Hi, we run std 2008 R2 and suddenly my last two packages are generating log text files (configured from logging option in ssis) with blanks between every two characters even if those characters are in the same word.  I'm using notepad to look.  Its happening on my local and on a remote server.  Does anybody know what causes this?

• Edited by db042190 Wednesday, June 24, 2015 6:16 PM more

I see something about add-content but am not sure what it is and why powershell would need to get involved.   I noticed one funny thing but it might not matter.  When configuring a text file in ssis's logging option, the description that shows in the popup says something about csv. 

• Edited by db042190 Wednesday, June 24, 2015 6:31 PM more

thx, yes its spaces. 

I'm basing that conclusion on the fact that when I replace all blanks (using notepad) in the log with null string, log looks normal. 

Just in case I'm misleading myself, what setting and where would a decision be made to record an ssis text log file as Unicode?  I'm thinking it would have to be somewhere in the pkg since its happening locally and on my ssis server.

• Edited by db042190 Thursday, June 25, 2015 11:53 AM more

thx Katherine, that is interesting but I think we are then back to the original question which is why am I getting spaces in between every pair of characters?  I've never had this problem before.  I'm using notepad to view.  I've always used notepad to view. 

I'll poke around to see if notepad itself may. under some conditions or settings. view the file this way. 

I'll also open it up in another product  to look closer at what is actually stored there bit wise per Olaf's suggestion.

I'll post back here.

I opened the file in a more advanced editor and see this encoding

00 6E 00 50 00 72 00 65 00 56 00 61 00 6c 00 69

for this portion of the words OnPrevalidate

nPreVali

So Olaf must be right as this looks like the Unicode representation of these letters, otherwise I'd be seeing hex 20's everywhere.

Also, notepad must assume that when u r replacing blanks, it must include characters like this hex 00 in the conversion.

Obvious question, what does the community do/use in its etl when it archives such logs so that folks don't need to look at these files this way?  i'd prefer to have an ssis component remove the hex 00's on a date stamped copy of the original log .  

I went behind the scenes to compare a pkg whose log file looks normal in notepad:

code block 1 below seems to be all that is related to the normal one's log metadata, code block 2 to the troublesome one.

Also, in the "Configure SSIS Logs" pop up (Providers and Logs tab) for the normal one, the name is SSIS Log Provider for Text Files while in the other one its SSIS Log Provider for Text Files1.  Each has all events checked on the details tab.

Pls notice the difference in FileUsageType values between the two in the code blocks.   The normal one has a value of 1, the troublesome one a 0.  Maybe these would explain the difference but I also wonder how two different values got assigned in two different pkgs when I think I follow the same steps when creating such logs.

<DTS:ConnectionManager>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DelayValidation">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ObjectName">normalfile.txt</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DTSID">{7D104887-4BDE-44CA-9AC1-AC3DF322A8CE}</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="Description"></DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="CreationName">FILE</DTS:Property><DTS:ObjectData><DTS:ConnectionManager>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="FileUsageType">1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ConnectionString">c:\temp\ssislogs\normalfile.txt</DTS:Property></DTS:ConnectionManager></DTS:ObjectData></DTS:ConnectionManager>
<DTS:LogProvider>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ConfigString">normalfile.txt</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DelayValidation">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ObjectName">SSIS log provider for Text files</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DTSID">{42C7952C-724F-41AE-A131-61A22E5A9987}</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="Description">Writes log entries for events to a CSV file</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="CreationName">DTS.LogProviderTextFile.2</DTS:Property><DTS:ObjectData><InnerObject/></DTS:ObjectData></DTS:LogProvider>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="LastModifiedProductVersion">10.50.4033.0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ForceExecValue">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ExecValue" DTS:DataType="3">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ForceExecutionResult">-1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="Disabled">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="FailPackageOnFailure">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="FailParentOnFailure">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="MaxErrorCount">1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ISOLevel">1048576</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="LocaleID">1033</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="TransactionOption">1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DelayValidation">0</DTS:Property>

<DTS:ConnectionManager>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DelayValidation">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ObjectName">troublesomefile.txt</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DTSID">{F7CF5477-25DD-4C89-BBC7-06CB8A50CD17}</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="Description"></DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="CreationName">FILE</DTS:Property><DTS:ObjectData><DTS:ConnectionManager>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="FileUsageType">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ConnectionString">C:\Temp\SSISlogs\troublesomefile.txt</DTS:Property></DTS:ConnectionManager></DTS:ObjectData></DTS:ConnectionManager>

<DTS:ConnectionManager>...this where my smtp conn starts
...
<DTS:LogProvider>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ConfigString">troublesomefile.txt</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DelayValidation">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ObjectName">SSIS log provider for Text files1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DTSID">{431CEFE5-7E33-4E7F-A241-D0C521A6294A}</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="Description">Writes log entries for events to a CSV file</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="CreationName">DTS.LogProviderTextFile.2</DTS:Property><DTS:ObjectData><InnerObject/></DTS:ObjectData></DTS:LogProvider>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="LastModifiedProductVersion">10.50.4033.0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ForceExecValue">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ExecValue" DTS:DataType="3">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ForceExecutionResult">-1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="Disabled">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="FailPackageOnFailure">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="FailParentOnFailure">0</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="MaxErrorCount">1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="ISOLevel">1048576</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="LocaleID">1033</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="TransactionOption">1</DTS:Property>
<DTS:Property DTS:Name="DelayValidation">0</DTS:Property>

it looks like 0 = existing, 1 = create if the subject at http://blogs.msdn.com/b/mattm/archive/2008/12/30/ezapi-alternative-package-creation-api.aspx is one and the same.