MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answer

What is metadata?

The database repository where definitions of all MicroStrategy objects are stored.
Metadata could be hosted on most databases. In simple words, Metadata could be
considered as the heart of MicroStrategy environment.

MicroStrategy metadata contains datawarehouse connection information, project

settings and MicroStrategy object definitions.

What are the tasks that you can perform with the MicroStrategy Architect?

Initially populate the metadata with project definition and parameters, schema
objects and create schema objects

What is difference between 2 ,3 , 4 tier connection?

In 2 tier architecture, the MicroStrategy Desktop itself queries against the Data
warehouse and the Metadata with out the Intermediate tier of the Intelligence server.

The 3 Tier architecture comprises a Intelligence server between MicroStrategy

Desktop and the data Warehouse and the Metadata.

The 4 tier architecture is same as 3 tier except it has a additional component of

MicroStrategy Web.

Intelligence Server is the architectural foundation of the MicroStrategy platform. It

serves as a central point for the MicroStrategy metadata so you can manage
thousands of end user requests.
You are very limited in what you can do with a 2-tier architecture. Things like
clustering, mobile, distribution services, report services, OLAP services, scheduling,
governing, I cubes, project administration are only available via Intelligence Server.

When a change is made in 2 tier – is it reflected in 3 tier?

No it is not reflected. Following are the methods by which we can reflect it in 3 tier.

Update the schema in 2-tier. Restart the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server.

Recommended method by MSTR.

Update the schema in 2-tier and reload the project from the Project Monitor.

What is heterogeneous mapping?

There are no restrictions on the names for the columns used in the expressions of a
given attribute form. Heterogeneous mapping allows the engine to perform joins on
unlike column names. If the user defines more than one expression for a given form,

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heterogeneous mapping will automatically take place when tables and column
names require it.

For example, because different source systems store Date information in various
contexts, a data warehouse may have multiple columns in different tables which all
represent the concept of 'Date'. The ID form of the attribute 'Date' may contain two
expressions. The DATE_ID column occurs in the LU_DATE table as well as in two
other tables. The elements in these columns correspond to elements in the
ORDER_DATE column in the order_detail and ORDER_FACT tables.

Heterogeneous Mapping of Attribute Forms.

Why do we go for parent child relationship?

While establishing the relationship between attributes one can either look from
business hierarchy point of view and the attribute higher in the hierarchy becomes
parent of the attribute lower in the hierarchy. Parent and Child follow a one-to-many
relationship. Example Time hierarchy Year > Month > Date. Here Year would be
parent of Month and Date and Month parent of Date.

We can also identify Parent-Child relationship from database design point of view.
Here in a table the Primary Key uniquely identifies the other columns in the table and
hence qualifies as child of all the other attributes from the table, in the same ways as
a child in real world identifies his father (at least the biological one).

What is a compound attribute?

A compound attribute has its value determined by an expression which combines

two or more columns in a database to create a new column

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What are different kinds of objects in MicroStrategy?

Configuration Objects: Configuration objects are MicroStrategy objects which can

be re used in multiple projects and they appear in the system layer. Ex: Database
Instances, Users, Login ID's, Schedules

Schema Objects: The building block of BI. Schema objects are directly mapped to a
column or columns in the database. Attributes, Facts, Functions & Operators,
Hierarchies, Partition Mappings, Tables & Transformations

Public Objects: Objects that generate analytical data and are built on other schema
objects or public objects. Also called as application objects. Ex: Consolidation,
Custom Groups, Drill Maps, Reports, Documents, Filters, Prompts, Metrics,
Templates and Searches

How to create a conditional attribute in MicroStrategy Desktop

A user may want to create an attribute with an alternating expression depending on a

certain condition, a conditional attribute. This condition may be implemented through
an ApplySimple statement such as the following:

Types of Attributes

Simple

A simple attribute is made up of one or more expressions. With a simple attribute

definition, you can define an attribute as a column, constant, or simple expression.

Implicit Attributes

An implicit attribute is a virtual or constant attribute that does not physically exist in
the database because it is created at the application level. The implicit attribute has
its own expression.

Derived Attributes

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A derived attribute has its value determined by an expression which combines two or
more columns in a database to create a new column.

Compound Key Attribute

A compound key attribute is an attribute whose primary key is made up by the

combination of two or more columns.

What is a Implicit Attribute?

An implicit attribute is a virtual or constant attribute that does not physically exist in
the database because it is created at the application level. The implicit attribute has
its own expression.

What is a joint child?

A joint child is MicroStrategy way of handling Composite Keys. Composite keys are
constituted of two or more columns which together act as unique identifier. To handle
this case in MicroStrategy we make this set of columns, constituting composite keys,
as joint child.

What are attribute roles?

A user defines two attributes that have the same definition but play different roles in
the business model. In this example, attribute Origin Airport and Destination Airport
are defined using the same Lookup Table and Column (Airport_ID). Both attributes
share the same forms, or information about them (Description, Location, etc.). In the
fact table, however, a separate column exists for each of their roles
(Origin_Airport_ID and Destination_Airport_ID).

When should attribute relationships be modeled as separate attributes in a

parent-child relationship and when should they be modeled as forms of the
same attribute?

It is preferable to use separate attributes that are related hierarchically (that is,
parent-child relationships) for the following reasons:

Attributes that exist in a hierarchical relationship can appear independently of each

other on a report. If 'Item' and 'Item Category' are modeled as separate attributes,
reports may then be designed to report on individual items or whole categories. If
'Item Category' is considered a description (form) of 'Item', it becomes impossible to
report on 'Item Category'.

Attribute forms are not available as metric dimensionality settings. In order to

aggregate data at a particular attribute level, that attribute must exist as an attribute.

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If the attribute is modeled as an attribute form instead, it is possible to aggregate

only at the level of the attribute containing the form.

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Attribute forms are not appropriate under the following circumstances:

When the attribute must be used as an aggregation level (metric dimensionality). For
example, customer and state: if a user wishes to calculate sales totals by the states
in which customers live, state should be a separate attribute as a parent (or
grandparent, and so on) of customer.

When the attributes exist in a one-to-many or many-to-many relationship. For

example, customer status: Presumably, each status will apply to several customers.
Modeling status as a form of customer makes it always subordinate to customer,
which may impose unnecessary limits on reporting options.

How are the drilling options for an attribute decided?

Based on relation between attributes, hierarchies and their drilling configuration

What are the two types of Hierarchies?

System hierarchy: It contains all the project attributes and its available browse paths
and is based on relation between attributes.

User defined Hierarchy: Custom grouping of attributes and define their browse paths.

Facts

What is fact extension?

You can use level extensions to change a fact level, which is a set of attributes that
represent the lowest level of detail at which the fact exists in the warehouse.

Level extensions define how facts can be extended, lowered, or disallowed to other
facts across the schema.

What is fact degradation?

When facts exist at a higher level than the report display level, you must specify how
the Engine degrades the data to the lower level. When you lower the level at which a
fact is reported, you are using degradation.

Types of facts

Simple facts

A simple fact is made up of one or more fact expressions. With a simple fact
definition, you can define a fact as a column, constant, or simple expression.

Implicit facts

An implicit fact is a virtual or constant fact that does not physically exist in the
database because it is created at the application level.

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Derived facts

A derived fact has its value determined by an expression that combines two or more
columns in a database to create a new column.

