Mastering Tabular Video Course

This video course covers tools and techniques to create enterprise-grade Tabular models with Power BI and Analysis Services.

The Tabular semantic model is the core technology that runs Power BI, Azure Analysis Services, and SQL Server Analysis Services. Knowing the features available, understanding their capabilities, and being aware of the limitations is crucial to planning, implementing, and deploying a complete solution in an enterprise environment.

  • Power BI authors can bring their models to the next level, by understanding the details of the model features available in Power BI Desktop and by knowing the additional features available in external tools like Tabular Editor.
  • Business Intelligence developers can learn how to create a model for Analysis Services or Power BI Premium using Visual Studio or Tabular Editor, how to deploy and automate the processing, and how to implement security requirements.
  • Solution architects can understand how the Tabular engine running in Power BI and Analysis Services works. They will better understand all the details needed to choose the right model type depending on latency requirements and on the budget available: Import, DirectQuery, aggregations, composite models, or push datasets.
  • System administrators can learn how to monitor the Tabular engine, how to manage partitions, and how to implement and schedule incremental refresh.

This course is useful to different professionals working with Power BI and Analysis Services. After a first initial review of all the modules, you can use the content as a reference while creating your model. We recommend you review specific modules in depth when working on particular areas of the model, such as security, partitioning, aggregations, deployment, scaling out, and more.

Basic knowledge of DAX is useful to create simple Tabular models. You can follow the free Introducing DAX video course to get acquainted with DAX.

In order to complete your training on Tabular, after the Mastering Tabular video course you should study the Mastering DAX video course. In the Mastering DAX video course, you will learn how to write complex measures and queries using the DAX language, which is not included in the Mastering Tabular video course.

Students have access to a private discussion area where they can interact with the instructors by asking questions related to the lectures and the exercises.

Tabular Editor 3 Enterprise License

Included in your purchase of the Mastering Tabular video course is a license for Tabular Editor 3 Enterprise that is valid for 90 days.
This is to ensure you have time to practice with the more advanced features required in enterprise-level solutions.

Collapse allCurriculum

  • Presentation of Mastering Tabular

    • Analysis Services Tabular overview
      FREE
    • Links to external resources
  • Slides and demos

    • Practice by repeating demos
    • Demos download
    • Slides of the video course
  • Introduction to Tabular models

    • Introduction to Tabular models
      FREE
    • Analysis Services architecture
    • Introduction to TOM
    • Architectural choices
  • Installing the prerequisites

    • Installing the prerequisites
      FREE
    • SQL Server
    • Important notes about SQL Server 2019 and 2022
    • SSMS and the demo database
    • Important notes about Visual Studio 2019 and 2022
    • Visual Studio
    • Power BI Desktop and Excel
    • Tabular development tools
  • Guided tour on Tabular

    • Guided tour on Tabular
      FREE
    • Introducing the workspace database
    • Introducing the guided tour
    • Creating a model with Power BI Desktop
    • Improving the model in Power BI Desktop
    • Getting started with Visual Studio
    • Testing reports with Visual Studio
    • Deploying models from Visual Studio
    • Creating a model with Tabular Editor 2
    • Different ways of working with Tabular Editor
    • Working with Tabular Editor 3
    • Conclusions
  • Understanding model types

    • Understanding model types
      FREE
    • Basic model types
    • DirectQuery model types
    • Conclusions
  • Formula engine and storage engine

    • Formula engine and storage engine
      FREE
    • Introduction to the AS engines
    • Introducing data islands
    • Using multiple data islands
    • Final considerations and conclusions
  • Data sources for Tabular

    • Data sources for Tabular
      FREE
    • Introduction to data sources
    • Power Query data sources
      FREE
    • Authentication and impersonation
    • Data gateway
    • Final considerations
  • Tabular presentation layer

    • Tabular presentation layer
      FREE
    • Introducing the presentation layer
    • Column names and display folders
    • Hierarchies
    • Using format strings
    • Sorting options
    • Summarize by
    • Data category
    • Object visibility and perspectives
    • Grouping columns
    • Grouping columns - additional notes
    • Date table in Tabular and Power BI Desktop
    • Featured tables
    • Detail Rows expression
    • KPI
      FREE
    • Translations
    • Q&A in Power BI
  • Understanding relationships

