How to deploy SSAS cube to production server

Hello friend, in this post I am sharing the information about how to properly deploy the SSAS Cube to the production or client server properly with proper connection and credentials.

In one of my project we had a requirement to create datawarehouse and cube dynamically for each year when data gets archived. The task was not that much easy for me as I was not having any experience of SSAS and all things such as datawarehouse, cube, dimension, fact metrics etc were totally new for me.

But finally we had completed our developement by reading more about SSAS and related things. You can read following related posts which are helpful for such developement.

1. Copy changed data in table from one database to another in SQL stored procedure.
2. How to Create New SSAS Cube from existing dynamically in C#.
3. Process SSAS Cube programmatically in C# using Microsoft.AnalysisServices Dll.

In our environment we were using BIDS (SQL server Business Intelligence Studio) to deploy the cube to the QA environment but using BIDS for deployment on production was not good idea so after reading more about SSAS we found that using "Deployment Wizard" is one of the proper way to deploy the Cube on production.

Using "Deployment wizard" you can choose the objects which needs to be deployed on the server. When you use BIDS for the cube deployment there are chances that you may loss or overwrite some of the objects so you can avoid such problems using "Deployment Wizard".

Let's see using "Deployment Wizard" step by step.

Before using deployment wizard confirm you have the user credentials which has proper permissions to the database and analysis services.

Also you will require build ouput of your Cube project which will produce the files like following.

• CubeProjectName.asdatabase
• CubeProjectName.configsettings
• CubeProjectName.deploymentoptions
• CubeProjectName.deploymenttargets

Now Open "Deployment Wizard" which is situated in "All Programs" >> "Microsoft SQL Server 2008 R2 >> Analysis Services >> Deployment Wizard.
(I am using SQL Server 2008 R2)

It will open a window like below.

Click on Next, it will show you the window like below where you need to select the ".asdatabase" file.

Once you selected proper ".asdatabase" file, click on "Next", it will open a window like below in which you need to provide target server and cube database name.

After providing target details,clik on "Next", it will open window like below, here you need to select options for partitions and roles, in most cases, default options are suitable.

After selecting the options, click on "Next", it will open window like below, here you need to specify configuration properties and connection string. Read all properties and set the required values. Here too default options are ok if you are not sure about it, in this window it is very important to select the proper data source connection for which you need click the "..." button.

Provide the proper server name and credentials (recommended is to use windows authentication) and click on "Test Connection" >> "OK"> "Next"

Now select the Processing option (you can select Full Processesing here) and click on "Next"

Now confirm the deployment and here you have the option to generate deployment script, check the box if you want it to create and click on "Next"

You will able to see the status in window like below, once deployment completed successfully, you can select the "Next" and then "Finish".

Hope you have liked this post. If have anything positive to add do share it in comment section below. Thanks.