2.  Nate Locklin ◦ Database Analyst, PPG Industries ◦ nate@locklin.orgnate@locklin.org  Steve Tirone ◦ Data Warehouse Analyst, Amerinet ◦ stephen.tirone@gmail.comstephen.tirone@gmail.com

3.  Survey: ◦ 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”

4.  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

5.  Several tabs at the top ◦ 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

6.  Let’s import the DJIA stock prices ◦ downloaded from Yahoo Finance into an Excel spreadsheet

8.  Two often used log providers ◦ Text Files ◦ SQL Server (sysssislog in 2008, sysdtslog90 in 2005) – created when first used  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/en- us/library/ms345164.aspx http://msdn.microsoft.com/en- us/library/ms345164.aspx

10.  Properties of objects can be changed at run- time  No need to change the package itself to promote from test to production ◦ Connection string is all that’s needed to change  Several formats: ◦ XML configuration file most commonly used

12.  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

13.  Set the following properties of the Package ◦ CheckpointFileName = ◦ CheckpointUsage = IfExists ◦ SaveCheckpoints = True  Set the following properties on all the tasks: ◦ FailPackageOnFailure = True

15.  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.”  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.”

16.  RetainSameConnection ◦ Using lots of connections? Use this, please! ◦ Can be found as a property of the Connection Mgr  Packet size ◦ Consider increasing (32,767) for larger data  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)

17.  Property of the Connection Manager

18.  On All page of the Connection Manager

19.  Package protection level  Default is Encrypt with User Key, but you want Encrypt with Password (all or sensitive)

20.  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  The 64 bit issue may be addressed by telling Integration Services to use 32 bit runtime

21.  In the SQL Agent job step:

22.  Property of the PROJECT:

23.  Great flexibility in error handling if you “program” the OnError handler

24.  Implement Logging  Use Configuration Files for flexibility  Checkpoints can be useful  Know your environment  Keep small design considerations in mind

25.  Nate Locklin ◦ Database Analyst, PPG Industries ◦ nate@locklin.orgnate@locklin.org  Steve Tirone ◦ Data Warehouse Analyst, Amerinet ◦ stephen.tirone@gmail.comstephen.tirone@gmail.com  Slides are at http://tinyurl.com/SSISBestPractices

26.  Future BI Topics? ◦ Integration Services (SSIS) ◦ Reporting Services (SSRS) ◦ Analysis Services (SSAS)  SQL Saturday? ◦ BI Edition? ◦ Volunteers to help coordinate?  Email Gina or Steve