Voice of the DBA

Tag: version control

  • Get Away from the Heat and Learn some Database Version Control

    I have enjoyed the trips I’ve made to New Orleans and Baton Rouge in the past. It’s a good getaway, stopping in the French Quarter for a few minutes before an easy drive up the road. However it’s warm, and I can’t ever get my wife or kids to come with me. For some reason, they don’t seem to enjoy the warm, August Baton Rouge weather. I, however, am looking forward to a jog around University Lake.

    LSU University Lake at BREC Milford Wampold Park

    This might be the best time to run, but I’ll likely be going around when it’s sunnier, and a touch warmer.

    However if you want to get out of the heat, perhaps you’d like to come learn about Database Version Control with Ike Ellis and me? Redgate Software has partnered with Crafting Bytes to deliver our workshop in Baton Rouge. We’ve put the workshops on sale, and only $100 for a full day of training.

    What will we cover?

    We’ll show you how to get your database in a Version Control System (VCS). We use Redgate’s tools, but the idea of using version control can be done in other ways. I’m running the labs, and you’ll see how you can keep track of all of your database DDL code, including Lookup data!

    2015-07-23 18_45_53-DLM-Workshop-2015-02-19-1708-export-i-fg1k1eq0 - VMware Workstation

    We are also covering some advanced features that the Redgate tools make easier. Things like branching, merging, and deployments. How many of you would love to know that development is done and we can deploy our changes like this:

    2015-07-23 17_14_22-Schema Compare_Deploy - Microsoft SQL Server Management Studio

    I’ll show you how you can deploy your changes right from inside SSMS.

    This is an in-depth workshop, covering way more than I could ever do at a SQL Saturday or conference. What’s more, we provide you with a VM and let you actually work through the skills we teach you. You will get real practice during the day to give you the confidence and practice for your own environment back at the office.

    I hope to see you at either the workshop or SQL Saturday #423 in Baton Rouge.

  • DLM Workshops

    We’ve got a bunch of DLM workshops coming up in the next few months from Red Gate Software. We’ve been working on trying to bring some depth to our education, helping DBAs and developers learn how to built smoother software development pipelines for their databases.

    The list of workshops is at http://www.red-gate.com/training/workshops/ and we’ll be updating it throughout the year. In this series, I’ll be at these events

    • Mar 10 – Dublin
    • Apr 10 – LA

    Certainly more are coming later in the year that I’ll deliver or help out at.

    We’ve built a series of three days of in depth instruction, each one building on the next. Our hope is to help you move through the subjects. Right now the days are covering these topics.

    • Version Control for Databases
    • Continuous Integration
    • Automating Deployments

    We are looking to try and schedule these over time in a city, so that you’ll be able to learn about VCS for databases, then come back in 3-4 months and take the next step to CI. We might do all three days consecutively, but it’s a lot to learn and cover, and I’d really hope that companies would learn one area, implement it, and then come back to learn the next step.

    If you have requests for dates or cities, or even private instruction, let us know. We’re growing a list of partners as well because Grant and I can’t be everywhere, so we hope to be able to help more people learn ways to build software smoother and quicker.

  • Version Control for Databases

    This is based on my Team Based Development with Version Control talk, which has evolved a bit.

    Abstract

    Getting your database under version control is ultimately a way of communicating changes and collaborating with team members, maintaining an audit trail and ensuring you always have a version to roll back to.

    In this session, we’ll cover why this gives you and your team a crucial advantage in reducing the risk in your development processes. We’ll also discuss another door that your team opens by adopting solid version control: setting up the fundamentals of continuous integration. You will learn what build automation means as a first step towards continuous integration and the value it brings as part of your evolving deployment process. We’ll also discuss branching strategies, and how to manage this for databases as part of your evolving deployment process.

    Goals

    • Understand the value of version/source control for databases
    • Learn the tools, standards, patterns and best practices needed to manage a database from source control
    • Identify the necessary flow within a team needed to develop a database with source control

    This talk includes the following demos:

    • Move database DDL into VCS manually
    • Link database DDL and lookup data with SQL Source Control
    • Make development changes and check into VCS
    • Setup a new developer DB linked to VCS
    • Changes flowing back and forth between developers
    • Resolving conflicts between development changes made by two people
    • Basic branching of code for bug fixes and linking a database for development work to an old branch

    Length: 45-75 minutes. Shorter lengths with fewer demos.

    Slides: Get Database Under Source Control.pptx (Slideshare)

  • Just use Version Control

    There are free systems out there. If you have no budget, and want to get started, download one of these:

    There are good ones to pay for as well, and some of them have other features and integration you may like:

    There are plenty more. Please, please, please, start using Version Control. There are compelling reasons from many successful developers, including those that want your database code under control.

    There are ways to do this, but please pick one. Version control is a must for professional software developers. That means if you write code, and get paid for it, use version control. If you write code, and don’t get paid for it, value your time and use VCS anyway.