###BeginCaseStudy###
Case Study: 3
Data Architect
General Background
You are the data architect for a company that uses SQL Server 2012 Enterprise Edition. You
design data modeling and reporting solutions that are based on a sales data warehouse.
Background
The solutions will be deployed on the following servers:
• ServerA runs SQL Server Database Engine, ServerA is the data warehouse server.
• ServerB runs SQL Server Database Engine, SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) in
multidimensional mode, and SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS).
• ServerC runs SSAS in tabular mode, SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) running
in SharePoint mode, and Microsoft SharePoint 2010 Enterprise Edition with SP1.
The data warehouse schema currently contains the tables shown in the exhibit. (Click the
Exhibit button.)
Business Requirements
The reporting solution must address the requirements of the sales team, as follows:
• Team members must be able to view standard reports from SharePoint.
• Team members must be able to perform ad-hoc analysis by using Microsoft Power
View and Excel.
• Team members can have standard reports delivered to them on a schedule of their
choosing.
The standard reports
• Will use a sales territory hierarchy for organizing data by region.
• Will be accessible from SharePoint.
The Excel ad-hoc reports
• Will use the same data store as the standard reports.
• Will provide direct access to the data store for the sales team and a simplified view for
the executive team.
Technical Requirements
The standard reports must be based on an SSAS cube. The schema of the data warehouse on
ServerA must be able to support the ability to slice the fact data by the following dates:
• Order date (OrderDateKey)
• Due date (DueDateKey)
• Ship date (ShipDateKey)
Additions and modifications to the data warehouse schema must adhere to star schema design
principles to minimize maintenance and complexity.
The multidimensional and tabular models will be based on the data warehouse. The tabular
and multidimensional models will be created by using SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT). The
tabular project is named AdhocReports and the multidimensional project is named Standard
Reports.
The cube design in the Standard Reports project must define two measures for the unique
count of sales territories (SalesTerritoryKey) and products (ProductKey).
A deployment script that can be executed from a command-line utility must be created to
deploy the StandardReports project to ServerB.
The tabular model in the AdhocReports project must meet the following requirements:
• A hierarchy must be created that consists of the SalesTerritoryCountry and
SalesTerritoryRegion columns from the DimSalesTerritory table and the
EmployeeName column from the DimEmployee table.
• A key performance indicator (KPI) must be created that compares the total quantity
sold (OrderQuantity) to a threshold value of 1,000.
• A measure must be created to calculate day-over-day (DOD) sales by region based on
order date.
SSRS on ServerC must be configured to meet the following requirements:
• It must use a single data source for the standard reports.
• It must allow users to create their own standard report subscriptions.
• The sales team members must be limited to only viewing and subscribing to reports in
the Sales Reports library.
A week after the reporting solution was deployed to production, Marc, a salesperson,
indicated that he has never received reports for which he created an SSRS subscription. In
addition, Marc reports that he receives timeout errors when running some reports on demand.
###EndCaseStudy###
You need to identify the reports that produce the errors that Marc is receiving.
What should you do?
A.
Write a query by using the Subscriptions table in the report server database.
B.
Write a query by using the Execution Log 3 view in the report server database.
C.
Use the Windows Event Viewer to search the Application log for errors.
D.
Search the ReportServerService_<timestamp>.log file for errors.
A – would help to determine the reports that Mark has subscribed, and would allow to check if the execution suceeded. https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/scriptcenter/List-all-SSRS-subscriptions-968ae4d5
B – allows to find information about each execution and Mark has problems with timeouts during execution, so this is the correct answer
C – you cannot find here to much about report executions. Here rather information about SSRS service can be found
D – would allow to find some information about data driven subscriptions, not our case here
D https://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms156500(v=sql.120).aspx
You can review trace log information to determine whether a report delivery occurred, who received the report, and how many delivery attempts were made. Trace logs also record report execution activity and the environment variables that are in effect during report processing. Errors and exceptions are also entered into trace logs. For example, you may find report time-out errors (indicated as a ThreadAbortExceptions entry).
Both B and D would work. However, in order to use Execution Log 3 view, you normally have to enable it first. The question didn’t specify whether it’s enabled or not.
So I would go for D.
+1
not true: By default, log entries are kept 60 days. Entries that exceed this date are removed at 2:00 A.M. every day. On a mature installation, only 60 days of information will be available at any given time.
https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms159110(v=sql.120).aspx
so my take would be B.