This course is an overview of basic data warehousing concepts, a guide for installing software and a step-by-step tutorial on using the software. This course is divided into three main sections:
Data Warehousing Basics
We begin with a conversation about data warehousing concepts, including the following:
What is a data warehouse?
Why do we need a data warehouse?
What is Extract, Transform and Load (ETL)?
The difference between OLAPand OLTPdatabases
The Star and Snowflake schemas
Fact and Dimension tables
These concepts can be difficult to understand, so I explain them using real conversation and examples. We have this conversation first so that you are familiar with the ideas as they are discussed in the later sections of the course.
Data Warehousing Software Installation
If you want to become good at data warehousing, you need to use the software. In this section I start by talking with you about the software and explain how the different pieces work together. Next is a step-by-step walkthrough of installing SQLServer Developer, SQLServerManagement Studio (SSMS)and Visual Studio Community with the SQLServer Integration Services (SSIS) package. The versions of software we download are all free for you to use.
SSIS Tutorial: Create a Project and Basic Package with SSIS
The last section of the course is a step-by-step tutorial on using the ETLtool SSIS. The tutorial is broken down into nine steps:
Step 1: Create a new integration services project
Step 2: Add and configure a flat file connection manager
Step 3: Add and configure an OLE DB connection manager
Step 4: Add a data flow task to the package
Step 5: Add and configure the flat file source
Step 6: Add and configure the lookup transformations
Step 7: Add and configure the OLE DB destination
Step 8: Make the Lesson 1 package easier to understand
Step 9: Test the Lesson 1 package
Before we being the tutorial, I discuss the steps in detail. I explain the source data, how the data will be transformed and how we will get the data to it's destination database.
