releases. Searching is slow and complex. For example, a press release sent to Queens, NY should show up in the search I mentioned above even though it wasn't specifically sent to New York City, because Queens is a subset of New York City. We may also want to implement "and" and "or" and negation and text search to the query to create complex searches. These searches also have to be fast enough to function as dynamic RSS feeds. I really don't know anything about search theory, or how it's properly done. The way we are getting by right now is using a data mart to store the locations the releases were sent to in a single table. However, because of the subset thing mentioned above, the data mart is gigantic with millions of rows. And we haven't even implemented cities yet, and there are about 50,000 cities in the United States, which will exponentially increase the size of the data mart by so much I'm afraid it just won't work anymore. Anyway, I realize this is not a simple question and there won't be a "do this" answer. However, I'm hoping one of you can point me in the right direction where I can learn about how massive searches are done? Because I really know nothing about it. And such a search engine is turning out to be incredibly difficult to make. Thanks! I know there must be a way because if Google can search the entire internet we must be able to search our own database :-)

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  • Leveraging Logical Standby Databases in Oracle 11g Data Guard

    Oracle Data Guard still offers support for the venerable logical standby database in Oracle Database 11g. This article, investigates how data warehouse and data mart environments can effectively leverage logical standby database features, but simultaneously provide a final destination when failover from a primary database is mandated during disaster recovery.

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  • SSIS: Deploying OLAP cubes using C# script tasks and AMO

