Background:
I have about 170 SSIS packages. A new requirement is that users from other workstations can run them from their command lines using dtexec.
Question:
To make this possible I'd like to set change the protection level to encrypt sensitive with password, and change the password in each package.
Is there a way to automate this?
It's not something I've tried personally, but you could potentially amend or add the property in the XML source of the packages using a global search and replace.
A much easier method is to use the built in package configuration functionality. Configure your package to look to load its configuration from a config file. Distribute the config file with the package(s). You'll have to decide on what technique to use for the package to find it's config file (this technique will be used on all dev workstations). I've typically used registry entry. You can also use system variables. From an execution stand point, you can pass in the name and location of the config file to dtexec.