Getting to SSIS
As you consider a migration, what are the
repercussions of these developments for
your DTS environment? First, moving from
DTS to SSIS doesn’t have to be an overnight
event—particularly if you have dozens or
hundreds of packages in your environment.
SQL Server 2005 supports DTS package
design and execution, opening up the opportunity for a rolling migration with a temporarily mixed DTS-and-SSIS environment.
Second, you would do well to take advantage of the available resources that can help
you plan your migration and prepare your
DTS packages for the migration. Training is
also available. Microsoft has just released its
SSIS curriculum, and SQL Server partners
also offer excellent material.
When it’s time to move your packages to
SSIS, the DTS Migration Wizard provides
a good first step in the process but might
require some minor workarounds and
modifications to get packages running in
SSIS. However, once your packages are in
SSIS, you should focus on two general areas
for improvement: first, project, package,
and control flow capabilities to enhance
package development and administration,
and second, Data Flow features to improve
data associations, cleansing, and other transformations. Because SSIS supports improved
development and testing features, it will
make your changes easier and you’ll soon be
able to leverage the improved SSIS features
and architecture.
When you’re done, you’ll deserve to
take a breather. The good news is that once
your environment is migrated to SSIS, you’ll
be better positioned for the future with a
solid architecture and better tools to make
administration and development easier. And
take heart: Future upgrades will be much
easier.