Customer Reviews

Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Integration Services

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

I spent several days trying to get the very first exercise to work, but failed. (Screen prints in the book are different than the printed instructions.) I then downloaded the examples from Sam's Publishing only to find that some of the coding is different than what the book shows. But the examples do work properly and are very helpful. I have to say that the book does seem to cover lots of material in detail and I am reading it cover-to-cover. There are lots of tid-bits which will save a lot of hair-pulling.

If you are looking for an Step-by-Step type book (which apparently quite a few reviewers are) this is not it. What it does is provide you with a very detailed understanding of SSIS. That said, I still was able to go from never using SSIS to having a fairly good working knowledge using nothing but this book in about a week and a half, so I'm not exactly sure what the issue others had is. If you're willing to learn the concepts and apply them on your own, I think you'll find this to be an invaluable resource. A year and a half later I still use it to look something or other up about once a week and it never disappoints.

Having used DTS for many years, the transition to serious use of SSIS has
proven to be quite "challenging"...yea, that's the word. In fact, SSIS,
is a quantum leap in complexity and mindset above using DTS. It has
been many quirks, subtleties and rituals required to use it effectively.
While not 100% mature, it is very sophisticated and a powerful tool
for ETL tasks.

This book has proven to be very detailed for my needs and covers
almost all aspects of SSIS in extensive detail. It adequately explans all tasks
and how to use most every aspect and feature in creating and deploying SSIS solutions. It also
gives solid insight on best practices and guidelines on how specific
features are intended to work and not work.

The only way to really get going with SSIS is to have a comprehensive
reference so that you can understand using the tool to the greatest
degree possible. Highly recommended, very readable and useful.

I am a developer and it is the first time I learn about this topic. I would like to jump in and start coding right away. Most of the time, the author explains the topic by using screenshots without working samples. This book may be used as a reference book if you already has experiences with Integration Services. It is definitely not a tutorial book.

Being an old DTS saw I was pretty thrown by the division of labor between Control Flow and Data Flow. I mean I understood it conceptually but didn't "get it" practically during design time - and to be honest I was a bit intimidated by all the new features too. This book was just what I needed to get comfortable with SSIS. It walked me through the features at the right level of detail and will be a key resource for me going forward.

Note that there are a couple of 'publisher errors' in the book such as missing Appendicies but the quality of information is still great.

I have experience building simple DTS packages in SQL Server 2000, so when 2005/2008 hit the market, I was really confused. I'm not a VB programmer; I vastly prefer the Management Studio/Query Analyzer interface over other GUIs in the SQL Server environment, and where the heck did my Import/Export Wizard go? Thank you, Kirk, for explaining that first! I would advise reading Chapter 2, Setting up Integration Services.
I finally had to bite the bullet and get with the program; for me Books Online was hopeless, 'way too fragmented, if I could even find the topic that I was looking for. I disagree with a previous reviewer, this is not just a reference book, this is reference + tutorial. If you need to build an FTP task, for instance, pop over to page 151 and start following the directions. As Kirk works through the description of how to set it up, he explains why he's doing what he's doing. I'm finding this book to be one of the most valuable in my SQL 2005 collection.

I'm new to SSIS. I cannot put this book down! The flow is great (probably because it is written by a single author). Chapter 4 Quickstart was a fantastic way of learning the basics of SSIS very quickly. I only started reading it this week and I'm already half way through it!

I bought this book in late 2006 as migrating from DTS to SSIS. It was the best rated SSIS book back in late 2006, guess those reviewers had different expectations from mine. Although this book gave me overview of each feature of SSIS, it did not help me much for doing actual projects past year. I learned more about specifics of using SSIS from internet (googling about functions or properties) than this book.

I totally agree with some reviewers saying that this is a paper version of BOL. If you are looking for some simple overview of SSIS, this may be the one for you.

This is the book for people who have worked with the product for a short time and are asking the real world "how's and why's". It goes into much more detailed explanations than any other SSIS book I've seen.

This is just a reference manual. You can get the same information by pressing F1. Gobs of definitions and a few scattered examples. If you like reading dictionaries, you'll love this book.