Intelligent Cubes

MicroStrategy Intelligent Cube Technology enables you to create Intelligent Cubes, which operates within MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. Intelligent Cubes are multi-dimensional cubes(sets of data) that can be shared as a single in-memory copy, among many different reports created by multiple users. Rather than returning the data from the data warehouse for a single report, you can return sets of data from your data warehouse and save them directly to intelligence server memory. You can then build multiple reports that gather data from the intelligent cubes instead of querying the data warehouse. The reports accessing Intelligent Cubes can use all of the OLAP services features for analysis and reporting purposes.

Sharing Intelligent Cubes

With Intelligent Cubes you can return a specific set of data from your data warehouse. Users can then create reports that display and analyze a subset of the set of data defined in Intelligent Cube. This process is different than the common approach of creating a report that directly accesses the data warehouse. You create Intelligent Cubes and publish them as a shared data source from which users can build reports. Intelligent Cubes provide the fast response time and analytic calculations that are often associated with MOLAP cubes. They also provide the ability to use ROLAP by drilling into the full set of data outside of the Intelligent Cube. Intelligent Cubes act as the layer between the data warehouse and MicroStrategy reports that analyze and display data. Intelligent Cubes help to limit the amount of processing done in the data warehouse and improve performance. A user working on the report that connects to an Intelligent Cube can be restricted to add attributes to the report grid, only if the attributes are included in the intelligent cube.

Creating Intelligent Cubes

Creating Intelligent Cubes is as easy as creating reports. After you have created your intelligent cube, you can publish its set of data to be shared by multiple reports. Intelligent Cubes act as a set of data to which other reports can connect and use OLAP services to report, analyze and display data. The display of data is handled by the reports that access the Intelligent Cube.

Building an Intelligent Cube

Building an Intelligent Cube is similar to building a report. You can add data to your intelligent cube by including objects such as attributes, metrics, filters, and so on as report objects and report filters. Since Intelligent Cubes are used to simply share a set of data, no data or report results are displayed when you

execute an intelligent cube. However, executing an intelligent cube publishes the intelligent cube, which can then be accessed as a set of data for multiple reports.

Steps to create an Intelligent Cube

1. New Intelligent Cube 2. Select Empty Intelligent Cube Click OK 3. In the report editor, add objects such as attributes, metrics, and so on for the intelligent cube, the same way you would add report objects. 4. Create a filter for the intelligent cube as needed. If you create a filter on an Intelligent Cube, any data that is restricted from the intelligent cube is not available for any reports that connect to the Intelligent Cube. This helps reduce the size of the intelligent cube. 5. Click Save and Close to save the intelligent cube and close the report editor. 6. On the toolbar, click Run Report.

The following list of objects and features cannot be included in the definition of Intelligent Cubes as they can be for reports: 1. Consolidation and Custom Groups cannot be included in Intelligent Cubes or in reports that access Intelligent Cubes. 2. OLAP Services features such as view filters, derived metrics, and derived elements cannot be included in Intelligent Cubes, but these features are the main analysis tools for reports that access Intelligent Cubes. 3. Prompts cannot be included in Intelligent Cubes. However, reports that access Intelligent Cubes can use prompts that access only data included in the Intelligent Cube.

Steps to create a report which accesses the Intelligent Cube

1. 2. 3. 4. NewReportIntelligent Cube Tab Select the Intelligent Cube to be used for the report Drag and Drop the required objects into the report Save the report and run it

Refreshing Intelligent Cubes Using Schedules

While you are creating or modifying an Intelligent Cube, you can schedule when an Intelligent Cube should be re-executed against the data warehouse to refresh its data. For example, you can schedule to re-execute and republish an Intelligent Cube when a database load occurs. To schedule an Intelligent Cube to be refreshed: 1. Browse to Intelligent Cube Right ClickSchedule Delivery toRefresh Cube 2. In the Cache Update Subscription Editor, select a schedule drop-down list. 3. Select other schedule options as required, and click OK.

Once the schedule is triggered the Intelligent Cube is re-executed against the data warehouse and published to the Intelligent Cube Monitor.

