The Advanced Execute Process Task is used to execute commands as if they were being executed from a command window. This allows for the use of basic command like copy, ping, del, etc as well as using any executable you'd like to be executed within SSIS. One of the best features is it allows for multiple commands per instance of the Task.

You are able to add multiple "Steps" to the advanced execute process. A step is a single command that mimics what would be executed from the command line.

Toolbar

The toolbar is used to control the steps for the Advanced Execute Process.

Clicking the "Add New Step" button will bring up the "Add New Process Step" form.

Step Name - The name of the current step

Step Command - The command in which this step will execute. The command can use any variables that are part of the package as replacement values in the command. For instance, if "User::strVHDFilePath" had a value of "C:\ssis\myserver.vhd" when the command in the step above was executed the full command would be "del c:\ssis\myserver.vhd".

Timeout (Second) - The number of seconds you'd like this step / command to run before the process is killed. Setting the value to 0 means there isn't a timeout.

Success Exit Code - The exit code of the command which indicates the step was successful.0 is the default success code for the command line.

Window Style - The style in which a command window is shown. The four options are Hidden, Normal (show a normal window), Minimized (show a command window minimized) and Maximized (show a command window maximized)

Standard Output Variable - You can either have the output of command outputted to the command window (will go to the BIDS execution results or log if the window style is hidden) or store the output in a variable. This is useful if you are going to use the output from the command in a later task or command step.

Error Output Variable - You can either have the error output of command outputted to the command window (will go to the BIDS execution results or log if the window style is hidden) or store the output in a variable. This is useful if you are going to use the erro output from the command in a later task or command step.

Step Description - You can store notes about the step here. When you enter a description here, it will show up when the step is selected in the main ui as shown below.

One of the unique features of the Advanced Execute Task is it's ability to more than one command per instance of the Task. You can also tell the task what order to execute the steps / commands by using the Move Step Up and Move Step Down button that were seen above.