SSIS2008 Deployment to File Systems

While there are umpteen number of blogs out there to guide us deploy SSIS packages to server, i could not find one that tailor fit my requirements. After going through SQL Server Online books and many other blogs, i came up with my own process for deploying packages. This is how it goes:

2008 SSIS Deployment to File System
These are the steps to be followed to deploy to File System:

1. Create a deployment utility.
2. Copy the ‘deployment’ folder over to target server.
3. Install desired packages in package store.
4. Reset CreateDeploymentUtility to FALSE.

CREATE DEPLOYMENT UTILITY:
Once the package is ready to be deployed and has been checked into source control, follow these steps to build the deployment utility:

1. Open the Project/Solution in which the package exists.
2. Click on drop-down list Project --> Properties. the name of the solution which is opened.A dialogue box headed Property Pages open up.(See Figure 1 below).
3. Set the following properties and click ‘OK’:

• On the left of the dialogue box, click on ‘Build’
  i. OutPut Paths: bin
• On the left of the dialogue box, click on ‘Deployment Utility’
  i. AllowConfigurationChanges: True
  ii. CreateDeloymentUtility: True
  iii. DeploymentOutputPath: bin\Deployment

Remember: When we perform a ‘build’ on the solution, it validates and builds the entire solution. For the build to be successful, every package in the solution needs to validate successfully.


COPY DEPLOYMENT FOLDER TO TARGET FOLDER:
A new folder called \bin\Deployment will be created under the folder in which the solution exists. Copy the ‘deployment’ folder to the target folder. Designate a location for storing all SSIS projects on the target server.

INSTALL DESIRED PACKAGES TO LOCATION:
If the installation wizard is run without being modified, it will install ALL packages to file system or package store. While this might be desirable to deploy a new solution containing all new packages, in most scenarios, it will not be the case. When a new package is added to the solution or an old one is modified, and only certain packages need to be deployed, the .SSISDeploymentManifest file present in the ‘Deployment’ folder needs to be modified. This file is a XML file. It is modified so that it consists only the name of the package that needs to be deployed and all other package names are deleted.
Once the deployment utility is on the target server and .SSISDeploymentManifest file modified, install the packages for them to get to the package store. For this, execute (double-click) the file called .SSISDeploymentManifest. Follow the prompts of the dialogue box that opens up.

1. Welcome screen of Dialogue Box – Click Next
2. Deploy SSIS Packages screen : Select file system deployment , Click Next. Checking the check box that says ‘Validate Packages after Installation’ validates every package after it is installed in the package store. This action is time consuming.
3. Select Installation Folder screen: Click on ‘Browse’ and drill down until you have it pointing to the following location: \\targetservername\d$\Program Files\Microsoft SQL Server\100\DTS\Packages\\ . Click Next.
4. Confirm Installation screen: Click Next to start the installation .

RESET CreateDeploymentUtility to FALSE:

Once project is deployed, go to project properties (Step 2) , and reset the CreateDeploymentUtility under the Deployment Utility tab to FALSE. Leaving this to be TRUE causes the deployment utility to be recreated everytime a package is executed. This is not only time consuming but also , at times, undesirable.