I wonder if anyone can recommend a good book on SQL Server Analysis Services. I'm expecting to get very much involved with that technology, so 'For dummies' series won't work for me.
Is Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services good? Is Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX better?
This one is ok, Delivering Business Intelligence with Microsoft SQL Server 2005
This one is really good at explaining how everything comes together: The Microsoft Data Warehouse Toolkit: With SQL Server 2005 and the Microsoft Business Intelligence Toolset.
Professional SQL Server Analysis Services 2005 with MDX is decent, but I am pretty sure there are much better books out there. Also Pro SQL AS with MDX lacks info on how to design a good data warehouse db schema and how to get the data into it.
Here is a list of books and resources that I used when learning AS and MDX. The bit that most people seem to have trouble with is making the SQL to MDX paradigm shift. None of the books or resources I've seen really do a good job of that. I've never seen anything in the web or in print that really gives one a 'eureka' moment so you're probably still stuck doing this the hard way. Here are some of the books I have bought and used.
Fast Track to MDX by Whitehorn et. al. I have the first edition of this book which was fairly good as it was brief and to the point but is now somewhat out of date. I haven't read the second edition.
MDX Solutions by Spofford et. al. I think this is the best book on MDX and got more mileage from this than any other. Note that the first edition is terrible and the second is a big improvement. As a reflection on the general standard of AS/MDX titles the first edition of Spofford (for all its faults) was regarded as the best book on the subject at one point. The second is rather better but note that it is focussed on MDX the language and does not really go much into SSAS as a product.
Professional Analysis Services 2005 with MDX. This is a fairly typical Wrox press book. It is OK and goes into SSAS as a product more than Spofford does.
Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005 By Lachev. The author of this also maintains a blog (see below). The content is fairly good, although it covers SSAS as well as MDX programing with an emphasis on SSAS.
This is a list of blogs and web resources on MDX or SSAS.
Mosha Pasumansky was one of the main architects behind SSAS. He maintains a MDX and OLAP resource site. Note that he is one of the authors of Fast Track to MDX.
Christian Wade is a consultant for an outfit called Conchango that encourages its consultants to maintain blog sites. His blog is quite a good source of bits and bobs about MDX.
Teo Lachev is a consultant and author of Applied Microsoft Analysis Services 2005. He maintains a blog and various resources on his website.
William E. Pearson wrote a large series of articles about MDX on the Database Journal website. These are quite good beginner material but slightly out of date as they were mostly written for AS2000.
Nigel Pendse maintains a website called 'The OLAP report' that has quite a bit of material. Most is really aimed at non-technical management.
Avoid looking for a single book to teach you everything. Every author and editor have different takes on what is important and the books themselves will approach the problem different. A book that explains how to do everything in Analysis Services may be the one you need if you are just upgrading from one version to another, while a book that explains cube theory and how you use this data would be very important to someone new. If you are only able to buy one book, go to a good bookstore that has these types of books and spend some time looking at them. Read the preface and see what the author intended you to get out of the book. If this aligns to what you are looking for then make sure you can handle the writing style of the author.
I recommend Practical Business Intelligence with SQL Server 2005. It's very practical and easy to read.
This book covers lots of practical tips and tricks "from the trenches": Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services. I'd definitely recommend it once you've got the basics covered.
(Bummer that Stack Overflow only allows one hyperlink per post for new users - I originally had hyper links to all the books below but had to remove them due to that limitation.)
The Analysis Services Books Landscape (Books targeting the 2008 version of the product):
The Microsoft Press "Step by Step" books, Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services Step by Step and Microsoft SQL Server 2008 MDX Step by Step are designed to be good intro books (MDX is the query language for Analysis Services. To my knowledge, this is the only MDX book targeting the 2008 version of Analysis Services.)
Professional Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services 2008 with MDX - Written by members of the SQL Server Analysis Services product team. Nice walkthroughs of using the product to build cubes. Lots of screenshots. (Disclosure: I tech reviewed this book)
Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services 2008 Unleashed - Written by other current and former members of the Analysis Services product team. This is a more technical and detailed "internals"-type book.
Expert Cube Development with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services - Written by SQL Server MVPs working deeply in the BI space this book has great practical advice on all aspects of using Analysis Services. This shouldn't be your first Analysis Services book but the advice in here is, as the title says, expert and valuable.
Data Mining with SQL Server 2008 - Data mining is an important part of SQL Server Analysis Services. Written by members of the Analysis Services Data Mining development team.
Smart Business Intelligence Solutions with Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - This book covers Analysis Services but also other products/technologies used to build BI applications like Integrations Services and Reporting Services.
Programming Microsoft SQL Server 2008 - An interesting book, the first half is how to program against the relational side of SQL Server 2008; the second half shows how to program against the BI side of SQL Server.
There might be a few other books on the topic but these are the ones I'm aware of.
-Ron
An excellent book for getting an overview of the entire SSAS/BI stack is (the misleadingly titled) "Pro PerformancePoint Server 2007," by Philo Janus.
Quoting the author: "My goal with this book is to lay out the Microsoft BI 'stack' in a way that makes it possible to learn and understand how every part applies to the overall goal of deriving value from large amounts of data."
I'm self taught in all things SSAS/BI and this kind of overview was excellent for "putting all the pieces together."