Russell Christopher's Semi-Useful BI Musings

This blog contains random one-off solutions to various problems I've encountered while using Microsoft's Business Intelligence tools SQL Server 2005 / Katmai

A new Tableau-focused blog: Tableau Love

Hanging up my blue badge and moving to Tableau Software. You can read about my adventures at the...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 07/20/2011

Russell Christopher's two websites

My Personal site is here https://russellchristopher.me The Business Intelligence site for Russell...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 01/16/2011

SQL Server 2008 R2 CTP2 hits the streets and I am psyched!

https://performancepointblog.com/2009/08/omg-sql-server-2008-r2-ctp2-hits-the-streets/

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 08/11/2009

Where did the Reporting Services 2008 Add-in for SharePoint go?

https://performancepointblog.com/2008/08/where-did-the-reporting-services-2008-add-in-for-sharepoint-...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 08/07/2008

Proof positive that SSRS 2008 is superior to SSRS 2005

Cross posting again!...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 07/09/2008

SQL Reporting Services: What does that “Thread pool pressure” warning mean?

Cross-posting:...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 06/17/2008

Language Packs and the PerformancePoint add-in for Excel

Here’s an interesting behavior I saw being discussed that you may run into when launching the PPS...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/18/2008

Problems making web reference to ReportService2006: Unable to import operation "SetReportHistoryOptions"

Today I needed to write a bit of code to create a model on a SQL 2005 Report server which was...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/15/2008

SQL Analysis Services error processing ROLAP partitions against Teradata

Today I was playing around with stacking SSAS on top of Teradata. Essentially I have AdventureWorks...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/12/2008

PerformancePoint: Why can’t I see values for my KPI’s Actual and Target metrics in a scorecard?

While working on a KPI in PPS, I found that after binding an Actual and Target to my cube I couldn’t...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/08/2008

Save your SSAS browser queries for re-use: new add-in

File this under "reclaim a few second of your life". If you build semi-complex pivots in the SSAS...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/06/2008

Moving On…

Just a quick update on my status – as of 1-May, I’ll be changing my focus a bit. For the last 7-8...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 04/29/2008

Fun displaying SSRS (integrated) reports using PerformancePoint SQL Server Report viewer

Disclaimer: the post below was written after 24+ hours traveling to India - I was pretty much (very...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 03/02/2008

What I like about SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services: The Configuration Manager

I’ve been slacking a little bit in terms of blogging, but now that CTP6 is out with a bunch of new...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 02/28/2008

SSRS File Share provider in a Workgroup

Today I was a lurker in a "news to me" conversation about the SSRS file share delivery provider –...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 02/27/2008

SQL Server 2-D Matrix Builder available on CodePlex

If you need to build a very complex query that returns a matrix with dynamic columns and rows from...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 02/16/2008

RSPreviewPolicy.config: Change in behavior for BIDS 2008?

For those who play around with custom assemblies in SQL Reporting Services, it’s pretty common...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 01/31/2008

What does an exported PerformancePoint scorecard look like in Reporting Services report designer?

I was curious what would happen when I opened an RDL file created by PerformancePoint in Report...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 11/28/2007

Minor idiosyncrasy exporting a PerformancePoint Scorecard to SQL Reporting Services

Today I started playing around with the ability to export/deploy PPS scorecards to SSRS: It’s...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 11/28/2007

How to really, really remove PPS Dashboard Designer

The Microsoft Knowledge Base article 941749 explains (among other things) how to remove...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 11/27/2007

Orcas/VS 2008 ReportViewer redist now available

A new version of the ReportViewer controls has been dropped for use w/ Orcas-created applications....

