Feature to sync up a snapshot to ANY database

[warthenr]

This product is really nice, but I often need to be able to sync up a database with a known good database. Yes, I could use SQL Compare and do the comparisons, but these are my customer databases and I can't just go out and install SQL Compare on their system and I don't always have access to their system from my servers back at the office.

This would be a great new feature for SQL Packager.

[David Atkinson]

Thanks for your feedback. You're not the first to ask for this so when we consider which features to put in a future version, we'll definitely consider doing something to allow deployment to an unknown target.

Bear in mind that because the target is unknown, there will be a risk that the synchronization will be unsuccessful, as the synch script cannot be tested in advance. Is this acceptable to you?

David Atkinson
Product Manager
Red Gate Software

[warthenr]

Hi David,
Yes, it is entirely appropriate that if the sync doesn't work that the database be rolled back into the last state. If that isn't integrated into the product, adding disclaimers when the product runs to make sure you have a good backup would suffice. Also an option to "sync what you can" would be beneficial because sometimes the thing that fails isn't really that important.

I'm very excited about this capability. Anything I can do to help out or other questions you have let me know.

[David Atkinson]

Thanks. I'll be in touch with you when we need to flesh this out in more detail. It's entirely plausible that we could put in a "Backup before Synch" feature similar to the one we've put in SQL Data Compare 6, but as you said, an appropriate pre-synch warning would be sufficient.

Regards,

David Atkinson
Red Gate Software