The purpose of this BLOG is archive, as much as I can, the solutions that I have found/developed throughout my journey in Data Warehousing. These are things that I have found useful and so they might be useful for you as well.
Getting started:
Gathering a good knowledge base is a good place to start. While BLOGs are a good way find information on specific problems, I like to
read a few books on a subject before I start diving in. They provide me with good context for understanding the subject area. Listed below, in no particular order are the books that I have read that have helped me the most.
Kimball:
- Warehouse Toolkit Second Edition: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling - What else can I say it is the complete guide to Dimensional Modeling from the guy who invented it. (yeah I know that there is another guy out there as well but if you are using Microsoft BI there is only one
- The Data Warehouse Lifecycle Toolkit - It is critical that everyone involved in any way in a Data Warehouse project read this book !
- The Kimball Group Reader: Relentlessly Practical Tools for Data Warehousing and Business Intelligence - Absolute gold mine of Kimball nuggets
- The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server 2008 R2 and the Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset - The newest installment specifically aimed at the Microsoft BI developer. It is a great improvement over the 2005 version!!
MDS
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Master Data Services - Almost any Data Warehousing project, if done correctly, will run into Master Data Management issues. This is an invaluable tool.
SQL Server
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 Unleashed - Good foundation for all things RDMS
SSAS
- Professional Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 with MDX - Good foundation for SSAS and MDX
- Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - Essential for a performant and scalable SSAS solution
SSIS:
- Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services: Problem, Design, Solution - Great start for developing your own SSIS Package Performance (runtimes/row counts) Framework
SSRS:
- Microsoft SQL Server Reporting Services Recipes: for Designing Expert Reports - MDX SSRS reports are by nature handicapped and painful to develop but by using DMVs, to dynamical browse the cube, the true potential of SSRS is unleashed!!
Read, Develop, Break, Fix and Repeat …..
July 21, 2011 at 8:44 pm |
Glad to see you started a blog! Looking forward to future posts.
October 7, 2011 at 7:18 pm |
[...] I believe that reading all of Kimball’s books should be a requirement before anyone who is called a Microsoft BI Professional. Share [...]
October 28, 2011 at 3:04 am |
[...] While there are many great sources for dimensional modeling, Kimball’s book The Data Warehouse Toolkit: The Complete Guide to Dimensional Modeling (Second Edition) is essential, but there are few resources which discuss dimensional modeling for Financial Data. I am going assume that the reader already has a firm knowledge base of Dimensional Modeling. If not then see my recommendations for books that will help form that foundation: The Start of Something Great. [...]