The Pain of Living on the Edge

If you're like me, you tend to listen to Manowar really loudly while you write code and built ETL solutions.

No, wait, that's another post. Please let me begin again.

If you're like me, you tend to stay on the cutting edge, upgrading to the latest and greatest development tools as soon as they're available.

Yes, that's the right post.

The great things about this tendency are that you get new features and functionality early, you are constantly learning new things, and when the products are actually released you already have months experience using them, so not only do you have a competitive edge, you can also help others who are less adventurous learn things too. All around it's a real win-win scenario.

But it is not without its pain.

Visual Studio 2008 has recently been released, with important (and cool) new capabilities for people developing Windows and web applications using VB.NET, C# and other "traditional" development tasks. But what about us Business Intelligence developers? Well, do you remember that song from the opening of "Four Weddings and a Funeral?"[1] Well, we've been left out in the cold, like Hugh Grant. The current CTP5 release of SQL Server 2008 still relies on Visual Studio 2005, so if you want to get the goodness of Visual Studio 2008 when building SSIS packages, you're out of luck.

...but like with Hugh Grant, there is a happy ending in sight. Michael Entin, a member of the SSIS product team, posted this information today on the SSIS Forums on MSDN:

1) SSIS 2005 requires VS 2005, and will not work with VS 2008.
2) SSIS 2008 RTM will work with VS 2008 (and only with VS 2008 - there will be no option to use it from VS 2005).
3) It is not final yet when this will be implemented, most likely the next CTP will use VS 2005, and there will be a refresh that provides VS 2008 support.

Michael was careful to point out these these plans are tentative and subject to change, but it's still exciting to know that there is a plan and a roadmap for getting the tools we want hooked up with the BI projects we need and love. Now let's just hope that Visual Studio doesn't marry a rich old Scottish gentleman before then...

[1] In case you missed that one, it was "But Not For Me" by Elton John and went "they're singing songs of love, but not for me..."

SSIS Performance Tuning Strategy

Similar to my post on SSIS Performance Tuning Techniques, this resource is neither mine nor new, but it looks like a lot of people don't know that it exists. Check out this "SQL Server 2005 Integration Services: A Strategy for Performance" white paper: http://www.microsoft.com/technet/prodtechnol/sql/2005/technologies/ssisperfstrat.mspx#E6G

According to the abstract, "This white paper covers several interesting and unique methods for managing metadata using built-in features in SQL Server 2005 Integration Services, Analysis Services, and Reporting Services. The paper explains such concepts as data lineage, business and technical metadata, auditing, and impact analysis. " This is really weird to me, because there's nothing about SSAS or SSRS in here at all, especially since there's also nothing about data lineage or metadata management. Copy and paste gone wrong, perhaps?

To me the most interesting thing here is the "OVAL" (Operations , Volume, Application, Location) approach for evaluating and tuning SSIS performance. Lots of people on the MSDN SSIS Forums have been asking lately about SSIS performance, and either no one is bothering to look, or else this white paper is difficult to find.

And for people too lazy (or should that be "visually oriented") to read through the whole thing, Donald Farmer (then the SSIS Program Manager) did an excellent presentation at TechEd last year about this OVAL approach, and you can view it on demand here: http://msevents.microsoft.com/cui/WebCastEventDetails.aspx?culture=en-US&EventID=1032298087&CountryCode=US

But remember: Performance tuning is a complex art that is a superset of all of the other things that go into building software on any platform, and SSIS is no exception. In order to do it right, you need to understand how the platform works and how your software interacts with it, and have a methodical approach for identifying and refining the scope of performance problems. Although it's wonderful to have an approach like OVAL to use, without an understanding of how SSIS works under the hood, it's not going to do you much good...

Calling All Trainers!

If you're a Microsoft Certified Trainer, this is a very exciting time. With new versions of SQL Server, Visual Studio and Windows Server right around the corner (or in the case of Visual Studio 2008, upon us already) you are faced with a massive influx of new tools, technologies and (hopefully) courses to teach. By the time these products ship, your students will expect you to be the expert, and there's never enough time to prepare...

Fortunately, Microsoft understands.[1] And to help out, they're putting on a series of MCT Summit conferences designed to help prepare MCTs with both hard (technical) and soft (presentation) skills they'll need to prepare for the rough waters ahead. There is an MCT Summit in Berlin, Germany on January 14 to January 16, and another in Redmond, Washington on February 4 to February 6[2] so regardless of which side of the ocean you're on, Microsoft has you covered.

But how does this relate to this blog? Funny you should ask!

