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

Chapter 35. Easing Deployment with Configuration Files

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 files make the migrations seamless and make the configuration process automated to reduce the risk of errors. You can create a configuration file for each connection in the packages, and each package that uses the connection can then reference the configuration file. When the packages are moved to production, you can then change the configuration file's server name from development to production.

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

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