Knight's 24-Hour Trainer: Microsoft® SQL Server® 2008 Integration Services

Chapter 34. Easing Deployment with Configuration Tables

Once you have a set of packages complete, the challenge is deploying those packages to a production environment without having to manually configure the packages for that environment. For example, your production server may not have the same directory to extract files from or the same user name to connect to a database. Configuration tables make the migrations seamless and the configuration automated to reduce the risk of errors. You can connect to a configuration table for each connection in a package, and each package that uses the connection can then reference the configuration table. When the packages are moved to production, you can change the configuration table's server name from development to production.

The SSIS Package Configuration option allows you to write any SSIS property for the package, connection, container, variable, or any task into a table. The value in the configuration table then can be used instead of the value in the package. This value is read at run time. The same configuration table can exist on the development and production server. When the package is moved to the production server, it then uses the production configuration table, which can point the package to the production server. This process makes deployment easier than your having to manually update all connections before deployment.

To create a configuration table for a package you right-click in the blank area of the package in the control ...