How to avoid database build failures, caused by circular cross-database object references, by restoring or provisioning copies of all required databases to the development, build, or test SQL Server instance. Read more
Phil Factor demonstrates a clever way to create 'stub' objects, in SQL Change Automation pre-deployment scripts, in order to overcome the problems caused by 'missing objects' when building databases that have circular, or mutual, dependencies. In the subsequent deployment, SQL Change Automation fully builds every object in each of the databases, so all dependencies are fully tested. Read more
Once you understand the SCA data objects, it can give you a certain glow of to discover, suddenly, that SCA can do some complicated and time-consuming tasks with just a few lines of code. Phil Factor demonstrates how to get the most of SCA's Release object. Read more
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
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
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
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
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
Phil Factor starts a series of articles that will demonstrate the use of temporary SQL Server instances, running in Linux containers, into which we can deploy the latest database build, stocked with data, for development and testing work. This initial article shows how to set up a SQL Server instance inside a Linux Docker container, create some sample databases, and persist data locally. Read more
Kendra Little shows how to get the WideWorldImporters database into version control, using SQL Source Control, and then set up an automated database build process, using Azure DevOps with SQL Change Automation. Read more