Building Cubes and Administering Cubes

Defining Data Sources For a Cube

When you create a cube you must specify the data source tables for the cube. Those data source tables must be registered in the SAS metadata. Within SAS OLAP Cube Studio, the Register Table wizard enables you to identify a data source and register it in the SAS metadata. Any data source that you plan to use for your cube must be registered in the SAS metadata so that it is accessible in SAS OLAP Cube Studio.

The type of data table(s) you are using determines the type of cube that you can build. There are three types of SAS OLAP cubes that you can build:

detail table
star schema
fully summarized table

On the Cube Designer -General page, you first specify the cube name, the storage location for the cube, and the type of input data you are using. The type of cube you create (detail, star schema, fully summarized) determines the information that you must specify in the Cube Designer wizard. A star schema cube requires different information than a detail cube or a fully summarized cube. As a result, the wizard presents a slightly different arrangement of steps for each type of cube that you build.

After you complete entering information for the Cube Designer - General page, you then select the specific input data table for the cube. All cube types require an input data table. The Cube Designer - Input page enables you to select a datasource table for the cube. You can also view the underlying table data and the table properties from this page. Star schema and fully summarized cubes have additional tables that must be specified as follows:

For star schema cubes you must also define the dimension tables for the cube. Dimension tables are defined after input tables on the Cube Designer - Dimension Tables page.
For fully summarized cubes, you also define aggregation tables on the Cube Designer - Aggregation Tables page. You do this when you define aggregations for the cube.

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