Make a Copy of the Budget Cube and Prepare it for an Incremental Update
1. Open Analysis Manager, beginning at the Start menu.
2. Expand the Analysis Servers folder by clicking the “+” sign to its immediate left.
Our server(s) appear.
3. Expand the desired server.
Our database(s) appear.
4. Expand the FoodMart 2000 database.
5. Expand the Cubes folder.
The sample cubes appear, as shown in Figure 1.
Figure 1: The Sample Cubes in the FoodMart2000 Database
NOTE: Your databases / cube tree may differ, depending upon the activities you have performed since the installation of MSAS (and the simultaneous creation of the original set of sample cubes). Should you want or need to restore the cubes to their original state, simply restore the database under consideration. For instructions, see the MSSQL Server 2000 / MSAS Books Online.
6. Right-click on the Budget sample cube.
Working with a copy of the sample Budget cube will allow us to maintain our existing sample cubes in their original condition.
7. Select Copy from the context menu that appears.
8. Right-click on the Cubes folder.
9. Select Paste from the context menu that appears.
The Duplicate Name dialog appears.
As noted in previous articles, we cannot have two cubes of the same name in a given MSAS database.
10. Type the following into the Name box of the Duplicate Name dialog:
IncrUpdate
The Duplicate Name dialog appears, with our modification, as depicted in Figure 2.
Figure 2: The Duplicate Name Dialog, with New Name
TIP: As I have mentioned elsewhere in the series, this is also an excellent way of renaming a cube (a “rename” capability is not available here, as it is in many Windows applications). Simply create a duplicate, give it the name to which you wish to rename the old cube, and then delete the old cube. (This also works for MSAS databases.)
11. Click OK to save the name change.
The new cube appears in the cube tree, among those already in place. We now have a copy of the Budget cube, IncrUpdate, as shown in Figure 3, upon which we can perform our exercise with the Incremental Update Wizard.
Figure 3: The Budget Cube Clone, IncrUpdate, Appears
As we learned in previous articles where we made “clones” of existing sample cubes, when we make a copy of an existing sample cube, we copy the structure exactly as it exists for the original sample.
One component critical to on-going processing with a given sample cube, however, cannot physically be a part of our cloning process — the Query log entries that relate to the history of the copied cube cannot accompany the cloned cube; the entries are identified in the Query log database (see Optimization Tools: Basic Usage Analysis for details regarding the log) as belonging to the cube that generated them.
This leaves MSAS a bit perplexed (at least with regard to the “processed status” of the cube) — it has a cube structure in its midst that, while physically circumspect with regard to its structure, “has no past.” So when we attempt to process the cube, MSAS “looks upon him, and knows him not.” It therefore assumes — actually, it mandates — Full Processing. We’ll humor MSAS and do a quick Full Process, so that we can continue our examination of Incremental Updates. Keep in mind that this is only a preparatory step, and not likely to be encountered in the “real world.”
We’ll “register” the clone with MSAS — at least from the perspective of the Query log, by taking the following steps:
12. Right-click the new IncrUpdate cube.