Metrics

What are different types of metrics?

Simple : Simple metrics combine aggregate operators with fact columns or attributes.

Nested: Metrics that perform multiple aggregations by placing one calculation

formula inside another

Compound : A compound metric is a combination of expressions that, through the

use of functions, are themselves metrics.

Derived

What is Base Formula?

Use a simple expression as a base formula to facilitate the creation of more complex
metrics.

What is smart metrics?

Compound metrics are the ones that are derived by some specific expression
involving the different simple metrics. Eg, Total (profit/units Sold). Smart metrics is
when the compound metric is calculated with the help of subtotal calculations for
every element inside the compound metric. For the above example the smart metric
computation can be Total (profit)/Total (Sold).

What is level metric?

Level metrics are advanced metrics which are set to be evaluated at a specified
attribute level. These are required when in the same report you need to roll up a
metric at two different levels side by side. Example is comparison of “Revenue from
a Region” to “Revenue from a Country”. Here Region and Country are the two
different levels.

The level of a metric, also referred to as dimensionality, allows you to

determine the attribute level at which the metric is calculated.

Default – Report Level

The elements needed to specify a level for a metric

Target - Attribute level at which the metric

Grouping - Determines the metric aggregation.

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Filtering - governs the relationship between the

report filter and the calculation of the metric.

What is purpose of having conditionality in metrics?

Conditionality associates a filter to the metric calculation. This is an optional

component.

What are the different components of metrics?

The formula defines the data to be used and the calculations to be performed on the
data. The outermost formula must be a group function.

The level, or dimensionality, determines the level at which to perform the metric
calculation. For example, you can choose to calculate at the month level or year
level.

Conditionality associates a filter to the metric calculation. This is an optional

component.

The transformation applies offset values, such as “four months ago,” to the selected
attributes. This is also an optional component.

What is the purpose of transformation in Metrics? Types of transformation.

It encapsulates a business rule used to compare results of different time periods.

Transformations are used in the definition of a metric to alter the behavior of the
metrics.

Expression - based transformations – You implement these transformations

using a mathematical formula in Microstrategy Architect.

Table - based transformations – These transformations are based on a

transformation – or relate –table in the warehouse.

What is dynamic Aggregation?

Rollup metric values that occurs when an attribute is moved from the report grid to
the report objects.

For Eg: The report grid has Quarter and Customer City, Revenue. If we remove
Quarter into the report objects then revenue should automatically roll up to Customer
City.

How to ensure that a particular fact table will be chosen for a metric

The MSTR operates in such a way that the incoming queries and data retrievals are
done from the table which has the least logical size. Thus if we prefer a specific table

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to be the center of activity then we should try to reduce the logical size of that
specific table so that it becomes considerably lesser than the other tables.

In MicroStrategy, how can you direct the sql generated to use a specific table?

Using the Level parameter in the Metric level options

Assuming you have OLAP licence, the easiest way to direct to a particular table is to
create a dummy fact on the table, include the fact in metric and put the metric in
report objects.

How to hide a particular metric in a report for a specific user?

Using Object level security

What is Metric Formula Join Type? How it is different with Metric Join Type?

Metric Formula Join Type is used for Compound Metrics and determines how the
different tables used in metric formula are joined.

Whereas the Metric Join Type determines how the metrics are joined to other
metrics.

Filters

What is filter?

Filter is used to restrict data in a report

What is report as filter?

In the MicroStrategy when the same filter conditions must be applied to multiple
passes, the same where clause appears in each of those passes. This redundant
where clause can be expensive if the filter conditions are complicated and thus
involve many tables and joins. Ideally, an intermediate table populated with entries
could be created to satisfy the complicated filter conditions so that the rest of the
SQL statements can use that intermediate table. In that case, the where clause
would be executed only once instead of multiple times and SQL performance would
be improved. In this case to populate the temporary table we can use report as a
filter

What is view filter?

View Filters: View Filters are the conditions that come into play before a specific
result is presented to the user. Thus the view filters are not part of the SQL
statements like report definitions, rather they are the filters applied after the
execution of the SQL statements, after the data is retrieved from the data
warehouse.

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What is filtered prompt?

We can restrict the number of elements in a prompt using a filter.

Difference between report and view filter?

Report filters: report filters are the conditions that accompany the report generating
SQL statements. The report definitions have the filters as part of their definition.

View Filters: View Filters are the conditions that come into play before a specific
result is presented to the user. Thus the view filters are not part of the SQL
statements like report definitions, rather they are the filters applied after the
execution of the SQL statements, after the data is retrieved from the data
warehouse.

Difference between Report Limit and Report filter?

A report limit specifies a set of criteria used to restrict the data returned in the report
data set after the report metrics are calculated.

Report Filter applies the where condition to the query sent to warehouse to extract
the results.

What is the difference between Absolute filtering and standard filtering?

When we use the absolute filtering in definition of level metric whatever data we
obtain from the filter is going to be reported as such and the report filter will be
overridden by the absolute filter settings. The standard filtering the report filter
interacts with the metric filter in the normal way and what we obtain will be formatted
according to the report filter settings.

What is a Joint Element List Filter?

Helps to choose combination of attribute elements from different attributes to filter a

report

Enables to create filters with attribute pairs as well as triplets, quadruplets and so on.

This is available in the advanced qualification section of the filters

What is a Security filter?

Security filter is used to apply security at the database data level. Whenever a users
associated with security filter runs a report, a WHERE clause is always included in
the report sql with the condition defined in the Security Filter.

What is a Attribute to Attribute Filtering?

This is used to compare values of 2 attributes using their forms.

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Eg: Ship Date<Day(ID)+2

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Prompts

What is prompt?

Used to dynamically modify the contents of a report

Enormous flexibility for designing reports

One report can satisfy multiple reporting requirements with prompts

Allow users to select criteria for reports at run-time

Different types of prompts?

1. Object: Allow users to select objects comprising a report at run-time

Users can select from any objects to dynamically build a report

2. Level: Level prompts enable you to specify the level of aggregation calculation
of a metric

3. Value: Allow users to type a value

Used in conjunction with other prompts for filters or metrics

4. Filter Definition Prompt

a. Choose from all attributes in a hierarchy

b. Qualify on an attribute

c. Choose from an attribute element list

d. Qualify on a metric

What is object prompt?

An object prompt allows you to select which MicroStrategy objects to include in a

report, such as attributes, metrics, custom groups and so on. Object prompts can
either determine the definition of the report template or the report filter.

What is level prompt?

Level prompts enable you to specify the level of aggregation calculation of a metric

Can we use hierarchy in prompt?

Yes we can use.

Report

What is the purpose of having thresholds in report?

Used to create conditional formatting for metric values.

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Two metric and one attribute – How will the SQL look if the metrics are from
same tables and are from different tables?

If the two metrics are sourced from the same table then only one pass will come.

If they are sourced from different fact tables then a pass will be generated for each
metric and in the final pass the data will be aggregated,

Difference between drill map and drill path. What is drill to template?

Drill maps allow you to create fully customized drill paths that are available to your
users while drilling on a report. By default, the paths available are based on the
system Hierarchy of the project. You can create custom drill maps that can override
these defaults.

Difference between Consolidation and Custom Groups. How will they affect
SQL ? Which is more expensive operation.

