Download SSIS Denali Video Tutorials and Master Data Services Video Tutorials

SSIS Team has posted lot of videos and resources on the SQL Server Denali Resource Center. My blog readers would have noticed that I have added a permanent link before a week. Recently SSIS Team have shared couple of SSIS Denali Videos on their blog, and without any big background story, keeping it plain and simple, find these videos listed below available for your download. Also there's a How-to video made available on Technet, which is related to Master Data Services and it explains how to import data into Master Data Services in SQL Server 2008 R2.

Master Data Services Video Tutorial

• Import data into Master Data Services

SQL Server Integration Services Denali Video Tutorials

Migration and Deployment

• Working with Integration Services projects in Business Intelligence Development Studio (BIDS)
• Using the Deployment Wizard to deploy an Integration Services project
• Import an Integration Services Project from the Project Deployment File
• Import an Integration Services Project from an Integration Services Catalog
• Migrate an Integration Services 2008 Project to the Project Deployment Model
• Configure an Integration Services project using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)
• Running a package using SQL Server Management Studio (SSMS)

Impact Analysis and Data Lineage

• Extract Dependency Information Using the DependencyExtractor Command Prompt Tool
• Extract and View Dependency Information
• Extract and View Dependency Information for SQL Server Objects Using the MSSQL Provider

SSIS Designer Enhancements

• Working with the Data Flow Task's Source Assistant and Destination Assistant
• Resolve Column References in a Data Flow Component

Enterprise Master Data Management

Master Data Management is one of the most sought after skills in Business Intelligence. Master Data Services in SQL Server 2008 R2 is a first move in this direction and to the best of my knowledge the documentation is still in a work-in-progress phase. One can find nice reference material on how to use and implement MDS, but any tool or technology is not effective unless the fundamental theory behind using the tool or technology is crystal clear to the strategist. How about a free primer on MDM by one of the industry experts - Mike Ferguson ? Read this article titled "Transitioning to Enterprise MDM" by Mike Ferguson and alleviate your BI fundamentals to a new level.

Image Courtesy: DataQualityPro.com

Master Data Services and IIS Dependency

Before I start to explain the question in topic, below is a list of tasks summarized from BOL for installing Master Data Services.

Pre-Installation Tasks

• Verify Installation Requirements
• Configure required roles, role services and features
• Review language support considerations.

Installation Operations

• Run master data services Setup
• Allow Master Data Services Configuration Manager to open and complete post-installation operations

Post-Installation Tasks

• Create a Master Data Services database
• Create a Master Data Manager Web application
• Associate a Master Data Services database with a Web application
• Enable Web services

Now coming to the point that I am not pleased with is the point highlighted above.

1. When you want to create the Master Data Manager web application, you need to have IIS installed as it's one of the prerequisite for this application. For those who are completely blank about MDS, MDS Configuration Manager can be seen as SSRS Configuration manager and this web application can be seen as Reports Manager kind of application.
2. If you want to enable web services or you want to associate MDS database with the web application, you need to have the web application installed on the local machine on which the database exists.
3. If I consider a scenario, where I am deploying MDS in a server farm or in an environment where I have multiple servers having MDS on it, from the above two points I derive that I need to have IIS on all those machines. Even though using SSRS 2008 or higher versions, I can skip IIS dependency, if I want to use MDS, I would be again stuck with IIS.
4. My point is, if we take a look at the history of SSRS, in 2005 version IIS was a prerequisite. With 2008 and higher versions, this dependency was removed smartly. Why MDS didn't took lessons from this architecture revision of SSRS ?

I am sure there would have been some real technical challenges for hosting on IIS, but I would wish that in the next version this dependency should be removed like what SSRS did in it's release cycle. Also one more feature in my wishlist is that it should be enabled for 32-bit systems also. As of the date of draft, it's supported only on 64-bit systems. Do feel free to share your views on this with me by your comments.

1. For a thorough step-by-step tutorial on how to install Master Data Services, please read this article by MDS Team.
2. If you want to know why IIS dependency was removed for SSRS 2008, the same can be read from here.