Applied Visual Studio Team System

Team System Web Access Power Tool!

Microsoft (Brian Harry, actually) announces the availability of the !

Web-based TFS folks - get it while it's hot!

:{> Andy

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Waiting on Riley...

As I type in my upstairs office, Christy's downstairs experiencing pre-labor (if not the real deal labor). I'm up here battling the company that administers our COBRA health insurance, seriously considering a letter to my representative in Congress - but that's a topic for another blog...

I can hardly wait to hold Riley and look into his little eyes! I'm sure they'll be blue like Christy's eyes - Stevie Ray and Emma have Christy's beautiful eyes.

I get to be upstairs battling because one of the two coolest Nanas on the planet is here for the next couple weeks to help out. Thanks Nana!

:{> Andy

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SSIS for DBAs

Solid Quality Mentors is now offering a course entitled SQL Server 2005 Integration Services for Database Professionals.

I was honored to work with Erik Veerman to develop this SSIS for DBAs course! Our goal is to provide training in SSIS's non-ETL capabilities - stuff that is useful for Database Administrators.

Although it is an amazing ETL engine, SSIS is more than an enterprise ETL platform - it has lots of capabilities built especially to assist DBAs in the Production environment. In the course, we introduce the SSIS development environment and SSIS to folks who may have never opened Business Intelligence Development Studio.

Next, we cover the basics of SSIS - walking through capabailities of the Control Flow, Data Flow, Event Handlers, Variables, Properties, and Expressions.

We then get busy with Transfer Tasks, Import and Export Wizards, and Maintenance Plan development. Our next section focuses on using SSIS to perform more advanced DBA tasks - building SSIS packages that automate FTP, flat file data extraction and loading, and file archiving operations. We cover optimization, data cleansing, text mining, and binary data. We also dive into WMI, File watching, and Notifications - there's even an optional section on migrating DTS!

We then address SSIS administration, deployment, security, package configurations, logging, modular package design and team development. We cover restartability, snapshots, and transactions, and conclude with a section dedicated to troubleshooting.

Material is presented, then demonstrated. Students then perform lab exercises to reinforce the presented and deomnstrated concepts. It's a great way to learn - especially in a rich visual environment like Business Intelligence Development Studio.

As if all that wasn't enough, the course is led by Solid Quality Mentors! These are folks who have been there and done that - database professionals that are published, MVPs, or both!

If you're interested, contact at Solid Quality Mentors.

:{> Andy

Technorati Tags: SSIS DBA SSIS for DBAs Database Professionals Solid Quality