    - by DrJohn
    As part of the continuing series on Building dynamic OLAP data marts on-the-fly, this blog entry will focus on how to automate the deployment of OLAP cubes using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and Analysis Services Management Objects (AMO). OLAP cube deployment is usually done using the Analysis Services Deployment Wizard. However, this option was dismissed for a variety of reasons. Firstly, invoking external processes from SSIS is fraught with problems as (a) it is not always possible to ensure SSIS waits for the external program to terminate; (b) we cannot log the outcome properly and (c) it is not always possible to control the server's configuration to ensure the executable works correctly. Another reason for rejecting the Deployment Wizard is that it requires the 'answers' to be written into four XML files. These XML files record the three things we need to change: the name of the server, the name of the OLAP database and the connection string to the data mart. Although it would be reasonably straight forward to change the content of the XML files programmatically, this adds another set of complication and level of obscurity to the overall process. When I first investigated the possibility of using C# to deploy a cube, I was surprised to find that there are no other blog entries about the topic. I can only assume everyone else is happy with the Deployment Wizard! SSIS "forgets" assembly references If you build your script task from scratch, you will have to remember how to overcome one of the major annoyances of working with SSIS script tasks: the forgetful nature of SSIS when it comes to assembly references. Basically, you can go through the process of adding an assembly reference using the Add Reference dialog, but when you close the script window, SSIS "forgets" the assembly reference so the script will not compile. After repeating the operation several times, you will find that SSIS only remembers the assembly reference when you specifically press the Save All icon in the script window. This problem is not unique to the AMO assembly and has certainly been a "feature" since SQL Server 2005, so I am not amazed it is still present in SQL Server 2008 R2! Sample Package So let's take a look at the sample SSIS package I have provided which can be downloaded from here: DeployOlapCubeExample.zip  Below is a screenshot after a successful run. Connection Managers The package has three connection managers: AsDatabaseDefinitionFile is a file connection manager pointing to the .asdatabase file you wish to deploy. Note that this can be found in the bin directory of you OLAP database project once you have clicked the "Build" button in Visual Studio TargetOlapServerCS is an Analysis Services connection manager which identifies both the deployment server and the target database name. SourceDataMart is an OLEDB connection manager pointing to the data mart which is to act as the source of data for your cube. This will be used to replace the connection string found in your .asdatabase file Once you have configured the connection managers, the sample should run and deploy your OLAP database in a few seconds. Of course, in a production environment, these connection managers would be associated with package configurations or set at runtime. When you run the sample, you should see that the script logs its activity to the output screen (see screenshot above). If you configure logging for the package, then these messages will also appear in your SSIS logging. Sample Code Walkthrough Next let's walk through the code. The first step is to parse the connection string provided by the TargetOlapServerCS connection manager and obtain the name of both the target OLAP server and also the name of the OLAP database. Note that the target database does not have to exist to be referenced in an AS connection manager, so I am using this as a convenient way to define both properties. We now connect to the server and check for the existence of the OLAP database. If it exists, we drop the database so we can re-deploy. svr.Connect(olapServerName); if (svr.Connected) { // Drop the OLAP database if it already exists Database db = svr.Databases.FindByName(olapDatabaseName); if (db != null) { db.Drop(); } // rest of script } Next we start building the XMLA command that will actually perform the deployment. Basically this is a small chuck of XML which we need to wrap around the large .asdatabase file generated by the Visual Studio build process. // Start generating the main part of the XMLA command XmlDocument xmlaCommand = new XmlDocument(); xmlaCommand.LoadXml(string.Format("<Batch Transaction='false' xmlns='http://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine'><Alter AllowCreate='true' ObjectExpansion='ExpandFull'><Object><DatabaseID>{0}</DatabaseID></Object><ObjectDefinition/></Alter></Batch>", olapDatabaseName));  Next we need to merge two XML files which we can do by simply using setting the InnerXml property of the ObjectDefinition node as follows: // load OLAP Database definition from .asdatabase file identified by connection manager XmlDocument olapCubeDef = new XmlDocument(); olapCubeDef.Load(Dts.Connections["AsDatabaseDefinitionFile"].ConnectionString); // merge the two XML files by obtain a reference to the ObjectDefinition node oaRootNode.InnerXml = olapCubeDef.InnerXml;   One hurdle I had to overcome was removing detritus from the .asdabase file left by the Visual Studio build. Through an iterative process, I found I needed to remove several nodes as they caused the deployment to fail. The XMLA error message read "Cannot set read-only node: CreatedTimestamp" or similar. In comparing the XMLA generated with by the Deployment Wizard with that generated by my code, these read-only nodes were missing, so clearly I just needed to strip them out. This was easily achieved using XPath to find the relevant XML nodes, of which I show one example below: foreach (XmlNode node in rootNode.SelectNodes("//ns1:CreatedTimestamp", nsManager)) { node.ParentNode.RemoveChild(node); } Now we need to change the database name in both the ID and Name nodes using code such as: XmlNode databaseID = xmlaCommand.SelectSingleNode("//ns1:Database/ns1:ID", nsManager); if (databaseID != null) databaseID.InnerText = olapDatabaseName; Finally we need to change the connection string to point at the relevant data mart. Again this is easily achieved using XPath to search for the relevant nodes and then replace the content of the node with the new name or connection string. XmlNode connectionStringNode = xmlaCommand.SelectSingleNode("//ns1:DataSources/ns1:DataSource/ns1:ConnectionString", nsManager); if (connectionStringNode != null) { connectionStringNode.InnerText = Dts.Connections["SourceDataMart"].ConnectionString; } Finally we need to perform the deployment using the Execute XMLA command and check the returned XmlaResultCollection for errors before setting the Dts.TaskResult. XmlaResultCollection oResults = svr.Execute(xmlaCommand.InnerXml);  // check for errors during deployment foreach (Microsoft.AnalysisServices.XmlaResult oResult in oResults) { foreach (Microsoft.AnalysisServices.XmlaMessage oMessage in oResult.Messages) { if ((oMessage.GetType().Name == "XmlaError")) { FireError(oMessage.Description); HadError = true; } } } If you are not familiar with XML programming, all this may all seem a bit daunting, but perceiver as the sample code is pretty short. If you would like the script to process the OLAP database, simply uncomment the lines in the vicinity of Process method. Of course, you can extend the script to perform your own custom processing and to even synchronize the database to a front-end server. Personally, I like to keep the deployment and processing separate as the code can become overly complex for support staff.If you want to know more, come see my session at the forthcoming SQLBits conference.

