Executing a Package
When you want to execute a package, you can click the Play icon on the toolbar, or press F5, or
choose Debug ➪ Start. You can also execute packages by right-clicking the package in Solution
Explorer and selecting Execute Package. This last technique may be a better habit to get into
because clicking the Play button initiates a build, and if your packages are in a solution that has
multiple projects, it may also deploy SSRS reports or SSAS cubes if those projects are included in
the solution. This puts the design environment into execution mode, opens several new windows,
enables several new menu and toolbar items, and begins to execute the package. When the package
finishes running, SSDT doesn’t immediately go back to design mode but rather stays in execution
mode to allow you to inspect any runtime variables or view any execution output. This also means
that you can’t make some changes to the objects within the package. You may already be familiar
with this concept from executing .NET projects.
To return to design mode, you must click the Stop icon on the debugging toolbar, or press Shift+F5,
or choose Debug ➪ Stop Debugging.
Management Studio
SSIS delineates between the SSIS developer and the administrator. SQL Server Management Studio
is where administrators do most of their work — executing, securing, and updating packages. From
the Management Studio interface, the administrator is not able to design packages, however. This
function is reserved for SSDT only.
You can open SQL Server Management Studio under the Microsoft SQL Server program group on
the Start menu. Then, in the Object Browser pane (which can be opened from the View menu if it’s
closed), select Connect ➪ Database Engine. Type your SQL Server instance name and click Connect.
If you receive an error, you may want to jump ahead to Chapter 22, which explains how to correct
connectivity issues. There’s also an SSIS service you can connect to, but this is for packages running
in legacy mode. You’ll learn much more about this in Chapter 22 as well.
Summary
This chapter provided an overview of the main SSIS wizards and core tools. The Import and Export
Wizard is a quick way to create a package that does a simple import or export of data. The wizard is
capable of producing a package that can be run multiple times.
You were then taken on a tour of the SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT), which is where you’ll be
spending most of your time as you develop packages. You looked at the key parts of the interface.
Don’t worry if you don’t yet understand all the components of SSIS. Now that you have been
exposed to the basic concepts, you’ll dive deeper into SSIS as you look at each component.
Now that you’ve gotten your feet wet, it’s time to explore the real power of SSIS, which lies in the
multitude of tasks you can use in your packages. You will learn about some of the more common
ones in Chapter 3, and containers are covered in depth in Chapter 6.