Executive Summary:
A SQL Server Magazine reader asks about the connection between Microsoft Office SharePoint Server and Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007; Rodney Landrum, back by popular demand, updates his SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) solution; and Sqlmag.com forum members debate different methods of doing a SQL Server trace.
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Letters
The PPS and MOSS Connection
I appreciated Douglas McDowell’s Eye on BI article
“My PerformancePoint Server Wish List” (January 2008,
InstantDoc ID 97563). However, I have a question.
I recently started a new job as director of business
intelligence (BI). As part of my job, I need to
implement a BI strategy and a reporting solution. My
colleagues and I are leaning toward using the BI tools
and the SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) that
are incorporated into Microsoft Office SharePoint
Server (MOSS) because they look quite promising. Is
Microsoft Office PerformancePoint Server 2007 (PPS)
the next version of MOSS? Or does MOSS do more of
the document sharing, Web-site administration, and so
on, whereas PPS 2007 is strictly for Key Performance
Indicator (KPI) and metric reporting based on BI
analysis?
—Sean Barker, director of business intelligence
Congratulations on your new job! No, PPS is not the
next version of MOSS. PPS is a comprehensive BI
application that integrates with the MOSS and SQL
Server platforms. PPS 2007 is already released, and you
can find more detailed information about it on the PPS
site (www.microsoft.com/performancepoint). In MOSS
2007 you can build KPIs and dashboards but not scorecards
(see www.microsoft.com/sharepoint/capabilities/
bi/overview.mspx for more information); you need PPS
to build scorecards. And yes, MOSS does have lots of
document sharing and other not-necessarily-BI portal
features. Microsoft’s BI roadmap has MOSS BI and
PPS more tightly integrated in the future, when every
feature in MOSS can be migrated to PPS. Thus, you’ll
be able to build simple dashboards in MOSS, which you
can then upgrade into full-blown PPS monitoring dashboards
and scorecards if you purchase PPS.
—Douglas McDowell
Community Online
Readers Speak, Rodney Landrum Listens!
Two of the most popular articles on Sqlmag.com in
2007—at least, in terms of the reader feedback they
generated—were Rodney Landrum’s series about using
SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) and SQL Server
Integration Services (SSIS) to develop a repository solution.
(See “SQL Server Reporting Services,” June 2007,
InstantDoc ID 95745 and “SQL Server Integration
Services,” May 2007, InstantDoc ID 95385.) In response
to readers’ questions about the techniques and coding he
used in those articles, Rodney wrote a follow-up article
that discusses enhancements he made to the original
solution: “Use SSRS and SSIS to Create a DBA Repository,”
now live on Sqlmag.com at InstantDoc ID 97840.
Rodney’s ready for another dialog with readers, so tell
him what you think of this article!
On the Forums: Trace Wars
One of the more active forum discussions recently has
been on the question of which SQL Server trace method
results in less overhead on the monitored server: using
SQL Server Profiler at a remote server to monitor the
production server, or running a server-side SQL Trace
stored procedure on the production server. Is running
the trace remotely and outputting the trace directly
to a table preferable, or is it better to do a server-side
trace, output that to a file, then load the file into a
table? Forum members have weighed in on the issue,
and now it’s your turn. Join the discussion at sqlforums.windowsitpro.com/web/forum/messageview.aspx?catid=74&threadid=88900&enterthread=y. And stay tuned
for an upcoming article that explains how to use SQL
Trace and SQL Server Profiler for audit logging.