Dataflow Discoverer (DFLD) is a command-line discovery utility that detects and writes the metadata of SSIS dataflow columns to a SQL Server lookup table. DFLD detects Dataflows nested within containers up to any level of nesting. For information on how to install and use DFLD utility,visit http://dfld.codeplex.com
DFLD works on one package at a time. It’s a typical ops requirement to keep the DFLMetadata of all SSIS packages up to date. This can be automated by creating a SSIS package similar to the one shown below
Use for each container to fetch all your SSIS packages (*.dtsx) from the deployment folders including sub-folders. Capture the path of SSIS package in a local variable as shown in Screen Capture 2
For each package found, execute the DFLD using an Execute Process Task in the control flow with parameterized command-line arguments as shown in Screen Capture 3
This automation package can be scheduled to run periodically or as step after every deployment
Benny Austin 
I can’t get it to work
08:45:18 INFO: DFL Discovery Started…
08:45:18 The package failed to load due to error 0xC0011008 “Error loading from
XML. No further detailed error information can be specified for this problem bec
ause no Events object was passed where detailed error information can be stored.
“. This occurs when CPackage::LoadFromXML fails.
Hi there,
This is briliant post as I have developed this today
I have a quick Question that I want to call the packages from Integration services instead from file system…is that possible ?
I mean like this
dfld /p:server\packagepath.dtsx /s:wdc-Sitsql002\datasource /d:ETLmetadata
as I don’t want to call them from file system.
Please let me know if you have any solution
Sai, thanks for your feedback. DFLD was written prior to SQL Server 2012 when msdb deployment was not common. So DFLD is file based at the moment. Future versions of DFLD could incorporate this feature. In the meanwhile if you come up with a workaround, pls feel free to post here.
Great tool. It gets me close to populating a source to target Metadata tool. Having a bit of difficulties with mapping input and destination columns? Trying to figure out what ID maps the two in the package file. Or is it just their order in the package file? Let me know if you have any suggestions.
hi Joel, Thanks for your comments. The information about input to output mapping is specific to type of Dataflow component and is available as Custom Properties of that component. For e.g Derived Column component has information about the formula that makes up the new column and Pivot component has information about the source column and the pivot key. At the moment DFLD captures Common and Data Type properties. I am considering enhancing DFLD to include Custom properties as well. I’ll keep you posted. Meanwhile the UpstreamComponentName might be of some help to trace where the column originated from.
This is a very well written article. Thanks for the post.