Last time out we discussed blocking transformations, what they are, the impact of them, and touched on how to deal with them. In this post we’re going a step further to tackle one of them head on. Here we’ll demonstrate the impact of blocking caused by the Sort transformation, and look at two options for solving […]
We have a platter of transformations to use when constructing data flows in SSIS packages. Not all transformations are equal though, and some can catch us out with performance impact as data volumes scale. In this post we’ll look at blocking transformations which can trip us up if we’re not careful with them (or avoid […]
Package configuration allows us to retrieve variable values from a variety of sources. We recently looked at storing the values in a SQL database. We can elevate the database configuration a step further by using system level Environment Variables. In this post we’ll walk through that process. Using environment variables Where we previously looked at storing […]
When ingesting files in SSIS via Flat File Connections, a consistent format is key. Sometimes that isn’t the case. Here we’ll look at an example where the carriage return (CR, \r) may or may not be included in the file. The problem A file format can change as easy as tweaking the file in an editor […]
When constructing or investigating a SSIS package we can run into a variety of issues. To help resolve there are various techniques which can be used to troubleshoot the package. Whilst we have the Progress tab for the package to tell us what’s happened during execution, it’s usually more effective to debug packages in flight. […]
A few weeks ago I demonstrated the simplicity of performing point-in-time database restored in Azure Managed Instance. Whilst that has a lovely front-end, it can be just as easy with a proc call on your traditional SQL instance. Let’s see how to use two open source tools to achieve this simplicity. Back it up Before we […]
Package configuration for SSIS packages allows us to store configuration for the packages in a variety of locations. One of those which can be particularly beneficial – database configuration. Here we’ll look at 3 benefits to leverage when using database configuration: If you wanted a quick refresh, I’ve previously looked at Package Configuration and how we set […]
Uniqueness is something we like to reinforce within data. Sometimes the uniqueness will mean we reject data, but other times we want to make it unique. Let’s consider an account name or an order reference. We wouldn’t want to simply reject an account or an order, we want to ensure they’re unique. A typical approach […]
Case sensitivity in data can trip us up unknowingly and Integration Services is no exception. Depending on the components we’re using we may notice different behaviour. Without understanding the way case sensitivity is treated within SSIS packages, we may see unexpected results with string comparisons. Let’s clear things up and dive into a few examples […]
I recently had an issue when sourcing data in Power BI from a server which was accessed by a DNS alias. Here I’ll demonstrate the issue and how to resolve it. After entering the server details, we could be greeted with the message below: The server name provided does not match the server name on […]
Andy Brownsword 