I have an application written in ASP.NET and using EF. I want to make a copy of the live database, have my application point to the copy, and be able to run the application against it as if it is live...but making updates to the copy.
I know I can manually copy the database and manually update the web.config files...but I'm wondering if there is a better, more automated method for achieving this with VS 2010?
Also, if there is anything I need to know about setting up a live/dev version of a database while using EF4.
You can switch the ConnectionString to point to the live or development database.
One way is to have different web.config files for debug and release builds.
Check out Web.config Transformation Syntax for Web Application Project Deployment
From my experience,
Setup 2 database connection entries in your config file, name one backup and leave the other ones name alone. Point your backup one to the backup db and when you want to run the backup, just change the names of the entries so the backup one is the actual name and the live one is named anything else.
Also, as for setting up different db versions - I'd just be careful that you don't update live by mistake!! and I've found it best to track changes to the db structure in a sql file so the live can be updated if needed or the backup can be rolled back if changes are made
Related
I have lately re-discovered embedded databases such as Sqlite (sql, relational) and LiteDb (noSql) and I like working with them for small web apps or mobile apps.
However, I cannot find any good answer to where to place them. Where to put them if:
The web app is likely to be containerized
The database can grow dynamically
Changes to the code and new deployments should not risk losing any change in database
1. Database file as part of solution (versioned in source control)
I've seen places where the *.db file is placed somewhere in the solution and it's versioned in source control.
I can see how this could be a problem as the database can be modified outside the context of development (i.e: when the app is up and running in production, the DB may change and in the next deployment the db may be overwritten if no backup/restore process in place)
Sometimes I have seen it inside wwwroot/App_Data. See this for instance. I assume App_Data is some kind of protected folder and its files cannot be server statically by the web server (is it?). Otherwise this is even worse.
2. Database file in binary folder
When testing, it's fine to have the database file generated somewhere in the bin folder, but this causes a similar problem as the previous one. What happens when a new software version is released and therefore the database file is overwritten in production?
So the questions are:
Is there any good practice regarding where to place embedded database files?
Is there any alternative to having backup/restore processes to avoid the described data-loss scenarios?
What happens when the app is contenierized and the database file grows once deployed? If the file is inside a container along with the running application, can it grow indefinitely? I don't recall specifying anything about a maximum size for containers anywhere when creating images..
Is having the DB in an external storage such a cloud blob store the alternative? I'm guessing the real benefit of embedded databases is gone if the file is in a different host.
Any good read about this would be appreciated.
PS:
I am asking for AspNet Core apps mainly because I see some projects using the wwwroot folder to place the embedded DB, but the question applies to any technology/framework.
This other question doesn't help either.
I have a visual studio project which contains a database project. I create an executable which performs a software update and part of that update is to update the database. Some of the stored procedures are dependent on a linked server existing which gets created as part of the executable too. The problem is that this functionality is optional and the linked server won't connect on some client machines. But the DACPAC fails because the linked server can't connect. I am using sqlpackage.exe to deploy the .dacpac file.
Is there some way that I can deploy either all or only some of the stored procedures? Or maybe I can set a flag to ignore linked server errors? Or maybe there is an alternative method to using sqlpackage/dacpac?
One option I thought of is to convert the stored procedures that contain the linked server to dynamic SQL.
Having the database in visual studio and therefore source control is important.
Yes!
This is fairly easy to do. You can see your database project in visual studio. I would recommend removing the stored procs that are problematic and merging those back in to master. Then I would take out a feature branch and point again to the DB you have the stored procs on and use the schema compare to get those back as well (even the ones that don't work well so that you don't lose them). Push the commit up to the feature branch repo. Then,now that you have the problematic stored procs in source control + the shippable version in master-- you can go ahead and thruough visual studio "publish" through the database project into the DBs you want the selected objects.
If you haven't checked in anything to master-- you can do the schema compare and select all objects except those that are problematic and update your database project. and merge that to master. If this doesn't make sense, please comment on this answer and I'm happy to give more detail.
Well, I came across this. Still working on to implement this to solve my problem. Might help your cause too.
Download the filter from:
https://agilesqlclub.codeplex.com/releases/view/610727 put the dll
into the same folder as sqlpackage.exe and add these command line
parameters to your deployment:
/p:AdditionalDeploymentContributors=AgileSqlClub.DeploymentFilterContributor
/p:AdditionalDeploymentContributorArguments="SqlPackageFilter=IgnoreSchema(BLAH)”
This will neither deploy, drop or alter anything in the BLAH schema.
More details on
https://the.agilesql.club/2015/01/howto-filter-dacpac-deployments/
I need some clarification on when to register a Database as a Data Tier Application (DAC). I've looked at all the guides but am stuck on a few points.
