Documenting and Scripting an Analysis Services Database

After a database is deployed, you can use SQL Server Management Studio to output the metadata of the database, or of an object contained in the database, as an XML for Analysis (XMLA) script. You can output this script to a new XMLA Query Editor window, to a file, or to the Clipboard. For more information about XMLA, see Analysis Services Scripting Language Reference.

The generated XMLA script uses Analysis Services Scripting Language (ASSL) elements to define the objects contained by the script. If you generated a CREATE script, the resulting XMLA script contains an XMLA Create command and ASSL elements that can be used to create the entire Analysis Services database structure on an instance. If you generated an ALTER script, the resulting XMLA script contains an XMLA Alter command and ASSL elements that can be used to restore the structure of an existing Analysis Services database to the state of the database at the time the script was created.

You can use the generated XMLA script from an Analysis Services database in many ways, including:

• To maintain a backup script that allows you to recreate all the database objects and permissions.

• To create or update database development code.

• To create a test or development environment from an existing schema.