Beginning Microsoft SQL Server 2008 ... - S3 Tech Training

Executing the Package
If you simply click Execute in the Package Execution Utility, your package will be off and running. After
it runs, you should find a text file in whatever location you told your package to store it; open it up, take
a look, and verify that it was what you expected.
Executing Using the SQL Server Agent
We haven’t really discussed the SQL Server Agent up to this point, but, from an SSIS point of view, think
of the SQL Server Agent as a job scheduler that allows you to do the same thing as running DTExec.exe,
but doing so on a specific time and frequency basis with very robust job and task scheduling systems to
integrate your package into a larger set of system jobs.
We will discuss the agent in a bit more detail in our next chapter.
Executing a Package from Within a Program
SQL Server offers a very rich object model that is usable from within any .NET language. The programmability
object model is well beyond the scope of this book, but suffice to say that you can not only programmatically
execute packages, but dynamically build packages to meet a certain need before executing them.
A Final Word on Packages
I want to take a moment and reiterate how much we’ve really only touched the surface of what’s possible.
As I’ve said before, there are entire books (rather large ones actually) written around Integration Services
as the sole topic.
The package we focused on here was generated by the Import/Export Wizard, but the end product was
a typical SSIS package. Not only could we edit it, but we could well have built it from scratch ourselves.
We could easily add other tasks to deal with things like “scrubbing” data after importing it to some form
of “staging” area and then perform additional tasks. We can add complex branching to deal with errors
or perform several tasks in parallel; the possibilities go on and on.
Summary
Chapter 18: Getting Integrated with Integration Services
SQL Server Integration Services is a robust Extract, Transform, and Load tool. You can utilize Integration
Services to provide one-off or repeated import and export of data to and from your databases — mixing
a variety of data sources while you’re at it.
While becoming expert in all that Integration Services has to offer is a positively huge undertaking, getting
basic imports and exports up and running is a relative piece of cake. I encourage you to start out
simple, and then add to it as you go. As you push yourself further and further with what SSIS can do,
take a look at other books that are specific to what SSIS has to offer.
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