Does ROLAP mode require processing at all? - ssas

I understand the differences in ROLAP, MOLAP, HOLAP i think but does that mean that ROLAP never needs to be process since you always getting data directly from database?

In MOLAP you'll store the aggregations in the data directories of Analysis Services. Using ROLAP you'll store the aggregations in indexed views in the relational database instead. ROLAP will give you a real-time slower approach than MOLAP, but is good for historical stuff that you need to look at once in a while.
From MSDN:
If a partition uses the ROLAP storage mode and its source data is stored in SQL Server Database Engine, Analysis Services tries to create indexed views to contain aggregations of the partition. If Analysis Services cannot create indexed views, it does not create aggregation tables. Although Analysis Services handles the session requirements for creating indexed views on SQL Server Database Engine, the following conditions must be met by the ROLAP partition and the tables in its schema in order for Analysis Services to create indexed views for aggregations:
The partition cannot contain measures that use the Min or Max aggregate functions.
Each table in the schema of the ROLAP partition must be used only one time. For example, the schema cannot contain [dbo].[address] AS "Customer Address" and [dbo].[address] AS "SalesRep Address".
Each table must be a table, not a view.
All table names in the partition's schema must be qualified with the owner name, for example, [dbo].[customer].
All tables in the partition's schema must have the same owner; for example, you cannot have a FROM clause that references the tables [tk].[customer], [john].[store], and [dave].[sales_fact_2004].
The source columns of the partition's measures must not be nullable.
All tables used in the view must have been created with the following options set to ON:
ANSI_NULLS
QUOTED_IDENTIFIER
-
The total size of the index key, in SQL Server Database Engine, cannot exceed 900 bytes. SQL Server Database Engine will assert this condition based on the fixed length key columns when the CREATE INDEX statement is processed. However, if there are variable length columns in the index key, SQL Server Database Engine will also assert this condition for every update to the base tables. Because different aggregations have different view definitions, ROLAP processing using indexed views can succeed or fail depending on the aggregation design.
The session creating the indexed view must have the following options set to ON: ARITHABORT, CONCAT_NULL_YEILDS_NULL, QUOTED_IDENTIFIER, ANSI_NULLS, ANSI_PADDING, and ANSI_WARNING. This setting can be made in SQL Server Management Studio.
The session creating the indexed view must have the following option set to OFF: NUMERIC_ROUNDABORT. This setting can be made in SQL Server Management Studio.
Read the whole thing here.

Related

Creating Reusable Derived Data Sets in SQL Server Without CREATE TABLE Access

I am creating a large intermediate data set (millions of records, half hour runtime) that is used as parts of several other different queries. Ideally this would be stored as a materialized view or cached table but I don't have DDL access on the server.
Subqueries and CTE's are inefficent because they must be re-executed every time and can't be indexed. Local/global temporary tables work well but get lost when I disconnect.
Is there any way to create a more persistent temporary table (or equivalent) without DDL access?

Query SQL Server 2000 for table creation and alteration queries

I'm looking for a way to get all table creation and alteration queries attached to a database, in SQL Server 2000. Is this stored in a system table, or is there a built in method to remake them?
Goal: to extract the schema for customizable backups.
My research so far turned up nothing. My Google-Fu is weak...
Note that I don't know that there's a way to specify which filegroup a stored procedure is on (other than the default). So what you may consider, in order to at least keep the script repository backup small, is:
create a filegroup called non_data_objects, and make it the default (instead of PRIMARY).
create a filegroup for each set of tables, and create those tables there.
backup each set of tables by filegroup, and always include a backup of non_data_objects so that you have the current set of procedures, functions etc. that belong to those tables (even though you'll also get the others). Because 1. will only contain the metadata for non-data, it should be relatively small.
You might also consider just using a different database for each set of tables. Other than using three-part naming in your scripts that need to reference the different sets, there really is no performance difference. And this makes your backup/recovery plan much simpler.