Custom Groups are handled at the database end whereas Consolidations are
handled at the Analytical Engine end. As a result the Consolidations are not an
overhead for the database as there is a single pass in the query. On the other hand
Custom Groups are an overhead on the database as they fire a separate SQL pass
for every Custom group element.

A custom group is a set of special filters that can be placed on a template. It is made
up of an ordered collection of elements called custom group elements.
Consolidations are used to specify the data you want to view in your report. They
allow you to group attribute elements in new ways without changing the metadata
and warehouse definitions.

Difference between page by and outline mode?

Page by enables to select and display subsets of report results as separate pages.

Outline mode enables indented grouping of related attributes This is useful when we
want to display the same report at different levels quickly.

How can we enable caching in reports? Different types by which we can

implement caching?

Caching can be enabled/disabled at project or report level. However the report level
setting will override the project level setting.

Using Project Configuration we can enable the caching else in report – using caching
options we can enable or disable the caching.

Templates can also be used for caching. Using a common template for developing
common reports will help to fetch report data faster.

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Can Threshold be applied on attributes? What are the different formatting

types?

1. Font Type, Color

2. Background

3. Image

4. Text

What are adhoc reports and static reports?

Adhoc reports run in real time based on the input parameters provided by the user at
the run time. In Microstrategy, adhoc reports are created using Prompts.

In static reports, users won't be provide any input parameters. These reports are
usually schedule to run overnight and ready to view immediately in the mornings
using cache.

Tables

How to handle table structure change in DB to be reflected in MSTR?

Update the warehouse catalog.

Modify the data type in attribute editor.

When a column name changes in a table how do we handle it in MSTR

1. Remove the association of the column from the respective attributes.

2. Go to warehouse catalog and update the structure

3. Update the schema

4. Associate the attributes to the new column name. Save

5. Update the schema

How to we add tables into a schema

1. Warehouse catalog

2. Architect

When you add a physical table from the data warehouse into the project, MSTR
creates a corresponding logical table in the metadata. Physical table stores the
actual data whereas the logical data stores information about their corresponding
physical tables including column names, data type and schema objects associated
with the column names.

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There are two views - the physical view and the logical view in the table editor. The
logical view shows the attributes and facts mapped whereas the physical view
shows the columns and corresponding data types.

What is a logical size of a table and what does it depend on?

Logical size is MicroStrategy way of generating the best suitable/optimized SQL to

fetch the required data. MicroStrategy follows an algorithm to calculate the logical
size of a table, which depends on the no of attributes and facts based on the table
and also the position of those attributes in the system hierarchy.

What are Logical Views used for?

Logical Views allows application architects to create any desired view using
MicroStrategy, without DBA involvement. Once these Logical views are created, they
are available to the report designer in a way similar to any other table. This allows
developers to model attributes and facts whose expressions span multiple tables

Other Questions

What is the data modelling tool in MSTR called?

Architect

How do we migrate objects across projects?

Object Manager

What is the difference between object manager and project merge?

 Object Manager can move just a few objects or just the objects in a few folders.
Project Merge moves all the objects in a project.

 Object Manager must locate the dependents of the copied objects and then
determine their differences before performing the copy operation. Project Merge
does not do a dependency search, since all the objects in the project are to be
copied.

 Project Merge can be run from the command prompt in Microsoft Windows.

What is a history list?

The portion of the interface that allows users to retrieve the results of previously
executed or scheduled reports.

What is difference between purging and deleting cache?

Caching allows for improved performance in response to report queries. Although

the use of caching is an advantage, there are instances when caches may expire or
become invalid. Some of these instances are:

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When there are changes made to the objects in the data warehouse, the existing
caches may be configured so that they are no longer valid when hitting certain
warehouse tables. Any further report execution will no longer hit the cache.

When the definition of an application object changes (such as a report definition,

report, template, metric definition, etc.), the related report cache is marked as invalid.

When there is a need to control the growth of caches on the Microstrategy

Intelligence Server, old caches may need to be expired automatically.

Invalidating Report Caches

Invalidation is a preventive measure that renders a cache unusable by nullifying it.

Cache invalidation only applies to Matching caches and Matching-History caches. It
makes the cache ineligible in the matching process so it is not used to fulfill a report
request.

In the case of a Matching cache, invalidating it will automatically result in deleting it.

In the case of a Matching-History cache, invalidation simply converts it to a History

cache that is not used in the matching process any more but is still accessible
through History List messages that reference it. However, if all these messages are
deleted, the converted History cache that is referenced is also deleted.

Expiring Report Caches

Cache expiration is a process that renders a cache unusable by terminating its

useful life. It yields the same results as invalidating a cache and applies to Matching
caches and Matching-History caches. Cache expiration occurs automatically as per
the 'Report cache duration' setting which can be found under Project Configuration >
Reports >Advanced > Caching.

When a cache is updated, the current cache lifetime is used to determine the cache
expiration date based on the last update time of the cache. This means that
changing the Report cache duration setting does not affect the expiration date of the
already existing caches. It only affects the new caches that are being or will be
processed.

Deleting Report Caches

Cache deletion is a process that deletes the cache from memory as well as disk.
Report caches are automatically deleted by MicroStrategy Intelligence Server if
cache invalidation and History Lists are performed and maintained properly.

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In the case of a History cache, deleting it does not automatically delete the
associated History List messages that reference it. After deleting a History cache,
when a message that references it is retrieved, the following occurs:

MicroStrategy Web users see an error message, "Execution results not available.
Would you like to re-execute?"

MicroStrategy Desktop users do not see the above error message because
MicroStrategy Desktop automatically resubmits the report for execution.

On the other hand, a History cache is automatically deleted when all the History List
messages that reference it are deleted (when its History List reference count
reaches 0).

In the case of a Matching-History cache, when all the History List messages that
reference it are deleted, it is simply converted to a Matching cache, while losing its
History component.

Caches can be deleted:

Manually - via Cache Monitor and MicroStrategy Command Manager

Scheduled - via MicroStrategy Cache Administration Utility

Scheduled - via MicroStrategy Desktop Scheduled Administrative Task.

Purging Report Caches

Cache Purging is a process whereby all report caches can be deleted in bulk, even
the one references by History List messages.

How to apply row level security?

Applying Security filters to the user. This provides row level security

When do we go for schema update?

When any of the schema objects are modified – Attributes/Facts/

Transformations/Tables/Hierarchies/Partitions

When New Tables are added to the schema using warehouse catalog.

When you update the structure of existing tables in the warehouse catalog.

What are VLDB properties?

VLDB stands for Verly Large Data Base Properties. This is MicroStrategy way of
handling database specific preferences while generating the report SQL. There are
number of them. A few common one are for Attribute or Metric join types, cross join
check, type of intermediate table, etc.

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At which levels you can set the VLDB properties? Which level has the highest
precedence?

VLDB Properties can be set at various levels like Report, Template, Metric, Project,
Database Instance and DBMS level. Out of this Report level has the highest priority.
It overrides all other levels.

What are the various ways of incorporating security in MicroStrategy?

In MicroStrategy security can be incorporated using a mix of any of the following

ways:

 Putting user specific restrictions at the database end and using user
specific connection mapping. This is for column level security.

 Applying folder and object level security to restrict access to certain

set of reports/objects

 Applying Security filters to the user. This provides row level security.

Object Level

Folder Level

Row Level

How conflicts occur and what the ways to resolve them?

