I am doing a SQL Server DB migration task. After the migration, I need compare the old and the new DB. I need generate a summary report (by another table or excel both are OK) to the requirement team to evaluate if the difference needs fix.
There are plenty of free and paid tools available for this job. If you are ready for a paid tool, red-gate SQL Compare is a very good tool. You may search web for reviews about free tools available.
Related
I want to take data from a SQL server ans show it in to the user. I have to update the UI as the user's requirement. what are the advantages and disadvantages of both reporting tool?. Also anyone know about the licensing cost for both?
Alias,
both reporting tools are very similar in terms of features. ActiveReports has royalty free distribution and is licensed per developer. the cost ranges from $799-$1599 per developer.
If you are asking about SSRS server, then it is included as part of the SQL server license, however read the license carefully. You cannot install SSRS on a separate server from SQL Server, it requires IIS, both of these items add pressure on your DB installation, which could be an issue in the future. You would need another SQL server license in order to deploy them separately.
I would suggest that you download and try them and see which one is easier and would fit your needs better and review the licensing based on your requirements.
disclaimer - I work for Grapecity maker of ActiveReports.
Is there a way to see who updated which database object and when? I would like to be able to see which developer made a change to some table or stored procedure (or any other object) historically.
I know that we can implement DDL triggers and start capturing this information from this point on but is there a way to see historical data. Database is on SQL Server 2008 R2 Standard edition.
There is no standard way to see this data but it might be possible using 3rd party tools. If your database was in full recovery mode then you can try reading transaction log using 3rd party reader such as ApexSQL Log or Quest Toad. ApexSQL Log specializes in log reading and has more options for this while Toad is similar to SSMS and has many other options for general database management.
Native tools indeed do not provide such option, as for 3rd party tools I suggest you to take a look at SQL Server Change Reporter
from NetWrix (disclosure: I work for them). It has both freeware version as well as free trial. The product shows what changes were made to objects, who made the changes and when. This should be a solution you are looking for.
Working on a team where people are prone to amending dev SQL Server tables and forgetting about it, or preparing a change for deployment and having to wait for that deployment. This leaves our dev and live tables inconsistent, causing problems when SPROCs are pushed live.
Is there a tool whereby I can enter a SPROC name and have it check all tables referenced in it in the dev and live DBs, and notify of any differences?
I know two excellent tools for diffing SQL database structures - they don't specifically look inside stored procedures at their text, but they'll show you structural differences in your databases:
RedGate SQL Compare
ApexSQL's SQL Diff
Redgate also has a SQL Dependency Tracker which visualizes object dependencies and could be quite useful here.
Marc
For SQL Server 2005/2008, Open DBDiff works pretty well. The great part about this is that it's free. Also note that I am writing this answer for version 0.9 which currently works for SQL 2005/2008.
It'll show you the differences between the database schema between a source database you specify and the destination database you specify. There are also buttons you can click that can update or create the table that is in question.
I would recommend SQL compare and SQL Data Compare from Redgate Software. I worked with these tools for several projects and they did a great job. Documenting changes is also a good thing to do, but some changes are to complex to write your own SQL code for (including juggling data around between tables).
The redgate tools create scripts in a matter of seconds and those scripts are almost always correct (some older versions had a hard time with table dependencies in big databases, but when playing around with the statements (in a begin transaction / rollback) I was able to quickly fix those problems).
Another strong point in the redgate suites is that you can save your comparison project. This is especially useful when you don't want to convert a certain table (or data), you can exclude them. When loading the project the next time the software will automatically ignore those tables.
One disadvantage is the cost of the software (smaller companies I worked with did not want to buy the software). SQL compare and SQL data compare together will cost you about 800 dollars, but if you look at the time you will save when releasing you will save a lot of money. There is also a trial you can play around with (30 days I believe).
SQLDBDiff is a nice and user-friendly and lite tool.
SQLDBDiff supports SQL Server 2000 to 2016 and also SQL Azure.
SQLDBDiff available with both free with limited use and full with a trial.
More Screen
Try Microsoft Visual Studio Database Edition aka Data Dude (formerly for Database Professionals). It'll do a complete schema comparison and generate the necessary scripts to upgrade the target schema.
Of course, this shouldn't replace a proper build process ;-)
If you need a quick schema comparison tool for SQL Server, you should take a look at dbForge Schema Compare for SQL Server.
I've made a MssqlMerge utility that allows to compare (and merge) MSSQL database data and programming objects. It also allows to search for particular word or phrase across table definitions and programming objects.
Our clients use SQLServer/Oracle databases. Over the years, we've sent them many update scripts which they had to run manually. Most of the time, everything went smooth, but every now and then a script did not run completely to the end or had some errors in it (which weren't detected at the time of the upgrade). Also, sometimes even "smart users" added indexes/tables into those databases themselves, for whatever reason. Later on, those irregularities lead to problems.
Now I have been tasked to figure out a way to verify/validate our clients databases against our own database schema (tables, datatypes, indexes, views, ...). The output should be some kind of difference file indicating what is missing/what should not be in the database. I could do this in code (C++) from inside our application or I can create an external tool for just this one purpose.
Now before I start coding, I wanted to ask if there is already a tool out there that would produce the necessary results, or that at least could help me produce a decent xml file from our master-databases (Oracle and SQLServer)? Or is there a library which could help me write my own tool?
I've used this technique before and it doesn't require buying any tools.
Enterprise Manager has a "Create Script" feature. Perform this on your reference database and the comparison database. Select the appropriate options to generate scripts for the objects you care about. Next, just compare the two generated files with your favorite diff tool.
You can do a similar procedure with Oracle tools that let you export the DDL scripts.
There are three options using Red Gate's tools:
Have your client run the comparison.
You would need to convince your
clients to purchase a license of SQL
Compare and send them a schema
snapshot of your database.
Write an application of your own using Red
Gate's SQL Comparison SDK ($595 for
10 distributions) which can be run
at the client site.
Ask your client to send you a schema snapshot and
run the comparison yourself using your own
copy of SQL Compare. Red Gate
supplies a free schema snapshot tool
called SQL Snapper that will create
snapshots that can then be emailed to you
by your client. As this doesn't include any data, it may be something your client is willing to consider.
The SQL Snapper tool and SQL Comparison SDK sample code can be downloaded from our labs.red-gate.com website.
Oracle compatibility is now available in the form of an Early Access Build. If you're interested or would like to try out the tool visit the product page. You can use this for free until the full release of the tool.
David Atkinson, Product Manager, Red Gate Software.
We use Redgate SQL Compare for this and it's served us well over the years.
We also use Redgate SQL Data Compare for comparing the content of lookup tables.
The folks at redgate have a great tool called SQL Compare.
Can you create a schema dump like MySQL's SHOW CREATE TABLES?
If you're on Windoze, I have used Advanced Query Tool for years, and can attest that, for the money, it does more than anything else. In particular, it will generate a diff report between databases. It is ODBC/VB6, and can run against dozens of databases. Check it out. (No, I am not of QueryTool nor do I own any part of it, just a happy client.)
Is there a simpler interface for end users to run "queries" on pre-existing SqlServer Analysis Service cubes? I'm looking for a way to deploy the cubes and allow the users to work with the data through a simpler interface than BIDS. Is this even possible?
I would recommend Excel too. It is an environment that your users are familiar with anyway, and they will be able to perform additional analysis (totals etc) without learning any new interfaces.
However, I would advise against pivot tables as a method of getting the data into Excel. I once worked on a project using pivot tables, and it was a filthy nightmare. The more recent versions of Office have a slightly different tool called "Microsoft Office Excel Add-in for SQL Server Analysis Services" which can get OLAP data into Excel. I downloaded XLAddinSetup.msi for Excel 2002/3 or you can use this method for Excel 2007.
You can use Excel with pivot tables for that, no need to write any queries at all, they can drill down to all the data they need
There's a couple of End User Reporting Tools around.
Our tool - RSinteract, is quite cheap and effective. It uses an AJAXy web interface so no need to install on the client and has drag and drop functionality similar to the other tools. It also has a 30 day evaluation.
There are many, many tools. An incomplete overview can be found here: http://www.ssas-info.com/analysis-services-client-tools-frontend
Dundas has a set of tools that let you drag and drop dimensions/hierarchies/measures to create visualizations like charts and/or grids. The product name is Dundas Chart for ASP.NET Enterprise Edition, and it has a free demo.
ProClarity also had a suite of tools. Not sure how you get those tools any longer, but I think they are part of MSDN now.
As stated by Jay, there are several client tools you can use to query the cubes that give the end user the ability to drag and drop dimensions for ad-hoc querying.
ProClarity has been acquired by Microsoft, and most of the functionality is being incorporated into PerformancePoint
Panorama Software (original developers of Analysis Services) also provide access with their NovaView products
Another option is Report Builder, that comes for free with SQL Server.
Though the SQL Server 2005 version is a bit cranky, the new release with SQL Server 2008 seems to work much better.
Although it isn't as flexible as excel for ad-hoc queries,it comes very handy for some scenarios.