Decipher SSIS Error Codes: -1071607685

When using SSIS as tools to loading files, you usually can get a very clear error message that indicates what is going wrong. You can tell which column is wrong from ErrorColumn and for which reason the column brought failure from “ErrorCode – Description”.

However, when loading a source file that is not formatted as expected, if you have got an error output with "No Status is available" as ErrorCode and “0” as ErrorColumn as shown below, what do you feel?

Do you feel like lost in darkness? Somewhat …

Here is my recent experience in helping out troubleshooting file loading problem. Since there is no clue, all I can do is to check all constraints on all columns for potential trouble-makers.

Finally, it turned out that the trouble-makers is one of the obsolete columns that used to be NOT NULL, but no more input at the current loading. The solution is easy. You need to allow that column to have NULL values.

During the research for the clue, I uncovered two helpful resources to decipher SSIS error codes: 

• Integration Services Error and Message Reference
• header file dtsmsg.h

The header file dtsmsg.h is under the folder

C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft SQL Server\110\SDK\Include (for SQL Server 2012)

The two resources covered the five kinds of messages as shown. The online one is in table form and easier to follow, while the header file is more precise and detailed in technical terms.

So next time, hope you will feel more confident when you get SSIS error messages!

Do you know NCQA, NQF, or PQRS?

Do you know how quality measures are set to evaluate physicians’ performance? Below is the list of abbreviation for nationally recognized entities who provide guidelines and requirements for provider transparency methodologies and programs.

ADA: American Diabetes Association

AQA: Ambulatory Care Quality Alliance

AACAP: American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry

AACE: American Association of Clinical Endocrinologists

APA: American Psychological Association

AHRQ: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality   

BTE: Bridges to Excellence   

CHIPRA:  Children's Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act

PQRS: CMS Physician Quality Reporting System

NCQA HEDIS: Health plan Employer Data and Information Set

NCQA DRP: Diabetes Recognition Program

NCQA HSRP:  Heart/Stroke Recognition Program

NQF: National Quality Forum

PCPI: Physician Consortium for Performance Improvement

PQA: Pharmacy Quality Alliance

Tableau, Qlikview, or Power BI?

Nowadays, there are lots of excellent products for turning fast-paced digital information into easily understood images and insights. So the common questions are: Which BI tool should I choose? Which BI tool has the most promising future? While waiting for this year’s Magic Quadrant for Business Intelligence and Analytics Platform, I’d like to share with you with Jen Stirrup’s opinion from a user or customer respect.

In her article Business Intelligence Barista: Mixing your choice of BI Coffee with Tableau, Power BI or Qlikview?, Jen compared Tableau, Qlikview and Microsoft Partner PivotStream from business criteria, data visualization criteria, and technical criteria. The comparisons are very clearly delivered in three tables for each category. She gave her scores in Excellent, Good, Yes/No, Limited for these three BI tools. If you would like to find why she gave the related scores, don’t forget to read her comments at the far right column.

Jen included the following as business criteria: time to implement, scalability, enterprise ready, long-term viability, free online help, big data support, size of partner network. As for visualization criteria, she compared data interactivity, visual drilldown, offline viewer, dashboard support, web/mobile clients etc. (It seems that Tableau has a “wow” factor in terms of eye-catching interactive visualization.) Last but not least, she discussed technical criteria in aspect of data integration, OLAP cubes, data modeling, data mining/science, multi-dimensional, xVelocity support, PowerPivot suppot, API, etc.

At last, Jen concluded that “There is no wrong choice, if it is the right choice for your organization.” The key to make decision on BI tools is to find out user requirement or buyers’ needs. I can't agree more on that. We need to know what we really need and what are the priorities before we go shopping for solutions.

Although Jen mentioned Power BI solution was not included in the comparison since it is still in preview, she mentioned Power View and Power Map as comparing to the other products. I wish that she could include product functionality and learning curve for developers for these three products as well.

Further reading for more qualitative analysis of BI market: 2013 Gartner Magic Quadrant for BI.