xSQL Builder new build available

Just published a new build of xSQL Builder with improved handling of backup files when the user chooses the "Create destination database from a backup" option. The new build also comes with a new and improved install mechanism.

Targeting primarily software publishers, xSQL Builder is one of the best SQL Server database deployment tools. In just minutes you can create an executable package that embeds wither the schema of the master database only or a complete backup of the master database. When you run the executable on the client depending on the configuration it will either create and restore the database from scratch or compare the existing database with the embedded schema and update the target with the changes. Of course software publishers are not the only ones who would benefit from using xSQL Builder - anyone in need of deploying a SQL Server database will find xSQL Builder to be an indispensable tool.

You can download the new build from: http://www.xsql.com/download/sql_database_deployment_builder/

Automate Deployment of SQL Server Databases

Deploying SQL Server databases to clients can be a pain!

You may be a software publisher and your specialized software has been distributed to hundreds of your clients. For some of those clients you may have had to make custom changes to the database and the application to better meet their specific needs. Every time you need to send out an upgrade of your application you have to go through a laborious process of upgrading those hundreds of clients one by one. To make matters worst some of your clients have moved to SQL Server 2008, some are using SQL Server 2005 and yet some others are still running SQL Server 2000 so you have to worry about version specific scripts as well. Furthermore, your clients don't necessarily have in house SQL Server expertise to follow your technical instructions on running certain T-SQL scripts in a certain sequence etc.

Or, you may be a member of a development team or a SQL Server DBA in a big organization and after QA your application is routinely deployed to multiple locations. Deploying the database changes to all those locations is part of the time-consuming routine for each "target" you schedule the upgrade during the low activity time, you take a backup of the target database and then you start applying the change scripts. Yes, it is painful.

How can I avoid or at least ease this pain?

xSQL Builder allows you to automate the deployment of SQL Server based solutions. You can use it to generate an executable packages that contains all the information and logic required to deploy the SQL Server database to the clients� environments regardless of whether it is a first time deployment or an upgrade from a previous version. The self-contained SQL Server database deployment package can be incorporated into a setup and deployment solution or it can be shipped to clients as a separate application.

What does an xSQL Builder executable package include?

The self-contained, executable package generated by xSQL Builder contains the following components:

• depending on your choice it may contain a snapshot of the schema of the master SQL Server database, or the T-SQL creation script, or the backup of the master database.
• run-time components for performing a SQL Server database comparison and synchronization
• custom T-SQL Scripts that you may want to run before the comparison of the two databases takes place as well as custom T-SQL scripts that you may want to run after the target database has been synchronized with the master database
• logging component that maintains a detailed log of all the events and operations performed on the client's environment during the execution of the deployment package. The executable package created by xSQL Builder generates three logs on the client: the operational log, the synchronization log and the error log.
• notification component that allows you to configure the package to notify you via email in case of completion or failure of the execution of the package on the client

What does the executable package generated by xSQL Builder do on the client environment?

The self-contained, executable package generated by xSQL Builder performs the following actions on the client when executed:

• execute any pre-synchronization custom T-SQL scripts that you have defined
• in case of a new installation it may create the database on the target machine using either the embedded backup of the master database or the creation script depending on what you chose when you generated the package.
• in case of an upgrade it will perform a schema comparison of the target database with the snapshot of the master database that has been embedded in the package
• generate the synchronization script and execute it against the target database
• execute any post synchronization, custom T-SQL scripts you may have defined
• prepare and send notifications which may include the logs for your review in case of failure

In case all goes as planned your database has been deployed almost transparently to the client otherwise you will receive the detailed log that will help you determine what failed and why.

Publish database changes to hundreds of clients - software publisher

This is a "how to" written with software publishers in mind but it will benefit other software development groups that may not be classified as software publishers.

Here is the scenario: you have tenths, hundreds or maybe more clients using the software you wrote that utilizes SQL Server on the backend. The first release was painless but all the subsequent releases have given you grief - you send out database upgrade scripts with clear instructions but the users just don't seem to be capable of following those instructions and then they call you..., so you are looking for a way to make this process pain free. Well, you are in luck as nowadays there is a tool for everything. Following, I will provide some guidance for each of the scenarios you may be facing.

1. If you cannot access the clients' servers from your location (most likely scenario)
1. if you have a small number of database versions on the field and each version's schema is "un-touched" - that is you (or the client) did not make any changes to it then the most efficient way to handle this would be to use xSQL Object to compare each previous version to the new "master" version and generate a sync script for each version upgrade and then use Script Executor to package the sync script and any additional scripts you may want to run on the clients' servers into a executable which can then be made part of your installation package;
2. if you have many versions out in the field and what's more critical you may have made (or allowed the client to) customizations for different clients then the approach described above would not work very well, but xSQL Builder was designed exactly with this scenario in mind. In just few easy steps you can generate an executable package that embeds the schema of the master database you wish to publish. When the executable is launched on the client's site it will compare the currently installed version with the embedded master schema and synchronize the target to the master. While doing that it will generate a detailed synchronization log and automatically email it back to you so that you know what happened when the client ran the upgrade. 
2.  If you happened to have access to all your clients' databases then you can easily manage this from your location. Use xSQL Object to generate synchronization scripts for upgrading from version x to the current version, then use Script Executor to create a deployment package - basically add all your target servers (databases) into database groups, add your sync scripts into script containers and then map script containers to databases and execute ALL with a click of a button.