    • Understanding relationships
      FREE
    • Introducing relationships
    • Types of relationships
    • Special behaviors in relationships
    • The blank row
    • Limited relationships
      FREE
    • Relationships and ambiguity
  • Handling security

    • Handling security
      FREE
    • Introducing security
    • Introducing security architecture
    • Understanding roles
    • Static row-level security
    • Table and column security
    • Dynamic security
    • DirectQuery security
  • Understanding data types

    • Understanding data types
      FREE
    • Introducing data types
    • Data type conversion
    • Floating point rounding errors
    • DateTime
    • Other data types
  • Understanding the VertiPaq engine

    • Understanding the VertiPaq engine
      FREE
    • Row stores and column stores
    • VertiPaq encoding
    • VertiPaq segmentation
    • VertiPaq segmentation update (Power BI Premium)
    • VertiPaq memory usage
    • Best practices
  • Understanding DirectQuery

    • Understanding DirectQuery
      FREE
    • Introducing DirectQuery
    • Using DirectQuery
      FREE
    • DirectQuery and DAX
    • Understanding query limits
    • Real-time and DirectQuery
    • Final considerations
  • Understanding DirectQuery over Analysis Services

    • Understanding DirectQuery over Analysis Services
      FREE
    • Introduction to DirectQuery over AS
    • Architecture of DirectQuery over AS
    • Query resolution in DirectQuery over AS
    • Calculated columns
    • Limitations
    • Security and use cases
  • Aggregations

    • Aggregations
      FREE
    • Introducing aggregations
    • Composite models
    • Dual tables
      FREE
    • Aggregation and granularity
    • Aggregation with custom formulas
    • Aggregation precedence
    • Updating aggregations
    • Conclusions
  • Push Datasets

    • Push Datasets
      FREE
    • Introducing push datasets
    • Implementing real-time solutions with push datasets
  • Hardware considerations

    • Hardware considerations
      FREE
    • Basic hardware considerations
    • NUMA and virtual machines
    • Hardware in the cloud
  • Architectural choices

    • Architectural choices
      FREE
    • Introduction to architectural choices
    • Data modeling constraints and requirements
    • Performance and latency requirements
    • Business logic requirements
    • Conclusions
  • Managing Tabular

    • Managing Tabular
      FREE
    • What's next?
  • Interfacing with Tabular

    • Interfacing with Tabular
      FREE
    • Connections
    • Libraries
    • Tabular Model Scripting Language (TMSL)
    • REST APIs for cloud services
    • Choosing between TMSL and TOM
    • Conclusions
  • Deploying Tabular models

    • Deploying Tabular models
      FREE
    • Deploying and processing in production
    • Deploying from Visual Studio
    • Deploying from Tabular Editor
      FREE
    • Other deployment techniques
    • Power BI deployment
  • Processing and partitioning Tabular models

    • Processing and partitioning Tabular models
      FREE
    • Processing and partitioning
    • Partitions in Tabular models
      FREE
    • Partitioning strategies
    • Processing options
    • Executing process commands
    • Processing strategies
  • Monitoring Tabular

    • Monitoring Tabular
      FREE
    • Introduction to monitoring Tabular
    • Memory configuration
    • Diagnostic events and tools
  • Backup and restore strategies

    • Backup and restore strategies
      FREE
    • Database storage architecture
    • Executing attach, detach, backup, and restore
  • Scaling out

    • Scaling out
      FREE
    • Scaling-out Analysis Services
  • Conclusion

    • Conclusion
Student Rating
4.9
96 ratings
92%
6%
0%
1%
1%
5-star Reviews (51 of 58)
  • Mark Cioffi (May 22, 2022)

    Simply a GRAND SLAM! Marco & Alberto have produced another Masterpiece. Bravo. The course goes into great detail on all major areas of Tabular Development, but at the same time keeps the Demos short, clear, and straight to the point, step by step. I could not extract the same quality of learning with just reading a book and building examples. The videos helps bring you up to speed with a minimal investment of study time. Learning how to implement Tabular across a variety of tools , Visual Studio, Power BI , and Excel & Power Query is just "Icing on the Cake" too. Thank you Gentlemen!! Mark

  • Hellmut Barbosa (Apr 24, 2022)

    Great course!

