In MS SQL Server 2005, how can I create a script consisting off all the objects in the database (tables, stored procedures, views)? I want to use the script to create the database using SMO or to update its objects (alter, drop) if they already exist. I know about the scripting feature in SQL Server Management Studio, I am however not familiar with the configuration options.
If versioning your database schema is what you're getting to, try Wizardby. Although it does not directly support neither views nor sprocs, it supports running native SQL scripts as part of an upgrade/downgrade process.
I use Easy Sql Tools. The deploy version is free. You can generate scripts from schemas, data, indexes, almost everything.
http://www.easysqltools.com
There's a great tool SQL Compare that will actually compare two databases and create a change script for you. It's a great tool for staging purposes. There's also SQL Data Compare tool that will also compare lookup tables and act accordingly.
The downside is, they're not free. :(
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I maintain a Windows based application backed by SQL Server DB so there is a set of SQL entities, like tables, views. With time I add new features and fix bugs so schema of the tables and views changes. Once I need to deploy a new version of the application I deploy the DB part by relying on DacPac/DacFx which automatically generates a difference between already deployed DB and the supplied DacPac so the already deployed DB is altered to match the DacPac's content. This way I don't have to write a code which compares 2 schemas and then generates a difference - DacFx does that for me.
That works well but now I need to expand the application so it also supports SQLite DB, I will for sure have to create a new application layer working with SQLite which is doable but one place I need help with is being able to create and maintain SQLite DB schema in the same way I do for SQL Server with DacPac/DacFx so a difference in schemas is computed and applied. While doing that I ideally want do write the SQL schema once so it could be applied to SQL Server as well as SQLite. Ideally, I need to generate SQLite schema based on the schema specific to SQL Server.
I looked into sqldiff which is capable of generating difference between 2 SQLIte DBs and thought I could:
use a technique from here to migrate SQL Server schema to SQLite
generate a temporary SQLite DB based on the generated above schema
compare the above deployed temporary DB to an existing SQLite DB by using the sqldiff and finally apply the difference to the target SQLite DB
but the sqldiff, as stated in the Limitations section:
The sqldiff utility is not designed to support schema migrations
In addition it has limitations around views:
The sqldiff.exe utility does not (currently) display differences in
TRIGGERs or VIEWs.
So I interpret that like that tool could probably be used for some migration cases but it is not really recommended.
How do you suggest generating and applying the schema differences?
I'm also interested to know how others solve the task of incrementally updating schema of their SQLite DB even if I take SQL Server completely out of equation and would instead maintain SQLite schema, in the source code, only. Does everyone create their own schema comparing tools instead of using something similar like DacFx in SQL Server world?
I recently moved a SQL Server 2012 database from an old web server to Azure SQL. I also keep a copy of the database on my personal machine which is now running SQL Server 2019. During development, I frequently make changes to tables on my local machine and then need to transfer those tables to the server. I used to do this using a Visual Studio SSIS package. It was very easy. I used the "Transfer SQL Server Objects" task to select one or more tables, specify whether the existing tables should be dropped first, and replaced the tables on the server. The "Transfer SQL Server Objects" task does not work when trying to transfer objects to Azure SQL because it uses the "USE" statement. There must be an easy way to transfer tables to an Azure SQL database. I've used the "Microsoft Data Migration Assistant" and it works great for the initial migration, but does not allow you to replace tables. I feel like I am missing something very obvious because transferring tables is a routine task and there must be an easy way to do this with Azure SQL.
Manually managing and synchronizing different database versions can be time-consuming. The Schema Compare addon facilitates database comparison and provides you complete control when syncing them — you may filter particular differences and categories of differences before making modifications. The Schema Compare addon is a trustworthy tool that will save you time and code.
Hence, the Schema Compare extension provides an easy-to-use experience
to compare two database definitions and apply the differences from the
source to the target. MSFT Ddocument which could be usefull : Schema
Compare extension- here and How to: Use Schema Compare to Compare
Different Database Definitions - Here.
Does Visual Studio SQL Server Data Tools (any version) support changing the default comparison mappings, for objects with different names, and/or in different schemas?
For example, I want to compare tables in two SQL Server databases, but the tables are in different schemas in each database:
database1.SchemaA.MyTable
database2.SchemaB.MyTable
Can these tables be compared with each other using SSDT, and if so how can I do it? I cannot find any mapping options or documentation.
As far as I know, no, you cannot do the comparison using SSDT if they are in different schema. The database doesn't matter though, you could specify the connection and database when running schema compare, but not the schema.
