SSIS Performance Tips

Not that I am an experienced SSIS developer but I'll try to give some general guidelines to optimize the performance of bulk import operations.

• Try to get your flat files sorted by the clustered index of the destination table
• Use the 'Fast Parse' option; there are some limitations for date (time) and integer data
• For OLEDB Connections use the Fast Load setting
• Use a SQL Server Destination if possible (can be up to 25% faster!)
• Use BULK_LOGGED recovery model for your SQL Server destinations
• The MaxConcurrentExecutables package setting defines how many tasks can run concurrently (default number of logical cpus + 2)
• Change the EngineThreads property of a task (defaults to 5 but could support more on multi-processor servers - testing is the key)
• Run parallel import steps if possible
• Use the right isolation level for your package and container
• Import into a heap from multiple files in parallel and then recreate the indexes (clustered first then the non-clustered indexes)