Create an Azure Analysis Services server

This article guides you through the process of creating an Azure Analysis Services server instance in the Azure portal.

Azure Analysis Services is a fully managed Platform as a Service (PaaS) that provides enterprise-grade data modeling capabilities for business analytics. It simplifies the development of semantic data models that enable business intelligence applications.

Steps to create an Azure Analysis Services server

Follow these steps to provision a new Analysis Services server instance:

1. Sign in to the Azure portal

   Open your web browser and go to https://portal.azure.com. Sign in with your Azure account credentials.

2. Navigate to the Analysis Services service

   In the Azure portal search bar, type Azure Analysis Services and select it from the results.

3. Create a new Analysis Services server

   On the Azure Analysis Services page, click + Create or Create. This will open the "Create Analysis Services" blade.

   

   Example: Clicking 'Create' in the Azure portal.

4. Configure basic settings

   • Subscription: Select the Azure subscription you want to use for this server.
   • Resource group: Select an existing resource group or create a new one to organize your Azure resources.
   • Server name: Enter a unique name for your Analysis Services server. This name will be part of the server's URL (e.g., myservername.asazure.windows.net).
   • Location: Choose the Azure region where you want to deploy your server. Select a region close to your users for better performance.
   • Edition: Select the edition that best suits your performance and feature needs. Common options include Developer, Basic, Standard, and Premium.
   • SKU: Choose a Standard or Premium SKU that provides the appropriate performance and scale for your workload. The Developer edition is free and intended for development and testing.
   • Capacity: Based on the selected SKU, specify the number of Analysis Services engine units (engine size) for your server.
   

   Example: Basic configuration settings.

5. Configure advanced settings (Optional)

   You can configure advanced settings such as:

   • Allow non-Azure Active Directory administrators: If you need to grant administrator access to users who are not part of your Azure AD tenant, you can enable this.
   • Enable service principal authentication: For programmatic access, you can configure service principal authentication.

6. Tags (Optional)

   Apply tags to categorize your Azure resources for better management and billing. Tags are key-value pairs.

7. Review + create

   Review all the settings you have configured. The portal will perform a validation check.

   If the validation passes, click the Create button to start the deployment process.

   

   Example: Reviewing your configuration before deployment.

8. Deployment

   The deployment process may take a few minutes. You can monitor the deployment progress in the Azure portal notifications. Once the deployment is complete, you will see a "Deployment succeeded" message.

9. Go to resource

   After successful deployment, click Go to resource to navigate to your newly created Analysis Services server's overview page.

Next Steps

Once your server is created, you can:

• Connect to the server from tools like SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) or Visual Studio.
• Create a tabular model or import an existing one.
• Configure server properties and manage access.