I have a problem attaching ms sql server database after syncing with git. My steps are:
1. I use Dropbox to keep the bare repository instead of github.
2. The working repository stored in C drive. This repository contains my code and database (ms sql server 2008). So I commit and push changes to bare repository (in dropbox).
3. On the second computer, I clone that project from dropbox (bare repository).
4. At first, the 2nd computer can attach database. Then it edits database, detach database, and push changes to bare repository in dropbox.
5. The problem occurs here, the first computer cannot pull the changes from bare repository. It shows permission deny. I use SmartGit as GUI for git. Beside, when I do these steps again, the other problem is that the first computer can pull the changes but it cannot attach the database any more.
I guess when the second computer edits database, it gave its own permission to access database, that’s why the first one cannot get changes or attach database.
The purpose of the above steps is that I want to keep my database in dropbox using git so that I can work with database from any computer without copying it. Before I used Dropbox to do this, but it cannot sync database, that’s why I think of using git. I do not need git to version control my database, just keeps it in one place for portable working.
If you guys think the above method is not practical, could you suggest me a way of doing this? Thank you so much in advance.
Update:
Problem is solved.
Resolution: 2 ways:
- Generate script based on ms sqlserver using msdeploy and version control that script. (I'm using this method).
- Using data tier app (DAC), but I'm new in this. Will play with it later.
Related
I have a WPF application. My question is What should be the build action for the database in my case. I have a database but every time I build my solution the database entries are removed and a new database is created. What build action should I keep for my database to overcome this problem.
How come you remove all of your Database data? What happens to your data then? Is it possible in a live system?
To overcome this problem, you should keep track of your DB changes as DB scripts. This means that by any DB change, you should keep its relevant script somewhere in your source control. The scripts should be traceable. This means that if you want to migrate from release A to release D, you should know which scripts should be executed for the DB migration.
Here is the solution we use in our project.
Each developer keeps a script in source control for any DB change.
The scripts are numbered as SVN revision numbers, e.g. 2835.sql.
While building the application, all scripts are copied to the
application installer. But, by comparing the current installed version and the new version, the installer knows which scripts should be executed.
Using this way, the migration becomes and easy process.
In an application that I am supporting, lately I have made several changes to the DB structure.
I send the update to the users, but its very hard to keep them all up-to-date.
Is there any simple way to do this ?
Something that enables users to skip versions, but still do the update in the next version they install.
I use BlackFish database.
Thanks
Just store database version number in the database and write migration scripts like this:
database_10.sql - initial db structure
database_10_15.sql - migration script to move from 1.0 to 1.5
database_10_17.sql - migration script to move from 1.5 to 1.7
Check database version number on every application startup and apply needed migration scripts.
Side note:
Another appealing alternative to it also for small project is Component ACE Absolute Database.
Now direct to the point:
The personnal edition (Free) comes with a custom utility named DBManager (along with its source code).
It can serve as starting point to how to manage database structure change programmatically (the Delphi way!).
Why not port it to BlackFish?
I very rarely change Databases but just add a table or sometimes a colunm. When I startup my program it checks for the existance of said column or table and if it's not there it just tries to make it.
OK..so I'm new to Git / Github after being on Visual Source Safe most of my career and have seen the light - love it. So I have migrated all my .NET projects to my Github account and would like to also manage all my SQL Server databases with Git as well. In all my projects I always put my database files in a /Database subdirectory so I have, for example, /Databases/MyDatabase.mdf and /Databases/MyDatabase.ldf in my source tree. I am tracking these files with Git and they show in Github nicely with all the rest of my source.
Here's what I was expecting to happen: I stop SQL Server with a NET STOP MSSQLSERVER and I checkout a branch so Git will pull down the MDF and LDF files for that branch. Restart SQL Server with NET START MSSQLSERVER and do whatever work I need to do on the source and database for that particular branch. Git would track my changes to the MDF file and when I do a stage / commit / push it would send the changes back up to the remote repository.
I tried this by pulling down the database and adding a new column to a table and doing a commit. Git told me that there were no changes to any items which I was not expecting...I changed the MDF file. Is it not possible for Git to track changes in an MDF file? My first guess was that maybe because it was binary and not text base Git might have trouble with it but I believe it's possible to use Git to keep track of image files and other binary items so that doesn't seem like it would be the issue. Any ideas? Is it just not possible? Should I not even be trying to do this? Thanks in advance for your comments.