  • Kelan Liao (Apr 13, 2022)

    Best course I have ever taken. Thank you!

  • Syed Zaidi (Mar 14, 2022)

    awesome

  • Benjamin Dobbs (Feb 23, 2022)

    I'm in awe of the work and thought that has gone into the production of this video course. If you need a deep understanding of Tabular in all it's flavours (On Premise, Azure and Power BI Premium) then Alberto and Marco left no stone un turned. The course starts from a very basic level and gradually builds to the most complex topics. As with all of their training I can't recommend highly enough.

  • Kris Smith (Feb 21, 2022)

    This course is excellent. Marco and Alberto have such a depth of knowledge.

  • Miguel Cramer (Feb 9, 2022)

    This course gave me superb understanding with Alberto’s explanations, and muscle-memory training with Marco’s outstanding demos. Excellent presentation and resources provided. I kept pausing and speeding the video lectures on my PC on my left, while running demo exercises on my second rig on my right. Which is a much better learning experience than those expensive courses in the old days, where somebody else’s physical setup had to be constantly tweaked and there was no chance to rewind the lecture when you got distracted (thinking about an acronym or concept that you always wanted to read up on, for example). Moreover, the content of ‘Mastering TABULAR’ (as well as ‘Mastering DAX’, which I also took) gives you a ‘fly on the wall’ or ‘through the keyhole’ view of ALL the tricks in the “AS Tabular” trade. You could, possibly, watch an expert or learn on the job, or research online on your own, or even sit a DA-100 type certification. But on your own, you won’t get the feeling that you are not missing out on something (sorry about the double negative). Without this course it would have taken me too long to find out about every solution or third-party/community tool, not to mention some fundamental concepts. And in the meantime, I would have got left behind on some useful latest version functionality that are “about to be officially released or supported,” which are covered extensively in this course. All this is done on “try before you buy [or put into Production]” licenses. And, although I must admit to some unavoidable troubleshooting, like permissions config on my SQL/AS/PPU setup for example, such experience comes in very handy when you are having to “contact your administrator” [so you can tell them exactly how to grant you access to some key resources], never mind when you need to get a project authorised and signed off... In short, Marco and Alberto: thank you so much!

  • Jani Zajc (Jan 25, 2022)

    The best course for mastering the Tabular modeling engine around! Really enjoyed it, also the legacy stuff :)

  • Tomas Brnak (Dec 26, 2021)

    Amazing course, which provide explanation of all components related to Tabular Model. Recommended to everyone who wants to be expert in SSAS, Data Cube, POWER BI Modelling.

  • Anna Zhong (Dec 14, 2021)

    The best! thank you for the hard works.

  • Emma Murphy (Dec 11, 2021)

    Very comprehensive and well structured course, I gained a lot of useful knowledge.

  • Jason Romans (Dec 7, 2021)

    Excellent course. Well laid out and great presentation of material. So many topics and tools covered.

  • Tim Roper (Dec 1, 2021)

    Lays the foundations for designing models that will meet your expectations. When you meet a fork in the road, this course tells you the pros and cons of each path you could take. It won't actually tell which path to take (and rightly so), it merely enables the designer to make informed decisions. Do not overlook the private discussion area. If anything is unclear to you, simply ask your question and the course organisers will answer!

  • SQL Down Under (Nov 29, 2021)

    I was looking for a course that I could recommend to my customers, so I decided to review this one. What a great job you have both done with it. It is truly excellent. I know what sort of effort is involved in creating this, and can only thank you both for doing so. Well done !

  • James Morton (Nov 12, 2021)

    Excellent course - lots of great information. One point to note is that the speech to text for the lectures occasionally doesn't understand the lecturer and uses the incorrect word