Knight's Microsoft SQL Server 2012 Integration Services 24-Hour Trainer

Chapter 5

Exploring SQL Server Data Tools

SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) is a Visual Studio 2010 tool that helps you create, debug, and execute SSIS packages. When you’re a business intelligence developer, it can also help you create reports in SQL Server Reporting Services (SSRS) or design cubes in SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS). You’ll be using SSDT extensively throughout this book, so it’s important that in this lesson, you learn everything you need to know to make your life easier in this critical environment.

NOTE Because this is a more exploratory, introductory lesson, it doesn’t have a task-based tutorial as the other lessons have.

You can open SSDT through the SQL Server 2012 program group. Depending on your PC, SSDT may take some time to open.

NOTE One hint that you can use to reduce your load time is to eliminate the splash screen. To eliminate the SSDT splash screen and reduce your load time by a few seconds each time, right-click the SSDT shortcut and select Properties. Next, add the -NOSPLASH switch at the end of the shortcut as shown here:

“C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio 10.0\Common7\IDE\
devenv.exe” -NOSPLASH

The Solution Explorer

Once you create your project from Lesson 4, you’re ready to begin exploration of the environment. The most important pane, the Solution Explorer, is on the right. The Solution Explorer is where you can find all of your created SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) packages, shared connection managers, and ...