It is very bad idea to place changing database files into any source control. Try to create/update appropriate scripts and store them in source control - this is the proper way to track schema changes inside the DB
If you're using Visual Studio - this is a good point to start with database and server projects in it. But sometimes it behave in weird manner, so use with caution and gently
OR you can use some commercial/free software to track the changes inside DB schema and data, like RedGate Schema Compare or Redgate Data Compare
Have you considered using our SQL Source Control tool to keep track of development changes. This does all the 'scripting out' for you behind the scenes. It actually uses SQL Compare's engine under the hood.
http://www.red-gate.com/products/sql-development/sql-source-control/
As Oleg correctly points out, it's possible to track schema changes using SQL Compare and SQL Data Compare, but here at Red Gate we wouldn't recommend you do this over maintaining your development environment under source control. Ideally you should do both. Grant Fritchey has written an excellent article describing how SQL Compare's command line can be used with a source control system to track schema changes. He uses SourceGear Vault in his examples, but the principles apply to any source control system.
http://www.simple-talk.com/sql/database-administration/auditing-ddl-changes-in-sql-server-databases/
The way I develop may not be correct, any advice welcome.
At the moment I have a WPF application that uses a SQL2008 database. I have a copy of the database on a laptop and on my home machine. My application is versioned using SVN and I am obviously able go from the work laptop to the home machine and update/commit as required to ensure I am using the latest code for the application.
However the database is a different story in that any change I make I create a backup and then transfer the backup to the other machine etc. This way I get the data and the changes made on each system. In order to do this the database connection using a different connectionstring and I change a setting in my app to use a different connection based on my location.
I have now started to use LINQ to SQL and DBML files in my application, and finally getting to the question, I don't know how I can change the connectionstring it uses in code so it will use the correct database in the DBML.
Also, is there a better way to transfer the database so I don't need to do the backups and restores? The only reason why I have not versioned the Schema is because I am not sure how that would handle my data as this is key to my development, ie various environment settings etc are stored in the DB and brought through at runtime.
Your Statement:
I have now started to use LINQ to SQL and DBML files in my application, and finally getting to the question, I don't know how I can change the connectionstring it uses in code so it will use the correct database in the DBML.
Yes it's possible.
MYDataContext mycontext = new MYDataContext("Your Connection String");
There is a Constructor where you can chage the Connectionstring.
This is such a common problem, and I have never found a minimal and clean solution to it. How to keep all the values and variables and databases and source files in sync between machines?
Well SVN works great for the source files.
For the database, I TRY to just use one DB if we can get away with it. All the devs point to one machine that hosts the db, then we aren't wasting time with DB setup and merging. If that's not possible, then we usually just end up dumping the database when there is a change and distributing the .bak file around. You can try adding this file to SVN, and it works. you can even have the DB dump to a schedule so that SVN is always getting a new copy. But it's still too much work to keep restoring a db over and over. Perhaps you could hook in some scripting to SVN (we use Tortise for windows) and have a job that would do that automatically. That'd be nice.
For the config files - I do ASP.NET so I have web.config, connectionstrings.config, etc, I do one of two things - either just manually copy sections that need to be changed between machines and comment out the part that doesn't need to be used (clunky), or I've at times written ConfigurationSettings helper objects that diagnose a config key to decide what setting to use, based on the current machine name. eg:
Say my current machine is DEV1. The server is SERVER1. I'll have config keys with names like DEV1.connections.sqlserver and SERVER1.connections.sqlserver. In the code I'll use the helper method GetConfig("connections.sqlserver"). GetConfig figures out which key to use based on the current machine name.
Using this method, I don't have to keep remembering to monkey around with the dozen .configs every time I upload to the server or change things. But I DO have to make a duplicate key for every machine that will be running the application, which can get a bit much. For large teams, instead of using machine names, I use group names and have a config key that assigns machine names to a group - with the idea that every machine in the group will have that application set up in an identical fashion - same file paths etc.
