Simple SQL Change Automation Scripting: Connections, iProjects and Builds

Phil Factor delves into some of SQL Change Automation's data objects, or artifacts, covering the DatabaseConnection, iProject and iBuildArtifact objects. He explains the useful information they contain and how to use them in a PowerShell-automated database delivery process. Read more

Problems Caused by Use of the SQL_VARIANT Datatype

Phil Factor illustrates the 'quirks' of the SQL_VARIANT datatype and why it's best to investigate when SQL Prompt alerts you to its use. It is only safe to store data as a SQL_VARIANT, if you explicitly convert it to its true type before you use it. Read more

Practical steps for end-to-end data protection

If you plan to make production data available for development and test purposes, you'll need to understand which columns contain personal or sensitive data, create a data catalog to record those decisions, devise and implement a data masking, and then provision the sanitized database copies. Richard Macaskill show how to automate as much of this process as possible. Read more

The ‘= NULL’ Mistake and other SQL NULL Heresies

The SQL Prompt Best Practice rule checks whether a comparison or expression includes a NULL literal ('NULL'), which in SQL Server, rather than result in an error, will simply always produce a NULL result. Phil Factor explains how to avoid this, and other SQL NULL-related calamities. Read more

SQL Change Automation Scripting: Getting Data into a Target Database

Your strategy for loading a freshly built database with data will depend on how much you need. If just a few rows, then single-row INSERT statements will be fine, but for more than that you'll need to build insert the rows using native-format BCP. Fortunately, SQL Change Automation (SCA) can be used with either strategy, as Phil Factor demonstrates. Read more

Dealing with Server Objects, Settings and Features when Provisioning Databases

If we want the behavior and performance of our test databases to mimic that observed in production, then we must consider not only the database but also the server. Grant Frtichey reviews the server-level objects, settings and features that we may need to consider, and then shows how to 'synchronize' the linked servers, user logins and SQL Agent jobs, as part of an automated provisioning process, using SQL Provision. Read more

Static Data and Database Builds

Whichever way you wish to ensure that a database, when built, has all the data that will enable it to function properly, there are reasonably simple ways of doing it. Phil Factor explains the alternatives. Read more

Simple Steps in SQL Change Automation Scripting

Phil Factor demonstrates the bare essentials of SCA PowerShell scripts that can form the basis for an automated process for database delivery or help improve your current process. Read more

How to Provision a Set of Databases to Multiple Azure-based Servers

Grant Fritchey shows how to provision a group of interdependent databases, masked to protect sensitive or personal data, to each machine in an Azure-based test cell. Read more

Database Delivery with Docker and SQL Change Automation

Phil Factor demonstrates how to integrate SQL Change Automation into containerized workflows, such as are typical of a microservices architecture. He shows how to automate database builds into a Linux SQL Server container running on Windows, and then backup the containerized database and restore it into dedicated containerized development copies for each developer and tester. Read more

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