SSIS first shot problem

First time you will use the SSIS designer to create a package you will try to add new task, May be Microsoft will welcoming you by this error
"Failed to create the task"
and you will not know why (yeah it trick to find the cause)l aftre some search and some trying you will find that the solution is

Go to Windows services, check account under which "SQL Server Integration Services" run.
Switch it to "Local System account"

for more details http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=162315&SiteID=1

Use XML file as data source in SSRS

SSRS support using an XML file as your data source; you will need to choose XML as the type and supply the file path (ex: c:\test.xml) in the connection string field.

You can also make the XML file name dynamic. you will just need to use expressions in the connection string field (ex: = Parameters!XMLFileName.Value)

But please remember that you will need to add "fields" manually while configuring the data set. When you add fields in the dataset configuring page, this will allow you to use these fields in the report(ex: when setting textbox value use expression like this one"Fields!FirstFieldName.Value").

Use dynamic datasource in SSRS

In some cases you will need to use different datasourse (ex: connection string) in the same report.

Do SSRS support dynamic datasourse?
The answer is YES
CHK this MSDN article it is very usefull (specially "Data Source Expressions" section)
http://msdn2.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms156450.aspx
and remember don't use shared datasource(it will not work)

Configure the report server

First thing to do to host reports is to configure the report server from "Reporting services configuration"
-Go to start menu>All programes>Microsoft SQL server 2005>Configuration tools>Reporting services configuration
-In the report server virtual directory tab choose the name of the virtual directory in which the reports will be hosted (ex:http://servername/VirtualDirectoryName ... then the name of the report)
-In the report manager virtual directory tab choose the name of the virtual directory in which the report manger will be hosted (ex:http://servername/ReportMangerVirtualDirectoryName)
-In database setup tab, write the servername then click connect> then write the database name> then click Apply
-It is not must to configure these tabs "Encryption keys" , "EmailSttings" and "Execution Account"

NB: Don't forget to click on "Apply" after any change you will made

To SSRS or not to SSRS

Microsoft SQL server reporting services (SSRS) is great product. It is so so so intelligent, you just have to follow the wizard and every thing will done on behalf of you include grouping, drilldown, repeat the repeated data and much much more....

I recommend this product in your graduation project :).
As much as the intelligence and features in this product, you will find bugs and limitation and you will find it so hard to customize it.

for me I managed to work with it and product good reports (with many limitation), some clients can't accept these limitations and will ask for fully customized reports (I ask good not to deal with them:) ).

SSIS problem when you have both SQL2000 & SQL2005

Last week I try to start working with SSIS (SQL Server Integration Services).
When I try to work with SSIS I received this error
"failed to retrieve data for this request. (microsoft.sqlserver.smoenum)"

After some searching I find that SSIS can only connect to one instance of SQL server, and when you try to connect to SSIS from SSMS (SQL Server Management Studio) you don't have the option to choose the instance to connect to (It connect to the default instance).

So if you have SQL server 2000 installed as default instance and SQL 2005 installed as named instance you will not be able to work with SSIS unles you do the following:
-Open this file "C:\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\90\DTS\Binn\MsDtsSrvr.ini.xml"
-Change the value of "ServerName" node to be the SQL2005 instance name (ex:ServerName\SQL2005)
-Then go to SQL Server Configuration Manager and restart the service
-Go to SQL Server Configuration Manager Right click on SQL Server Integration Services. Select properties and in the Log On tab change it to be "LOCAL SYSTEM"
Then restart the service


You can check this post it may help
http://forums.microsoft.com/MSDN/ShowPost.aspx?PostID=1532139&SiteID=1

Black & White

Hello,
This is my first post in my new blog (my technical blog).
I hope you will enjoy my very little experience.

Osama Ibrahim