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Redgate's end-to-end Database DevOps solutions

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Posts by
Phil Factor

Phil Factor (real name withheld to protect the guilty), aka Database Mole, has 30 years of experience with database-intensive applications.

Despite having once been shouted at by a furious Bill Gates at an exhibition in the early 1980s, he has remained resolutely anonymous throughout his career.

He is a regular contributor to Simple Talk and SQLServerCentral.

Phil Factor

30 May 2025

Phil Factor

30 May 2025

The Flyway Add Command Explained Simply

Flyway's add command creates an empty new migration file of the required type, ensuring use of the proper naming convention, assigning to it the correct version number, and placing it in the required location. This article explores how the command works and why it's especially useful when you want to add a new migration... Read more

Phil Factor

23 May 2025

Phil Factor

23 May 2025

Installing and Upgrading the Flyway CLI

This article demonstrates four ways to install and maintain the Flyway CLI. First, running it from Docker. Then, installing it manually on Windows and Linux, with a PowerShell alias to make version switching easier. Third, using a package manager like Chocolatey. Finally, for Windows users, there's a script to automatically download and install the... Read more

Phil Factor

2 May 2025

Phil Factor

2 May 2025

How to Detect Database Drift using Flyway Snapshots

Unexpected changes to a database, known as drift, can cause inconsistencies between environments and break deployments. Flyway Enterprise provides powerful techniques to catch these unexpected changes in your databases, giving teams confidence that the version of the database they test is the one they release and that the target environment is in the expected... Read more

Phil Factor

25 April 2025

Phil Factor

25 April 2025

Simple Safeguards for PowerShell Scripting with Flyway

This article demonstrates simple techniques to security-check any processes that use Bash or PowerShell scripts to automate database tasks, when using Flyway. These checks help ensure a script is trusted, hasn't been tampered with since creation, and doesn't contain commands commonly used with malicious intent. They add a valuable layer of protection, without sacrificing... Read more

Phil Factor

2 April 2025

Phil Factor

2 April 2025

Supporting Monolithic Database Deployment with Flyway

This article explains how a Flyway migration-first approach, backed by consistent versioning and testing, helps teams bring structure and repeatability to even the most complex release processes. Coupled with techniques such as branch-based development, Flyway can help turn large, fragile deployments into smaller, more frequent, and more reliable operations. Read more

Phil Factor

25 February 2025

Phil Factor

25 February 2025

Scripting Databases with Flyway Enterprise CLI

This article will cover the basics of the Flyway generate command and how it can auto-generate several types of Flyway migration scripts. This includes versioned migrations that, after testing, can be used to deploy changes, and baseline migration and undo scripts that are useful for a range of development tasks. Read more

Phil Factor

7 February 2025

Phil Factor

7 February 2025

Splatting in Flyway to Avoid Tedious Typing

This article covers splatting, explaining the advantages of using it with Flyway. We create reusable parameter sets and combine them as needed, using PowerShell. This simplifies multi-parameter Flyway commands, and makes it easier to execute consecutive Flyway operations within a pipeline. Read more