Although the techniques of Database Lifecycle Management can reduce the timescales for the delivery of new functionality to business systems, what if the database 'layer' consists of several large interdependent databases and data flows with replication and audit? Does DLM scale to this level of complexity? Margaret Cruise O'Brien starts a series of articles that describes the practicalities of improving DLM within an existing framework and team supporting a multi-database multi-server system, by describing some of the database management problems and solutions in an enterprise-scale database.
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When there are several SSIS projects with packages in a SQL Server Database or Data Warehouse development, automated deployments as part of Continuous Integration can get tricky. Nat Sundar describes how he created a Deployment script that is intended to provision a Data Warehouse for System Integrated testing (SIT).… Read more
If you are introducing DevOps workflows into a large organization, you’ll need to plan carefully and prioritize tasks, adapt, maintain a thick skin, communicate constantly, and ensure that all teams have a chance to contribute their solutions. Bob Walker explains how FCSA set up a DevOps Workgroup, its philosophy and its goals for improving database and application deployment processes.… Read more
SSIS was not originally designed with automated deployment in mind. However, any database that uses SSIS projects and their packages needs a way of scripting the deployment of them if the database is to be deployed rapidly, or via a build server. Nat Sundar shows a technique that can be extended to manage the scripted deployment of SSIS projects. … Read more
Identifying a need for better collaboration between teams is only the first step to introducing DevOps workflows into your organization. You also need to define a common DevOps goal, a strategy to achieve it, and then to break down this strategy into series of manageable tasks for each team. Bob Walker describes how Farm Services of America started to "do DevOps".… Read more
The easiest way of explaining how a DevOps approach to database deployment can dramatically speed up the process is to use the term ‘shift-left’. By performing, or at least preparing for, all the processes and tasks that are necessary for deployment as soon as possible in the development cycle, it is possible to move from big, infrequent releases to “little and often”. Stephanie Herr explains how ‘shifting left’ can get deployment pipelines moving.… Read more
Virtual machines are easier to manage via PowerShell than with the the Hyper-V Manager console. PowerShell Direct takes this further by allowing you to interact easily with the virtual machines on the Hyper-V host without needing network access. With Windows Nano Server, PowerShell Direct is an essential because this OS requires you to use remote management via PowerShell scripts.
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Let's forget the actual PowerShell code for a moment: Why is PowerShell important? Why should I use it? Where did it come from? Why did it take so long to arrive? These and many other basic questions are answered in William Brewer's latest addition to the series that answers those seemingly simple questions that you were too shy to ask in public.… Read more
It is the data, in particular, that sets Database Lifecycle Management apart from the mainstream of application delivery. Data entities, and the way that organisations understand and deal with them, have their own lifespan. If we neglect the management of data, we risk disaster for the organisations that use it. If we take data management seriously, databases become a lot easier. … Read more
Database Lifecycle Management (DLM) aims to provide a roadmap of what is required, and when, to deliver and maintain effective databases that can respond quickly to business change. How does the DevOps movement, as it applies to databases, fit into this? William Brewer explains how DevOps provides the organisational change between delivery and operations to make important parts of the process easier to introduce.… Read more
On both Windows and Linux, the chore of setting up developer workstations can take several days, and there always seem to be a few configuration settings that get missed. You can reduce the time and tedium dramatically by automating the process by using Vagrant to set up the operating system, followed by your choice of provisioning, configuration management and orchestration applications such as Puppet, Chef, Ansible, Salt, Docker, Chocolatey and Boxstarter. Vishwas shows how to make it easy to do with Vagrant, Chocolatey and Boxstarter.… Read more
Database provisioning for development work isn't always easy. The better that development teams meet business demands for rapid delivery and high quality, the more complex become the requirements for the work of development and testing. More databases are required for testing and development, and they need to be more rapidly kept current. Data and loading needs to match more closely what is in production. Grant Fritchey explains.… Read more
For many developers, database security and Access control is just something that gets in the way of development work. However, several recent security breaches have had devastating consequences and have caused a change in attitude about the value to any organisation of having database applications that meet industry standards for access control and security. The problem, however is in admitting that you have a problem and finding answers to those problems you are just too shy to ask in public. … Read more
Even a database development framework like Sql Server Data Tools (SSDT) doesn't get it right all the time, and there are ten deployment 'gotchas' in particular that can cause some head-scratching amongst developers to get right. From his unique perspective of creating a tool to make such deployments in SSDT less stressful, Dan Nolan discusses each pitfall and how to avoid it, whether you have ReadyRoll or not. … Read more
There is a great gulf between wanting to document your database properly with extended properties and actually doing it. Extended Properties have many uses but they aren't easy to use. Phil Factor is on a mission to make it easier for ordinary mortals to use extended properties as intended, to aid the database development process.… Read more
Master Data Services (MDS) is Microsoft's platform for supporting Master Data Management (MDM). A system like MDS, if properly maintained, gives organisations a powerful alternative to increasingly having to centralize databases as a way of preventing data from getting out sync or become inconsistent, and a reliable way of managing the flow of data through corporate IT systems. It makes microservice architectures realistic. Hari Yadav shows you how to get up and running with MDS. … Read more
So many of the problems that organisations have with their IT applications are due to the struggle with data, in the absence of overall organization-wide control and supervision of data and its progress through the various parts of the organization. Master data management (MDM) offers a solution to the many data woes by controlling data change, It does it in an analogous way to Version Control, so that changes are cleansed, checked, tracked and audited, and any named version can be published to other services . Now Microsoft has an implementation as part of the data platform.… Read more
When it comes to releasing and delivering an Entity Framework application, you will be faced with the problem of deploying it to several delivery environments such as test or staging as part of the delivery pipeline. How do you cope with managing, error-free, all the environment-specific settings that are entailed? Why not use transformations? Sudha explains how.… Read more
Although it is well-known that the best efforts of a development team can be derailed by mistakes in the architecture, design and general governance of a development project, few attempts have been made to describe what needs to be done to increase the chances of success in the development of a database application. William Brewer steps into the breach to itemise what a delivery team needs to succeed.… Read more
Knut Jürgensen shares his experiences, both positive and negative, with regard to the function that Master Data Management fulfils within a company. Too often this critical aspect of a business is overlooked or pushed aside without paying it the attention it deserves based on the cost benefits available.… Read more
