MSAS - Building a Virtual Cube Page - 3

Consolidation of data from multiple cubes into a Virtual cube

The sales information is contained in the Sales cube. The region details are contained in the region cube. Let us say we want to combine the two to obtain information on the sales made in different regions. A virtual cube can be used to compare the measures from the different cubes.

Right click the cubes folder, and click New Virtual cube. Click Next on the welcome screen. In the list of available cubes click Sales and Region.

Click Next. In the measures list select the measures required. Then click the dimensions required from the Dimensions list and click next.

Give a name to the virtual cube, Process the cube and view the data.

When measures are combined in virtual cubes for inclusion, the user must select a measure from each cube he wants to combine. The wizard automatically removes any cubes that do not have measures. Technically, it is possible to combine two cubes without a shared dimension, but none of the cells in the virtual cube will contain a value.