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  #1  
Old   
Dietmar Österreicher
 
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Default AS2000: important questions - 10-08-2003 , 04:22 AM






Hi guys!

First of all: I´m from Austria so excuse my bad english!
I´m still workin on an OLAP project since 3 month! During this time I found
some important questions but no answers. These are as follows:

1. In the Dimension-Editor the property "member count" is only set during
the creation of the dimension and not during the preparing-process (is this
the english expression?) What for do I need this property? Only for
erstimation-values during the preparing-process?

2. Is there a way to pass over "ring-connections" in the cube-editor?

3. How can I include one dimension two times in a cube connected to
different forein keys in the fact-table?

4. I have only one Cube with a lot of dimensions. Is it better to make this
dimenions private or public?

5. When du the creation of the aggregations occur? During the
memory-administration (in german "Speicheraufbereitung") or during the
preparation of the cube? The second one I guess!?

6. I have to do the memory-administration only one time! Is this correct?

7. The database for the dimension is growing every time and the preparation
works automatically. What happens when member-count exceed the limit of
64000 members?

thx in advance!!
D. Österreicher



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  #2  
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Lutz Morrien
 
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Default a shot at your important questions - 10-08-2003 , 05:38 AM






Hi Dietmar,
first of all, don't worry about your english, there are
austrians in California who speak terrible english and
get elected as governor ;o).

Anyway, let me take a shot at your questions:
Quote:
1. In the Dimension-Editor the property "member count"
is only set during
the creation of the dimension and not during the
preparing-process (is this
the english expression?) What for do I need this
property? Only for
erstimation-values during the preparing-process?
I guess so, I have never needed it for anything else yet.
It is a good indicator on dimension size at creation time.

Quote:
2. Is there a way to pass over "ring-connections" in the
cube-editor?
I do not quite understand the word "ring-connection". In
the cube editor one (and only one) dimension table out of
every dimension is linked 1:many to the fact table. There
should not be any circular structure or AS will complain.

Quote:
3. How can I include one dimension two times in a cube
connected to
different forein keys in the fact-table?
Just add the table to the Cube editor a second time. To
do this you need to give it an alias.

Quote:
4. I have only one Cube with a lot of dimensions. Is it
better to make this
dimenions private or public?
You should try to make dimensions public if possible, in
case you might need them for a second, future cube. If
you are sure, that you will never need the dimension
again, you should make it private. Shared dimensions will
be loaded into memory just once (for every user role, I
think)

Quote:
5. When du the creation of the aggregations occur?
During the
memory-administration (in german "Speicheraufbereitung")
or during the
preparation of the cube? The second one I guess!?
Yes, aggregations are defined during cube design. However
they can be redesigned later.

Quote:
6. I have to do the memory-administration only one time!
Is this correct?
Yes and no. You have to design aggregations just once,
but as I said before, you can redesign them later, if
they don't fit your needs.

Quote:
7. The database for the dimension is growing every time
and the preparation
works automatically. What happens when member-count
exceed the limit of
64000 members?
I think AS will report an error and not reaggregate the
cube. (This has not happened to me yet)

Hope that helps (and that I do not get corrected too much)

Lutz


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  #3  
Old   
Dietmar Österreicher
 
Posts: n/a

Default Re: a shot at your important questions - 10-08-2003 , 07:11 AM



Hi Lutz!

Arnie for president

thanks a lot for your answers! But I have to ask a second time:

@1: thanks, I´m quite happy!

@2:
+---------------+
Quote:
article group 1
------------ +
+---------+ +------+-----+---------------+ +------+-----+
fact table |-----| articel | |
coast center |
+---------+ +------+-----+---------------+ +------+-----+
Quote:
article group 2
-------------+
+---------------+

I have this constellation with this two dimensions:
- coast center > article group 1 > articel
- coast center > article group 2 > articel

It´s not possible to built this constellation in the cube editor, but of
course you can do it in the database! I tried to insert an alias of the
table "coast center" but when I a delete the relation from the "ring" AS
removes the whole dimension from the cube! Andy ideas?

@3: I´ve to test it but is there a second dimension in the
client-application when you do that?

@4: Ok, so I make private dimensions. Is there a way to convert my existing
public dimensions?

@5-6: thx

@7: thats correct! So, if I expect more than 64000 elements I have to make
an additional grouping level.

@8: new one

I have some virtual dimensions, wich are parts of other regular dimension.
Are they slower in the client application?

@8: an other new one

Is there a way to use "actions" in MS Excel. Maybe Excel 2003 supports
this??

