Best practices for SQL Server 2005/2008 OLAP cube design and MDX querying

Aggiornato: 2009-09-28

When you are enabling Microsoft SQL Server 2005 and 2008 Analysis Services (SSAS) as a data source for Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007, proper cube design, efficient multidimensional expressions, and sufficient hardware resources are critical to optimal performance.

This article highlights best practices that help improve the performance of SSAS as a data source for PerformancePoint Server. The first section lists articles that highlight Microsoft SQL Server 2008 enhancements that are specifically designed for business intelligence (BI) solutions, while the second section gives best practices that apply to SSAS 2005/2008 cube design, MDX query optimization, and more.

SQL Server 2008 enhancements for business intelligence

The following articles describe enhancements to SQL Server 2008 that relate to business intelligence.

Top 10 Performance and Productivity Reasons to Use SQL Server 2008 for Your Business Intelligence Solutions   Provides a list, with some details, of the top performance reasons to use SQL Server 2008 for your new business intelligence solutions and to upgrade to SQL Server 2008 for your existing business intelligence solutions.

SQL Server 2008 Upgrade Technical Reference Guide   Gives information about upgrading your existing Business Intelligence solutions to SQL Server 2008.

Scaling Up Reporting Services 2008 vs. Reporting Services 2005: Lessons Learned   Describes enhancements in performance and scalability to SQL Server Reporting Services 2008.

Performance Improvements for MDX in SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services   Explains where issues can occur in your existing MDX code that will prevent you from experiencing the performance improvements in SQL Server Analysis Services 2008.

SQL Server 2008 White Paper: Analysis Services Performance Guide   Describes how application developers can apply query and processing performance-tuning techniques to their SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services OLAP solutions.

Best practices for Analysis Services