Vidas Matelis Analysis Services Blog

I pre-ordered “Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Unleashed” (Amazon links: US, UK and Canada) some time ago and today I finally received it. The authors are Irina Gorbach, Alexander Berger and Edward Melomed. This book is the second edition of the older book “Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services” (Amazon links: US, UK and Canada). It has the same structure as the older book – the same 9 parts, but the 41 chapters are slightly different.

I see a lot of the same chapters, but I also found that some chapters have more explanations and more diagrams/pictures. I also found the following new chapters in this new edition:

• Part2: Creating Multidimensional Models – Chapter 8: Advanced Modeling. This chapter talks about Parent-Child relationships, Attribute Discretization, Indirect Dimensions, Measure Expressions and Linked Measure Groups.
• Part6: Analysis Services Architecture – Chapter 28: Thread Management. This chapter talks about Thread Pools and its architecture.
• Part9: Management – Chapter 41: Resource Monitoring. This chapter talks about using DMVs to do SSAS resource monitoring.

First edition of this book was my favorite SSAS book and I am recommending second edition without any hesitation.