Thanks for this BIG HELP! Thank you very much!!!!
Dietmar




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  #4  
Old   
Lutz Morrien
 
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Default Re: a shot at your important questions - 10-08-2003 , 08:13 AM



Quote:
@2: the many to many problem
I guess it is 1 article can be in several groups and one
group can contain several articles (m:n). There are
several ways to solve this I guess.

a) choose a primary article group for each article thus
avoiding the m:n relationship
b) create a cube for every constellation
c) use article and article group as separate dimensions
and reflect the m:n via the fact table

I am sure there are more solutions, including a weighting
factor or something like that, but these are all I can
come up with now.

Quote:
@3: I´ve to test it but is there a second dimension in
the
client-application when you do that?
Yes there will be two dimensions

Quote:
@4: Ok, so I make private dimensions. Is there a way to
convert my existing
public dimensions?
No you cannot convert to private dimensions. Don't
convert unless you have to, though. Shared dimensions are
useful.


Quote:
@8: I have some virtual dimensions, wich are parts of
other regular dimension.
Are they slower in the client application?
Yes they are slower, since they are based on standard
dimensions. You will not notice unless you have very
large and complex dimensions. Usually virtual dimensions
are used, if you want to preserve storage space. i.e.
base a v-dim on a large customer dimension.

Quote:
@8: Is there a way to use "actions" in MS Excel. Maybe
Excel 2003 supports
this??
I have not made use of actions yet, so I cannot really
tell.

HTH Lutz


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  #5  
Old   
Sean Boon [MS]
 
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Default Re: AS2000: important questions - 10-08-2003 , 01:13 PM



In regards to the dimension level counts, since these values are not updated
during dimesion processing, I would recommed that you set this value to the
value that you expect the dimension size to grow to. In many cases, people
begin to design their data warehouse with just a fraction of their
dimensional data. If the dimension level count is set at that point, it
will not be reflective of how many members will be in the levels during
production. These values are important for designing aggregations. Please
review the following whitepaper for more information.

http://www.microsoft.com/technet/tre...e/ANSvcsPG.asp

And if you are using partitioning, it is a good idea to set the dimension
level counts to values that will be represented in the partitions. For
example, if you partition by month and you have 5 years of data, set the
dimension level count to 1 for the month level and 31 for the day
level.....not 60 and 1800...since there will only be one month in each
partition and there will only be 31 days at most in any partition.

Sean


--
Sean

--
Sean Boon
SQL Server BI Product Unit

--
This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
Use of included script samples are subject to the terms specified at
http://www.microsoft.com/info/cpyright.htm.

"Dietmar Österreicher" <dietmar.oesterreicher (AT) at (DOT) bosch.com> wrote

Quote:
Hi guys!

First of all: I´m from Austria so excuse my bad english!
I´m still workin on an OLAP project since 3 month! During this time I
found
some important questions but no answers. These are as follows:

1. In the Dimension-Editor the property "member count" is only set during
the creation of the dimension and not during the preparing-process (is
this
the english expression?) What for do I need this property? Only for
erstimation-values during the preparing-process?

2. Is there a way to pass over "ring-connections" in the cube-editor?

3. How can I include one dimension two times in a cube connected to
different forein keys in the fact-table?

4. I have only one Cube with a lot of dimensions. Is it better to make
this
dimenions private or public?

5. When du the creation of the aggregations occur? During the
memory-administration (in german "Speicheraufbereitung") or during the
preparation of the cube? The second one I guess!?

6. I have to do the memory-administration only one time! Is this correct?

7. The database for the dimension is growing every time and the
preparation
works automatically. What happens when member-count exceed the limit of
64000 members?

thx in advance!!
D. Österreicher





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  #6  
Old   
Tom Chester
 
Posts: n/a

Default Re: AS2000: important questions - 10-08-2003 , 04:05 PM



These counts are part of the algorithm behind the aggragation (storage)
wizard. It's a good thing if they are semi-accurate. You can hand-enter
estimates, or there's a command in the dimension editor Tools menu to
re-count.

tom @ the domain below
www.tomchester.net


"Dietmar Österreicher" <dietmar.oesterreicher (AT) at (DOT) bosch.com> wrote

Quote:
1. In the Dimension-Editor the property "member count" is only set during
the creation of the dimension and not during the preparing-process (is
this
the english expression?) What for do I need this property? Only for
erstimation-values during the preparing-process?





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  #7  
Old   
Dietmar Österreicher
 
Posts: n/a

Default Re: AS2000: important questions - 10-09-2003 , 07:09 AM



Hi! Thank you for your explanations!

One more question: is there a way to set the member-count property to
"select count(*) from ..." in a DTS-workflow? I have a preperation-workflow
in which it would be best to be placed!
Any alternatives to set this property?

Dietmar



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