During runtime, are the connections within the connection managers validated prior to varible population within package configuration?

I have a suite of packages that I have developed that populate connection strings through parent variable assignment (the variable is then used to set the connection string on the connection via an expression).

If I take off line the databases that the package was developed against and run the with correct configurations that holds database connection that are valid I still get connection errors.

Should this happen?  It makes deployment of the program very difficult as I have numerous environmenst (dev, testing, uat, bau, production etc) and do not want to have to change the connections within each of the packages to suit each environment!

 

Yes.  If you are simply passing the connection string variable to point it to the correct environment then you are better off using package configurations and setting your connection sting this way. Validation takes place after configurations.   

Thanks for your response.

Managed to find this article that discusses the topic:-

http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc671625.aspx