Connection Managers

A connection manager is a logical representation of a connection. At design time, you set the properties of a connection manager to describe the physical connection that Integration Services creates when the package runs. For example, a connection manager includes the ConnectionString property that you set at design time; at run time, a physical connection is created using the value in the connection string property.

A package can use multiple instances of a connection manager type, and you can set the properties on each instance. At run time, each instance of a connection manager type creates a connection that has different attributes.

SQL Server 2005 Integration Services (SSIS) provides different types of connection managers that enable packages to connect to a variety of data sources and servers.

The following table lists the connection manager types.

Type Description Topic

ADO

Connects to ActiveX Data Objects (ADO) objects.

ADO Connection Manager

ADO.NET

Connects to a data source by using a .NET provider.

ADO.NET Connection Manager

EXCEL

Connects to an Excel workbook file.

Excel Connection Manager

FILE

Connects to a file or a folder.

File Connection Manager

FLATFILE

Connect to data in a single flat file.

Flat File Connection Manager

FTP

Connect to an FTP server.

FTP Connection Manager

HTTP

Connects to a web server.

HTTP Connection Manager

MSMQ

Connects to a message queue.

MSMQ Connection Manager

MSOLAP90

Connects to an instance of SQL Server 2005 Analysis Services (SSAS) or an Analysis Services project.

Analysis Services Connection Manager

MULTIFILE

Connects to multiple files and folders.

Multiple Files Connection Manager

MULTIFLATFILE

Connects to multiple data files and folders.

Multiple Flat Files Connection Manager

OLEDB

Connects to a data source by using an OLE DB provider.

OLE DB Connection Manager

ODBC

Connects to a data source by using ODBC.

ODBC Connection Manager

SMOServer

Connects to a SQL Server Management Objects (SMO) server.

SMO Connection Manager

SMTP

Connects to an SMTP mail server.

SMTP Connection Manager

SQLMOBILE

Connects to a SQL Server 2005 Compact Edition database.

SQL Server Compact Edition Connection Manager

WMI

Connects to a server and specifies the scope of Windows Management Instrumentation (WMI) management on the server.

WMI Connection Manager

See Also

Other Resources

Integration Services Connections

Help and Information

Getting SQL Server 2005 Assistance