[AX2012] How to: Set up Analysis Services and deploy cubes

Today I will show how to set up analysis services on Dynamics AX 2012, although it takes several steps to complete this walkthrough the process is quite simple.

Before we proceed, we need to install SSAS, which I am not going to cover in this post but you can check this link for detailed instructions.

I do recommend to check SSAS service account database privileges to Dynamics AX Business Store, if you are on a previously configured environment check the account used to run SQL Server Analysis Services (MSSSQLSERVER):

Now head to SQL Server Management Studio and make sure you service account has db_datawriter, db_datareader and db_ddladmin privileges to Dynamics AX Business Store.

Installing analysis server component:

1. Start Microsoft Dynamics AX Setup. Under Install, select Microsoft Dynamics AX components.
2. On the Select components page:
   1. Select the Analysis Services configuration check box.
   2. Click Next.
3. On the Prerequisite Validation page, resolve any errors. When no errors remain, click Next.
4. On the Select a file location page, select the location.
5. On the Specify a location for configuration settings page, specify whether you want the cubes to access configuration information from the registry on the local computer or from a shared configuration file.
6. On the Connect to an AOS instance page, enter the name of the computer that is running the Application Object Server (AOS) instance
7. On the Specify Business Connector proxy account information page, enter the password for the proxy account that is used by Business Connector.
8. On the Specify an Analysis Services instance page, select an instance of Analysis Services.
9. On the Connect to a SQL Server Database page, follow these steps:
   1. Select the computer that hosts your Microsoft Dynamics AX online transaction processing (OLTP) database.
   2. Select the Microsoft Dynamics AX OLTP database.
10. On the Ready to install page, click Install.
11. Click Finish to close the Setup wizard.

Open Dynamics AX rich client and head to System administration> Setup > Business intelligence > Analysis Services > System currency and exchange rate type. Confirm if you have set up System exchange rate type, if not, click on System parameters and configure it.

Set up OLAP connection:

1. Click System administration> Setup > Business intelligence > Analysis Services >Analysis Server
2. On Analysis server form, change OLAP server name to your server where SSAS is installed and make it default.
   

The last step, deploy your cube to SSAS. For the purpose of example I will deploy the forecasting cube, which is one of Dynamics AX default cubes.

On Dynamics AX rich client, click File/Tools/Business Intelligence (BI) tools/SQL Server Analysis Services project wizard.

On the Analysis Services project wizard page, click Next.
Select Deploy, click Next.

We are going to deploy a project from AOT, select Demand Forecast. Click Next.

On Deployment Options, verify which SSAS server your are deploying and change the database name if you wish. You can either deploy through AX checking Process the project after it is successfully deployed, or you can do it through SSMS, Click Next.

Finish the wizard and you are done!

If you have chosen to deploy through SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), connect to your Analysis server database.

Right-click your database, if you have followed my example right-click Demand Forecast initial and click Process.

Click Process and wait until SSMS finishes deploying your cube and we are done!

While writing this walkthrough I faced some issues but all related to firewall and privileges problems, which SSMS gave a very understandable message error, which can be avoided by checking your SSAS account privileges like described in the start.