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A package is an organized collection of connections, control flow elements, data flow elements, event handlers, variables, parameters, and configurations, that you assemble using either the graphical design tools that SQL Server Integration Services provides, or build programmatically. You then save the completed package to SQL Server, the SSIS Package Store, or the file system, or you can deploy the ssISnoversion project to the SSIS server. The package is the unit of work that is retrieved, executed, and saved.

To run an Integration Services package, you can use one of several tools depending on where those packages are stored. For instance, packages that are stored in the file system outside of the SSIS Package Store can be run in SQL Server Data Tools (SSDT) during the development, debugging, and testing of packages. Likewise, the SQL Server Management Studio can be used to run a package that is stored on the Integration Services server itself. Alternatively, you can use the Execute Package utility to run such a package. You can also use utilities such as dtexec and dtexecui to run a package. While the former can be used regardless of where the package is stored, the latter is ideal for a package that is stored in the SSIS Package Store, or an msdb database, or a file system outside of the SSIS Package Store. Similarly, packages stored in SQL Server, the SSIS Package Store, and the file system, can be scheduled for automatic execution using the SQL Server Agent.

At any given point in time, more than one package can be run on the Integration server using any of the mechanisms discussed above. While this saves processing time, it can also be a drain on the server resources. By continuously tracking the package execution load on the server, administrators can proactively identify overload conditions that can cause serious resource contentions. This is where the MSSQLISServiceTest test helps!

This test reports the count of packages that are being executed in parallel on the Integration server. This way, the test proactively alerts administrators to potential overload conditions, thus prompting them to either fine-tune the (SSIS) service configuration or increase server capacity to handle the anticipated load.

Measurement	Description	Measurement Unit	Interpretation
SSIS_Package_Instances	Indicates the number of packages currently running on SSIS.	Number	This is a good indicator of the current workload of the server. If the value of this measure rises consistently, it heralds an overload condition. To avoid such situations, the EngineThreads property can be set in according to the number of package executions (threads) needed. The SSIS engine itself will not use more threads than needed, and it will regard the set property's value.