Enabling ROLAP Drilling for Reports Accessing Intelligent Cubes

All reports that access Intelligent Cubes can drill within the data included in an Intelligent Cube. This provides ROLAP-type analysis without having to re-execute against the data warehouse. For example, an Intelligent Cube includes Year and Quarter. A report accessing the Intelligent Cube only includes Year on the report. On the report, you can drill down from year to quarter, which returns the results without any extra load on the data warehouse or Intelligence Server. Reports that access an Intelligent Cube can be granted full ROLAP access to the data warehouse through drilling. This means that you can enable drilling outside of the Intelligent Cube to access the full set of data available in the data warehouse. While this extends the analysis and data access capabilities of reports that access Intelligent Cubes, drilling outside of an Intelligent Cube can require an additional load on the Intelligence Server and data warehouse. This is because drilling outside of an Intelligent Cube requires a new report to be executed against the data warehouse.

Should the ROLAP drilling option be enabled? Enabling drilling outside of a relatively small Intelligent Cubes can give the benefit of ROLAP analysis through drilling. Enabling this analysis on relatively large Intelligent Cubes has the potential to cause increased load on the data warehouse and Intelligence Server. Example: An Intelligent Cube includes Year but not Quarter. A report accessing the Intelligent Cube includes Year and drilling outside of the Intelligent Cube is enabled. On the report, you drill down from year to quarter. This causes a new report to be created and executed against the data warehouse. The benefit of enabling this extra analysis can come with a performance cost. Steps to Enable/Disable drilling outside of an Intelligent Cube 1. Intelligent CubeRight ClickEdit

2. Data Configure Intelligent Cube 3. Intelligent Cube Options WindowOptionsGeneralDrillingUncheck Use default settings checkbox. 4. Select Allow reports to drill outside the Intelligent Cube.

5. Click Ok 6. Click Save and Close 7. You must publish the intelligent cube again, to make your changes available for reports accessing the Intelligent Cube. Steps to enable/disable drilling outside of an Intelligent Cube for reports accessing any Intelligent Cubes in a project: 1. In MSTR desktop, log into a project with a user account with administrative privileges. 2. Right click the project and select Project Configuration. 3. Project Configuration EditorExpand Intelligent CubesGeneralCheck Allow reports to drill outside the Intelligent Cube. 4. Click OK 5. You must republish the intelligent cubes, to make your changes available for reports accessing the Intelligent Cubes.

Publishing Intelligent Cubes

Publishing an Intelligent Cube retrieves data from the data warehouse and stores this data as an Intelligent Cube in the Intelligence Servers memory. Once an intelligent cube is stored in Intelligence Server memory, multiple reports can be created to view and analyze the set of published data. When an intelligent Cube is published, the intelligent cubes monitor displays the Intelligent Cube. You can manage your published Intelligent Cubes from the Intelligent Cube Monitor.

Unpublishing an Intelligent Cube

You can remove the published Intelligent Cube so that its data is no longer accessible by reports. This action does not delete the Intelligent Cube object saved in a MicroStrategy project, it only removes the intelligent cube from the Intelligent Cube Monitor. Unpublishing an Intelligent Cube prevents reports that access an Intelligent Cube from being able to load the Intelligent Cube into Intelligence Server memory. This gives you more administrative control of when to make an intelligent cube available to reports. Unpublishing an Intelligent Cube means that any report that access the Intelligent Cube cannot be executed. Steps to Unpublish an Intelligent Cube 1. 2. 3. 4. In MSTR desktop, log into a project with a user account with administrative privileges. AdministrationSystem MonitorsSelect Intelligent Cubes Right Click the Intelligent CubeClick Delete The intelligent cube is unpublished from the Intelligent Cube Monitor and its data cannot be accessed by reports.

Accessing a Different Intelligent Cube

You can change the Intelligent Cube accessed by a report for its data requirements. This enables you to switch to an Intelligent Cube that fits your reporting requirements without having to create a new report. Steps to access a different Intelligent Cube 1. ReportRight ClickEdit 2. Report EditorDataIntelligent Cube OptionsPoint grid to Intelligent Cube 3. Browse to the new intelligent cube to which you want to link the report, select it, and then click open.

Unavailability of Intelligent Cubes

If an Intelligent Cube is unavailable, this can cause your reports connected to this Intelligent Cube to fail. This is because the report depends on the Intelligent Cube to provide the data for the report.

Reporting on Intelligent Cubes with Dynamic Sourcing

You can manually connect a report to an Intelligent Cube to perform all reporting and analysis within the shared in-memory copy of data. Even if you dont manually connect your reports to an Intelligent Cube, the reports you create can also access Intelligent Cube data rather than querying the data warehouse automatically. Enabling this automatic link between reports and Intelligent Cubes is referred to as dynamic sourcing. Dynamic sourcing extends the accessibility of Intelligent Cubes by allowing regular reports to access published Intelligent Cubes, as long as the Intelligent Cubes can satisfy the data requirements of the report.