Deterministic Data Masking in Redgate Test Data Manager

Redgate Test Data Manager is designed to provide secure, anonymized, and representative copies of production databases. This article focuses on the role of deterministic data masking, transforming PII consistently across tables, even when no logical relationship exists between them, and explains how it works. Read more

Instant Database Reset and Easier Bug Fixing using Clones

The article demonstrates how the use of lightweight, containerized clones removes the problem of 'mopping up' after a database migration fails part way through, particularly in database systems like MySQL that don't support DDL transaction rollback. A quick reset to the previous saved revision provides 'instant rollback'. It also demos how they make it much easier and less disruptive to do retrospective bug fixing on older migrations. Read more

Using Flyway and Data Containers for Database Testing: Rapid Setup and Teardown

This article demonstrates how to use the rgclone CLI in Redgate Test Data Manager to automatically save each new version of a database created by Flyway as a data container revision, tracking which Flyway version maps to which container revision. We can then, from a single data container, load any version of the database during test setup, as well as quickly 'reset' a container during test teardown. Read more

Data Container Revisions, Resets and Graduations

Redgate Test Data Manager allows developers to save each new version of a database as a data container revision. After making local development changes to the container, or running tests, they can instantly reset it to its starting revision. They can also load any previous revision and can even 'graduate' a revision to an image, providing a new baseline for ongoing team development. These techniques are especially effective when used in conjunction with Flyway, which automatically tracks the version of every copy of the database. Read more

Connecting Easily to Data Containers from Database Tools and IDEs

Data containers can be created, destroyed and reset remarkably quickly, making them very effective for test-driven database development. Each time we reset a data container, it will have the same host, but both the port and password will be different. This article demonstrates how we can use simple PowerShell automation to smooth the process of dealing with ephemeral connection details in our IDEs and command line tasks. Read more

Running Database Tasks and Tests on Clones in Redgate Test Data Manager

This article demonstrates how to adapt your current database development and testing regimes to use clones (data containers) in Redgate Test Data Manager. It demonstrates how to handle dynamic connection details and how to get from the containers the connection and database information that your development tasks and tests need to function correctly. Read more

Simpler Enterprise Test Data Management using Database Instance Provisioning

Business applications are rarely self-contained, often depending on multiple interconnected databases, each playing a vital role in the functioning of the system. How can we create, refresh, and maintain test data for these complex database systems, and still support dedicated databases and test-driven development processes? This article explains how database instance provisioning helps meet this challenge. Read more

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

Data Masking in Practice

This article takes a strategic look at common data masking and anonymization techniques, and the challenges inherent in protecting certain types of sensitive and personal data, while ensuring that it still looks like the real data, and retains its referential integrity, and distribution characteristics. It also explains, briefly, with references, the tools that one can use to mask different types of data and how to provision development and test machines with these 'de-sensitized' databases, or alternatively to produce fake data that looks like the real thing, but in fact is generated randomly. Read more

Provisioning Clones for Flyway Projects

This article demonstrates how to use Redgate Test Data Manager to automate the delivery and teardown of data containers (clones) on four different RDBMS platforms, SQL Server, PostgreSQL, Oracle and MySQL, for use in Flyway development projects. Read more

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