If you happen to face a scenario not covered by the above options please do let us know.

Applies to:

• software publishing
• publishing database schema changes
• synchronizing clients' databases (the schemas) to a master database
• comparing and synchronizing database schemas
• executing multiple scripts against multiple databases

xSQL Builder now supports SQL Server 2008

The newly released xSQL Builder 3.0 now supports SQL Server 2008. xSQL Builder provides for effortless distribution of database changes to remote clients. In just minutes you can create an executable package that contains the schema of the "master" database you wish to propagate to your clients - the client executes the executable and voila, the schema of the client database is upgraded.

No more sending T-Sql scripts to your clients - send them an executable instead!

Download your free trial of xSQL Builder now: http://www.xsql.com/download/sql_database_deployment_builder/

Deploying database schema changes to hundreds of clients

This post is directed to software publishers who have published software that uses SQL Server on the back end. Here is a simple scenario you run into: you release the software and within a couple of months you have successfully deployed it to tenths of customers. In the meantime you have discovered a flaw on a stored procedure which needs to be changed, you want to add a couple of reports for which you need to add a couple of new supporting views, a column on a table needs to be changed from varchar(50) to varchar(100) etc. – you get the picture. The question is: how do you make those changes on all those customers’ sites? You could send them a change script that will alter and add those objects in the database but a lot of the customers don’t know anything about SQL Server and don’t won’t to deal with those scripts. Furthermore, if this is not the first iteration of changes and the customers are using different versions of your database the script you send must be customized for each version. The main point here is that sending the customers a t-sql change script and asking them to apply it is generally not going to work.

So, what do you do? Well, you use xSQL Builder which was designed to alleviate this kind of trouble. xSQL Builder is extremely easy to use but at the same time, if your scenario is more complicated it gives you all the flexibility to customize it to best fit your needs. How does it work? You go through a simple wizard that takes no more than a couple of minutes and allows you to choose the source or “master” database which you want to deploy to your customers, set a few parameters and generate an executable package that you can then send to your clients. The client runs the executable which compares the embedded schema of the source/master database with the client’s version of the database, generates a synchronization script, executes the script and emails you the results. Now, you have to admit that is a cool and extremely efficient way to deploy your database schema changes.

You can download your copy of xSQL Builder from: http://www.xsql.com/download/sql_database_deployment_builder/

New data types supported by xSQL Software's database comparison tools

The just released xSQL Object v3, xSQL SDK v3 and xSQL Builder v2 support all new data types that Sql Server 2008 introduces as well as the enhancements on the existing data types. xSQL Object allows you to compare and synchronize SQL Server database schemas, xSQL SDK allows you to integrate database schema comparison and synchronization in your application and xSQL Builder allows you to package SQL Server databases in an an easy to deploy executable.

Following is the list of the new and enhanced SQL Server 2008 data types

• date: a date/time data type that stores only the date portion.
• time: a date/time data type that stores only the time portion.
• datetime2: similar to existing datetime data type, but with a larger fractional seconds and date range.
• datetimeoffset: a date/time data type that has time zone awareness.
• geography: a new data type for geodetic spatial data defined latitude and longitude coordinates.
• geometry: a new data type for planar spatial data defined by coordinate on a plane (used mostly for maps).
• hierarchyid: used to store hierarchical relationship.
• FILESTREAM varbinary(max): a variation of varbinary(max) that stores the BLOB data as file in the file system outside the database.

You can download those products from http://www.xsql.com/download/

Support for SQL Server 2008 – new release

We are very excited to announce a major new release of the following tools which now provide full support for SQL Server 2008:

• xSQL Object V3 (free for SQL Server Express)
• xSQL Data Compare V3 (free for SQL Server Express)
• xSQL SDK V3
• xSQL Builder V2
• RSS Reporter V3 (free for one SQL Server instance)
• xSQL Object Search V2 (free tool)
• xSQL Script Executor V2 (free tool)

What's new - a detailed description of changes and enhancements on this new release can be found at: <>. Following are some highlights:

• Support for all new or enhanced data types such as geography, geometry, hierarchyID etc.
  Support for the table level change tracking feature introduced by SQL Server 2008.
• Data compression support for tables, primary key constraints, unique constraints and indexes.
• Support for the enhanced full-text catalogs and indexes.
• Support for Remote Service bindings for Service Broker.
• Improved object dependency handling.

You can download those tools from: http://www.xsql.com/download/