Processing and Deploying a Cube

Once the cube design and development is complete, the next step is to deploy the cube. When the cube is deployed, a database for the solution is created in the SSAS instance, if not already present. Each of the dimensions and measure group definitions are read, and data is calculated and stored as per the design and configuration of these objects.

Once the cube is successfully deployed, client applications can connect to the cube and browse the cube data. We will deploy the cube we have developed and test connecting to the cube. We might also face errors during deployment, and we will attempt debugging and resolving these errors.

Deploying Cube using Deployment Wizard

You can launch the Deployment Wizard from the Analysis Services program group within the Microsoft SQL Server program group. The wizard requires that you be able to connect to the target deployment server.  To get around this you have to launch the wizard from the command line and specify the options as shown below:

[PATH-TO-DEPLOYMENT-WIZARD]\Microsoft.AnalysisServices.Deployment [PATH-TO-ASDATABASE-FILE] /d /o:[SCRIPT-FILE-PATH]

Options:

• /d is for disconnected mode meaning you will not be connecting to the target deployment server
• /o allows you to to specify the full path to the XMLA script file to be generated; this is required when you use the /d option

When you run the wizard from the command line with the options shown above, the wizard does not step through a series of dialogs; rather it simply generates the XMLA script file based on the files in your project's bin folder as described above. 

 If you need to change anything in the generated script you can open it up in Notepad or your favorite editor.

To get the location of the Deployment Wizard, you can right click on it in the Microsoft SQL Server, Analysis Services program group, then select Settings from the menu to get the folder for the Deployment Wizard. 

 For a SQL Server 2005 32 bit default installation that folder is:

C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\Tools\bin\VSShell\Common7\IDE

If you want to step through the wizard dialogs you can launch the Deployment Wizard from the Analysis Services program group (or from the command line without the /d and /o options) and you will be guided through the following steps:

Specify Source Analysis Services Database

Navigate to the [project name].asdatabase file in the bin folder of your BIDS project:

Installation Target

Specify the target deployment server and the name of the SSAS database on that server.  Remember you must be able to connect to the server.  If you cannot connect to the server you will have to specify something like localhost to get through the wizard.

Specify Options for Partitions and Roles

After initial deployment, an administrator may change the partitioning and/or roles and members.  When you deploy you have to decide whether or not to overwrite these settings based on what you have in your SSAS project.  The options shown below assume that you do not want to overwrite those changes.  However you can choose the options that will make the deployed database match what's in your project.

Specify Configuration Properties

Administrators may make changes to various configuration properties after deployment and you may need to preserve those settings rather than overwrite them with what's in your project.  In the case of data source connection strings, you make not even know the server names and credentials used to connect to them.  Optimization settings will likely change as the size and usage of the SSAS database increases over time.  Again the safest approach is to retain the settings rather than overwrite them.

 Select Processing Options

You can specify whether to process the SSAS objects after deployment.  Default processing allows SSAS to decide what needs to be done; Full processing can be used to process all objects.  You can also choose not to process at all.  You can select whether to perform the entire deployment in a single transaction.  If this option is unchecked, each step of the deployment proceeds in its own transaction.

Confirm Deployment

Use this dialog to optionally specify whether to generate an XMLA script and save it in the folder of your choice.  After clicking Next on this dialog the wizard will perform the deployment.  It's a good idea to save the deployment script.