Chapter 10

Loading a Data Warehouse

WHAT’S IN THIS CHAPTER?

• Data profiling
• Dimension and fact table loading
• SSAS cube processing

Among the various applications of SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS), one of the more common is loading a data warehouse or data mart. SSIS provides the ETL features and functionality to efficiently handle many of the tasks required when dealing with transactional source data that will be extracted and loaded into a data mart, a centralized data warehouse, or even a master data management repository, including the capabilities to process data from the relational data warehouse into SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cubes.

SSIS provides all the essential elements of data processing — from your source, to staging, to your data mart, and onto your cubes (and beyond!). A few common architectures are prevalent in data warehouse solutions. Figure 10-1 highlights one common architecture of a data warehouse with an accompanying business intelligence (BI) solution.