There are certain checks that need to be done after a database migration is complete. One good example of this is the check that a migration script, such as one that merges changes from a branch into main, doesn't cause 'invalid objects' (a.k.a. 'missing references') in your databases. I'll show you how to run this check, using sp_RefreshSQLModule, and incorporate it into a Flyway "after" migration script. Read more
Dave Poole explains the need for high quality database documentation and then demonstrates how to document the SQL Server database for a data catalog, in both HTML and Git Markdown, using SQL Doc, SQL Data Catalog, PowerShell, and a few helper scripts to ensure consistency and correctness. 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
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
SQL Multi Script can easily be persuaded to run queries at the server level rather than the database level. It is also able to combine results from many databases even if the results aren't identical but have some different columns. Phil Factor demonstrates how this works, when collecting a set of performance counters from all databases on a distribution list of servers. Read more
SQL Multi Script does one thing and does it well: it will run whatever script or scripts you select, on a list of databases, and collate all the results neatly. However, it has a surprising number of uses. Phil Factor explains how it works and then uses it to search 100 databases, for occurrences of a string, in about 7 seconds. Read more
This article demonstrates how to use a 'state' approach to database source control, when the nature of the database changes cause you to hit difficulties with migrating existing data. These difficulties happen when the differences are such that it is impossible for any automated script to make the changes whilst preserving existing data. Read more
