In the set up of SQL Server 2k and Analysis Services, is
it better if MSAS and SQLS2k are on the same machine? Can
someone suggest harware requirements in a real production
environment with about 27MB incremental loads to Cubes per
day?

Thanks

One issue you may want to consider is the network. If you
separate AS from SQL, every time you process your cubes
you'll be sucking at least the 27MB you mention across the
network, if not more depending on your architecture.
Unless you expect to have thousands of queries running
against your cubes every day, or SQL is being used for
lots of other tasks, I would suggest keeping AS on the SQL
Server.

As for hardware requirements, AS likes lots of RAM when
processing cubes and increasing the available memory can
make a significant difference. Remember to change the
processing properties on the AS server to take full
advantage...

Thanks Phil. Our proposed MSAS-Cube architecture will be
MOLAP. Our front end will be a zero client .NET solution.
I remember reading somewhere that a http connection to
MSAS should have the SQLServer, MSAS on the same machine,
and if possible have the IIS server also on the same
machine. Any suggestions?
Thanks

When I said 'architecture' I really meant the number of
cubes you have and the way you plan to process them. Fully
processing large cubes on a separate AS server could put
serious load on a network.

In theory you could host IIS, AS, and SQL all on separate
machines if you wanted. All you need is a OLE DB for OLAP
connection between your IIS machine and AS. If your using
MOLAP without drillthrough or writeback, AS doesn't need a
connection to SQL at query time, but it will to populate
the cubes, obviously. I wouldn't necessarily recommend it
though. My suggestion would be to host the website on a
separate machine, particularly if you already have a web
server. In our MS shop generally speaking we don't host
SQL on the same servers as IIS.

If you're looking at web access to cubes take a look at
this; http://www.xmlabrowser.com/ it uses the MS XML for
Analysis SDK.