Recently I attended the AppDev PASS Virtual Group webinar about graphs in SQL Server 2017. When the demo about car manufacturing structure appeared in Power BI (49th minute of the recording - using Force-directed graph plugin) the idea struck: how about visualising SSIS packages' relations using graphs and Power BI?
Maybe it won’t work, maybe there are limitations I’m not aware right now, but I have to try. This post will serve as the gateway to the series of post where I will write about my findings on graphs in SQL Server, their visualisations, querying, structure defining, Power BI embracement and - of course - SSIS.
For a time of writing I know there are some limitations about graph querying for hierarchical data - but only until next CTP, so I will start slow - with defining the sample project and a graph itself. The rough roadmap below:
- creating sample SSIS project with Sequence Containers, Execute Package Tasks, different precedence constraints
- internal SSIS package structure analysis - how to turn that data into graphs
- graph structure modelling and transforming the SSIS package data into graph data
- visualising it all in Power BI
Looks surprisingly easy. Waiting for the first hurdle.
Series parts:
