With PowerPivot, Microsoft brings the power of Microsoft's business intelligence tools to Excel and SharePoint users. Self-service business intelligence today augments traditional BI methods, allowing faster response time and greater flexibility. If you're a business decision-maker who uses Microsoft Office or an IT professional responsible for deploying and managing your organization's business intelligence systems, this guide will help you make the most of PowerPivot. Professional Microsoft PowerPivot for Excel and SharePoint describes all aspects of PowerPivot and shows you how to use each of its major features. By the time you are finished with this book, you will be well on your way to becoming a PowerPivot expert. This book is for people who want to learn about PowerPivot from end to end. You should have some rudimentary knowledge of databases and data analysis. Familiarity with Microsoft Excel and Microsoft SharePoint is helpful, since PowerPivot builds on those two products. This book covers the first version of PowerPivot, which ships with SQL Server 2008 R2 and enhances Microsoft Office 2010. It provides an overview of PowerPivot and a detailed look its two components: PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint. It explains the technologies that make up these two components, and gives some insight into why these components were implemented the way they were. Through an extended example, it shows how to build a PowerPivot application from end to end. The companion Web site includes all the sample applications and reports discussed.

Table of Contents:
Introduction xxi Part I: Introduction Chapter 1: Self-Service Business Intelligence and Microsoft PowerPivot 3 SQL Server 2008 R 2 4 Self-Service Business Intelligence 4 Power Pivot: Microsoft’s Implementation of Self-Service BI 6 PowerPivot Applications 6 PowerPivot for Excel 7 PowerPivot for SharePoint 13 The Analysis Services Engine in VertiPaq Mode 18 Summary 21 Chapter 2: A First Look at PowerPivot 23 PowerPivot for Excel 24 Setting the Stage 24 Setup and Installation 25 Importing Data 27 Analyzing and Enriching Data 32 Creating a PivotTable/PivotChart 39 Sharing Your Data 43 PowerPivot for SharePoint 44 Single-Machine New Farm Install 44 Publishing Your Workbook 51 Viewing PowerPivot Workbooks 51 Viewing the PowerPivot Gallery 52 Summary 53 Part II: Creating Self-Service BI Applications Using PowerPivot Chapter 3: Assembling Data 57 Importing Data 58 Relational Databases 58 Multi-Dimensional Data Sources 64 Data Feeds 68 Text Files 70 Importing the data 74 Other Ways to Bring Data into PowerPivot 77 Pasting From the Clipboard 77 Linked Excel Tables 78 The Healthcare Audit Application 80 Assembling Data for the Healthcare Audit Application 80 Importing the Main Data Table 80 Importing the Related Tables 82 Adding Data from Other Sources 83 Summary 86 Chapter 4: Enriching Data 87 Exploring the PowerPivot Window 87 Data Refresh 88 Formatting Data 89 Column Operations 91 Relationships 95 Data Analysis Expressions (DAX) 97 Managing Connections 106 Update Import Definition 107 Enriching Data for the Healthcare Audit Application 107 Establishing Relationships 108 Defining DAX Calculations 110 Summary 111 Chapter 5: Self-Service Analysis 113 PivotTables and PivotCharts 113 Single PivotTable 115 Single PivotChart 116 Flattened PivotTable 117 The PowerPivot Field List 118 The New PowerPivot Data Model 119 Automatic Relationship Detection 120 Metadata Refresh 122 Slicers 122 Excel Slicers 123 PowerPivot-Enhanced Slicers 125 DAX Measures 127 Looking at Some Examples 129 PowerPivot and Other Excel Features 131 Cube Formulas 132 Named Sets 132 Analysis in the Healthcare Audit Application 132 The Server Group PivotTable Report 132 The Dashboard Page 137 The “Top 5” Report 144 Summary 146 Chapter 6: Self-Service Reporting 147 Publishing PowerPivot Workbooks 147 PowerPivot for SharePoint 150 PowerPivot Gallery 151 Architecture of PowerPivot for SharePoint 156 PowerPivot Data Refresh 157 Building Ad Hoc Reports 162 Adding Reporting to the SDR Healthcare Application 166 Summary 176 Part III: IT PROFESSIONAL Chapter 7: Preparing for SharePoint 2010 179 SharePoint 2010 179 Why Not SharePoint “Lite” BI Edition? 