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Product articles Database migrations
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 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 moreManaging 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 moreManaging 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 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 morePerformance Testing Databases with Flyway and PowerShell
Performance tests are central to the quality of the database changes we deliver because they ensure that any business process that accesses the database continues to return its results in an acceptable time. When Flyway creates a new version of the database, it is the ideal time to run these performance checks. Read moreRunning Unit and Integration Tests during Flyway Migrations
In this article I'll give a practical example of developing a database, with Flyway, in such a way that it is automatically tested with whatever unit tests and integration tests you specify whenever you migrate the branch you're working on to the next version. If a test fails, you can work out why, undo the migration and then try again. Read moreIntroduction to Testing a Flyway Development
How to use Flyway Teams to run basic tests whenever it successfully executes a migration, checking that all the business processes supported by our database always produce the expected results. Read moreRe-baselining a Database using Flyway Desktop
Over time, Flyway projects can accumulate a lot of migration scripts, with many database objects being created, altered, and dropped across many files. Tonie Huizer explains why you might want to create a new baseline migration file to create the latest version of a Flyway-managed database in a single leap, and how to persuade Flyway Desktop to do it. Read moreBuilding a Database with Flyway
Flyway, especially Flyway Teams edition, can be used in several different ways to accommodate a database development that was originally based on builds rather than migrations. This article explores four different ways to use Flyway to build a particular version of a database, from the ground up, using a single migration script. It should help teams select the best way to incorporate Flyway into an existing database build system, during development, while benefitting from use of Flyway's versioned migration system for deployments and releases. Read moreIncreasing the Visibility of Database Changes in Flyway Development
If you save a metadata 'model' for every new version of a database created by Flyway, you can compare the current model to the previous one to see what changed. In turn, you can then generate a database E-R diagram that highlights the changed objects, instantly making those changes visible to other team members. Read moreTaming Database Documentation with Flyway and MySQL
Database object documentation is essential for explaining to busy developers, and the wider business, the purpose of each object and how to use it. The solution presented in this article consists of a SQL script to allow developers to add comments to MySQL database objects, without affecting the database version, and a simple way to generate a documentation report, in JSON. The SQL script will execute automatically as a callback, during any Flyway Teams migration run, and the report will allow the team to spot any gaps quickly. Read moreAutomating Flyway Development Chores using Database Diagrams
If you can produce a quick Entity-Relationship diagram for any version of a database, you'll have a simple way to 'sanity check' it for unreferenced tables, missing keys and other design flaws. This article shows how to auto-generate these diagrams when running a migration, using Flyway Teams and PowerShell. Read moreManaging Database Code Quality in a Flyway Development
In this article, I'll discuss the most important quality metrics for a database development, and then practical ways to ensure that a Flyway-managed database is designed and implemented to a high enough standard that it is reliable to use. Read moreGetting Started with Flyway and any RDBMS
How to get started with Flyway, as simply as possible, using PowerShell. This article provides a practice set of Flyway migration scripts that will build the original pubs database on either SQL Server, PostgreSQL, MySQL, MariaDB or SQLite and then migrate it from version to version, making a series of improvements to its schema design. Read moreSimple Reporting with Flyway and Database Models
If you can generate a file-based (JSON) model for each new version of a database, produced by a Flyway migration, then you have an easy way to run simple reports to help you search, list, and understand the structure of these databases. I'll show how to produce the models using PowerShell and then run some queries against them to generate the reports. Read moreGetting Started with Flyway Desktop
Robert Sheldon helps you get started with Flyway Desktop by walking you through the process of creating a Flyway Desktop project for an existing database. It covers the basics of building a schema model, generating and running migration scripts, and saving changes to source control. Read moreFlyway How-tos: a User’s Perspective
Flyway provides a database-independent way for a team to track, manage and apply database changes, while maintaining strict control of database versions. It updates a database by running a series of versioned migration scripts, in order, and keeps track of all the changes in a special "schema history" table. It sounds simple, but it is easy to derail this team discipline if you don't find the right answers to the following questions… Read moreDatabase Development Visibility using Flyway and PowerShell
The payback of DevOps is not simply in automation but in using that automation to increase the visibility of the development processes. This article demonstrates way to make Flyway developments more visible, regardless of your RDBMS, such as by providing a detailed migration history, and change reports that reveal detail of what is going on to all involved. Read moreWhat is the Flyway Teamwork Framework?