Now onto your second question about LINQ - when you create a linq dbml, it will add a connection string to your config. you just have to make sure that you find this connectionstring and copy it into your active application. eg:
I have a solution that has 2 projects:
1 - website
2 - library
I put the dbml into the library project. If I go and look into the App.config of the library project, I'll see the connectionstring that LINQ wants to use. If I copy this connectionstring into the website's connectionstrings.confing file, when I reference the library and run the website, LINQ will be able to see the connectionstring it wants to use.
You can try Sql Server Merge Replication and use SQL Compact 3.5 as your laptop database and use master as your work/home machine database. However you may do this with only Sql Server Standard Edition.
Other option is , Microsoft Sync Framework.. here..
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/sync/default.aspx
You could use red_gate's SQL COmpare and SQLDataCompare to script out changes to the database. You should be in the habit of scripting database changes anyway as that is what you will need to do when it is time to move changes to prod. I would also make sure all database changes are in SVN, we don't make any changes to the database ever without a script in source control.
I ended up just using multiple connection strings and then manually changing the connection on the dbml file whenever I moved locations. However I also have some code in place to programmatically change it based on the project setting for the location.
I haven't really got a good solution to the transferring of the databases and continue to use the backup and restore method.
I'm early in development on a web application built in VS2008. I have both a desktop PC (where most of the work gets done) and a laptop (for occasional portability) on which I use AnkhSVN to keep the project code synced. What's the best way to keep my development database (SQL Server Express) synced up as well?
I have a VS database project in SVN containing create scripts which I re-generate when the schema changes. The original idea was to recreate the DB whenever something changed, but it's quickly becoming a pain. Also, I'd lose all the sample rows I entered to make sure data is being displayed properly.
I'm considering putting the .MDF and .LDF files under source control, but I doubt SQL Server Express will handle it gracefully if I do an SVN Update and the files get yanked out from under it, replaced with newer copies. Sticking a couple big binary files into source control doesn't seem like an elegant solution either, even if it is just a throwaway development database. Any suggestions?
There are obviously a number of ways to approach this, so I am going to list a number of links that should provide a better foundation to build on. These are the links that I've referenced in the past when trying to get others on the bandwagon.
Database Projects in Visual Studio .NET
Data Schema - How Changes are to be Implemented
Is Your Database Under Version Control?
Get Your Database Under Version Control
Also look for MSDN Webcast: Visual Studio 2005 Team Edition for Database Professionals (Part 4 of 4): Schema Source and Version Control
However, with all of that said, if you don't think that you are committed enough to implement some type of version control (either manual or semi-automated), then I HIGHLY recommend you check out the following:
Red Gate SQL Compare
Red Gate SQL Data Compare
Holy cow! Talk about making life easy! I had a project get away from me and had multiple people in making schema changes and had to keep multiple environments in sync. It was trivial to point the Red Gate products at two databases and see the differences and then sync them up.
In addition to your database CREATE script, why don't you maintain a default data or sample data script as well?
This is an approach that we've taken for incremental versions of an application we have been maintaining for more than 2 years now, and it works very well. Having a default data script also allows your QA testers to be able to recreate bugs using the data that you also have?
You might also want to take a look at a question I posted some time ago:
Best tool for auto-generating SQL change scripts
You can store backup (.bak file) of you database rather than .MDF & .LDF files.
You can restore your db easily using following script:
use master
go
if exists (select * from master.dbo.sysdatabases where name = 'your_db')
begin
alter database your_db set SINGLE_USER with rollback IMMEDIATE
drop database your_db
end
restore database your_db
from disk = 'path\to\your\bak\file'
with move 'Name of dat file' to 'path\to\mdf\file',
move 'Name of log file' to 'path\to\ldf\file'
go
You can put above mentioned script in text file restore.sql and call it from batch file using following command:
osql -E -i restore.sql
That way you can create script file to automate whole process:
Get latest db backup from SVN
repository or any suitable storage
Restore current db using bak file
We use a combo of, taking backups from higher environments down.
As well as using ApexSql to handle initial setup of schema.
Recently been using Subsonic migrations, as a coded, source controlled, run through CI way to get change scripts in, there is also "tarantino" project developed by headspring out of texas.
Most of these approaches especially the latter, are safe to use on top of most test data. I particularly like the automated last 2 because I can make a change, and next time someone gets latest, they just run the "updater" and they are ushered to latest.