One workaround to get it working in less than ideal way would be to:
deploy your SchemaA.MyTable locally
after the schema has been deployed successfully, replace the table definition of SchemaA.MyTable with that of SchemaB.MyTable
Run sqlcompare with your project as the source and the local db (where you deployed your project in step 1) as the target.
I have to move an entire database from a SQL Server 2008 machine to a SQL Server 2000 machine.
I created a backup using Management Studio 2008, copied it to the hard drive of the 2000 box, and from withing Management Studio 2008, I choose Restore Database to the 2000 box.
I get an error message stating, "The media family on device ... is incorrectly formed. SQL Server cannot restore this media family".
If I use Enterprise Manager 2000 I get the same error.
Is there a way to move a whole database from the newer SQL server to the older?
The only thing I can think of is to recreate the whole structure and then copy data from a live database. So, create scripts that will create the tables, views, and sp's, and then create scripts to copy the data from the existing database.
As others already said there is no default way to do this. It’s just not supported. Here are more extensive details on how to do this properly and avoid any migration issues.
You need to generate scripts for structure and data and then execute these on SQL 2000 (like others already said) but there are couple things to take into account.
Generate scripts in SSMS
Make sure to check option for scripting data for SQL 2000 to avoid issues when trying to create something like geography type column on SQL 2000.
Make sure to review execution order of scripts to avoid dependency based errors
This is a great option for small to medium size databases and requires some knowledge of SQL Server (dependencies, differences between versions and such)
Third party tools
Idea is to use third party database comparison tools such as ApexSQL Diff or Data Diff
Good side is that these will take care of script execution and differences between versions
Not so good is the fact that you’ll need to pay for these after trial ends
I’ve used these two tools successfully but you can’t go wrong with any other tool on the market. Here is a list of other tools in this category.
you can't move backups from a newer version to an older, in that case you can script your database, execute it in the 2000 box, then you can use the standard data transfer to transfer any data you want
Provided you have a network connection between the machines use SSIS. Much easier and a lot less messing around.
You can use Script Generator for your database and then select in the properties form : General-> Script for server version : SQL Server 2000.
The script generator will show you things which not compatible with your server version.
I've heard you can only do it by generating the SQL statement dump from the DB administrator tool and re-running those queries on the target older database.
You can generate a script that will recreate all the objects and transfer all the data...as long as everything in the db is valid in SQL 2000. So no ROW_NUMBER(), no PARTITION, no CTEs, no datetime2, hierarchy or several other field types, no EXECUTE AS, and lots of other goodness. Basically, there's a pretty good chance it's not possible unless your db is pretty basic.
We got a similar situation. A very low-tech but handy solution is:
backup and truncate the tables in SQL 2000.
create a LINKED server in SQL 2008, pointing to SQL 2000
run a select query at sysobjects to generate a query script for insert into LINKED SERVER.table select * from table
execute query script.
We have several SQL Server 2000 databases (I know, we need to upgrade) that have the same structure and have them set up to replicate to another server. The problem is that whenever I have to change the structure (which is usually pretty easy to do on all databases, especially with tools from Red Gate) I have to stop the replication, make the structure changes, and then set up replication again. The steps to set up replication only take a few minutes to do for each database but it's repetitive and drives me crazy. I have the IDE create a script of the replication procedure and then just replace the name of the prior database with the name of the next database and run the script. Still annoying but faster than clicking though the IDE and forgetting an option.
I've tried things like using the "SP_MSFOREEACHDB" but that didn't look very promising.
My guess is I should just use the TSQL that gets generated from the IDE and use that as a starting point to build a new TSQL script have it pass the name of the database as a parameter. And then when something changes with the structure of the database I need to address that in the TSQL replication script and make the changes there. Is this an issue for anyone else? Does 2005 or 2008 have a better "SP_MSFOREACHDB" so I wouldn't have to mainting some crazy script and just have the IDE generate a script when there are changes that I could then use on multiple databases easily?
Are you using SQL Server replication? If so, why aren't you making the changes to the publishing database and letting it push out the schema changes to its subscribers? We do this occasionally on SQL 2005 and it works well for the most part; I don't have any experience with replication on 2000 servers.
If you can use SQL Server Management studio, then the SSMS tools pack has a widget to allow the same script to be run on different databases.
SQLCMD tool can connect to SQL Server 2000 and enable interaction from command line. Using parametrized queries and a fixed set of .bat files (one for each server) can be a good alternative for what you do now.