SQL SSAS Cube from a single view, getting the attribute key cannot be found when processing cube?

Question

I have the need to create a simple cube from a single table (view), no dimensions and facts star schema type stuff..

I have a large flat table (100+ columns). This table is a straight import from a CSV file, so I then create a view that includes a ID column...

As an example...

CREATE VIEW [dbo].[v_dw]
AS
SELECT
newId() Id,
x.[customer]
FROM dwdump as x;
GO

In SSAS designer I create my DSV from the view and all the int columns end up as fact data and all the varchar columns end up in a single dimension.

I try to process this cube and it throws duplicate record exist, so I set it to ignore this error, then it throws

The attribute key cannot be found when processing

The full error is...

Errors in the OLAP storage engine: The attribute key cannot be found when processing: Table: '[dbo].[v_dw]', Column: 'Id', Value: '{D0B94A2D-7024-4634-844F-64768ED4B203}'. The attribute is 'Id'. Errors in the OLAP storage engine: The record was skipped because the attribute key was not found.

I know that building a cube without proper fact/dimensions defined in the table is against best practices, but I need something simple and quick.

Can we not create a cube from a single table and use a arbitrary [Id] key column.

Answer 1

This can be the result of measures being processed before dimensions, leading the corresponding key not found in the dimension. As you indicated in your comment, processing the dimensions doesn't pose any problems. Since this post is tagged with SSIS I'm assuming that you're either using an Analysis Services Processing task or processing via commands such as XMLA. When you define how the cube is processed set the dimensions to process before the fact table containing the measures is processed.