Questions and Answers

As classes have completed, we've had more questions rolling in. We'll attempt over the next few posts to provide some answers from both Reed and Stacia to give a couple points of view.

 

Question:  In the SSIS demos we associate a config file with our package for the one time we are running it.   What is the mechanism for permanently associating the config with a package?  I am guessing it is something in SQL Server Agent, but could not get my Agent Service to start.

[Stacia Misner] when you use DTEXECUI you can associate a config file by selecting it in a dialog box. You can then generate a command-line with arguments that uses DTEXEC that also references that config file. You basically copy/paste that string into a scheduler like SQL Server Agent. I think the final demo in Module 2 should step you through at least the DTEXECUI piece. So there is no such thing as permanently associating a config file with a package in my mind. It’s what you choose to specify at the time of execution – whether through BIDS, DTEXEC, or DTEXECUI. The beauty is being able to use the same package with different config files as needed.

[Reed Jacobson] What Stacia says about adding an argument to specify the config file is definitely true. But I am suspicious (but haven't tested) that if you put a config file in the same folder and enable configurations and don't include a run-time argument, then it will use the config file. This would be worth confirming. Also, In Beta 2 (when we wrote the course) DTEXECUI would crash on almost anything, so unless Stacia added a lot to the demo scripts, the demo may not go as far as it can now. In one class, we built the argument string (using DTEXECUI) and then opened a command window and ran DTEXEC, pasting in the argument string from DTEXCUI. It ran beautifully. The next step would be to put the DTEXEC + arguments into an Agent job. The only thing you have to watch out for then is what "user" is running the job and with what credentials.