Accessing SQL 2008 Analysis Server cubes from Excel 2003

  • I have some users that we have a hard time making able to get to the cubes in our 2008 AS. Anyone shed any light on what needs to be installed to get it to work. There are no errors or anything I can describe, it just simply can not see the cubes. Permissions is not an issue as I have had 2 of the people do it from my PC without a problem.

    Any help would be greatly appreciated.

  • When you say they accessed it from your machine, am assuming you mean they logged in with their own credentials, not just using yours right? If so, it *sounds* like it could be a driver issue on the client machines. Make sure you have the appropriate OLAP drivers on the client machines -> google for the 'SQL SErver 2008 Feature Pack', they're in there. Also make sure you read the requirements on these, from memory, one of them requires the update to the xml dll prior to updating the driver.

    Steve.

  • Yes logging in with their own credentials. And I logged in to their machines and it failed for me.

    I could have swore it installed the feature pack on demand, but I will try that and see if it helps.

  • This may not be true for 2008

    For SSAS (2005) cubes there is an issue when a 'non developer' person connects to the cube through Excel 2003. They will go through connecting and on one of the final screens it asks for a name for the connection, the provider (8.0 or 9.0)

    If you do not have SQL server installed on your machine you will only see Microsoft OLEDB provider for OLAP Services 8.0. If you have had SQL server 2005 installed then there will also be version 9.0.

    9.0 is available if you google

    'Microsoft OLEDB provider for analysis services 9.0' There is a provider on the page you can download and install.

    For 2008 there may be a version 10.0 I really dont know. If this sorts it please say so as I will be moving to test 2008/Excel 2003 soon.

    Have attached a pic of the screen shopwing provider list.

    Ells.

    😎

  • All these PC's have either SQL Server Management Studio for 2005 or 2008. My machine worked fine with 2005 installed, and works fine after 2008 install. Some people it did not work for with 2005, some when they had 2008 installed.

    I'm sort of leaning towards there being some other application that is interfering with the install, but not sure how that could be unless they have some sort of Excel plug-in installed.

  • Have never heard of the Feature Pack being installed on demand, but I'll take your word for it.

    If, when logging in to your machine, these users have no access problems, then I would be betting strongly on a driver issue on their machines. It's not firewall (due to named instance, no sql browser etc) because you're getting through (unless of course, you have a different firewall setting to them, ie yours is off). It's not security as their accounts get authenticated fine when accessing from your machine. Really sounds like the 'piping' isn't there. T0 answer Ells question, there definitely is a 10.0 driver, as posted earlier, it's found on that Feature Pack site.

    In general, I'd agree that if they have BIDS 2008 then they should have the appropriate driver/s. The only issues you'd normally see then are when you've updated the server to SP1 but none of the clients, again, a driver issue.

    Did you try manually installing the 3 (or so) components from the FP download page?

    Steve.

  • Just got word back from the person trying to get it to work. Installing the items from the feature pack has fixed it on 2 computers now, so seems like that is the trick. Thanks for the help!

    On that note, I am calling it a long weekend! =)

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