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 11/26/2007

SQL Server 2008 "Katmai" CTP5 released

Just got an invite from Microsoft Connect to download the November CTP of SQL 2008....you can, too!...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 11/19/2007

Alerting without SQL Server Notification Services

Last week I worked with a customer who wanted to give users the ability to create and subscribe to...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 10/24/2007

Bad password trying to process an SSAS cube against Oracle

Shout-out to my homies Chris and Thanh. Depending on how you set up the impersonation settings on...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 10/19/2007

SAP buys Business Objects

https://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21182779/

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 10/08/2007

PerformancePoint Server 2007 Ships! (as in, you can download it)

Last week I got all excited when I saw that PPS had launched - only to discover "launch" was really...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 09/26/2007

Dell and Microsoft engineer BI offering

Today at SQL PASS, Dell and Microsoft announced a new set of Business Intelligence and Data...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 09/20/2007

Mosha Pasumansky releases new Analysis Services MDX tool

Mosha just announced the availability of a new tool he wrote called MDX Studio: MDX Studio is tool...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 09/19/2007

At SQL PASS? Don't miss these sessions!

Right now I'm in Ocean Shores, WA for team meetings, so I won't be attending SQL PASS. However, if I...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 09/18/2007

File under: Cool feature in Reporting Services editor I never knew existed

It's been, what - 3 years? 4 years? since Reporting Services was released and I JUST stumbled upon...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 09/05/2007

Hot off the presses: resolving MDX query performance bottlenecks

Carl Rabler et al have just released a really nice looking best practives article on how to resolve...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 08/29/2007

AMO Error when adding an attribute to an existing dimension: The transaction cannot be committed because one or more objects were invalidated during the transaction

Today’s tale from the front: I needed to write some POC code and kept on running into the error...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 06/14/2007

Microsoft acquires Dundas’s data visualization components, SQL 2008 news & download CTP3!

This morning @ TechEd, Microsoft announced that we’ve purchased Dundas’s data visualization...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 06/04/2007

Holy Snikes the Dundas OLAP Services stuff is nice!

Looking for different ways to allow users to browse your cubes? Dundas has an online demo of their...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/31/2007

OfficeWriter functionality could be included in Katmai

It's time for our own press release now, thank you! In the link below, you'll see that today Jeff...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/09/2007

SAP Acquires OutlookSoft

What's up with that?! This week is supposed to be all about Microsoft and our BI conference. This is...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/09/2007

How do you set “(Select All)” as the default for multi-value parameters in Reporting Services?

The short answer is that you can’t, although there is a workaround. Essentially, “(Select All)” as...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 05/07/2007

MDX Script Performance Analyser on CodePlex

I forgot about this one - Chris "Master Chief of MDX" Webb is among the contributors to the MDX...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 04/25/2007

SQL Analysis Services Load Simulator released on CodePlex

Just a little while ago ASLoadSim was realeased on CodePlex. It "...contains a set of utilities used...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 04/20/2007

PPS CTP2 VPC now available, too!

Last week I mentioned that PerformacePoint CTP2 was ready for download...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 04/17/2007

First Cumulative Update for SQL Server2 2005 SP2 Released

This doesn't have much to do with BI per se, but is interesting nonetheless - Looks like the SQL...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 04/17/2007

The curious saga of “(Select All)” and multi-valued parameters in Reporting Services

The back- story: Once upon a time, when Reporting Services 2005 was just barely gold, one was able...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 04/09/2007

PerformancePoint CTP2 now available for download

CTP2 was just released, and can be downloaded at Microsoft Connect...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 04/04/2007

New SQL Server Reporting Services Guided Tours

A set of 5 guided tours around Reporting Services have recently been created and are available...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 03/30/2007

How to use URL Access in Reporting Services SharePoint integration mode

URL Access still works if you’ve put your SSRS instance into MOSS integration mode, it just takes a...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 02/24/2007

Installing SSRS (via SQL Server Express Advanced Edition) on Vista 64-bit

I saw an interesting thread on this topic earlier last night, and I thought I’d pass along the...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 02/22/2007

Using the “old” Reporting Services web parts in MOSS 2007

(Thanks to Carolyn Chau) If necessary, you can use the old SSRS web parts we provide in Reporting...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 02/20/2007

SQL 2005 SP2 most likely available this Monday, 2/19

Get ready to download, because SP 2 was declared "ready to ship" last night. The SQL team is hoping...

Author: Russell Christopher Date: 02/16/2007

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