PowerPivot Twins! » Perspectives

PowerPivot Technical Architecture Diagram Released: Security Architecture

dennyglee — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 06:40:13 +0000

Because PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint involves so many components from SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services, Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010, this poster provides an end-to-end view of the PowerPivot Security Architecture in one view. This view includes nearly all of the logical security surface areas and illustrates how these systems interact.

Included in this diagram are:

Service Accounts
SharePoint Databases
Security Hardening
Automatic Data Refresh
User Identity Flow
PowerPivot Permissions Levels

Please click through to continue reading: PowerPivot Technical Architecture Diagram

Filed under: Internals, Perspectives Tagged: Configuration, Connectivity, Excel, Excel Services, Security, SharePoint

PowerPivot, you are so insensitive! (case that is)

dennyglee — Fri, 18 Jun 2010 16:02:06 +0000

June 18, 2010 by dennyglee

Working with my compatriots Ayad Shammout (@aashammout) and Peter Myers, we had found out that PowerPivot at times can be really insensitive…in terms of case that is. That is by default, the collation for PowerPivot is case-insensitive.

For example, if you import the table below:

Continue reading: PowerPivot, you are so insensitive! (case that is)

Filed under: Internals, Perspectives Tagged: Connectivity, Data Source, Excel

PowerPivotGeek’s Tips, How-to, and A Peek Inside!

dennyglee — Wed, 19 May 2010 05:55:38 +0000

PowerPivotGeek has been doing a lot of GREAT posts the last week and its getting harder and harder to keep up with greatness! Saying this, here are some great tips, how-to, and A Peek Inside!

Tips!

While PowerPivot for SharePoint requires 64-bit, remember that You must use a 32-bit browser when running on a 64-bit client – click to read why!
You may see SharePoint Timer Service error even in RTM, click the link to see what you can (or not bother) doing!
Are you Interested in PowerPivot and data mining? – here’s some great stuff!
A great one is Enabling the SharePoint Developer Dashboard which allows you to monitor page load performance on SharePoint.

How-To

How to resolve the issue when PowerPivot for Excel add-in is not coming up in Excel
For those who like to control your formatting of your workbooks, how to Hide a table in the PowerPivot field list.

A Peek Inside!

Get your “geek on” on Updating data in your embedded PowerPivot workbook.
Yay! We fixed for RTM the “Unsupported features” in CTP3 workbooks error.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Internals, Perspectives, Usage Tagged: Excel, FAQ, SharePoint

Now that PowerPivot has RTM…

dennyglee — Wed, 12 May 2010 05:23:55 +0000

As per many blog postings, press releases, tweets, messages, and streams – PowerPivot went RTM on the 5/12. So what can or should we do now? Here’s some quick great blog postings to get yourself up and running on PowerPivot ASAP:

PowerPivotGeek notes that PowerPivot for Excel 2010 is now available as a download as well as some great Launch Day testimonials for PowerPivot.
Now that SQL Server 2008 R2 has RTM’ed…check out this blog post on more testimonials and case studies of PowerPivot
As noted on the official SQL Server blog, How can I prepare for PowerPivot?
And for the brave, don’t forget to download the PowerPivot Technical Diagram: PowerPivot Client/Server Architecture

Enjoy!!

Filed under: Configuration, Perspectives, Usage Tagged: FAQ

TechEd NorthAmerica 2010 Sessions

dennyglee — Wed, 05 May 2010 03:36:50 +0000

For a listing of PowerPivotGeek’s PowerPivot sessions at TechEd North America 2010 (also known as the BI Conference 2010), check out:

TechEd NorthAmerica 2010 Sessions.

One thing that is missing from this list is also the joint session between Rob Collie (@PowerPivotPro) and Dave Wickert whom will do a PowerPivot power chalk talk. If you’re in New Orleans for the BI Conf / TechEd NA and into PowerPivot – these are your sessions!

Filed under: Perspectives Tagged: Opinion, SharePoint

PowerPivot Technical Diagram: PowerPivot Client/Server Architecture

dennyglee — Wed, 28 Apr 2010 02:49:29 +0000

Because PowerPivot for Excel and PowerPivot for SharePoint involve many components from SQL Server 2008 R2 Analysis Services, Office 2010, and SharePoint 2010, this poster contains all of the key components that make up PowerPivot in one view. This view includes nearly all of the logical architecture components and illustrates how these componets work together.

Included in this diagram are the components for:

PowerPivot for Excel
PowerPivot for SharePoint
Browser-Based Clients and their connection to PowerPivot
Data Import and Data Providers in relation to PowerPivot
Analysis Services Clients and their ability to connect to PowerPivot
Timer Jobs, Health and Usage Data Collection in relation to PowerPivot

For more information, please go to the reference sqlcat.com site: PowerPivot Technical Diagram: PowerPivot Client/Server Architecture

Filed under: Internals, Perspectives Tagged: domain, Excel, SharePoint

Memory Considerations in PowerPivot

dennyglee — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:54:25 +0000

By powerpivotgeek (dwickert@microsoft.com), on February 3rd, 2010

In scanning through some recent discussions on the PowerPivot forums, I noticed this very nice posting by Marco Russo (http://sqlblog.com/blogs/marco_russo/archive/2010/01/26/memory-considerations-about-powerpivot-for-excel.aspx) . I strongly recommend it.

The only additional point I would like to make is that the RTM version of PowerPivot has an additional check on the in-memory database when saving to disk.

An interesting post on the manageability of PowerPivot

dennyglee — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 04:52:19 +0000

By powerpivotgeek (dwickert@hotmail.com), on February 2nd, 2010

The Excel 2010 blog just posted an interesting article on the management aspects of PowerPivot – more of a “Why should I care?” kind of article, see (http://blogs.msdn.com/excel/archive/2010/02/01/management-features-of-powerpivot-for-sharepoint.aspx). It shows how PowerPivot helps IT answer:

Cube Formulas and NamedSets Running Commentary

dennyglee — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 09:57:21 +0000

For those of you who want to know the timeline of the commentary by @PowerPivotPro and @dennylee on cube formulas and named sets. Rob started the process with his excellent introductions:

Then @dennylee innocently created a three-part posting on how to create filtered by Top 10 reports:

which was quickly responded to and openly challenged by @PowerPivotPro

Solid punches were given and mayhem ensued, but @dennylee got his footing back and wreaked havoc via pile driver!

Pivots, Cube Formulas, Named Sets … Oh my!

Perhaps more mayhem will ensue – perhaps not. And in fact – it did with a great entry from Rob:

PowerPivot Data in Scatter Charts, etc.

So the feud is over…we think! Either way, you have to admit its sort of dorky, eh?!

Filed under: Perspectives Tagged: DAX, Excel, MDX

The Great PowerPivot FAQ!

dennyglee — Wed, 06 Jan 2010 17:10:58 +0000

Just in case you’re not already aware of this, some of great contributors to the PowerPivot community are now adding and moderating to the Great PowerPivot FAQ. Please check it out and email us your questions as well!

Enjoy!

Posted in Perspectives Tagged: Troubleshooting