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  • Microsoft 2010 Product Tour

    - by dmccollough
    Randy Walker, Co-Founder of the Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group and Microsoft MVP has arranged for a couple of Microsoft experts, Sarika Calla Team Lead on the IDE Team and Kevin Halverson to give presentations on newly released Visual Studio 2010.   June 1 – Bentonville, Arkansas Wal-Mart .Net User Group June 1 – Rogers, Arkansas Northwest Arkansas SQL Server User Group (lunch meeting) June 1 – Springdale, Arkansas Tyson devLoop June 1 – Fayetteville, Arkansas Northwest Arkansas .Net User Group June 2 – Fort Smith, Arkansas Datatronics June 2 – Little Rock, Arkansas Little Rock .Net User Group June 3 – Fort Worth, Texas Fort Worth .Net User Group   Please contact Randy Walker with questions at [email protected].

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  • My Right-to-Left Foot (T-SQL Tuesday #13)

    - by smisner
    As a business intelligence consultant, I often encounter the situation described in this month's T-SQL Tuesday, hosted by Steve Jones ( Blog | Twitter) – “What the Business Says Is Not What the  Business Wants.” Steve posed the question, “What issues have you had in interacting with the business to get your job done?” My profession requires me to have one foot firmly planted in the technology world and the other foot planted in the business world. I learned long ago that the business never says exactly what the business wants because the business doesn't have the words to describe what the business wants accurately enough for IT. Not only do technological-savvy barriers exist, but there are also linguistic barriers between the two worlds. So how do I cope? The adage "a picture is worth a thousand words" is particularly helpful when I'm called in to help design a new business intelligence solution. Many of my students in BI classes have heard me explain ("rant") about left-to-right versus right-to-left design. To understand what I mean about these two design options, let's start with a picture: When we design a business intelligence solution that includes some sort of traditional data warehouse or data mart design, we typically place the data sources on the left, the new solution in the middle, and the users on the right. When I've been called in to help course-correct a failing BI project, I often find that IT has taken a left-to-right approach. They look at the data sources, decide how to model the BI solution as a _______ (fill in the blank with data warehouse, data mart, cube, etc.), and then build the new data structures and supporting infrastructure. (Sometimes, they actually do this without ever having talked to the business first.) Then, when they show what they've built to the business, the business says that is not what we want. Uh-oh. I prefer to take a right-to-left approach. Preferably at the beginning of a project. But even if the project starts left-to-right, I'll do my best to swing it around so that we’re back to a right-to-left approach. (When circumstances are beyond my control, I carry on, but it’s a painful project for everyone – not because of me, but because the approach just doesn’t get to what the business wants in the most effective way.) By using a right to left approach, I try to understand what it is the business is trying to accomplish. I do this by having them explain reports to me, and explaining the decision-making process that relates to these reports. Sometimes I have them explain to me their business processes, or better yet show me their business processes in action because I need pictures, too. I (unofficially) call this part of the project "getting inside the business's head." This is starting at the right side of the diagram above. My next step is to start moving leftward. I do this by preparing some type of prototype. Depending on the nature of the project, this might mean that I simply mock up some data in a relational database and build a prototype report in Reporting Services. If I'm lucky, I might be able to use real data in a relational database. I'll either use a subset of the data in the prototype report by creating a prototype database to hold the sample data, or select data directly from the source. It all depends on how much data there is, how complex the queries are, and how fast I need to get the prototype completed. If the solution will include Analysis Services, then I'll build a prototype cube. Analysis Services makes it incredibly easy to prototype. You can sit down with the business, show them the prototype, and have a meaningful conversation about what the BI solution should look like. I know I've done a good job on the prototype when I get knocked out of my chair so that the business user can explore the solution further independently. (That's really happened to me!) We can talk about dimensions, hierarchies, levels, members, measures, and so on with something tangible to look at and without using those terms. It's not helpful to use sample data like Adventure Works or to use BI terms that they don't really understand. But when I show them their data using the BI technology and talk to them in their language, then they truly have a picture worth a thousand words. From that, we can fine tune the prototype to move it closer to what they want. They have a better idea of what they're getting, and I have a better idea of what to build. So right to left design is not truly moving from the right to the left. But it starts from the right and moves towards the middle, and once I know what the middle needs to look like, I can then build from the left to meet in the middle. And that’s how I get past what the business says to what the business wants.

