PowerPivotGeek » Training http://powerpivotgeek.com An adventure in managed self-service computing Wed, 14 Jul 2010 04:51:53 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Best Practices: Ask all of your toughest questions . . . http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/11/best-practices-ask-all-of-your-toughest-questions/ http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/11/best-practices-ask-all-of-your-toughest-questions/#comments Fri, 11 Dec 2009 18:37:24 +0000 powerpivotgeek http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/11/best-practices-ask-all-of-your-toughest-questions/ Denny Lee and I are doing an Academy Live webcast next week on our early PowerPivot best practices. Please feel free to join us!

Registration is at: https://swrt.worktankseattle.com/webcast/3475/preview.aspx

SQL90CALT: A Preview to PowerPivot Server Best Practices

Date: December 15, 2009 Event Start Time: 8:00 AM Pacific Standard Time (UTC – 8 hours) Duration: 1 hour

Abstract: This session provides a preview to [...]]]> Denny Lee and I are doing an Academy Live webcast next week on our early PowerPivot best practices. Please feel free to join us!

Registration is at: https://swrt.worktankseattle.com/webcast/3475/preview.aspx

SQL90CALT: A Preview to PowerPivot Server Best Practices

Date: December 15, 2009
Event Start Time: 8:00 AM Pacific Standard Time (UTC – 8 hours)
Duration: 1 hour

Abstract:
This session provides a preview to PowerPivot Best Practices that has been accumulated based on customer interactions and lessons learned. This session is highly technical and will provide a high level overview of the PowerPivot architecture to provide better context for these best practices.

Prerequisites:
You are already familiar with PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint; you can find more information at http://www.powerpivot.com/

Audience:
DBA and IT Pro whom are interested in understanding the infrastructure behind PowerPivot.
Presenters:

  • Denny Lee, Senior Program Manager, Microsoft
  • Dave Wickert, Principal Progam Manager, Microsoft
Share/Bookmark]]> http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/12/11/best-practices-ask-all-of-your-toughest-questions/feed/ 0 Cheat sheets on how to install the server http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/20/cheat-sheets-on-how-to-install-the-server/ http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/20/cheat-sheets-on-how-to-install-the-server/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 18:57:42 +0000 powerpivotgeek http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/20/cheat-sheets-on-how-to-install-the-server/ Just posted: a new section of the blog (http://powerpivotgeek.com/server-installation/) dedicated to detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to install PowerPivot for SharePoint in common configurations, such as an “All-In-1” server, or an existing SharePoint farm, etc. Ultimately we expect most of this information to be in Microsoft white papers, but you get to see it first [...]]]> Just posted: a new section of the blog (http://powerpivotgeek.com/server-installation/) dedicated to detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to install PowerPivot for SharePoint in common configurations, such as an “All-In-1” server, or an existing SharePoint farm, etc. Ultimately we expect most of this information to be in Microsoft white papers, but you get to see it first here. I think you fill find the information very useful. Feel free to post questions, suggestions or provide feedback on each of the white papers if you wish.

IF YOU CAN, PLEASE READ THESE IF ONE OF THE CONFIGURATIONS APPLIES TO YOU – BEFORE YOU INSTALL THE PRODUCT.

Because of the complexity of SharePoint and all of the moving parts that PowerPivot uses, installations run the whole spectrum from being can be easy and straightforward, requiring very little expertise from the user, to much more complicated with many steps relying very heavily on the installer’s SharePoint expertise.

Share/Bookmark]]> http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/20/cheat-sheets-on-how-to-install-the-server/feed/ 0 PowerPivot for SharePoint BOL is now available http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/powerpivot-for-sharepoint-bol-is-now-available/ http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/powerpivot-for-sharepoint-bol-is-now-available/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:20:13 +0000 powerpivotgeek http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/powerpivot-for-sharepoint-bol-is-now-available/ Along with the CTP3/beta2 bits that were pushed today, we have also released the Books-On-Line CTP3 documentation for PowerPivot for SharePoint. I will do a few postings in a bit with the critical portions of BOL that I think that everyone should know about, but for the time being, it is great to just get [...]]]> Along with the CTP3/beta2 bits that were pushed today, we have also released the Books-On-Line CTP3 documentation for PowerPivot for SharePoint. I will do a few postings in a bit with the critical portions of BOL that I think that everyone should know about, but for the time being, it is great to just get the BOL information out there. They can be located at: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ee210682(SQL.105).aspx

Enjoy.

Share/Bookmark]]> http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/powerpivot-for-sharepoint-bol-is-now-available/feed/ 0 A *WAY-COOL* facility –> A Virtual Lab for PowerPivot http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/a-way-cool-facility-a-virtual-lab-for-powerpivot/ http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/a-way-cool-facility-a-virtual-lab-for-powerpivot/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 04:13:29 +0000 powerpivotgeek http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/a-way-cool-facility-a-virtual-lab-for-powerpivot/ Buried in the launching of CTP3/beta2 bits, is this tidbit: “Microsoft Virtual Lab: PowerPivot for Excel 2010”. Basically this facility is a remotely hosted VM with Excel 2010, PowerPivot for Excel and SQL Server 2008 R2 RDBMS. WOW!

You signup for the course and you have about 2 hrs of connect time with the lab. You [...]]]> Buried in the launching of CTP3/beta2 bits, is this tidbit: “Microsoft Virtual Lab: PowerPivot for Excel 2010”. Basically this facility is a remotely hosted VM with Excel 2010, PowerPivot for Excel and SQL Server 2008 R2 RDBMS. WOW!

You signup for the course and you have about 2 hrs of connect time with the lab. You don’t need anything on your desktop except a browser and an ActiveX control for the terminal server part. Everything is hosted remotely. You don’t have to build a VM; nor managed it; nor worry about cleanup afterwards. After signing up, it takes a minute or so to fire up and – there you are – you are connected to a remote image with all of the software pre-loaded and ready to go. Didn’t finish in an hour, signup for a second one.

The available database in the image is the Contoso Retail DW – which is a nice couple of million row fact tables; maybe 10-15 dimensions. The data is mostly sales and marketing related, i.e. “Who bought what, when, when, how?” kind of stuff.

To actually go through the labs, you have two options: you can walk through the labs and do the exercises yourself (the lessons are organized step-by-step on the right-hand side of the screen), or (my favorite) just poke around with the data. You are not restricted to run just the lab.Try loading the data; create a few views; build all of the data mashups you want to. Enter in your own DAX formulas – all within the host VM. Or you can do a combination of these two approaches: begin with the normal lessons, but deviate from them as your interest guides you. An old hackers dream.  NOW THAT IS WAY COOL! All at zero cost and at almost zero footprint on your client machine. And if you like this idea, don’t be shy. There are lots of other virtual labs for other topics from the same Microsoft group. Check them out!

Click here: https://cmg.vlabcenter.com/default.aspx?moduleid=ad3bd3e9-8d2b-498d-94fa-e41e1b09730d for the actual lab. There is also a link from PowerPivot.com (http://www.powerpivot.com/videos.aspx and then click on “Hands on Lab”).

While this lab focuses on just the client components of PowerPivot, we hope to have a matching PowerPivot for SharePoint virtual lab available later.

I STRONGLY RECOMMEND IT! Particularly to those folks who cannot install Excel 2010 on their desktop.

Enjoy.

Share/Bookmark]]> http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/a-way-cool-facility-a-virtual-lab-for-powerpivot/feed/ 5 All of the CTP3 bits are now live! http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/all-of-the-ctp3-bits-are-now-live/ http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/all-of-the-ctp3-bits-are-now-live/#comments Thu, 19 Nov 2009 03:54:29 +0000 powerpivotgeek http://powerpivotgeek.com/2009/11/18/all-of-the-ctp3-bits-are-now-live/ Rather than list all of the links, I will just point to PowerPivot.com. It has a very nice consolidated ‘cheat sheet’: http://www.powerpivot.com/download.aspx – I have just one strong suggestion. Until mid-to-late December, I strongly suggest that if you are going to install PowerPivot for SharePoint that you use Windows 2008 SP2 as your base OS [...]]]> Rather than list all of the links, I will just point to PowerPivot.com. It has a very nice consolidated ‘cheat sheet’: http://www.powerpivot.com/download.aspx – I have just one strong suggestion. Until mid-to-late December, I strongly suggest that if you are going to install PowerPivot for SharePoint that you use Windows 2008 SP2 as your base OS instead of Windows 2008 R2. While I always like building upon the latest and greatest of shipping code, in this case there is a required QFE that is not there for R2. In Win2K8 SP2, everything is in the preinstaller so you are good to go if you use it.

Enjoy.

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