Building and Deploying the Cube
You
basically have a cube definition now, but it is just an empty shell.
You need to process it and then deploy it so that it is instantiated
and populated with data (via the data source view). Remember that this
cube definition is a solution project, just like a C# code project. It
must be deployed before it can be used. First, you need to verify that
the properties of the cube you are building are set correctly. You must
have these properties correct before the cube can be processed. (Process,
in this case, means build the cube structure and populate the measures
and their associated dimensions.) You can assume that the properties
will not be set correctly, so you should take a quick look and update
them accordingly. You start by going to the Project menu item in Visual
Studio and locating the Properties item entry (see Figure 31).
After you select this
option, you navigate to the Deployment entry (the configuration
property on the bottom). You need to focus on the Target (the target of
the deployment) properties. As you can see in Figure 32, the Server property should be pointing to the location where you want this cube to be deployed. The Database
property is simply the name under which you will deploy the database.
For this example, you should make sure to specify a valid Server value;
the default is (localhost). The
default in this property usually is not what you want to happen and
usually results in an error during the deployment step. Therefore, you
should specify this value explicitly (such as DBARCH-LT2\SQL08DE01, which is the Analysis Services server, and CompSalesUnleashed as the Database
entry). After the cube is deployed, you will be able to connect to this
server (SSAS engine) with SSMS and administer the cube accordingly.
After you apply these
property changes, you are ready to first do a build and then deploy
your SSAS cube. You start by making sure you have a successful build by
using the Build menu item on the toolbar or using the specific build
option for the current SSAS solution: Build CompSalesUnleashed. They
both do the same thing. If you have no errors (and you have received a
Build Succeeded message in the lower-left message bar of Visual
Studio), you can deploy this SSAS solution.
Again,
you should choose the Build menu item in the toolbar and click the
Deploy Solution option to deploy this cube. Immediately, a Deployment
Progress dialog box appears in the lower-right corner of Visual Studio.
When the deployment has progressed, you receive a Deployment Completed
Successfully message.