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  • Extra Life 2012 - The Final Plea ... Until the Next One

    - by Chris Gardner
    I thought I'd share the email stream that my friends and family get about the event.So, here we are again. We scream closer to the event, and the goal is not met.I was approached by the ghost of feral platypii past last night. Well, approached is putting it lightly. I was mugged by the ghost of platypii past last night. He reminded me, in no uncertain terms that I have only reached the midway point of my fundraising goal. He then reminded me, in even less uncertain terms, that we are one week away from the event. There were other reminders past that, but this is a family broadcast. *shudder*Now, let us be serious for a moment. The event organizers claim a personal story helps to tug heart strings, whatever those are...I've been to Children's Hospital of Birmingham. I had to take Spawn, the Latter, there to verify she was not going to die. Instead, she's just a ticking time bomb for the next generation, but I digress.While I was there, I saw things. I saw child after child after child waiting for their appointment. I saw the most sublime displays of children's art juxtaposed with hospital sterilization that I could ever possibly imagine. I saw and heard things that only occur in the nightmares of parents, and I was only in the waiting rooms.But I will never forget the 10-ish year old girl that came in for her regularly scheduled dialysis appointment ... as if it was just another Friday afternoon. She had her school books, a little snack, a book to read for pleasure, and a DVD, in case she finished her homework a little early. You know, everything you'd need for an afternoon hooked up to a huge medical machine that going to clean out all the toxins in your blood. As she entered the secured area, she warmly greeted all the doctors and nurses with the same familiarity that I would greet the staff of my favorite coffee shop as I stopped in for my morning cup of coffee.I don't know the status of that little girl. I don't know if she's healthy or, quite frankly, alive. I don't even know her name, as I only heard it in passing for the 37 seconds our paths crossed. However, I do remember being incredibly moved and touched by her upbeat attitude about the situations, and I hope that my efforts last two Octobers got her, in some way, a little comfort.And, if she is still with us, I hope we can get her a little more.=== PREVIOUS MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===Greetings (Again),If you are receiving this updated message, then you didn't feel generous the first time. Now, I tried to be nice the first time. I tried to send a simple, unobtrusive email message to get you into the spirit. Well, much like the bell ringers that I ignore in front of the Wal-Mart, you ignored me.I probably should have seen that coming...However, unlike those poor souls, I know how to contact you. And I can find out where you live. So, so, so, you better feel lucky that I'm too lazy to terrorize you people, but cause I could do it.Remember, it's not for me, it's for those poor kids... and the feral platypii.  Because, we can make more children, but platypii are hard to come by.=== ORIGINAL MESSAGE FOLLOWS ===It's that time of year again. The time when I beg you for money for charity. See, unlike those bell ringers outside Wal-Mart, I don't do it when you have ten bazillion holiday obligations...Once again, I will be enduring a 24-hour marathon of gaming to raise money for Children Hospital in Birmingham. All the money goes straight to them, and you get to tell Uncie Samuel that you're good for that money. I'd REALLY like to break $1000 this year, as I have come REALLY close for the past 2 year to doing so.This year, the event will take place on October 20th, beginning at 8 A.M. Once again, I will try to provide some web streams, etc, if you want to point and laugh (especially if I have to result to playing Dance Central at 4 AM to stay awake for the last part.)Look at it this way, I'm going to badger you about this for the next month. You might as well donate some money so you can righteously tell me to shut the Smurf up.You can place your bid at the link below. Feel free to spread the word to anyone and everyone.I thank you. The children thank you. Several breeds of feral platypus thank you. Maybe, just maybe, doing so will help you feel the love felt by re-fried beans when lovingly hugged in a warm tortilla.Enjoy your burrito.http://www.extra-life.org/participant/cgardner

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  • Django Foreign key queries

    - by Hulk
    In the following model: class header(models.Model): title = models.CharField(max_length = 255) created_by = models.CharField(max_length = 255) def __unicode__(self): return self.id() class criteria(models.Model): details = models.CharField(max_length = 255) headerid = models.ForeignKey(header) def __unicode__(self): return self.id() class options(models.Model): opt_details = models.CharField(max_length = 255) headerid = models.ForeignKey(header) def __unicode__(self): return self.id() If there is a row in the database for table header as Id=1, title=value-mart , createdby=CEO How do i query criteria and options tables to get all the values related to header table id=1 Also can some one please suggest a good link for queries examples, Thanks..

