Stars and Models: How to Build and Maintain Star Schemas Using SAS Data Integration Server in SAS9

Overview

Star schemas are used in data warehouses as the primary storage mechanism for dimensional data that is to be queried efficiently. Star schemas are the final result of the Extract, Transform, and Load (ETL) processes that are used in building the data warehouse. Efficiently building the star schema is important, especially as the data volumes that are required to be stored in the data warehouse increase. This paper describes how to use the SAS Data Integration Server, which is the follow-on, next generation product to the SAS ETL Server, to efficiently build and maintain star schema data structures. A number of techniques in the SAS Data Integration Server are explained.