PowerPivot for Business Intelligence Using Excel and SharePoint Barry Ralston Apress*
About the Author About the Technical Reviewer xi xii Acknowledgments Chapter 1: Getting Started with PowerPivot for Excel 1 Filling the Gap with PowerPivot for Excel 1 What You Will Need 2 The 64-bit Decision 3 Installing the Add-In 3 A Brief Tour of PowerPivot for Excel 4 A Trivial Test Case 5 The Test Report 7 9 Chapter 2: Hello World PowerPivot Style 11 The Business Scenario 11 Assembling the Solution 11 SQL Server As a PowerPivot Data Source 12 Starting the Table Import Wizard 12 Selecting the Table Monitoring the Import Reviewing the Results.. Data Refresh 17 Creating the Report 17 Narrowing to the Top Ten 19 Behind the Scenes in PowerPivot for Excel 21 xii! 14 15 16 23 V
ft CONTENTS Chapter 3: Combining Data Sources 25 The Business Scenario 25 Configuring Excel As a Data Source 26 Venturing into the Date Dimension 28 Understanding the Design 28 Good Relationships 30 PivotTables and PivotCharts 34 Slicers 37 Refreshing the Data 39 Chapter 4: Data Analysis Expressions 43 Fundamentals of DAX 44 Calculated Columns 44 Creating a Calculated Column 46 Filtering PowerPivot Data 48 Spotting Calculated Columns in the PowerPivot Field List 49 Table Relationships 49 Understanding the Problem 49 Illustrating Relationships with Football 51 Relating Tables with DAX 52 Calculated Measures from Multiple Data Sources 40 54 The Business Problem 54 Separation of Facts and Dimensions 55 New Measures 58 Filter Context 60 Begin with a PivotTable 60 Compute Percent of Whole 62 64 Chapter 5: A Method to the Madness 65 Justification for a Method Principles 65 66 Embrace Failure 66 Think Dimensionally Act Locally 66 Transactional vs. Analytical Data Stores 66 Measures Dimensions and Hierarchies 67 vi
II CONTENTS Practices 68 Take Advantage of Revision Control 68 Rename Early to Keep DAX Formulas Sane 68 Creating a Relationship 69 Renaming an Object in a Relationship 70 Examining the Result 70 Choose Online Datasources When Possible 72 Relate Fact Sets Through a Dimension Table 73 Create a Separate Date Dimension 73 Shortcut to a Rich Date Dimension 73 Handling Moving Holidays 75 Leverage Built-in Measures 76 No Calculation 77 %of Grand Total 78 % of Column Total 78 % of Row Total 78 % Of 78 % of Parent Row Total 79 %of Parent Column Total 80 %of Parent Total 80 Difference From 81 % Difference From 82 Running Total In 82 % Running Total In 83 "Rank Smallest to Largest" and "Rank Largest to Smallest" 84 Index 84 Customize Your PivotCharts via PivotTables 85 91 Chapter 6: Installing PowerPlvot for SharePoInt 93 Getting Started 93 Existing SharePoInt 2010 Installation 94 96 Step One: Install SQL Server PowerPlvot for SharePoint 94 Step Two: Deploy the PowerPlvot Solution Package 95 Step Three: Start Other Required Services 96 Step Four: PowerPivot Service Application 96 Step Five: Enable Excel Services Step Six: Enable the Secure Store Service 96 vii
IS CONTENTS Step Seven: Enable Usage Data Collection 96 Step Eight: Maximum File Upload Size 96 Step Nine: Activate PowerPivot at the Site Collection Level 97 Step Ten: Verify the Configuration Changes Work 97 Virtual Success 97 Step One: Create a New Virtual Machine 98 Step Two: Add the Domain Controller Role 98 Step Three: Add the Server to Your Domain 99 Step Four: Install SharePoint 2010 Server 100 Step Five: Install SQL Server 2008 R2 and PowerPivot 102 Running PowerPivot for SharePoint on Windows 7 103 The Road Map 104 Step One: Install SQL Server 2008 R2 104 Step Two: Install the SharePoint Prerequisites 108 Edit the Config.xml File 108 Install Microsoft Filter Pack 2.0 109 Install WCF Hotfix KB976462 110 Install ADO.Net Data Services Update 110 Install the Microsoft Sync Framework 110 Install SQL Server Native Client 111 Install Windows Identity Foundation 111 Install Chart Controls 112 Install Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Analysis Services AD0MD.NET 112 Enable Required Windows Features 112 Step Three: Install SharePoint 2010 Server 115 Step Four: Add PowerPivot for SharePoint Existing Farm 118 Step Five: Final Configuration 122 Fun with PowerPivot and SharePoint 123 Verifying That the Installation Works 123 Viewing the PowerPivot Gallery 123 Potential Errors 125 125 H Chapter 7: Collaboration Version Control and Management 127 Sharing Solutions 127 Publishing 128 Revision Control 132 PowerPivot Gallery View Settings 135 viii
* CONTENTS Gallery 135 Theater 136 Carousel 136 All Documents 137 PowerPivot Gallery Permissions 137 Web Usage Scenarios 137 Excel via the Browser 138 PowerPivot from an ipad or Other Tablet 140 PowerPivot Management Dashboard 142 Accessing the PowerPivot Management Dashboard 142 Using the Management Dashboard 143 Query Response Times 143 Average Instance CPU 145 Average Instance Memory 145 Activity 146 Performance 147 Workbook Activity Chart 147 Workbook Activity List 148 Configuring Usage Data Collection 149 151 Chapter 8: PowerPivot As a Data Source 153 PowerPivot As a Data Source for PowerPivot 153 Verifying the Solution Prerequisites 154 Assembling the Pieces 155 Refreshing the 170 PowerPivot Management Dashboard As a Data Source 174 Creating the Office Data Connection (.ode) File 174 Writing a Report Using PowerPivot Management Data 177 PowerPivot and PerformancePoInt Dashboards 178 Creating the Data Connection 181 Creating the Analytic Chart 182 Deploying to SharePoint 186 188 Chapter 9: PowerPivot and SQL Server Reporting Services 189 Consuming SSRS As a PowerPivot Data Source 190 Verifying Report Access 190 ix
M CONTENTS Configuring the Connection Using PowerPivot As an SSRS Data Source Creating the PowerPivot Source Worksheet 198 Opening Report Manager 203 Developing the Example SSRS Report 203 218 Chapter 10: PowerPivot and Predictive Analytics Introducing the Data Mining Add-In for Excel 219 Installing the Data Mining Add-In 220 Locating the Table Analysis Tools 227 Creating a SSAS Connection 229 Configuring the SSAS Server 230 Avoiding Connection Frustration 236 Adding the SSAS Connection Within the Data Mining Add-In 237 Preparing Data with PowerPivot 241 Mining Some Data 244 Taking Data Mining to the Cloud with Predixion Software 247 Setting Up the Predixion Add-In 247 Predicting Airline Delays 258 263 Chapter 11: Tips Tricks and Traps 265 PowerPivot Annoyances 265 Disabled PowerPivot Add-In 265 Calculated Column Missing 270 User Experience for PowerPivot Solutions 271 Connect Slicers Visually 272 Lose the Grid 272 Tuning PowerPivot Performance 273 Slicers: Less Is More 273 PowerPivot and SSAS Interaction 274 276 192 197 219 1 Index 277 x