Every time you need to reuse the query results from SSMS, for example to populate another table, or to search for matching rows in another table, it will inevitably mean a lot of manual tweaking to the get the results into the right format. Louis Davidson uncovers three SQL Prompt gems that can remove all this pain. Read more
Phil Factor demonstrates why we occasionally need to 'baseline' a database, when automating database deployments with Flyway, and a simple way of reducing the number of migration files that are required for a build. Read more
This article provides SQL "bulk copy" routines to extract data from and load it into a SQL Server database, rapidly, and demonstrates a way to automatically bulk insert the test data in a Flyway build, using a SQL callback. Read more
How to customize a database deployment process using Flyway, demonstrating how to incorporate tasks such stamping a version number into the latest database build, or writing to the SQL Server log. Read more
Robert Sheldon demonstrates how to start automating data comparisons between two databases, from the Windows command line or PowerShell. With a single command, you can easily compare and sync data such as test data sets, or static data used for reference or lookup purposes. Read more
Phil Factor explains how to get started with Flyway, as simply as possible, using PowerShell. This article provides a practice set of database automation scripts that will build a SQL Server database, and then update it, running a series of migrations scripts that make some schema alterations, and load the database with test data. Read more
This article describes the principles of using Flyway migrations to build a database from scripts, to a specified version, and to track, manage and apply all database changes. Read more
One of your SQL Server instance shows a major dip in performance or throughput, affecting all the user databases. You notice that the slow interludes coincide, as if orchestrated. On investigation, it appears that several transactions running over that period were using a lot of space in tempdb. However, which of them, if any, are causing the tempdb bottleneck, and why? Read more
If you have SQL Compare, then the SQL Snapper utility is very valuable 'extra' for certain team activities, because it can be freely distributed. It means that any developer can create a SQL Compare snapshot from databases that are on their local workstation and store them on the network. Read more
SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare can be used together, from the command line, to provide a complete build process, or to script out changes to both the database and its development data. For doing this routinely, I find it easiest to script the operation using PowerShell. Read more