Chapter 6: Dynamically Configuring DTS Package Objects

Overview

In this chapter, you will learn how to:

• Use a data link connection

• Use the Dynamic Properties task

• Dynamically change global variable values in another package

In this chapter, you will learn to use data link connection objects, INI files, global variables, and Dynamic Properties tasks to enable the dynamic reconfiguration of packages in the data movement application at run time. A data movement application that supports dynamic configuration can be flexibly executed without multiple packages being edited each time a change is required for new circumstances. Dynamic configuration enables you to easily migrate an application from a development computer to quality assurance (QA) and production servers, changing data sources and destinations as needed, without editing packages. Dynamic configuration also allows you to use global variables to change the batch size or number of errors permitted when loading data, control the type of cube or dimension processing based on the data being added, or bypass certain packages in the data movement application during a particular execution.

In addition, you will learn how to change the values of global variables in subpackages from the context of the master package. This capability is particularly important as you begin adding packages and complexity to the data movement application. For example, you can specify the number of errors permitted during the execution of each step in each package in the data movement application using a single global variable value in the master package.