Learning about practical Integration Services is an important part of the well rounded DBA for the future. Read a sample chapter from this new book.  Read more...

Martin Policht delves deeper into the specifics of SQL Server 2008 and 2008 R2's Integration Services by presenting the most straightforward method of creating SSIS packages using Import and Export Wizard.   Read more...

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The Data Mining Query Task can be used to run prediction queries based on data mining models built in analysis service.  Read more...

Recently I needed to find a method to import one cell of an Excel sheet into SQL Server 2005 using a scheduled job on a 64 bit clustered environment. For example, I have a monthly sales report listing sales per product category, such as Books, Magazines, DVDs, etc. I only want to import the Total Sales amount into SQL Server and this number is located in an Excel file "sales.xls.sheet1.cell.B5". I used to use OPENROWSET to solve the problem, however OPENROWSET requires Microsoft Jet OLE DB Provider which is not available in 64 bit. In this tip I am going to talk about how to use SSIS to accomplish this task easily.  Read more...

Learn how the Analysis Services Processing Task can be used to process analysis services objects such as cubes, dimensions and mining models.  Read more...

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The latest release of SSIS strengthens its position as one of the primary foundations of Business Intelligence, delivering a powerful framework for solutions that combine data from disparate sources, facilitating its analysis and reporting. Join Marcin Policht as he reviews its general characteristics.  Read more...

SQL Server MVP and SSIS guru, Andy Leonard, discusses Integration Services and some of the tasks and containers that he uses quite often.  Read more...

In February 2008, Microsoft announced a record-breaking data load using Microsoft® SQL Server® Integration Services (SSIS): 1 TB of data in less than 30 minutes. That data load, using SQL Server Integration Services, was 30% faster than the previous best time using a commercial ETL tool. This paper outlines what it took: the software, hardware, and configuration used. We will describe what we did to achieve that result, and offer suggestions for how to relate these techniques to typical scenarios. Even for customers who don't have needs quite like this benchmark, such efforts can teach a lot about getting optimal performance.  Read more...

By utilizing service broker, xp_cmdshell and dtexec.exe SSIS packages can be run with a stored procedure.  Read more...

I have often needed a means to send zipped files via email. This article shows one method to do just this.  Read more...

Learning to script is a valuable skill for a DBA. Learning to script is invaluable for an SSIS developer and MVP Andy Warren starts a new series that examines the basics of adding scripts to your packages.  Read more...

The Script Task and Script component are often used by people developing SSIS packages because they are easy to use and now because SSIS could be perceived to be more developer friendly they are very powerful. That being said we should no be using them everywhere.   Read more...

In the previous tips (SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) - Best Practices - Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3) of this series I briefly talked about SSIS and few of the best practices to consider while designing SSIS packages. Continuing on this path I am going to discuss some more best practices of SSIS package design, how you can use lookup transformations and what considerations you need to take, the impact of implicit type cast in SSIS, changes in SSIS 2008 internal system tables and stored procedures and finally some general guidelines.  Read more...

What do you do when you run an SSIS package and it works, but it fails when scheduled? You might have a credential problem. Robert Pearl brings us a solution to a cryptic message that prevents you from scheduling a package.  Read more...

In this tip we will look at an add-in that helps you better identify changes between two versions of an SSIS package.  Read more...

A SSIS/SSRS solution that provides SQL job activity for all your SQL Servers.  Read more...

In the previous tips (SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) - Best Practices - Part 1 and Part 2) of this series I briefly talked about SSIS and a few of the best practices to consider when designing SSIS packages. Continuing on the same rhythm I am going to discuss some more best practices for SSIS package design, how you can design high performing packages with parallelism, troubleshooting performance problems etc.  Read more...

Describes different uses of the SSIS Foreach Loop container in one practical scenario.  Read more...