Whats New in SSIS for SQL Server 2012 RC0

Top 10 Features You Didnt Already Know About (from PASS)

#1 Change Data Capture
Weve partnered with Attunity to provide some great CDC functionality out of the box. This includes a CDC Control Task, a CDC Source component, and a CDC Splitter transform (that splits the output based on the CDC operation insert/update/delete). It also includes CDC support for Oracle. More details to follow.

#2 ODBC Support
ODBC Source and Destination components, also from Attunity, and included in the box.

#3 Connection Manager Changes

RC0 makes some minor improvements to Shared Connection Managers (they are now expressionable), and changes the icons used to designate connection managers that are shared, offline, or have expressions on them. We also added a neat feature for the Cache Connection Manager it can now share its in-memory cache across package executions (i.e. create a shared connection manager, load the cache with a master package, and the remaining child packages will all share the same in-memory cache).

#4 Flat File Source Improvements

Another feature that was added in CTP3, but worth calling out again. The Flat File Source now supports a varying number of columns, and embedded qualifiers.

#5 Package Format Changes

Ok, another CTP3 feature but when I demod it at PASS, I did a live merge of two data flows up on stage. And it worked. Impressive, no?

#6 Visual Studio Configurations

You can now externalize parameter values, storing them in a visual studio configuration. You can switch between VS configurations from the toolbar (like you can with other project types, such as C# or VB.NET), and your parameter values will automatically change to the value within the configuration.

#7 - Scripting Improvements
We upgraded the scripting engine to VSTA 3.0, which gives us a Visual Studio 2010 shell, and support for .NET 4. Oh and we also added Script Component Debugging. More about that to follow.

#8 Troubleshooting & Logging

More improvements to SSIS Catalog based logging. You can now set a server wide default logging level, capture data flow component timing information, and row counts for all paths within a data flow.

#9 Data Taps
Another CTP3 feature that didnt get enough attention. This feature allow you to programmatically (using T-SQL) add a tap to any data flow path on a package deployed to the SSIS Catalog. When the package is run, data flowing through the path will be saved out to disk in CSV format. The feature was designed to make debugging data issues occurring in a production environment (that the developer doesnt have access to).

#10 Server Management with PowerShell

Weve added PowerShell support for the SSIS Catalog in RC0. See the follow up post for API examples.

Other Changes

Updated look for the Control Flow and Data Flow Pivot UI Row Count UI New Expression: o REPLACENULL BIDS is now SQL Server Data Tools Many small fixes and improvements based on CTP feedback thank you!!