Thursday, July 12, 2012

SQL Server 2012 Integration Services - An Expert Cookbook

I have been asked to review SQL Server 2012 Integration Services - An Expert Cookbook from Packt Publishing.

Please note this review has been over one weekend and is not an exhaustive look at every word and chapter for correctness and completeness.

Name: SQL Server 2012 Integration Services - An Expert Cookbook
Authors: Reza Rad, Pedro Perfeito
Released: May 2012
ISBN: 978-1-84968-524-5
Pages: 564 (eBook pdf)

I first came into contact with Microsoft's ETL tools in Windows Server 2000. This tool was called DTS and well, it did the job. With the release of 2005 Microsoft completely overhauled SQL Server and brought out SSIS. This release is what helped propel SQL server into the Enterprise market. I am currently a Data Warehouse Consultant so will be reviewing this book with a perspective of an Agile Data Warehouse Developer.

The book starts of giving a brief history of the SSIS tool and its heritage. This book's target audience would be those who have used SSIS and are looking for deeper knowledge or more experienced SSIS developers looking for goto manual. As this is a cookbook the chapters then move on relevant subject areas and have recipes based on those areas.

It covers a fair bit of the components available in the toolbox. It tells you what this component is used for and then gives a recipe for using that component. I can see this book being the reference manual when building packages and it answers that, how do I do that again, thought.

The sections on scripting & logging are a little lite. The scripting section could have gone further into depth about what you can do from the .NET environment by offering a little more than just a mail example. However, keeping in mind this is a recipe book, there is enough for you to understand how to setup a basic script and then use the power of .NET to extend this to enable you to do tasks beyond the standard components.

I really liked the recipe for the checkpoint as I have not realised this feature was available and will ensure if I need to build SSIS packages again in the future, I refer to this recipe.

Overall this is a fantastic book at giving you the right information on how to use/do a particular task that you can then start modifying to suit your environment. I would have this book on my shelf and hope that Packt get positive feedback so they can then create an Advance Recipes book that gives you some real world useful recipes for overcoming some of the shortfalls that SSIS may have in specific situations.

I would rate this book 4/5 stars - A worthwhile investment for any SSIS developer.