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Microstrategy Test Breakdown:

1. Microstrategy allows reporting on Correct 2. Microstrategy supports both ROLAP and MOLAP Correct 3. ______________in MicroStrategy allows you to create any desired view You answered: Both a and b Incorrect Correct answer: Logical view 4. _______________ type of filtering raises the report filter to the level of the target. You answered: Standard filtering Incorrect Correct answer: Absolute filtering 5. What is the advantage of consolidation? Correct 6. _________________ perform various administrative and application development tasks in Microstrategy Correct 7. Joint Child in Micsrostrategy is used to handle what type of keys? Correct 8. In case of pass through functions, Microstrategy checks the actual SQL construct before dumping into the database. You answered: True Incorrect Correct answer: False 9. Is there a difference between Report Limit and Report Filter? Correct 10. __________________ Tables contain data on the MicroStrategy systems usage and performance. You answered: Performance Incorrect Correct answer: Statistics 11. Which of the following are valid types of caches? Correct 12. VLDB is an acronym for You answered: Very Large Database Incorrect Correct answer: Very Large Database properties

13. What ensures that object definitions are kept consistent and accurate across all environments when objects are migrated from a testing environment to a production environment You answered: Migration manager Incorrect Correct answer: Object manager 14. When a chosen object already exists in the target project, what action is taken by the object manager? You answered: Creates a new object Incorrect Correct answer: Opens a conflict resolution dialogue prompting user whether to create the object or overwrite. 15. Which option allows you to track changes to objects? You answered: Change option Incorrect Correct answer: Change Journaling option

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Microstrategy Administration
Are there any special requirements needed to move objects across projects? Yes. In order to perform cross-project operations, the projects involved must originate from the same source project. In other words, the projects can only be related by the duplication of a single project. This ensures that the projects have a similar set of schema and application objects, and that the object ID's in the two projects are the same. MicroStrategy Object Manager uses the object and version ID's across the projects to perform comparisons.MicroStrategy Object Manager prevents the user from attempting operations across unrelated projects. How does MicroStrategy Object Manager determine if two projects are related? MicroStrategy Object Manager compares the Schema ID's of the two projects. Duplicated projects have different Project ID's, but their Schema ID's are the same. What is the Conflict Resolution Window? The Conflict Resolution window provides the user with a means to decide how to handle object conflicts between the source project and the destination project. In addition, the Conflict Resolution window displays the object name in the original project, the object name in the destination project and the type of conflict. Users may also specify a new name for the object depending on the action chosen How does MicroStrategy Object Manager determine if two objects in different projects are the same? To determine if two objects are the same, MicroStrategy Object Manager compares their Object ID's. If these ID's are the same, MicroStrategy Object Manager then compares the Version ID's. If the Version ID's are the same, the Conflict Resolution grid lists the

conflict as 'Exists Identically.' If the Version ID's are different, the Conflict Resolution grid lists the conflict as 'Exists Differently.' How can the user determine the Object ID of an object? To view the Object ID of an object, right-mouse click on the object and select 'Properties.' The Object ID and Version ID are listed on the 'General' tab. Why does MicroStrategy Object Manager search for object dependencies? MicroStrategy Object Manager makes a list of all object dependencies before copying an object to prevent metadata inconsistency. The time required for dependency checking varies based on a customer's metadata size and schema complexity. For large metadata and complex schemas, gathering all the dependencies may take a long time. Can schema objects be copied across projects with MicroStrategy Object Manager? Yes, schema objects can be copied across projects using MicroStrategy Object Manager. MicroStrategy Object Manager moves objects seamlessly between similar projects such as from a development project version to a production project version where the warehouses are the same in terms of views, prefixes, and warehouse structure. However, subtle changes in the warehouse that relate to prefixes, views, or table structure cannot be tracked by MicroStrategy Object Manager. For situations where the projects' warehouse structures or setups are dissimilar, users may be required to make further edits of the objects to ensure full integration into the destination project. These edits may include hierarchical relationship changes or modifications to the prefixes. How does MicroStrategy Object Manager integrate with the MicroStrategy Product Suite security model? Security in MicroStrategy Object Manager is based on the MicroStrategy 7.x Product Suite security model. All activities that can be performed in MicroStrategy Object Manager are governed by privileges and access control lists. For example, if a user is not allowed to access a certain folder in MicroStrategy Agent, they will not be able to access the folder in MicroStrategy Object Manager. Is it possible to use MicroStrategy Object Manager while other users are making changes in MicroStrategy Agent? Using MicroStrategy Object Manager to copy/move objects around is not recommended while other user sessions are making changes using MicroStrategy Agent, as it could lead to metadata inconsistency. Project and schema locking prevent multiple users sessions from manipulating the schema at the same time. This prevents metadata inconsistency from occurring. What are the tracing options available in MicroStrategy Object Manager? Tracing is available under the Tools/Diagnostics menu. These tracing options apply to every MicroStrategy product installed on the machine.To see the SQL that has been executed against the metadata, go to the Advanced tab and turn on 'SQL Tracing' under the DSS MDServer key.Function level tracing can be accomplished by going to the Advanced tab and turning on 'Function Level Tracing' under the DSS ObjectManager key. Where are dependent objects copied if they do not already exist in the destination project? If the location exists in the destination project, the dependent object is copied to that location. If the location does not exist in the destination project, a new folder

entitled 'Dependencies' is created and the object is copied to that folder. What happens if the owner of an object does not exist in the destination project? If the owner of the source object does not exist in the destination project, the user login for the destination project takes ownership of the object when it is copied or replaced. Where can users find more information on MicroStrategy Object Manager? Further information can be found in the release notes, as well as in MicroStrategy Object Manager's online help. Does MicroStrategy Web support clustering via Cisco Local Router or any other third-party clustering software? MicroStrategy Web relies on third-party web-clustering software to provide clustering functionality. MicroStrategy Web is designed to be stateless so that each individual MicroStrategy Web node can function without the knowledge of the existence of other nodes. Therefore, any third-party software used to cluster web servers can be used. What information is shared by the application across MicroStrategy Web nodes? MicroStrategy Web is designed to be as stateless as possible. Therefore, no information is shared by the MicroStrategy Web application across cluster nodes. All state information for running jobs is pushed to the client browser.When a report is submitted by a MicroStrategy Web user, the user will receive a wait page in the client browser. This wait page will poll the MicroStrategy Web Server periodically for the status of the report. This polling is performed as new http requests. This http request will contain all state information, including encrypted login information and MicroStrategy Intelligence Server connection information. Is MicroStrategy Web "cluster-aware"? The MicroStrategy Web application is designed so that each MicroStrategy Web cluster node does not need to know that it is a member of a cluster. MicroStrategy Web is designed to be stateless, so that each client http request can be processed individually without having to persist information within the MicroStrategy Web application. Therefore, third-party Web-server clustering software can be used to cluster together multiple web servers running MicroStrategy Web. Should MicroStrategy Web be specifically configured to access a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster? No. When the administrator configures MicroStrategy Web to access a particular MicroStrategy Intelligence Server, the MicroStrategy Web application will automatically detect that the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is a member of a cluster. Once this detection is made, MicroStrategy Web will automatically add all the other members of the same cluster into the pool of available MicroStrategy Intelligence Servers. What information is shared by the application across MicroStrategy Intelligence Server nodes?

Report caches are shared in a cluster and Object caches on each MicroStrategy Intelligence Server node are synchronized. Is a copy of each report cache retained in each MicroStrategy Intelligence Server node?No. Each MicroStrategy Intelligence Server retains a lookup table with information about the existence and location of report caches. When a cluster node creates a report cache, information about the location of the new cache is shared with the other cluster nodes. Each cluster node then updates its own lookup table with the location of the new cache. If a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server node crashes, will report caches be lost? Although report caches will not be lost, access to report caches may be affected, depending on the way in which the report cache is configured.If a separate file server is used as a common report cache repository for all MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster nodes, then the loss of a cluster node will not affect access to the report cache by other nodes.If the cluster is configured such that each node locally hosts the report cache created by that node, then those report caches residing in the lost node will naturally be inaccessible. If any report cached in that lost node is requested, then another node within the cluster will re-run and re-cache the report. When the cluster node is recovered and rejoined into the cluster, all report caches in that cluster node will be made available again to the rest of the cluster. If a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server node is removed from a cluster manually, will report caches be lost? If an administrator removes a cluster node from a cluster, then all report caches that had been created by that cluster node will be inaccessible by the rest of the cluster, whether or not a separate file server is used as a common report cache. This behavior is by design. How does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 7.0 clustering enable cache sharing? Each node in a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 7.0 cluster maintains indices of the caches available on the different nodes. When a report is submitted, these indices will be searched and once an existing cache is found (in any nodes), the cached results will be retrieved directly from cache locations in either the local or remote machine. What methods can be used to guarantee availability of the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server report cache? To prevent the loss of a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster node from affecting report cache availability, the cluster can be configured such that a separate file server is used as a common report cache repository. In order to maintain cache availability, this separate file server can be configured for failover with third-party clustering software. If a report cache is created by a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster node,

will that report cache be seen in the Cache Monitor of another cluster node? No. Although the new report cache will be available for use by other cluster nodes, the cache will not appear in the Cache Monitor of other cluster nodes. In order to see all report caches within a cluster, the administrator will need to create a separate data source within Desktop for each cluster node. Then, the report caches within each node can be administered separately, using the same instance of the MicroStrategy Desktop application. If objects are created, modified or deleted, will the change be reflected across all MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster nodes? Yes. Object caches are synchronized across all cluster nodes. If any change affecting the Metadata is made by one cluster node, then the cluster node broadcasts the change to the other cluster nodes. The other cluster nodes will then update their local object caches. NOTE: Client-side object caches will not be automatically be refreshed. In MicroStrategy Desktop, for example, a user may have to explicitly click on 'Refresh' to see an object change be reflected in the client application. Should all MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster nodes be configured identically? Technically, MicroStrategy Intelligence Servers in a cluster do not have to be configured identically. The only technical requirements are that all MicroStrategy Intelligence Servers point to the same metadata and that all MicroStrategy Intelligence Servers have the same projects registered and in the same state (i.e., if Node A has Project A in a 'Loaded' state, then Node B must also have Project A in a 'Loaded' state.).However, in order to ease administration and to reduce the risk of unbalanced load across cluster nodes, it is recommended that all nodes use the same MicroStrategy Intelligence Server definition and that each machine shows identical characteristics (i.e., equal RAM, hard disk space, CPU). Is it possible for different nodes of a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster to run against different metadata repositories? No, all the nodes in the same cluster must run against the same metadata. Is it possible for different nodes of a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster to run with different configuration settings under the same metadata repository? Yes this is possible, using caution because users can configure different nodes at different settings. For example, differences in memory allocation for the cache, time out settings, etc can result in uneven performance across cluster nodes. What communication protocol does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server use for intracluster communication? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 7.0 and MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 7.0 SP1 use TCP/IP when communicating between clusters. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 7.1

will provide the option of using TCP/IP or UDP/IP (Universal Datagram Protocol). In 7.2, UDP support was removed as packet loss affects cluster synchronization. If a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster node is rebooted, will the node rejoin the cluster automatically? Whenever a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server cluster node is stopped in any way besides explicitly shutting down the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server service, the node will automatically rejoin the cluster when the MicroStrategy Intelligence Server service is restarted. So, if the node crashes, then the node will rejoin the cluster automatically upon startup. Does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server support clustering via Microsoft Cluster Server or any other third-party clustering software? Microsoft Cluster Server (MSCS) can be used for failover of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. However, MSCS and other third-party clustering software will not provide the load-balancing and some of the failover capabilities of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server's native clustering solution. Is it possible to run multiple instances of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server on the same Microsoft Windows NT machine? MicroStrategy 7.0 does not support running multiple instances of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server on the same Microsoft Windows NT machine. This is because MicroStrategy Intelligence Server can support running multiple projects with different prioritization and configuration settings on one server. This functionality was not available in MicroStrategy DSS Server 5.x and thus, required running multiple instances of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server to accomplish the same functionality. What is the maximum number of nodes that can be supported in a MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 7.0 cluster? There is no technical hard limit on the maximum number of cluster nodes that can be supported by MicroStrategy Intelligence Server 7.0. However, when the number of nodes increases, there is increasing overhead put on the system by the clustering software. So, there will be practical limits related to the hardware configuration of the users' system. What is metadata? Metadata is repository which stores microstrategy objects definitions and information about the data warehouse structure and content.Metadata is used by the intelligence server to evaluate the most efficient data retrieval scenario to guarantee optimal query performance.Explain 2-tier and 3-tier Architecture in MSTR. What is ScanMD and MD Doctor? Scan MD is the tool to recover from logical inconsistencies where MD Doctor fixes physical errors, When working with Microstrategy there is a chance for the metadata to

become corrupt. There are 2 types of errors; Physical or Logical.When working with Microstrategy there is a chance for the metadata to become corrupt. There are 2 types of errors; Physical or Logical.ScanMD is used to recover from Logical discrepancies, where as MD Doctor is used for Physical discrepancies. Why these discrepancies creep????? Like any software application, there are bugs in MicroStrategy, dandling code (a situation never programmed), etc. such a thing is the main reason behind discrepancies. Logical discrepancies: Using desktop you can create/delete several objects. Sometime deletion of the objects doesnt get reflected in metadata and they get deleted in metadata but still available in front-end. Now such a mis-match in case of schema objects is simply killing, because it wont let you update schema at all. . Using ScanMD is not an JImagine not having ability to update schema easy task. ScanMD shows 95% for false errors as discrepancies. Engine team of MicroStrategy, Inc. needs to update the tool. For one error, you may have to go through 100+ errors. You can verify the error easily by having project opened side by side. NEVER EVER FIX A FALSE ERROR. Physical discrepancies: There are not just 10 DSS tables that make metadata, there are several more database objects that are created for metadata; e.g., triggers, views. If any of these objects are messed up, you have a physical discrepancy in your project. What is clustering and types of clustering? cluster is a group of two or more I-servers connected to each other in such a way that they behave like a single I-server.Each machine in the cluster is called a node.Each machine in the cluster runs the same service as other machines in the cluster hence any machine can stand the failure of other machine and take over the tasks of the failed machine.

How did you achieve or document schema object version control at your previous clients? What are different modes you can run I-Server? How can you make sure that I-Server would be running even if the application mode has crashed and how to get back the instance? What are various authentication modes? What will you do when I-Server crashes? Where is Administrator's password stored? Is it encrypted? How will you reset password of all users? What will you do if your Administrator has forgotten password or the account is locked? How can you monitor the error received while running I-Server and report? What are the features available for MSTR Intelligence Server? When you wanted to compare two projects in MSTR. What are the tools available and what would you use? What is the use of command manager? Types of caches and where are they stored? Where and how are the report caches saved? When are they used?

On what operating systems can MicroStrategy run? Have you done any customizations of the tool, if so please describe. What types of services have you built in Narrowcast server. What is the difference between PPE (Personalized Page Execution) and PRE (Personalized Report Execution)?
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Microstrategy Developer interview questions


What are the different types of metrics available in microstrategy? Level Metric: Level metric defined the level at which the metric aggregates. By default it is the report level. This is a bit huge concept and more information could be found in the manuals. Transformation Metric: Transformation applied to a metric. Transformation is a schema object which is used in a metric for time based analysis (Example: Year-overYear, Month-to-Date, Year-to-Date, etc.). There are two types of transformation - table based and expression based. Pass through Metrics: Metric created using pass through functions (example: ApplySimple). Pass through functions are executed at the database level. Adaptive Metric: A metric defined on a fact which is mapped to two columns in two tables (detail and aggregate) with different functions applied on both the colu mns. This is achieved with pass through functions (ApplySimple and ApplyAgg). Non-aggregate metric: By default metrics aggregate to a higher level based on the attributes on a report, the default aggregate function is "sum". This aggregation can be set to none, so that the metric does not aggregate to any level. Smart Metric: When a compound metric is defined with other metric objects using arithmetic operatic (like sum(M1/M2)) the sub total of the metric can be calculated in multiple ways. Case where they are calculated row by row are smart metric. Example: In the above example, if the total are calculated using the mentioned expression, it is defined as smart metric - "Sum (M1) / Sum (M2)" Derived Metric: A metric created within a report (local to that report) using the report objects of the same report. Derived metric are OLAP services and are calculated on the I-Server and do not reflect in the SQL. Example: If a report has two metrics, M1 and M2. A derived metric can be defined as M1+M2 or M1/M2 and so on. Embedded Metric: Embedded metrics are objects whose definitions and object IDs are unique to and exist only in the context of the MicroStrategy Report in which they reside. An embedded metric will have a different object ID than that from which it originated. As its name implies, an embedded metric does not exist outside the report object. In

other words, that particular object's definition and ID do not exist independently in the metadata object info and object definition tables and, therefore, cannot be used in other reports. Instead, the report definition contains an "embedded objects" folder as part of its definition (not a freestanding folder), and the embedded metric exist only in this folder. This is not an Derived metric. Embedded metrics are created when there exists a prompted filter in a conditional metric and where the report is saved after answering those prompts. The metric will have same definition as that of original metric but its ID will be different than that of the original metric. Hence any changes made to the original metric will not be reflected to the report. You need to remove the embedded metric and add again the original metric 1. What is MicroStrategy Intelligence Server?MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is the industry's most advanced, secure and scalable business intelligence server. 2. What does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server allow users to do? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides reporting and OLAP analysis for the whole enterprise. All business users can obtain scorecards and dashboards, operational reports, queries and OLAP and predictive analyses without learning any programming or database syntax. 3. What are the benefits of using MicroStrategy Intelligence Server? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides one centralzed architecture for all users' monitoring, reporting and analysis requirements. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server also provides scalability to analyze any amount of data, support for any number of users and a 24 X 7 operating environment, with robust security. 4. Does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server run on Windows, UNIX, or Linux? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is certified on Windows, UNIX, and Linux operating systems. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server has been designed to be a completely open architecture built on industry standards and compiled to run on multiple operating systems.

5. How do you ensure simultaneous releases across multiple operating systems? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is engineered to be platform-independent on a single code base and is simply compiled appropriately for each certified operating system. As a result, MicroStrategy can release Intelligence Server on all certified operating systems at the same time with the same features. 6. Does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server run on 32-bit and 64-bit systems? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides an industry first -- a common code base architecture for all supported 32- and 64-bit operating systems. This single code base ensures that the latest functionality is always available on all these operating systems at the same time.

7. What are the advantages of running a BI server on a 64-bit operating system? A BI application can access much greater memory resources when running on a 64-bit systems than it could on a 32-bit system. More addressable memory results in more BI applications, more sophisticated applications, more reports, larger reports, better performance and more users -- all with fewer servers. Organizations can combine MicroStrategy's industry leading scalability with the advantages of 64-bit UNIX to deploy the richest BI applications, with the highest performance and the most users. 8. Do users need to learn any programming languages or database syntax to run business queries? No, business users can run any query without learning any programming languages or database syntax. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server automatically and appropriately processes all business questions by accessing a report cache or Intelligent Cube, or by generating dynamic SQL or MDX that is optimized to each data source platform. 9.Can I deploy a single BI application in multiple languages? Yes. Every component of a BI application can be translated and presented in multiple languages, including all MicroStrategy user interfaces, metadata objects such as the names of reports and documents, and data within a data warehouse. 10. Can I access multiple data sources transparently from a single data model? Yes. MicroStrategy MultiSource Option is a new and fully integrated add-on component of MicroStrategy Intelligence Server. It allows users to seamlessly report, analyze, and monitor data across multiple sources through a single business model. 11. What is a cache? A cache contains the properties and data of a report once a report has been run. Caches can be stored in memory and/or on disk. When users ask for a report that is cached, the Intelligence Server will retrieve the data from disk or memory instead of running a query on the data source. Cache creation and usage securely leverages other users' work, increases query performance and reduces the workload on the data warehouse. 12. What are Intelligent Cubes? Intelligent Cubes are in-memory caches stored by the Intelligence Server. While accessing an Intelligent Cube, users can easily add or remove report objects (such as attributes and metrics), add new metric calculations and filter their view of the data -all in an ad hoc fashion with speed-of-thought response times. Data stored outside an Intelligent Cube is automatically accessed using the ROLAP engine when drilling to more details. 13. Can MicroStrategy Intelligence Server access any amount of data?

Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server can scale to any amount of data by leveraging your database's strengths. Using Very Large Database (VLDB) drivers, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server automatically tunes its operations to leverage the unique strengths of your database software and hardware. 14. Can MicroStrategy Intelligence Server scale easily and cost effectively based on my growing needs? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides out-of-the-box clustering capabilities that allow corporations to leverage their initial investments and gradually scale as more users and data are added to the system, or when different styles of BI are required. 15. Can my users perform on-demand analysis without any downtime? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides complete fault tolerance and fail-over support to maximize the uptime of your application. 16. Will my users get the performance they need? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server maximizes system performance at all layers of your system. Intelligence Server: Leverages the unique strengths of each database software and hardware using

VLDB drivers. Uses four levels of report and dataset caching to optimize performance for

documents, reports, analyses and prompt lists. Increases analytic performance with its Intelligent Cubes. Users or

administrators can schedule creation or refreshing of Intelligent Cubes during low usage time periods. view. 17. What types of analysis does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server support? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server users can easily perform simple to sophisticated analysis such as basic performance indicators, market basket, churn, retention and decile analysis. Users can make use of a complete library of statistical, mathematical, financial and OLAP functions. Other types of analysis include hypothesis testing, regressions, neural networks, decision tress, clustering and bond calculations. 18. Can I use my homegrown functions or integrate with existing third-party statistical and data mining software? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server allows enterprises to integrate their homegrown functions as well as third-party software using an advanced plug-and-play architecture. Minimizes network traffic by sending users only the result sets they want to

Predictive Models created by third-party data mining software can also be imported using PMML (Predictive Markup Language). 19. What type of security does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provide? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides a highly robust security model at four different layers in your system: 1. User level - Login and ID authentication ensure users have authorization to

access the MicroStrategy system. 2. Application level - Access control lists and user privileges ensure proper access

to MicroStrategy objects and functionality. 3. Data transmission level - Encryption and dual firewall configuration ensure safe

transmission of data. 4. Data level - Security filters ensure users access only the data they have

authorization to view. 20. Can users access MicroStrategy Intelligence Server using LDAP, data source or Windows authentication? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server integrates with LDAP and Windows security systems. Users will only need to login with their LDAP or Windows login to access MicroStrategy projects through Intelligence Server. 21. Can my administrator easily maintain and manage MicroStrategy Intelligence Server? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server's centralized architecture provides one console from which all maintenance and administration can be performed. In addition, a standardized data dictionary for enterprise reporting and OLAP analysis is stored in a metadata repository and enables reusable reporting objects and business rules. 22. Does MicroStrategy have Windows- or UNIX-based administration tools? MicroStrategy has both Windows- and UNIX-based administration tools. UNIX and Linux administration is provided through a Java-based Control Center. Both the Windows administration tools and the Java-based Control Center provide local or remote administration and monitoring of all Intelligence Servers in the BI implementations. 23. What are the supported languages for MicroStrategy Intelligence Server? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is available in English (US and UK), French, German, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Swedish, Chinese (Simplified and Traditional), Korean and Japanese.

24. Does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server integrate with other system management software? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server integrates with other system management software. In fact, all inner statistics of Intelligence Server are published to Performance Monitor and diagnostic logs. As a result, third-party system management software such as IBM Tivoli or CA's Unicenter can remotely monitor these statistics. 25. Does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server support scheduling? Yes, MicroStrategy Intelligence Server supports time-based and event-based schedules. These schedules automatically trigger report execution and place a notification message in the user's History folder upon completion. 26. Why is MicroStrategy Intelligence Server better than competitor's products? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server wins over its competitors because it solves all issues that corporations face when implementing a query, reporting and analysis solution. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server provides the solutions required for a successful enterprise business intelligence system: full range of analysis, support for any number of users, support for any amount of data, iron-clad security, world-class reliability, easy administration and maintenance, and high performance. 27. How long does it take to deploy MicroStrategy Intelligence Server? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server installs in minutes and automatically presents a configuration wizard to connect to the database. Within an hour, the installation and setup can be completed. 28. Can Intelligence Server integrate with my existing data structure? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server easily integrates with your existing data structure with its support for the major types of schemas like Star, Snowflake, Hybrid, Denormalized, Normalized and Aggregated Schema. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server also integrates with SAP BW InfoCubes and QueryCubes. 29. How does Intelligence Server integrate with the rest of the MicroStrategy platform? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server is the analytical server that processes all requests from all MicroStrategy end users. Intelligence Server is the central product that links all MicroStrategy components to the data warehouse. 30. What data sources does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server support? MicroStrategy Intelligence Server can access data in all major databases including Oracle, IBM DB2, Microsoft SQL Server, Microsoft Access, Microsoft Excel, Teradata, Sybase, Red Brick, Informix, HP NeoView, HP NonStop SQL/MP, Netezza, MySQL, PostgreSQL, Greenplum, Kognito, Vertica, Aster nCluster, text files,

and other ANSI-92 compatible relational databases. It can also access multidimensional data sources such as SAP BW, Hyperion Essbase, and Microsoft Analysis Services. Additionally, Intelligence Server can access data from EII sources including Composite, Oracle Transparent Gateways, IBM WebSphere Information Integrator, and MetaMatrix. 31. To save time, can many reports be run at the same time and at the user level? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server can execute multiple reports simultaneously. When report results are ready they are saved in a personal History folder. 32. Does MicroStrategy Intelligence Server support XML? Yes. MicroStrategy Intelligence Server uses XML to transfer data. This enables organizations to present information from Intelligence Server to end users through multiple mediums including the Web, email and web services. 1. How can I create statements, report books, or dashboard books in MicroStrategy? Users have the ability to maintain separate documents and combine them into a single, finalized document (report book, statement, or dashboard book). The individual documents can be maintained by different users and they can have the following unique qualities: Page groupings Layout Page Orientation Vertical or horizontal repeating sections Conditional formatting Pagination Datasets

Enabling users to group together multiple documents into one makes it significantly easier to develop and maintain individual pieces of the unified document. 2. What OLAP capabilities do I have within a MicroStrategy Report Services document? Users have the ability to drill within the document, drill anywhere, or disable drilling. Drilling capabilities can be applied to a grid or graph, enabling users to perform an investigative analysis directly on a dashboard, scorecard, or enterprise report. Users can drill out of the dashboard to investigate across the data warehouse or multiple data

sources and generate new information-rich reports.Using the multi-select feature, business users can dynamically select any group of elements and create derived element groups on the fly. Elements can be removed or added dynamically and users can create their own calculations between various groups or individual items. 3. I want only one version of the dashboard to view in Flash and DHTML (AJAX), but I have Flash-advanced visualizations in the dashboard. How can I design this dashboard for DHTML? Only one design of the dashboard is required. Flash-advanced visualizations have flash plug-ins that are maintained within the container of the advanced visualization. Flashadvanced visualizations can be rendered in both Flash and DHTML, and the same controls are made available to users, enabling a seamless integration between Flash and DHTML design. 4. How can users design dashboards quickly and without programming experience or training? MicroStrategy offers out-of-the box templates that provide a great starting point for dashboard designers. Each template contains a series of containers, or panel stacks, that enable users to quickly add components to each panel stack, such as: text boxes, shapes, reports, grids, graphs, panel stacks, HTML containers, selectors, and widgets. Also, pre-formatted customized templates can be created to place the design experience in the hands of end-users. These pre-formatted templates can include the corporate logo and color layout. Users can simply drag, drop, and select dashboard components to quickly design a dashboard in the matter of minutes.

What kind of optimizations you did? Datamarts to create aggregate/summary tables at higher levels of a hierarchies. Addition of Indexes to tables for faster execution of queries. Factors to decide on aggregate tables If a large set of reports need to be viewed at a level(a level that is higher than that of the existing Fact tables used by those reports) then it is worth creating aggregate tables at that level. Or if a report is huge and it is critical for the business decisions then it is worth creating the aggregate tables for that report.

When do we need to create a view or a materialized view in a database Views are created in such scenarios where we need a "Distinct attribute lookup table" or "Attribute form expression across multiple tables" or "Slowly Changing Dimensions" etc.

what leads to a cross-join or how does a cross-join occur. Cross Joins occur when unrelated attributes(attributes that are not related to a metric or another attribute) are placed in a report. How do we prevent a cross-join. Cross-Joins can be prevented by setting the VLDB property that does not allow to execute a cross-join.

