Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer is a diagnostic tool that gathers information about all the SQL Server 2012 components installed on the system and determines if the configurations are setup according to the recommended best practices.

It indicates potential problems with the SQL Server installation and recommends a solution.

You can download the tool from here

The pre-requisites are:

System requirements
Supported operating systems: Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2

The following are required for using SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer (BPA):
PowerShell V2.0
Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer V2.0

I tried installing BPA on my Windows 2008R2 development environment and it prompted me with this message: “Microsoft Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0 is not installed….”

So, I went ahead and installed the Baseline Configuration Analyzer 2.0

After that the BPA setup completed with no problem:

Here is a real quick video of SQL Server BPA in action:

Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Best Practices Analyzer in action

Configuring Master Data Services in SQL 2012 (Incomplete)

Start by launching the Master Data Services Configuration Manager:

Start by Creating a Database:

Connect to the SQL Server and Provide a Database Name:

Provide an Administrator Account and click Next:

On Success, you should see the configuration page with default properties as seen below:

Now let’s configure the Web Component:

This will prompt you to create an application:

Go ahead and create an application:

Next we will associate the web application with the database:

Uh Oh! hit a wall – need to research this issue.

HTTP Error 500.19 - Internal Server Error

The requested page cannot be accessed because the related configuration data for the page is invalid.

Wondering what am I missing? Anybody?

Installing SSAS (Analysis Services 2012) in Tabular Mode

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In SQL Server 2012, There are two modes of installing Analysis Services – “Multidimensional and Data Mining Mode” and “Tabular Mode”. During the install you can install only one of the above, not both. If you’d like to have both, you will need to create a new instance of Analysis Services by launching the SQL Server 2012 setup again and choose the Tabular Mode in the “Analysis Services Configuration” page.

With SQL Server 2012, there are two types of Analysis Services projects in Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS). You can create and edit the multidimensional projects that you all know and love. You can also use BIDS to create tabular projects.

Check out these additional resources on Tabular Models:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/analysisservices/archive/2011/07/13/welcome-to-tabular-projects.aspx

Tutorial:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh231691(SQL.110).aspx

SQL Server 2012 Developer Training Kit

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In time for the SQL Server 2012 launch, the SQL Server 2012 training kit is already ready for download and test drive. It contains content including labs, demos and presentations to help you learn and develop SQL 2012 and BI Solutions. New and updated content will be released periodically and can be downloaded on-demand using the Web Installer.

Instructions

• Download and launch the Web Installer
• Select the labs, demos and presentations that you want to download
• Install prerequisites (optional)
• When the download process completes, browse to the folder(s) where you installed the content

So Earlier today I installed it and here is my experience:

For some of the downloads, the web installer will open the web browser and let you download PowerPivot for Excel 2010, AdventureWorks database for SQL 2012 etc. So its good to know upfront that the installation is not all self contained, you may have to download and install some items outside the web installer. See below for an example.

Microsoft BI: Test drive Power View SQL Server 2012

Check out the video demo below and try hands on without installing a thing:

Try Hands on with Power View without installing a thing:
http://blogs.msdn.com/b/oneclickbi/archive/2011/12/27/more-demos-of-power-view-available.aspx