How to Stop SSDT / Database Projects / SQLPackage from Modifying Database Options

SQL Server’s free state-based version control tooling was introduced under the ‘Data Dude’ brand, then became known as ‘SQL Server Data Tools’ (SSDT). Its extension for the (now dying) Azure Data Studio IDE is called ‘SQL Database Projects’. If you need to find documentation, you often need to know to search for specific component names like SQLPackage.exe, which is a command line utility used to deploy SSDT Projects AKA SQL Database Projects.

Continue reading

Automated Deployments and the Art of the Database with Database Michael J Swart

In this episode, Michael J Swart joins the Dear SQL DBA Podcast to talk about databases, automation, and how he’s come to illustrate some of the coolest blog posts ever to be written about data.

Continue reading

Database DevOps Core Concepts: Migration Scripts

Database migration scripts are a popular and effective way to check database code into version control.

In this post I describe the most common features of popular migration script runners for database code deployment, along with the top gotchas that folks hit when versioning their database code with migrations.

Continue reading

Why Not Call Database DevOps Simply DevOps?

Sometimes people are annoyed by the term ‘Database DevOps’. Why not call it simply ‘DevOps’? After all, Database DevOps follows the same core principles.

The answer is simple: implementing DevOps is tricky by itself, but most teams are set up to fail when it comes to implementing DevOps for databases. This makes it worth defining as a specialization.

Continue reading

Adding a Netlify Contact Form to a Hugo Static Site

I redid my static site’s contact form with a free option from my host, Netlify.

Here’s why I changed my static site host and how I got a Netlify contact form to work with a blog built on Hugo and the Mainroad theme.

Continue reading

Gotchas with Deferred Name Resolution in SQL Server: Stored Procedures, Synonyms, Views, and Functions

Have you ever tried to create an object in SQL Server, but it failed due to a missing table, column, or other dependency? If so, you’ve hit a case where SQL Server doesn’t offer ‘deferred name resolution’.

Continue reading

Tutorial: Create a Disposable SQL Server Database Container in an Azure DevOps Pipeline With Spawn

This post is part of TSQLTuesday #140, “What have you been up to with containers?”

Disposable databases are indispensable for software developers, both for initial development work and in automation pipelines. Containers pair exceptionally well with temporary databases and provide a lightweight mechanism to spin up an environment on demand.

Continue reading