Version Control on Microsoft Sql Server Analysis Services(SSAS)

Question

1. What is the best way/tool to do version/source control for SSAS Tabular Projects? We are currently using TFS without branching

2. How can two people work on the same SSAS Project/CUBE and then merge changes?

Answer 1

For all who are looking for an answer, we came across tabular editor which allows us to do version control. In a nutshell, the paid version of tabular editor allows you to store the model.bim file as folder/file structure whereby you can easily do version control as well as merge conflicts within seconds.

Have a look: https://tabulareditor.com/#features

Answer 2

Microsoft offers SQL Server Developer Tools BI (SSDT-BI) to manage and sync changes between a local development server and disk. And from disk to any Visual Studio Supported source control provider.

1. In this workflow multiple developers use the same source control repo to sync schema changes between the central repository to a local SQL Server and/or SQL Server Analysis Services instance.
2. Then you have 2 options
   1. Edit the files in Visual Studio/SSDT and sync the changes to the local development server for testing.
   2. Make changes directly in SQL Server/SSAS and sync them back to Visual Studio.
3. Check-in/Commit the changes to the central repository.
4. Conflict resolution may be needed. In which case you would:
   1. locally resolve the conflicts, sync these to your local development instance for testing. Go to 3.

Merging may be difficult for certain elements. It's important to stay in contact with your co-workers to make sure you're not stepping on each-others toes.

Given that you are using TFS, the recommended source control system would be Git. TFVC is in long-support mode and isn't receiving much love anymore. All CI and CD scenario's with TFS and Azure DevOps Server work best with Git.

Depending on the version of TFS you are using, you could use Universal Packages to store big binary data used to initialize or reset your data.