Creating Local Cubes

You can define and save a local cube in either of two storage modes.

• MOLAP (multidimensional OLAP)

  Use the CREATE CUBE statement to define a local cube and the INSERT INTO statement to populate it with dimension members and measures data. This saves the populated cube as a cube file in MOLAP storage mode. You can then connect to the local cube and analyze its data offline.

- Or -

• ROLAP (relational OLAP)

  Use the CREATE CUBE statement to define a local cube and the INSERT INTO statement with the OPTIONS DEFER_DATA clause to populate it with dimension members. This saves the local cube structure definition and dimension members as a cube file in ROLAP storage mode, but does not save measures data in the local cube. You can then connect to the local cube and analyze its data without a connection to the OLAP server; however, you must be connected to the cube’s data source.

Local MOLAP cubes generally take longer to create and are much larger than local ROLAP cubes. However, local MOLAP cubes generally provide better performance during query execution.

Defining a Local Cube Structure

PivotTable® Service can be used to define cubes for local storage only, with a default file extension of .cub. You cannot use PivotTable Service to create cubes on an OLAP server. The source of data used to create a local cube must be a tabular data provider such as a relational database. (Microsoft® SQL Server™ OLAP Services can function as a tabular data provider.)

Use the CREATE CUBE statement to define the logical structure of a cube. Specify a local cube file name in the DBPROP_INIT_DATASOURCE property.

Caution If the specified cube file exists, it will be overwritten unless you set the DBPROP_MSMD_USEEXISTINGFILE property to T (true).

For more information, see Programmer’s Guide - PivotTable Service.

For more information about the CREATE CUBE statement, see CREATE CUBE.