I will be presenting three different SQL Server-focused sessions at each of the Berlin and Redmond Summit events. Here are the details:

What's New in SQL Server 2008 for Database Developers
This technical session presents information on the key new features for database developers in the SQL Server 2008 product release. Emphasis is placed on the value proposition of the new features, how the features enhance and extend the functionality in SQL Server 2005, and how to communicate the importance of the features to your students. Where possible, the new features are also discussed in the context of the courseware in which they are presented.

What's New in SQL Server 2008 for Business Intelligence Developers
This technical session presents information on the key new features for business intelligence (BI) developers in the SQL Server 2008 product release. Emphasis is placed on the value proposition of the new features, how the features enhance and extend the functionality in SQL Server 2005, and how to communicate the importance of the features to your students. Where possible, the new features are also discussed in the context of the courseware in which they are presented.

So you want to be a SQL Server MCT? Jumping into the Deep End with SQL Server 2008
This session presents information for MCTs who do not currently teach SQL Server courses with the information that they need to be successful delivering SQL Server 2008 courses. The first portion of this session covers a technical introduction to the SQL Server product suite with an overview of core products and features. The second portion covers existing training materials and presents a proposed plan of self-study to help attendees build the skills they need to succeed in the classroom with the SQL Server 2008 courseware.

The Summit events look like they're going to be a lot of fun, and if you're planning on teaching the SQL Server 2008 courseware when it's ready, this is a great way to get up to speed on the new tools, technologies and features heading our way. I'll see you there!

[1] Well, sort of.
[2] There are also summits in Sydney, Australia and Singapore, but they didn't fit into my schedule. :-)

Speaking at SQL Connections 2008

I just received news that my abstract for the session "SQL Server Integration Services Deployment Best Practices" was selected for the spring 2008 SQL Connections conference. As you can imagine, I'm awfully excited! Here's the full abstract:

"So you’ve built a set of SSIS packages to populate your data warehouse, and everything works great on your development environment – but what next? SSIS has a great set of tools, but when it comes to preparing for and executing a seamless deployment from development into test and finally into production, it’s not always obvious what tools to use or how to best use them. In this session you’ll learn how to prepare for and execute a seamless deployment of complex ETL solutions through a repeatable, testable process. If you’re tired of saying “but it worked on my machine!” then this is one session you can’t afford to miss."

I submitted a handful of different abstracts, but this is the one that got selected, and there's probably no surprise there. Many of the questions posted on the SSIS MSDN Forums are related to deployment, and when people complain about SSIS (like that would ever happen, right?) deployment almost always comes up. Hopefully before too long the SSIS team will have a set of powerful deployment tools that take away the pain of deployment, so people would look at an abstract like this and say "why would anyone ever attend a session on this?" But from what I see today it's not happening in SQL Server 2008, so you'll probably want to attend this one.

I'll see you in Orlando!

Let Your Voice Be Heard!

The SQL Server Integration Services Team is looking for your feedback on how to prioritize their work on future versions of SSIS. How cool is that? It's not quite as cool as being invited to an SDR (yeah, this is kind of like saying Hammerfall isn't quite as cool as Manowar - they're somewhat similar, but orders of magnitude different in how cool they are) but you still get to share your opinions with the people who build the tools you love.[1] Or not. Either way, it's cool.

And to make it even cooler, they're giving away five 80GB Zune MP3 players to people who complete their survey by December 20th.

Here's the survey: https://mscuillume.smdisp.net/Collector/Survey.ashx?Name=SqlETLSurvey2

How important is this? Consider the fact that I'm posting a link to it on my blog, even though each person who enters is reducing my chances of winning that Zune. So let your voice be heard!

[1] For all SSIS team members reading this post, yes, I would love to come to your next SDR. You don't even need to give me a Zune. Although I'd take one. ;-)

SQL Down Under Show Online

Remember back on Halloween when I recorded an episode of SQL Down Under with SQL Server MVP Greg Low? Well, the episode is now online! You can download it in MP3 or WMA format here: http://www.sqldownunder.com/

Enjoy!

Things are Looking Up in CTP5

One of the things I've really been looking forward to with SSIS in SQL Server 2008 CTP5 is the enhanced Lookup transform. And related to that was looking forward to blogging about it.

But of course, I'm a day late and a dollar short. Or as the case may be, three days late and a few bucks ahead. Because Jamie Thompson has already blogged about it, and I don't see anything for me to add:

http://blogs.conchango.com/jamiethomson/archive/2007/11/16/Katmai_3A00_-SSIS_3A00_-Lookup-component-gets-a-makeover.aspx

So now I don't need to blog it, I can just link to Jamie's post, and get back to work. Thanks, Jamie!