Product articles Database Deployments
Failed Database Deployments: Roll Back or Fix Forward?
This article explains the different ways to reverse or accelerate your way out of the problems caused by a failed database deployment, where a technique such as feature flags fits into your strategy, and how Flyway is designed to help you ensure both that you're fully prepared to take swift remedial measures, and that you minimize the need to use them. Read moreDeploying Different Sequence Objects to SQL Server Databases Using Flyway
Consider a customer who needs to deploy sequence objects to multiple SQL Server production databases, but where the values generated for the surrogate key, in each database, must be unique. This article demonstrates one way that this can be accomplished with Flyway. Read moreFlyway Alerting and Notifications
Once a scripted Flyway task is tested and bedded-in, it should rarely cause errors, so when one happens the team need to be notified immediately, especially if it is part of an automated deployment process. This article provides a PowerShell cmdlet that will execute any Flyway command, process and filter the Flyway output and send any errors to the chosen notification system. You can receive the Flyway error alerts on your mobile phone, if required! Read moreManaging PostgreSQL Extensions Using Flyway
Any reliable DevOps deployment process must not only deliver the right database code but also ensure that the correct conditions exist for the deployment to succeed. For PostgreSQL databases, this includes ensuring that any extensions on which the database code relies are installed, and at the correct version. Fortunately, Flyway will automatically track which extensions are installed on a database and at what version, so we can 'propagate' these changes accurately during deployments and avoid inconsistencies in database behavior and even application breakages. Read moreFinding External References in Database Deployments
This article outlines the syntax of the three and four dot references that usually denote external database references, demonstrates how to find them either from a live database or by using a text search of a script, and explains some of the complicating factors that can lead to 'false positives'. Read morePiping, Filtering and Using Flyway Output in PowerShell
Flyway's output is often overwhelmed with verbose messages, most of which we can ignore but some of which provide vital warnings about failed compilations, or useful details about what a migration or callback did. I'll show how to use some pipeline-aware PowerShell functions to filter out and save the bits we want and pass the results along in a form that is useful to the next process in the pipeline. Read moreDealing with Mutually Dependent Databases in Flyway
How to create and manage 'stub' objects, in Flyway migrations, in order to overcome build failures caused by circular, or mutual, dependencies between objects in different databases. The technique should be applicable to any RDBMS. Read moreDealing with Cross-Server Database Dependencies in Flyway Projects
How to tackle database development in Flyway when databases make cross-server references. The technique uses synonyms to represent the remote objects, and local 'stub' objects to overcome the problems caused by 'missing references' when building the individual objects. Read moreExecuting Optional Code in Flyway Callbacks
When you are building or migrating a database, it is nice to have a system that you can easily configure for various tasks, such as logging, loading or dumping data, or backing up of the database. This article demonstrates how we can use a Flyway placeholder as a simple on/off switch for each task, during Flyway migrations. Read moreRollbacks, 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 moreThe Uses of Dependency Information in Database Development
Dependency information will allow you to avoid errors during a database build or tear-down, by ensuring you create or remove objects in the right order. It will also help you to avoid future 'invalid object' errors, because it will allow you to check that no database alterations have introduced broken references, during Flyway migrations. Read moreFlyway Database Drift and How it Happens
Flyway's approach to database migrations is based on strict versioning, but there is a limit to what a single process can do to prevent 'drift'. This article explains how drift can happen, and why you also need source control and external processes that log changes, to prevent it. Read moreUsing Flyway Teams with SQL Change Automation PowerShell Cmdlets
Use Flyway to run your database migrations, each time automatically creating a SQL Change Automation release object to provide object-level scripts and a build script for the new version, along with change reports and code analysis reports. Read moreDry Runs for Database Migrations using Flyway
How Dry Run scripts work, and how they can be used to deliver a single-script release artifact to Staging, verify placeholder substitutions in SQL migration scripts, and simplify team code reviews. Read moreCreating Idempotent DDL Scripts for Database Migrations
How to write idempotent DDL scripts that Flyway can run several times on a database, such as after a hotfix has already been applied directly to the production database, without causing errors. Read moreDetecting Database Drift during Flyway Database Development
How to detect database drift prior to running a database migration, so that you can be certain that a database hasn't been subject to any 'uncontrolled' changes that could affect the migration or result in untested changes being deployed to production. Read moreBatch Processing using Flyway
How to create a batch file that executes any number of database migration tasks across a range of servers and databases, using Flyway. Read moreCherry-picking Migrations using Flyway
Describing the two main use cases for occasional "cherry picking" of Flyway database migration scripts: back-filling emergency production hotfixes to version control and managing parallel development streams. Read moreFlyway Baselines and Consolidations
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 moreCustomizing Database Deployments using Flyway Callbacks and Placeholders
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 moreRedgate Hub
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