The FlywayTeamwork PowerShell framework is designed to help get you started quickly with scripting Flyway migrations for a range of database systems. It introduces a PowerShell task library to help with the scripting of repetitive chores and to generate some of the 'build artifacts' that are often required during team development work. This article explains the basics of the framework's design and provides a demo how to use Flyway to migrate a PostgreSQL database, while generating a high-level narrative of the changes made between versions. Read moreCreating Flyway Migration Files using Redgate Schema Comparison Tools
How to use Redgate's schema comparison engines to generate object-level scripts for every database version that Flyway creates, and then use them to create ad-hoc, Flyway-compatible migration files. Read moreGetting an Overview of Changes to a PostgreSQL Database using Flyway
How to use Flyway and PowerShell to automatically generate a database build script every time Flyway successfully created a new version. You can then investigate schema changes between versions simply by using a Diff tool to compare build scripts. Read moreFlyway Gotchas
Explaining some of the 'gotchas' that can trip up the unwary Flyway user, and how to avoid them. One or two of these you'll encounter quickly, such as the case-sensitivity of parameters and arguments. Others, such as potential problems with undo scripts or running scripted callbacks, only when you are tackling more complex development processes. Read moreMoving from ‘Chaotic’ to ‘Managed’ Database Development using Flyway
This article describes a route to adopting Flyway in order to bring management and control to a chaotic database development process. It is based on use of Flyway migrations to update a database from version to version, while maintaining object-level source scripts for tracking changes between versions. Read moreReporting on the Progress of a Flyway Database Development Project
This article demos a novel way to report on the progress of your Flyway development project. It provides both SQL and PowerShell versions of code that extracts information for each database version from the Flyway schema history table and then plots it in a Gantt chart. Read moreA Programmer’s Guide to Flyway Configuration
Phil Factor offers a programmer's guide to Flyway's configuration settings, explaining the different categories of parameters, the role of each of parameter within each category, and how to exploit Flyway's multi-level configuration file system. Read moreDebugging Flyway Callbacks and Migrations that Use Placeholders
Placeholders come in very handy in Flyway, but troubleshooting the SQL migration and callback scripts that use them can be tricky. This articles demonstrates how to develop, test and debug these scripts in a tool designed for these tasks, such as SSMS, leaving Flyway to do what it's designed for, which is running the scripts. Read moreTesting a Flyway Database Migration
Often, we want to test the new version of a database, produced by a Flyway migration, before committing the new migration file, or to test the same migration run on a number of different databases. This article demonstrates how to do it, by generating and using JSON parameter files to run a series of Flyway actions on any number of databases, on any number of servers. Read moreExploring the Flyway Schema History Table
Flyway uses a schema history table to track the version of each database, recording in it every versioned migration file applied to build that version. It's worth understanding exactly how Flyway uses this table, the possible dangers of moving it to a non-default location and how to do it safely, if required. Read moreReporting on Changes Made by Flyway Migration Scripts
Phil Factor demonstrates some PowerShell tasks that will produce a high-level overview, or narrative, of the main differences in the metadata between two versions of a database, during Flyway Teams migrations. 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 moreAdding Test Data to Databases During Flyway Migrations
How to add test data to a SQL Server database, during Flyway development. We use SQL Data Generator to produce some "realistic but fake" data and then SQL Data Compare to produce an INSERT script that Flyway can use to load the data into a newly-built version of the database. Read moreFlyway Teams and the Problem of Database Variants
The 'ShouldExecute' script configuration option in Flyway Teams simplifies 'conditional execution' of SQL migration files. This makes it easier to support multiple application versions from the same Flyway project, to deal with different cultural or legislative requirements. It also helps developers handle environmental differences between development, test and staging, such as the need to support multiple versions or releases of the RDBMS. Read moreDry Runs for Database Migrations using Flyway Teams
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 simply team code reviews. Read moreA Flyway Teams Callback Script for Auditing SQL Migrations
Demonstrates a cross-database PowerShell callback script for reporting on and auditing Flyway migrations, telling you which scripts were used to create each version, when they were run, who ran them and more. Read moreSecrets of Flyway Teams Undo
Flyway Teams has an Undo facility that enables you to roll back one or more migrations. This article demonstrates how it works and explains how Undo migrations make testing migration scripts easier and branch-based development simpler. Read moreFlyway Without the Typing
How to use Flyway configuration files to minimize typing during ad-hoc development from PowerShell or DOS; you just type in the Flyway commands you need and hit "go" and the config files take care of all the tiresome connection, authentication and project details. Read moreDealing with Failed SQL Migrations in MariaDB or MySQL
This article explains the fastest ways to restore the previous version of the database, to recover from a failed Flyway migration that leaves the database in an indeterminate state, and then how to adapt your database development process to avoid these problems. Read moreFlyway with MariaDB for Those of a Nervous Disposition
This article will get you up and running quickly with Flyway migrations on MariaDB or MySQL databases, from PowerShell. Read moreDiscovering What’s Changed by Flyway Migrations
A set of PowerShell cmdlets that will 'diff' two versions of a database and provide a high-level overview of the major database changes made by successive Flyway migrations. You can 'diff' a SQL Server database to the same one on PostgreSQL and find out which objects are the same and which are different. Read moreOne Flyway Migration Script for Diverse Database Systems
How to create a single set of SQL migration scripts for Flyway that we can use across multiple database systems, or for all regional variants of a database. Read moreFlyway with SQLite for Those of a Nervous Disposition
Get started with running Flyway migrations on SQLite databases, using PowerShell. Read moreGetting Started with Flyway Migrations on PostgreSQL
Use PowerShell to run some Flyway migration scripts that will build, fill and modify a PostgreSQL database. Read moreTesting Flyway Migrations Using Transactions
When you are using Flyway, how can you test your database migration script first to make sure it works exactly as you intended before you let Flyway execute it? Read moreManaging database changes using Flyway: an Overview
This article describes the principles of using Flyway migrations to build a database from scripts, to a specified version, and to track, manage and apply all database changes. Read moreRedgate Hub
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