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April 2005 - Posts

• E3 : ETL, EAI & EII

  Previously I have talked about ETL and EII , Analysis Services's support for EII & SQL Server Integration Services's (SSIS's) support for EII without explaining too much about what EII actually is - largely because I didn't know. Well, I have now Read More... Posted 27 April 2005 09:42 by jamie.thomson | 0 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, Inane Waffle, SQL Server, SSIS

• Unambiguous dates in SQL Server

  I got some smashing advice from a guy called Steve Kass today that I wanted to make sure I kept and remembered. I thought about the best place to store it and I thought, well why not right here on my blog. That way I won't forget it and maybe other people Read More... Posted 26 April 2005 22:09 by jamie.thomson | 9 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SQL Server, SQL, SSIS, T-SQL

• SSIS: Checkpoint clarification - Recovering failed packages

  What are checkpoints? SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) contains a fantastic new feature called Checkpoints which enables us to restart a package from a previous point of failure rather than run the package from the start. Details about a package's Read More... Posted 20 April 2005 21:36 by jamie.thomson | 43 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS, Scripting, Checkpoints

• SSIS: Memory utilisation and Performance Monitor counters

  I've come across a very useful post from Scalability Experts that talks about how to fully utilise your machine resources for SSIS. I'm not going to steal their thunder but I'll whet your appetite with the topics covered: Max memory available to a package Read More... Posted 20 April 2005 12:00 by jamie.thomson | 3 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS

• SSIS: Forrester run the rule over SQL Server integration Services - part 2

  Back in February I posted a link to an article on Forrester.com that was particularly complimentary about SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) and was very quotable. The problem was that you needed to pay a fee to read it. Well, not any more. Microsoft Read More... Posted 19 April 2005 16:41 by jamie.thomson | 0 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS

• SSIS: Federated Query support in Yukon/SSIS

  Yesterday I posted in reply to Philip Howard's article on The Register about Analysis Services' support for federated queries/Enterprise Information Integration (EII) through the use of data source views. As I thought about it more I realised that SQL Read More... Posted 19 April 2005 13:01 by jamie.thomson | 1 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS, Dataflow Task, Federated Querying

• Federated Query support in Yukon

  There's an interesting article on The Reg today written by Philip Howard from Bloor Research that talks about SQL Server's ability to support federated queries, which are an aspect of EII. Before reading this article I have to admit I didn't really understand Read More... Posted 18 April 2005 13:24 by jamie.thomson | 6 Comments Filed under: SQL Server 2005, Federated Querying

• Blogdaq

  You've heard of celebdaq , the site for trading in a celebrity's exposure...well here's the blogging version... Blogshares.com . I haven't properly checked it out yet but if and when I do I'll post up here. In the meantime... buy me :) -Jamie Read More... Posted 15 April 2005 09:56 by jamie.thomson | 0 Comments Filed under: Inane Waffle

• SSIS: Adding variable values to the pipeline

  [A colleague was poking a bit of fun at me yesterday for the amount of blogging I've been doing recently and I told him "Mike, I won't be writing anything this coming weekend". Well, I am hereby renaging on that promise - sorry Mike :)] Someone asked Read More... Posted 09 April 2005 17:57 by jamie.thomson | 15 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS, Dataflow Task

• Smalldatetime conversion - be aware

  I have had a major T-SQL problem in the last 2 days that has had me tearing my hair out. I have now got a solution and I thought that it was worth sharing what I had learned - maybe I can prevent someone else from having the same problems. I was running Read More... Posted 08 April 2005 16:22 by jamie.thomson | 6 Comments Filed under: SQL Server

• Release delayed until Christmas

  It seems the release of the Sony PSP has been delayed for a while . What, you didn't think I was talking about Yukon did you? :) -Jamie Read More... Posted 06 April 2005 18:09 by jamie.thomson | 0 Comments Filed under: Inane Waffle

• SSIS: How to generate surrogate keys

  Ever wondered how you can generate surrogate keys in a SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) data-flow? Well here on SQLIS.com is just 1 method you can use - the script component! Let me know if this works for you or not. -Jamie Read More... Posted 04 April 2005 22:38 by jamie.thomson | 0 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS, Dataflow Task, Scripting

• SSIS: Regular Expressions & Fuzzy Matching

  A few days ago I posted a blog entry discussing some experiences of using fuzzy matching in SSIS. In it I talked of a problem I was having resolving 50 different records with the word "google" in them down to a single record "www.google.com". Another Read More... Posted 03 April 2005 12:40 by jamie.thomson | 4 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS, fuzzy, fuzzy logic

• SSIS: Comparing methods of sourcing surrogate keys for a fact table

  Back in February I posted a blog entry telling you about an article I had written at SQLServerCentral.com called "The New ETL Paradigm". Happily it turns out that at least one person has downloaded the example package and had a play with it, that person Read More... Posted 03 April 2005 11:49 by jamie.thomson | 5 Comments Filed under: SQL Server Integration Services, SSIS

• Techie April Fool's Day gags

  I've spotted 2 so far. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/04/01/steve_jobs_joins_ikea/ http://management.silicon.com/itpro/0,39024675,39129162,00.htm I almost believed the RFID one until they started talking about tracking your sewage! And this one has Read More... Posted 01 April 2005 11:52 by jamie.thomson | 1 Comments Filed under: Inane Waffle

• .Net Stored Procedures for Analysis Services

  Thus far on this blog my musings have been centred around SQL Server Integration Services but lest I forget, when I joined http://www.conchango.com about a year ago I did so as a Microsoft BI Practitioner with a focus on Analysis Services. Somewhere along Read More... Posted 01 April 2005 09:01 by jamie.thomson | 1 Comments Filed under: SQL Server 2005