Conversion Best Practices
Devin Knight
(dknight@pragmaticworks.com)

About the Speaker
Devin is a Consultant and
Trainer with Pragmatic Works
Recent author of new SSIS
book available in late July
Previously tech edited the
book Professional Microsoft
SQL Server 2008 Integration
Services
Has spoke at past events like
PASS and several SQL Saturday
events

Failed Ad Campaign

Agenda
Mapping DTS knowledge and skills to SSIS
Running DTS packages in 2005 or 2008
Upgrading DTS Packages
Upgrading ActiveX Scripts

Why choose SSIS?
64bit support
Parallel in-memory multi buffer architecture
helps to load data several times faster than
DTS.
Logging, Configuration, CheckPoint etc.
Source Safe Integration because everything is
XML
Many new Tasks (e.g. Script Task, For Each
Loop, XML Task etc.) that replace need for
ActiveX

DTS vs. SSIS Engine Speed Test
• On 32 bit dual core machine
• Pulling 1 million rows out and writing to SQL table
with no transformation
• SSIS 65% + faster than DTS
• Adding transformation would add more SSIS
advantage
SSIS SQL Server SSIS OLE DB
DTS
Destination Destination
Average Runtime
33.2 s 11.3 s 12.3 s
(seconds)

Designing Packages
DTS Designer
Business Intelligence Development Studio
(BIDS)

Comparing DTS to SSIS Objects
Transform Data Task
Data Flow Task

Connections
DTS Connections
Connection Managers

SSIS Quick Mapping

Project Options
Run DTS in 2005 or 2008
Missing the package logs
Runs under 32 bit
Upgrade using MS Wizard
Processes a limited set of simple packages
Upgrade using DTS xChange
Minutes per package
Starting from scratch
About 3-6 hrs per package conservatively

Running Packages Under 2005+
Need to download DTS Designer Components
(part of SQL Server 2005 Feature Pack)
Pro:
Delays the upgrade hurdle
Con:
Cannot create new packages (easily)
Logging views historically in SQL Server 2000 not
available
Runs in 32 bit mode only (WOW)
Support ceases in vNext

Common Errors
Need to install the 2005 Backwards
Compatibility Kit
2005 DTS Designer Components
In 2008, copy three additional DLL files over and
RLL files

Running Packages in 2005/2008
Running in legacy mode

Microsoft Package Upgrade Wizard
Built into SQL Server 2005/2008
Pros:
Free
Works on simple packages
Cons:
Does not handle ODBC
Only handles a few types of text file use cases
No Dynamic Properties Task
No UDL or legacy database support in data pump
Packages only have about a 20% chance of working

DTS Migration Wizard
Conversion using existing wizard

Sample Upgrade Project Plan
Scope and Number of Packages
How long will it take you to migrate each type of
task
Use a tool to migrate
Upgrade the ActiveX Script Task logic
Test, test and test

DTS xChange Feature Highlights
Profiles DTS packages to help with a conversion project plan
Rapidly converts DTS Packages to SSIS (2005 or 2008) and
applies SSIS best practices
Converts tasks that are not handled by the existing SQL Server
conversion wizard
Includes a SSIS logging repository and reports for trending and
alerting
Includes BI xPress for new SSIS packages
Have converted more than 135,000 packages

Other Advantages
Handles text files properly
Handles NULLs properly
Handles ODBC for a source
Migrates Dynamic Properties Tasks
Advanced profiler to estimate your project
Full validation of the output of the migration
94%+ package success rate in customer
migrations over tens of thousands of packages

Monitor Packages
Runtime Trend
Error/Warning Trend
Extract/Load Trend

DTS xChange
Profile, Convert and Monitor

ActiveX Script Migration
All tools mentioned migrate DTS ActiveX to
ActiveX in SSIS
ActiveX migrates to SSIS but you would not
want to keep it there and it may not run
Need for ActiveX Script Task has been replaced
with built-in, easy to maintain SSIS tasks
File System Object = File System Task
Mail objects = Send Mail Task (now has SMTP)
ADO objects = Execute SQL Task

ActiveX Script Conversion
Loop conversion

BI xPress
Product changing names from SSIS xPress
Helps audit, notify, manage and deploy
packages
Provides in code reusability in SSIS
Integrates with Business Intelligence
Development Studio (BIDS) and Management
Studio

Manage SSIS with BI xPress

BI xPress
Adding framework easily to new packages

Questions
Please download a demo at: http://www.pragmaticworks.com
dknight@pragmaticworks.com