Move SQL Server database modification between development and live database without data - sql-server-2008

I am working with SQL Server and I have two databases - one for development and another one for a live users.
I want a way to move the changes (create new tables, SP, functions, modifications, relations, indexes) from development database to a live database automatically
now I am copy the script for each element and execute it on the live database

there are few ways how to achieve this. I don't want to make any advertisement here, but in my job I found RedGate SQL Compare most suitable to do this. Same can be achieved by using Visual Studio 2010 database project. Unfortunately I don't know any free tool actually.

I found a solution on Visual Studio 2010 in Scheme Compare under Data menue
I can choose the servers and databases I want to compare and then it will show the difference between it and the two databases and then we can automaticlly write these changes from source database to target database

Related

ACCESS: Move Data --> Access Database keeps wanting to split

I have an ACCESS database that I'm using to test migration to SQL Server. It has one local table; no linked tables, forms, queries, or reports. One site said to use the open the Database Tools tab, and click the Access Database icon in the Move Data group. When I do, it tells me that the database must be split. How do I let ACCESS know that the database has been split?
The move data features up to Access 2010 ALSO had a feature to move data to SQL server. However, due to SQL server always changing and having new versions that come out at "different" times then ms-access?
the feature was deprecated, and versions of Access after 2010 don't have the move to sql server anymore.
If this is just say a simple single table, then it you can use SQL server studio to import the table. (but, you lose PK settings, and indexing, and relationships (assumes you have more then one table and related tables).
If you looking to migrate a lot of data, and a lot of tables?
Then it is high recommended that you use the Sql Server Migration Assistant for Access. (SSMAA).
It is a separate download. You can find SSMAA here:
Information on this tool, and download links can be found here:
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/sql/ssma/access/sql-server-migration-assistant-for-access-accesstosql?view=sql-server-ver16
While the tool has a learning curve, it is well worth the efforts for any type of serious data migration from Access to SQL server.

SQL Server 2012 - Data Migration to a database with modified schema

We have a database in production running on SQL Server 2012, the database was copied and then changes were made to the schema, structure, relationships during further development of our application that uses the database.
We are now ready to migrate the data from the old production database to our newly developed database. We spent a late night last night trying to figure out how to get that done using Red Gate's SQL Schema Comare, and SQL Data Compare. We were not very successful as kept getting errors during the SQL Schema Compare Deployment.
The options and features of Red Gate's tools are very extensive and I don't have much experience using them. I tried creating migration scripts within SQL Compare, but as the databases weren't linked up to source control prior, I don't see where or how to write these scripts.
The question I have is what is the proper sequence to migrate data using Red Gate's tools, or would it just be easier to create SSIS packages to handle it all. The amount of records we are migrating is relatively low less than 10,000 records. We would like to preserve the identity values as we have some scripts that may depend on the specific identity values.
Any tips, suggestions, and comments are much appreciated.
Thanks

How to compare schemas in SQL Server 2008

Can someone guide me on how can I compare schemas in SQL Server 2008.
I want to do so to check if sql objects already exists and if they exists is there any change between the existing and the new one.
You can compare schemas in SQL Server 2008 and any new SQL Server with ApexSQL Diff and it has free Community edition.
It has user friendly UI, where you can easily pick your databases (or other data sources as backups, source control projects, script folders) compare them, get results with differences and to synchronize from source to destination database.
If you just want to compare objects to only see differences and create a merge script, you can check out a free tool - ApexSQL Compare.
One more tool that can do a job that you want is dbForge Schema Compare
Get a tool such as Red Gate's SQL Compare.
You'll need to pay for it, but it pays for itself through time saved.
It is available on a trial basis if you have an immediate need.
I don't recommend you do that if you can avoid it.
If you just want to compare two SQL Server databases, I recommend a low cost alternative http://cdttools.com/sql-diff-erence/. (caveat: I wrote it).
However for what you are referring to I recommend a different approach. you should already know the different version of the various schemas for your product that you have already shipped. So build a change script based on upgrading each of them completely to your latest version. That way you installer only has to detect a single version number and chooses its sql actions based on that.
If you really really really want to do SQL comparisons during an installer yoo might want to take a look at the SMO (Shared Management Objects) that are part of the SQL server feature pack. But you will most likely have to install those before you can use them.
Then you can use them to generate the scripts for each SQl object and do a comparison in your installer. However I honestly don't recommend this.
It will tell you if they exist, and allow you to generate either "alter" or "create" script versions. Alternatively you can go directly to the INFORMATION_SCHEMA database system objects that will allow you to query directly for objects existence.
In Visual Studio 2012, go to SQL (menu item) -> Schema Compare. Click on Select Source on the left, and select the dev database. Select the production database on the right.
Then click on the generate script icon (next to the Update icon, it looks more or less like a music icon). That will generate the update script. You may also untick any of the changes that you do not want to include in the script. And it is ... 'free' if you happen to own Visual Studio 2012

