How to create equivalent of Virtual Cube in SSAS 2005

I came across a query from one of my blog readers (Sam) regarding an interesting topic: How to create equivalent of virtual cube (SSAS 2000) in SSAS 2005 without using migration wizard.

The answer to this lies in the Post-Migration considerations from SSAS 2000 to SSAS 2005 using Analysis Services Migration Wizard:

1) Every SSAS 2000 cube will be migrated as a cube in SSAS 2005. Any virtual cubes would be changed to cubes, with linked measure groups to the other cubes.

2) The new cubes will contain aggregations but will not be processed, so the user tools will not be able to see the SSAS 2005 database.

3) If your SSAS 2000 database contained linked objects, remote objects (for cubes, dimensions or partitions), or has drill-through enabled, those features of the cube will not be migrated.

4) Top-level dimension security is not supported in SSAS 2005, meaning that you cannot allow or disallow access to an entire dimension. If dimension security was applied for an entire dimension in SSAS 2000, you need to re-consider your security architecture in SSAS 2005.

5) Dimension and Hierarchies might be renamed during migration to prevent duplicate names and to consolidate dimensions.


So to create equivalent of virtual cube in SSAS 2005 without using the migration wizard, there are two ways of accomplishing the same:

1) Either create a new cube, add linked objects and create different perspectives for each virtual cube.

2) Another option is use the cube with major number of objects, add linked objects and create a perspective within it for the virtual cube.