• Article

Database Objects (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data)

A Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services instance contains database objects and assemblies for use with online analytical processing (OLAP) and data mining.

  • Databases contain OLAP and data mining objects, such as data sources, data source views, cubes, measures, measure groups, dimensions, attributes, hierarchies, mining structures, mining models and roles.

  • Assemblies contain user-defined functions that extend the functionality of the intrinsic functions provided with the Multidimensional Expressions (MDX) and Data Mining Extensions (DMX) languages.

The Database object is the container for all data objects that are needed for a business intelligence project (such as OLAP cubes, dimensions, and data mining structures), and their supporting objects (such as DataSource, Account, and Role).

A Database object provides access to objects and attributes that include the following:

  • All cubes that you can access, as a collection.

  • All dimensions that you can access, as a collection.

  • All mining structures that you can access, as a collection.

  • All data sources and data source views, as two collections.

  • All roles and database permissions, as two collections.

  • The collation value for the database.

  • The estimated size of the database.

  • The language value of the database.

  • The visible setting for the database.

In This Section

The following topics describe objects shared by both OLAP and data mining features in Analysis Services.

Topic

Description

Data Sources (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data)

Describes a data source in Analysis Services.

Data Source Views (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data)

Describes a logical data model based on one or more data sources, in Analysis Services.

Designing Cubes

Describes cubes and cube objects, including measures, measure groups, dimension usage relationships, calculations, key performance indicators, actions, translations, partitions, and perspectives.

Dimensions (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data)

Describes dimensions and dimension objects, including attributes, attribute relationships, hierarchies, levels, and members.

Mining Structures (Analysis Services - Data Mining)

Describes mining structures and mining objects, including mining models.

Security Roles (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data)

Describes a role, the security mechanism used to control access to objects in Analysis Services.

Assemblies (Analysis Services - Multidimensional Data)

Describes an assembly, a collection of user-defined functions used to extend the MDX and DMX languages, in Analysis Services.