Phil Factor explains how to use SQL Prompt, or SQL Change Automation, to detect use of deprecated SQL Server syntax, during development, and Dynamic Management Views and Extended Events to track its use on working databases. Read more
There is no single, correct approach to developing and testing your SQL batches and routines. It depends on the requirement. For simple tasks, like modifying and testing a view or stored procedure, SQL Compare and SQL Data Generator, combined, provide a useful, lightweight development harness. Read more
Jamie Wallis explains how SQL Monitor can both reveal quickly who ran a deployment, and when, and automate the incident-response workflow to ensure it's dealt with swiftly. By extending such workflows to development and test servers, as well as production, the feedback cycle starts earlier, and you can stop problems from ever reaching the users. Read more
Let's say your QA team maintain two similar test databases. They run tests to verify that different versions of the same application still produce the same, correct results. Therefore, any differences in the test data, between the two databases, needs to be corrected before the tests start. This is the sort of task for which SQL Data Compare is ideally suited, and Bob Sheldon explains how it all works. Read more
Louis Davidson provides a pair of SQL Prompt snippets that will help you deal with dependencies, whenever you need to drop columns or tables. Read more
If some of your database constraints have system-generated names, they can cause 'false positives' when comparing schemas and generating build scripts using SQL Compare or SQL Change Automation. Phil Factor explains the difficulties, and the Compare option you need to enable to avoid them. Read more
David Atkinson describes how developers who were previously writing and managing SQL source code in SSMS can make a smooth transition to Azure Data Studio. Read more
SQL Change Automation makes automation simple enough that it can adapt to suit many different approaches to SQL Server database development. Phil Factor describes a project to update the Pubs database, using it in combination with a PowerShell function and to maintain in source control the build scripts, migration scripts and object-level scripts, for every version of the database. Read more
Stephanie Herr explains how to use the 'hybrid' approach in the Deployment Suite for Oracle to automate Oracle database deployments. This is where the team maintains the current state of the database in version control during development. then, at key stages, they generate and test the migrations script that will be used to deploy the new database changes safely. Read more
Compliant Database DevOps
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