SQL Server Analysis Service (SSAS) has been always interesting subject for research. Analysis Services cubes are a very powerful tool in the hands of the business intelligence (BI) developer. They provide an easy way to expose even large data models directly to business users. Microsoft has published very informative white paper on Analysis Services Operations Guide. This white paper is authored by Thomas Kejser, John Sirmon, and Denny Lee.

In this guide you will find information on how to test and run Microsoft SQL Server Analysis Services in SQL Server 2005, SQL Server 2008, and SQL Server 2008 R2 in a production environment. The focus of this guide is how you can test, monitor, diagnose, and remove production issues on even the largest scaled cubes. This paper also provides guidance on how to configure the server for best possible performance. It is the goal of this guide to make your operations processes as painless as possible, and to have you run with the best possible performance without any additional development effort to your deployed cubes. In this guide, you will learn how to get the best out of your existing data model by making changes transparent to the data model and by making configuration changes that improve the user experience of the cube.

Download SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services Operations Guide

Note: Abstract taken white paper.

Reference: Pinal Dave (http://blog.SQLAuthority.com)