This article illustrates the importance in any database development project of a 'multi-layered' approach to database access controls and security checks, based on the Principle of Least Privilege. It describes a security incident that was raised when databases related to a local development project were found to have been erroneously deployed to a remote test server. It explains the nature of the incident, what went wrong that allowed it to happen, and the measures that were put in place to prevent its recurrence. Read more
If you are using SSDT for authoring, building, debugging, and publishing a database project, how do you change to, or preferably migrate towards, a Flyway-based database development? Flyway doesn't need to replace any code part of SSDT, but if allowed to manage every release candidate, it does allow for much cleaner branching, merging, and deployments. Read more
In an SSDT-Flyway hybrid development, the required database changes may be delivered as a DACPAC, but we get far more control over merge operations and deployments if they are done using Flyway migrations. This article demonstrates how to automate as much as possible of the work required to extract a Flyway-compatible migration script from a DACPAC. Read more
This article presents an approach to database development and deployment that combines the strengths of Entry Framework Code First for .NET-driven development with the control and database versioning provided by Flyway's SQL migrations. It allows every database change to be reviewed and tested for integrity, performance, and stability in the same way as any application change. It should make a Database CI process much easier to sustain. Read more
During development you'll occasionally need an undo script that drops a group of tables, or you might need to truncate a group of tables and then insert fresh data in order to run some tests. Unless you perform the required actions in the correct dependency order, you'll be tripped up by foreign key constraint violations. This article provides a SQL function that returns the list of tables in the correct dependency order. Read more
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 more
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 more
Our goal was to transform a 'serial' and manual development and release process into one that supported parallel development work and automated releases. This article explains step one: migrating our monolithic, centralized repos to Git, then implementing a Release Flow branching strategy for parallel development work streams, and a Pull Request workflow to control an automated build and release process. Read more
This article provides a simple demonstration of how a small team of developers might set up a Flyway Desktop project to manage, automate, and control database development. Read more
For a development team, SQL Backup provides a simple way to restore development or test databases, if required, while minimizing the tedium of the task of taking, managing, and restoring the backups. We can generate the required backup commands in the GUI and then use them to construct a SQL script that backs up all the required databases. We can even use the backup commands in a beforeMigrate SQL callback, in Flyway, to make sure the current version is safely backed up before we run migration. Read more