Copying databases between servers

There are several scenarios where we may need to copy an Analysis Services database from one server with one on a different server. Here are a couple of examples:

• We have several frontend servers directly accessible by users in the DMZ area of the network, and one backend server inside the internal network. When the cube is processed on the internal server, it needs to be duplicated to the frontend servers so that it can be queried by our users.

• We have two powerful Analysis Services servers and several cubes. Half of the cubes are processed on one server and half are processed on the other. When both servers have finished processing, the databases are synchronized between the two servers, so they both have the same data and can share the query load.

Using Analysis Services 2008 we have three options to synchronize data between servers:

• Use the Synchronize XMLA command: This is the preferred method in most situations. When executed, the Synchronize command...