SSIS Interview Questions

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Contents

SSIS Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is SSIS?
2. What is an SSIS task?
3. What are packages in SSIS?
4. What do you understand by SSIS expressions?
5. Define Manifest file.
6. Differentiate between SSIS and Informatica.
7. What is data transformation in SSIS?
8. Define SSIS Catalog. Is it possible to deploy user-defined packages in the catalog?
9. What is SSIS Container?
10. In SSIS, what are the variable types that can be created?
11. Define SSIS Checkpoint.
12. Define Precedence Constraint.
13. What are SSIS Connection Managers?
14. How are SSIS Packages more advantageous than stored procedures?
15. Define conditional split transformations.
16. What are Process Bytes in SSIS?
17. What are the disadvantages of SSIS?
18. How is error handling done in SSIS?

SSIS Interview Questions for Experienced

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 SSIS Interview Questions

SSIS Interview Questions for Experienced (.....Continued)

19. How is the deployment utility created in SSIS?
20. Define Data Flow in SSIS.
21. Difference between Merge Transformation and Union all transformations.
22. Explain the types of SSIS containers.
23. What does the data profiling task do?
24. How many lookup cache modes are present in SSIS?
25. Is it possible to log SSIS execution?
26. Is it possible to schedule packages for a specific time period of a day?
27. What is SSIS breakpoint?
28. What are the components that would be used to send data from the access
database to the SQL database on the off chance?
29. What is SSIS event logging property?
30. Explain the importance of config files in SSIS.
31. How do you store SQL passwords? Does the SSIS connection manager of the
package store SQL password?
32. How will you add a recordset variable inside Script Task?
33. What will you do if a package runs fine in BIDS but fails while running from the
SQL agent job?

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Let's get Started
SQL Server Integration Services, in short SSIS, is a Microso SQL Server 2005
component that came as an upgrade to the Data Transformation Services (DTS). SSIS
is available as Standard and Enterprise editions of the Microso SQL Server. SSIS
provides an integrated platform for building data workflow applications. It is
primarily used as a fast and efficient data warehousing tool that takes care of data
extraction, data transformation, and data loading that constitutes ETL (Extract-
Transform-Load). It can also be used for automating SQL Server maintenance and
updation of multidimensional cube data.

SSIS Interview Questions for Freshers

1. What is SSIS?
SSIS stands for SQL Server Integration Services. It is a part of the Microso SQL
server and is a well-known integrated platform for performing enterprise-level data
migration and transformation activities. The platform is used for solving complex
problems like reading, loading, copying, or downloading large files, mining data,
extracting relevant information, and managing SQL objects. It supports data sources
like relational databases, XML, flat files, etc, and helps to load and send data to
multiple destinations.

2. What is an SSIS task?

Tasks are units of work and are present in SSIS packages. We have different task
types depending on the type of work that needs to be performed. Below are some of
the most commonly used tasks present in SSIS:

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Execute SQLTask: Used for executing SQL statements in relational databases.

Data Flow Task: Used for reading data from one or more data sources,
transforming them, and loading it to various destinations as required.
Analysis Services Processing Task: Used for processing objects of the tabular
model or SSAS (SQL Server Analysis Services) cubes.
FTP Tasks: Used for sending and receiving files from FTP Servers to our local
folders.
Script Task: Used for writing .Net code as per requirements.
Send Mail Task: Used for sending emails for notifying users regarding status,
progress, or outcomes of tasks.
Execute Package Task: Used for calling different packages of the same project.
It also has the feature of passing the value of variables to the package.
Execute Process Task: Used for running application as a whole or as a batch
script. It can also be used for opening so ware like Microso Word, Excel, etc,
and for unzipping compressed files.
File System Task: Used for performing file system manipulations like move files,
rename them, delete them, change the location, etc.
Custom Task: If all the existing tasks do not meet our requirements, then SSIS
provides flexibility to create new custom tasks.

3. What are packages in SSIS?

SSIS packages are organized collections of various connections and elements related
to data flow, event handlers, variables, control flow, configurations, or parameters
that would be used for assembling and programmatically building graphical design
tools. They can also be used for populating data from different sources which can be
later used for standardizing and administrative purposes. They are created in BIDS -
Business Intelligent Development Studio.

