Getting to Know the BI Semantic Model - Visual Studio Live! March 2013

1. Getting to Know the BI
Semantic Model
Level: Intermediate
March 28, 2013
Andrew Brust
CEO and Founder
Blue Badge Insights

2. • CEO and Founder, Blue Badge Insights
• Big Data blogger for ZDNet
• Microsoft Regional Director, MVP
• Co-chair VSLive! and 17 years as a speaker
• Founder, Microsoft BI User Group of NYC
– http://www.msbinyc.com
• Co-moderator, NYC .NET Developers Group
– http://www.nycdotnetdev.com
• “Redmond Review” columnist for
Visual Studio Magazine and Redmond Developer
News
• brustblog.com, Twitter: @andrewbrust
Meet Andrew

3. Andrew’s New Blog (bit.ly/bigondata)

4. Read all about it!

5. What is the BI Semantic Model
• It’s a relational model for analytical data
• Similar to an OLAP cube
– Because it facilitates dimensional/drill-down analysis
– (Some people would even consider BISM a cube)
• Similar to a data warehouse
– Because it accommodates a star schema
– Because it uses columnar technology used in many data
warehouse appliances
• But it’s different
– Data is not stored dimensionally
– Star schema not required
– Can function as a model layer only, storing no physical data

6. Agenda
• BISM Overview
• BISM in Excel 2013
• PowerPivot
• SSAS Tabular
• Power View

7. BISM OVERVIEW

8. Genesis
BISM
Competing
products
(BO, TM1)
Report
Builder 1.0
report
models
Analysis
Services
cubes

9. BISM Companions
• Manifested in storage engines for PowerPivot and SSAS
Tabular mode
xVelocity in-memory technologies
• Analytical function library with Excel-like syntax
• Successor to MultiDimensional Expressions (MDX)
Data Access eXpressions (DAX)
• For designing, storing and querying models
PowerPivot
• For reporting on and visualizing BISM data
Power View
• Which creates BISM models implictly
Excel 2013

10. Motivations
• Self Service
• In-memory performance
• Agility
• More business-friendly
• More relational-friendly

11. Column-Oriented Stores
• Imagine, instead of:
• You have:
• Perf: values you wish to aggregate are adjacent
• Efficiency: great compression from identical or nearly-
identical values in proximity
• Fast aggregation and high compression means huge volumes
of data can be stored and processed, in RAM
Employee ID Age Income
1 43 90000
2 38 100000
3 35 100000
Employee ID 1 2 3
Age 43 38 35
Income 90000 100000 100000

12. BISM IN EXCEL 2013

13. BISM Embedded in Excel 2013
• Importation of data into a sheet implicitly
adds it to a columnar, in-memory BISM
model
– The model can then be queried via PivotTabes, charts
and Power View
– “Import millions of rows from multiple data sources”
– “Create relationships between data from different
sources, and between multiple tables in a PivotTable”
– “Create implicit calculated fields”
– “Manage data connections”
• This means most “spreadmarts” are now
BISM models. This is huge.

14. Rules for Model Building
• Sometimes data is not immediately added
– But building a PivotTable or Power View report on it
will cause it to be added
• Even a manually created Excel table may
be added
• “Add to Data Model” button in PowerPivot
tab of ribbon allows adding explicitly
• Using PowerPivot window unnecessary,
but still required for more advanced
modeling.
– As long as you have Office ProPlus

15. Data Explorer
• Beta Excel add-in for importation of
structured and unstructured data
– Facebook
– Hadoop/HDFS
– Active Directory
– SharePoint
– Files in folder, XML
– Improved Web/HTML
• Because of implicit model and linked
tables, Data Explorer effectively opens up
new data sources for the BISM

16. Embedded Models

17. POWERPIVOT

18. What is PowerPivot?
• Excel + Analysis Services + SharePoint
• Mitigates many spreadmart pitfalls:
– Use Analysis Services (AS) as a hidden engine
Instead of no engine
– Share via SharePoint, accessible by all AS clients
Instead of “deploying” via email
– Formal data refresh on server
So data doesn’t get stale, and users don’t have to
make effort at updating
– Allow IT to monitor
So it’s not all rogue
– Provide path to more rigorous implementations
Can be upsized to Analysis Services

19. How do you get PowerPivot?
• For Excel 2010:
– Download the add-in from www.powerpivot.com
– Get 32-bit or 64-bit version, depending on your
version of Office (not Windows)
– Run the installer
• For Excel 2013:
– Included in product, but only with:
Office Pro Plus retail product (under volume licensing)
Office 365 Pro Plus or Enterprise E3/E4 subscriptions
– It’s still an add-in, installed but not activated by default
Same goes for Excel version of Power View

20. Data Import
• Relational databases
– SQL Server (including SQL Azure!), Access
– Oracle, DB2, Sybase, Informix
– Teradata
– “Others” (OLE DB, including OLE DB provider for ODBC)
• OData feeds, incl. R2/2012 Reporting Services,
Azure DataMarket, WCF Data Services (Astoria),
SharePoint 2010+ lists, Visual Studio LightSwitch
• Excel via clipboard, linked tables
• Filter, preview, friendly names for
tables/columns

