Creating
a Virtual Cube to House Our Solution
We will now combine the
cubes with which we have been working in this session within a virtual cube.
The intent will be to create a "logical" cube that appears, from a browsing
and reporting perspective, as a standalone physical cube. We will thus combine
functionality into a single logical cube, accruing benefits that we will
discuss as we encounter them.
As many of us know
already, a virtual cube allows us to broaden both the scope and capabilities of
the OLAP data contained within the participating MSAS cubes, while incurring no
additional physical storage space requirement. Virtual cubes can be useful in
many applications, one of which is the combination of standard cubes for the
purposes upon which our practice example is focused.
Let's take the following
steps to create the virtual cube to complete the assembly of our solution.
1.
Right-click
the Cubes folder.
2.
Click New
Virtual Cube on the context menu, as shown in Illustration 22.
Illustration 22: Select
New Virtual Cube
The Virtual
Cube Wizard Welcome Dialog appears as depicted in Illustration 23.
Illustration 23: The
Virtual Cube Wizard Welcome Dialog
The Select
the cubes to include in the virtual cube dialog appears.
4.
Double-click
the DISTINCT_CUSTOMERS cube, to select and move it from the Available
cubes list to the Virtual cube includes list.
5.
Double-click
the Sales cube to add it to the Virtual cube includes list, as
well.
The
dialog appears as shown in Illustration 24, after our selections.
Illustration 24: Select
the Cubes to Include in the Virtual Cube Dialog
The Select
the Measures for the Virtual Cube dialog appears.
7.
Click the Add
all measures (">>") button to add all measures to
the Selected measures list on the right of the dialog.
The Select
the measures for the virtual cube dialog appears as depicted in Illustration
25, with our selections appearing in the Selected measures list.
Illustration 25: Our
Measures Selections Appear
The Select
the dimensions for the virtual cube dialog appears. We will select all
dimensions for purposes of this lesson.
9.
Click the Add
all dimensions (">>") button to add all dimensions
to the Selected dimensions list on the right of the dialog.
The Select the dimensions for the
virtual cube
dialog appears as
shown in Illustration 26, with our selections appearing in the Selected
dimensions list.
Illustration 26: Our
Dimensions Selections Appear
The Finish
the Virtual Cube Wizard dialog appears.
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