SSIS Error: VS_NEEDSNEWMETADATA - sql

Question

I'm currently updating all of our ETLs using Visual Studio 2015 (made in BIDS 2008) and redeploying them to a new reporting server running on SQL Server 2016 (originally 2008R2).
While updating one of the ETLs and trying to run on the new server I got this error:
The package execution failed. The step failed.
Sometimes it also produces this error:
Source: Load Fact Table SSIS.Pipeline Description: "Copy To Fact
Table" failed validation and returned validation status
"VS_NEEDSNEWMETADATA".
I've tried deleting and re-adding the OLEDB Destination, connection strings and opened up the column mappings to refresh the meta data. I also recreated the whole data flow task but I'm still getting the same error.
The package runs fine on my local machine.
UPDATE:
I started taking the package apart and running only pieces of it to try and narrow down which part was failing. It seemed to be failing on loading into the staging table but I couldn't find out why.
I eventually decided to just try and re-create the whole thing. After re-creating the entire package, still no luck. The picture below is from the event viewer on the server itself but it didn't give me any new information.
Package error from event viewer

Answer 1

I have tried all the solutions provided above and the other sites. Nothing worked.
I got a suggestion from my friend Which worked for me.
Here are the steps:
Right click on the Source/Target Data flow component.
Go to Advanced Editor -> Component Properties
Find ValidateExternalMetadata and set it to False.
Try your luck. This is a pathetic issue and left me clueless for 2 days.

Answer 2

I finally found the issue and here's how I did it.
Because the error messages I was getting from SSMS weren't very insightful I first opened up my remote desktop and logged into the server. Then I went to Administrative Tools>Event Viewer and then Windows Logs>Application to see if the failed event would provide greater detail.
It didn't give me much still.
The next step I took was to run the package from the command line because the messages should be more verbose. Opened up cmd, changed directory to the one my package was in and then...
DTEXEC /FILE YourPackageName.dtsx
Finally, the error message here showed a missing column in the tables the package was trying to write to. I added those columns and voila!

Answer 3

As stated in comments,
if it runs ok in your development environment, then the problem isn't with the package, it's with the scheduled job on the server. Try recreating that.
If that doesn't work,
It seems like the server has a cached instance of the package it's using instead of the updated one. Try renaming your package and creating a new job with the new package name and see if that works.
If that doesn't work,
all I can recommend at that point is to cut the package down until it succeeds, then add the next step that fails.
Sounds like from your solution the development environment is more forgiving of schema updates than the deployed solution. Glad you were able to resolve, eliminating clutter helps.

Answer 4

I had the same problem and my issue was a difference between two environments, the same field in the same table once was written with a capital and once not. So the name was the same, but with this small difference (e.g. isActive vs IsActive).
This came from a refactoring effort, where we used VS database publish that did not updated the field name.

Answer 5

Have you tried deleting and re-creating the source? When I get this I can generally modify OK any object that has the error but have to delete and rebuild the paths between them, however sometimes I have to delete everything in the data flow and re-create it.

Answer 6

A Proxy for SSIS Package Execution should be created under the SQL Server Agent. You should then change your job step (or steps) to Run As the Proxy you've created.
I had your same problem some time ago and the proxy fixed it.
Forgive me if you've already tried this.

Answer 7

It is very common to get that message when 2 columns in the source file are being inserted into the same field of the table.
i.e.
My text file has twice "neighborhood" (same label for different columns) and my table has "neighborhood" and "neighborhoodb" (notice the "b" at the end). The import will try to import both text columns into the field "neighborhood" and ignore the "neighborhoodb" field, it will fail with the "VS_NEEDSNEWMETADATA" error.

Answer 8

Re-creating the job worked for me. Some cached version of the job may have been causing the VS_NEEDSNEWMETADATA error. The package was executing correctly but it was failing, when it was executed by an agent job.

Answer 9

This ended up being a permissions issue for me. The OLE DB Source was using a stored procedure that selected from a SQL view. This view joined to a table in another database and unfortunately the proxy account the SQL Agent job step was running the package under did not have SELECT permission to the table in that database. This is why the package ran fine in Visual Studio but not from a job when deployed to the server. I found the root cause of the error by taking the SELECT statement out of the stored procedure and putting it directly in the Source Query box of the OLE DB Source control which caused it to finally return the 'SELECT permission denied' error message. This error was apparently hidden from SSIS since the proxy account DID have execute permission on the stored procedure.

Answer 10

It works for me after changing the ValidateExternalMetadata to false. I was transferring the data from MSSQL database to MySQL database. Changed "ADO NET Destination".

Answer 11

You may need to strongly type your Source Query.
Example:
If your DestinationDB has a FullName field Nvarchar(255)
and in your source query you have
select firstname + lastname as FullName from...
Try this:
Select CONVERT(NVARCHAR(255),firstname + lastname) as Fullname from...
So if you are going from db to db and both are nvarchar(255) I don't have this issue, but if you are concatenating fields in your query specify the data type and length.

Answer 12

This error can also occur when an entire SSIS project needs to be redeployed rather than just one of the packages (for VS versions that allow deployment of a single package in a multi-package project), particularly when a project connection has been changed or added. For example, if you've added or removed columns from a flat-file project connection. In that case, you need to deploy the entire project to push out the updated project connection properties. This can be true even if the project only has one package in it. In VS Solution Explorer, rather than click on the package name to deploy, select the bolded project name at the top, and then click deploy.