Deploying environments and variables with PowerShell (C: csv)

Case
I want to deploy an environment with variables to the Integration Services Catalog. How do I do that?

Environment with variables

Solution
You can't create them outside SQL Server Management Studio and then deploy them to the catalog. The environment isn't part of the ISPAC file. But it's possible to generate some TSQL code and then execute those Store Procedure calls on all environments of the DTAP.
Or you can use PowerShell script to generate an environment with variables. This blog post shows three different options to use PowerShell to create environments:

1. Store values in (multi-)array
2. Store values in database table
3. Store values in CSV file

C: Store values in CSV file
This example works with two powershell files. The first only contains four parameters. The second file contains the real logic and is called by the first. A benefit of two separate files is that you can use the scripts for multiple environments, but all logic is stored in a single file. In this example the variables are stored in a CSV file instead of an array or database table. You can of course still store the values in a central database and then export the records to a CSV file for the PowerShell script.

A list of all parameters:

SsisServer contains the servername (and instance name) of the Sql Server that has the Integration Services catalog.

EnvironmentName contains the name of the environment. If the environment already exists then it just adds or updates variables. There are deliberately no deletes. but that's possible.

EnvironmentFolderName contains the foldername where the environment is located. If the folder doesn't exists, it will be created.

FilepathCsv contains the path of the CSV file. This example uses $PSScriptRoot to get the location of the current PowerShell file and then concatenates the filename of the CSV to it. You can also use a regular path like d:\folder\EnvironmentVariables.csv.

This example uses strings, Int16 and Boolean, but there are other datatypes like DataTime, Int32, Int64, etc.). The script contains a lot of feedback. If it's to excessive for you, you can skip a couple of Write-Host lines by adding a hashtag in front of it. For deploying it's not necessary to change anything in the second file.

#PowerShell: ParamsForGeneralEnvironmentDeploymentWithCsv.ps1
#################################################################################################
# Change source and destination properties
#################################################################################################
# Ssis
$SsisServer ="."
$EnvironmentFolderName = "Environments"
$EnvironmentName = "Generic"

# Path of CSV containing variables (you can also use format d:\file.csv)
$FilepathCsv = "$PSScriptRoot\EnvironmentVariables.csv"

# Execute deployment script
. "$PSScriptRoot\GeneralEnvironmentDeploymentWithCsv.ps1" $SsisServer $EnvironmentFolderName $EnvironmentName $FilepathCsv

Second file:

#PowerShell: GeneralEnvironmentDeploymentWithCsv.ps1
################################
########## PARAMETERS ##########
################################ 
[CmdletBinding()]
Param(
    # SsisServer is required
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=1)]
    [string]$SsisServer,
    
    # EnvironmentFolderName is required 
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=2)]
    [string]$EnvironmentFolderName,
    
    # EnvironmentName is required
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=3)]
    [string]$EnvironmentName,
    
    # FilepathCsv is required
    [Parameter(Mandatory=$True,Position=4)]
    [string]$FilepathCsv
)

clear
Write-Host "========================================================================================================================================================"
Write-Host "==                                                                 Used parameters                                                                    =="
Write-Host "========================================================================================================================================================"
Write-Host "SSIS Server             :" $SsisServer
Write-Host "Environment Name        :" $EnvironmentName
Write-Host "Environment Folder Path :" $EnvironmentFolderName
Write-Host "Filepath of CSV file    :" $FilepathCsv
Write-Host "========================================================================================================================================================"


#########################
########## CSV ##########
#########################
# Check if ispac file exists
if (-Not (Test-Path $FilepathCsv))
{
    Throw  [System.IO.FileNotFoundException] "CSV file $FilepathCsv doesn't exists!"
}
else
{
    $FileNameCsv = split-path $FilepathCsv -leaf
    Write-Host "CSV file" $FileNameCsv "found"
}


############################
########## SERVER ##########
############################
# Load the Integration Services Assembly
Write-Host "Connecting to SSIS server $SsisServer "
$SsisNamespace = "Microsoft.SqlServer.Management.IntegrationServices"
[System.Reflection.Assembly]::LoadWithPartialName($SsisNamespace) | Out-Null;

# Create a connection to the server
$SqlConnectionstring = "Data Source=" + $SsisServer + ";Initial Catalog=master;Integrated Security=SSPI;"
$SqlConnection = New-Object System.Data.SqlClient.SqlConnection $SqlConnectionstring

# Create the Integration Services object
$IntegrationServices = New-Object $SsisNamespace".IntegrationServices" $SqlConnection

# Check if connection succeeded
if (-not $IntegrationServices)
{
  Throw  [System.Exception] "Failed to connect to SSIS server $SsisServer "
}
else
{
   Write-Host "Connected to SSIS server" $SsisServer
}


#############################
########## CATALOG ##########
#############################
# Create object for SSISDB Catalog
$Catalog = $IntegrationServices.Catalogs["SSISDB"]

# Check if the SSISDB Catalog exists
if (-not $Catalog)
{
    # Catalog doesn't exists. The user should create it manually.
    # It is possible to create it, but that shouldn't be part of
    # deployment of packages or environments.
    Throw  [System.Exception] "SSISDB catalog doesn't exist. Create it manually!"
}
else
{
    Write-Host "Catalog SSISDB found"
}


