SSAS Tabular on Azure?

Question

I'm attempting to deploy an ssas tabular model (I don't know what I'm doing )

I have made multidimensional on SQL Server 2008 R2 with VS2013. I wanted to try Tabular in conjunction with power BI.

So I set up a SQL Azure DB, I have Azure SQL database and Visual Studio 2013 Pro

I can get the connection to the Azure DB in VS2013 and write T-SQL against it but when I try and create a tabular model and select the Azure database as the SQL Server workspace it fails to make a connection.

Is it something to do with the compatibility module or do I need to create a Azure VM? Thank you for your help ... p.s. this is my fist question ever I'm excited

Answer 1

Azure SQL DB is a relational SQL database. It is not Analysis Services. You can't deploy an Analysis Services database to Azure SQL DB. You will need to create a virtual machine in Azure from a SQL Server Enterprise Edition image and install a Tabular instance and open ports and deploy your tabular model to that VM.

Update as of October 2016: They just announced Azure Analysis Services. While it is completely separate from Azure SQL Database, it does provide a PaaS offering for Analysis Services tabular models which means you don't have to deploy a VM for this functionality. Currently it supports 1200 and above compatibility level tabular models, not multidimensional models.

Answer 2

Analysis Services is now available as a service that can be provisioned directly inside the Azure Portal (no VM needed):

https://azure.microsoft.com/en-gb/documentation/articles/analysis-services-overview/