Upgrading Script Tasks in SSIS. Target of Invocation on Script Task.

Recently I was working on a project with @SQLDusty (Dustin Ryan) and we were upgrading some projects from SQL Server 2012 to 2014. One of our script tasks that we were using to dynamically create and process cube partitions was failing. The worse part is that the error message was completely generic so it wasn’t immediately apparent what was wrong. After a little troubleshooting we were able to find the root cause and solve the issue.

Below is the error message we were getting from the SSISDB:

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The problem that we had was that our .net reference for Analysis Management Objects was 11.0 (2012) and it needed to be 12.0 (2014).

Here is a screenshot of the .net reference as seen in the solution explorer.

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This screenshot of the properties window displays the version number for my .net reference. Also pay close attention to the Description box. This description is what you actually look for and add when adding the Microsoft.AnalysisServices reference to your script task.

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So now all we need to do to fix this problem is remove the current reference and add the correct reference back in.

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1) From the solution explorer inside your script task component right click on reference and select “Add Reference….”

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2) From the new window that opens up select assemblies and then extensions:

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3) Finally select Analysis Management Objects 12.0.0.0 as seen below and add it to your references.

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This fixed our problem and if you are also going through the upgrade process I hope this helps you as well!

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Get list of subfolders in SSIS with SSIS Script Task!

Recently I needed to get a list of subfolders in SSIS. I also only wanted to bring back a list of subfolders that had the date appended to the end. So let’s walk through how to do this in Script Task using c#.

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First we need to create two variables in SSIS:

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Next bring a script task into the control flow and open it up for editing.

  • Select C# for the script language.
  • ReadWriteVariables select objDirectoryList

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Now select Edit Script

  • Under the section “public void Main()” enter the following code:
    • Of course replace the directory location with your directory.
Dts.Variables["objDirectoryList"].Value = 
       System.IO.Directory.GetDirectories(@"C:\Blogs\RootFolder\","*20*",AllDirectories);
Dts.TaskResult = (int)ScriptResults.Success;
        }

        public SearchOption AllDirectories { get; set; }

Essentially all I’m doing here is populating the object variable objDirectoryList with all the subdirectories in the folder C:\Blogs\RootFolder\. Notice that I have also added a filter here “*20*”. If you do not wish to have a filter and  you want to bring back all subdirectories then just replace my filter with “*”.

Finally we can now iterate through this object variable in a FELC.

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Below you can see the two directories that are returned from the script task above.

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Thanks for looking, hope this helps.

Does cube partition exists? Script task in SSIS explained!

The first necessary step in dynamically creating cube partitions is to determine if the partition already exists. If the partition does not exists then we create the partition, if it does exists we simply process the existing partition. Recently I gave a free webinar online at PragmaticWorks.com and a few of the attendees wanted more details on the script task I used, so here we go. It’s also important to note that I used a daily partitioning strategy for the webinar. This is important because the naming conventions of my partitions included the partition name and date that I used as a filter. For example:

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In this blog post I will walk you through step by step setting up this script task. Please see below. First the setup:

  • Create the following variables, if you are in 2012 or 2014 create these as package parameters. We will use these parameters to establish our connection to Analysis Services and then build out the partition name dynamically.
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  • Now we need to create another variable, this variable will be used in our control flow to determine if we should create the partition or process the partition, we will get to this part in a bit.

image The Script Task: (Setup) Now that we have created our variables and have that part set up we are going to build our script task.

  • Step 1) Drag a script task component from the toolbox into your control flow.
  • Step 2) Open the task for editing and choose C# as the script language.
  • Step 3) ReadOnlyVariables: Select all the variables from Step 1 in the setup section.
  • Step 4) ReadWriteVariables: Select the variable intDoesPartitionExists
  • Step 5) Finally, click the Edit Script button.

