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