What's the best way to get table creation scripts from a table created in VS 2010?

I've been playing around with hosting on discountasp.net and am in the process of hosting my second web app. Being that discountasp charges you per database and not per sql server or total space used by all of your databases, both apps need to share one database
I need to create all of the tables from the database used by the second application in the live database. I can't just import the mdf file because that would drop all of the data already stored by the first application. Is there a way to automatically generate the scripts or simple sql commands to create the tables in the mdf file from within visual studio?
Also, since multiple applications will ultimately use the same database I'd like to add a prefix to each table names - like App1_Table1. Is there a simple way to rename tables inside VS 2010? Further is there a way to rename the tables but have the entities framework ignore the prefix when generating it's classes?
Thanks for your help, your answers will save me a ton of time I could be programming with :).
There are many options available to you.
In Visual Studio there's database schema compare functionality.
ScriptDb is a simple console app written in C# that uses SQL Management Objects (SMO) to script all the objects in a database. It will work against any SQL Server 2000 or 2005 database. It creates a directory tree structure with a similar hierarchy to that in Object Explorer in SSMS, with a separate file for each object.
There's also an option to script database objects from SSMS. Right-click on a database -> Task -> Generate scripts.

VS2010 ultimate DataBase Project + SQL Server 2008: Updating Project from Database

this is a quick question:
I have this Database Project in a Web app solution with the real database. I want to update the database using SQL server managment studio, and then update the corresponding VS project.
This can be done?
I know that you can update the scripts in the project, but I'm not the SQL kind of guy, i rather do this changes using Mangment studio...
Thanks in advance
Update: Okay, the point is that I want to make changes (if I have to) on the database, using Sql Server Managment studio, and then update the scripts in the Visual Studio DataBase Project, instead of make my updates on those scripts, because I don't feel confortable writing SQL commands. Now what I do is to recreate everytime the Database Project (delete and then create again), this is what I want to avoid
Also, I have Visual Studio 2010 Professional.
It is very achievable in VS2010 Premium and I am currently doing what you describe with a Database Project and a Schema Comparison item.
Sigd is not correct in saying you can only compare Database/Project Compare, you can also compare Project / Database and Database / Database
You can achieve this using the Schema Compare feature, but this is only available with the Premium or Ultimate editions of Visual Studio, not the Professional edition.
In many cases this is possible using Red Gate SQL Compare Pro, although I should warn you that this is not a fully supported scenario just yet (I'm the product manager for this tool so I'd welcome your feedback if you go this route!).
Red Gate's SQL Source Control better fulfills your suggested way of working, although this won't help you just yet as we don't tie into VS Database Projects. Again, this is something we are considering for an upcoming release. You're welcome to try it and let us know what you think.
http://www.red-gate.com/products/SQL_Source_Control/index.htm
If only the Schema Compare tool did what it's name suggests.
Unfortunately it is a "Database/Project Compare". So my project which includes only a single schema, when compared with the database, generates loads of Create actions for all the other schema objects present in the database.
Nice idea, needs work.