180 Excel Services 181 Comparing Excel and Excel Services 182 Excel Services and PowerPivot 182 Key Servers in PowerPivot for SharePoint 184 SharePoint Web Front End (WFE) 184 SharePoint Application Servers (App Servers) 185 SharePoint Databases 186 Key Services in PowerPivot for SharePoint 186 The Analysis Services Service in PowerPivot 187 PowerPivot System Service 189 Services Architecture Workflow Scenarios 191 Excel Client Upload to SharePoint 191 Excel Services Rendering 192 Excel Services Server Action 193 Summary 194 Chapter 8: PowerPivot for SharePoint Setup and Configuration 195 Required Hardware and Software 196 Single-Server Hardware Requirements 196 Multi-Server Hardware Requirements 197 Software Requirements 197 Setup and Configuration 198 Multi-Server Farm Setup 199 Install SQL Server on the SharePoint Database Server 200 Install SharePoint 2010 on the SharePoint WFE 201 Configuring the SharePoint WFE 204 Initial Farm Configuration Wizard on the WFE 207 Install SharePoint 2010 on the SharePoint App Server 209 Configuring the SharePoint App Server 210 Confirm SharePoint Farm Setup 211 Install SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services on the SharePoint App Server 212 Deploy, Configure, and Activate PowerPivot for SharePoint 213 Configuration of the PowerPivotUnattendedAccount 216 Enabling PowerPivot Management Dashboard Data Collection 219 Turn off Excel Calculation Services on the SharePoint WFE 220 Final Configuration Steps 220 Verify the PowerPivot for SharePoint Setup 222 Publishing Your Excel Workbooks 222 Viewing Workbooks in PowerPivot Gallery 224 Viewing Workbooks in Excel Services 224 Additional Verification Steps (Optional) 225 Optional Setup Steps 225 Configuring File Size Limits 225 Turning off the External Data Warning on Data Refresh 226 Integrating Reporting Services 227 Add More Servers to your PowerPivot for SharePoint Farm 230 Summary 232 Chapter 9: Troubleshooting, Monitoring, and Securing PowerPivot Services 233 Troubleshooting Tools 234 Tracing Tool in PowerPivot for Excel 234 SQL Server Profiler 235 ULS Logs 241 Troubleshooting Issues 245 Installation 246 Usage 248 Connectivity 252 Configuration Issues 255 Monitoring PowerPivot Services 261 Monitoring Infrastructure (Server Health) 262 Workbook Activity 264 Data Refresh 265 Reports 267 Dashboard Settings 269 Security 269 Security Services 269 Site Access 270 Infrastructure Access 273 Summary 275 Chapter 10: Diving into the PowerPivot Architecture 277 PowerPivot for Excel Architecture 278 PowerPivot for SharePoint Architecture 282 PowerPivot for SharePoint Services Architecture 282 Diving into Excel Services 284 Diving into PowerPivot Services 286 “Time” to Take a Break 293 Diving into Windows Identity Foundation 294 Summary 299 Chapter 11: Enterprise Considerations 301 Capacity Planning 302 Resources 302 Recommended Hardware Requirements 303 Provisioning 306 SharePoint Topologies 308 SharePoint WFEs 313 SharePoint App Servers 314 Excel Calculation Services 315 PowerPivot System Service 316 SSAS Engine Service 322 SharePoint Databases 323 Sizing 323 Scaling Out 323 Maintenance 324 Remote Blob Store 324 Upgrade and Patching Considerations 324 Upgrading from SharePoint 2007 to 2010 325 Upgrade and Patch Management 326 Upload Considerations 327 Save As Versus Upload 327 LargeChunkFileSize Configuration 330 SharePoint Upload Versus File Copy 330 Impact of Online Edit 332 Summary 335 Part IV: Appendix Appendix A: Setting Up the SDR Healthcare Application 339 Setting Up the SQL Server Audit Database 339 Setting Up the Database Group Name SharePoint List 340 Setting Up the Client Address to State Report 342 Appendix B: DAX Reference online Only Index 345