DTS in SQL Server 2008
Long live Data Transformation Services! It's there if you're still working out issues with SSIS. Just don't expect DTS to be available by default.
- By Eric Johnson
- 06/07/2010
Data Transformations Services (DTS) is long dead; or is it? SQL Server 2005 came with all the bits and pieces to run DTS packages from SQL as well as SSIS tasks that allow calls to DTS packages. These bits are seemingly gone in SQL Server 2008.
Here's the real deal, though: DTS runtime and the SSIS components are still available but they are not installed by default. If you need to add them, the process is twofold.
First, you have to add the design-time elements to any machines that you use for BIDS. This is done in the SQL Server 2008 set up on the Features Selection page. Just expand Integration Services and select Client Tools Backward Compatibility. Now you can develop SSIS packages and use the Execute DTS 2000 Package task to call DTS packages.
Next, in order to actually use an SSIS package that calls a DTS package, you will need to add the DTS Runtime components to your SQL Server 2008 machine. To do this, you need to download some components from the SQL Server 2008 Feature Pack, located here.
Once on the feature pack page, you will need to download and install the “Microsoft SQL Server 2005 Backward Compatibility Components.” This adds support for, among other things, the DTS 2000 Runtime.
While you should be migrating towards SSIS and leaving those DTS packages in the rear view mirror, it can take a while to complete a migration in a large environment. In the meantime, you have these old DTS components at your disposal.
About the Author
Eric Johnson, SQL Server MVP, is the owner of Consortio Services in Colorado Springs providing IT systems management and technology
consulting. He is also the President of the Colorado Springs SQL Server
User Group. He can be contacted at www.consortioservices.com.