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SSAS Remote Access

  • December 6, 2019 at 2:10 pm

    #3705377

    Hi all,

    I've been using Power Pivot and Power BI for some time and I have recently started rebuilding my data model in SSAS.

    I hadn't used SSAS before but I read about it a lot and saw some serious advantages. All those advantages are as good as I hoped: Partitions, Detail Rows expressions, etc. Another big advantage is the ability to have various different Excel reports connected to the same data model, so no need to download the unpartitioned tables in full for each file.

    What I was ignorant of was the fact that a user needs to be on the network domain in order to use the report at all.

    I hoped to be able to refresh a report and then send it to my boss by email as I have been with my Power Pivot reports. I had, naively, thought that the Excel file would be "self contained" once refreshed. I hoped that the pivot cache would store the data.

    My boss is almost never in the office or even the country. And he never uses remote desktop to access a computer here on the network.

    So my question is, what are my options?

    I've done some reading and there seems to be some complex ideas around. I want the simplest. The .cub file doesn't seem like a good option for us. I tried to generate one and it told me I was out of memory. There are several other reasons it wouldn't be a good solution.

    If my boss remote desktops to a computer here in the office, will he simply be able to use the Excel reports as if he were here? Is that the only simple option?

    Apologies in advance for my ignorance.

    I'd really like to use SSAS, but, if I can't send the boss files then my only option would be to have some sort of blended Power Pivot and SSAS solution... Some day to day reports that I do here would get the benefits of SSAS but then I'd still have to maintain the Power Pivot versions for when I need to send something to him. Less than ideal.

    Thank you in advance for any form of help,

    Nick

     

  • December 6, 2019 at 2:16 pm

    #3705380

    You could use SSAS Azure. If your boss can connect to the network with a VPN, that should also work.

  • December 6, 2019 at 2:28 pm

    #3705382

    Thanks for the reply, Brian. We don't have Azure and no plans to get it. The boss is not a fan of the cloud.

    Does having Azure make it easier? I'm presuming, probably wrongly, that once he's connected to the network with a VPN, that the reports will all work as if he was using a computer in the office?

    Thanks again.

  • December 6, 2019 at 3:05 pm

    #3705421

    Azure doesn't make it easier, just different. You deploy to the cloud. The VPN should connect him to the network so it will run just as if he's in the office.

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