What is SSIS? Step 1 of the Stairway to Integration Services

  • As a prod DBA I've been a bit snobby and dismissive of SSIS in the past (even preferring DTS!) but with some clients I've had no choice but to get right in there and debug failing SSIS packages, but I will conceed it's a good feeling when you get them working. Will be following this series closely, knowledge is power and all that. 😉

    qh

    [font="Tahoma"]Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes. – Carl Jung.[/font]
  • Hey Andy,

    I'm just coming into the world of SSIS and I'm fighting my corporate DBA's about it.

    Can you answer a fundamental question? And I know this probably isn't a good place for this, but...

    If I install SSIS on a server that doesn't have SQL Server on it, just SSMS, do I need a full SQL license just to use SSIS to convert some DTS packages? They will eventually run on SQL2008, but we're waiting on the new servers at this point.

    Based on lots of postings, I don't believe so. And Microsoft literature seems to be contradictory on the matter.

    Thanks

    Greg

  • Hey Andy,

    I'm just coming into the world of SSIS and I'm fighting my corporate DBA's about it.

    Can you answer a fundamental question? And I know this probably isn't a good place for this, but...

    If I install SSIS on a server that doesn't have SQL Server on it, just SSMS, do I need a full SQL license just to use SSIS to convert some DTS packages? They will eventually run on SQL2008, but we're waiting on the new servers at this point.

    Based on lots of postings, I don't believe so. And Microsoft literature seems to be contradictory on the matter.

    Thanks

    Greg

  • Hi Greg,

    You can develop SSIS using Business Intelligence Development Studio (for 2005, 2008, and 2008 R2) or SQL Server Development Tools (for 2012) on any server with the workstation tools installed. You cannot execute packages outside the development environment without a SQL Server relational engine license. For this reason, I refer to SSIS as "free" (in double-quotes).

    Hope this helps,

    Andy

    Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics

  • Hey Andy,

    Thanks for the reply. That was how I read all of the Microsoft doc, but our "software police" seem to insist that a SQL license/install accompany BIDS or SSIS on any machine, which makes no sense to me.

    I can attach to whatever servers I need to, develop the packages on SSMS on my workstation, and then install/store them on the actual server where they need to live, as I see it. And it sounds like that's what you're saying too.

    OK, many thanks. This is all pretty new to me, compared to stored procedures. Just haven't had the need to get too heavily into it before.

    Thanks again.

    Greg

  • Hi Greg,

    That is what I am saying, yes. You can develop SSIS packages on any machine just by installing the Microsoft Business Intelligence components. As far as I know, the same licensing applies to SSMS.

    Hope this helps,

    Andy

    Andy Leonard, Chief Data Engineer, Enterprise Data & Analytics

  • Very nice artifact, ooops, article!

    Don't know if already mentioned, but due to considerations related to the space-time continuum, the former artist known as BIDS is now called Data Tools (under SQL Server 2012).

    Cheers

  • Hi Andy,

    Really very nice introduction to begin SSIS.

    Thanks

  • very Useful for the Beginner, something like a spoon feeding Clear Explanation about "What is SSIS"..

    Thanks,

    Prabhu

  • Which version of the Adventureworks database is used for this stairway? I downloaded Adventureworks 2008R2 but the structure seems to be different.

    Thanks,

    Andrew

  • really great start to the series, I'm going to continue to read them all!

    I noticed a typo I thought you might want to correct:

    http://www.sqlservercentral.com/articles/Integration+Services+(SSIS)/72492/ by clicking StartàAll ProgramsàMicrosoft

    I'm on a mac, but I checked on my windows machine and it's there too.

  • What a teacher! What a teacher! 
    Pearls of this world, you are!

    Thanks SQL Server Central for providing this forum

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