When copying objects across projects with Object Manager, if an object with the
same ID as the source object exists anywhere in the destination project, a conflict
occurs. There are various ways to resolve depending upon the conditions like use
existing, replace, keep both, use newer, use older, update in same path, update in
new path and merge privileges.

What is the command manager used for?

The command manger is the one through which you can manage the applications,
user accesses, security and databases of the MicroStrategy. The command
manager allows us to save the text commands that can be executed as scripts. Thus
it can help in automation of the entire management process.

What are the nulls on MicroStrategy report and how to mask them.

1)If in this question we want to deal with null in MSTR report than we have some
display property in report data option which we can change according to the
replacement of null values.

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DATA>>REPORT DATA OPTION>>DISPLAY>>NULL VALUES

2) if we want to deal with sql geration of report than there is an option of VLDB
property according to you requirement you can deal with sql query of report

Servers in MSTR

I-server: MicroStrategy Intelligent server provides jobs management and analytical

processing for all MicroStrategy applications. This acts as a central component
connecting the metadata, warehouse, desktop, Web server and Narrow cast Server.
Few or main features: Reports Services, OLAP Services, Data Mining, Multi Source
connection, Caching, Clustering. Latest version supports installing I-server (different
packages) on Windows, Sun Solaris, IBM AIX, HP-UX, Linux. Contact MicroStrategy
for more information.

Web Server: MicroStrategy web server responds to the requests from browsers.
Web server interacts with the I-server to extract the necessary information. Can be
installed on most of the major web servers and supports most popular browsers.
Contact MicroStrategy for certified products.

Narrow cast Server: Narrowcast sever delivers personalized business insight to

emails, cell phones, pagers, file servers and print servers extending the reach of
Business Intelligence applications. It offers a comprehensive solution for information
delivery integrating a subscription portal with a delivery engine.

Roles in MSTR

Administrator: By default, the role/person will have full access to the environment.
In other words this role has full access to all the type of objects mentioned above.

Architect: By default, access to configuration objects is restricted.

Developer: By default, no access to configuration objects, use access to schema

objects and full access to public objects.

What are Passthrough Functions?

Pass through functions are used to utilize various special functions that specific to
databases. Some of the passthrough functions available are Apply simple and Apply
comparison.

What is the difference between warehouse and metadata partition mapping in

MicroStrategy Desktop

Warehouse Partition Mapping:

Warehouse Partition Mapping tables are used for performance reason.

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For example, a fact table in the data warehouse may have two columns: Sales and
Years. If a report is run with Sales for the Year = 1999, the query engine will need to
search through the entire table for all the years, including 1999, to return the data.

To improve efficiency, Partition Base Tables (PBT) can be created to have Sales for
particular years. Assuming that there are 10 years worth of data in the database, 10
different partition base tables need to be created:

- PBT1: Sales for 1991 (Year=1991, Sales=$)

- PBT2: Sales for 1992 (Year=1992, Sales=$)
...
- PBT10: Sales for 2000

A Warehouse Partition Mapping Table (PMT) will then need to be created and will
have:

Year PBTName

1991 PBT1

1992 PBT2

...

2000 PBT10

The above PMT is going to tell the engine which table to grab the data from for a
particular year. This means that when the report is run for Sales for 1997, then the
query engine will first go to the Partition Mapping Table and then find the correct
PBT corresponding to the year 1997.

Metadata Partition Mapping:

Metadata Partition Mapping Tables map the attribute elements to its corresponding
PBT and performs the same function as the PMT.

To create a Metadata partitioning, follow the steps below:

1. Go to Schema Objects > Partition, in MicroStrategy Desktop 8.x.

2. Right-click and select new > Partition.

3. Select the PBT. (i.e., PBT1)

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4. A data slice can be defined. The data slice will be the attribute (i.e., Year) to
join from this metadata PMT to the PBT.

5. Save and close.

By doing this, the equivalent of a PMT in the warehouse has been created, but in the
metadata. In theory, both the warehouse and metadata partition mapping tables are
accomplishing the same task

Types of Report Caches

There are two categories of report caches, Matching and History

Based on these two categories, the following types of report caches are displayed in
the Cache Monitor:

1. Matching caches

2. History caches

3. Matching-History caches

4. XML caches

Matching caches

When a report is run in a MicroStrategy 8.x project, with report caching enabled, the
Intelligence Server determines for each report request whether it can be served by
an already existing cache. If there is no match, it then runs the report on the
database and creates a new cache. The type column for this cache on the cache
monitor will be 'Matching.'

Matching-History caches

When a report is sent to history directly instead of being executed, the type column
in the cache monitor will be 'Matching, History.' Matching-History cache is a
Matching cache with at least one History List message referencing it. It is actually
one cache with two logical parts: Matching and History.

History caches

The following two circumstances result in the Type column displaying only 'History':

1. Invalidation of a report cache after is has been sent to History: When a

report is sent to History, the Type column in the Cache Monitor for this cache
entry, will display 'Matching, History'. The Type column of the cache changes
to "History" if the cache is invalidated. The cache is invalidated when report
definition is changed and user saves the modified report. Administrator can

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also invalidate cache by right clicking the cache entry in cache monitor and
choosing 'Invalidate Cache'.

2. When report caching is not enabled and the report is sent to

History: Report caching is not enabled for the project as evidenced by the
setting 'Enable report server caching' in Project Configuration > Caching,
being unchecked. When a report is run, no cache will be created. Under these
circumstances, when a report is sent to History, there will be an entry in the
Cache Monitor and its Type column will display only 'History'.

XML Caches

When a report is executed from Web, an XML cache for this report is created in XML
format. It is available for reuse on Web later on. It is possible that the XML cache is
created at the same time as its corresponding normal report cache. Although just a
different format of the same report cache, the XML cache is maintained as a distinct
cache and thus counts towards the maximum number of caches as an independent
unit. It is automatically removed when the associated report or History cache is
removed.

Types of Caches

1. Element Cache

Used by attribute element list.

When is it created?

1. Browse attribute elements when browsing a hierarchy

2. Browsing a prompt

3. In Filter Editor

2. Object Cache : when you open the editor of an object

When is it created?

1. Opening a report editor

2. Opening a attribute/fact /metric editor

3. Report Cache : when executing a report

Matching and History - Types

4. Document Cache : when executing a document

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How to resolve many to many relationships?

To resolve a many-to-many relationship means to convert it into two one-to-many,

many-to-one relationships. A new entity comes between the two original entities, and
this new entity is referred to as an intersection entity or cross reference entity. It
allows for every possible matched occurrence of the two entities. For example, the
"many-to-many" relationship of many EMPLOYEEs are assigned many TASKs which
can be resolved by creating a new entity named EMPLOYEE_TASK. This resolves
the "many-to-many" relationship by creating two separate "one-to-many"
relationships. The two "one-to-many" relationships are EMPLOYEE or parent entity
which is assigned EMPLOYEE_TASK or child entity and TASK or parent entity is
assigned to EMPLOYEE_TASK or child entity. Whilst this may appear complex, the
introduction of the EMPLOYEE_TASK child entity reduces data redundancy and
improves overall database and application performance.

Major Differences between 8 and 9

1. Distribution Services is new in 9

2. Ability to create prompts and filters in web

3. Drilling in Documents

4. Dashboards with multiple layouts

5. Intelligent Cubes

6. Back and Forward buttons in web

7. Personalised prompt answers

What is evaluation ordering?

