Table manifests, and object manifests, which are just ordered lists, are a very useful output from and development database build. This article show how to generate a table manifest in SQL, and once you have it, you'll start to find several uses for it, besides the build process.Read more
Your finger is hovering over the 'enter' key to set off the Flyway "migrate" command, but you hesitate. There is a large stack of migration files for this project: don't all these files need to be checked first? Yes, they do, but how? This article demonstrates how, once armed with…Read more
This is the first of two articles to describe the principles and practicalities of masking data in databases. It explains why an organization sometimes needs masked data, the various forms of masked data we can use, the sort of data that needs to be masked, and the potential pitfalls.Read more
This series of articles describes a path you can take to transforming an existing, manual and error-prone database development and release process into an automated and reliable Database DevOps 'pipeline', starting here with an overview of what we set out to achieve, and the people, processes and tools involved.Read more
For a development team, SQL Backup provides a simple way to restore development or test databases, if required, while minimizing the tedium of the task of taking, managing, and restoring the backups. We can generate the required backup commands in the GUI and then use them to construct a SQL…Read more
Sometimes we want to check whether it is possible to run a Flyway migration without error, but not actually make the changes. We might just need to 'sanity test' the performance of a migration on the Staging server, for example. By using a placeholder 'switch' to trigger a SQL Exception,…Read more
Maintaining a version of a database opens a lot of possibilities, especially if an automated process can easily grab the current version, at runtime. You might, for example, have a routine that is only appropriate after a particular version. It is also very handy to be able to associate entries…Read more
How do we set about improving the quality of data governance within an organization? What are the priorities? Data Governance is generally considered to mean providing clear roles, responsibilities, policies, principles, and organizational structures that can ensure that data is managed well, in a way that benefits the whole organization.…Read more
Every organization must perform data governance. This requires planning, oversight, and control over the management, security, resilience and quality of data and over the use of data by the organization. In larger organizations, it can be a complex task. William Brewer explains what's involved.Read more