SSIS 2012: A Deep Dive
into the SSIS Catalog
Phil Brammer
@PhilBrammer
ssistalk.com
Phil Brammer
• Over 12 years’ experience in database
technologies, data warehousing, ETL, on-call…
• Started on Red Brick Data Warehouse. Ralph
Kimball’s product.
• Worked with Teradata at PayPal
• Operationally manages multi-terabyte instances
• Dabbles a bit in SSIS – ssistalk.com
• Microsoft MVP, SQL Server – 6th year
SSIS Pre-SQL 2012
• Born in 2005 as a replacement for DTS
• Groans or applause?
• Client focused
SSIS in SQL Server 2012
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Server Focused!
Minimal, but juicy changes in the client
Cluster aware. Sort of.
DTS is no longer supported.
Visual Studio 2010 integration
SSIS Project Overview
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Project-based deployments
Parameters
Environments
Connections
Legacy, but not DTS
SSIS Projects
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Project versioning
Limited by server configuration option
Can restore to a previous version
Can only export current version with the GUI
The number of available project versions depends
on the server configuration setting
SSIS Catalog Execution
• ISServerExec.exe
– Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\110\DTS\Binn
– External host for SSIS package operations such as
deployment, validation, and execution
– Opens its own Named Pipe
• ISSERVER Assembly (UNSAFE)
– Microsoft.SqlServer.IntegrationServices.Server.dll
– SQLCLR stored procedures/functions
• Call ISServerExec
• Use IPC to exchange information to ISServerExec
SSIS Catalog Execution
• SQLCLR Stored Procedures/Functions
communicate via IPC over named pipes to/from
ISServerExec
• ISServerExec uses a SqlConnection to write
logging events back to the SSIS catalog
• Examples:
– Start Execution
• catalog.start_execution
– Create Execution Dump
• catalog.create_execution_dump
– Return performance counter data
• catalog.dm_execution_performance_counters
ISServerExec Execution Flow
catalog.create_execution
catalog.stop_operation
Created
(1)
Pending
(5)
Running
(2)
Stopping
(8)
Canceled
(3)
ISServerExec
Unexpected Crash
catalog.start_execution
Success
(7)
Completed
(9)
Failed
(4)
Unexpected
Termination
/ Crash (6)
SSIS Catalog Objects
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1 Assembly
1 SQL Server Agent Job
2 Logins
16 User-Defined Functions
17 User-Defined Types
30 Tables
33 Views
94 Stored Procedures
• “internal” and “catalog” schemas
SSIS Catalog Security
• Objects are encrypted with database master key
– Back it up, save the password!
• All projects and sensitive parameter values are
stored encrypted. (AES_256; modifiable)
– Encrypted with symmetric key and certificate
• Certificates and keys are created for each
project/execution/environment object
• Sensitive parameters are not set after
deployment. You must configure the
project/package accordingly once deployed.
SSIS Catalog Security
• Row-level security (folders, projects,
environments, operations/executions)
• ssis_admin & sysadmin roles can access all
securables
• catalog.explicit_object_permissions shows object
permissions that have been set for a user
• catalog.effective_object_permissions shows
object permissions that are in effect recursively
SSIS Catalog Logging
• Can set a server-wide logging level
• Four levels: None, Basic, Performance, Verbose
• Basic logging captures most log events- OnError,
OnWarning, OnInformation, OnPre/PostValidate,
OnPre/PostExecute
• Performance logging captures OnError,
OnWarning, and great performance data – data
flow component execution timings
• Verbose logging captures everything, including
row counts transferred.
SSIS Catalog Logging
• Logging can be extended with 3rd party products
or by using the existing framework
• Custom log events are only captured in the
verbose logging level
• Script Tasks can log via the FireXXXXXX method
(FireInformation, FireError, etc…)
• New DiagnosticEx event under verbose logging
captures parameter information passed down to
child packages
SSIS Data Taps
• Two procedures:
– catalog.add_data_tap
– catalog.add_data_tap_by_guid
• A SQL-based data viewer
• With verbose logging, no need to open up
package
• Insert data tap to investigate issues
• Can only store files in
<SQLInstallDir>\110\DTS\DataDumps
• CSV format
SSIS Performance Monitoring
• One DMV
– catalog.dm_execution_performance_counters
• DMV asks ISServerExec for an execution’s
statistics (or all executions if NULL is used)
• ISServerExec passes the information back via
named pipe
SSIS Dump Files
• One procedure:
– catalog.create_execution_dump
• Create an execution dump on the fly for use with
CSS or other support activities
• Stored in
<SQLInstallDir>\110\Shared\ErrorDumps
• Creates .mdmp and .tmp debug files
• Can also set parameters to cause dumps
– DUMP_ON_EVENT
– DUMP_EVENT_CODE
– DUMP_ON_ERROR
SSIS Dump Files
• To see prior event codes from an execution,
select from catalog.event_messages, casting
message_code to BINARY(4)
• Take converted message_code and set
DUMP_EVENT_CODE to trigger dump file creation
SSIS Catalog Maintenance
• One SQL Agent Job - SSIS Server Maintenance
Job
• Two stored procedures
– internal.cleanup_server_project_version
– internal.cleanup_server_retention_window
• One database user ##MS_SSISServerCleanupJobUser##
• Above user is allowed to execute the above two
procedures and is the job owner
SSIS Catalog Maintenance
• The Server Maintenance Job purges all of the
catalog tables based on retention windows –
properties of the SSIS Catalog
• Relies on cascade deletes. Job simply deletes
from parent tables in batches of 10 records.
• Causes extreme blocking on busy systems and
can result in canceled package executions
• SQL 2012 SP1 should alleviate the canceled
execution problem by better handling blocking
scenarios
SSIS Catalog and AlwaysOn
• SSISDB is supported in an AlwaysOn setup
• Remove SSISDB from the availability group
before patching
• Remember that SSISDB’s master key is
encrypted with the service master key, which is
tied to the machine hosting SSISDB.
• On failover you will get an encryption error
• Can correct manually, or use a SQL Agent job to
open the master key
Questions
• Questions and comments
Resources
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/hh479588.aspx
• http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattm/archive/2012/0
9/19/ssis-with-alwayson.aspx
• http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/hh213291.aspx
• http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/archive
/2011/07/16/ssis-logging-in-denali.aspx
End
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Thank you for attending!
Phil Brammer
@PhilBrammer
http://www.ssistalk.com