Back up and restore in MSAS 2005 - SSAS

Analysis Services 2005 offers numerous improvements over its predecessor, including simplified backups. Backup, restore and rename functionality is available directly in SQL Server 2005 Management Studio, a single tool to replace Enterprise Manager, Query Analyzer and Analysis Manager.

To change the existing database name, simply right click MSAS database in Management Studio and choose Rename. In addition, you can invoke backup and restore options from the right-click menu. Each option opens a respective dialog where you can specify the details of backup or restore.

You can easily script the BACKUP or RESTORE statement from a Backup Database/Restore Database dialog. Analysis Services 2005 even allows you to encrypt and compress backup files. Both backup and restore statements are implemented through XML for Analysis (XMLA) and look similar to the following:

 <Backup xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine"> <Object> <DatabaseID>test</DatabaseID> </Object> <File>c:\test.abf</File> <ApplyCompression>false</ApplyCompression> </Backup> <Restore xmlns="https://schemas.microsoft.com/analysisservices/2003/engine"> <File>c:\test.abf</File> <DatabaseName>NewTest</DatabaseName> </Restore>

Note that backup files have the extension of ABF (Analysis Backup File) with MSAS 2005. You can schedule BACKUP/RESTORE commands to execute on schedule using SQL Server jobs. SQL Server 2005 has a new job step type -- Analysis Services command -- which allows you to execute XMLA statements, including BACKUP and RESTORE.