Data Masking in Principle

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

A Real-world Implementation of Database DevOps: People, Processes, Tools

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

Using SQL Backup in Development Work

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 script that backs up all the required databases. We can even use the backup commands in a beforeMigrate SQL callback, in Flyway, to make sure the current version is safely backed up before we run migration. Read more

Try Before You Commit in Flyway

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, we can get Flyway to roll-back its transaction, and therefore the migration, on demand. Read more

Finding the Version of a Flyway-managed Database Using SQL

Maintaining a version of a database opens a lot of possibilities, especially if an automated process can easily grab the current version, at runtime, using just SQL. 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 in an event log or bug report with the database version. No more desultory quests, when dealing with support issues, or when bug fixing, to find which database version was running when the bug happened. Read more

Improving the Quality of Data Governance: Where to Start?

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. Where do you start? Read more

Data Governance: Joining the Dots

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

Rollbacks, Undos and Undonts

Rollback scripts are designed to allow us to recover safely from a failed deployment that leaves the database in an indeterminate state. They must check exactly what needs to be reverted before doing so. If you work with an RDBMS that cannot support transaction DDL rollback they are vital. This article proposes a strategy where you create and test a rollback file, at the same time as the forward migration, and reuse it as a Flyway undo script. Read more

Managing Static Data in Flyway Database Development

If your database application requires 'static data' to function, then the best way to manage that data is using a view based on a derived table. This article demonstrates ways to create these views, depending on your RDBMS's capabilities, and how to build and manage them in development work, using Flyway and PowerShell. Read more

Managing Datasets for Database Development Work using Flyway

A generic way of exporting, deleting and loading data, for database development work. It uses Flyway Teams, a PowerShell framework, JSON files for storage and a table manifest to define the correct order of dependency for each task. It should help a team maintain datasets between database versions, as well as to switch between the datasets required to support different types of testing. Read more

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