Change Management Using Brute Force ORM If your database schema and all layers are completely in synch with your business objects it can simplify your database schema management. Generally, I don’t prefer this kind of model. In my experience, database models and object models are not the same when they are tuned for the purpose of each. However, when the […]

Script First Change Mangement Hurdles Yesterday I proposed the Script First methodology of database change management which I developed while working on an Agile project with multiple developers making concurrent changes to the same database. There were a few hurdles we had to overcome I wanted to share today. The first hurdle we discovered was overwriting changes from others. This […]

Agile Database Change Management Database Change Management is a complicated skill most DBAs must acquire sooner or later. For that reason, many tools have been created to help migrate code change efficiently. Some tools work from maintaining meta-data of your database schema, and have the ability to generate change scripts by comparing the design to a physical database. ER Studio […]

DBA Skills – Feedback Today I am sharing all reader feedback due to the detailed responses received. Tomorrow I’ll be sharing experience with Change Scripts and Automated Deployment in an Agile environment. Reader Feedback – Software Release Scripts Anonymous Another important topic. I share my "old school" approach to managing this between software releases within my development teams (generally <10 […]

DBA Skills – Automated Deployment Automated deployment is an essential skill for any DBA managing a production infrastructure. It is important to be able to perform automated deployment so that you can reproduce expected results from the deployment. In other words, before you actually deploy to your production environment, you should have experienced and tested the results of that deployment […]

Key DBA Skills – Change Scripts Change scripts are a key DBA skill for all individuals responsible for deploying change to an existing database. The reasons are pretty obvious. Unlike code, which can simply be replaced with a newer version, a database cannot be modified without also modifying the data. You can’t drop a table and replace it with a […]

Application State Conclusion Before we leave the topic of Application State I wanted to leave you with a few thoughts. When Microsoft first came out with guidelines for Windows 8 Applications one of the key components was the ability to maintain the state of your application. Gone are the days when users utilize an application for long periods of time […]

Application State How important is application state in a modern software application? As we continue to move toward different kinds of computing the importance of state continues to increase. We use state frequently, while probably taking it for granted. For example, when I press the talk button on my cell phone, it shows me the last person I had a […]

Non-Traditional Data Stores Why do data warehouses and relational database designs continue to grow when many large companies with massive scale systems have sought alternatives? Companies like Amazon, Facebook, Google, Ebay, etc. have all had to find alternative persistence to keep up with their workload. In our reader’s responses today I think the answer starts to become clear. The key […]

Accidental DBA Tip – Max Value of Identity Column SQL Server databases love to have an incrementing column as a clustered index value. This may be the primary key of a table or not, depending on the need. However, a system assigned incrementing column is recommended for the clustered index. Typically, the data in this type of column is generated […]