Exam Objectives
The exam objectives listed here are current as of this books publication date. Exam objectives are subject to change at any time without prior notice and at Microsofts sole discretion. Please visit the Microsoft Learning website for the most current listing of exam objectives: http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?ID=70-463&locale=en-us .
Introduction
This Training Kit is designed for information technology (IT) professionals who support or plan to support data warehouses, extract-transform-load (ETL) processes, data quality improvements, and master data management. It is designed for IT professionals who also plan to take the Microsoft Certified Technology Specialist (MCTS) exam 70-463. The authors assume that you have a solid, foundation-level understanding of Microsoft SQL Server 2012 and the Transact-SQL language, and that you understand basic relational modeling concepts.
The material covered in this Training Kit and on Exam 70-463 relates to the technologies provided by SQL Server 2012 for implementing and maintaining a data warehouse. The topics in this Training Kit cover what you need to know for the exam as described on the Skills Measured tab for the exam, available at:
http://www.microsoft.com/learning/en/us/exam.aspx?id=70-463
By studying this Training Kit, you will see how to perform the following tasks:
Design an appropriate data model for a data warehouse
Optimize the physical design of a data warehouse
Extract data from different data sources, transform and cleanse the data, and load it in your data warehouse by using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)
Use advanced SSIS components
Use SQL Server 2012 Master Data Services (MDS) to take control of your master data
Use SQL Server Data Quality Services (DQS) for data cleansing
Refer to the objective mapping page in the front of this book to see where in the book each exam objective is covered.
System Requirements
The following are the minimum system requirements for the computer you will be using to complete the practice exercises in this book and to run the companion CD.
SQL Server and Other Software Requirements
This section contains the minimum SQL Server and other software requirements you will need:
SQL Server 2012 . You need access to a SQL Server 2012 instance with a logon that has permissions to create new databasespreferably one that is a member of the sysadmin role. For the purposes of this Training Kit, you can use almost any edition of on-premises SQL Server (Standard, Enterprise, Business Intelligence, and Developer), both 32-bit and 64-bit editions. If you dont have access to an existing SQL Server instance, you can install a trial copy of SQL Server 2012 that you can use for 180 days. You can download a trial copy here:
http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/en/us/get-sql-server/try-it.aspx
SQL Server 2012 Setup Feature Selection . When you are in the Feature Selection dialog box of the SQL Server 2012 setup program, choose at minimum the following components:
Windows Software Development Kit (SDK) or Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 . The Windows SDK provides tools, compilers, headers, libraries, code samples, and a new help system that you can use to create applications that run on Windows. You need the Windows SDK for only. If you already have Visual Studio 2010, you do not need the Windows SDK. If you need the Windows SDK, you need to download the appropriate version for your operating system. For Windows 7, Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard Edition (32-bit x86), Windows Server 2003 R2 Standard x64 Edition, Windows Server 2008, Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows Vista, or Windows XP Service Pack 3, use the Microsoft Windows SDK for Windows 7 and the Microsoft .NET Framework 4 from: