From Zero to SSIS is designed to train technology professionals in the fine art of using SQL Server Integration Services (SSIS) to build data integration and Extract-Transform-Load (ETL) solutions. The course is focused around labs and emphasizes a hands-on approach. 

The target audience for this training is database professionals, application developers, and business intelligence practitioners interested in acquiring or expanding their existing SSIS skill set. No experience with SQL Server or SQL Server Integration Services is required before attending this training. It is helpful (but not required) that students possess some knowledge of and experience with relational databases. SQL Server knowledge/experience will be more helpful than experience and knowledge with other technologies.

What you will learn

The course agenda is as follows:

DAY 1

Introduction - Training Overview, Expectations, and Introductions  

Lesson 1:  Creating Your First SSIS package -  Introduction to Business Intelligence Development Studio     

• Visual Studio tips and tricks, menu contents and locations    
• Exercise: Create an SSIS Project    

Lesson 2:  Introduction to the Data Flow Task     

• Connection Manager and Data Flow Task basics: source and destination adapters    
• Exercise: Straight to the Data Flow   

DAY 2 

Lesson 3: Data Flow Task 201 - Intermediate Data Flow Concepts     

• Building re-executable data loaders    
• Exercise: Create a Real Data Flow, Parts 1 and 2   

Lesson 4: Data Flow Task 202 - Advanced Data Flow Concepts     

• Building and tuning robust incremental loader     
• Exercise: Create a Real Data Flow, Parts 3 and 4

Lesson 5: Data Flow Task 301- Data Cleansing Basics.     

• Building an incremental loader for real-world data    
• Exercise: Data Cleansing, Part 1   

DAY 3

Lesson 6: The Control Flow - Containers, Precedence, and Workflow    

• Transactions, restart-ability, and blocking    
• Exercise: Sequence Containers   

Lesson 7: Loop Containers -  Using For Loop and For Each Loop Containers.     

• Exercise: Loading Multiple Source Files  

Lesson 8: Data Flow Task 302 - Intermediate Data Cleansing. Managing real-world changes to data sources.    

• Exercise: Data Cleansing, Part 2  

DAY 4

Lesson 9: Data Flow Task 303 - Advanced Data Cleansing     

• Loading uneven flat file sources    
• Exercise: Design Pattern: Loading Variable-Length File Sources.   

Lesson 10: Event Handlers, Logging, and Configurations  - Survey of SSIS Event Handlers Focusing on OnError and OnInformation Events     

• Using SSIS’s built-in logging facility to capture package execution details and statistics, and built-in package configurations to externalize variable values     
• Exercise: Trapping and Logging Errors, Part 1   

Lesson 11: Security, Deployment, and Execution - SSIS Package Deployment Options and Security Implications     

• Execution options    
• Exercise: Package Execution Options   

DAY 5

Lesson 12: ETL Design Patterns  - Leveraging Less-Documented Features of SSIS with the Parent-Child Design Pattern to Achieve “hands-free” Custom Logging and Creative Custom Configuration.     

• ETL Instrumentation
• Exercise: Trapping and Logging Errors, Part 2   

Lesson 13: Enterprise Execution Patterns - Leveraging the Parent-Child design pattern to build a metadata-driven SSIS execution engine.  

Lesson 14: SSIS Performance Demonstrations of common SSIS performance-killers and “SSIS deadlocks”. A methodology for troubleshooting SSIS performance.

Key benefits

This course will give you a comprehensive introduction to SQL Server Integration Services, not only in how it works but what the best practices for implementing it are. Experienced SSIS professionals who attend the advanced section will deepen their knowledge of SSIS, learning new design patterns and performance tuning tips and tricks.

Partial attendance

Attendees can choose to attend either the full five days, or just the introductory section (days 1-3) or just the advanced section (days 4-5). The cost is as follows:

• To attend the full five days: £1248+VAT
• To attend just the introductory section: £749+VAT
• To attend just the advanced section: £499+VAT

A 10% discount will be applied to all group bookings of 4 or more people.

This course designed for BI professionals with some experience of SQL Server Analysis Services cubes, but little or no experience of MDX, will teach the fundamentals of the MDX query language and show how to implement common queries and calculations.

What you will learn

The course agenda is as follows:

Day 1

• What is MDX and why should I use it?
• Understanding the structure of a cube: recognizing cubes, measure groups, dimensions and hierarchies
• Understanding the concepts of members, tuples and sets
• Writing simple queries: using SQL Management studio to write SELECT statements
• Creating simple calculated members: when to use query, session and cube-scoped calculations, using simple MDX expressions and functions

Day 2

• Standard Calculations: looking at the best ways to implement common calculations, such as time series, market shares and rankings
• Using set functions: using common MDX functions such as Crossjoin, Filter, Order, Generate to create more complex queries
• Advanced concepts: autoexists, solve order and subselects

Day 3

• MDX Script Assignments: making scoped assignments, understanding how assignments affect aggregation, using assignments with calculated members
• MDX for Reporting Services
• Performance Tuning and Troubleshooting: using Profiler, building aggregations, functions to avoid

Key benefits

This course will enable you to write your own MDX queries for reports (for example in SQL Server Reporting Services), and add value to your existing cube by creating new MDX calculations on it.