Overview: A quick tip about using the Object Explorer Details within SSMS for more processing control of a SQL Server Analysis Services database which is actively under development.

The BIDS Environment

When you’re working in an SSAS project in BIDS, the “Default” Processing Option is selected by default. The other two options are “Do Not Process” and “Full.” You can’t control the order items are processed, nor how individual items are processed.

Have you ever deployed & processed your SSAS changes & received an error that you know full well isn’t a valid error – something that’s only being returned because, for instance, one dimension needs to be fully processed before the measure group?

That’s because of the “Default” processing setting shown above – sometimes you just need more finite control over the order of processing & the type of processing. At this point of development you probably don’t have your SSIS environment quite ready yet – and the choices you need when you reach production aren’t the same as development – so here’s a quick tip: Use SSMS for processing instead of BIDS.

Using BIDS To Process an SSAS Database Actively Under Development

First, set the Processing Option in BIDS to Do Not Process. Then, when you deploy you really only deploy.

Within SSMS, connect to the Analysis Services database.

After you’ve connected, view the Object Explorer Details.

Using the Object Explorer Details, first browse to the Dimensions. Multi-select the dimensions you wish to process, right-click and choose Process.

You are then presented with a dialog box with the various Processing Options. For instance, if you made quite a few project changes for a particular dimension, you could choose a Process Full on one dimension but not necessarily all of the dimensions. Process Update is the default. This granular level of control isn’t available in the BIDS environment.

When the dimensions have completed, you can then process the Cube (or individual Measure Groups) itself. Process Full is the default.

And that’s it! This technique isn’t always necessary. For minor changes, I still let the default processing occur when I deploy from BIDS. By having more granular control over the processing when you make relatively major changes to the SSAS project, you might eliminate some errors received during the development cycle – thus saving time chasing down something that’s a non-issue. Always a good thing in my book.

Finding More Information

MSDN: Managing Analysis Services Using SQL Server Management Studio