Monthly Archives: March 2015

Configuring SQL Server to use Managed Service Accounts (in PowerShell)

Posted on March 30, 2015 by Robin

When building out a new SQL Server environment, one consideration is the service account used to run SQL services. In SQL 2014 there are five options to choose from: Local Account Built-in Account – The Local Service, Network Service or … Continue reading →

Posted in Administration, Automation, PowerShell, Scripting | 1 Comment

Using Automation to shut down Azure VMs

Posted on March 23, 2015 by Robin

Azure is great. For a test lab environment, why bother messing with virtual machines on your laptop when you can run them in the cloud instead? But, as anyone who has made this mistake will know, forgetting to shut down … Continue reading →

Posted in Azure, PowerShell, Scripting | Leave a comment

Bike Tour Business Intelligence: Part 6 [Building the Fact Table]

Posted on March 16, 2015 by Robin

At this stage the BI database contains the Date, Time and Location Dimension tables as well as a staging table with all the points captured by my GPS. This post covers creating and populating the Fact table, as well as … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server, SSIS | 2 Comments

Bike Tour Business Intelligence: Part 5 [Dimensions]

Posted on March 11, 2015 by Robin

Our star schema has three dimensions – Date, Time and Location. This post will cover populating the dimension tables in preparation for cube generation. Date Dimension There are lots of date dimension generation scripts online, Mike Davies’ script is good, … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server, SSIS | Leave a comment

Bike Tour Business Intelligence: Part 4 [Populating a staging table]

Posted on March 3, 2015 by Robin

A quick recap of the series so far: I’m building a cube using the data recorded by my Garmin Edge GPS during a 4 month bike tour last across Europe last year. So far we’ve analysed a single GPX file … Continue reading →

Posted in SQL Server, SSIS | 1 Comment