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SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS)

This SSIS tutorial covers all the topics on Connection Managers, Data Sources, Transformations, and Control Flow Tasks. The SQL Server Integration Services, shortly called as SSIS is a powerful ETL tool. SSIS ETL tool is used to Extract data from different sources and Transform that Data as per user requirements and Load data into various destinations. Remember, SSIS is the second-largest tool to perform Extraction, Transformation, and Load (ETL) operations. Although it is the most powerful tool, you can easily learn SSIS in 28days (Maximum).

SSIS ETL tool helps to build enterprise-level data transformation and data integration solutions. This SSIS ETL tool is beneficial in loading data from regular transactional data into Data Warehouse. So that you can create reports using that data with the help of SSRS, Tableau, etc. Apart from the Data Warehouse application, you can use SSIS to work on typical data integration applications as well. Before you start learning the SSIS tutorial, I suggest you learn SQL Server basics, at least SELECT Statements.

SSIS Introduction

The Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services or SSIS included many built-in tasks and transformations to solve complex business problems by building high-performance data integration packages. You can use SQL SSIS for updating data warehouses, data mining, downloading or copying files, extract and transfer data from XML to SQL, etc. To develop or create an SSIS package, you need SQL Data Tools or BIDS. So, I suggest you install the SQL Data Tools, or Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS) to practice this SSIS tutorial.

  1. What is SQL Server Integration Services
  2. Install SQL Server Data Tools or BIDS
  3. Create a New Integration Services Project
  4. Create a New Package

SSIS Data Flow Tutorial

There are three types of SSIS data flow components: Sources, Transformations, and Destinations. Each data flow component has an output, and you can use the output to connect with other components. For instance, connect the source output to SSIS transformations and then connect transformation output to destination.

While working with the SSIS data flow components, you always have to check the columns mappings, and this is a place whether you might end up with errors. I mean wrong column mapping or no column mapping, etc.

NOTE: I suggest you download Adventure Works, and Adventure works DW databases to practice the examples of this SSIS tutorial. Because we use these two databases in this entire SSIS tutorial, please refer to Install AdventureWork and SELECT Statements in SQL Server.

SSIS Tutorial on Connection Managers

The SSIS connection manager contains the physical connection string properties that will create or establish a connection at a run time. SSIS allows us to develop both the project level and package level connection managers. The SSIS project level connection managers shared among all the packages in that project. It is available at the SSIS project deployment. This section of SSIS tutorial covers establishing connections between this SQL SSIS and different data sources.

Learn everything about SSIS Connection Managers in the First two days. Generally, it takes one day to cover this topic. By seeing the links, you might wonder how you gone make it. Don’t worry; most of the steps in those SSIS links are the same. I think the maximum 2 to 3 steps may differ.

  1. SSIS Connection Managers Introduction
  2. OLE DB Connection Manager
  3. ADO Connection Manager
  4. ADO.NET Connection Manager
  5. Cache Connection Manager
  6. EXCEL Connection Manager
  7. File Connection Manager
  8. FTP Connection Manager
  9. SMO Connection Manager

SSIS Sources Tutorial

The next two days concentrate on learning SSIS Source & Destinations. As I said before, if you know the connection managers, you are good with Destinations and the Sources.

The main motive of the SSIS package is to transfer data from heterogeneous sources to a destination. It means you need a Source to get the data from and a Destination to load data into it. The following are the list of common sources used in the SSIS package development.

  1. Source Assistant
  2. ADO.NET Source
  3. Excel Source
  4. OLE DB Source
  5. Flat File Source

SSIS Tutorial on Destinations

  1. ADO.NET Destination
  2. OLE DB Destination
  3. FLAT FILE Destination

SSIS Transformations tutorial

SSIS is all about Sources, Transformations, and Destinations. You need Connection Managers to connect with sources and destinations. So, if you know the connection Manager, then you do not have to think about the Sources and Destinations. Spend the next ten days is all about transformations. I don’t think; you need 10 days to complete the transformations. Because, in all the examples, we explained each transformation along with Source and Destination. However, you can skip those steps

SSIS Transformations modify or clean the data, performs data conversions, and perform data aggregations, etc. The following SSIS tutorial shows the list of available transformations. Please click on the link to see the definition and a practical example of each SSIS transformation.

  1. List of Transformations
  2. Audit Transformation
  3. Aggregate Transformation Basic Mode
  4. Aggregate Transformation Advanced Mode – Configure Multiple Outputs
  5. Cache Transformation
  6. Character Map Transformation
  7. Conditional Split Transformation
  8. Copy Column Transformation
  9. Data Conversion Transformation
  10. Derived Column Transformation
  11. Export Column Transformation
  12. Fuzzy Grouping Transformation
  13. Fuzzy Lookup Transformation
  14. Import Column Transformation
  15. Lookup Introduction
    1. Use OLE DB Connection Manager for Lookup Transformation
    2. Lookup Transformation in Full Cache Mode
    3. Lookup Transformation Case Sensitivity
  16. Merge Transformation
  17. Merge Join Transformation
    1. Inner Join Using Merge Join Transformation
    2. Left Outer Join Using Merge Join Transformation
    3. Right Outer Join by using Merge Join Transformation
    4. Full Outer Join
  18. Multicast Transformation
  19. OLE DB Command Transformation
    1. Delete Operations
    2. Update Operations
  20. Percentage Sampling Transformation
  21. Pivot Transformation in SQL Server Integration Services 2008R2
  22. Pivot Transformation in SQL Server Integration Services 2014
  23. Row Count Transformation
  24. Row Sampling Transformation
  25. Script Component As Source
  26. Use Script Component as Transformation
  27. Script Component as Destination
  28. SSIS Slowly Changing Dimension
    1. SCD Type 0
    2. Slowly Changing Dimension Type 1
    3. SCD Type 2
  29. Sort Transformation
  30. Term Lookup Transformation
  31. Term Extraction Introduction
    1. Extract Nouns Only
    2. Extracting Noun Phrases Only
    3. Extract Nouns and Noun Phrases
    4. Exclusion Tab
  32. Union All Transformation
  33. Unpivot Transformation

By the 15th day, you know everything about Connection Managers, Sources, Destinations, and Transformations. Learn SSIS containers and the Control Flow tasks from 15th to 20th.

SSIS Control Flow Tasks Tutorial

Every SSIS package consists of a control flow tab. Within this control flow tab, you can optionally use the control flow tasks, one or more data flow tasks. Perhaps, you can use the combination of both the SSIS control flow tasks and data flow tasks.

SSIS Containers Tutorial

This section of SSIS tutorial covers the containers available in this ETL tool. The following containers provide the structure to the package or provide looping functionality.

  1. SSIS For Loop Container
  2. SSIS ForEach Loop Container
    1. ADO.NET Schema Rowset Enumerator
    2. File Enumerator
    3. NodeList Enumerator
    4. SMO Enumerator
    5. Variable Enumerator

SSIS Control Flow Tasks Tutorial

This section of the SSIS tutorial explains everything about the control flow tasks.

  1. Bulk Insert Task
  2. Data Profiling Task
  3. Execute T-SQL Statement Task
  4. SSIS Execute SQL Task
    1. Introduction to Execute SQL Task
    2. Truncate Table using Execute SQL Task – Result Set None
    3. Execute SQL Task – Single Row Result Set
    4. Executing SQL Task – Full Result Set 
  5. Execute Package Task
    1. Executing Packages in File System
    2. Execute Packages in SQL Server
    3. Executing Packages present in the Same Project
  6. File System Task
    1. Copy Directory
    2. Copy File
    3. Delete Directory Content
    4. Move Directory
    5. Delete Directory
    6. Move File
    7. Move Multiple Files
    8. Delete File
    9. Rename File
    10. Set Attributes
  7. FTP Task
    1. Send Files
    2. Send Multiple Files
    3. Receive Files
    4. Receive Multiple Files
    5. Delete Local Files
    6. Create Remote Directory
    7. Delete Remote Directory
    8. Create a Local Directory
    9. Delete Local Directory
    10. Delete Remote Files
  8. Script Task
  9. Transfer SQL Server Objects Task
    1. Transferring SQL Server Tables with Data
    2. Transfer SQL Server Table Structures without Data
    3. Transferring SQL Server Stored Procedures
    4. Transfer SQL Server User-Defined Function
    5. Transferring SQL Server Views
  10. Web Service Task
  11. XML Task – Validate XML File
    1. Transform XML File Using XSLT
    2. Differentiate between XML Files

SSIS Deployment Tutorial

Once we complete the building or developing the SSIS package, the next step is deployment. Spend your last two days (21, 22) to learn SSIS deployment methods.

Deploying the SSIS project is where we should decide the package execution time, and the authorized user to perform the same. There are different ways that you can deploy your SSIS packages. It starts from using BIDS/SQL data tools, Import and Export Data wizard, and SQL Management Studio. You can use either of these options to deploy SSIS packages to SQL Server. This SSIS tutorial section covers the most important topics, which are useful for the production environment.

  1. Create Integration Service Catalog
  2. Deploy Projects using BIDS
  3. Deploy Project using SQL Server
  4. Use SQL Deployment Wizard to Deploy Project
  5. Breakpoints
  6. Checkpoints
  7. Error Handling
  8. Event Handlers
  9. Logging
  10. Parameters
  11. Package Configurations Introduction
    1. Environment Variable
    2. Parent-Child Package Configuration
    3. Registry Entry
    4. SQL Server Configuration
    5. XML Configuration File
    6. XML Configuration File Stored in Environment Variable
  12. Package Protection Levels
  13. Transactions

SQL SSIS Import and Export Data Wizard Tutorial

If you quickly want to move or load data from source to destination, you can use the SSIS Import and Export wizard. You can perform the following import and export operations in SSIS using a Wizard. This wizard might act as a starting point of SSIS Tutorial or package development.

  1. Export Data From SQL to Flat File using Import & Export Data Wizard
  2. Import Data from Flat File to SQL using Import Export Data Wizard
  3. Export Data in SQL to Excel using Wizard
  4. Import Data from Excel to SQL using Import Export Wizard

SSIS Interview Questions

The following are the list of few SSIS interview questions that you might face apart from regular SQL SSIS Transformation questions

  1. SSIS Incremental Load
    1. Incremental Load
    2. Better Approach – Incremental Load
  2. Export Data From SQL Server to Excel File
  3. Export Data From SQL Server to Flat File
  4. Query builder
  5. How to remove Double Quotes in Excel Sheet
  6. How to remove Double Quotes in Flat or CSV File
  7. Text Qualifier Property
  8. Difference between Project Level and Package Level Connection managers
  9. Project Parameters Vs. Package Parameters
  10. Send Emails using Script Task