I've been having problems migrating some SSIS packages from localhost (32bit) to the server (Windows Server 2003 64bit, SQL Server 2005 Enterprise SP2). These packages have Excel data connectors, and hence must be run in 32 bit mode. When I try to run them with the 32bit dtexec, I get the "generic" error "the package failed to load" (0xC0010014). I stripped down the package until I found the source of the error: a ForEach container, using the File Enumerator with the directory set to a variable. When I remove the variable setting it works, when I add the variable expression it fails. Note: this does not fail in the 64bit dtexec.

I read KB 913817 and determined that this was not causing my problem. When I open the package in Business Intelligence Studio on the server itself, I get an error when I try to edit the expressions on the ForEach loop (but only when the Enumerator is set to File).Poking around the SSIS DLLs, I found c:\program files (x86)\microsoft sql server\90\dts\foreachenumerators\ForEachFileEnumerator.dll. Re-registered it with regsvr32. Voila, problem solved.

A few weeks ago I started trying to better understand the concepts behind service oriented architecture (SOA), how I can apply them to my work, and if doing so is actually a good idea. When I first started hearing about SOAP years ago, I understood it as an alternative to objects — you build and consume services instead of objects. This sounds great for highly distributed environments, but also sounds like a performance nightmare in a business environment that does not need distribution. So I largely ignored it, and assumed I could ignore SOA as well.