Has anybody experience with the migration of big, complex SSAS Cubes (MDX calculations, parent-child hierarchies, …). Any use cases that could give us hints regarding best practices or lesons learned?
BR Torsten
Hi Torsten,
you may talk to Exasol partner eviit wh has been doing such engagement migration SSAS 2014 into Exasol for a large Exasol client some years ago.
Your potential contact from eviit will get in touch with you through DM, I’ve forwarded your request to them.
Best regards - Thomas D.
Cool Thx alot! Highly appreciated. BR Torsten
Hi Torsten,
There are essentially two directions Exasol can support when migrating off SSAS Multidimensional:
1. MOLAP → ROLAP with Exasol as the relational backend You keep SSAS and the MDX/XMLA interface in place but switch the storage mode to ROLAP, pointing at Exasol. This eliminates cube processing entirely — no more long rebuild times, data is available as soon as it lands in Exasol. Existing Excel PivotTables and reports continue to work via MDX without changes. Exasol’s in-memory columnar engine compensates for the typical ROLAP performance trade-off.
2. Full migration from MDX to SQL using the Exasol Semantic Layer (ESL) This is the clean break — replacing SSAS altogether with a SQL-based semantic layer. No more MDX, no more cube infrastructure. ESL handles measures, hierarchies, and business logic in SQL. More effort upfront, but a modern, maintainable architecture going forward. You will find further information here: Exasol Semantische Schicht: Analytik vereinfachen und vereinheitlichen
Which direction are you leaning? That would help narrow down the best practices we can share — the migration path looks quite different depending on whether you want to preserve MDX compatibility or move to a fully SQL-based approach.
Best regards,
Markus (from eviit)
Hi Markus,
We are currently trying to limit tool usage in the client’s stack. Therefore we investigated migrating to Exasol only and using Lua for some more complicated cases.
Keeping SSAS is not an option.
This leaves us with the full migration option. Semantic Layer is also something we might be looking into, but not sure if we are able to get this into the use case in the first step.
One important point limiting the client’s stack is sovereignty and a focus on open source software.
How do the commercials look when considering ESL? I know it is a ‘featured capability’ - but with a partner as a separate entity from Exasol.
Should we have an introductory call? How should I approach this with your company or through Exasol?
BR Torsten
Hi Torsten,
we work very closely with Exasol on ESL. Perhaps we could meet briefly to discuss the possible setup.
BR Markus
Hi Torsten, Hi Markus,
lasst uns zu dritt hier zusammenkommen, ich lade ein.
Schönen Start in die neue Woche - Thomas D.