This is the Safari online edition of the printed book.

Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services is Microsoft’s powerful platform for building enterprise-level data integration and data transformation solutions. It’s a powerful product, but it’s also complex and can be confusing if you don’t have a clear map for the journey. Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services Unleashed will be the only book you’ll need to harness the power that Integration Services provides.

Through clear, concise explanations and samples, you’ll grasp a clear understanding of working in the Integration Services environment, including how to set up stock components, how to use the various designer features, and how to gain practical knowledge on configuring, deploying, securing, and managing packages. Sample packages are provided to reinforce the discussion and quickly help you gain hands-on experience, and more complex topics such as Data Flow Task internals and tuning, advanced transformations, and writing custom components are all illustrated in easy-to-understand graphics. In addition, there are several custom tasks and transformations and two useful utilities with full source code available for you to use and study, including an ADO.NET destination, a text file encryption task, and a data profiling transform.

Detailed information on:

• Using the powerful Integration Services tools to create solutions without the need to write lines of code

• Creating packages programmatically or developing custom tasks via the Integration Services object

• Building robust packages to solve common requirements

• Securing packages for different environments

• Using often overlooked or unknown platform features

• Setting up all the stock components, including data flow components, tasks, Foreach enumerators, connection managers, and log providers

• Writing robust and useful custom tasks

• Building packages that seamlessly deploy to other environments

• Writing custom data flow adapters and transforms

• Using script tasks and components

• Easily modifying configurations for multiple packages simultaneously

• Writing a Task UI that looks just like the stock tasks

• Tapping into the power of Integration Services for accessing heterogeneous data sources

• Using expressions to make packages more responsive to the environment

• Migrating your DTS packages with no stress

Kirk Haselden is the Group Program Manager for the Microsoft Master Data Management product forthcoming in the next wave of Office SharePoint Services and owns the long term strategy, vision, planning, and development of that product. Kirk has been with Microsoft for 12 years in various groups including Hardware, eHome, Connected Home, SQL Server, and Office Business Platform. He was the development manager for Integration Services and the primary designer for the runtime, as well as many of the tasks. He has written a number of articles for SQL Server Magazine, speaks regularly at industry events, writes profusely on his personal and MSDN blog, and holds 35 patents or patents pending.

Category: Microsoft SQL Server

Covers: Microsoft SQL Server 2008 Integration Services

User Level: Intermediate—Advanced

$59.99 US / $71.99 CAN / £38.99 Net UK

Amazon.com® Reader Reviews (Ranked by Helpfulness)

Average Amazon.com® Rating:  Based on 2 Ratings

simplifies SQL Server [somewhat] - 2009-02-25
Reviewer Rating:
There's a small irony here. As Microsoft has vastly built up its SQL Server, the complexity of understanding and using it has concomitantly risen. Which in turn has led to the features discussed at length in the book. These broadly try to help you grasp the many parts of SQL Server. But the very heft of the book suggests that things are still non-trivial.

One message across the chapters is that the task user interfaces are as similar as can be, to ease learning. There are also various connection managers that handle reading or connecting to data of different formats, or to different types of data servers. So you don't waste your time on low level tasks of "impedance matching". At the simplest level, there is a Flat File Connection Manager, for reading a flat file of tabular data. This might be CSV or fixed width. Other connection managers go out on the network to get ftp files, or files with an HTTP address.

The amount of actual programming has been deliberately minimised. This is another pervasive theme of the book. To the extent that you do have to [or want to] program, it is at the scripting level. The example scripts do not seem difficult, but this opinion may vary as a function of your background.

Potentially the highest value aspects of the Integration Services concern Business Intelligence. This term is used in various places throughout the book, which does advise you that the term spans a "broad and deep field". Essentially, think of it as Artificial Intelligence in a business analysis context. Be aware that the BI aspects are very rudimentary. [Don't get your hopes up.] There are some neat little tools, like a Slowly Changing Dimension Wizard and data cleansers. Useful, and it's good that Integration Services has them. But they handle relatively low level issues.

Buen libro de principio a fin (Good book from start to finish) - 2009-08-19
Reviewer Rating:
En el libro SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Kirk Haselden hace un buen trabajo al proveer una basta explicaci-ón de principio a fin de lo que es Integration Services y para que utilizarlo. El autor utiliza una gran cantidad de ejemplos que est n disponibles para bajar en la p gina del libro ([...]) para demostrar sus conceptos.

Hasta los lectores con menos experiencia o que se estGÇÜn moviendo de DTS a SSIS encontraran una clara explicaci-ón de la nuevas funcionalidades existentes en SQL Server 2008 (como mejoras al "Data Flow Task", mejor experiencia en la creaci-ón de Scripts en VB y C#, "Data Profiling Task", etc...)

El autor nos lleva desde la instalaci-ón, mejores pr cticas de la migraci-ón de DTS a SSIS, los conceptos b sicos de SSIS, creaci-ón de packetes, manejo de variables y manejo de eventos hasta el desarrollo de componentes "custom" en el caso de que los componentes que son incluidos con SSIS no cumplan con las necesidades del usuario.

El libro est  escrito de una forma en que cada cap-ítulo puede ser le-ído independientemente de los otros y por lo tanto es buen libro de referencia.

Algo que personalmente encuentro que es muy bueno es que los ejemplos que utiliza el autor son ejemplos que pueden ser aplicados directamente al  rea de trabajo sin muchas modificaciones.

Este definitivamente deber-ía ser un libro para su colecci-ón de libros de bases de datos.

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In the book SQL Server 2008 Integration Services, Kirk Haselden makes a good job in providing good explanation from start to finish of what Integration Services is all about and when it should be used. The author uses good examples that are available for download at the books website ([...]) to prove his concepts.

Even the least experienced readers or the ones that are moving from DTS to SSIS will find a clear explanation of the new features in SSIS 2008 (like improvements to the Data Flow Task, better scripting experience VB and C#, Data Profiling Task, etc...)

The author takes us from the installation, DTS to SSIS best practices, SSIS basics, package creation, variables, error handling, to the development of custom components.

The book is written in such a way that each chapter can be read independently of each other and for that reason makes a good reference book.

Something that I personally like is that it provide good examples that with little modification con be applied your work area.

This would be a good book to add to your db books collection.

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