Andy Leonard : SSIS, database developers

PASS Summit 2009 - From Zero to SSIS

andyleonard — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:30:00 GMT

I learned a couple weeks back my proposal for a pre- or post-conference seminar entitled "From Zero to SSIS" had been selected as an alternate at the PASS Summit 2009. I was a little disappointed, but then I looked at the incredible speakers and topics selected for pre- and post-conference seminars here.

These seminars offer a fantastic opportunity for anyone interested in drilling deeper into database and business intelligence topics.

Here's the abstract I submitted:

From Zero to SSIS

In this extended session, Andy Leonard covers the SSIS development spectrum and lifecycle from introduction, through design and development, into performance tuning, and finally maintenance. Topics of note include:

- Introductory topics:
    Connections,
    Control Flow,
    Data Flow,
    Package Execution properties and start-up flow.
- Design considerations:
    Are you loading a data warehouse or simply creating a copy of production for reporting or warm standby purposes?
    Scripting in the Control Flow.
    Scripting in the Data Flow.
- Advanced design:
    Powerful SSIS design patterns.
- Beyond Advanced Design
- Undocumented design: (Attend and see!)
- Package properties
- SSIS Expression Language
- The Secret Life of EventHandlers
- Logging:
   Built-in logging
- Package Configurations
    Built-in package configurations
- Let's Take This Outside
    Custom logging.
    Custom configurations.
- Execution Environments.
- The Art and Science of Deployment.
    To MSDB or not to MSDB?
- Zen and Performance Tuning.
    Putting the flow into Data Flows.

I'm not sure of all the ways an Alternate session gets promoted to an Accepted - I know it can happen if a selected session cannot be delivered for some reason. But I'll tell you what: if a bunch of you comment on this message indicating you're interested in this one-day seminar, I will forward a link to the SqlPass people. There's still no guarantees, but I figure it's worth a shot.

:{> Andy

SSIS 2008 Data Profiling Task

andyleonard — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 03:01:00 GMT

Jamie Thomson has posted a great series on the SSIS 2008 Data Profiling Task.

The Data Profiling Task allows developers to quickly assess key statistics about data in a database table. When I say "statistics" I mean things like column value and length distribution, column null ratio, column patterns, and functional dependencies. You can learn more in Jamie's series or at MSDN.

One very cool feature is the ability to set up a Single Table Quick Profile to quickly configure and capture desired statistical data.

Once you capture the data, you use a separate stand-alone tool for viewing the results: the Data Profile Viewer.

SQL Server 2008 CTP6 (February 2008) includes a functioning version of the Data Profiling Task in SSIS 2008.

:{> Andy

Utilities: SourceGear's DiffMerge

andyleonard — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 15:25:00 GMT

I like SourceGear. I like what I know about the company, the people, and their products - mostly the people.

SourceGear DiffMerge is helping me this morning. I created an FTP class in an SSIS Script Task from code I found online because... well, that's another post. At this point in my refactoring, I have implemented this class in a couple/three places. As the project has matured, subtle differences have emerged between the functionality in one implementation and others.

It's now time to fix that with some refactoring and consolidation. The end result will likely be an assembly in the GAC. (Again, more for another post...)

I'm using SourceGear DiffMerge to compare the text in the classes. Simple, clean, efficient, fast. DiffMerge doesn't automatically refactor for me. It just tells me what the differences are and where they lie in my code. It allows me many options for merging the files, but it doesn't force them on me when I start.

Maybe, just maybe, all I want to do is see the differences first.

Great product, and it's free.

Nice.

:{> Andy

SSIS Custom Tasks and Components Samples

andyleonard — Tue, 13 Nov 2007 13:06:00 GMT

You can find SSIS 2005 Custom Tasks and Component Samples at CodePlex. At the same location you can find SSIS 2008 samples. How cool is that?

The samples include source code in VB.Net and C#. They serve as a decent starting place for developing your own SSIS custom tasks and components.

Free registration to CodePlex is required to access the samples.

:{> Andy