21. Calculated Columns and DAX
• Formula-based columns may be created
• Formula syntax is called DAX (Data Analysis
eXpressions).
– Not to be confused with MDX or DMX. Or DACs.
• DAX expressions are similar to Excel formulas
– Work with tables and columns; similar to, but distinct from,
worksheets and their columns (and rows)
• =FUNC('table name'[column name])
• =FUNCX('table name', <filter expression>)
• FILTER(Resellers,[ProductLine] = "Mountain")
• RELATED(Products[EnglishProductName])
• DAX expressions can be heavily nested

22. PowerPivot Guidebook
Table tabs
View data
in Excel
DAX formula bar
Relationship
indicator
Import data from
almost anywhere
Sort and filter
Calculated
column
entry

23. Modeling the Data KPIs
Calculations
Data and
Diagram views
Calculation
area
Calculation
formula
Sort one column
by another

24. Diagram View
Default Aggregations Special Advanced Mode
Reporting
properties
Hierarchies
Hide specific
columns and
tables
Create
relationships
visually
KPIs
Perspectives
Calculations

25. PowerPivot Client

26. Excel Services
• A component of SharePoint Server 2007+;
requires Enterprise CAL
• Allows export of workbook, worksheet, or
individual items to SharePoint report library
– Works great for PivotTables and Charts!
– Also for sheets with CUBExxx formulas or conditional
formatting-driven “scorecards”
• Content can be viewed in browser
– Excel client not required
– Drilldown interactivity maintained
– Rendered in pure HTML and JavaScript
– Parameterization supported

27. PowerPivot Server
• Publish to Excel Services
• Viewing and interacting
• Data Refresh
• Treating as SSAS cube
– 2008 R2 version: URL to .xlsx as server name
– 2012 version: use POWERPIVOT named instance and treat
just like SSAS
Db name is GUID-based; best to discover it
– Use Excel, Reporting Services as clients
And now Power View too…more later

28. The IT Dashboard
Increase IT efficiency:
Familiar Technologies
for Authoring, Sharing,
Security, and
Compliance
Customizable IT
Dashboard
Visualize usage with
animated charts
Simplify management of SSBI content using
IT Operations Dashboard for SharePoint

29. PowerPivot Server

30. SSAS Tabular

31. Analysis Services Tabular Mode
• SSAS Tabular Mode is the
enterprise/server implementation of
PowerPivot
• You must have a dedicated Tabular mode
SSAS instance
• Tabular SSAS projects: Anlaysis Services
project tools gone PowerPivot
– Implements equivalent tooling to PowerPivot Window
– Can create an SSAS Tabular database project by
importing an Excel workbook with PowerPivot model
• SSAS Tabular models support partitions
and roles

32. SSAS Tabular Project in SSDT-BI
(i.e. Visual Studio)
SSAS Tabular project
menus and toolbar
Calculations area
and formula bar
Reporting properties
in Properties window

33. DirectQuery Mode
• In DQ mode, model
defines schema,
but is not used for
data
• Queries issued
directly against
source
• Similar to ROLAP
storage for
conventional cubes
• Combine with
xVelocity
Columnstore
indexes for fast,
real-time querying

34. SSAS Tabular Mode

35. POWER VIEW

36. What is Power View?
• Ad hoc reporting. Really!
• Analysis, data exploration
• Data Visualization
• In Silverlight, in the browser, in SharePoint
• And now in Excel 2013, too
– ProPlus edition required
– Still Silverlight
• Is actually based on SSRS
– Power View makes a special RDL file
• Competitive response
– To QlikView, Tableau, Tibco Spotfire

37. Power View Data Sources
• Power View works only against BISM
• DirectQuery mode supported, however
• Support for SSAS Multidimensional cubes
coming
• Gist is this: Power View emits DAX
expressions
– PowerPivot and SSAS Tabular support DAX
– SSAS Multidimensional will support DAX soon

38. Create a Power View Report
• In Excel 2013, click Power View button on
Insert tab of ribbon
– Make sure add-in is activated
• In SharePoint, click “Create Power View
Report” button or option on workbook in
PowerPivot Gallery
• For SSAS tabular model, create BISM data
source, then click its “Create Power View
Report” button or option
– BISM data sources can point to PowerPivot
workbooks too, if you want.
• Can export to PowerPoint and view there

39. Power View!
Variety of
visualizations
and data formats
Field list, as
with PivotTables
Data regions pane,
as with PivotTables

40. Maximize, Filter
Maximize chart
Filter area

41. Power View Basics

42. Scatter/Bubble Charts
• Allow for several measures
• Features a “play” axis which can be
manipulated through a slider or animated
• Excellent way to visualize trends over time

43. Advanced Properties
• Setting the representative column and
image tells Power View how to summarize
your data, and show stored images
• Other properties tell it about key
attributes, default aggregations and more
• These are all BISM features; they are
merely being exposed by PowerPivot and
SSAS Tabular
– They are the justification for the term “semantic”

44. Advanced Power View

45. Vocabulary
--Multidimensional--
• Multidimensional OLAPMOLAP
• Unified Dimensional ModelUDM
• Unit of schema in a multidimensional databaseCube
--BISM--
• Excel/PowerPivot/SSAS’ column store engine
xVelocity Columnstore
Technology
• Old name for xVelocity in-memory analytics engineVertiPaq
• BI Semantic ModelBISM
• In-Memory BI EngineIMBI
• A column store-based model
• Because it uses tables, not cubes
Tabular

46. Thank You!
• Email
• andrew.brust@bluebadgeinsights.com
• Blog:
• http://www.zdnet.com/blog/big-data
• Twitter
• @andrewbrust on twitter