OLAP Cube Setup
You can set up the OLAP cube by using Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services SSAS.
Installing SSAS
For more information on installing the SQL Server Analysis Services, refer to the MSDN tutorial.
Defining the OLAP Cube
For more information on creating, defining, and deploying the OLAP multidimensional cube, refer to the MSDN multidimensional modelling tutorial.
Configuring the HTTP Access
To enable the HTTP access to the SQL Server Analysis Services, use an MSMDPUMP.ddl
ISAPI extension.
For more information on setting up the MSMDPUMP.ddl
extension, refer to the MSDN HTTP access tutorial.
For an online accessible OLAP service for testing purposes, use https://demos.telerik.com/olap/msmdpump.dll
. The URL does not open directly in the browser.
Enabling the Cross-Domain Access
If you are not planning to access the cube from different domains, skip this step.
To allow cross-domain requests to the OLAP service, enable the CORS behavior of your server. For more information on Cross-Origin Resource Sharing (CORS), refer to this link.
The following sections demonstrate how to enable CORS on an Internet Information Services (IIS) server. Cross-domain access requires you to configure the HTTP Response Headers and the OPTIONS
method server response.
Configuring HTTP Response Headers
To configure HTTP Response Headers, specify the following requirements:
- The domains that will perform the data requests.
- An HTTP method through which the data will be transferred.
- The HTTP headers that can be used in the requests.
- The user credentials that will be required if an authenticated access is used.
The following example demonstrates the list of the HTTP Response Headers that show the settings which are required to enable the IIS CORS behavior.
Header Name |
Value |
Details |
---|---|---|
Access-Control-Allow-Headers | Origin, Content-Type, Accept |
These are the names of the fields that must be used in the actual request. Values must be comma-separated.
|
Access-Control-Allow-Origin |
The URI names that may access the resource. When an asterisk (*) is defined, all domains are allowed. |
The names of the allowed domains must be separated by comma (,). |
Access-Control-Request-Method | POST |
The name of the HTTP method to be used in the actual request. The XMLA protocol specifies an HTTP |
Access-Control-Allow-Credentials (authenticated access only) | true |
The allowed values are:
|
Configuring the OPTIONS Method Server Response
To configure the OPTIONS
method server response, specify the server response to the OPTIONS
method requests. In IIS, configure the behavior of the OPTIONS
method through the OPTIONSVerbHandler
mapping settings.
The following example demonstrates the list of settings that you have to apply.
HTTP Handler Name | Required Access Level | Details |
---|---|---|
OPTIONSVerbHandler | Read |
Specifies that the handler requires |
Accessing the Cube Securely
To implement a secured access to the OLAP instance, use either of the following approaches:
- Use a proxy service which communicates with the cube on a secured protocol. This proxy has to support the XMLA protocol. In the Microsoft world, the solution is to use ADOMD.NET. For more information, refer to this forum thread.
- Send the credentials with a request header even though the Username and Password will be visible on the client side (browser).