Install SSAS AdventureWorks 2012 Multi-Dimensional cube database (on Enterprise Edition)

If you want to install SSAS AdventureWorks 2012 Multi-Dimensional database and don't have enough information on how to proceed for the same then this post is designed for you.

1. Open CodePlex and download AdventureWorksDW2012 Data File (DirectLinkToDownload) mdf.

2. Open SQL Server 2012 Database Engine and you can create a relational database using downloaded mdf file. For step-by-step instructions and more details on How-to-attach, you can have a look at technet article.

3. After successful procedure from step2, check whether your relational database instance is showing you the appropriate database named "AdventureWorksDW2012" under database folder.

4. Go to the CodePlex site and download "AdventureWorks Multidimensional Models SQL Server 2012" (DirectlinktoDownload).

5. After successful download, you will get a zip file named "AdventureWorks Multidimensional Models SQL Server 2012", extract the file and go under "Enterprise" folder. Open Solution file.

6. Check the analysis server name under deployment properties and start deployment. After successful completion of deployment, you will be able to access your 2012 Multi-dimensional cube db.

Error while deploying cube "Object reference not set to an instant of an object"

If you are doing some structural changes to your multi-dimensional cube database and while deployment if you receive an error saying "Object reference not set to an instant of an object" then its really hard to find which reference is missing or what exactly error wants to say. So today we are going to discuss about this error. Generally this error appears while cube deployment like the following one.

So if you receive error like this then simply go to "Dimension Usage" tab and check whether all the required dimension relationships are in place or not and if not then you might see like;

Just set the appropriate relationship wherever they are missing and deploy cube. This will resolve your issue.