4. What do you understand by SSIS expressions?

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 SSIS Interview Questions

SSIS Expressions are used for filtering information based on parameters and
conditions to get desired information. They make lives easy by helping to work with
conditions, loops, and dynamic connections. The expression could consist of
symbols, literals, identifiers, operators, and functions. They are mainly used for
updating properties dynamically at runtime. Once we have the expressions ready, an
expression evaluator parses this expression for validating the rules of the expression.
The expressions are used for the below 2 cases:
Control Flow:
Here, the variable values are derived using other variables employing
expressions.
For validating any condition, precedence constraints are used.
Used for setting properties dynamically at runtime by tasks and containers.
Data Flow:
Expressions are used on rows to get conditional split transformations
evaluating to true or false.
Helps to create a new column based on the result of applying expressions to
get derived transformations on new columns.

5. Define Manifest file.

The manifest file is the utility having information that is useful for deploying
packages using file system wizard and database of SQL server.

6. Differentiate between SSIS and Informatica.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Feature SSIS Informatica

Security Secure Secure

Maintenance and
Easy Difficult
Administration

Ease of Implementation Easy Moderate

Performance in a
Performs
medium SQL server Performs well
well
environment

High in large
Productivity Moderate applications
implementation

Not
Auto Documentation Available
available

Cost No cost Expensive

Was present
Product Maturity Younger much before to
SSIS

7. What is data transformation in SSIS?

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Data transformation is the process of extracting required data from a data source
and is the most critical SSIS step. Post extraction, the process aids in managing and
transferring the data to a specific file destination. There are several rules
implemented by this process for loading the extracted data to the destination target
file. Based on this, the transformations are classified as:

8. Define SSIS Catalog. Is it possible to deploy user-defined

packages in the catalog?
SSIS catalog is the database where all deployed packages are stored securely. This
helps to control and handle the deployed packages effectively. The users can deploy
their packages too. All the deployed packages are stored in the catalog as a
centralized database.

9. What is SSIS Container?

SSIS containers are defined as a set of logically linked tasks that allows the
management of the task scope effectively. Containers allow looping through tasks set
until tasks are grouped logically or until specified criteria are met. Nesting of
containers is also allowed and the containers are set in the Package designer section
in the Control flow tab.

10. In SSIS, what are the variable types that can be created?
SSIS permits the creation of two variable types- global and task-specific variables.
The scope of global variables is available for all tasks of a specified process. The task-
specific variables have scope specific to the task.

11. Define SSIS Checkpoint.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

SSIS checkpoint is a property that provides a point of restart from the failure point.
When the checkpoint property is set to true, a checkpoint file is created which
consists of all the relevant information required to run the package from the point of
failure. If the package is run successfully, the file is deleted and is recreated again
when the package runs. This is particularly useful as it avoids re-running the whole
project when the execution fails.

12. Define Precedence Constraint.

Precedence Constraint is used for enabling the developers to define a set of tasks
logically and define the order of execution. These are connectors used for connecting
all the tasks.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

13. What are SSIS Connection Managers?

Connection Managers are used for gathering data from various sources and sending it
to a destination. It facilitates system connection by including information regarding
server, data source, authentication details, database, etc.

14. How are SSIS Packages more advantageous than stored

procedures?
SSIS has more advantages when dealing with complex transformation processes
involving slow-changing dimensions. They are:
SSIS is known for managing memory efficiently thereby resulting in much bigger
improvements in performance when compared to stored procedures.
SSIS supports GUI (Graphical User Interface) and helps developers develop
complex transformations easily and in a reliable way.]
SSIS helps in easier interaction with external sources which are particularly
useful during data cleansing.
If the ETL (Extract, Transform, Load) process consists majorly of Extract and Load
with very little Transform, then Stored Procedures work well because they do not
deal with cursors.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

15. Define conditional split transformations.

These are the transformations that are similar to the IF-ELSE condition of
programming languages which checks for the condition and executes the process if
the condition evaluates to true. Here, we can also specify the order of evaluation for
the conditions and also provide the default value as the output.

16. What are Process Bytes in SSIS?

Process bytes represent the amount of memory currently used by the Integration
services. This memory cannot be shared by other processes.

17. What are the disadvantages of SSIS?

There are some disadvantages while using SSIS. They are as follows:
If we need to see the report of package execution, then we will have to install
new so ware called Management Studio. SSIS does not have the option to
publish to reporting services.
SSIS utilizes high memory which can cause conflicts with memory utilization of
SQL. This causes problems if there are requirements to run multiple packages in
parallel.
SSIS also uses high CPU resources which again results in problems while running
multiple packages parallely. Proper CPU allocation needs to be ensured between
SQL and SSIS to avoid either of them running slow.

18. How is error handling done in SSIS?

During the process of transferring millions of records from one source to a
destination, the probability of errors always exists. It is very important to identify the
records that are errored out and ensure the transmission of records is smooth with
no errors to the destination. To identify the errors, the errors need to be logged. The
components of SSIS - source, transformation, and the destination - all have had
support to log errors to output by means of secondary pipe by providing means to
define behaviors while errors occur.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

The secondary pipe or the error flow can be connected to another transformation or
a destination component depending on the requirement. The error log can contain
details regarding the error columns, error descriptions, and error codes.

