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Showing posts from 2014

Accidental SharePoint Designer 101

I fully profess to know little to nothing about SharePoint, but I occasionally get pulled into setting up little sites or adding web parts for some of my reporting and business intelligence work.  Each time, I have to relearn the start-up steps to create what is needed!  So I decided to record a few of my go-to places so I can remember next time.  I used SharePoint 2010 to document the below steps, but the directions may be applicable to other versions.  Also, these steps assume you have full control of your site. Getting Started The first step is start editing the page rather than looking at it like an end user.  Do this by: Select the Page tab at the top of the screen Click the Edit Page button/drop down list Select the Edit Page option PS. When you're done, do these same steps, except select the "Stop Editing" button. Content Creation You may need to create a document library, a list, or another type of container.  I like to create my content

Upgrading your SSIS Management Framework: Part 3

At this point, you understand the options for moving an SSIS framework to the latest version of SSIS, and you've upgraded the logging portion of the framework using a hybrid approach.  The final step in the framework upgrade is handling your configurations.  Let's walk through an existing configuration implementation and how you can upgrade it by combining your existing implementation with the standard SSIS framework. Overview A typical "old-school" configuration scheme is described in the SSIS PDS book or in this blog post here: http://jessicammoss.blogspot.com/2008/05/ssis-configuration-to-configuration-to.html .  Starting in SSIS 2012, the configuration scheme uses environments and parameters when using the Project Deployment Model, as discussed here: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/hh213290(v=sql.110).aspx . In both scenarios, the core ideas in a configuration scheme are: Provide the ability to move packages through environments without having

Upgrading your SSIS Management Framework: Part 2

Based on Part 1 of Upgrading your SSIS Management Framework , you’ve decided to go with a hybrid approach for your framework.  The hybrid approach which will use some components of the custom framework (this post will use the framework provided in SSIS PDS , but the concepts are applicable to any custom framework) and also utilize the standard SSIS framework.  This allows you to tie your existing package ecosystem with the latest and greatest built-in framework. Let’s talk through an overview of what we’re going to do and then explain each of the steps needed to implement it. Overview When it comes down to it, we need to accomplish two main things for this hybrid approach: tie our logging tables together and tie our configuration tables together.  When it comes to logging, each system has its own important identifier (ID) that can get you to anything else in the system.  The important ID in the custom SSIS framework is the PackageLogID, and the important ID in the standard SSIS fra

Upgrading your SSIS Management Framework: Part 1

Background Before SQL Server 2012, SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) had no built-in logging, auditing, and configuration framework.  All of the pieces were available to build your own, but everyone ended up doing that just a little bit differently.  Most of us consultants came up with our own variation to implement at client sites and ensure that all of those functions at that one client were the same.  I'm especially proud of the framework that Rushabh Mehta and I developed that is published in Microsoft SQL Server Integration Services: Problem, Design, Solution (SSIS PDS) and implemented by many others as well. Along came SSIS 2012, when Microsoft realized this "multiple-different frameworks" spread was happening, and thought "how cool would it be if we could standardize the framework so ALL our clients have the same one".  This would not only reduce initial development time of the framework, but also ensure that upgrades and future maintenance wou

Where is my BI Development Tool?

" The development tool for SQL Server business intelligence packages is missing! " says almost every developer who installs SQL Server 2014. It's okay, don't panic.  Microsoft decided to separate the installer for the server and the installer for the development environment.  Unfortunately, the next statement by almost every developer who installs SQL Server 2014 is " There are MULTIPLE SQL Server Data Tools?!? ".  Also not a problem, let's talk about the difference options and how to get the correct software on your machine. Option 1 is SQL Server Data Tools (the original), which is a template for Visual Studio that allows you to create and store information on databases and database objects.  This tool is part of Visual Studio.  For more information, see: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/data/hh297027 . Option 2/3 are SQL Server Data Tools - Business Intelligence, which contain the templates for SSIS, SSAS, and SSRS (the standard BI tools we are a

Eek! Starting as a Regular Full-Time Employee

Well, I jumped into the career deep end last week.  I started my first-ever job as a regular full-time employee.  This week contained a mixture of emotions for me: scared, nervous, but overall - EXCITEMENT!  It's been a long road, but I'm very happy with where I've come and where I'm going. I started with a consulting company right out of college.  Back then, graduating with a computer science degree pretty much meant you knew a little bit about a lot, but had no deep knowledge in any area.  So working on a little bit of everything to gain some knowledge in a consulting company seemed like a perfect fit!  I still remember during my interview, the interviewee said "You'll be assigned a project over the weekend, buy a book on the technology, and by the time you arrive on Monday, you need to be an expert".  While we all know that won't exactly work, I was able to learn SO much by hopping around and trying different technologies, industries, and systems.