Ben Sullins Tech

In SSIS 2005 a single config source (XML or SQL Server) with many connection strings could be used to setup the connections for multiple packages even if those packages did not contain all of the connections specified in the config source. In this scenario the native package configurations would read the source and attempt to apply connection strings for all those specified in the source. In cases where the connection did not exist in the SSIS package a warning would be reported however, these warnings could be ignored by setting the ‘SupressConfigurationWarnings’ property to ‘True’ within the package. This configuration strategy worked well for me in past experience since I would only have to manage the connection strings for almost all packages within a single config location. This method however, does not work in SSIS 2008

Below is the solution I decided on however I am not totally satisfied with it. If you are also running into this issue and have something to share please comment below. Thanks!

Variable Approach
1. Inside the package there is a variable for every connection manager that will contain it’s connection string
2. The value for these variables will be derived from a package configuration pulling from a SQL Server source
3. Connection managers all are then set by an expression assigning the value of the variable to their connection string property

Benefits
1. A warning (versus error) is thrown when there is a variable in the database not found in the package that can be ignored by updating the ‘SupressConfigurationWarnings’ property to true. This is also set by another configuration.
2. A single place to manage all connection strings for all SSIS packages

Cons
1. Extra steps are involved when adding new connection managers to a package

Below are the results from my tests using the same strategy in SSIS 2005 and SSIS 2008.

2005 Output

Warning: 0×8001F02F at Package: Cannot resolve a package path to an object in the package “.Connections[Conn2].ConnectionString”. Verify that the package path is valid.
SSIS package “Package.dtsx” starting.
SSIS package “Package.dtsx” finished: Success.

2008 Output

Error at Package: The connection “Conn2″ is not found. This error is thrown by the Connections collection when the specific connection element is not found.”

Recently I was having some issues getting a new SQL Server Analysis Services (SSAS) cube to process on a new development (dev) server. The error I kept receiving was:

[Analysis Services Execute DDL Task] Error: OLE DB error: OLE DB or ODBC error: Login timeout expired; HYT00; An error has occurred while establishing a connection to the server. When connecting to SQL Server 2005, this failure may be caused by the fact that under the default settings SQL Server does not allow remote connections.; 08001; SQL Network Interfaces: Error Locating Server/Instance Specified [xFFFFFFFF]. ; 08001.

After much toying around I was able to determine what was causing this. In my case I had my shared data source connection for my data warehouse using Windows Authentication and the Impersonation Info set to Default. The problem appears to stem from the translation from Windows Authentication to the Impersonation Info option.

To fix this I changed my shared data source connection to use a SQL Server account and left the Impersonation Info option as default. This then must have allowed SSAS to translate the username and password info when doing the impersonation. I could be wrong but it is now working.

If you have any comments on this or a deeper explination please share? If you too are experiencing this issue o I hope this helps!