SSIS Interview Questions for Experienced

19. How is the deployment utility created in SSIS?
Deployment is nothing but a process of updating the state of the package from
development mode to executable mode. Deployment in SSIS can be done by simply
performing the right-click operation on the “Integration Services Project” and
clicking on the build option. This would create a “package.dtsx” file inside the bin
folder named “projectbin”. The utility helps in deploying packages at SQL server or as
an executable file on a specified location.
Following are the steps followed to create a deployment utility:

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Go to Project and right-click on it.

Double click on the properties.
Choose the path location for deployment by selecting the box next to “True”
under Create Deployment Utility.
Save changes. Close this window.
Right-click again on the project and select the build option. This creates a
deployment folder in the project’s root within the BIN folder.
The deployment folder will have a .manifest file.
Double-clicking on the .manifest file and selecting the deploy option will
perform package deployment on the SQL server.

20. Define Data Flow in SSIS.

Data flow is the data transferring process from the source to a specified donation. It
defines the way how data or information is sent from one point to other. It consists of
3 main components:

SSIS gives control to the users to perform the data transformation process from
source to destination utilizing various built-in transformation components. The
components provided by the SSIS helps users in data cleaning and manipulation in
the pipeline. For achieving this, the user needs to attach a data flow task to the
package control flow which is later executed within the package by creating,
ordering, and running the data flow. It is worthy to note that each data flow task has
a separate data flow engine instance.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

21. Difference between Merge Transformation and Union all

transformations.
Merge Transformation: This does the task of merging data from 2 sources to single
output. This is useful when we need to break the data flow path to a separate error
path and once the error is handled, merge that back to the main data flow. To apply
this transformation, the data should be sorted first and the metadata information for
the 2 paths should be the same. The sorting can be done by applying sort
transformation before the merge or by providing an ORDER BY clause in the source
connection.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Union All Transformation: Union all transformation working is similar to merge

transformation but the only difference is that this does not require sorted data. Data
from different sources are transformed and combined into a single output.

22. Explain the types of SSIS containers.

The following containers are present in SSIS:

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Task Host Containers: Default container where all single tasks are available and
are used for background scenes in SSIS. This is not present in the toolbox of
Visual Studio and is assigned to the task implicitly. This container is also used to
extend event handlers and variables.
Sequence Containers: These handle the flow of package subset and helps to
divide packages into smaller pieces.
These are displayed in the Control Flow tab. We can drag and drop
containers from the toolbox in the design pane and then add a set of tasks
into the container. Following things can be achieved using sequence
containers:
Group tasks for disabling a portion of the unused package.
To narrow the variable scope to the container.
Manage properties of tasks easily by setting container properties.
Ensure multiple executions of tasks by making use of one method.
Create transactions for data-related tasks and not package as a
whole.
Create event handlers such as sending mail in case things go wrong.
The below example shows two tasks that need to be successfully executed
before calling the third script task.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

For Loop Containers: Helps to create a loop in the execution of packages. SSIS
does this by initializing expression optionally and continues evaluation until
expression becomes false. In the below example, We have the task name “Wait
for file to arrive” which is inside For Loop Container, and the task is executed
until the expression is evaluated to false. The Load File task is executed a er the
loop execution is complete.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Foreach Containers: This comprises of powerful loop mechanism which

enables the loop using object collection. As the collection is looped, the variable
is assigned values from the collection which is used by connections or tasks
outside or within the container.

23. What does the data profiling task do?

Data profiling is the process of examining information by comprehending its
condition, readability, examples, nulls, or numbers. This is performed at the
beginning of the advancement cycle for structuring the database blueprint and
assessing the quality of the data.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

24. How many lookup cache modes are present in SSIS?

There are 3 types of lookup cache modes. These are part of Lookup Transformation
in SSIS.

Full Cache Mode: This mode helps in querying the database before the data-
flow task is executed. This constitutes a critical part of the pre-execution step of
the data-flow task. In this mode, the entire data copy is copied from the table
and stored into the lookup cache in SSIS.
Partial Cache Mode: This mode helps in querying new rows in the database
from different data sources. Here, the matched row data is cached into the SSIS
lookup cache. If the lookup cache is full, the data is removed automatically from
the cache based on the usage statistics of the existing rows to free up space for
newly matched rows.
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 SSIS Interview Questions

25. Is it possible to log SSIS execution?

Yes. SSIS supports logging which helps the system in analyzing and writing log entries
during any run-time events. It also supports logging of custom messages, which the
developer has to manually enable. Since the SSIS deals with a variety of data sources,
logging is supported in multiple formats such as logging information to text files, XML
files, Windows Log, etc. The scope of the logs is packages. They are maintained at the
package level which means that any task that runs from the package can log
information to other package logs.