Determines the order in which Analytical Engine performs different kinds of

calculations.

Can be set at: Project, Report, Template

Default Ordering

1. Subtotal

2. Compound Metrics

3. Consolidation

4. Metric Limit

User Defined Ordering

1. Compound Metrics

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

2. Consolidation

3. Metric Limit

4. Subtotal

What are the VLDB properties?

Very Large Scale Database Properties.

Governing: Intermediate Row Limit, Maximum SQL/MDX size, result set row limit

Joins

Attribute to join when key from neither side can be supported by the other side

Possible Values: - Join common key on both sides, Join common attributes
(reduced) on both sides

Base Table Join for Template: Controls how fact tables are joined, for a report
containing metrics from different fact tables, or for a compound metric which has the
base metrics coming from different fact tables. Controls whether temporary tables
will be created for each metric or if fact tables will be directly joined.

Downward Outer Join Option: Controls how joins are performed when joining metrics
which are calculated at different levels.

Full Outer Join Support: Controls the property which informs the Engine if a full outer
join is supported by the Target database.

Preserve All Final Pass Result Elements: Controls how final pass result elements are
joined to Lookup/Relationship tables

Preserve all Lookup Table Elements: Provides users the option to control if all lookup
table elements should be included in the final results.

Metrics

Metric Join Type: Controls the type of join that is used to join a metric's data with
other metric data on a report.

Default to Metric Name

Null Check

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Query Optimizations

SQL Global Optimization: Determines if SQL should be optimized by combining

multiple passes, and it should be optimized, controls the level of optimization

- Level 0: No optimization.

- Level 1: Remove Unused and Duplicate Passes.

- Level 2: Level 1 + Merge Passes with Different SELECT

WHERE clause driving table: Controls which table the Engine should use to
apply the filter (WHERE clause). By default Fact Table is used

Intelligent Cubes

What is an Intelligent Cube?

In-memory version of report data that can be manipulated by the MicroStrategy

Analytical Engine?

Types of Cubes

Two unique methods to implement Intelligent Cube Technology:

Personal Intelligent Cubes: You can begin by creating reports in MicroStrategy as

usual, and then analyse your reports with OLAP Services features such as view
filters, derived metrics, and derived elements. These features are processed on the
in-memory copy of data known as a personal Intelligent Cube, rather than processed
on the data warehouse.

Intelligent Cubes: Rather than returning data from the data warehouse for a single
report, you can return sets of data from your data warehouse and save them directly
to Intelligence Server memory. These sets of data can be shared as a single in-
memory copy, to be used by many different reports created by multiple users.

Activities on Cubes

1. Dynamic Aggregation

2. Derived Metrics

3. Derived Elements

4. Metric Filters and View Filters

Advantages of Cubes

1. Fast Performance

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

2. Scheduling the Cube

3. Drilling

4. Data Sharing

Difference between Standard and OLAP reports

If none of the OLAP features are used then it is a standard report, once any feature
is added like view filter, derived metrics then its converted to a OLAP report. A
Standard report can be converted to OLAP but not vice versa.

Difference between Personal Intelligent Cube and Intelligent Cube

1. In PIC, Full access to re execute data against the warehouse but in IC , in order
to re-execute against the warehouse , we have to drill on the data.

2. PIC is linked to a single report whereas multiple reports can access a IC.

3. Both view and report filters can be used in PIC but only view filters can be used
in IC

4. In IC, prompts can be used only on objects included in IC but in PIC it can be
applied even on objects not in the prompt.

5. Security Filters can be applied on both IC and PIC.

6. Consolidations and Custom Groups cannot be used in reports using IC but this
can be achieved by using derived elements

7. Derived elements can be used only on IC not on PIC.

Features not supported in Intelligent Cubes

1. Consolidation and Custom Group

2. OLAP Service Features: View Filters and Derived metrics cannot be used

3. Prompts cannot be used

What is dynamic sourcing?

Dynamic sourcing extends the accessibility of Intelligent Cubes by allowing standard

reports to access any published Intelligent Cubes that can satisfy the data
requirements of the report

How to Unpublish and Intelligent Cube?

From the Folder List, expand Administration, then expand System Monitors, then
expand Caches, and select Intelligent Cubes. The Intelligent Cube Monitor is
displayed. Right-click an Intelligent Cube and select Delete. Unpublish only deletes
data in the cube but not the cube itself.

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When does the report fails due to the unavailability of Intelligent Cubes?

1. When I Cube is not published

2. When enough space is not there for publishing

3. Cube is in the process of publishing

4. Cube is offline

What are the different types of derived elements?

1. Group Derived: A Group derived element is a combination of attribute elements

into a single derived element.

Eg: East Coast: Groups the Mid-Atlantic, Northeast, and Southeast attribute
elements. West Coast: Groups the Northwest and Southwest attribute elements

2. Filter Derived: A Filter derived element uses a filter qualification to determine

the combination of attribute elements for a derived element.

For Eg: Southern Regions: Returns attribute elements whose name begins with
South.

Northern Regions: Returns attribute elements whose name begins with North.

3. Calculation Derived: A Calculation derived element uses operators and functions

to combine attribute elements and derived elements into calculations that define a
single derived element

All other derived elements: Collects all attribute elements that are not included in
derived elements and includes them as individual attribute elements by default

Report Service Document

What is a document?

A document displays your organization’s data in a format that is similar to a

PowerPoint presentation, where several grid and graph reports can be viewed at the
same time, along with images and text. High-quality, Pixel Perfect™ documents
allow you to display your business data in a user-friendly way that is suitable for
presentation to management for boardroom-quality material. Examples of documents
include scorecards and dashboards, managed metrics documents, production and
operational documents, and more

What are the different export formats?

Excel, PDF, Flash, HTML

What are the different view modes?

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Flash View

HTML View

Design View

What is a dataset?

A dataset is a MicroStrategy report that defines the data that the Intelligence Server
should retrieve from your data warehouse or from a cache that is available to the
document.

What is a hyperlink?

A hyperlink connects text or an image in a document to a web page (the target of the
hyperlink). When the document is open in PDF View, as shown below, the cursor
changes to a hand when you hover the cursor over text that contains a hyperlink.

What is grouping of data in document?

If the data is grouped by page, drop-down lists are displayed at the top of the screen,

What is a layout?

A multi-layout document contains multiple documents, each in its own layout,

creating a “book” of documents. Each layout functions as a separate document, with
its own grouping, page setup, and so on, but the layouts are generated into a single
PDF document. If a document contains multiple layouts, tabs are displayed at the top
of the screen.

What is a dashboard?

A dashboard is commonly only one page long, is intended to be viewed online, and
usually provides interactive features that let analysts change how they view the
dashboard’s data. By being only one page long, a dashboard makes it easy to view
the whole document at one time and see all the information. A dashboard allows
interactivity from users, so each user can change how they see the data, within the
limits of what the dashboard allows them. You must view a dashboard in Flash View
in MicroStrategy Web to be able to interact with its widgets, selectors, and panel
stacks

Difference between Dashboard and Scorecard - Click Here

What are the different display modes?

View Mode: view the results

Cannot create a new document.

•Cannot edit an existing document.

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•Cannot manipulate any objects on the document, as you can in any of the other
display modes.

Interactive Mode

Edit an existing document.

•View the results of the document.

