Free schema snapshot utility: SQL Snapper

[jerryhung]

Downloaded, thanks
Version: 7.5.0.28

[AndrewMurphy]

Spam from Kate???

[Brian Donahue]

Thanks Andrew! I've deleted the previous post and killed the katei4 user account as it's only been used to create spam.
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Brian Donahue
Technical Support
Red Gate Software Ltd.
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US and CAN 1-866-RED GATE ext 8521

[DBNovice]

Hi,

I am interested if the RG snapshot is compatible with SQL SERVER snapshot format?

When I said that I meant:
Can I use RG snapshot from MSSMS, or can I use MSSMS snapshot from RG tool.

If yes please confirm, if no: What are your future plans regarding snapshots?
Do you have plans to use
a) the same format for snapshots as Microsoft?
b) compatible format with Microsoft snapshots?

MS SMS stands for Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio
Thanks

[David Atkinson]

SQL Compare schema snapshots are not the same thing as SQL Server Snapshots. Admittedly the naming is a little unfortunate.

SQL Compare will read from its own snapshot, which doesn't store any data. The other supported formats are:

1) database
2) backup
3) set of scripts

I'd be curious to know what sort of compatibility you had in mind?

Kind regards,

David Atkinson
Red Gate Software

[DBNovice]

Hi,

Thanks for the kind reply, I am getting the picture now.

Unfortunately I cannot say it precisely because I don't have enough knowledge regarding snapshots (RG ones nor Microsoft's), but I can share with you that I believed it is possible to use only Microsoft snapshots in RG tool as snapshots Data Soruce.

I also believe that probable the Microsoft snapshot format is not optimal for the purpose you need in RG, so you needed something better than that.

Thanks,

[Simon C]

Just to be clear, a SQL Server snapshot is treated as a separate database within SQL Server, but is actually stored as the differences from the snapshotted database from a particular point in time (when the snapshot was created), and overwritten data on the source database is copied into the snapshot as it gets updated - see http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms175158.aspx and http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/ms187054.aspx .

A SQL Compare snapshot is a binary file containing a serialized version of the whole schema information from a database.

Does that make things a bit clearer?

[DBNovice]

Simon,

Good links.

Thanks, for the clarification.

[stevepatches]

Are there any plans to support the directory of scripts snapshot format in addition to the binary format? This would be very useful to me. Yes I know you get can them through SQL Management Studio but the RG tools are so much faster

[David Atkinson]

[Stefano Paparesta]

Hi all,
now with the release of sql compare 8.0 you align the snapper with this version ? The snapshot format file product from snapper its ok for sql cmapre 8.0?
Regards

Stefano Paparesta

[alice.easey]

Hi Stefano,

Yes, snapshots generated by SQL Snapper should be compatible with SQL Compare 8.0 (please tell us if they aren't )