How to automatically build multiple test databases, from source control, and then fill them with standard test data sets, using SQL Change Automation, BCP and some PowerShell magic. Read more
Steve Jones show how a team might use SQL Provision to build consistent, compliant, useful databases, on demand, for development and test environments. Read more
Provides a PowerShell automation script that will build a SQL Server database from the scripts in source control, document the database and then deploy it as a NuGet package, using it to update the schema of a live database. Read more
SQL Prompt code analysis, introduced in v9.2, provides a quick and easy way to assess the overall health and quality of your SQL scripts. It will help the team prevent technical debt from entering the code base, to remove it from existing code during code reviews, and to ensure that the released code conforms to the team's defined coding standards. Read more
This article shows how to define SQL code analysis rules using SQL Prompt and them run them automatically from a PowerShell script, displaying the detected code issues in a handy HTML report. Read more
This article describes the basic principles of SQL Change Automation, and how it works to provide a consistent and repeatable way of automating as much as possible of the database build, test, and deployment processes. Read more
SQL Monitor tells us immediately when significant blocking occurs, and where, during busy periods, and provides the full blocking chain, in an easy-to-digest graphical format, so we can diagnose and resolve the blocking quickly. Read more
Steve Jones shows how to get SQL Data Compare to synchronize custom error messages, stored in the sys.messages system catalog view, across SQL Server instances. This can be a handy way of ensuring your DR and HA instances keep their messages in sync. Read more
Using TOP in a SELECT statement, without a subsequent ORDER BY clause, is legal in SQL Server, but meaningless because asking for the TOP x rows implies that the data is guaranteed to be in a certain order, and tables have no implicit logical order. You must specify the order. Read more