############################
########## FOLDER ##########
############################
# Create object to the (new) folder
$Folder = $Catalog.Folders[$EnvironmentFolderName]

# Check if folder already exists
if (-not $Folder)
{
    # Folder doesn't exists, so create the new folder.
    Write-Host "Creating new folder" $EnvironmentFolderName
    $Folder = New-Object $SsisNamespace".CatalogFolder" ($Catalog, $EnvironmentFolderName, $EnvironmentFolderName)
    $Folder.Create()
}
else
{
    Write-Host "Folder" $EnvironmentFolderName "found"
}


#################################
########## ENVIRONMENT ##########
#################################
# Create object for the (new) environment
$Environment = $Catalog.Folders[$EnvironmentFolderName].Environments[$EnvironmentName]

# Check if folder already exists
if (-not $Environment)
{
    Write-Host "Creating environment" $EnvironmentName in $EnvironmentFolderName

    $Environment = New-Object $SsisNamespace".EnvironmentInfo" ($Folder, $EnvironmentName, $EnvironmentName)
    $Environment.Create()
}
else
{
    Write-Host "Environment" $EnvironmentName "found with" $Environment.Variables.Count "existing variables"
    # Optional: Recreate to delete all variables, but be careful:
    # This could be harmful for existing references between vars and pars
    # if a used variable is deleted and not recreated.
    #$Environment.Drop()
    #$Environment = New-Object $SsisNamespace".EnvironmentInfo" ($folder, $EnvironmentName, $EnvironmentName)
    #$Environment.Create()
}


###############################
########## VARIABLES ##########
###############################
$InsertCount = 0
$UpdateCount = 0


Import-CSV $FilepathCsv -Header Datatype,ParameterName,ParameterValue,ParameterDescription,Sensitive -Delimiter ';' | Foreach-Object{
 If (-not($_.Datatype -eq "Datatype"))
 {
  #Write-Host $_.Datatype "|" $_.ParameterName "|" $_.ParameterValue "|" $_.ParameterDescription "|" $_.Sensitive
  # Get variablename from array and try to find it in the environment
  $Variable = $Catalog.Folders[$EnvironmentFolderName].Environments[$EnvironmentName].Variables[$_.ParameterName]


  # Check if the variable exists
  if (-not $Variable)
  {
   # Insert new variable
   Write-Host "Variable" $_.ParameterName "added"
   $Environment.Variables.Add($_.ParameterName, $_.Datatype, $_.ParameterValue, [System.Convert]::ToBoolean($_.Sensitive), $_.ParameterDescription)

   $InsertCount = $InsertCount + 1
  }
  else
  {
   # Update existing variable
   Write-Host "Variable" $_.ParameterName "updated"
   $Variable.Type = $_.Datatype
   $Variable.Value = $_.ParameterValue
   $Variable.Description = $_.ParameterDescription
   $Variable.Sensitive = [System.Convert]::ToBoolean($_.Sensitive)

   $UpdateCount = $UpdateCount + 1
  }
 }
} 
$Environment.Alter()


###########################
########## READY ##########
###########################
# Kill connection to SSIS
$IntegrationServices = $null 
Write-Host "Finished, total inserts" $InsertCount " and total updates" $UpdateCount

CSV file:



CSV: EnvironmentVariables.csv

Datatype;Parameter Name;Parameter Value;Parameter Description;Sensitive (true or false)
String;MIS_STG_ConnectionString;"Data Source=.\sql2016;Initial Catalog=MIS_STG;Provider=SQLNCLI11.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Auto Translate=False;";Connectionstring to stage database;false
String;MIS_HST_ConnectionString;"Data Source=.\sql2016;Initial Catalog=MIS_HST;Provider=SQLNCLI11.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Auto Translate=False;";Connectionstring to historical stage database;false
String;MIS_DWH_ConnectionString;"Data Source=.\sql2016;Initial Catalog=MIS_DWH;Provider=SQLNCLI11.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Auto Translate=False;";Connectionstring to data warehouse database;false
String;MIS_MTA_ConnectionString;"Data Source=.\sql2016;Initial Catalog=MIS_MTA;Provider=SQLNCLI11.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Auto Translate=False;";Connectionstring to metadata database;false
String;MIS_DM_ConnectionString;"Data Source=.\sql2016;Initial Catalog=MIS_DM;Provider=SQLNCLI11.1;Integrated Security=SSPI;Auto Translate=False;";Connectionstring to data mart database;false
String;FtpPassword; 53cr3t!;Secret FTP password;true
String;FtpUser;SSISJoost;Username for FTP;false
String;FtpServer;ftp://SSISJoost.nl;FTP Server;false
String;FolderStageFiles;d:\sources\;Location of stage files;false
Boolean;EnableRetry; true;Enable retry for Webservice Task;false
Int16;NumberOfRetries;3;Number of retries for Webservice Task;false
Int16;SecsPauseBetweenRetry;30;Number of seconds between retry;false

New environment

Existing environment

Download scripts

Tip: if you keep the parameter names in your SSIS projects equal to the variable names in the environment, then you could automatically references them during deployment using this PowerShell script.