If someone could please recommend another book so I may learn DW/BI and Analysis Services, it would be most appreciated. Thank you.

This is a great book to get started with SSAS 2005. Takes you from the very beginnings all the way up to entry level MDX statements. Excellent code samples and sample database to work along with.

Execellent Step by Step book
I dont know what all the other reveiws are whining about. M.Anwar states book is boorley written. sb poorly. sigh. Bottom line is the book gets to the point, covers the main topics, and for just 384 pages, (400 is a stretch) does not contain any fat. It usually does a great job in explaining the topics covered. I had a problem with ch6 - aggregrate function - ByAccount , but probably just my fat fingers getting the way. The CD does come with answers, so help is available. The Glossary may be sparse but is very functional. The index details the topics well. I made a few manual entries, but what is perfect. It is better written than most tech books I have. And W.Salkin states book has (no .ldf). not true. I had isses reading cd on my computer so I installed on another computer, copied files and continued on just fine. And Jon Anderson - the book does state on the title - "Step by Step" , does explain the steps very well, at least to me. you're right, MDX can be confusing, and it was a little hard to grasp. page 188 states that unless you're creating a custom report generator, you'll probably have little occasion to write MDX, BUT, knowing will enable you to understand clearly what the subquery is doing. And K.Johnson - had problems with ch 3 Schema Gen Wizard. I did not, Kind of surprised, but had problems elsewhere, but just looked at the answers folder. Wole Babalola had database attach problems. I did to but once I got past it, found the book to be very very good. would be nice to have a web site to download code from. This is an execellent book to get you started, and show you the 101 steps of ssas.

If your goal is to actually learn something about Analysis Services and OLAP cubes / datawarehousing, I wouldn't bother buying this book. Well, the first chapter brought some insight to the topics, but the rest of the book is really a step-by-step - point-and-click tutorial in the Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS), and the SQL Server Management Studio. The chapter about MDX left me more confused than before.

If your goal is to get a simple datawarehouse and cube up and running, with the least amount of insight, it might do the trick. (But where's the fun in that...)

I ran into a problem early in the book in Chapter 3 going through the Schema Generation Wizard. I went through the steps and it said cannot find the matching TimeAttributeType. Now I'm stuck!

I am not sure why some people had problem following the examples or used the CD. I haven't had any issue except write-back excel example in chap 10 and some mismatched data in chap 9 (account dimension). The book is very helpful in building your understanding by working the examples step by step. It explains most concepts in SSAS clear and interesting to learn. Right after I finished the book, I was able to utilize the knowledge in a small scale SSAS project. Even now I have purchased and studied several other SSA books, this is still the book I enjoy the most.

I was extremely disappointed. The book appeared to be a good one but it was just a waste of money. I was not able to attach the database file to do the practices. I do not recommend anyone buying this book.

This book is centered on its step by step instuctions which demonstrate the features of Analysis Services. It is best to follow the instructions by performing them in Visual Studio. I had no trouble installing the database using the CD-Rom as provided by Safari which includes an MDF file and SQL script.

A postitive is that there is very little fluff in this book, it lists the steps and explains the concepts without going into great detail. In fact, I would prefer a little more explanation of what's going on under the hood, but at the same time it is nice not to get bogged down in a large highly detailed book. This is a good introduction to Analysis Services but will not make you an expert.

The book is so boorly written that I cannot proceed beyond chapter 3 Page 52. I cannot believe Microsoft totaly left out Technical review of this book to make sure there are ommission. I advise against buying this book instead buy the upcoming release MCTS Self-Paced Training Kit Exam 70-445 Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Business Intelligence - Implementation and Maintenance. These are usually done better if not great.

Very easy to follow. Great for a beginner. Quick read, great examples.

I found the book extremely useful in getting me pointed in the right direction with Reporting Services. I used the book less as a technical reference and more as an overview of how Reporting Services works and what options are available for solving reporting problems in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS).

I agree with the other reviewers that the book needs additional technical editing. For example, in Chapter 9 Stacia states that the rs.exe utility can be used with C# and that sample scripts are installed with SQL Server 2005. I have not seen a reference anywhere else on the web that states rs.exe can be used with C# and after installing SQL Server 2005 multiple times with every sample database I could find I did not get any sample scripts in the location specified.

If you use the book for an overview of SSRS you will gain many insights into how Reporting Services works but for the detailed technical details I would recommend the MSDN books.

Chapter 1 made several good points. Chapter 2 was more confusing in its presentation but I got something out of it. Chapter 3 began the hands-on so I installed the sample files and sample database contained on the accompanying CD-ROM -- only to find that I couldn't successfully install the database! The CD contains only the ".mdf" file for the sql database (no .ldf), not enough to "restore" or "attach" the database. Their script to install the DB also errored out. I was unable to locate any useful help or errata on the MsPress website. It looks like the authors spent a lot of time and effort developing the step-by-step examples so I'm quite disappointed that I can't proceed further into chapter 3. I'd recommend looking to the Microsoft SSAS tutorial instead of this book.

I am both shocked and surprised at how completely faulty this book is. I have the previous version of this book; Microsoft SQL Server 2000 Analysis Services Step by Step, and I don't remember it being this bad. Don't get me wrong, I know Reed Jacobson as I had met him at the SQL Server 2005 launch event, and I don't necessarily blame him for the poor standing. I do however blame Microsoft as there is no way they could have performed any sort of Technical Editorial on this book. If you do decide to buy it, watch out for the Writeback partitions exercise in Chapter 10. It blew up my Virtual Server. Twice.

I found this book to be very thorough and cover a lot of ground. I only had some minor issues with working the exercises. You do have to remember to read carefully how to go get the download of the code as it is missing off the CD. I got a lot out of working through the whole book.

I looked through this book at a bookstore recently (no insult to Amazon, but I really like have my hands on a book to review it properly). The text is large, and so even though the book is big, one page does not contain much info. I knew I was going to be disappointed when I opened the book halfway and there was an introduction to using paramaterized queries. I needed a book that assumed that I already knew basic SQL, .NET progrmming, and SQL Server 2000, and was already familiar with the basic Microsoft products.

This was not quite it. It seems to be written for people with less hands-on experience developing reports, likely written for people who want to decide whether to use Reporting Services, and at a high-level, what RS is capable of. I needed something that could give me a quick understanding of the essentials, and then help me to start cranking out real solution.

Initially, I was disappointed by the fact that key files for the book's examples were not available on the accompanying CD.

Within a week, Microsoft posted a download link for the outstanding files. Most pleasant.

In keeping with SQL Server Analysis Services Step-by-Step and DTS Step-by-Step, this book is a fantastic way to pick up the necessary skills to work with Reporting Services. Like the other Step-by-Steps, this book takes a very practical approach to teaching the subject matter. For those of us with a backgound in .NET development, the CD contains 3 additional bonus chapters neat topics on (among other things) extending and customizing Reporting Services for our appplications.

Like I said in an earlier review for DTS Step-by-Step, I hope Microsoft keeps up this great trend going forward with publications covering SQL Server 2005.

ACD (MCDBA)