A schema is a collection of database objects, including tables, views, indexes, and synonyms. We can arrange schema objects in the schema models designed for data warehousing in a variety of ways. Most data warehouses use a dimensional model. The model of your source data and the requirements of your users help you design the data warehouse schema.We can sometimes get the source model from your company's enterprise data model and reverseengineer the logical data model for the data warehouse from this. The physical implementation of the logical data warehouse model may require some changes to adapt it to your system parameters size of machine, number of users, storage capacity, type of network, and software.
Star Schemas
The star schema is the simplest data warehouse schema. It is called a star schema because the diagram resembles a star, with points radiating from a centre. The centre of the star consists of one or more fact tables and the points of the star are the dimension tables, as shown in Figure 4.5.