Managing Analysis Services using Programming

Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services supports several technologies that can be used to perform administrative tasks on an Analysis Services instance. Using the Analysis Services administration technologies, you can do the following:

Create or Modify Analysis Services Objects

You can create or modify Analysis Services objects, such as databases, cubes, dimensions, and mining structures, using Analysis Management Objects (AMO) or XML for Analysis (XMLA) commands containing Analysis Services Scripting Language (ASSL) elements.

To create or modify Analysis Services objects:

• You can use AMO in a managed client application to create or modify objects using the interfaces in the Microsoft .NET Framework. For more information, see Analysis Management Objects (AMO).

• You can use XMLA and ASSL to directly create or modify objects on an Analysis Services instance. For more information, see Analysis Services Scripting Language Reference.

Process Analysis Services Objects

You can process Analysis Services objects, in which the Analysis Services instance retrieves and manipulates data from underlying data sources for databases, cubes, dimensions, mining structures, mining models, measure groups, and partitions.

To process Analysis Services objects:

• You can use AMO in a managed client application to process objects using .NET Framework interfaces. For more information, see Analysis Management Objects (AMO).

• You can use XMLA to process objects, in either a serial or parallel transaction with rollback support, on an Analysis Services instance. For more information, see Analysis Services Scripting Language Reference.

Manage an Analysis Services Instance

You can manage an Analysis Services instance by setting configuration properties, managing instance security, and controlling the Windows service for the Analysis Services instance.

To manage an Analysis Services instance:

• You can use AMO in a managed client application to manage instance properties using .NET Framework interfaces. For more information, see Analysis Management Objects (AMO).

• You can use XMLA to manage all aspects of an Analysis Services instance. For more information, see Analysis Services Scripting Language Reference.