Compare a large DB to another, no connection between

LukeB

hi ,

I have a large DB (+50Gb) at a client site, I have full remote access to it, but is via Citrix not RDP/VPN , so is a remote terminal in a web browser

I have the same db on my side, I have made a lot of changes to the db (table structures/sProcs/Views etc) on my side.

I want to use SQLCompare which I have installed on MY side but NOT on the client side

Anyway to do that without comparing using a backup of the client's db ? (because too big to backup and FTP or Dropbox to myself).

Eddie D

Thank you for your forum post.

Firstly, providing SQL Compare running on your side of the connection can obtain a connection to the remote client database, you have two choices.

1. Perform the comparison as normal, the comparison may take a little longer to complete. On completion review the results and deploy the changes.

2. Connect to the remote client database. From the File menu select the option to 'Create snapshot...', to create a SQL Compare Snapshot file of the remote database. A SQL Compare snapshot is a binary representation of the database objects no actual rows of data are included. Compare the local database to the snapshot created, review the results and generate a deployment script. Copy the deployment script to the remote computer and run it to deploy the changes.

I hope the above answers your question.

Many Thanks
Eddie

Michelle T

If you can't connect to your SQL Server in any conventional way, but you can move files to the server, you could also use SQL Snapper to get the snapshot of the remote database.

You need to move the files RedGate.SQLSnapper.exe, RedGate.SOCCompareInterface.dll and System.Threading.dll from the SQL Compare install directory to any directory on the remote server, then run SQL Snapper and generate a snapshot.

Then you can move that snapshot file (which, just being the schema, should be considerably smaller than a backup file) back to your local machine and use that as the client DB copy.