Monitoring Server: planning data sources
Updated: 2009-04-30
You can use PerformancePoint Dashboard Designer to access different kinds of data stores and to combine data from different resources such as SQL Server 2005 tables, Office Excel 2007 worksheets, and multidimensional data from SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS). Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) and scorecards can use data from any configured data source. You can also combine multidimensional and tabular data sources in a single scorecard. In contrast, analytic charts and grids must use data from SSAS. To learn how to create a data source in Dashboard Designer, see Create a data source To learn more about managing data sources, see Best practices for managing dashboard metadata and data sources.
Data source elements
To access data from a supported data source, you must create a data source element in Dashboard Designer and then configure the element. The following are data source elements that Dashboard Designer supports. To see a more detailed description of supported data sources, see Monitoring Server: supported data sources.
Multidimensional data sources that access SSAS data.
Tabular data sources that access SQL Server 2005 data tables, Excel 2007 worksheets, Office SharePoint Server 2007 lists, or worksheets in Excel Services. To learn how to configure Excel Services as a data source for Dashboard Designer, see Configure Excel Services (Monitoring Server).
Open Database Connectivity (ODBC) compliant data sources.
Use the interfaces in the PerformancePoint Server SDK to create a custom data source.
Note
Make sure that you secure your data source connections. Otherwise, the confidentiality or integrity of the data that you access may be at risk.
Best practices for planning multidimensional data
Designing a database for OLAP is much different from designing for Online Transaction Processing (OLTP). Books and articles such as OLAP Design Best Practices for Analysis Services 2005 (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=129356&clcid=0x409), provide important guidelines.
The TechNet article, Analysis Services Query Performance Top 10 Best Practices (https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=129358&clcid=0x409), offers guidance on proper cube design, writing efficient multidimensional expressions (MDX), and ensuring sufficient hardware resources. These guidelines are very useful in achieving optimal performance against a SQL Server Analysis Services instance.
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