•Use selectors to flip through the panels in a panel stack or display different attribute
elements or metrics in a grid or graph report displayed on the document.

•Format grid and graph reports.

•Sort grid reports and pivot report objects on them.

•Add totals.

•Resize rows and columns.

•Create metrics based on report objects already on the grid report.

•Optimized for dashboard viewing.

Cannot create a new document.

•Cannot format the layout and positioning of objects or the entire document.

•Cannot format the Flash properties of widgets.

Flash Mode

Access and interact with features provided by Flash, such as widgets. Widgets are
interactive Flash-only graphs, such as gauges and time series slides, that
dynamically update when you select a new set of data.

•Format widget Flash properties.

•Edit an existing document.

•View the results of the document.

•Use selectors to flip through the panels in a panel stack or display different attribute
elements or metrics in a grid or graph report displayed on the report.

•Sort grid reports and pivot report objects on them

Cannot create a new document.

•Cannot manipulate or format grid or graph reports, except to sort and pivot objects
on them.

•If a graph report uses a graph type that is not supported in Flash, the graph is not
displayed

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What are controls?

Controls are the objects that display the data, images, and shapes in a document;
they are the objects shown in the document’s Layout area as you design the
document.

1. Text Fields

2. HTML container

3. Line or Rectangle

4. Image

5. Grid/Graph

6. Panel stack, which is a holder for a collection of panels, or layers of data, in a

document. A user can navigate or flip through the panels in a panel stack; only one
panel is displayed at a time.

7. Selector, which allows users to interact with the document, by flipping through the
panels in a panel stack or by displaying different attributes or metrics in a Grid/Graph

8. Widget, which displays the results of a dataset report in Flash in MicroStrategy

Web, allowing users to visualize data in different ways than traditional reports
displayed as Grid/Graphs do

In documents, Information about the document (such as page numbers) and

the dataset reports (such as report names and filter information), what is it
called?

Auto Text Codes

What are the different sections in a document?

1. Page Header and Footer

2. Document Header and Footer

3. Detail Header and Footer

What are the different types of text field in a document?

Static text: This text does not change and is commonly used for labels or
descriptions. Examples in the sample document are the words “Employee” and
“Revenue”. For directions to add static text, see Adding static text to a document

Dynamic text: This text is automatically populated by the document or dataset.

Dynamic text is always included within braces { }.

There are two types of dynamic text:

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

Data field

Auto text code

Eg: Date/time: {&DATETIME}

What are the different types of metrics that can be created within a document?

Calculated expressions: A calculated expression is a metric that is calculated

dynamically, when the document is executed, directly from metrics on a document
dataset Eg: Revenue - Cost

Derived metrics: A derived metric is a metric that is obtained dynamically, when a

document is executed, directly from metrics on a document dataset. A derived metric
is created using at least one of the metrics in the document

Summary metrics.

What are the issues faced when exporting reports/documents to excel?

Choose Excel-compatible colors for objects as well as grid and graph formatting.
MicroStrategy Desktop's basic set of 40 colors matches the Excel colors. Color
from the Advanced Color Picker will be matched by Microsoft Excel with more or less
accuracy.

Use graphs that are supported by Microsoft Excel. Examples of non-supported

graphs are gauge graphs and combination graphs.

Lines and rectangles are not supported when exporting to Microsoft Excel. As a
workaround, use a text field border to create a line or a rectangle.

A line graph within a Report Services document changes color when exported to
excel. [Fixed in 9.3]

When exporting Report Services documents with objects that are overlapped,
unexpected behaviour is seen as Microsoft Excel does not support this feature and
priority might be given to one of the overlapped objects.

Word-wrapping specified for multi-word object names does not take effect in PDF or
Excel.

Custom line in a graph report is not carried over when exporting to Microsoft Excel
as a Live Chart [Not sure if its fixed now]

The secondary axis on a dual axis graph report is not displayed when exporting the
report to Excel format with the option "Export graphs as live Excel charts".
Hence don't export a graph report as live chart in Excel format when exporting it.

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Banding does not display correctly when exporting reports to Excel 2007 and above
from MicroStrategy 9.2.1 Desktop and Web. Change the excel options such that you
can export to older versions.

Prompt details are not fully displayed when exporting to Microsoft Excel 2007 from
MicroStrategy Web [Link] the excel options such that you can export to older
versions.

Metric values will still appear despite column width set to 0 when exported to Excel
2007 in MicroStrategy version 9.2.1. Use excel 2003 to workaround.

Stacked Bar graph becomes Clustered Bar graph when exporting a Report Services
document to Excel in MicroStrategy Web 9.2.1.

A Report Services document that includes attributes which use the date or date time
datatype. When the document is exported to Microsoft Excel, the attributes are
recognized as plain text instead of dates, thereby inhibiting the use of certain pivot
functions in Microsoft Excel native to the date format.

MicroStrategy Administrator - Object Manager Frequently Asked Questions

(FAQ)
What functionality is contained in MicroStrategy Administrator - Object
Manager 7.x and 8.0.x?
MicroStrategy Administrator - Object Manager allows users to perform the following
actions:
• Duplicate and upgrade projects
• Copy objects within and across related projects
• Move objects within a project
• Delete objects within a project
• Rename objects within a project
• Search for objects within a project
• Find an object's parents or children within a project
Are there any special requirements needed to move objects across projects?
Yes. In order to perform cross-project operations, the projects involved must
originate from the same source project. In other words, the projects can only be
related by the duplication of a single project. This ensures that the projects have a
similar set of schema and application objects, and that the object ID's in the two
projects are the same. MicroStrategy Object Manager uses the object and version
ID's across the projects to perform comparisons. MicroStrategy Object Manager
prevents the user from attempting operations across unrelated projects.

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How does MicroStrategy Object Manager determine if two projects are related?
MicroStrategy Object Manager compares the Schema ID's of the two projects.
Duplicated projects have different Project ID's, but their Schema ID's are the same.
What happens if a user tries to move objects between two unrelated projects?
If a user tries to perform cross-project operations between two unrelated projects,
MicroStrategy Object Manager will not permit the operation and will display the
following error:
Objects cannot be copied across the projects because these two projects, "Project
name of the source" and "Project name of the destination", have not been created
from the same source. For more information see Chapter 4: Managing Your
Applications, in the System Administration Guide.
What is the Conflict Resolution Window?
The Conflict Resolution window provides the user with a means to decide how to
handle object conflicts between the source project and the destination project. In
addition, the Conflict Resolution window displays the object name in the original
project, the object name in the destination project and the type of conflict. Users may
also specify a new name for the object depending on the action chosen.
How does MicroStrategy Object Manager determine if two objects in different
projects are the same?
To determine if two objects are the same, MicroStrategy Object Manager compares
their Object ID's. If these ID's are the same, MicroStrategy Object Manager then
compares the Version ID's. If the Version ID's are the same, the Conflict Resolution
grid lists the conflict as 'Exists Identically.' If the Version ID's are different, the
Conflict Resolution grid lists the conflict as 'Exists Differently.'
How can the user determine the Object ID of an object?
To view the Object ID of an object, right-mouse click on the object and select
'Properties.' The Object ID and Version ID are listed on the 'General' tab.
Why does MicroStrategy Object Manager search for object dependencies?
MicroStrategy Object Manager makes a list of all object dependencies before
copying an object to prevent metadata inconsistency. The time required for
dependency checking varies based on a customer's metadata size and schema
complexity. For large metadata and complex schemas, gathering all the
dependencies may take a long time.
Can schema objects be copied across projects with MicroStrategy Object
Manager?
Yes, schema objects can be copied across projects using MicroStrategy Object
Manager. MicroStrategy Object Manager moves objects seamlessly between similar

