Cubing — Lesson 3: Adding the virtual cube to the cubeserver1 cube server

In this lesson, you will export the cube model and virtual cube from the Design Studio. Then you will add the virtual cube to the cubeserver1 cube server by using the Administration Console.

Before you can take advantage of the improved performance of your new virtual cube, you must add the virtual cube to the cubeserver1 cube server.

Tasks in this lesson

To add the virtual cube to the cubeserver1 cube server, do these tasks:

Exporting the cube model from the Design Studio
Importing the cube models and virtual cube to the GSDB database
Adding the cubes to the cubeserver1 cube server

Exporting the cube model from the Design Studio

Just as you do with a standard cube model and cube, you must first export the virtual cube object from the Design Studio to an XML file. Later in this lesson, you will use this XML file to add the virtual cube to the cubeserver1 cube server.

Procedure

To export the cube model from the Design Studio:

Open the Export wizard:
- Click File > Export

Complete the pages of the Export wizard as described in the following table.

Page	Action
Select	Under the Data Warehousing folder, select OLAP Metadata.
Specify Cubing Services objects and Destination File	Specify the file name. Click Browse and save the file in your C:\TEMP folder as `virtual_tutorial_model.xml`. Select the Data Projects check box.

The OLAP objects are exported. The file is saved at C:\TEMP\virtual_tutorial_model.xml.

Next, you can start the Administration Console and deploy the cube model, cubes, and virtual cube to the cubeserver1 cube server.

Importing the cube models and virtual cube to the GSDB database

You use the Administration Console to import the cube models and virtual cube.

Procedure

To import the cube models and virtual cube:

Start the Administration Console:
1. Use a browser to go to http://hostname:port/ibm/warehouse. For example, go to: http://localhost:9080/ibm/warehouse.
2. Log in to the Administration Console:
  - Enter your Websphere Application Server user ID and password.
Open the Cubing Services page by clicking the Cubing Services tab.
Open the Import OLAP Metadata from a File wizard:
- Click the Manage Cube Models button, then click the Import Cube Model button.

Complete the pages of the Import OLAP Metadata from a File wizard as described in the following table.

Page	Action
Map Metadata to Database	Choose gsdb from the list of database resources.
Specify Metadata XML File to Import	Browse for and select the C:\TEMP\virtual_tutorial_model.xml file.
Review File Content	Review the cube definitions that are contained in the file.
Start Import	Specify a replace option. In this case, choose Replace. Best practice: Select the Do not import metadata if it affects a cube that is still in use check box to avoid collisions. Click Finish to complete the wizard.

When the cube model is imported, the metadata for the cube model is stored in the metadata repository, and the cube model is shown in the Manage Cube Models list.

Next, you will add the new cubes to the cube server.

Adding the cubes to the cubeserver1 cube server

You will add the SalesCubeHistoric, SalesCubeRecent, and the VirtualSales virtual cube objects to the cubeserver1 cube server.

Procedure

To add the cubes to the cubeserver1 cube server:

On the Cubing Services page of the Administration Console, add the cubes to the cube server:
1. Click the Manage Cube Servers button.
2. Open the Manage Cubes window:
  - Select the cubeserver1 cube server, then click Manage Cubes.
3. Add the cubes to the cube server:
  - Click the Add () button, then press CTRL and select SalesCubeHistoric, SalesCubeRecent, and VirtualSales.
To make the virtual cubes and the SalesCubeHistoric and SalesCubeRecent cubes available, restart the cube server:
- Select the cubeserver1 cube server, then click the Restart () button.
The cube server starts. By default, all cubes that belong to that particular server will also start.
Ensure that the cube server and cubes are running:
1. Display the status of the cube server:
  - Select the cubeserver1 cube server and click Show Status.
2. Display the status of the cube that is contained in the cubeserver1 cube server:
  - Select the cubeserver1 cube server and click Manage Cubes.
The cube server is running, but the cubes that are associated with the cube server can take some time to start. When the cubes are also running, the cubes are ready to be used. You can also use the cubes for testing and developing analytic applications. The cubes can also be used when users want to query against the database.

Now that the cubes are added to the cube server, you can query against the cubes. Any queries that are run against the virtual cube will benefit from increased performance because the queries against the smaller SalesCubeRecent cube work against a smaller data set. If users need to query the larger SalesCubeHistoric cube, the results to the most common queries are pre-cached.

Summary

You completed the Cubing Services tutorial.

You learned how to use the Design Studio and the Administration Console to define and manage your cubes and OLAP metadata. You created a cube model and its cubes, added hierarchies, measures, and levels, created MQTs, added security to your cube, and partitioned your cube into smaller cubes to use in a virtual cube. The Cubing_Tutorial physical data model, cube model, and cubes are complete. Users can query against the cube for specific sales data. Because the necessary security metadata is in place, you made sure that unauthorized users cannot gain access to the sensitive data within the cube model. Because you created a cube model and cubes, the data within the database is much easier to access. Users will find that the database is much easier to use and that they can obtain more precise data.

You can continue to work with the GSDB database, or you can allow users to use the cube and the metadata that is associated with it.

To learn more about cubing, you can continue to build on this cube. The GSDB sample database also has a sample cube that you can work with, called GO Sales and Marketing. The GO Sales and Marketing cube contains more sales and marketing metadata than the SalesCube cube that you created in the tutorial. To learn more about the sample cube, see Setting up the sample GO Sales and Marketing cube.

Important: To avoid overlapping metadata in the two cubes, you cannot work with both the SalesCube cube and the GO Sales and Marketing cube at the same time. When you import the sample GO Sales and Marketing cube, be sure to use the Replace option. The Replace option will drop the SalesCube cube from the cube server.

If you want to work with the SalesCube cube at a later time, you can import the tutorial_model.xml file with the Administration Console.