SSAS Tabular DirectQuery–No Hierarchies in Dimensions

I recently was testing DirectQuery to see the reporting differences in a Tabular Model. After Deploying to a development server and analyzing in Excel, the hierarchies for the Date and Product dimension were not available. SQL Server 2016 SP1 was used in this example.

You can go to this like from Microsoft about more limitations.

There was also difference in labeling when designing a Tabular Model in Visual Studio (SQL Server Data Tools – SSDT) and making a change to the Model from SQL Server Management Studio – SSMS.

In SSDT, The Property for the Model is DirectQuery and the values are On and Off.

In SSMS, The Property is Default Model and the values are DirectQuery and Import.

Not sure which I like better. But, what you are able to do is Deploy a model built with DirectQuery Off (with hierarchies), then change the property in SSMS on the database, and see the changes. Or vice versa. If you are previewing the DirectQuery Off Mode in Excel before making the change, when the data is refreshed, the hierarchies are removed.

Elect The Next PASS Board Members

The PASS board elections are coming up and there is a twitter chat event to ask questions to the candidates before you vote. Both tweeter events will be on Tuesday September 19th at noon central and 3PM central. The hashtag will be #PASSelections, so join the conversation and ask questions in order to get a better idea of the candidates.

The voting begins on Wednesday September 20th (the next day) and you will be able to go to PASS.org to watch campaign videos of each candidate. They will answer about 4 questions (the same 4 questions) in a short video.

These changes to the campaign were asked to happen by the community, so if you have more comments about the campaign process, email PASS. Check your email this week for more information about the elections and where to find additional stuff on the candidates.

Remember, these members are volunteers in the SQL Community (or the Microsoft Data Technology community) that want the best for our wonderful network of professionals.