Install Analysis Services in Tabular Mode

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If you are installing Analysis Services to use the new tabular modeling features, you must install Analysis Services in a server mode that supports that type of model. The server mode is Tabular, and it is configured during installation.

After you install the server in this mode, you can use it host solutions that you build in tabular model designer. A tabular mode server is required if you want tabular model data access over the network.

You can specify Tabular mode in the Installation Wizard or in a command line setup. The following sections describe each approach.

Installation Wizard

The following list shows you which pages in the SQL Server Installation wizard are used to install Analysis Services in Tabular mode:

  1. Select Analysis Services from the Feature Tree in Setup. Optionally, choose SQL Server Data Tools to include the tabular model designer in your installation.

    Setup feature tree showing Analsyis Services

  2. On the Analysis Services Configuration page, be sure to select Tabular Mode.

    Setup page with Analysis Services config options

Tabular mode uses the xVelocity in-memory analytics engine (VertiPaq), which is the default storage for tabular models that you deploy to Analysis Services. After you deploy tabular model solutions to the server, you can selectively configure tabular solutions to use DirectQuery disk storage as an alternative to memory-bound storage.

Command Line Setup

SQL Server Setup includes a new parameter (ASSERVERMODE) that specifies the server mode. The following example illustrates a command line setup that installs Analysis Services in Tabular server mode.

            Setup.exe /q /IAcceptSQLServerLicenseTerms /ACTION=install /FEATURES=AS /ASSERVERMODE=TABULAR /INSTANCENAME=ASTabular /INDICATEPROGRESS
/ASSVCACCOUNT=<DomainName\UserName> /ASSVCPASSWORD=<StrongPassword> /ASSYSADMINACCOUNTS=<DomainName\UserName>

INSTANCENAME must be less than 17 characters.

All placeholder account values must be replaced with valid accounts and password.

Tools such as SQL Server Management Studio or SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) are not installed using the example command line syntax that is provided. For more information about adding features, see Install SQL Server 2012 from the Command Prompt.

ASSERVERMODE is case-sensitive. All values must be expressed in upper case. The following table describes the valid values for ASSERVERMODE.

Value

Description

MULTIDIMENSIONAL

This is the default value. If you do not set ASSERVERMODE, the server is installed in Multidimensional server mode.

POWERPIVOT

This value is optional. In practice, if you set the ROLE parameter, the server mode is automatically set to 1, making ASSERVERMODE optional for a PowerPivot for SharePoint installation. For more information, see Install PowerPivot from the Command Prompt.

TABULAR

This value is required if you are installing Analysis Services in Tabular mode using command line setup.

See Also

Concepts

Determine the Server Mode of an Analysis Services Instance

Configure In-Memory or DirectQuery Access for a Tabular Model Database

Tabular Modeling (SSAS Tabular)