The SSIS Execute Package task works well for running child packages from a master package, and in many cases using it will fit your needs. But what if you are looking for something more powerful? Maybe you want to dynamically populate variables in the child package without dealing with master/child package configurations and their restrictions. …

Continue reading ‘A Polished Way to Run SSIS Child Packages With a Script Task’ »

I’ve seen the time it takes a SQL agent job to complete on a resource-limited system increase tenfold when running alongside another job compared to when it’s run individually. I’ve also seen several jobs run simultaneously without any hiccups. Parallel Processing is a good thing, and your goal when scheduling SQL agent jobs should be …

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The following is a brief generalized overview of a framework I developed on one of my projects for ETL processing using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS). It is meant to provide an organized, consistent, centrally configured and managed, and disaster-recovery and audit friendly environment in which SSIS ETL processes can be developed and executed. This …

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When do my jobs run? How long are my jobs taking to complete? It’s often helpful to visualize what’s going on with your scheduled SQL Agent jobs to answer these types of questions. SQLjobvis from SQLsoft is a tool I like to keep handy to help me answer some of these questions. SQLjobvis is a …

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Many of the tables in your databases contain dimensional data – descriptive information about objects that can be grouped and organized at a higher level than an individual transaction. And most of these dimension tables are sure to fit one of the definitions of a slowly changing dimension. When loading data into these tables using …

Continue reading ‘SSIS – Faster, Simpler Alternatives to the SCD Transform’ »

Dates are likely the interactive parameters that are included most often in SSRS reports.  What’s happening now?  How does that compare to what happened then?  These are some of the questions we ask, and date parameters help us to answer them.  Often I see date parameters being used in a way that works, but does …

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There comes a time in every man’s life when he must cross the boundaries of common sense, when he must go against society’s norms to accomplish something great, when he must… run sql code in Sql Server Management Studio (SSMS) directly against a production server.  We all do it.  We all have valid reasons to …

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When I first begain working in SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS) 2012, I noticed one thing right away – intellisense seems to be much less reliable than it was in SSMS 2008. It doesn’t seem to “intellisense” anything most of the time. So off I go to search google, looking into what might be wrong. …

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