Reed Me : BI

Bing: there it is! My PPS setup problem(s) solved.

reedme — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 03:04:29 GMT

Obligatory bing plug. The name is growing on me... Link #1 in the search results was Nick Barclay’s great post on sorting out PPS setup issues with SQL Server 2008:

"System.Web.Extensions" performancepoint "configuration error" - Bing

Useful reference linkages:

Neither TechNet nor Nick were 100% dead-on, but together gave me enough to get the missing AJAX bits and stopped app pools sorted out. Thanks, folks.

Note to self on install order:

Windows Serve 2008 (x86 – if you want charting to work)
Web Server role
Windows Updates
SharePoint Services 3.0 with SP1
SQLNCLI 9.0 SP2
SQL Server 2005 ADOMD.NET
SQL Server 2008 Reporting Services
ASP.NET AJAX 1.0 (setup won’t ding you for it, but it’s absolutely required)
PerformancePoint 2007
PerformancePoint 2007 SP2
Configure SharePoint (with remote SQL Server 2008 databases)
Configure PPS M&A (with remote SQL Server 2008 databases)

Also, I’m not sure why Hyper-V guests don’t like the HP NC373i Multifunction Gigabit Server Adapter, but the only way that I could get Windows Server 2008 (x86) to recognize the network adapter under Hyper-V as a guest o/s was to use the Legacy Network Adapter instead of the Network Adapter. Not sure why; it wouldn’t even show up in Device Mangler when I used the Network Adapter. The only thing I didn’t try was tracking down the drivers from HP and installing them in the guest o/s the old-fashioned way, since the Legacy Network Adapter works just fine (so far).

One more thing: Team Foundation Server 2010 Beta 1 rocks! However, it didn’t play nice with PPS and PAS, so it’ll have to be lonely over there in its own little VM.

Maybe I’ll describe my adventures with the chainsaw tomorrow...

Cool (Free, Open) Tools: SQL RSS

reedme — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 23:15:40 GMT

Even if nobody has asked you for an RSS feed of data in one or more of your databases, it won't be long before they do! When they do, you can grab this configurable, easy to use data-driven RSS feed widget.

A couple ideas for using this application:

Business intelligence updates delivered to Microsoft Outlook 2007 for management.
Proactive application event logs to your Vista Sidebar news gadget FTW!

I'm sure you can think of more... Check it out!

SQL RSS on CodePlex.com (Microsoft SQL Server Community & Samples)

It's also a great way to get a solid introduction to these technologies:

Change Data Tracking (CDT) feature of SQL Server 2008
SQL Server Reporting Services
The syndication feed feature of WCF
LINQ to XML
ADO.NET

Join us!
This project is a bit different than other SQL Server-sponsored projects. We want YOU to contribute to it. We are actively seeking other people (i.e. not on my team) to enhance and grow this project. Whether you work for Microsoft or not, let us know if you'd like to help!

Is BI a state of mind?

reedme — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:17:00 GMT

I know several database gurus who would say that BI is a chemically induced state of mind since...

It's all too easy to get tripped up by technical, training or cultural issues. One challenge is the seemingly straightforward process of agreeing on common terms. Another is misinterpretation of data if managers focus only on numbers and ignore business processes.
Business Intelligence Is a State of Mind (ecommercetimes.com)

If you're not willing to radically change your business based on the results of your BI initiative, you might want to spend your money on something else.