Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS

Professional SQL Server 2000 DTS
by Mark Chaffin, Brian Knight, Todd Robinson
Copyright 2000
Wrox Press

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I have been waiting a long time for this book to be written. As a DBA, I began using DTS when it was first introduced when SQL Server 7.0 was released. At that time, it was difficult to find good information on how to get the most out of DTS. Sure, the wizards made simple jobs easy. But the real power of DTS is its powerful ability to create custom DTS packages that can manipulate your data anyway you want as it is moved from one table (or database) to another. And creating DTS packages is not intuitively obvious.

Finally, in one book, is a comprehensive look at how to get the most from DTS. If you are new to DTS, the first couple of chapters will get you started with the basics. But then you had better catch your breath, because the rest of the book is a powerhouse of advanced material that will teach you virtually everything you ever wanted to know about DTS.

The chapters include:

• Welcome to DTS

• DTS Fundamentals

• Advanced Tasks

• Advanced Settings in DTS

• Querying Heterogeneous Data

• Converting Heterogeneous Data

• ActiveX Script Task Fundamentals

• Dynamic Configuration of Package Objects

• Advanced ActiveX Scripting

• Security and DTS

• Error Handling

• Writing Your Own Custom Tasks

• Data Warehouse Loading

• Using DTS from Other Applications

• Warehouse Data Load

If you are already relatively proficient with SQL Server 7.0 DTS, this book will not only teach you things you have never seen before, but it will also get you up to speed with all of the new DTS features included with SQL Server 2000.

One of the things I always look for in SQL Server books is a section or chapter devoted solely to performance tuning. While the various chapters do refer to performance from time to time, there is no dedicated section on how to enhance the performance of DTS. This is a chapter I would have liked to have seen in the book.

Unlike many books about SQL Server, which are mainly targeted to DBAs, this book is strongly developer-biased. By this, I mean there is a lot of "meat" for developers to sink their teeth into. If you are a DBA who doesn't have a background in development, you may find some of the chapters a little hard to follow. But that doesn't mean that you shouldn't read this book. If you work with DTS, then this book will probably become your DTS bible.

If you are a DBA, developer, and data warehouse specialist who needs to get the most out of SQL Server and DTS, then I highly recommend you add this book to your "must-have" library.