ApexSQL Doc is a SQL documentation tool that allows documenting of SQL Server Integration Service (SSIS) packages, Analysis Service databases (SSAS) and multiple SQL databases, easily and automatically. ApexSQL Doc allows you to quickly develop a summary of your SSIS Packages. It can visually display the control and data flow as well as properties and expressions used for each component.

A SQL Server has multiple instance-level settings and objects, depending on the version. These can have a significant effect on SQL Server’s behavior and performance, and it is important to keep track of their configuration or even document them, for that matter.

ApexSQL Doc is a database development tool for documenting multiple databases, SQL Server Integration Service (SSIS) packages, Analysis Service (SSAS) cubes and Reporting Service (SSRS) items. It allows specifying the exact server objects, database objects, attributes, and even specific object instances that will be included in the documentation.

Control flow is the SQL Server workflow engine that contains control flow elements. An SSIS package consists of at least one control flow task, and optionally one or more data flows.

The data flow element is a part of a SSIS package that contains different type of data flow components:

• Source components – make data from different types of data sources available to a data flow
• Transformational components – aggregate, merge, distribute, and modify the data inside the data stream, and
• Destination components – load the data from the data flow into different types of data sources or create an in-memory dataset

Taking over a database you’re not familiar with requires you to dedicate some time to analyze and understand it. Deciphering an inherited database takes some time, that among other factors, depends on the available documentation (if any), comments left in object SQL, and database complexity.

Many DBAs think of database documentation as “grunt work”. It’s one of those tasks that you never have enough time for, as you’re always busy with other higher priority tasks.

But what if it could be made automatic?