You can also check out the blog of Jamie Thomson (SSIS junkie).

He has a lot of blog posts on the basics of SSIS.

New blog: http://sqlblog.com/blogs/jamie_thomson/

Old blog: http://consultingblogs.emc.com/jamiethomson/

You can process a cube using SSIS (or management studio), but you should construct a cube using BIDS (the same developer interface as for SSIS).

When you create a new project,...

My advice: don't use them.

They don't really have a purpose and they are just there so there's some similarity between SSIS and SSAS/SSRS.

For more information, see this article:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc671619.aspx

This might be an oversimplification, but I usually test SSIS packages by running them in BIDS and see if everything becomes green 🙂

After that, I check if the output is...

I didn't 🙂

I liked SSIS right from the start (except of course those crappy SQL editors...

How do you want to import the Excel columns?

As strings or as dates?

Is there a reason why you are using cursors to delete records, or are you just experimenting?

I think the following KB article is worth a read:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/918483

Is there a question?

If yes, could you explain your question/problem a bit further?

Maybe this thread can offer some assistance:

http://www.sqlservercentral.com/Forums/Topic982326-364-1.aspx

Probably a bit late since those 4 hours have already passed, but how are the packages stored on the server? On the file system, in the package store or in...

First verify which service account SQL Server Agent uses (in SQL Server Configuration Manager)

Then go to the folder and make sure the appropriate rights are set.

For more information, see:

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms191543(v=SQL.90).aspx

Regarding the installation of 2005 express, the following blog post can be of some assistance:

http://blogs.msdn.com/b/sqlexpress/archive/2009/05/14/installing-sql-server-express-on-windows-7-release-candidate.aspx

1. Grouping: for example, when you use ROLLUP, you have totals and subtotals in your result set. GROUPING just indicates if you're dealing with (sub)totals or with data of the...

SQL Server Express doesn't include Analysis Services.

http://www.microsoft.com/sqlserver/2008/en/us/editions-compare.aspx

(open the tab for Analysis Services to view the matrix)

Maybe you can try developer or evaluation edition.