I've had a few requests lately for resources I've used related to data warehouse design and performance tips for SSAS and SSRS for SQL Server 2005. I thought if a few people are interest there must be a lot of others out searching the web for similar nuggets of gold. So, here is my list of useful links for others to cash in on:
SSAS Performance tips: http://www.calumo.com/pdf/SSAS2005PerformanceGuide.pdf - this is a great white paper from Microsoft on fine tuning your cube performance from dimension design, through query and server hardware best practices.
Using Indexed Views to increase performance: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/impprfiv.mspx - this article describes what indexed views are and when you should consider using them in your database.
Designing your data warehouse schema - dimension modeling instruction and best practices: http://www.kimballuniversity.com/ - This site was started by Ralph Kimball, called the father of data warehousing by some, and includes many free articles on dimension modeling for a data warehouse. Understanding the Kimball technique is a must for those just starting out in data warehousing.
Best practices from a practical implementation: http://www.microsoft.com/sql/solutions/bi/projectreal.mspx - Project REAL was an attempt to implement a data warehouse for a real customer (Barnes & Noble) using SQL Server 2005 and a large set of real business data. The result is a collection of the project code and documentation on suggested design approaches, best practices and scripts you can migrate into your own applications.