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projects such as from a development project version to a production project version

where the warehouses are the same in terms of views, prefixes, and warehouse
structure. However, subtle changes in the warehouse that relate to prefixes, views,
or table structure cannot be tracked by MicroStrategy Object Manager. For situations
where the projects' warehouse structures or setups are dissimilar, users may be
required to make further edits of the objects to ensure full integration into the
destination project. These edits may include hierarchical relationship changes or
modifications to the prefixes.
How does MicroStrategy Object Manager integrate with the MicroStrategy
Product Suite security model?
Security in MicroStrategy Object Manager is based on the MicroStrategy 7.x Product
Suite security model. All activities that can be performed in MicroStrategy Object
Manager are governed by privileges and access control lists. For example, if a user
is not allowed to access a certain folder in MicroStrategy Agent, they will not be able
to access the folder in MicroStrategy Object Manager.
Is it possible to use MicroStrategy Object Manager while other users are
making changes in MicroStrategy Agent?
Using MicroStrategy Object Manager to copy/move objects around is not
recommended while other user sessions are making changes using MicroStrategy
Agent, as it could lead to metadata inconsistency. Project and schema locking
prevent multiple users sessions from manipulating the schema at the same time.
This prevents metadata inconsistency from occurring.
What are the tracing options available in MicroStrategy Object Manager?
Tracing is available under the Tools/Diagnostics menu. These tracing options apply
to every MicroStrategy product installed on the machine.
To see the SQL that has been executed against the metadata, go to the advanced
tab and turn on 'SQL Tracing' under the DSS MDServer key.
Function level tracing can be accomplished by going to the advanced tab and turning
on 'Function Level Tracing' under the DSS ObjectManager key.
Where are dependent objects copied if they do not already exist in the
destination project?
If the location exists in the destination project, the dependent object is copied to that
location. If the location does not exist in the destination project, a new folder entitled
'Dependencies' is created and the object is copied to that folder.
What happens if the owner of an object does not exist in the destination
project?
If the owner of the source object does not exist in the destination project, the user
login for the destination project takes ownership of the object when it is copied or
replaced.

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Where can users find more information on MicroStrategy Object Manager?

Further information can be found in the release notes, as well as in MicroStrategy
Object Manager's online help.

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

General Questions:
1. Describe your previous experience and the projects you worked on.
2. Describe your expertise, your strengths and your weaknesses.
3. What databases have you worked on?
4. What is the database size that you dealed with? What is the max size of the
database that you worked on?
5. Comfort level on SQL
6. How to tune a report SQL.
7. Troubling shooting an issue.
8. How to you handle the migration process
9. What is the documentation process that you prefer or followed in the past.
10. Any experience interacting with Business Users?
11. Any experience in gathering requirements?
12. Do you have experience training end users.
13. When a users reports an issue and complains about the performance, how
would you handle this, explain in detail.
14. Common User issues that you have experienced?
15. What versions of MicroStrategy have you worked on? What do you like in the
latest version?
16. Tell me one of your favourite feature of MicroStrategy and why do you like it.
17. What is your current team size.
18. If you have multiple architects working on same projects, how do you make
sure that both of them are not modifying the schema at a time.
19. How many users did you support?
20. Describe your experience with NC. List some common issues.
Administration & Narrowcast
1. What is metadata?
2. Explain 2-tier and 3-tier Architecture in MSTR.
3. What is ScanMD and MD Doctor?
4. What is clustering and types of clustering?
5. How did you achieve or document schema object version control at your
previous clients?
6. What are different modes you can run I-Server?

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

7. How can you make sure that I-Server would be running even if the application
mode has crashed and how to get back the instance?
8. What are various authentication modes?
9. What will you do when I-Server crashes?
10. Where is Administrator’s password stored? Is it encrypted? How will you reset
password of all users?
11. What will you do if your Administrator has forgotten password or the account
is locked?
12. How can you monitor the error received while running I-Server and report?
13. What are the features available for MSTR Intelligence Server?
14. When you wanted to compare two projects in MSTR. What are the tools
available and what would you use?
15. What is the use of command manager?
16. Types of caches and where are they stored?
17. Where and how are the report caches saved? When are they used?
18. On what operating systems can MicroStrategy run?
19. Have you done any customizations of the tool, if so please describe.
20. What types of services have you built in Narrowcast.
21. What is the difference between PPE (Personalized Page Execution) and PRE
(Personalized Report Execution)?
Architect and Report Development
1. What are Factless facts?
2. Difference between Star schema and Snowflake schema. And what is best
suited for MicroStrategy
3. What is the difference between view and materialized view?
4. What are OLAP Services. Define couple of them.
5. What’s fact table, dimension table and relate table?
6. Should you have DATE as ID attribute form?
7. What is compound key?
8. What is a relationship table?
9. How will you resolve double counting in M-M relationship between two
attributes?
10. What is the difference between RSD document and HTML document?

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

11. Have you worked on flash dashboards? Explain few feature of flash?
12. What are Transformations? Are there any transformations implemented in
your project? Explain an example from your project.
13. Explain Level Metrics. How it is used in your project?
14. Explain Fact Degradation.
15. Difference between View Filter and Report Filter.
16. Explain custom groups and consolidations and the difference between them.
17. Explain few VLDB properties that you have used in the past and the reason
behind them.
18. What is a role attribute?
19. What are different null which can occur in a report and how do you mask
them?
20. Talk about best practices in creating dashboards and reports
Database Related
1. What is a surrogate key? Difference between a primary key and a surrogate
key.
2. Why do we use a staging area?
3. Why do we use dimensional modeling in DW? Why not Relational?
4. What are conformed dimensions?

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

Explain what is MicroStrategy?

MicroStrategy is an enterprise business intelligence application software vendor. It
supports scorecards, interactive dashboards, ad hoc query, high formatted reports,
etc.
2) Mention what specific features and functionality do you get with OLAP
services?
With OLAP services users can create a unique report views by removing or adding
attributes and metrics contained within the intelligent cube. Without submitting a new
request to the data warehouse, the new calculation is performed.
3) Explain how intelligent cubes are different from ordinary cubes?
Intelligent cubes are generated automatically when a new report is run against the
data warehouse. Users don’t have to mention the cube to which they want to
connect. Within the Microstrategy platform, the logic to match user requests with the
proper intelligent cube is automatically handled. Subsequently the requests made by
other users can seamlessly hit this new intelligent cube.
4) List out the end user products that delivers OLAP Services?
End user product that delivers OLAP services includes
– Microstrategy Web
– Microstrategy Desktop
– Microstrategy Office
They all leverage the functionality enabled by OLAP services
5) Explain what is the difference between the Report filter and Report limit?
– Report limit: It determines a set of criteria used to restrict or limit the data returned
in the report data set after the report metrics are calculated
– Report Filter: It applies the where condition to the query sent to the warehouse to
retrieve the results
6) Explain what is Logical view in Microstrategy?
In Microstrategy, logical view is a table that you create by writing the SQL in
Microstrategy instead of pulling it out from warehouse catalog.
7) Explain what is Smart Metrics in Microstrategy?
Smart metric is referred when a compound metric is defined with other metric objects
using arithmetic operations like sum M1/M2.
For example: Simple or Compound Metrics Total (profits/unit sold) Smart
Metrics: Total (profit)/ Total (sold)

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8) Mention what types of testing can be carried out over the Microstrategy
reports?
Microstrategy can carry out test like
– Naming convention tests
– Total calculations test
– SQL query validations
– Attribute and metric positions in the report
– Drilling options tests
– Prompts related verifications
– Security filter tests
– Formatting/export functionality tests
– Threshold testing
9) Explain what is Microstrategy Narrowcast server?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server is a software product which monitors and delivers
individualized information to users through e-mails, web portals and wireless devices
like pagers, PDAs, and phones. Users determine what information they want, when
and how they want to receive it, through an easy to use web page.
10) Explain what are the advantages of dataset compared to file-set?
File set consists of total tables and information while data-set consists of attributes,
metrics of a particular report only.

At TekSlate, we offer resources that help you in learning various IT courses.

We avail both written material and demo
video tutorials. To gain in-depth knowledge and be on par with practical
experience,
then explore Microstrategy Training Online.

11) Explain what security does Microstrategy provides?

Microstrategy provides many security options to make sure that data is kept private
and confidential. To make easy access and minimum maintenance, Microstrategy
desktop synchronize with Windows NT and 2000 security and with Novell directory.
Due to that users who have logged into these systems does not have to log on
again.
12) Mention what is the difference between Schema object and Public object?
Schema objects are availed to create Application objects like Attributes, functions &
operators, Hierarchies, Tables, etc. While, Public objects are used to create other

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application objects like Filters, Metrics, Consolidations, etc. Using architect

permission schema object can be created while public object can be created by
using a schema object only.
13) Explain what is Listeners?
Listeners allows us to view the result of samplers in the form of trees, graphs, tables
or simple text in some log files. They offer visual access to the data collected by
JMeter about the test cases as a sampler component of JMeter is executed.
14) Explain how you can resolve attribute roles?
By creating separate table alias for the same or enabling the automatic attribute role
recognition, you can resolve the attribute roles.
15) Mention what does the predictive modeling capabilities does Microstrategy
provides?
Microstrategy can calculate four of the primary data mining functions including
network algorithm, regression algorithm, clustering algorithm and tree algorithm.
16) Explain how you can direct the SQL generated to use a specific table?
We can use alias name of that table and alter the logical size of that alias
table dnt then modifies main table and use the alias table.
17) Explain how you can insert and update a record in the database through
Microstrategy?
You can insert and update or even a delete a record by using one of the components
of Microstrategy known as an ODBC test tool. You can also alter table specification
as per your need.
18) Mention what is the difference between Microstrategy and Cognos?

19) Explain how you can create the intelligent cubes in Microstrategy?
– Intelligent cubes can be made in Microstrategy in the public folder or a particular
user folder

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

– We can make a report and point the report to a cube or right click in a folder and
select the cube option to make a -new cube
– Once the cube is created, select the report objects which is required and save the
cube
– Once the cube is stored and ran to check, one can create multiple reports out of a
cube
– You can also add new attributes and metrics, whenever necessary, and those will
be readily available when you run the reports next time
20) Explain how you can optimize a report in Microstrategy?
VLDB properties enable you to customize the SQL that Microstrategy produces, and
determine how data is processed by the Analytical engine.
21) How long does it take to get Microstrategy Desktop up and running?
Microstrategy Desktop installs in minutes and automatically presents a list of
available Microstrategy Intelligence Servers. Within an hour, the installation and
setup are completed.
22) How does Microstrategy Desktop integrate with the rest of the
Microstrategy platform?
Microstrategy Desktop is the intuitive client-server interface used by business
analysts and application developers. Microstrategy Desktop interacts with the
Intelligence Server to build metrics, create and format reports, and retrieve timely,
accurate information to the desktop to enhance the decision-making process.
23) What security is provided with Microstrategy Desktop?
Microstrategy Desktop provides a host of security options to ensure that data is kept
confidential and private. To facilitate easy deployment and minimal maintenance,
Microstrategy Desktop integrates with Windows NT and 2000 security and with
Novell directory. As a result, users who have logged into these systems will not need
to log on again.

Learn more about Microstrategy Advanced Interview Questions in this blog post.

24) To what extend can Microstrategy Desktop be personalized?

Each Microstrategy Desktop user has a security profile defined by their
administrator. This profile controls access to application functionality, specific reports
or particular data for individual users or groups of users. The Desktop interface will
adapt and display only what this user is allowed to see
25) Is the Microstrategy MDX engine certified by SAP?
Yes. This new Dynamic MDX Engine generates optimized MDX syntax that is fully
certified with SAP BW using SAP’s high performance BAPI interfaces.

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26) Can users join data across SAP BW Info Cubes and Query Cubes?
Yes. Users can use Microstrategy Desktop to create reports that access SAP data
and join data across SAP BW Info Cubes and Query Cubes as well as access
multiple instances of SAP BW at once.
27) Can Microstrategy Desktop join data across heterogeneous data
sources?
Yes. Microstrategy 8 extends the Microstrategy data modeling flexibility to include
integrated views of data across heterogeneous data stores. By mapping conforming
dimensions from different sources, Microstrategy Desktop can automatically join data
from multiple different sources in the same report document. Data can come from
any source accessible by Microstrategy 8, including the data warehouse, data marts,
SAP BW, and any number of operational system databases
28) Does Microstrategy provide predictive modeling capabilities commonly
available in data mining tools?
Yes. Microstrategy 8 can calculate four of the primary data mining functions including
neural network algorithms, clustering algorithms, regression algorithms, and tree
algorithms.
29) Can Microstrategy incorporate best-of-breed data mining insight into
mainstream business reports and analysis?
Yes. Microstrategy 8 has extended its analytic engine with “Data Mining Services”
capability that allows reports and analyses to include predictive capabilities in every
Microstrategy report or analysis. Microstrategy 8 includes the new ability to import
data mining models directly from best-of-breed data mining products from vendors
like IBM, Teradata, SAS, and SPSS using the new PMML or predictive modelling
mark-up language standard.[/sociallocker]
30) What is Microstrategy Narrowcast Server?
Microstrategy Narrowcast Server is a software product that monitors and delivers
individualized information to users via email, web portals, and wireless devices such
as PDAs, pagers, and phones. Through a easy-to-use web page, users specify what
information they want, when and how they want to receive it.
31) Can I access Intelligent Cubes without OLAP Services?
Yes, with the appropriate version of Microstrategy Web or Desktop, certain functions
leverage the Intelligent Cubes. These functions include: report formatting down to
cell level, column aliasing, drilling, pivoting, page-by, adding metric thresholds,
adding subtotals, ranking and sorting. Please see the Web and Desktop version
comparisons to determine exactly which Web or Desktop version includes the
desired functionality.
32) Is OLAP Services sold as a separate product?

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 MicroStrategy Interview Question and Answers

Yes, OLAP Services is sold as a separate product that is installed with Microstrategy
Intelligence Server. It is licensed either on a per-user or per-CPU basis.
For Indepth understanding of MicroStrategy click on
 MicroStrategy Desktop
 MicroStrategy Architect
 MicroStrategy Reporting
 DataWarehousing fundamentals

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