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  • Djangoo Foreign key queries

    - by Hulk
    In the following model: class header(models.Model): title = models.CharField(max_length = 255) created_by = models.CharField(max_length = 255) def __unicode__(self): return self.id() class criteria(models.Model): details = models.CharField(max_length = 255) headerid = models.ForeignKey(header) def __unicode__(self): return self.id() class options(models.Model): opt_details = models.CharField(max_length = 255) headerid = models.ForeignKey(header) def __unicode__(self): return self.id() If there is a row in the database for table header as Id=1, title=value-mart , createdby=CEO How do i query criteria and options tables to get all the values related to header table id=1 Also can some one please suggest a good link for queries examples, Thanks..

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  • IASA South East Florida Chapter February Meeting Report

    - by Rainer Habermann
    IASA South East Florida Chapter – February Meeting The topic for our February chapter meeting was Legal Issues in IT. Ms. Kennedy, Intellectual Property Attorney with an active litigation, trademark and copyright practice, presented: How Google, Wal-Mart & Apple Make their Millions – The Secret Ingredient: Intellectual Property This topic initiated great interest and the meeting room at Microsoft Ft. Lauderdale filled up to the last seat. Most Architects, Engineers, and MBA’s are not aware about Intellectual Property, Basic Patent, Trademark, or legal issues related to the web. After clarifying the basic definitions, Ms. Kennedy explained in detail how intellectual property issues could make or break a company. Members had the opportunity at the end of the presentation to ask questions, discuss legal problems, and several members shared their experiences related to Intellectual Property and other IT related issues. If you want to protect your ideas and intellectual property, you have to be aware of the implications and need to take the right steps in order to protect them. All Chapter Members agreed that it was an outstanding and lively presentation. Ms. Kennedy presented high quality content and made participants aware of legal IT issues. In the name of all chapter members, thank you Ms. Kennedy for taking the time for this amazing presentation and to Quent Herschelman for hosting the meeting. Rainer Habermann President IASA South East Florida Chapter

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  • Looking for a comfortable Laptop Cooling Pad? Repurpose a pillow as a Laptop Cooling Pad

    - by Gopinath
    Update: This idea sucks as using a pillow blocks laptop cooling fans and air flow, which in turn would damage the laptop. Thanks Vijay I’ve a HP Pavilion laptop which turns hot quickly and most of the time I would not be able to keep it on my lap after 30 minutes of usage. It’s the same case with my DELL laptop and not to blame any specific brand or model. Most of the budget laptops generate lot of heat and tough to keep them on laps for a long time. They burn skin and the irritation sense leaves me with no option other than throwing them away. While searching for options to beat the heat I found Laptop Cooling Pads on Amazon.They attach to the base of laptops and act like a heat shield/sink to protect thighs from the heat generated by laptops. They are available from around $7 and goes up to $100 depending on the features they offer. After reading reviews I selected a trendy looking and comfortable laptop cooling pad and it was around $25 before shipping and taxes. I’m going to buy one of the cooling pads from Amazon. On a second thought I started searching for options to repurpose any of the house hold items as a laptop cooling pad and save money. The option suggested by wife is to repurpose an old pillow as a laptop cooling pad.  Here is my laptop cooling pad Wow! That is a nice suggestion which saved my thighs from laptop heat as well my wallet from spending $25. Even if I’ve to buy a new pillow I would be able to pickup cheap one from Wal-Mart store for as low as $2.  Also I find it is very comfortable to use a pillow as a Laptop Cooling Pad as they are flexible and automatically adjust to the shape of my body.

