Professional SQL Server™ Analysis Services 2005 with MDX

Chapter 12. Administering Analysis Services

Administration is an important task on any server product. As an administrator of Analysis Services you need to make sure Analysis Services is secure, reliable and provides efficient access to the end users. You can administer Analysis Server in two ways; through the SQL Server 2005 Tool set (SSMS or BIDS) or programmatically using an object model called AMO (Analysis Management Objects). You can accomplish tasks like processing objects, providing access to Analysis Services objects in databases and synchronization of databases between Analysis Services instances using SSMS. You can use BIDS to connect to a specific OLAP database to perform design changes and accomplish follow-on tasks such as processing and providing access to users. SSMS and BIDS both use AMO behind the scenes to accomplish all management tasks. The AMO object model itself is installed and registered into the GAC (Global Assembly Cache) when the product is installed. The AMO .NET assembly, by the way, is Microsoft.AnalysisSevices.dll. In the first section of this chapter you learn about key administrative tasks and how to accomplish those tasks using SSMS and BIDS, and in the second section you learn more about the programmatic approach, using AMO, to accomplish the same tasks and others.