The Script Task: (Code)

  • Step 1) Add the Microsoft.AnalysisServices reference.
          1. From the solution explorer right click on references and select “new reference”.
          2. From the Add Reference window select .NET tab
          3. Find and select Analysis Management Objects and click ok.
    • Step 2) Add Microsoft.Analysis Services as a namespace. Screenshot below:
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  • Step 3)  Finally we can add our code. In this section we are going to use the parameters previously created to connect to our cube and then check to see if a partition exists. For this blog we simply hardcoded these values for demonstration purposes but typically we would set these values dynamically. If the partition exists I populate the variable intDoesPartitionExists with a value of 1 for True. If the partition does not exists I populate it with the value of 0 for false. I then use this variable in the control flow to determine whether to process or create partitions.
  • Step 4) Find the section titled “public void main() and paste the following code where it says Add your code here
// TODO: Add your code here

            string serverName = "";
            string databaseName = "";
            string cubeName = "";
            string measuregroupName = "";
            string partitionname = "";
            string Date = "";


            //Retrieve the server, database, cube, etc. details from the variables
            serverName = Dts.Variables["ServerName"].Value.ToString();
            databaseName = Dts.Variables["DatabaseName"].Value.ToString();
            cubeName = Dts.Variables["CubeName"].Value.ToString();
            measuregroupName = Dts.Variables["MeasureGroupName"].Value.ToString();
            partitionname = Dts.Variables["MeasureGroupPartitionName"].Value.ToString();
            Date = Dts.Variables["Date"].Value.ToString();

            //Build the connection string
            string ConnectionString = "Data Source=" + serverName + ";Catalog=" + databaseName + ";";

            //Connect to the server and select the database, cube, etc.
            Server srv = new Server();
            srv.Connect(ConnectionString);
            Database db = srv.Databases.FindByName(databaseName);
            Cube cb = db.Cubes.FindByName(cubeName);
            MeasureGroup mg = cb.MeasureGroups.FindByName(measuregroupName);

            if (mg.Partitions.ContainsName(partitionname + "_" + Date))
            {
                Dts.Variables["intDoesPartitionExists"].Value = 1;
            }
            else
            {
                Dts.Variables["intDoesPartitionExists"].Value = 0;
            }

            srv.Disconnect();
            srv.Dispose();

You can find my webinar on Processing SSAS with SSIS at the following link: http://pragmaticworks.com/Training/FreeTraining/ViewWebinar/WebinarID/1714 Thank you for looking!

Processing SSAS Cubes with SSIS –Q & A

For those of you who attended my webinar on Processing SSAS cubes with SSIS, thank you! For those of you who didn’t the video is still available here: http://pragmaticworks.com/Training/FreeTraining/ViewWebinar/WebinarID/1714.

Below are a few of the questions I received in the webinar. There will be a couple of follow up blogs for the more detailed questions.

Q: Can you please share the script used to generate the partitions?

A: I will post a follow up blog in the next couple of days with step by step instructions. Sharing my exact script would not be helpful. I will update this post with the additional blog.

Q: How are you stopping through your SSIS Steps within package execution?

A: Breakpoints! I used breakpoints to pause the package during execution so I could explain exactly what was going on. To enable breakpoints on a task inside SSIS you simply right click on the task and then select edit breakpoints. I showed this at the end of the webinar during Q&A.

Q: What are our best logging options if we do all of our cube processing with script tasks instead of the native components?

A: Your best logging options are going to be setting up a Profiler Trace or Extended events. I briefly explained setting up a trace at the end of my webinar.

Q: Does the C# script task need the connection string information to query SSAS for the partition information?

A: Yes. In my webinar I showed how to dynamically create partitions for your cube inside of SSIS. Before creating them I used a script task to see if the partition already existed. I have posted a follow up blog below:

https://mitchellsql.wordpress.com/2014/11/18/does-cube-partition-exists-script-task-in-ssis-explained/

Q: How are the aggregation designs handled on the dynamic partitions?

A: This is handled in the XMLA by specifying the Aggregation ID. I showed this at the end of my webinar during the Q&A section and I will also include this in a follow up blog on creating the XMLA for dynamic partitions.

Q: Is this applicable to tabular cube processing?

A: Yes. The analysis services processing task processes tabular models, cubes, dimensions, and mining models.

Once again thank you for attending our free webinar. Until next time!