posted 6/21/2011 by ShawnHarrison - Views: [1626]
One of my duties at work is to teach a class on using SSIS. On the last day of class, I cover various admin topics. One of my favorite segments is using configuration files in SSIS packages. There is a known bug I like to show that involves adding two connections to the XML config file and then removing one of the connections from the package. If you execute the package, you will get an error immediately in 2005 and 2008. However, in 2008 R2, you don’t see the error until you try to edit the config file again. I was showing this to a class one day and a student asked, ‘Do you get the same error if you tried using the SQL config table option?’. This was a great question. I responded with ‘I don’t know, but let’s try it’. So this is what happened.
First, I added two connection managers to the package.
I set up a configuration table in the configuration editor. You can see the table has two connections.
I executed the package first just to make sure everything functioned correctly. Then, I removed one of the connection mangers from the package. When I executed the package, BIDS hung for a few seconds and then I got the dreaded blue screen of death. I was fascinated, yet at the same time, terrified because my whole class was dropped from the online meeting room.
After class, I tried it again just to see if it was a fluke or not. I was able to recreate it consistently 3 times in row. I used an application called Blue Screen View from NirSoft to look at the log. The log file showed it was caused by a SQL Server network service. This appears to be a major bug. I’m not sure if this will be addressed in later releases, but I certainly hope it will be.