OLAP cube on Azure Analysis Services

Question

Can the OLAP method of connection work with cubes that are hosted through Azure Analysis Services?

I have used the msmdpump.dll method a few years ago with another cube browser but that is when our Analysis Services was hosted on a server and the file was placed on that machine and a web link was created for it. How can that be accomplished for an application hosted through Azure App Service and a cube hosted on Azure Analysis Services?

Any insight about this would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

AngelinFaithSheeba PaulvannanRajadurai · Answer

Hi Nate,We are looking into the possibility of hosting the OLAP cube
using the Azure Analysis services and will provide an update in two business
days (August 16, 2023).Regards,Angelin Faith Sheeba.

AngelinFaithSheeba PaulvannanRajadurai · Answer

Hi Nate,We checked the possibilities and found that the OLAP cube
can be hosted using the Azure Analysis service. However, due to the limitations
of the current architecture, our Syncfusion Pivot Table only
supports connecting the OLAP cube using SSAS. Thus, the hosted URL
using the Azure Analysis service will not be supported by our Syncfusion
Pivot Table.Please let us know if you have any concerns.Regards,Angelin Faith Sheeba.

Nathanael Greene · Answer

Under the advice you provided last time we were able to create an instance the cube on a VM and create a url that allows access to the msmdpump.dll. I have a couple follow up questions regarding this implementation:

Our current setup is using a username/password to protect the data as it would be a publicly accessable url, is this possible or does it have to be used without a username/passsword?
Are we able to use roles with this? We have an OLAP cube that contains all of the data for many different clients each of them with a unique ClientID. We need to create a system where users from one company do not see data from users of another company. We have utilized roles in the past to set filters on the cube to ensure this. Can this be added to this implementation or iss there another workaround for this isssue?

Thanks again for all the help,

Nate

AngelinFaithSheeba PaulvannanRajadurai · Answer

Hi Nathanael,Please find the response below.

Query

Comments

Our current setup is using a username/password to
       protect the data as it would be a publicly accessable url, is this
       possible or does it have to be used without a username/passsword?

If your OLAP cube has configured with authentication, it
  is mandatory to use the basic authentication for OLAP cubes while connecting
  to the pivot table. If it is not configured, you can connect the cube to the
  pivot table directly without requiring any authentication. Please refer the
  below document to know more about the “authentication”.
   
  Document: https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/documentation/pivot-table/olap#configuring-authentication

Are we able to use roles with this? We have an OLAP
       cube that contains all of the data for many different clients each of
       them with a unique ClientID. We need to create a system where users from
       one company do not see data from users of another company. We have
       utilized roles in the past to set filters on the cube to ensure this.
       Can this be added to this implementation or iss there another workaround
       for this isssue?

Yes, you
  can use “roles”
  to limit the data access within a cube. Please refer the below document to
  know more about the OLAP “roles”.
   
  Document:https://ej2.syncfusion.com/aspnetmvc/documentation/pivot-table/olap#roles

Please let
us know if you have any concerns.Regards,Angelin Faith Sheeba.

Nathanael Greene · Answer

I just wanted to start this out with a thank-you as you have been very helpful working through some of these issues.I have setup everything and the URL is working to connect to the cube using SQL management studio but when I try to access it through code using the Syncfusion Pivot Grid I am running into some CORS errors. I found another post on the forums concerning the issue and it had a guide that I should follow to make sure everything is setup correctly  (Unable to connect Pivot Table to SSAS OLAP Cube - getting CORS Error | ASP.NET MVC - EJ 2 Forums | Syncfusion) and I have followed all of the instructions that are there.

The first CORS error looks to be one that pertains to a mismatch concerning SSL. The site with the pivot grid is on is https but the VM hosting the msmdpump.dll is http. But when I run from my dev machine and use local host so that it is http I get a different CORS error:"Blocked by CORS policy: Response to preflight request doesn't pass access control check: It does not have HTTP ok status."My questions are 2 parts:Does the msmdpump.dll have to be hosted using SSL or can this be changed using a setting in either the project Web.config or within the IIS on the VM that hosts the .dll file?Can I provide you with a URL to the hosted cube so that you can investigate the issue further? (I saw that was suggested in the other post I found). And if I can send you the URL where can I send it that would not be public as I would not want to publish the URL in this forum post itself.Thank you in advance for any help you can provide!

AngelinFaithSheeba PaulvannanRajadurai · Answer

Hi Nate,Please find the response below.

Query

Comments

Does the
       msmdpump.dll have to be hosted using SSL or can this be changed using a
       setting in either the project Web.config or within the IIS on the VM
       that hosts the .dll file?

You need to host the OLAP
  msmdpump.dll on the IIS and please refer the following document to
  configure HTTP access to cube from IIS.
   
  https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/analysis-services/instances/configure-http-access-to-analysis-services-on-iis-8-0?view=asallproducts-allversions

Can I
       provide you with a URL to the hosted cube so that you can investigate
       the issue further? (I saw that was suggested in the other post I found).
       And if I can send you the URL where can I send it that would not be
       public as I would not want to publish the URL in this forum post itself.

We suggest you run the
  pivot table in the security disabled chrome browser to ensure whether you
  have hosted the OLAP in the IIS properly at first. If it runs properly in the
  security disabled chrome, then it’s a CORS error. However, we have created a
  separate private ticket to track the further
  updates regarding this query and you can share us the hosted URL there.
   
  Please let
us know if you have any concerns.Regards,Angelin Faith Sheeba.