Running command-line commands against Analysis Services

SQL Server MVP and blogger Jamie Thomson has introduced me to a very cool tool for Analysis Services called ascmd.exe.  This is a very cool tool for querying Analysis Services cubes and issuing XMLA commands from the command-line.  That means you don't have to go through all the steps and UI of using something like SSIS to query a cude.

You can also use ascmd.exe to run the Analysis Services XML file that is produced by SQL Profiler when you choose to export the trace "for Analysis Services 2005".

Jamie has other examples in his blog of how to use ascmd.exe to automate processing of cubes from DTS 2000.  Read the original blog post from Jamie that got me interested in this tool at http://blogs.conchango.com/jamiethomson/archive/2006/06/20/4106.aspx.

Kudos to Dave Wickert and his cohorts for coming up with ascmd.exe. Download the project for ascmd.exe from here.

Best regards,

-Ke