Relational Online Analytical Processing System

A Relational Online Analytical Processing System is an OLAP system that is a relational database instance (that can solve an OLAP tasks by means of relational queries).

• AKA: ROLAP.
• Context:
  • It can be a HOLAP System.
• Example(s):
  • http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Comparison_of_OLAP_Servers#Data_storage_modes
• Counter-Example(s):
  • MOLAP System/MOLAP.
• See: OLTP System, Dimensional Modeling, Pre-Computation, Relational Database, SQL.

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References

2016

• (Wikipedia, 2016) ⇒ http://wikipedia.org/wiki/ROLAP Retrieved:2016-2-5.

  • ROLAP (relational online analytical processing) is an alternative to the MOLAP (Multidimensional OLAP) technology. While both ROLAP and MOLAP analytic tools are designed to allow analysis of data through the use of a multidimensional data model, ROLAP differs significantly in that it does not require the pre-computation and storage of information. Instead, ROLAP tools access the data in a relational database and generate SQL queries to calculate information at the appropriate level when an end user requests it. With ROLAP, it is possible to create additional database tables (summary tables or aggregations) which summarize the data at any desired combination of dimensions.

    While ROLAP uses a relational database source, generally the database must be carefully designed for ROLAP use. A database which was designed for OLTP will not function well as a ROLAP database. Therefore, ROLAP still involves creating an additional copy of the data. However, since it is a database, a variety of technologies can be used to populate the database.

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