Configure Surface Area Configuration for SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Using Policy Based Management

Problem
I have installed a new instance of SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services and I am unable to find the Surface Area Configuration tool that I used to use in SQL Server 2005. How can I manage the Analysis Services features in SQL Server 2008?

Solution
Surface Area Configuration was a great tool which was introduced by Microsoft in SQL Server 2005 to help SQL Server DBA's to quickly turn ON / OFF many of the features which are turned fff by default in the product. However, Microsoft has removed Surface Area Configuration tool in SQL Server 2008. Now the question is how do you manage the Surface Area Configuration for Analysis Services? Database administrator can now use Policy Based Management to enable or disable feature for Analysis Services. Let's go through the steps to enable or disable Analysis Services features using Policy Based Management.

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