James works at Microsoft as a big data and data warehousing solution architect where he has been for most of the last nine years. Before that he was an independent consultant working as a Data Warehouse/Business Intelligence architect and developer. He is a prior SQL Server MVP with over 35 years of IT experience. Check out his book Deciphering Data Architectures: Choosing Between a Modern Data Warehouse, Data Fabric, Data Lakehouse, and Data Mesh.
Tomorrow (Wednesday, Feb 13th) at Noon CST I will be presenting the session “DBA: Transitioning to a BI Role” at the PASS Professional Development Virtual Chapter. Below is the abstract. It will be a remote presentation that you can join online. … Continue reading →
Tomorrow (Tuesday, Feb 12th) at 11:30am CST, I will be presenting the session “Introduction to Microsoft’s Master Data Services (MDS)” at the Houston Area SQL Server User Group Monthly Meeting. Below is the abstract. I will be presenting in person but you … Continue reading →
On January 30, BA and BI experts took to the virtual stage for the 24 Hours of PASS: Business Analytics Edition to deliver a series of one-hour webcasts, digging deep into the world of business analytics over five tracks. All session recordings … Continue reading →
My experience installing Team Foundation Server (TFS) 2012 to house my business intelligence projects built in Visual Studio 2010: I am installing TFS 2012 on Windows Server 2012. I am using Visual Studio 2010. I will be using the standard installation … Continue reading →
This is an annoying problem I have had a few times: I open a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) project in SSDT, and see that the Toolbox pane is empty, displaying a “There are no usable controls in this group. … Continue reading →
The Master Data Services add-in for Excel has Data Quality Services functionality to help you match data before publishing it to the MDS repository. When you make a connection, if a DQS database is installed on the same instance of … Continue reading →
I am fortunate enough to have been selected to give a presentation at the PASS Business Analytics Conference in Chicago on April 10-12. Below is my presentation abstract along with more info about the conference. My session will be on … Continue reading →
After installing SP1 to SQL Server 2012 (11.0.3000) on one of our servers, I noticed higher than normal CPU loads due to msiexec.exe running non-stop. The cpu percentage would bounce from 0% to 13%, and the application log would have five new … Continue reading →
When using SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) to build a cube, you may start out with one fact table, but then decide to add another fact table. You are then faced with a decision: Do you add that fact table … Continue reading →
After upgrading to SQL Server 2012 SP1, I ran into a bug in Master Data Services (MDS) that applies only to models that are deployed or created after SP1 is applied (models deployed or created before SP1 is applied are … Continue reading →
The Master Data Management (MDM) hub is a database with the software to manage the master data that is stored in the database and keep it synchronized with the transactional systems that use the master data. There are three basic styles … Continue reading →
When installing Master Data Services (MDS) in SQL Server 2012 or installing SQL Server 2012 sp1 (and possibly a CU), you might see the message “The Microsoft SQL Server license has expired” when trying to pull up the MDS web … Continue reading →
If you are interested in viewing the recorded sessions for the PASS Summit 2012, you can order them on a USB flash drive or view them online. You can purchase the Regular Summit Sessions as well as the Pre-Conference Sessions. However, if … Continue reading →
Thanks to everyone who attended my “Introduction to Microsoft’s Master Data Services (MDS)” for the Data Architecture Virtual Chapter. The recording of the session is available here. Here is the PowerPoint presentation: Introduction to Microsoft’s Master Data Services (MDS) I had some … Continue reading →
All the videos for the sessions at PASS SQLRally Nordic 2012 are available for free. Lot’s of great BI info. Check the videos here. Enjoy!
Continue reading →Visual Studio has a project type called “Database Project” that is used to manage a database schema and allows for easy integration with source control. Visual Studio Database Projects have been known by a few different names down the years … Continue reading →
I will be presenting the session “Introduction to Microsoft’s Master Data Services (MDS)” at the Data Architecture Virtual Chapter on Thursday, Dec 20th, at Noon CST. Below is the abstract. It will be a remote presentation that you can join online. Details … Continue reading →
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) has a new update: VS 2010: December version: 10.3.21208.0, November version 10.3.21101.1, September version: 10.3.20905.0, initial version: 10.3.20225.0 VS 2012: December version: 11.1.21208.0, November version: 11.1.21101.1, September version: 11.1.20905.0, version shipped with VS 2012: 11.1.20627, initial version: … Continue reading →
The script task in SSIS 2012 is a great tool when you need to use C# or VB code to perform a function that is not possible with the other SSIS built-in tasks. It uses Visual Studio Tools for Applications … Continue reading →
SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) that was released with SQL Server 2012 obviously works with the BI stack (SSIS/SSAS/SSRS) for 2012. But does it also work with the BI stack from SQL Server 2008 R2? Can you use it with … Continue reading →