Voice of the DBA

Tag: Redgate

  • Flyway Tips: Analytics Platforms (Snowflake and Databricks)

    I’m really excited about some growth in Flyway support. I’ve been asking about this for some time and we now have Databricks and Snowflake support.

    I’ve been working with Flyway and Flyway Desktop and helping customers improve their database development. This series looks at some tips I’ve gotten along the way.

    Analytic Platforms

    There has been tremendous growth in the usage, and the capabilities of many major analytics platforms. A few years ago Snowflake was the dominant platform, but Databricks has grown quite a bit. I still don’t see a ton of Fabric usage (outside of PowerBI), but it’s on our radar.

    I wanted to note that both Snowflake and Databricks advannced capabilities  in Flyway have moved to General Availability (GA). Both capabilities were developed quickly, with the help of AI. We knew what we wanted, we’d designed this, and our engineers were porting over functionality we knew how to build, guiding AI to get the work done quicker than humans typing.

    Both of those platforms help with managing notebooks in a software development lifecycle, but they don’t do much for schema changes. Esp if you don’t want a desired state configuration, which can be complex to manage in a team world.

    When I create a new project, I have options for Databricks:

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    and Snowflake

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    You can read about the advanced capabilities for Snowflake and Databricks, and then start getting those teams to use a well tested, tried-and-true, repeatable, reliable deployment process in Flyway. The same way you do for other platforms.

    Summary

    I’ve been wanting us to add capabilities for these platforms for some time. Thanks to all customers who’ve provided feedback as that helped us press the teams to prioritize the analytics work.

    If you work with Flyway, and you are looking for other platforms, please email a request to your AE or sales@red-gate.com. Those emails, with the details of the need and size of team help us get work done.

    Flyway is an incredible way of deploying changes from one database to another, and now includes both migration-based and state-based deployments. You get the flexibility you need to control database changes in your environment. If you’ve never used it, give it a try today. It works for SQL Server, Oracle, PostgreSQL and nearly 50 other platforms.

  • The Book of Redgate: Fun with Images

    We’ve celebrated our birthday many times at Redgate. In the Book of Redgate – 2012 edition, the book opens with a photo album of the early years.

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    We’ve got a bunch of images from up high, where employees were spelling out our anniversaries. We have the 12th anniversary here, with a disorganized view.

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    and an organized one.

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    There are other photos in the book as well, which mimic what we have in the offices. In each location, we have some photoboards where we’ve captured moments and memories from the past. Here’s one of the boards in Cambridge.

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    Here’s the packed on in Pasadena.

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    I love that we still share  physical photos, as well as lots of digital images. Slack and our in-office monitors are constantly displaying photos of things happening at Redgate.

    It’s a neat way to bring a little levity to what can be a stressful environment at times.

     

    I have a copy of the Book of Redgate from 2010. This was a book we produced internally about the company after 10 years in existence. At that time, I’d been there for about 3 years, and it was interesting to learn a some things about the company. This series of posts looks back at the Book of Redgate 15 years later.

  • Monday Monitor Tips: Query Recommendations

    We keep adding stuff to Redgate Monitor, and it’s easy to miss some of the improvements. Here’s one that’s been around quite awhile, but while discussing the product with a customer who uses Redgate Monitor, I realized they weren’t aware of this.

    This is part of a series of posts on Redgate Monitor. Click to see the other posts.

    The Blue Blob

    I was looking at a set of queries on the SSC servers with an SE and a customer. The SE pointed out that we surface some code issues on this page. There’s a blue lightbulb next to one of the queries.

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    I’ve zoomed in, but if you go to monitor.red-gate.com, you’ll find this somewhere in the list. This is to the right, where the database name is listed.

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    If we expand this query from the left side (the arrow), we see details, but below the plan handle, we’ve noted that Redgate Monitor has run code analysis and identified an issue. In this case, there’s one issue, but I’ve seen 3 or 4 on some client systems.

    2026-06_line0008We can click the blue text above (1 issues with this query) and this opens a dialog where I can see the query and the code analysis issue identified. In this case, we don’t have a schema name in here, which is just poor practice and a potential place you could have issues, if you add schemas and users might have a different default.

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    One cool thing, is that if I click the slide in the upper right, I get a better format for the code.

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    Our code analysis rules are documented on our side, and there is a link at the bottom of the dialog that popped up. It’s to the lower right, and I cropped it out to get a slightly better image. If does to the Code Analysis pages at documentation.red-gate.com. Here you can read about our code smells and rules, which are also checked by SQL Prompt.

    Summary

    This is a small thing, but it helps with Operations people who might want to suggest ways that code could be improved, whether to clean up the codebase or for better performance. Once you start to establish guidance, and provide useful solutions, you can collaborate and other changes are possible.

    If you use Redgate Monitor, look for these items and see if you can encourage some refactoring from developers.

    Redgate Monitor is a world-class monitoring solution for your database estate. Download a trial today and see how it can help you manage your estate more efficiently.

  • The Book of Redgate:A Prehistory

    I’ve covered the values in a number of previous posts on the Book of Redgate. Those values came from our founders, Simon Galbraith and Neil Davidson. I am lucky enough, and honored to have known these gentlemen for many years and had the chance to sit and chat with them throughout my time at Redgate. Simon and I still get together periodically even today after 25 years.

    In the Book of Redgate, there’s a section about prehistory. In it, there’s this picture and text. Neil and Simon have known each other since they were sixteen, starting a business together after they spent time at university.

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    Neil stepped away from the company many years ago, for a variety of reasons, and he remained on the board for many years. Simon continued as CEO for a long time and stepped down right after the pandemic. He remains on the board today.

    The thing that caught my eye is that they worked together from their 20s until their 40s. I still remember their joint 40th birthday party at the old Redgate office. How many people have you worked with for 20 years?

    How many of you have worked for an organization for 20 years?

    I guess I’ve worked for SQL Server Central for 25 years, but only some of those were me working for myself. I’ve been with Redgate almost 20 years as a contractor and employee, but I haven’t spent 20 years with anyone outside of my family and Andy Warren.

    He and I still talk most weeks, even though we’re not in business together anymore.

    Redgate has remained a strong brand and presence in my life and that of many others. Part of that is the longevity of so many employees. We’ve had some ups and downs, but relatively few turnover over the years. More recently, especially in sales, but there are a lot of people who have worked there for more than 10 years.

    That’s still amazing to me.

    I have a copy of the Book of Redgate from 2010. This was a book we produced internally about the company after 10 years in existence. At that time, I’d been there for about 3 years, and it was interesting to learn a some things about the company. This series of posts looks back at the Book of Redgate 15 years later.