January 9, 2004 at 8:25 am
Hi,
Our DBA group is debating production release methodology. We always perfect our deployment package (typically a script) against the database in a Staging environment, before executing the package against Production. One side argues that the safest approach is to create a script containing all schema changes, data changes, stored procs, functions, etc. Run that script against Staging until it is error-free. Then, when you run it against Production on Release Night you know it will also be error-free, since Staging is a copy of Production. However, any changes to the deployment, such as updates to procs (and there are always a bunch in the pre-deployment period) must be manually implemented on the script.
The other side wants to take advantage of the .NET environment. We keep all procs, views, and functions in a Release folder on VSS, execute a Get Latest Version (Recursive) from VisualStudio, and run against Staging/Production. Any changes to the procs are automatically propagated from VSS to VS, and there is no manual editing of the script. You still need a script for table and data changes. The "script everything" side of the debate feels this method is not as reliable, especially since when views are nested, you will get compile errors and must execute the run-on several times until all the views compile. The "script" side feels that any errors are unacceptable in a Production environment.
What is the opinion out there?
Thanks!
Theodore S. Feldman
January 9, 2004 at 11:51 am
The big issue apart from dependencies that you will face with method 2 is that the items run against staging from VSS may not be the same that will run against production. Someone could make a change and GetLatestVersion from VSS won't "know" that. If you go this method, you need to specify which version from VSS you are going to retrieve, which is a pain in the a**.
My method, used over 100 times in a year was this:
http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/vcspart1.asp
http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/vcspart2.asp
http://qa.sqlservercentral.com/columnists/sjones/vcspart3.asp
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