Advanced OLAP Concepts

Part 2
<OLAP Concepts 201 Series>
Renu Singh

2009 Wipro Ltd Internal & Restricted

OLAP Overview

On-Line Analytical Processing is a decision support

software that allows the user to quickly analyze information
that has been summarized into multidimensional views and
hierarchies.
There are three main features of OLAP system :
Multidimensional Viewing OLAP supports
multidimensional model which consists of facts and
dimensions also called as Star Schema.
Calculation Intensive Capabilities Due to data is stored
in facts and dimensions tables, it enables users to
analyze data without much calculations.
Time Series analysis Enables users to analyze data
across time.
This Module will cover the details in four parts:
Part 1 OLAP Modeling Building Blocks
Part 2 OLAP Types & Architectures
Part 3 OLAP Reporting Styles
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OLAP Objectives
Upon completion of this module you will be able to:
Various OLAP Types and their Architectures

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OLAP Outline

Lesson 1

OLAP Types and Architectures

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OLAP Types &

Architectures

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MOLAP Multidimensional OLAP

Data is stored in multidimensional cubes
MDDB technology is proprietary.
Compilation intensive architecture.
Load involves series of aggregations across orthogonal
dimensions
Good to access pre-aggregated data

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MDDB - A perspective
Advantages
Intuitive
Performance
advantages
Ease of navigation
Little Performance
Tuning required

Disadvantages
Proprietary
No standard storage
techniques
Aggregate explosion
problem
Limited to 50-100 GB of
calculated data

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MOLAP - Architecture
Store atomic data in a proprietary data structure (MDDB),
pre-calculate as many outcomes as possible, obtain OLAP
functionality via proprietary algorithms running against this
data.
Obtain multi-dimensional reports from the DSS Client

MDDB Engine

MDDB Engine

Decision Support Client

Database Layer

Application Logic Layer

Presentation Layer

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ROLAP
Support for large databases with good performance
Excellent platform portability
Good exploitation of hardware advances such as parallel
processing
Codd rules however are not concerned about storage, but
about functionality only

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ROLAP - A Perspective

Advantages

Disadvantages

Robust security
Multi-user concurrent access
(e.g. read-write with locking)
Widely recognized standards
Openness to multiple tools
Based on familiar, proven
and scalable technology

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Extraction & Replication

Parallelization
Query Optimization
Advanced Indexing
techniques

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Computation Intensive
queries are slow.
Additional layer of OLAP
engine
Non intuitive

ROLAP - Architecture
Three tiered Architecture :
OLAP interface
ROLAP engine
RDBMS

Data Warehouse

Database Layer

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ROLAP Engine

Application Logic Layer

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Decision Support Client

Presentation Layer

HOLAP - Hybrid OLAP

Hybrid approach seeks to provide best of both worlds MOLAP and ROLAP
Create MDB structures for fast analytical needs
Create mappings to RDBMS for larger data volumes
The engine hides these mappings/ structures from the end
user

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Hybrid OLAP - A perspective

Advantages

Disadvantages

Performance due to MDB

structures
Integration with data
maintained in RDBMS
Leverages RDBMS engine
and administration skills
Support for large volumes of
data by Relational Mappings

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Managing large number of

data structures
Complex Architecture
Expensive

HOLAP - Architecture

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DOLAP
Desktop OLAP tools work by extracting RDBMS data into
local (or server) MD cubes
User queries are limited to the predefined dimensions in the
hypercube
Do not provide shared environment
Do not provide read/write capabilities
Low cost tools

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DOLAP - Architecture

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Web OLAP
Most OLAP products can now be deployed to Web browsers
Approaches used
Static Web publishing - The reports are generated in the
form of HTML documents
Using a Web OLAP Server - Simple scripts allow users to
perform basic manipulations like dimension rotations,
drill downs and dimension member selections

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Web OLAP - Architecture

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Module Summary
Congratulations! You have now completed
the module OLAP Types
You should now be able
Understand different OLAP Types
Architecture
Advantages Disadvantages

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Quiz

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Question 1
The cube structure in OLAP achieves the
__________functionality
a)
b)
c)
d)

Shared
Information
Collection
Multidimensional

Answer: D

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Question 2
Aggregation provides OLAP with __________
a)
b)
c)
d)

Multidimensional Data
Pre Calculated Data
Slow Retrieval
Nested Data

Answer: B

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Question 3
MDDB Engine is used in __________architecture
a)
b)
c)
d)

HOLAP
WOLAP
MOLAP
None of the above

Answer: C

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Question 4
Deploying OLAP products on Web Browsers is
a)
b)
c)
d)

Web Deployment
WOLAP
Web Reports
None of the above

Answer: B

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Question 5
ROLAP Architecture includes
a)
b)
c)
d)

DBMS, Engine, DSS

DBMS, ROLAP Engine, OLAP Interface
ROLAP Engine
None of the above

Answer: B

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References

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References
Publications

Publications

Data warehouse and OLAP

Concepts, Architecture
and Solutions by Robert
Wrember & Christian
Koncilia
The OLAP Report by Nigel
Pendse and Richard
Creeth URLs

The OLAP Solutions Building

Multidimensional
Information Systems
Second Edition by Erik
Thomsen, Wiley
dreamtech India Pvt. Ltd.
2002 ISBN 81-265-0275-4

Library:
Tek-tips reporting solutions
forum
http://www.dmreview.com/
http://www.dwinfocenter.org

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Training Programs

Thank You
Renu Singh
Technical Lead
renu.singh@wipro.com

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