SSIS migration from 2005 to 2008? Just opening in BIDS 2008 (which will do conversions) and then deploying in 2008 enviorment work?

Question

I have been given a task to migrate 2005 packages to 2008, I was looking for discontinued features by SSIS 2008 on http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb500429(v=sql.100).aspx It seems VSA is discontinued and replace by VSTA. As I am doing such work first time I just wanted to check opening packages BIDS 2008 and then deploying them in 2008 enviorment will do or I will need to some other stuff also?

Answer 1

To me, the VSA -> VSTA change you just mentioned simply means that now we can code in C# :D

Overall, to migrate you just need to opne the package on BIDS 2008, but there are a few things you need to take care yourself. What it comes to my mind for example is the behavior of lookup tasks have changed a little (the way no match rows are treated) and the order variables are loaded from config files changed too. I mean, just by running and debugig your pakcages you should be able to test these kind of things

Answer 2

The migration is done very well by just opening the package, even the code change.

A couple gotchas are: 1. If you have ConnectionString in your config, you have to change Provider from SQLNCLI.1 to Provider=SQLNCLI10.1; (or add the old provider to your new SSIS 2008 production server. 2. I have a case where a space gets in there and gives me an error. I fix in Connection connectionString property by removing the space. It is hard to see in BIDS. Provider= SQLNCLI10.1;