SSDT Templates

I am not sure why Microsoft did this and you can join the angry mob here if you want to join in on the hate fest, but for some reason or another SQL Server Data Tools SSDT that you elect to install during the VS install doesn’t appear to do anything for you regarding the templates you would need in order to actually get to work. This is different behavior from the past.

In the past you would just install SSDT separately (or for VS 2008 you would use BIDS or “Business Intelligence Design Studio”) and it would just install all of the missing templates.

Where are my templates?

As it stands, as of 07/11/2017 you can install SSRS and SSAS templates, but SSIS is not available yet and you have to use VS 2015 if you need to create an SSIS package.

You can go to this query marketplace.visualstudio.com and view what is available at the moment. Currently all you will find are two VSIX packages:

• Microsoft Reporting Services Projects
• Microsoft Analysis Services Projects
• However there definitely is no SSIS VSIX yet and I am not sure when it will show up either

This sucks, but at least the VS2015 version is far better than the VS2008 version.

Update 05/29/2018

I don’t know why Microsoft doesn’t take more care with this product, but the truth is they just haven’t really put enough emphasis on SSDT. As of right now if you download the SSDT installer for Visual Studio 2017 it fails right after downloading the files and attempting to install them. The files aren’t cached anywhere so you have to do it again unfortunately.

Download SSDT for Visual Studio 2017

Luckily a lot of people have already investigated how to work on this issue and the best answer I have found so far is on stack overflow by the user Daniel.

One thing I do recommend you do that isn’t mentioned in the SO answer is to uninstall the above individual VSIX installers if you have installed them previously. This is also suggested on the download page for SSDT.

Reiterating Daniel’s instructions

Daniel’s instructions are the bare minimum, I just want to provide more details.

1. Copy the installer “SSDT-Setup-ENU.exe” to an isolated folder such as “C:\SsdtTemp\”
2. Open up a CMD window as administrator
3. Run the following command

   SSDT-Setup-ENU.exe /layout

   This will download the files locally so that you can access them yourself manually and you won’t lose the downloaded files after a the inevitable failure. You will see the following folders:

   1. payload
   2. redist
4. If you don’t have .NET Framework 4.6.1 or a later installed, then open up the “redist” folder and run the “NDP461-KB3102438-Web.exe” executable. If you are not sure if you have the right version install, just run the executable anyhow and it will let you know if you do. It’s a harmless operation.
5. If you have any of the old VSIX plugins installed mentioned at the top of this article, then you have to uninstall them at this point.
6. Open the “payload” folder
   1. Run “vsta_setup.exe”
   2. Install the VSIX project templates, it is not required to install all of them, you can install whichever one you want individually:
      1. Run “Microsoft.DataTools.ReportingServices.VSIX”
      2. Run “Microsoft.DataTools.IntegrationServices.VSIX”
      3. Run “Microsoft.DataTools.AnalysisServices.VSIX”
7. When you are finished you can open up Visual Studio at this point to verify the installation. There are two ways to do this:
   1. File > New > Project…
      1. You should see a new template group named “Business Intelligence” and under it will be all of the templates you installed, one for each VSIX you chose to install.
   2. Tools > Extensions and Updates…
      1. You should see that your VSIX templates are installed because they will be listed there.