Tips for the Oracle Star Schema data warehouse

Tips for the Oracle Star Schema data warehouse

I'd like to know a list of things on what to look out for (tech gotchas!) while developing an Oracle Star Schema data warehouse design.
 

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  • Conform to the dimensional rules: a fact table linked to hierarchical dimensions that contains only measures and links to those dimensions, Fact-dimension relationships only and proper dimension hierarchicalization (1-1 or 1-many only). Rule violations will not be permissable to OLAP tool interfaces.

  • Star means 1 table per dimension

  • During modeling, make it "snowflake" not star so you are clear about the hierarchies within the dimensions

  • Don't start star schema modeling by modeling the fact tables. Fact tables naturally fall out of the process of modeling business questions. Common measures = 1 fact. Start by modeling the business questions, the model the measures against the dimension levels.

  • Don't be a slave to star schema modeling. There's a place for normalized modeling in a data warehouse too. Also consider the management benefits of snowflake modeling.

    Read expert advice on a star schema design for BI.
     

This was first published in January 2003

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