Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Bible

Cube Integration

Data mining can use Analysis Services cube data as input instead of using a relational table (see the first page of the Data Mining Wizard section earlier in this chapter); cube data behaves much the same as relational tables, with some important differences:

• Although a relational table can be included from most any data source, the cube and the mining structure that references it must be defined within the same project.
• The case “table” is defined by a single dimension and its related measure groups. When additional data mining attributes are needed, add them via a nested table.
• Instead of choosing a primary key, choose mining structure keys from dimension data at the highest (least granular) level possible. For instance, choose the quarter as the key attribute for quarterly analysis rather than the date key.
• Data and content type defaults tend to be less reliable for cube data, so review and adjust type properties as needed.
• Some dimension attributes based on numeric or date data may appear to the data mining interface with a text data type. This is because data mining uses the Name column's data type instead of the Key column. If this causes an issue, remove the Name column property from the dimension attribute, or add the same column to the dimension a second time without using the Name column property.
• The portion of cube data to use for training is defined via the mining structure's cube slice.
• A Lift Chart cannot be run against cube test data, so model ...