It’s about that time again, PASS Summit 2012 is right around the corner in Seattle, WA. It will be held at the convention center from November 6-9. This year will feature more than 170 sessions across 6 tracks from 90 speakers in addition to 2 days of pre-cons; and that… Read more

PowerPivot was a great new tool when it released several years ago.  Now the newest version is out along side SQL Server 2012.You can still install the 2008 R2 version of PowerPivot or you can try out the new 2012 RTM version.  There are some nifty improvements that Devin Knight… Read more

Between SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 there were many new features that were added or enhanced.  There still remains a list of items that are either unsupported actions, such as workbook authoring, or unsupported features, such as cell comments.

In Excel Services 2007 many unsupported features would cause the workbook… Read more

Like all systems built on top of SQL Server SharePoint 2010 needs to have a plan for availability.  There are many methods for configuring high availability, one of which is database mirroring. Other options, such as clustering will be discussed separately.

Database mirroring is a SQL Server technology used for… Read more

In T-SQL there are many functions there to help do a variety of different things.  SSIS is no different.  In fact, a good number of the commonly used functions from T-SQL are in SSIS as well.  Here we will explore the different Trim functions found in SSIS.

We will be… Read more

In an SSIS package you have the option to choose from a wide range of source from Flat Files to writing queries using OLEDB sources such as SQL Server. Often times, such as writing queries against SQL Server, the metadata will come from the table and you won’t need to… Read more

The MultiDimensional eXpressions, or MDX, language is used to query the data in a multidimensional in an OLAP database.  In the case of examples here, SQL Server Analysis Services. This example uses the Contoso demo cube available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=18279

Function Name: BottomCount

Use Case: Brings back the lowest… Read more

The MultiDimensional eXpressions, or MDX, language is used to query the data in a multidimensional in an OLAP database.  In the case of examples here, SQL Server Analysis Services. This example uses the Contoso demo cube available for download here: http://www.microsoft.com/download/en/details.aspx?displaylang=en&id=18279

Function Name: TopCount

Use Case: Brings back the highest… Read more

One dimension you can be positive will always make it’s way into your data warehouse is the Date dimension.  Over the past couple of years I have taken a look at a lot of Date dimension scripts and found quite a few good ones.  Well recently I needed to add… Read more

Tomorrow at 11AM Eastern time I will be presenting a FREE webinar for Pragmatic Works (website) on Introduction to SharePoint BI.  Get the details below along with the link to view the FREE event.

Title: Introduction to SharePoint BI

When: Tuesday March 6th, 2012 at 11AM Eastern

Description: Read more

I got word this week that one of my sessions for the upcoming SQL Saturday #110 in Tampa, FL was accepted.  If you are unaware, SQL Saturday is a free day of training that takes place on a Saturday.  I’m sure that didn’t need any explanation, but you just never… Read more

If you have ever gotten this error message you may have been left scratching your head wondering why…kinda like me.

The Windows Search Engine is currently disabled. Outlook will not be able to provide fast search results using the Instant Search functionality unless the service is running.

Well, like any… Read more

There are several ways to check the version of SharePoint 2010 currently installed in your environment. That about sums up what we are talking about here.  Check it out below.

Method 1: Through SharePoint 2010 Central Administration:

1. Open SharePoint 2010 Central Administration
2. Click on the link for System Settings
3. Click…

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You may fire up the SharePoint 2010 Management Shell (which allows you to run PowerShell commands to do cool SharePoint stuff, very technical… I know) and get the following error:

The local farm is not accessible. Cmdlets with FeatureDependencyId are not registered.

I have found there are two places you… Read more

Restoring a SharePoint site collection can be a pretty easy task.  If your interested in how to do that check this blog (Backup and Restore SharePoint 2010 Site Collection With PowerShell) where I explain the process. Unfortunately this is not always a foolproof process as I have recently… Read more

Virtualization is awesome! It really helps when you are a developer.  On my laptop I don’t even have SQL Server installed on the OS directly.  In fact the only thing I have installed on my host is Office, Skype and Chrome.  Everything else gets run on a VM.
SSIS package… Read more

If you are like me then you like to reinstall Windows on your laptop every few months to keep things fresh and running smoothly.  That or your even more like me and you download some beta version of software and install it on your laptop rather than a VM and… Read more

While some people may consider this topic off limits the fact remains that more and more companies are adopting Apple devices, namely the iPad, for use in their organizations. In the last quarterly earnings call from Apple they revealed that more than 80% of fortune 100 companies and more than… Read more

If you have used SSIS to move data from something like Access or more commonly Excel, it is a good possibility you have seen this error at some point:

Error: The ‘Microsoft.Ace.OLEDB.12.0‘ provider is not registered on the local machine.

The reason this error shows up is because the… Read more

PowerPivot report returns the following error from Excel Services:
The data connection uses Windows Authentication and user credentials could not be delegated. The following connection failed to refresh: PowerPivot Data

When viewing a PowerPivot workbook in SharePoint 2010 the report is visualized using Excel Services since ultimately the report is… Read more