MicroStrategy ONE

Communicating with Databases

Establishing communication between MicroStrategy and your databases or other data sources is an essential first step in configuring MicroStrategy products for reporting and analyzing data. This section explains how MicroStrategy communicates with various data sources and the steps required to set up this communication.

ODBC (Open Database Connectivity) is a standard database access method. ODBC enables a single application to access database data, regardless of the database management system (DBMS) that stores the data. A DBMS is a collection of programs that enables you to store, modify, and extract information from a database.

MicroStrategy Intelligence Server, when used in a three- or four-tier configuration, is the application that uses ODBC to access a DBMS. ODBC drivers translate MicroStrategy Intelligence Server requests into commands that the DBMS understands. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server connects to several databases (at a minimum, the data warehouse and the metadata repository) to do its work.

Users of MicroStrategy Web can also connect to data sources using database connections. A database connection supports connecting to data sources through the use of DSNs, as well as through DSNless connections, to import and integrate data into MicroStrategy. For steps to create database connections in MicroStrategy Web, see Creating Database Connections in Web.

This section describes the ODBC standard for connecting to databases and creating data source names (DSNs) for the ODBC drivers that are bundled with the MicroStrategy applications.

The diagram below illustrates the three-tier metadata and data warehouse connectivity used in the MicroStrategy system.

The diagram shown above illustrates projects that connect to only one data source. However, MicroStrategy allows connection to multiple data sources in the following ways:

  • With MicroStrategy MultiSource Option, a MicroStrategy project can connect to multiple relational data sources. For information on MultiSource Option, see the Project Design Help.
  • You can integrate MDX cube sources such as SAP BW, Microsoft Analysis Services, and Hyperion Essbase with your MicroStrategy projects. For information on integrating these MDX cubes sources into MicroStrategy, see the MDX Cube Reporting Help.

This section provides information and instructions on the following tasks: