Copying and Pasting Objects

You can use Analysis Manager to copy and paste many types of objects used in Microsoft® SQL Server™ 2000 Analysis Services. The Copy and Paste commands are provided on the following menus:

• The shortcut (that is, right-click) menus in the Analysis Manager tree pane
  
  
• The Analysis Manager Action menu

You can copy and paste objects within a database, between databases, and between servers.

To copy and paste an object

Analysis Manager

Only meta data and aggregations are copied. Data (such as source data and writeback tables) is not copied. This data must be available to some newly pasted objects. To ensure this availability, follow these steps after pasting:

1. Make sure data sources at the target location are defined correctly and connected so that the newly pasted objects have access to source data. This requirement is especially important after copying and pasting objects between servers.
   
   
2. Process newly pasted objects of types that require processing.

You must copy and paste within a single instance of Analysis Manager. It is not possible to copy an object within one instance of Analysis Manager and then paste it within another instance.

If you attempt to paste an object to a location that already contains an object of the same type and name, you are prompted to supply a different name for the new object you are creating.

When some types of objects are copied, supporting objects are copied with them. For example, a cube contains dimensions, measures, one or more partitions, and a data source. A cube may also contain other objects. It may also rely on other objects such as shared dimensions and roles that exist outside the cube. All of these objects are the supporting objects of the cube, and they are copied along with the cube. (If a supporting object has its own supporting objects, they are also copied.) When you paste an object that was copied with supporting objects, the supporting objects are pasted along with the main object. Exceptions are:

• Virtual cubes. Before you copy and paste a virtual cube to a different database, you must copy and paste to that database the component cubes on which the virtual cube is based. To determine these component cubes, in the Analysis Manager tree pane select the virtual cube, and then in the HTML (that is, right) pane, select the Meta Data tab, then see the Uses Cubes line.
  
  
• Shared virtual dimensions. Before you copy and paste a shared virtual dimension to a different database, you must copy and paste to that database the shared dimension that is specified in the Depends On Dimension property of the virtual dimension. To determine this shared dimension, in the Analysis Manager tree pane, right-click the virtual dimension, click Edit, and then see the Advanced tab in the properties pane.
  
  
• OLAP data mining models. Before you copy and paste an OLAP mining model to a different database, the source cube must already exist in the target database.
  
  
• Relational data mining models. Before you copy and paste a relational mining model to a different database, the data source must already exist in the target database.
  
  
• The situation in which the target location already contains an object with the same type and name, but a different structure, than a supporting object. In this case, the paste operation fails, and no objects are pasted. If objects already exist in the target location with the same types, names, and structures as the supporting objects, the paste of the main object is successful, but the supporting objects are not pasted.

If you paste a relational OLAP (ROLAP) partition (or an object that contains a ROLAP partition), the original ROLAP partition and its copy will use the same aggregation tables. This situation may cause overwrite conflicts in the tables. For example, if you change and process the original partition, the aggregation tables may no longer be valid for its copy. To avoid this problem, immediately after pasting, specify a unique aggregation prefix for the pasted ROLAP partition and process it. This action creates new aggregation tables used by only the pasted partition. To access the aggregation prefix for a partition, in the Analysis Manager tree pane, right-click the partition, click Edit, advance to the final step of the Partition Wizard, and then click Advanced.

You can use Copy and Paste to create a copy of a database that contains only the meta data and aggregations of the original database. This copy can be archived, and the archive file can be transferred to another Analysis server and restored there. This procedure provides a convenient way to transfer only the structure of a database to another Analysis server.

See Also

Archiving and Restoring Databases

Archiving an Analysis Services Database

Restoring an Analysis Services Database