Using without source control

samjudson · October 30, 2014 11:12AM

Probably a silly thing to do, but is there any reason why you couldn't just use SQL Release based solely on two databases, i.e. the Schema of your 'Dev' database IS the source controlled version?

We do have our databases under source control, but without SQLCi I have trouble actually getting that data out of source control (I'm probably being thick here, but I've never managed to get my head around this bit).

Any suggestions would be useful.

Sam

Chris Lambrou · October 31, 2014 10:13AM

Hi Sam,

Example 1 of the New-DatabaseRelease cmdlet shows exactly this use case (to view it, type Get-Help New-DatabaseRelease -Examples from a PowerShell prompt). The example generates a new Database Release containing SQL to apply the schema of a 'Test' database to a 'Staging' database.

# Define the connection details to the 'Test' and 'Staging' databases.
$staging = New-DatabaseConnection -ServerInstance 'staging01sql2012' -Database 'Staging' -Username 'sa' -Password 'P@ssw0rd'
$test = New-DatabaseConnection -ServerInstance 'test01sql2012' -Database 'Test' -Username 'sa' -Password 'P@ssw0rd' 

# Create a Database Release that can be used to update the 'Staging' database schema to match that of the 'Test' database.
$release = New-DatabaseRelease -Source $test -Target $staging

# And finally apply the release to the 'Staging' database.
$release | Use-DatabaseRelease -DeployTo $staging

However, it's not really an intended use case, and there are some drawbacks. For example, a version controlled scripts folder (as used by SQL Source Control) includes additional information about static data that is simply unavailable if using SQL Release to directly sync between two databases. I'd strongly consider using SQL CI, or even working directly with the SQL Source Control scripts folder, rather than a database to act as the source of the new schema to be deployed.

We're more than happy to help you out if you're struggling to understand how best to get your source controlled database deployed to your production database. You can contact the SQL Release team about this directly at DLMAutomationSupport@red-gate.com

samjudson · October 31, 2014 11:21AM

Thanks for the reply.

I have found out I can use the scripts folder to do the compare by just checking out of TFS. Now I just have to work out how to sort our databases out - we have a rather complicated set of databases (doesn't everyone I suppose). Each are based on the parent source controller version, but with many subtle differences unfortunately.

Sam

Chris Lambrou · October 31, 2014 11:43AM

Ah, cool. For the record, you can indeed specify the path of a scripts folder as the -Source parameter to the New-DatabaseRelease cmdlet.

Using without source control

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