If we need to restrict certain rows from appearing to a user/user-group how can we do it? Ans: Security Filters If we need to restrict certain columns from appearing to a user/user-group how can we do it? Ans: Remove access to the metrics in ACL for the user/user-group I have a FACT table at all time levels(date, week...year). I have the similar FACT table at YEAR level. If I create a report with a FACT attribute and a metric based on that fact........ how do we force the MSTR to use YEAR level FACT table instead of using the all-levels FACT table? The MSTR calculates the table key and based on the key value it would use the appropriate FACT table. If it doesn't use the appropriate FACT table for some reason, we can include the reference called FACTID within the Metric formula expression to indicate which FACT table to be used in that particular metric. How to Reduce Multiple Passes to one in a report? VLDB settings. What is a Materialized View A materialized view is a database object that contains the results of a query. They are local copies of data located remotely, or are used to create summary tables based on aggregations of a table's data. Materialized views, which store data based on remote tables are also, know as snapshots. A materialized view caches the query result as a concrete table that may be updated from the original base tables from time to time. Materialized views were implemented first by the Oracle database. In IBM DB2, they are called materialized query tables; Microsoft SQL Server has a similar feature called indexed views.

General Questions: Describe your previous experience and the projects you worked on. Describe your expertise, your strengths and your weaknesses.

What databases have you worked on? What is the database size that you dealed with? What is the max size of the database that you worked on? Comfort level on SQL How to tune a report SQL. Troubling shooting an issue. How to you handle the migration process What is the documentation process that you prefer or followed in the past. Any experience interacting with Business Users? Any experience in gathering requirements? Do you have experience training end users. When a users reports an issue and complains about the performance, how would you handle this, explain in detail. Common User issues that you have experienced? What versions of MicroStrategy have you worked on? What do you like in the latest version? Tell me one of your favorite feature of MicroStrategy and why do you like it. What is your current team size. If you have multiple architects working on same projects, how do you make sure that both of them are not modifying the schema at a time. How many users did you support? Describe your experience with NC. List some common issues. Adminstration & Narrowcast What is metadata? Explain 2-tier and 3-tier Architecture in MSTR. What is ScanMD and MD Doctor? What is clustering and types of clustering? How did you achieve or document schema object version control at your previous clients? What are different modes you can run I-Server? How can you make sure that I-Server would be running even if the application mode has crashed and how to get back the instance? What are various authentication modes? What will you do when I-Server crashes? Where is Administrator's password stored? Is it encrypted? How will you reset password of all users? What will you do if your Administrator has forgotten password or the account is locked? How can you monitor the error received while running I-Server and report? What are the features available for MSTR Intelligence Server? When you wanted to compare two projects in MSTR. What are the tools available and what would you use? What is the use of command manager? Types of caches and where are they stored? Where and how are the report caches saved? When are they used? On what operating systems can MicroStrategy run? Have you done any customizations of the tool, if so please describe. What types of services have you built in Narrowcast. What is the difference between PPE (Personalized Page Execution) and PRE (Personalized Report Execution)? Architect and Report Development What are Factless facts? Difference between Star schema and Snowflake schema. And what is best suited for MicroStrategy What is the difference between view and materialized view? What are OLAP Services. Define couple of them. What's fact table, dimension table and relate table? Should you have DATE as ID attribute form? What is compound key? What is a relationship table?

How will you resolve double counting in M-M relationship between two attributes? What is the difference between RSD document and HTML document? Have you worked on flash dashboards? Explain few feature of flash? What are Transformations? Are there any transformations implemented in your project? Explain an example from your project. Explain Level Metrics. How it is used in your project? Explain Fact Degradation. Difference between View Filter and Report Filter. Explain custom groups and consolidations and the difference between them. Explain few VLDB properties that you have used in the past and the reason behind them. What is a role attribute? What are different null which can occur in a report and how do you mask them? Talk about best practices in creating dashboards and reports Database Related What is a surrogate key? Difference between a primary key and a surrogate key. Why do we use a staging area? Why do we use dimensional modeling in DW? Why not Relational? What are conformed dimensions?

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