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  • Extra Life 2012

    - by Chris Gardner
    Greetings, It's that time of year again. The time when I beg you for money for charity. See, unlike those bell ringers outside Wal-Mart, I don't do it when you have ten bazillion holiday obligations... Once again, I will be enduring a 24-hour marathon of gaming to raise money for Children Hospital in Birmingham. All the money goes straight to them, and you get to tell Uncie Samual that you're good for that money. I'd REALLY like to break $1000 this year, as I have come REALLY close for the past 2 year to doing so. Don't live near me? Live closer to a children's hospital in the Children's Miracle Network? It's OK. Go find a participant that is working for your hospital and hook them up. Just left me know, I will will join in with the karmic love you will already receive. This year, the event will take place on October 20th, beginning at 8 A.M. Once again, I will try to provide some web streams, etc, if you want to point and laugh (especially if I have to result to playing Dance Central at 4 AM to stay awake for the last part.) Look at it this way, I'm going to badger you about this for the next month. You might as well donate some money so you can righteously tell me to shut the Smurf up. You can place your bid at the link below. Feel free to spread the word to anyone and everyone. I thank you. The children thank you. Several breeds of feral platypus thank you. Maybe, just maybe, doing so will will help you feel the love felt by re-fried beans when lovingly hugged in a warm tortilla. Enjoy your burrito. http://www.extra-life.org/participant/cgardner

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  • Event notifications for Reporting Systems

    - by Marc Schluper
    The last couple of months I have been working on an application that allows people to browse a data mart. Nice, but nothing new. In this context I have an idea that I want to publish before anyone else patents it: event notifications. You see, reporting systems are not used as much as we’d like. Typically, users don’t know where to look for reports that might interest them. At best, there are some standard reports that people generate every so often, i.e. based on a time trigger. Or some reporting systems can be configured to send monthly reports around, for convenience. But apart from that, the reporting system is just sitting there, waiting for the rare curious user who makes the effort to dig a bit for treasures to be found. Wouldn’t it be great if there were data triggers? Imagine we could configure the reporting system to let us know when something interesting has happened. It would send us a message containing a link that would take us to the relevant section of the reporting system, showing a report with all the data pertaining to that event, preparing us for proper actions. Here in the North West this would really be great. You see, it rains here most of the time from October to June, so why even check the weather forecast? But sometimes, sometimes it snows. And sometimes the sun shines. So rather than me going to the weather site and seeing over and over again that it will be raining, making me think “why bother?” I’d like to configure the weather site so that it lets me know when the rain stops. Now, hopefully nobody has patented this idea already. Let me know.

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  • Free Webinar: A faster, cheaper, better IT Department with Azure

    - by Herve Roggero
    Join me for a free Webinar on Wednesday October 17th at 1:30PM, Eastern Time. I will discuss the benefits of cloud computing with the Azure platform. There isn’t a company out there that would say “No” to reduced IT costs and unlimited scaling bandwidth. This webinar will focus on the specific benefits of the Microsoft Azure cloud platform and will convince you on the sound business rationale behind moving to the cloud. From Infrastructure as a Service (Iaas) to Platform as a Service (Paas), Azure supports quick deployments, virtual machines, native SQL Databases and much more. Topics that will be discussed: - Why use Azure for your Cloud Computing needs - Iaas and Paas Offerings - Differing project approaches to Cloud computing - How Azure’s agility and reduced costs lead to better solutions Attendees of this webinar will also be eligible to receive the following: Free Two Hour Consultation which can include: - Review of Your Cloud Strategy - Cloud Roadmap Review - Review of Data-mart strategies - Review of Mobility Strategies Click Here to Register Now. About Herve Roggero Hervé Roggero, Azure MVP, is the founder of Blue Syntax Consulting, a company specialized in cloud computing products and services. Hervé's experience includes software development, architecture, database administration and senior management with both global corporations and startup companies. Hervé holds multiple certifications, including an MCDBA, MCSE, MCSD. He also holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Indiana University. Hervé is the co-author of "PRO SQL Azure" from Apress. For more information, visit www.bluesyntax.net.

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