26. Is it possible to schedule packages for a specific time period

of a day?
Yes. This can be done by designing SQL Server Agent Job with work steps similar to
the SSIS package. This job fetches the dtexec order utility to execute the bundle. This
created bundle can be run or requested based on the requirement or can be
rescheduled based on the recurring requirement.

27. What is SSIS breakpoint?

An SSIS breakpoint is a property that allows developers to debug and review the
variable or data status at any point by pausing the execution of the package in the
project. The breakpoints are configured in Business Intelligence Development
Studio, generally known as BIDS. The following steps are followed to apply or remove
SSIS breakpoints:
Go to the control flow interface within the BIDS section.
Right-click on the object that we want to apply or remove the breakpoint.
Select “Edit Breakpoint” and enable/disable the breakpoint.

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 SSIS Interview Questions

We will be using the following three components:

One OLE DB Source
Information Conversion Change
One SQL Server Goal
OLE DB source is used to get information from the Access database source.
Information conversion change is used in case of any datatype anomaly due to
data contrast between source and destination databases. SQL Server Goal is
utilized when we have the bundle run from the same machine and our database
server is put on at the off chance. It is used for improving the SQL goal.

29. What is SSIS event logging property?

This property gives us the flexibility to log or not to log the events while running the
components - tasks and packages - in SSIS.

30. Explain the importance of config files in SSIS.

The config file is used for providing inputs to the connection manager about the
properties used by the packages and tasks at the run-time. This is especially useful
when the changes are deployed on multiple locations or servers as we do not have to
worry every time package runs about configuration. Depending on the server or
location, the config files are automatically picked and used.
We can store config properties in multiple ways. Some of them are:
XML configuration file: Data can be stored as an XML file.
Environment variables: The config data can be stores as part of environment
variables.
Registry entry: The config can be stored in the registry.
Parent package variable: The config can be stored as a variable in a package of
a task.
SQL Server: The config can be stored in a database table on the SQL Server.

31. How do you store SQL passwords? Does the SSIS connection
manager of the package store SQL password?

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 SSIS Interview Questions

The SSIS connection manager has issues in storing the password. Hence we can
follow the below-proposed solutions:
Method 1: Create and use SQL Server Agent Proxy account which uses credential
that makes SQL Server Agent capable of the running job as an account having
required permissions to run the job or as the account which created the
package.
This method is used for decrypting secrets and key requirements of the user
are satisfied.
There are chances that this method could fail because the secrets are
decrypted by taking the current user and current computer information
which will inadvertently fail if the project or package is moved to a different
computer.
Method 2: Set the value of Package Protection Level Property to Server Storage.
This stores packages on the SQL Server and lets users access this through SQL
Server database roles.
Method 3: Set the value of Package Protection Level property as “Encrypt
Sensitive with Password”. The method uses a password for encrypting sensitive
information. This can be added to the SQL Server Agent job to run the job
effectively.
Method 4: Package configuration can be used to save sensitive information
which can later be stored in a secured folder. When the package is run, the
information is obtained from this config file. If we do not want to save the
secrets in the package, we can set the property of Protection Level to
“DontSaveSensitive”.
Method 5: Package templates having a good protection level can be created for
long-term solutions.

32. How will you add a recordset variable inside Script Task?

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 SSIS Interview Questions

Variables are used in script tasks to facilitate data exchange with other objects of the
package. Script task makes use of the property called Variables of Dts object for
reading and writing to variable objects of the package. To make the variables
available to the custom script, we need to add them to read-only or read-write
variable lists. The variable names are case-sensitive and care has to be taken while
adding the variables to the list. We can use the Value property for reading and writing
data to the variables.

33. What will you do if a package runs fine in BIDS but fails while
running from the SQL agent job?
A package that runs successfully in BIDS and fails from the SQL agent job can mean
that the SQL Agent jobs do not have the necessary permission for some connections
of the package. We can either create a proxy account that allows SQL Agent jobs to
run the package or elevate the current account permissions.

Conclusion:

SSIS is a platform for integration services that provide automated tasks and various
transformation components for cleaning, transforming, and validating data
throughout the process of data loading from source to destination. In this article, we
have seen what are the most commonly asked SSIS interview questions and the
answers to them.
References and Resources:
SSIS Documentation
Database
SQL Interview Guide

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