Subtitled – And I can’t edit them with VS 2010 either.
Background
I am currently testing our upgrade process, for moving all of our databases from SQL Server 2012 instances to SQL Server 2016. The SSIS projects that use the ZappySys PowerPack tools are failing with a particularly unhelpful message. In addition, attempts to open those projects with SQL Server Data Tools 2010 fails – with an equally unhelpful message. This article records what I did to remedy this situation.
Initial Error Messages
Having installed SQL Server 2016 and copied the databases, logins, jobs etc. from our 2012 instance I then copied the SSIS packages, using the process I documented in this article. When testing the jobs on the new 2016 instance that used these SSIS packages, the job would fail.
The integration Services Catalog (ISC) report has a series of error messages – the first being:
ZS Advanced File System Task:Error: Failed to load task “ZS Advanced File System Task”, type “”. The contact information for this task is “Advanced File System Task; ZappySys LLC (c) All Rights Reserved; SSIS PowerPack; http://www.zappysys.com/support”.
As that error message didn’t tell me anything useful, I attempted to import the project into Visual Studio Data Tools 2010 using the process previously documented here. When the tool attempted to import the package it failed with the following message:
Picture 1: Error message from VS 2010
Failure to open Project
Because the error message from ISC mentioned the ZappySys PowerPack I then contacted ZappySys, who responded quickly and suggested upgrading to the latest version of the software. This was a painless experience but changed nothing – the errors were the same.
Installing Data Tools
Searching for related articles found this by Koen Verbeeck (t|b) and details the versions of SQL Server Developer Tools required for various versions of SQL Server.
From this article I downloaded SQL Server Data Tools 2015 on the appropriate server. Initially this installation failed and the log file produced contained a series of similar messages:
Error 0x80072f08: Failed to send request to URL: https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=715685&clcid=0x409
When I tried one of these links within Internet Explorer a security alert appeared, which I assumed was blocking the installation process:
Picture 2: IE message
IE message box
Checking the message box to prevent this message appearing again allowed the installation to complete.
Using SQL Data Tools 2015
With the correct version of Data Tools installed for SQL Server 2016 I can now open the SSIS project, although there are still errors relating to the ZappySys controls:
Picture 3: Data Tools Error Message
At least I can edit the project
Removing the ‘corrupt’ ZappySys controls and adding them back in corrects these issues, as well as creating a ZappySys connection which had disappeared completely.
Picture 5: The re-inserted control
Controls back in place
Another way of Copying the Project Between Instances
Having now installed the appropriate Data Tools I have discovered that if I import the package into Data Tools 2015, from the SQL Server 2012 instance and then deploy it to SQL Server 2016 (using Data Tools) that the project will also be fine – without any of the issues I had experienced.
Conclusion
Deploying via ISC works perfectly well if the version of SQL Server involved are all the same. However, there appears to be issues for some projects when deploying with different versions. Using the correct version of Data Tools (for the higher version of SQL) appears to cater for this.
References and Further Reading
ZappySys PowerPack
Copying a package between servers
Importing a package into SQL Server Data Tools
SSIS Versions and Tools
Download SQL Server Data Tools
What’s new in Integration Services 2016
Notes on SQL 