The database is NOT registered
Build Database Project to produce DacPac
Publish the Database Project
Check "Register as a Data Tier Application"
Check "Block publish when database has drifted from registered version"
First time round, this works. It registers the database and succeeds.
However, on subsequent publishes is fails as it says the DB has drifted noting two users which have not changed.
Am I following the correct process? i.e. setting the Publish script to re-register each time?
What is the best practice for making changes? By changing the relevant .sql files in the Database Project and then building? The guides talk a lot about being able to version the DB using the DacPac but its not clear how. Should I rename each DacPac and commit it to TFS?
My next step is to publish the Database as part of the overall ASP.Net Solution. When I try to do that (it works fine when the DB publish is not included), it comes up with the following error
Web deployment task failed. (The SQL provider cannot run with dacpac option because of a missing dependency. Please make sure that DacFx is installed. Learn more at: http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=221672#ERROR_DACFX_NEEDED_FOR_SQL_PROVIDER.)
However, I have all the required elements installed on the publishing machine. Do they need to be on the SQL Server or IIS VMs?
Any guidance would be much appreciated.
If you want to deploy your changes to a database using a dacpac you would need to register the database as a DAC. This basically creates a snapshot of the database at that point in time. You do this before making a change to create the initial snapshot and then after a deployment.
The reason you do this is to detect drift. Lets say you do a deployment and someone makes a change directly in that database, for instance changing the logic of a stored procedure, you would want to know about that change before making a subsequent deployment. If you deploy your dacpac and ignore this change it will revert their change to whats in the dacpac model. This is where drift occurs. You can generate an xml report on what has drifted through the sdk.
You can enable a setting to disable deployment if drift occurs so that you can retrofit those changes in the database directly in your source code. You would then need to re-register the database as a DAC to create a new snapshot.
Am I following the correct process? i.e. setting the Publish script to re-register each time? Yes
What is the best practice for making changes? By changing the relevant .sql files in the Database Project and then building? Yes
The guides talk a lot about being able to version the DB using the DacPac but its not clear how. Should I rename each DacPac and commit it to TFS? You can set a version within the databse. Have a look at the properties of the database project. You shouldnt rename the dacpac.
About the ASP.Net publish, I would need a bit more detail around the project structure and environment setup.
I have been using a central MS SQL database located in the cloud to develop a web site project. I have recently found myself in situations, when I need to develop without the internet connection. I want to begin to use a locally available copy of the existing database, put it in App_Data folder.
What is the correct set of steps I need to undertake to get the project to work with local DB?
For example:
Detach a db from an existing SQL instance.
Copy to a development machine.
etc.
Moving a SQL-Server DB is not that hard. Look here for some methods to do it.
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/314546
I usually find the sp_detach + sp_attach method really easy.
I would create an empty shell database locally, then use one of the many schema comparison solutions available to make the local database look exactly like the cloud database.
Correct way is to create and regularly update your standalone copy of database using import/export. In particular MS SQL Server provides Import/Export Wizard tool for such purpose.
Make a backup
Copy backup file
Restore on your server
Restore/organise users
The scenario is this. I have a SQL Server database online that I am demoing an application. During development, I have added extra fields, modified field types, changed keys and added some new tables locally.
What's the best way for me to update the online database with the new structure and not lose the data? The database is a SQL Server 2005 one.
Download a trial of Red Gate SQL Compare, compare your two servers and you are done. If you do this often, it is well worth the $400, or get one of their bundles for a better bang for the buck.
And I do not work for Red Gate, just a happy customer!
Write update scripts to modify your live database structure to the new structure, as well as inserting any data which is required.
You may find it necessary to use temporary tables to do this.
It's probably best if you test this process on a test environment, before running the scripts on the live environment.
Depending on what exactly you've done you may be able to get away with alter statements, though from the sounds of it (removing keys and whatnot) you're doing some heavy lifting that may make that a less-than-ideal solution. You should probably look into creating a maintenance plan or, better yet, a SQL Server Integration Services project in Visual Studio. You should be able to migrate the data in the existing database to a new one using those tools.
This probably isn't of huge help retrospectively, but I always script all structural DB changes to my development database and then using a version number to determine the current version of the DB I can run the required scripts on the live DB, hence bringing it back in line at the same time as the new code is uploaded.
This also works for any content changes, for instance if the change in the underlying structure has an effect on the conent stored you can also write scripts to migrate the data accordingly.
Make a copy of the existing database to copy from.
Make another copy and alter it to your new schema. save DDL for reuse.
Write queries that copy data from #1 to #2. Save the queries for reuse.
Check the results.
Repeat until done.