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Nate Locklin
◦ Database Analyst, PPG Industries
◦ nate@locklin.org

Steve Tirone
◦ Data Warehouse Analyst, Amerinet
◦ stephen.tirone@gmail.com

Survey:
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What is SSIS?
Use it occasionally
Use it every day
I wrote the book on advanced SSIS
Given that we didn’t know, we wanted to
present something generally useful, hence
◦ “Three best practices to keep in mind when
developing and deploying SSIS packages”
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Open BIDS (Business Intelligence
Development Studio)
Available in VS2005, VS2008, but not VS2010
(yet)
Incidentally, the Import/Export wizard in
Management Studio runs SSIS under the hood
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Several tabs at the top
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Control Flow: your top level workflow workspace
Data Flow: details of data transfer operations
Event Handlers: where you can handle raised events
Package Explorer: like a site map of your package
Start by dragging Tasks to your Control tab
Most commonly used tasks are probably:
◦ Data Flow
◦ Execute SQL
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Let’s import the DJIA stock prices
◦ downloaded from Yahoo Finance into an Excel
spreadsheet
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Two often used log providers
◦ Text Files
◦ SQL Server (sysssislog in 2008, sysdtslog90 in
2005) – created when first used
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Many events possible to log
◦ OnError and OnTaskFail events most common
◦ Can reduce detail to Computer, Source, and
Message
◦ Here you will find all the error messages:
 http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/ms345164.aspx
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Properties of objects can be changed at runtime
No need to change the package itself to
promote from test to production
◦ Connection string is all that’s needed to change
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Several formats:
◦ XML configuration file most commonly used
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Checkpoints let a package start where it left
off previously, such as when an error occurs
in the middle of your package
◦ Lets you fix the error, then restart the package,
without it re-running the parts already done
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Set the following properties of the Package
◦ CheckpointFileName = <some name>
◦ CheckpointUsage = IfExists
◦ SaveCheckpoints = True
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Set the following properties on all the tasks:
◦ FailPackageOnFailure = True
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Most importantly:
◦ “A package can be restarted only at the control flow
level. You cannot restart a package in the middle of
a data flow.”
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Also:
◦ “When a package is restarted the Foreach Loop
containers and its child containers are run again. If
a child container in the loop runs successfully, it is
not recorded in the checkpoint file, instead it is
rerun.”
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RetainSameConnection
◦ Using lots of connections? Use this, please!
◦ Can be found as a property of the Connection Mgr
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Packet size
◦ Consider increasing (32,767) for larger data
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Row Per Batch Size
◦ Sometimes speed is enhanced when setting the
“Rows per batch” to something other than blank,
like 1000, 5000 or 10,000 (particularly when run
through BIDS over the network)
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Property of the Connection Manager
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On All page of the Connection Manager
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Package protection level
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Default is Encrypt with User Key, but you want
Encrypt with Password (all or sensitive)
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Know your environment (64 bit vs 32 bit)
◦ Might get
 [Connection manager "Excel Connection Manager 1"]
Error: SSIS Error Code
DTS_E_OLEDB_EXCEL_NOT_SUPPORTED: The Excel
Connection Manager is not supported in the 64-bit
version of SSIS, as no OLE DB provider is available.
◦ Or
 Class not registered
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The 64 bit issue may be addressed by telling
Integration Services to use 32 bit runtime
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In the SQL Agent job step:
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Property of the PROJECT:
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Great flexibility in error handling if you
“program” the OnError handler
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Implement Logging
Use Configuration Files for flexibility
Checkpoints can be useful
Know your environment
Keep small design considerations in mind

Nate Locklin
◦ Database Analyst, PPG Industries
◦ nate@locklin.org

Steve Tirone
◦ Data Warehouse Analyst, Amerinet
◦ stephen.tirone@gmail.com

Slides are at
http://tinyurl.com/SSISBestPractices
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Future BI Topics?
◦ Integration Services (SSIS)
◦ Reporting Services (SSRS)
◦ Analysis Services (SSAS)
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SQL Saturday?
◦ BI Edition?
◦ Volunteers to help coordinate?
 Email Gina or Steve