Service Pack 1 is here and it fixes loads of items. Some of which were quite embarassing when training or developing a solution with a client standing behind you. The largest enhancement is the addition of database mirroring, which allows you add high availability to your database by sending transactions to another server in real-time. There are loads of SSIS fixes and enhancements. Add a quick rolled up level, here are the SSIS fixes:
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Usability of the Import/Export Wizard has been improved in multiple-table scenarios. |
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The IDtsPipelineEnvironmentService service lets custom data flow components have programmatic access to the parent Data Flow task. |
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Interoperability with Analysis Services has been improved. The DataReader source in SSIS supports the System.Object data type by converting columns that have this data type to the DT_NTEXT ssISnoversion data type. To change the data type to a type that is more appropriate for your data, you can add a Data Conversion transformation. |
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Performance has been improved for many transformations, such as the Sort transformation. |
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Designer usability has been improved. For example, you can now right-click Dataflow and then click Execute Task to execute only the Dataflow task. You do not have to switch to the control flow to execute only the Dataflow task. |
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The Expression Builder dialog box now has a public and documented API. This increased access to expression-related objects will benefit task developers because expressions are important to the way that tasks are interrelated. |
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We have added a registry-based policy for handling SSIS package signatures as a package is executed. For example, administrators can disable loading of unsigned packages and untrusted packages. Because these settings are in the registry, administrators can propagate these settings in the domain by using Microsoft Windows Group Policy policy settings. |
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In the Advanced Editor dialog box, the Flat File source has the new property UseBinaryFormat. This property supports loading packed decimal data into the pipeline for processing by a script or by a custom transformation. |
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In the Advanced Editor dialog box, the DataReader source has the new property CommandTimeout. You can use this property to modify the time-out period to allow for long-running operations. |
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To create or to modify the property expressions of variables, you can now open the Expression Builder dialog box from the Properties window. |
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You can now add annotations to precedence constraints. |
http://www.microsoft.com/sql/sp1.mspx
It's certainly a must download for anyone using 2005.
-- Brian Knight