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Your first Data Warehouse

Build your first Data Warehouse with AnalyticsCreator and Northwind, a sample database containing customers, products and orders. You will turn those records into a warehouse, generate the files that load it, and prepare an analytical model for Power BI.

What you will build

  1. A data warehouse: a separate SQL Server database where you can combine and check Northwind data without changing the original records.
  2. A data pipeline: the generated loading steps that move records from Northwind into your warehouse.
  3. An analytical model: tables, relationships and a sales measure, exported as a Power BI project (.pbip). You can explore it in Power BI Desktop if you want a report. A .pbip file holds project information; it is not itself an OLAP database.
Northwind supplies the records. AnalyticsCreator describes and builds the warehouse.
  1. Northwind

    Customers, products, orders and order lines.

  2. Load data
  3. Your warehouse

    Loaded records and a model for exploring sales.

Warehouse settings

AnalyticsCreator saves your connections and model in a settings database called a repository. Its design database and the warehouse that receives the loaded data have separate roles; you will name them during setup.

Your starting point

You need a supported Windows computer, access to SQL Server 2019 or later, Northwind, SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS), Microsoft OLE DB Driver 19.4.2 and AnalyticsCreator. SSMS is the tool used to manage your SQL Server databases. This guide also uses Integration Services 2022 to run the generated loading files. Power BI Desktop is only needed for the optional report.

The setup page explains the two SQL Server choices: use an existing Windows server on your computer or LAN, or install SQL Server Developer. You will test the connection and prepare the databases before installing AnalyticsCreator.

Have an AnalyticsCreator account ready when you open the application. Request trial access or use the access supplied by your organization. This is separate from your SQL Server sign-in.

Keep the setup record beside the guide. It gives you one place to record server, database and output names. Keep passwords in your password manager.

What success looks like

Your warehouse contains the expected Northwind records, the sales result agrees with the source, and the generated Power BI project contains the model definitions. The final checks show whether the data arrived correctly; generating files alone does not complete the load.

Choose the SQL Server setup that fits your computer and network.

SQL Server and the loading tools are already ready? Connect and prepare Northwind with the accounts you will use for the tutorial.