When to use temporary table in SQL Server 2005

I read about temporary tables, global temporary tables and table variables. I understood it but could not imagine a condition when I have to use this. Please elaborate on when I should use the temporary table.
Most common scenario for using temporary tables is from within a stored procedure.
If there is logic inside a stored procedure which involves manipulation of data that cannot be done within a single query, then in such cases, the output of one query / intermediate results can be stored in a temporary table which then participates in further manipulation via joins etc to achieve the final result.
One common scenario in using temporary tables is to store the results of a SELECT INTO statement
The table variable is relatively new (introduced in SQL Server 2005 - as far as i can remember ) can be used instead of the temp table in most cases. Some differences between the two are discussed here
In a lot of cases, especially in OLTP applications, usage of temporary tables within your procedures means that you MAY possibly have business processing logic in your database and might be a consideration for you to re-look your design - especially in case of n tier systems having a separate business layer in their application.
The main difference between the three is a matter of lifetime and scope.
By a global table, I am assuming you mean a standard, run of the mill, table. Tables are used for storing persistent data. They are accessible to all logged in users. Any changes you make are visible to other users and vice versa.
A temporary table exist solely for storing data within a session. The best time to use temporary tables are when you need to store information within SQL server for use over a number of SQL transactions. Like a normal table, you'll create it, interact with it (insert/update/delete) and when you are done, you'll drop it. There are two differences between a table and a temporary table.
The temporary table is only visible to you. Even if someone else creates a temporary table with the same name, no one else will be able to see or affect your temporary table.
The temporary table exists for as long as you are logged in, unless you explicitly drop it. If you log out or are disconnected SQL Server will automatically clean it up for you. This also means the data is not persistent. If you create a temporary table in one session and log out, it will not be there when you log back in.
A table variable works like any variable within SQL Server. This is used for storing data for use in a single transaction. This is a relatively new feature of TSQL and is generally used for passing data between procedures - like passing an array. There are three differences between a table and a table variable.
Like a temporary table, it is only visible to you.
Because it is a variable, it can be passed around between stored procedures.
The temporary table only exists within the current transaction. Once SQL Server finishes a transaction (with the GO or END TRANSACTION statements) or it goes out of scope, it will be deallocated.
I personally avoid using temporary tables and table variables, for a few reasons. First, the syntax for them is Microsoft specific. If your program is going to interact with more than one RDBMS, don't use them. Also, temporary tables and table variables have a tendency to increase the complexity of some SQL queries. If your code can be accomplished using a simpler method, I'd recommend going with simple.

Can you please tell importance of default databases provided by SQLserver?

In Sqlsever Enterprise manager, there are some default databases are provided like tempdb and etc. What is significance of those databases?
TempDB is used for temporary work in SQL Server. Anytime you create a temp table that storage is done inside of TempDB. Here is a very good article from MSDN
Here are some points referenced from the MSDN:
The tempdb system database is a global resource that is available to all users connected to the instance of SQL Server and is used to hold the following:
•Temporary user objects that are explicitly created, such as: global or local temporary tables, temporary stored procedures, table variables, or cursors.
•Internal objects that are created by the SQL Server Database Engine, for example, work tables to store intermediate results for spools or sorting.
•Row versions that are generated by data modification transactions in a database that uses read-committed using row versioning isolation or snapshot isolation transactions.
•Row versions that are generated by data modification transactions for features, such as: online index operations, Multiple Active Result Sets (MARS), and AFTER triggers.
Operations within tempdb are minimally logged. This enables transactions to be rolled back. tempdb is re-created every time SQL Server is started so that the system always starts with a clean copy of the database. Temporary tables and stored procedures are dropped automatically on disconnect, and no connections are active when the system is shut down. Therefore, there is never anything in tempdb to be saved from one session of SQL Server to another. Backup and restore operations are not allowed on tempdb.
There is also the master database (holds information about all databases), Model database, MSDB (stores information on the sql agent, dts, jobs, etc).
More info here as well
MASTER - This keeps all server-level information, and meta-data about all databases on the server. Don't lose this :)
MSDB - Holds information about SQL Agent jobs and job run history
TEMPDB - Used as a temporary "work space" for temporary tables and lots of other stuff (like sorting and grouping)
MODEL - When you create a new, blank database, it makes a copy of MODEL as a template
DISTRIBUTION - (You will only see this on servers where you have set up replication) Holds records pending for replication.
SQL Server uses tempdb to store internal objects such as the intermediate results of a query. You can get more details here.

How tempDB works?

I am trying to understand the tempDB and following are the doubts popping in my mind.
What is the lifetime of data in tempDB? Say a query is doing some Order By and uses tempDB for performing that. After this query finishes, someone else also executes a query which utilizes the tempDB. Will the second query find records written by first query in the tempDB or will they be deleted?
Are there any visible tables created inside the tempDB by the Sql Engine? How can I know which temporary table is created because of this query? Is there any naming convention followed by the Sql engine for naming these temporary tables?
I am new to tempDB so please pardon me for asking such silly (if at all) questions :-)
It will be very nice if someone can point me to a good resource which can help me learn about tempDB.
Temp table is stored in tempdb until the connection is dropped (or in the case of a global temp tables when the last connection using it is dropped). You can also (and it is a good practice to do so) manually drop the table when you are finished using it with a drop table statement.
No, others cannot see your temp tables if they are local temp tables (They can see and use global temp tables) Multiple people can run commands which use the same temp table name but they will not be overlapping in a local temp table and so you can have a table named #test and so can 10,000 other users, but each one has its own structure and data.
You don't want to generally look up temp tables in tempdb. It is possible to check for existence, but that is the only time I have ever referenced tempdb directly. Simply use your temp table name. Example below of checking for existence
IF OBJECT_ID('TempDB.dbo.#DuplicateAssignments') IS NOT NULL
BEGIN
DROP TABLE #DuplicateAssignments
END
You name temp tables by prefacing the name with # (for local tables the ones you would use 999.9% of the time) and ## for global temp tables, then the rest of the name you want.
There's a few MSDN articles that are probably the best source of information on the tempDB database in SQL Server.
tempdb Database
The tempdb system database is a global
resource that is available to all
users connected to the instance of SQL
Server and is used to hold the
following:
Temporary user objects that are explicitly created, such as: global or
local temporary tables, temporary
stored procedures, table variables, or
cursors.
Internal objects that are created by the SQL Server Database Engine, for
example, work tables to store
intermediate results for spools or
sorting.
Row versions that are generated by data modification transactions in a
database that uses read-committed
using row versioning isolation or
snapshot isolation transactions.
Row versions that are generated by data modification transactions for
features, such as: online index
operations, Multiple Active Result
Sets (MARS), and AFTER triggers.
Operations within tempdb are minimally
logged. This enables transactions to
be rolled back. tempdb is re-created
every time SQL Server is started so
that the system always starts with a
clean copy of the database. Temporary
tables and stored procedures are
dropped automatically on disconnect,
and no connections are active when the
system is shut down. Therefore, there
is never anything in tempdb to be
saved from one session of SQL Server
to another. Backup and restore
operations are not allowed on tempdb.
There's also tempdb and Index Creation, this blog post along with Working with tempdb in SQL Server 2005 which states:
The SQL Server system database, tempdb, has undergone a number of changes in SQL Server 2005. There are new tempdb usages and internal optimizations in SQL Server 2005; tempdb architecture is mostly unchanged since SQL Server 2000.
The tempdb system database is very similar to a user database. The main difference is that data in tempdb does not persist after SQL Server shuts down.
The temporary tables created in TempDB are dropped when the query is completed.
I'm not sure on this (I would have to try it), but I think theoretically ALL tables created in TempDB are visible, although only the user that created the table has permission to access it.